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ARTS
IN THE BACK
Paul Menchhofer
Paul Menchhofer has worked with ceramics
across the range of human uses—from pure art
to day-to-day dishware to industrial products
that can withstand high temperatures and
great pressure. After earning an MFA in
Ceramics at the University of Tennessee, he
worked as a guest artist with Michael Cardew
in Cornwall, England, one of the world’s top
potters. “I came back [to the United States]
and worked as a production potter; making
dinnerware, casseroles, pitchers—you name it,”
he says. After nearly a dozen years, he began
to explore the material science of ceramics
at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; he holds
10 patents for technical ceramic processes.
Menchhofer continued to exercise his creative
love for pottery at his home studio in Clinton.
At the moment, he’s turned from his
signature large Raku-fired pots and has
begun creating less functionally shaped art.
“I’ve been wanting to get into sculptural
vessels that are figurative,” he says.
You can see some of Menchhofer’s work
on permanent display on the Cumberland
Concourse at the Knoxville Convention
Center and at the Hane Gallery in Brevard,
North Carolina.
Photograph by tyler oxendine
144
cityviewmag.com january february 2014
