Neil Kennedy, an up and coming ceramicist, grew up in New England where he received inspiration from Cape Cod ceramicist/artist Harry Hall. He first started to work with clay while studying figurative sculpture and Renaissance art in Rome, Italy. After returning to the United States, Neil took classes in ceramics at various institutions where he enjoyed adding a sculptural aesthetic to thrown forms. It wasn't until Neil left the corporate sports marketing world and moved to Santa Barbara, CA, that he started working in clay full-time and finding his artistic voice.
Neil's pieces range from functional thrown forms to coil and slab-built figurative sculptures. His current clay pieces meld thrown forms, slabs, altering, incising and sculpting. The glazes, fired in an electric kiln, have been developed to give the surface a depth traditionally associated with reduction firing. Many of his pieces have a figurative rhythm or physical energy to them, which comes from being a kinetic individual, from a lifetime of playing sports, and his appreciation of classical sculpture. During his artistic journey Neil has believed that, while important, skill/technique is never the final criterion to giving ceramic pieces spirit and life. Art will always go beyond skill, and will reflect the depth and complexity of experience.
Neil currently lives and works in Santa Barbara, CA
Academic Background
Studied Ceramics, Fine Art and Art History at UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AT BOSTON, BOSTON, MA; LOYOLA UNIVERSITY OF Rome, Italy; ELMIRA COLLEGE, ELMIRA, NY; SANTA BARBARA CITY COLLEGE, Santa Barbara, CA.
Workshops/Training
Attended many sculptural and functional ceramic workshops given by ceramicists/artists such as: Dimitri Hadzi, Nicholas Joerling, Mark Shapiro, Danyel Dean, Gail Turner.
Teaches ceramics at local private schools and privately to local children.
2007 Hui Noeau Visual Art Center, Annual Juried Exhibiton, Maui, HI
2005 CAMA Fund Show, Santa Barbara, CA
2004 Painting, Prints and Ceramics, Winter/Spring, The Arts Fund, Santa Barbara,CA
2003 Animan's, human and animal beings in clay, Tierra Solida, Santa Barbara, CA
