Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Thomas Aitken | Episode 105
‘
Made to be used’ is perhaps the best way to describe Thomas Aitken’s work. From as early as he can remember Thomas has loved to make things that work. And throughout his training and professional life he has continued to develop functional ceramic objects for use. Starting his ceramic studies at Red Deer College, Alberta and completing a BFA:Ceramics at the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design in 1995. An interest in
European ceramic traditions led him to study at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff, U.K. where in 1997 he graduated with a Masters in Ceramics. Then back to Canada to set up a studio in Toronto. Five years later he moved his home and studio to the village of Warsaw, near Peterborough, Ontario. Here he works full time developing his own work and collaborating on joint projects with his wife Kate Hyde. His work is widely sought after and is in a number of collections around the world.
Emily Schroeder Willis received her MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2006. She was awarded the Jerome Fellowship from the Northern Clay Center and the Sage Scholarship from the Archie Bray Foundation. She has been an artist-in-residence/visiting artist at the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana, the Zentrum für Keramik in Berlin, Germany and at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Canada. In 2012, she was a presenter at Arrowmont’s Utilitarian Clay Conference. Currently, she lives in Chicago where she is an Instructor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
