Richard Burkett

Richard Burkett has made pottery for over 50 years, starting in 1970 with a summer job throwing ashtrays on the potter's wheel for the late Indiana potter Richard Peeler. Burkett established his own Wild Rose Pottery in 1973 on a farm near Bainbridge Indiana, where he made salt glazed pottery for about ten years. Returning to school in 1983, Richard completed a dual MFA in ceramics and phototography at Indiana University- Bloomington in 1986. He has taught ceramics since that time, first at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and since 1989 at San Diego State University, where since 2019 he is a Professor Emeritus of Art. Richard's work continues to include a range of ceramics objects, from functional stoneware and porcelain to clay and mixed-media sculpture, although since retiring from teaching at SDSU he has focused again on primarily being a studio potter. He has given workshops and lectures in Wales, Turkey, Ireland, Korea, Ecuador, Canada, Sweden, Finland, at universities across the U.S, and at Penland and Arrowmont craft schools. He was awarded NCECA's highest honor, Honorary Member, in 2023.

Richard is the author and sole programmer of the noted glaze calculation software, HyperGlaze (for Macintosh and Windows), and co-author, with Glenn Nelson, of Ceramics: A Potter's Handbook (Cengage Learning). Richard curated the work of the forty artists included in the new Lark Books publication "Porcelain Masters: major works by leading ceramists." Richard designed and co-authored "Mythical Figures and Mucawas: Ceramics from the Ecuadorian Amazon" with Joe Molinaro, published and available from lulu.com

Working with Nan Coffin and Joe Molinaro (ceramics professor at Eastern Kentucky University), Richard has traveled to Ecuador over the last thirty years working to document the indigenous pottery culturesof the Amazon Basin in photographs and video. Videos from recent trips are in the works. You can see some of Richard's photographs of Ecuadorian pottery here: Ecuadorian Pottery, and also on Joe and Richard's @indigenousclay Instagram feed. Follow us to see where we've been and what we're looking at from past travels and friends.

Richard also plays mandolin and guitar in his bluegrass music band Gone Tomorrow whenever possible.