2025
Lifetime Achievement
Richard Notkin
During the past 56 years, my ceramic sculptures, teapots and relief-tile murals have always explored the complex environmental, political and economic impacts of contemporary human civilization upon the ecological and spiritual condition of our planet. I present these concerns by visually manipulating and juxtaposing various objects, images and symbols to create narrative works which unambiguously protest war, militarism, nuclear weaponry, environmental degradation and global warming. Art’s greatest potential is to touch and impact people in profound ways that can change perceptions and transform lives.
My imagery draws from all eras of human history and civilizations and seeks to establish the commonality of humanity, with empathy for all victims of greed and brutality. I reference various cultural icons and historical ceramic traditions as I believe an instinctive and innate creative nature exists in all human beings, and bridges all nationalities, ethnicities, religions, etc. The arts are our universal connective tissue, and our common instinct for creativity is a counterforce to our species opposite trend towards destruction.
I work from the deepest source of inspiration for an artist, my passions, especially in these precarious times of increasing intimidation and repression. My art is about lessons heard, but not heeded, during the 20th Century, and how these ignored lessons will affect human civilization’s ability (or inability) to survive the 21st Century.
