Bio :

Hunter Stamps is an Assistant Professor of Ceramics at the University of Kentucky in Lexington (www.uky.edu/FineArts).  Hunter has taught ceramics, three-dimensional design and art history courses at the University of Central Arkansas, the University of Arkansas- Little Rock and at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.  Hunter received his MFA graduate degree in ceramics at Indiana University in Bloomington and his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Carolina in Asheville.

Hunter’s art work incorporates both sculptural and ceramic processes and techniques. He makes mixed-media sculptures using ceramics, fabricated metal, molds, encaustics, rubbers, and resins that deal with contemporary issues of the body.  Hunter’s work is exhibited in national and international juried, invitational and solo exhibitions. His work has been published in periodicals such as Ceramics Monthly and represented by galleries in New York and Washington, D.C.

Stamps is fascinated with kiln technology and has built several soda, salt, and large wood-burning kilns over the years. While at Indiana University he led a group of undergraduates in researching, designing and constructing a kiln fueled by used vegetable oil from local restaurants.  Hunter also assists his wife Amelia (www.ameliastamps.com) with her wholesale pottery business and collaborates with her on large scale public art commissions. Their most recent project was a large outdoor ceramic tile mural at Camp Aldersgate in Little Rock, Arkansas.

 

 

Statement of Teaching Philosophy

My goal as an instructor is to cultivate critical independent thinking and creative problem-solving skills. The process of visually analyzing the world through art helps students to open conduits to a plurality of information and develop contextual networks for their ideas and thoughts. Creative and intellectual maturity depends upon the cultivation of the process of seeing and the process of inventing. I nurture and develop this self-guiding capability to conceptualize problems and realize several different approaches to solving established problems. It is important for students to develop an identity, which inherently grasps the act of continually questioning and answering their adopted approaches to understanding art and the world.

In order to foster a studio environment of experimental creative exploration I urge students to take risks and challenge themselves.  I design projects that will encourage students to grapple with material limitations, technical applications and important conceptual theories. It is my hope that by connecting course material to a web of broader social contexts more relevant to students, they will become more personally engaged in the project at hand and therefore more involved in their own learning process.

Technical expertise and craftsmanship are crucial in order for students to fully maximize themselves in the chosen medium. I emphasize a working knowledge of both traditional and contemporary skills and techniques.  Ceramic students must have the proper knowledge of all the traditional forming processes, clay body formulation, glaze calculation, mold making, and kiln construction and firing. Hands-on activity is crucial in learning these skills. Only after a student has been exposed to all the conceptual and technical options can they begin to make well-informed decisions with their work.

It is my intent to serve as an inspirational role model and to motivate students to have a disciplined work ethic and positive attitude in all aspects of the practice. I energetically engage in an open dialogue format with my students to inspire creative inquiry and intellectual rigor. The best way to do this is by sharing my own commitment to learning and growth as a professional artist and instructor.