Artist’s Statement and Biography: Rick Christie   

I am interested in most artistic media.  It may be painting, drawing, or collage, but my overwhelming passion is ceramics.  It is a spontaneous act involving direct communication between man and material.  The way it feels to have an amorphous piece of clay change in my hands to a controlled, balanced, graceful piece excites me.  My ceramics are usually functional, but my goal is to create art in the form of a familiar object. The chemical and physical changes that happen in the kiln have always been a source of excitement to me, so experimentation with glazes and special effects (crystals, lusters, raku, horsehair, ash, etc.) is of natural interest to me. 

I have studied at the University of Redlands, California State University at Long Beach, and at the College of the Desert.

I am a member of the Palm Springs Art Museum Artists Council, The Riverside Art Museum, The Desert Art Center, and the American Ceramic Society, and Silica Studios in Palm Springs.

I am a retired high school ceramics and art teacher.

My work has been shown at the Palm Springs Art Museum, the Palm Springs City Hall, the Riverside Art Museum, the American Museum of Ceramic Art, the Desert Art Center in Palm Springs, the Rancho Mirage Library, the Rio Hondo College Library Gallery, The Burbank Creative Arts Gallery, the CalSTRS corporate offices in Sacramento, The TAG Gallery in Santa Monica, the Burbank Creative Arts Center, La Casa del Atrio, Queretero Mexico, The Beatrice Wood Center for the arts in Ojai, and the Walter Marks Art Gallery at the College of the Desert.

I can be contacted by telephone at 760-329-3238 or by email at rickjannchristie@gmail.com