ERIC KNOCHE •   ASHEVILLE, NC

"I make sculptural pottery and abstract sculpture using a variety of hand building techniques including coiling, pinching and working with slabs. I use local materials as much as possible. I fire my work with wood and gas.

Over the last twenty years I have focused on firing my work in Japanese-style wood kilns. In particular, I have fired a lot of my work in a style adopted from Bizen, Japan, where the work is covered in charcoal at peak temperature. The patina on the finished pieces is the result of the dynamic interaction between the materials (clay, slip, glaze), the forms, the placement and arrangement in the kiln, and the firing. Recently I have become more interested in glazes. I make a number of different series of work from small vases to human size columns. My work is influenced by machine parts, human anatomy (especially bones), written language, plants, dance moves, clouds.

I live in Asheville with my wife. I love dancing the Argentine tango and collecting old pinball machines."

Knoche touched clay for the first time ten years ago and has had dirty hands ever since. Originally from Minnesota, Eric studied anthropology in India, poetry in California, taught ceramics at a college in Thailand, and drove a muffin truck in New York City before apprenticing to ceramist Jeff Shapiro. He later completed a short term apprenticeship to Japanese Living National Treasure, Isezaki Jun. In addition to playing with mud, he enjoys hiking, reading and checking the cloud formations for the face of Elvis.

Knoche received his BA degree from the University of Minnesota. He exhibits and teaches internationally. Eric currently works from his studio in Western North Carolina.

"My current work ranges from small puzzles to human size outdoor works to manipulatable sculpture to large installations with many pieces. I make things I am curious to see. The work tends to evolve out of itself and I often feel like I am an archeologist excavating my own subconscious. Here are some things that I think influence my work: male and female figures, bones, machine parts, houses, clouds, landscapes, algebra equations, micro-facial movements, fact and truth, alphabets and foreign languages, spacial relationships, tools I don't know how to use, the distortional nature of memory, the limits of ocular perception, plants, neutron stars, dancing, running water, and songbirds."