NorthTec hosts renowned ceramics artist

NorthTec's Kerikeri campus hosts a rising star on the global ceramics stage

Clay artist Jim Cooper is part of its visiting educator programme. Jim will be working in the Kerikeri studio until the end of November.

Jim has just been announced as the joint winner of this year's Portage ceramic awards and is based at NorthTec's workshop using the studio space to create work for a group exhibition at the prestigious Martin Browne Fine Art gallery in Sydney.

Jim was formerly a tutor at Otago Polytechnic and is generously sharing his skills and experience with students and staff in the Kerikeri.

"It's been a real pleasure working with NorthTec arts tutor Richard Parker and alongside so many talented artists in the studio," says Jim. "Having space to work and access to the studio at NorthTec is great."

It wasn't until the late 1970s that Jim began working with clay. "There was a potter in everybody's backyard then."

In 1984 Jim did a diploma in ceramics at Otago Polytechnic but felt that the traditional, Anglo-Oriental glaze work that was in vogue at the time wasn't representative of what he wanted to do.

The library at Otago Polytechnic and books about the work of ceramicists such as Milton Moon and Betty Wooden opened up a whole new world, liberating Jim to create the ceramics he envisioned but hadn't seen around him.

"I wondered how do you do that. How do you get permission to do that?"

In 1989 Jim spent another year at Otago
Polytechnic and started to paint on clay and use cut out shapes - two distinctive aspects of his work today. "One day the penny dropped and I started to make figures and paint them with acrylic paint. It seems simple but it was a long time coming."

Jim's big break came when some visiting curators from the United States saw his work in an exhibition of backyard artists at the Dowse Gallery in Lower Hutt. They suggested that the Dowse give Jim a solo exhibition. That exhibition took place in 1997, and in 1999 Jim did an MA in fine art at the Otago Polytechnic Arts School.

Since then he has regularly won prizes for his bold, colourful work. Jim is a firm believer that being honest in your work is the real measure of achievement.

"That's where art schools are important because they help provide students with the skills to be able to articulate that sort of honesty.

"Students should be working alongside artists. They need to see that it's not easy. Clay never falls easily from your fingertips. It's about working towards it, getting close."

He also believes that it's an opportunity to demonstrate his belief that the artist has to show true commitment to the work that he or she is creating.

"You've got to know what you're doing. You've got to know it with your whole body."

First and foremost, art is about articulating his personal values.

"My work doesn't always consist of the right values for competitions. I'm looking for something in what I create for myself and those values change. It's about finding yourself and honesty and generosity in statement making."

- © Fairfax NZ News