Eric Stearns was born near North Platte, Nebraska. He earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 2003 from Doane College in Crete, Nebraska, and then opened his first studio, Stearns Ceramics, in North Platte. After a couple of years teaching full time, working in his studio, and assisting his family on the ranch, he re-committed to his art and received a Master of Fine Arts in 2008, studying under Linda Ganstrom at Fort Hays State University. Eric then returned to Doane College and is now associate professor and chair of the Art Department.
When not teaching, Eric spends time in the studio creating sculptural, pierced raku art. Through his work, he hopes to strike a chord with the viewer that conveys a fragile and fleeting existence. He uses the raku process to accentuate the intersecting fragility of life, passionate connections, and the pain of betrayal, using the matrix of the objects to allude to those concepts. With his interest in mathematics, he creates patterns and explores the relationships between those patterns, as well as the effects of the color and texture of the glazes he uses to elicit emotional responses. He says, “Each piece created is an attempt at a reflection of who I am as a person and as an artist at the moment my hands touch the clay and then continues through the glazing and firing processes. In this reflection, my hope is that a viewer can find a connection to their own experiences on this journey of life.”
Eric will be at HCCC through June, 2017. To learn more about his work, visit https://stearnsceramics.com/.
