We recently connected with Jonathan Kaplan and have shared our conversation below.

Jonathan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Jonathan-Narrative 08/05/23

In public high school, I excelled at being a huge underachiever, an average student, and hung around with other kids who had a penchant for getting into trouble. In 1967, my mom and dad decided to take me out of the public school system, and they gave me 3 choices: a military school, a Jewish day school (Yeshiva), or a co-educational Quaker boarding school in New York state. Which, they revealed, had already set up an interview the following day. I took the train from Grand Central Station in Manhattan to Poughkeepsie New York and interviewed. I decided that Oakwood School would be the place for me, as military school or a Yeshiva would be totally unacceptable. This decision to go to Oakwood School, a private co-educational boarding school changed my life in many ways.

What I did not realize was that Oakwood School was a college preparatory school. Academically, I was just slightly overwhelmed by the amount of homework and the level of the academics. I had to learn how to study, which I did. Now remember this was in the 60’s, and this was a co-educational boarding school. The adage, of “sex drugs and rock and roll” was certainly there. Add drinking. But, these recreational activities were confined to weekends and in no way got in the way of my academic pursuits. My junior year (grade 11) was completed academically with A’s and B’s.

My senior year, the last year in “high school” so to speak, was soon to start, and the academic dean summoned me to his office and said “you need an arts credit to graduate.” They had a ceramics program. I signed up for their ceramics class with Mrs. Willis. I was totally captivated, spending a lot of time in the studio but still paying attention to my academics, and again, graduated with A’s and B’s.

Now remember that when I attended Oakwood School, the Vietnam War was going on and there was a military draft for all males over 18. I could not take another human life, so I registered for the draft as a conscientious objector.

For a graduation present, my mom and dad sent me the Alfred University (the New York State College of Ceramics) summer program. I was all in. However,………

I had thoughts of a career in medicine as a surgeon. I started at Case Western Reserve University with that in mind. Academically all the classes were extremely challenging, and I did not really excel, especially in Algebra, failing both semesters. The Cleveland Institute of Art was very close to my dorm, and I enrolled in Night Classes. These classes soon took hold of my interest from academics to ceramics. I changed my major to architecture, moved off campus to a house on a street that was full of Hippies, artists, and lots of people with alternative lifestyles. There was an unused basement in this house on Hessler Road. I built a potter’s wheel, constructed a gas kiln in the back yard. I had a full academic load of architecture classes, but most of my time was spent learning how to make and fire pots.

I had a College Deferment (2S) and could avoid the Vietnam War. But they needed more soldiers to do more killing, so the government instituted a lottery, and I had a very low number. They cancelled my student deferment, and I became 1A, ready to be called up. A few days before I was going to go to the army, my Conscientious Objector Deferment came through. I beat them on moral and ethical grounds and was no longer eligible for military service. I received a 1-O deferment, meaning I was eligible for non-military alternative service. I was never called for that.

At the Cleveland Institute of Art, I was exposed to two wonderful instructors, David Batz, and Joe Zeller. Zeller became my mentor and has been ever since…..a very long time. Both superb potters. They understood my desire to make work, and suggested I go to Art School. I was accepted to Rhode Island School of Design and earned my BFA in 1973. I then went to graduate school earning my MFA in 1975 from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville.

I was not able to secure a teaching position after graduate school, but I did get a 1-year unpaid artist-in-residence position at Millersville State College in Millersville PA. Little did I know that this would morph into a full time studio practice at the end of my term. I was on the East Coast, near Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, and New York City. The craft markets were just starting, and the market was hungry for handmade work. Time and place for sure. Wholesaling my work, with the help of my wife Jan, we sold to about 400 stores and galleries from 1976 to 1988 from a renovated cigar factory in Bowmansville, Pa. It was quite a ride………but….

I was burned out. Fried. Baked. My marriage was failing, so I needed to get out of dodge. I put all my ceramic stuff in storage and moved to Telluride Colorado where I worked in a ski shop. I skied every day in the winter. In the summers I was on my bike. I also had a take-out Asian food business. That was even more exhausting then being a production potter. After 2 years in Telluride I was offered a position as a bicycle mechanic in Steamboat Springs.I also worked in ski shops and bike shops. Skied and biked in season. This was 1990. But……………

There was no future for me in the ski and bicycle business. I decide to return to what I loved, ceramics. I leased 1000 square feet in an industrial park, arranged for my ceramic stuff to be shipped from Pennsylvania to Steamboat Springs. I started making pottery in 1991 and followed the model of what I knew in terms of sales, the wholesale and retail craft markets. What I did not realize that these had reached their peak in the late 1980’s. My participation in the major shows produced little income. But…………….

At one exhibition, another participant asked me if I could make 300 terra cotta perfume bottles and stoppers. Not a problem. That was the humble beginning of my ceramic manufacturing company, Ceramic Design Group. In a tepid economy and with virtually little or no domestic custom ceramic manufacturing, I was perhaps the first to bring this industry back to the United States.

Ceramic Design Group manufactured custom ceramics for 16 years in a turn-key operation from design to finished and shipping. At its zenith, I am employed 6 people, had 2500 square feet of manufacturing space, and a full range of assisted technologies for making work in volume: slip casting, hydraulic pressing, and jiggering. I was the designer, mold and model maker, and took care of daily operations. I had payroll, employee taxes, bookkeeping, which were headaches.

I had little or no time to pursue my career as a ceramic artist as every day was devoted to ceramic manufacturing. After 16 years, I decided it was time to get out of dodge and I moved everything to Denver, a short 160 miles. It took 7 semi-truck loads, 1 flatbed, and a household moving truck. I thought I would continue manufacturing. That took a detour when I found a 3000 square foot warehouse with a 2nd floor apartment on 3 lots on Brighton Blvd, very close to downtown Denver. I did not know this was an arts district. I off loaded my heavy-duty equipment, opened Plinth Gallery in the front first floor of the building, the remaining first floor became my studio, and converted the second floor to an architecturally relevant living space. I became a ceramic artist again. The arts district, the River North Arts District (rinoartdistrict.org)has flourished, as has commercial development. May of the old warehouse have been scraped and replaced with particularly architecturally irrelevant buildings, all boxes, which are high rise condos, and apartments. We are very much a visible and well-regarded destination arts district. But along with being an arts district, we are also and entertainment and restaurant district. Not to mention the many dispensaries……..

I have had a 55 year career in ceramics wearing many hats: artist, potter, educator, consultant, author, gallery curator, master mold and model maker, and mentor. In 1968 my parents enabled me to find this career in attending Oakwood School. Best decision they ever did on my behalf.

Jonathan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I make a variety of ceramic objects that celebrate both form and surface. I am not bound by any constraint in method or material, nor am I limited by any strict adherence to utility. I use many ways to create work, having a deep vocabulary of tool and technique that is not framed by preconception or historical imperative. I have been active in the ceramics field 55 years in a variety of capacities as a potter, ceramic artist, ceramic designer, mold and model maker, educator and author. My technical skills embrace the full spectrum of problem solving in ceramics, not limited to clays and clay bodies.

Major influences upon my work are architecture and geometry. The majority of my ceramics can be viewed as vessel centric and all deal with ideas that relate to containment. Utility or function may only be a reference derived from an association with a specific shape or form. My work is all slip-cast using a cone 6 whiteware casting body of my own formulation. As a skilled mold-maker with plaster and other materials, I design and fabricate all my own models and molds and I also use found objects as source material.

I have made a diverse body of work throughout my career, driven to make objects that are both highly designed and impeccably crafted. I look in awe at the symmetries of culture and am humbled by what remains as historical evidence in clay. With an acknowledgement of that deep history of ceramics, I endeavor to make choices in my work that will continue to engage and interest me. I am honored to be a part of this continuum and constantly reinvent my work by challenging myself. My studio practice has evolved over many years and it is important to always include others with me on this journey.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I pay it forward to others whenever I can, helping ceramic artists move their careers forward.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

The relationships I have built over 55 years with others in my field.

Contact Info:

• Website: plinthgallery.com
• Instagram: plinthgallery
• Facebook: plinthgallery

Image Credits
all images by Jonathan Kaplan