Everyday
Epiphanies
Pottery and Fine Art
by David JP Hooker
January 14 through April 28, 2024
About the Artist
David JP Hooker lives and works in the greater Chicago area, where he is an artist and full professor at Wheaton College. He received an M.F.A. in Ceramics from Kent State University and a B.A. in English from Furman University.
His works have been exhibited both nationally and internationally, including the Guilford Arts Center in Connecticut, Pottery Northwest in Seattle, the Third Annual Triennial of Silicate Arts in Hungary, and the 2016 International Cultural Fair in Dunhuang, China. His work can be found in various public and private collections, including the South Carolina State Museum, the Greenville County Museum of Art, Winthrop University, and Lanzhou City University in Gansu, China.
When David is not freaking out over deadlines, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Elaine, his children Abbey and Samuel, his dog, Meg, and his cat, Evee. He also enjoys gardening, BBQ, and tennis—not necessarily in that order.
“While I enjoy making art in a variety of media, pottery is at the heart of my practice. It’s the “lens” through which I view the rest of my art. The rhythms, pacing, routines and rituals of making pots are all reflected in my approach to work in other media. Also the way that pottery connects me to material, to history, and to everyday life.
I am becoming increasingly aware of how important nature has become in my work. Especially the Midwest landscape. As a person with deep roots in the South, this comes as a bit of a surprise. There is an austere beauty to the prairie and woodlands where I live, which is easily overlooked here in the Chicagoland suburbs, especially with the increasingly hectic and distracted lives we lead. I find I absolutely need time walking in nature, just as I need time in the studio, to function properly. It’s my hope that the work reflects a bit of the nourishment I get from my time outdoors: the chance to slow down and be present, the recognition of the vibrancy and energy of life around us, and the opportunity to listen to the still, quiet voice of God.”
— DAVID HOOKER
You can follow David’s work and writings at DavidJPHooker.com and on Instagram at @davidjphooker.
David’s KeyNote talk from the Kairos Winter Forum on January 13 is available on our Media page.
About the Exhibits
There’s a Japanese adage about making bowls that I learned early in my education as a potter: bowls, it is said, should always offer their contents to their user, the way you might offer someone something you are holding in your two hands cupped together.
This image has always stuck with me, and guides my thinking about making pots moreso than any formal concerns (although, truth be told, I love formal concerns). I want my pots to always be a kind of offering. They are something that I offer to the world, and they offer themselves to the service of others. Sometimes they offer something small, like morning coffee, or a moment of quiet reflection. Perhaps they offer an opportunity to gather with friends and family over a shared meal or experience.
Offerings, I believe, are connected to blessings.
This past year I have learned a little about blessings from Kate Bowler. She writes, “The act of blessing is the strange and vital work of noticing what is true about God and what is true about ourselves.”* It connects our daily lives to the larger arc of God’s story, while not ignoring our current circumstances. In this way blessings are like prayer.
This definition of a blessing deeply resonates with me, especially when it comes to the practice of making pots. Making pots can be an act of blessing: it is a way to dive deeply into the material of this world, with all its imperfections and limitations, and craft from it forms that that are both rooted in the physical and reflect a beauty that points towards the divine. Working with clay blesses me, and when my work enters other people’s daily lives it becomes a shared blessing.
Offerings and Blessings. It is my hope that in these works you may find a little bit of each.
*The Lives We Actually Have: 100 Blessing for Imperfect Days. Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie
About Everyday Epiphanies
Several years ago I decided to make a series of works on the season of Epiphany for my Anglican church. As I was researching the history and meaning of Epiphany, I discovered something new about the meaning of the word. I had always thought that an epiphany was having a kind of “aha moment,” which it is. But it is an “aha moment” not based on discovering something new, but rather based a moment when something familiar takes on a greater significance. It is, in a way, discovering something that is hidden in plain sight.
That was when I had an epiphany about the nature of epiphanies. My artistic practice, it turns out, is much more reliant on “epiphany” than it is “inspiration.” I am not looking to create something new, but to reveal the significance of things hidden in plain sight: old fence posts, seed pods, church keys, to name a few. To this end I collect things and keep them in my studio where I see them daily, allowing them to reveal their significance to me over time. It is often years, or even decades, before that happens, and sometimes it never does. But when it does it is immensely gratifying, and it opens me to see more mystery and wonder in the world around me.
My work is an attempt to share those epiphanies with you; not in a way that explains my understanding, but in a way that allows you to have your own epiphany. This might happen right away, or it might take some time. Or it might not happen at all. But it is my hope that spending time with these works may bring you delight, and help you discover more mystery and wonder in your everyday world.
