Bill Wilkey

As a child, Bill Wilkey dreamed of being a marine biologist or an archeologist. But that all changed in high school when he had the chance to watch his ceramics teacher demonstrate throwing a large clay cylinder on the potter’s wheel. From that moment on, Bill has pursued a new dream of making a life as a potter and ceramics educator. Bill’s functional pottery is made with an architectural aesthetic and he uses atmospheric firing processes to finish the surfaces.

Bill received his MFA from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2014 and his BFA from East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee. Bill exhibits his work nationally and was featured as a 2014 Emerging Artist by Ceramics Monthly. He joined the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana as the 2014 Lincoln Fellow and continued on to be the 2015 Lillstreet Art Center Fellow. Bill continues to contribute to the ceramics community by teaching classes and leading workshops across the country. He has built two soda kilns at the Archie Bray Foundation.

“Crafting an object that exists beyond my own intentions fulfills a need to contribute to someone’s daily ritual or personal escape. This work becomes a safeguard in which one can feel at ease while experiencing it and their surroundings.”—Wilkey