ABOUT BOB WILSON

BIOGRAPHY

Born in 1945 in central Illinois, Bob began his life surrounded by music. His father, Floyd, was a highly influential and prolific educator who pioneered music programs in the area.

Demonstrating regionally acclaimed skills in trombone, Bob nearly left high school never having taken an art class. Initially following in his father's career, he intended to study music in college but in his senior year of high school took an art elective that changed his trajectory.

Bob discovered his passion for clay in 1966 while a student at the University of Illinois, where he earned his degree in Art Education. His degree led to a job teaching fine art at Barrington High School in 1968. At the time, Barrington only had three art teachers teaching a variety of different classes and genres.

Bob's first year at Barrington, stationed in front of a wall of chemical glazes. 1968

Bob supervises a student-faculty art show c. 1972

The Classroom 68-79

In the mid 1970's the art department took on new faculty and expanded it's courses. Described as a premiere art program in the state of Illinois, the success of the program was aided in that all faculty worked outside the classroom as a practicing artists. A notably funny and expressive crowd, the art faculty was known for elaborate Halloweens and incessant puns.

Bob could often be found working on his art alongside students after-hours at the high school. Establishing multiple studio spaces at school and at home helped the already prolific momentum of his work.

CARBONDALE

In 1979 Bob took a leave of absence from teaching to pursue his M.F.F. degree from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

During this time, aided by his experience at Barrington, he taught with an assistantship. It was at S.I.U. that Bob learned a new passion in glassblowing.

The year before arriving at Carbondale for Grad School, Bob went down to SIU to visit and interview with the head of the Fine Arts Department, Bill Boysen.

"He was a terrific and knowledgeable artist and teacher. After making the personal decision to leave BHS for two years was a big deal -- a non-paid leave of absence."

Bob, in the midst of a divorce, used part of the sale of a house in Lake in the Hills and money from an assistantship to support himself for two years.

Joliet Herald News Press Photo c.1982

Focus on Glass

Initially, the facilities at SIU were great, especially for graduate students. It boasted individual studio cubicles, three electric kilns and two 70 cubic-ft gas kilns. The scale and resources were exciting in envisioning larger works. However, when Bob arrived in the fall, Boysen had been replaced by Harris Deller.

"Deller had been hired fresh out of (costly and snooty) Cranbrook, an East-Coast school for the affluent."

In the middle of his first semester both of the larger kilns were torn down to be replaced by a computerized "Super-Kiln." This super-kiln wasn't completed in Bob's second semester, (the computerization frequently malfunctioning) leaving first year students with no way to produce high-fire pieces. Deller took a sabbatical, and all seemed chaotic.

Bill Boysen was teaching glass, and in his first semester Bob excitedly signed up.

Bob would later recount that blowing glass with Bill was his saving grace. Realizing that having an exceptional thesis show in Clay was not realistic, he realigned his focus towards glass. The combined nature of the "Ceramics/Glass" degree made for a fluid transition. Only two of the nine students in his graduating class displayed a thesis show.

Bob's thesis was displayed at the University's main museum in Faner hall and consisted of 17 blown glass vessels and 11 stained glass windows. His stained glass work was featured in antique wood frames from windows of his grandparents farms that he drove out and salvaged from a demolition.

Touring and the 80's

After graduating in 1981, Bob would go on to 'tour' with his teacher Bill Boysen in a mobile glass blowing unit built by Bill. They blew glass at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, and the following summer in St. Louis under the arch. Bob recounts,

Nothing like blowing glass in front of glass tanks (2000 + degrees) outside with weather over 100 degrees. 'It's your turn' was heard often, and NO one was anxious to take their turn with the pipe.

Returning to Barrington High School, Bob regained teaching ceramics alongside Dave Engle. He balanced two clay classes and three sculpture classes before returning to clay exclusively several years later.

It was then that he had the freedom to be more experimental and creative in his ceramics curriculum.

The Classroom

A Daily Herald article from September 2000 paints a timeless atmosphere of the ceramic classroom. Bob Dylan music plays in the background while students throw on wheels, conceptualize sketches, and finesse glaze approaches.

These after school hours were a testament to Bob's passion for teaching and leading by example. His classroom studio was alive. Diagrams, formulas, sketches and puns littered the panels of chalk boards surrounding the room. Masonite boards laden with cutout images from ceramic magazines served as inspiration and visual references. The aroma lilted from the long work tables smelling of wet stone and ceramic dust. And all the while Bob could be found working tirelessly on his art, in every way teaching.

Touring and the 80's

Returning to Barrington High School, Bob expanded his teaching and knack for art education by conducting clay workshops at various High Schools in the North-West suburbs including Elmhurst York, New Trier, St. Charles. Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg.

In 1992 Bob was honored as one of 20 high school teachers in the country to be recognized for outstanding ceramics programs and their teaching abilities with clay. Subsequently, he was invited to participate in a workshop at the prestigious Alfred University in New York. With the award winning group of teachers, he worked with nationally renowned ceramicists including Val Cushing, John Gill and Wayne Higby.

Changes at BHS

In the year 2000, a renovation of the art department at Barrington High School uprooted and shifted the clay studio that had been in one spot since Bob began teaching in the late 60's.

New facilities once included the hope of a a functioning glass lab at the high school. A concrete slab was laid with no surrounding building. Bob's equipment for glass blowing sat outdoors under tarps for a few years before the glass facility plan was scrapped, along with the rusted out equipment.

at home

Over the years Bob's ceramic work has continuously explored both the traditional functional as well as the contemporary sculptural realms. His works show his passion for unique surface textures through manipulating slips, stains, self-made stamps, and self-created glazes. His work enhances surfaces by revealing the unique essences of clay itself -- the way it can stretch, crackle and fold, and the way it can attain contrasts in color and sheen in the glazing process.

Bob built his first home studio in Cary in the 1980's. The room had a nearly two story peaked roof and self-installed shelving held boxes, glazes and countless works up the ceiling. In this first home studio, Bob also build a shed containing a full size gas kiln where he was able to fire through the evenings while spending time with family at home.

After moving to a new home in 2004, Bob built a second studio, this time able to map out walls and storage with the blank canvas of an unfinished basement. Two electric kilns, a spray booth, two potter's wheels and a glaze mixing station all surround the cozy basement space where new phases and styles continue to emerge.

Present

Bob retired from Barrington High School in 2005. He had started careers of the new generation of ceramic artists, many of who went on to teach and work as ceramic artists. After 37 years, his legacy was felt. An outpouring of love, thanks and admiration met him at his retrospective show at the High School. Dozens of former students, many now teachers and ceramic artists, were able to reunite. As a final project, Bob designed and installed a ceramic archway leading into the renovated ceramic studio. Moments of student work dance alongside small homages to Bob's legacy as future generations walk into a ceramics program built from passionate, prolific artists.

Through his career, Bob's work has been showcased in galleries in Chicago, Evanston, Lake Zurich, Lake Geneva, St. Charles, Hoffman Estates, College of Lake County, Joliet, and the Barrington Area Arts Council. He has influenced the professional ceramic practice of dozens of students.

A master of artistic discipline and an inherently prolific potter, he maintains the vision to challenge himself in bending his creative styles to reflect his view of current events and experimenting with low-fire glazes.

He continues to work in his studio daily.