Prairie Dog Pottery

Tipton, IA

ARTIST'S STATMENT

Jim Kasper maintains a wood-fired kiln on his rural property near Tipton, Iowa, where he lives with his wife Lucy and their Great Dane, Kate. They also established 20 acres of native prairie grasses and about four acres of trees on their land.

Jim did his undergraduate work at Coe College and graduate work in physics at The University of Iowa, where he was not so incidentally corrupted by the powerful influence of that institution’s pioneering work in wood-fired ceramics. Experimenting with glazes, marks, and form, the variety of his pieces are rich and combines familiar aspects of wood-firing with new techniques. Jim has been a full-time working artist since 1993 when he established his own studio, Prairie Dog Pottery. Since then, his work has been featured in Ceramics Monthly as well as exhibitions such as the International Orton Cone Box Show.

Most of Prairie Dog Pottery work falls into the realm of figurative sculpture rather than functional pots. They include tiles, table figures, wall heads, floor sculpture and wall pieces.