Coleman - "Raised Lines Platter" Abstract colored porcelain platter with raised lines and other abnormalities

tom Coleman • American B: 1945

Raised Lines Platter C: 2010 • Porcelain 2-1/2” x 23-1/2” x 23-1/2”

Tom Coleman’s life is a love story so large it covered a good portion of western America. From Amarillo, Texas to Canby, Oregon and then Henderson, Nevada, Tom Coleman pursued a love of fine pottery and family with equal vigor. He is headstrong, driven and talented, a combination of personality traits like the nitrous-oxide fuel used in drag racers. Great performance with potentially dangerous side effects.

John Nance’s book The Mudpie Dilemma, explores Coleman’s lifelong search to excel in his chosen craft while supporting his family, financially and emotionally. As with all such razor-edged walks, sometimes you get cut.

Perhaps the most telling story involves Coleman’s 1977 trip to a highly anticipated show in Seattle. After working months creating 96 pots for the show, the trailer hitch broke on the trailer rented to carry artwork to Seattle. Fortunately it happened before the pots were loaded. His face the color of a fired-up wood kiln, he returned to the rental facility, snatched back his credit card receipts and drove home, still steaming. There he found that wife, Elaine, had somehow managed to load all the pots into the back of their 1966 Chevrolet station wagon. Elaine was the water that kept Tom’s clay workable.

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And so life went for the Coleman’s, proof a good life partner helps when your livelihood is your passion. The first edition of The Mudpie Dilemma ended with Tom, Elaine and two young boys living a precarious financial existence on a bucolic farm in Canby, Oregon. 25 years later Nance revisited the Colemans, finding them in Henderson, Nevada, on the high Mojave Desert. Their life as different as the desert is from the lush Willamette Valley where Nance last visited them.

Elaine became a well-known ceramic artist in her own right, and they formed a successful artistic collaboration. Tom makes the structural clay that Elaine decorates using a laborious inscribing method she has mastered.

Books about most artists explore their inspirations, muses and foibles. The book about Tom Coleman explores how he makes a living doing what he loves. Que sera. The perfect symmetry of his Japanese-inspired pots mirrors his greatest artistic achievement. A balanced life, proving you can, indeed, create great art and make ends meet at the same time. Make a date to see the proof at the Canton Museum of Art.

Canton Museum of Art Permanent Collection • Purchased by the Canton Museum of Art 2012.6

4 Ways to Sound Smart When Viewing at The Canton Museum of Art

1.
“The book ‘The Mudpie Dilemma’ explored Coleman’s ‘struggle to make art and ends meet.’ Apparently they did meet just outside Las Vegas.”

2.
“He mixed his own clay, developed his own glazes, built his own kilns and still found time to make so many pots he was criticized for his prodigious output.”

3.
“There is a real Asian influence to much of his work. He especially appreciated perfectly symmetrical forms with subtly complex glazes.”

4.
“He has long been considered a technical virtuoso when working with porcelain. It’s said he can create thinner walls than ever thought possible.”

Coleman Timeline. Scroll over images to see timeline.

1945

Born in Amarillo, Texas.

1964-68

Studied art at The Museum of Art School in Portland, Oregon. He started as a painter, but became fascinated with ceramics when he took a design class taught by Miss Leta Kennedy. It was once said that she had the biggest impact on Northwest artists because so many took her class. Coleman graduated in 1968 with a Fine Arts Degree.

1968-87

Upon graduation from The Museum of Art School, Coleman immediately became a studio potter. With wife Elaine, he moved to a farm in rural Canby, Oregon, about 2 hours south of Portland. He hand-built his own kilns and created both production and fine art pots. Elaine, who he met at school, was also a potter.

1969-73

Coleman was able to augment his meager studio potter income with a position as the Head of Ceramics at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland. To him, teaching was necessary to making ends meet with a growing family. However, his heart was not in it, and he yearned for more time in the studio.

1973-74

Taught at Portland State University, also in Portland.

1977

Author Tom Nance made Tom Coleman the subject of his book “The Mud-Pie Dilemma.” Published by the American Ceramic Society, it looked at the struggle of a studio potter to “make art and ends meet.” The book became fairly popular among potters and helped spread the Coleman legend. It also showed the daily grind of a workaholic potter dedicated to producing first-rate work.

1983

Began working with artist Frank Boyden, who decorated pots thrown by Coleman. Boyden used an incised drawing technique that added a dimension to Coleman’s work. Coleman decorated his other works using a painterly technique found in Asian ceramics. Later in life, wife Elaine fulfilled Boyden’s role using a similar incised technique.

1987

Growing uncomfortable with the constantly overcast skies of the Pacific Northwest, allergies from high pollen counts, and feeling too comfortable with their life in Canby, the Colemans decided to take up an offer from the University of Las Vegas (UNLV) to be a ceramics instructor. By this time, the family was able to move into a new home in Henderson, Nevada, outside Las Vegas.

1994

By this time, Elaine had become a well-known artist in her own right. Although husband and wife had always collaborated to a degree, their collaboration grew as they opened Coleman Clay Studio & Gallery in Las Vegas. Tom supplied the structural ceramics while Elaine handled decoration using a precise carved surface technique she had mastered.

2003

The second edition of “The Mud-Pie Dilemma” updated the Coleman’s story after 25 years. It found the Colemans at a good place in life; financially fine; their two sons were grown and married; and both Tom and Elaine had achieved both artistic recognition and sales success.

2009

Tom, a master of preparing glazes, published his own book, “More Glazes I Use.” The original “Mud-Pie Dilemma” had also included some of his clay and glaze recipes.

Today

Tom and Elaine Coleman are still working studio artists in Henderson, Nevada, in the desert area south of Las Vegas. As he told AKAR, “My true love of clay, glazes, and the process of finishing my pieces have helped me to stay just as excited about my art as I was when I started.” He seems to have solved The Mud-Pie Dilemma.