Remembering Ted Vogel 

Kilns – KM1627-3

Ted Vogel was Associate Professor of Art and Program Head in Ceramics at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon where he taught since 1994. He passed away July 1, 2019 shortly after his May retirement, celebrating his remarkable 25-year career at Lewis & Clark.  We are saddened by his passing and deeply thankful for his contributions in the arts community.  He received his MFA in Ceramic Sculpture from the University of Colorado, Boulder and a BFA in Ceramics from the University of South Dakota.

In addition to his teaching at Lewis & Clark College, Ted taught workshops nationally, including Penland School for Arts and Crafts, Anderson Ranch Center for the Arts, Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, the Mendocino Art Center and served as a visiting artist at numerous colleges, universities and art centers. Ted was the recipient of a residency at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana, the Watershed Ceramic Center in Maine and in 2006, was a resident artist at the Zentrum fur Keramics in Berlin and a visiting artist at the College of Art & Design in Dublin, Ireland, prior to coming to the Archie Bray Foundation

“I have always been a collector of objects, and a maker of spare parts. In my work these ‘parts’are made of clay, kiln cast glass, digital images and other mixed media elements. My interest in working with clay, glass, cast iron, the photographic image and other materials is in what each material gives: light, color, transparency, depth, strength, weight, illusion, fragility, etc.

Each part is formed and fired using a variety of techniques and finished in range of surfaces and colors that embrace my ideas of symbolism and metaphor.

Reflecting the traditions of ceramic and glass figurines and the kitsch ceramics of the 30’s, 40’s & 50’s, my work explores ideas of storytelling and allegory and references our inseparable relationship to the natural world, the body, humanness and our complex and precarious interactions with mankind.”