Artist Spotlight: Wayne Ferguson

The seeds of Wayne’s lifelong love of pottery were planted early, playing with modeling clay at the kitchen table with his brother as a child. When he reached high school, Wayne was able to take some clay and pottery classes. After graduating in 1965, Wayne served in the USAF during the Vietnam era. Once served, Wayne enrolled at a community college and later the University of Kentucky, where he continued to study clay and ceramics.

During his time at UK, Wayne was fortunate enough to attend workshops led by some of the best clay artists of the time, including Jun Kaneko, Peter Voulkos, and Paul Soldner. He dropped out of UK and began to travel. First to Iowa, where he helped build a Japanese-style kiln and lived there for two years afterward. He then moved around to Tucson, AR and Mexico before returning to Kentucky. After moving back, Wayne held various residencies through the Kentucky Arts Council, has traveled abroad through Sister Cities International, and conducted workshops here in Louisville.

Today, Wayne works out of his studio here at Mellwood. Most of his work would be classified as holloware. These are vessels for things like water, grain, seeds, spices, or anything else you would want to store and keep pests out of. Wayne noted that his pieces are meant more for decoration rather than storage. Many of the pieces Wayne makes are considered effigy pots, vessels which take the shape of animals or people. Various cultures in the Americas have made such pots, and they each tell a story. Wayne’s work is no different, as his effigy pots often delve into political satire or commentary. “I’m like a cartoonist: I do political satire, but it’s three dimensional and I have to fire it to make it permanent.”