Profile: Jeff Schwarz

Jeff Schwarz: A profile.

Ceramic Artist 

 Jeff in studio with friends.

http://www.jeffschwarz.com 

Jeff's grew up in the area and began his ceramics education with a BFA from Slippery Rock University with Dick Wukich.  

After a year that included marriage to wife Judy, a designer, and supporting himself from his work, he received a 3 year fellowship to Syracuse University.  He then earned an MFA at Syracuse with such teachers as David MacDonald, Errol Willett, and Margie Hughto.  Jeff gives a lot of credit to his teachers in his development as a ceramic artist.  He also spent almost 10 years as a studio assistant with Ed Eberle, which he said was of great benefit to him.

After the MFA, the Schwarz's were considering a move to either Switzerland or Philadelphia.  However, they were offered a house in Pittsburgh from Judy's family with the understanding that they would do extensive repairs.  Currently, Jeff's studio is the basement, a cramped space which he has made work well for himself.  He is also building a wood fired kiln on property in Portersville, PA and will document for the blog.

Studio with wheel

  More studio.

 Standard Ceramic slab roller (he likes it a lot).

Kiln Room.

Jeff has been very involved with community and currently is the unpaid director of the ceramics program at Braddock Carnegie Library.  

http://wpapotters.blogspot.com/2010/08/braddock-carnegie-art-program-braddock.html

He also is very involved in the Ceramic Water Filter project which was profiled on our blog.

http://wpapotters.blogspot.com/2010/08/water-filter-project.html

Jeff is also an Adjunct Professor of Art at Community College of Allegheny County.

Along the way, Jeff also worked at Manchester Craftsmans Guild.  The Guild served as the host institution for the 2008 NCECA conference and Pittsburgh was a late substitute for the New Orleans site due to the devastation there.  

Jeff worked with Josh Green and many others to pull together a great conference and helped to show off the Pittsburgh area's gallerys, schools, culture, and ceramic artists. Some links to the event can be found here:

http://pittsburghgalleries.blogspot.com/2008/03/nceca-pittsburgh-art-events-pgh-main.html

To see Jeff's work up close and personal you should go to the Christine Frechard Gallery at 5871 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh from November 6 - December 10, 2010.  Jane Haskell's work will also be shown.  

http://www.christinefrechardgallery.com/upcoming_events.html 

Pictures of some of Jeff's recent work follows:

Blood of My Father

Urban Rural Pink

Messenger

I Know

Masked King

Blue King

Mnemonic Trigger

Untitled

Pathos

Pink Masked

Stripes

Ethos

Urban Rural Blue

Coming and Going

Smack

Too Much