Joe Singewald

BIo

Joe Singewald grew up in northeast Iowa where he discovered handmade pottery. He is a graduate from the University of Wisconsin–Rivers Falls and received a Master of Fine Arts from Utah State University in 2007. His utilitarian vessels have been in numerous exhibitions throughout the country, including NCECA Clay National and Strictly Functional Pottery National. Joe, a Saint Croix Valley Pottery Tour guest artist since 2023, is currently the Art Department Studio Technician and Adjunct Professor of Art at the College of Saint Benedict and St. John’s University in central Minnesota. He lives and maintains a studio in Cold Spring, MN with his wife and three daughters.

Artist Statement

I am a functional potter working in central Minnesota. My forms are influenced and inspired by the history of pots and potters who gathered clay, formed, and fired kilns. I love how clay and glaze promote all possibilities of gestural moments that are forever recorded: soft finger marks left in the wall of a yunomi, hard-edged tool marks on a cut soup bowl foot, or thick, flowing glaze poured over a dinner plate. Without limits, I am consistently exploring methods of achieving surface depth by layering clay and texture, slip and glaze. Unloading finished pieces from a glaze kiln only promotes my desire to experiment, with hopes to discover a new subtle element of excitement.

I believe in the power of handmade pottery. Ceramics has the ability to enrich the lives they serve, something that can’t be understood without experience. The pots I am continuously drawn to reveal subtle details of beauty over time and use. Ultimately, I hope a few pieces from each firing are able to communicate with the user in a similar manner where a relationship forms between a pot and the individual interacting with it.

Exhibitions