James Freeman Studio

My path to ceramics has been a rather circuitous one. I entered Michigan State University as an Art major, with a focus on commercial art. During my sophomore year I changed majors to Finance for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was a lack of desire to live a life of poverty. Upon graduation I took an entry-level job in the trading room of what was then a small stock brokerage, and worked my way up over the course of several years. I retired from Wall Street at a fairly young age, and moved with my family to a beautiful tract of land deep in the wilds of southern Michigan.

Soon after moving to the country I enrolled in a community education ceramics class. I followed this class with a ceramics course and several semesters of independent study at our local college, and have been continuing my education on my own ever since.

My current body of work consists of various series of sculptural and semi-functional ceramic vessels, as well as larger scale ceramic installations. I have always endeavored to create works that are aesthetically pleasing, technically challenging, visually stimulating, and above all, well crafted objects for use, decoration, or contemplation.

In addition to my sculptural ceramic work, I also make a bit of functional pottery, build fine furniture, and battle occasional thoughts of resuming gainful employment.