JOHN'S BACKGROUND

John Baymore is originally from Lake Hopatcong in northern New Jersey, with a family history tracing back to the Mercer and Cook potteries of the Trenton area in the mid to late 1800's. He studied in the ceramics program at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and has been making pottery professionally since then. Although selling his pots since his student days, John's first real working studio, Otis Earthworks, was located in Otis, Massachusetts in the early 70's. John has been crafting work at River Bend Pottery in Wilton, New Hampshire since the fall of 1977.

While in college, John had the opportunity to study with faculty members Brenda Minisci, Paul Berube, Jim Wozniak, and Sue Parks in the program then chaired by Lyle Perkins. His education has also included classes at Massachusetts College of Art and Rivier College, and workshops led by well known artists such as Paul Soldner, John Gill, Bob Arenson, Jun Kaneko, Wayne Higby, Bill Daley, Warren MacKenzie, Ron Nagle, Fred Olsen, Norm Schulman, and Don Reitz. He has also attended numerous N.C.E.C.A. and "Supermud" professional conferences.

John began woodfiring in 1969, with the first kiln he ever built, and has been "hooked" on wood as a fuel ever since then. In 1976, John even built a wood fired climbing kiln right in downtown Boston, at Massachusetts College of Art.  John's noborigama was listed in the first survey of American wood kilns performed by Studio Potter magazine in 1982.  He was an invited participant at the First Woodfiring Aesthetics Symposium held at the Japan Society in New York City in 1983, and was recently included in Gerry Williams' slide presentation on "Japanese Influences on American Ceramics" sponsored by the American Craft Museum. John was a featured artist in the "New Hampshire Wood Fire Potters Invitational" in 1998.

In 1996, John was awarded the prestigious Judge's Special Prize in the First Mashiko, Japan Ceramics Competition, and was invited to travel to Mashiko, Japan to receive the award. Over 15,000 people attended the month-long exhibition, including the Emperor of Japan.  In the summer of 2002 John was an invited presenter at the Aomori International Wood Fire Festival in Goshogawara-shi, Japan.  He joined 80 other invited artists from 17 countries and spent 11 days producing work, giving a slide lecture, exhibiting, and interacting with his international peers.  During the event approx. 50,000 people came to watch the participants produce their work and the event was covered by local and national Japanese television.

In 2003, John was again invited, along with Fred Olsen and Steve Branfman, to be the three artists to represent the USA at the next Japanese Wood Fire Festival, however the event was cancelled due to the threat of SARS.  In the summer of 2004, John was invited as one of three artists to represent the USA at the Kanayama World Woodfire Artist-in-Residence program for the entire month of June.  In July of 2004, he was a guest lecturer at the Tokyo National University of Art and Music (Geidai).

John has taught at Massachusetts College of Art, Boston University's Program in Artisanry, and the Danforth Museum School as well as conducting numerous workshop sessions at schools and craft centers. In the mid-70's, he was the full time ceramics technician at Massachusetts College of Art for four years. He is currently adjunct Professor of Ceramics at the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire, where he teaches general studio courses as well as the technical ceramic materials and kiln design courses.   John currently sits as the chairperson of the NHIA Health and Safety Committee and also has served as a member of the school's NASAD (North American Schools of Art and Design) Accreditation Committee.

He has had experience teaching younger children in such programs as the summer arts S.P.A.C.E. program of the Newton, MA public school system, and worked with the Boston English High School Magnet Art Program doing raku workshops. He has done workshops/visiting artist programs for young children at locations like the Berkshire Country Day School (MA), the High Mowing Waldorf School (NH), Florence Rideout Elementary School (NH), and the Denville (NJ) Public schools.

A specialist in the design and construction of fuel-fired kilns, John has built numerous kilns for professional potters and institutions in the northeast. He performed kiln design work and consulting for Cutter/Eagle Ceramics, designed the "Cutter Crossdraft", and was responsible for modifications to their popular "Brookfield Kiln" plans. He consulted on a period recreation of a colonial-era wood fired bottle kiln located at the living history museum at Old Sturbridge Village, MA. His favorite projects involve building wood kilns..... particularly multi-chambered climbing kilns (noborigama) like the one located at his studio in Wilton.

John was a presenter at the National Council for Education in the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) annual conference in Boston, Massachusetts in 1984, and again in Columbus, Ohio in 1999. He will once again present at the prestigious national confernece in March of 2006.  In 2000, John was a presenter at the Alabama Clay Conference at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.   In 2001 he conducted two different workshops for the Harvard University Ceramics program, and in the fall of 2001 as well as the spring of 2004 he was a visiting artist at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston.  In the spring of 2002 and the spring of 2004 he also conducted week long woodfiring workshops for the undergraduate and graduate ceramics majors from Massachusetts College of Art.  John has presented slide lectures on his experiences at the 2002 Aomori International Wood Fire Festival and the 2004 Artist-in-Residence program for the NH Potter's Guild, Mass. College of Art, Richmond Pottery, Emerson Umbrealla Arts Center, New Hampshire Institute of Art, and "The Potter's Shop".

John has also presented at other diverse venues such as local Lions Clubs, a New Hampshire Art Educators Association conference, and a New Jersey State Teachers Education Conference. Since 1981 he has conducted an annual noborigama woodfiring workshop at his studio in Wilton, which has attracted international attendees.  John has appeared on WMUR television's "Four O'clock Focus" arts programming and was featured in a National Public Radio interview on ceramic toxicology.

Over the years, John's work has appeared in a number of regional, national, and international juried exhibitions as well as faculty shows at the various institutions with whom he has been associated. In 1998, he was a featured demo artist for nine days at the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen's 65th annual Sunapee Fair. In 1999, he was included in "Masterworks", a national invitational exhibition of 100 top mid-career craftspeople in all media.  His claywork was included in "Made in 2000" a national juried exhibition at the Ralph Lauren Gallery in Easthampton, MA, and also in the 66th, 67th, 68th, and 69th Regional Juried Exhibitions of the Fitchburg Art Museum in Fitchburg, MA in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004.

In August of 2002, John was in a three person invitational woodfire exhibition at the Tokai Gallery on Newbury Street in Boston, their first ever showing of non-Japanese potters.  In the fall of 2002, his work was included in an invitational exhibit of wood fired works at the CommonWheel Gallery in Manitou Springs, Colorado.  In November 2002 some of his pieces were exhibited at the Tsugaru Kanayama Togei Kumiai in Japan.  In the spring of 2003, John was awarded the "Seeley Ceramics" award by juror Phil Rogers in the New Hampshire Potter's Guild biennial exhibition "Inside/ Outside" held at the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  In August and September of 2003 John's work was included in the annual "Faculty Highlights" exhibition at the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  In November of 2003 John had a solo exhibition at the Society of Art's and Crafts gallery on Newbury Street in Boston.  In March of 2003 John's pieces which were woodfired in Japan were included in an exhibition at the ELM Depato in Goshogawara-shi, Japan. He has an upcoming solo exhibition in November at the Jaffrey, NH Civic Center gallery.    

The 100,000 Yen award winning piece from the Mashiko Ceramics Competition, a small shino glazed faceted bowl , was acquired by the Mashiko Togei Messe (Pottery Museum) in 1996.  A commission in the summer of 2001 by NanoVia, a US high-tech firm, resulted in his work being presented to the president of Hitachi, Japan as well as to the president of the American division of Hitachi.  Seven pieces of John's  work have been placed in the permanent collection of the Goshogawara City Art Museum in Japan.  His work can also be found in the private collections of numerous Japanese potters including Shimaoka Tatsuzo, Matsuzaki Ken, Ogawa Hirohisa, Shimada Fumio, Matsumiya Ryouji, and Shigetoshi Tsuji.  

His work has been included in texts like Yankee Magazine's "Guidebook to Handcraft Centers of New England", "The Goodfellow Catalog of Wonderful Things", and Steve Branfman's 1999 release book, "The Potter's Professional Handbook". It has also appeared in "Ceramics Monthly", "Clay Times", "The Craft Report", "Ceramic Industry", and "New Hampshire" magazines as well as local newspapers like "The Manchester Union Leader", the "Monadnock Ledger", the "Nashua Telegraph", the "Hippo Press", and the "Milford Cabinet".  In August of 2001, John was selected to be featured in Japanese journalist Yokota Masuo's (Japanese language) book on Americans who are greatly influenced by Japanese culture  (ISBN4-7958-4042-3  1400Y).

Articles by John have appeared in "Ceramics Monthly", "The Crafts Report", the "NCECA Journal", the N.H Potter's Guild's "Potluck" newsletter, as well as numerous newspapers. He was responsible for writing the user manual for the Fyrite Flue Gas Analyzer for Cutter/Eagle Ceramics. He was also a pre-publication content reviewer for the general college ceramics textbook, "Hands in Clay" by Charlotte Speight.

John was curator of a major exhibition of the work of the historical Dorchester (MA) Pottery held in 1981 at the Joseph Carreiro Gallery in Boston . This educational exhibition included a recreation in the large gallery space of a section of the working area of the pottery, a full-scale mockup of a section of the huge coal-fired beehive kiln, as well as displays of the domestic pottery and industrial objects produced there.

John holds a state juried level membership in the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen, and is also a member of the New Hampshire Potter's Guild, the southern New Hampshire Open Kiln Group, the Studio Potter Network, the Small Studio Alliance, the National Council for Education in the Ceramic Arts, the American Craft Council, the Potters Council of the American Ceramic Society, New Hampshire Citizens for the Arts, and the Japan Society of Boston.  John frequently can be found participating in discussions that take place on CLAYART, the Internet ceramics discussion group.

In the dead of winter, John is also involved in the ski instruction industry. He is a Divisional Clinic Leader for the Professional Ski Instructors of America, and works for the Ski/Snowboard Learning Center at Bromley Mountain in nearby southern Vermont.

When he has a minute or two of spare time, John is an amateur radio operator, holding the General Class call sign KA1HLI, and also is an avid flight simulation "pilot".

© 2000-2001-2002-2003-2004       J. Baymore    all rights reserved

Studio visits are welcome. Call 603-654-2752 to make sure I'm there.

This page last updated:

08/22/2005 12:08 PM