John Walker spent years working for Milton Keynes Development Corporation, but swapped the suit and office for pottery work.
He is among new city artists showing out at the Bucks Open Studios event this June (10-25). He shared his love for clay with Total MK...
What are the mediums you work in:
Clay
What fuels your creativity?
The enjoyment to be found in making a real object from scratch, after a lifetime working with my brain rather than with my hands. (I was involved for many years in the development of Milton Keynes, at the Development Corporation then the Commission for the New Towns, plus various other large scale planned developments in the U.K. and elsewhere)
The piece of work you have produced that you are most proud of, and why?
A teapot that is almost perfectly proportioned. Teapots are difficult to make well, requiring many techniques and careful timing in putting the parts together. It takes a lot of time and if sold would probably pay me peanuts per hour, but it gave me great satisfaction.
Did you choose art, or did art choose you?
I chose pottery, as an experiment when I was moving into semi retirement. I had no idea how much I would like it.
If you could invite three artists, living or dead, to create a masterpiece with, who would you choose and why?
Making pots on the wheel is an individual activity, so I can't really imagine collaboration of that sort. However, there are potters whose work I really admire and whom I would love to learn from. An example is David Frith
Tell us about your creative ambitions?
To make pottery that is beautiful, functional and unique.
Where will we be able to see you at work/view your work
At our studio, in Loughton - studioonthegreen.com
Get in touch...
www.bucksopenstudios.org.uk/open-studios/2017/studio-green
