FOUNDERS FEATURE: GUY ADAMEC
The Founders Feature highlights the Buckham Fine Arts Project and the artists involved from our early days.
Founders Feature: April 30 - May 6
Guy Adamec makes objects in order to interpret contemporary attitudes within the context of traditional forms and aesthetics. Predominantly known for his ceramics, Adamec’s Altar Vessels, Udon Drums, and Spirit Jars become a catalyst between the tangible and the ethereal.
Adamec is the Firemaster for the Flint Institute of Arts, teaching pottery, sculpture, and glaze chemistry. He has also taught for Flint Community Schools, Mott Adult High School, Mott Community College, and was Artist in Residence for Kearsley Community Schools. In 2004, he started installations of public art for the Ruth Mott Foundation, in the Flint area.
Founders Feature: April 30 - May 6
Guy Adamec makes objects in order to interpret contemporary attitudes within the context of traditional forms and aesthetics. Predominantly known for his ceramics, Adamec’s Altar Vessels, Udon Drums, and Spirit Jars become a catalyst between the tangible and the ethereal.
Adamec is the Firemaster for the Flint Institute of Arts, teaching pottery, sculpture, and glaze chemistry. He has also taught for Flint Community Schools, Mott Adult High School, Mott Community College, and was Artist in Residence for Kearsley Community Schools. In 2004, he started installations of public art for the Ruth Mott Foundation, in the Flint area.
Flint and Buckham Gallery
Guy Adamec, April 2020
I first came to Flint, Michigan in 1975. I had been living in Tucson, Arizona and my first impression of Flint was how small it was. Main street downtown was only a short drive, and then it returned to residential. I grew up in Chicago and was used to a city that took hours to drive through.
I started working for Flint Community Schools, their Community Fine Arts program, and quickly found out how popular art, and especially “making things by hand,” were in Flint. This city looked small, but the people were unique. They were used to working with their hands, making things for factories producing autos and machinery; they were being creative, but always for someone else. These classes provided an outlet for them to explore their own creativity, and they were eager.
This was the environment that Buckham Gallery was started in. The founders were energetic, working artists, and the audience in the city were eager to see new contemporary art. The “Art Community” in Flint was thriving, and the public embraced it. There was more energy in this “town” than many other places I had lived.
My relationship with Buckham, although not an actual founding member, started soon after its inception, and has continued ever since. It has been a great way for working artists in Flint to stay connected, and I typically have had a show here every two years. Being an instructor in the area, and being able to have my students, see pieces made, fired, and shown in a gallery space, has been invaluable to my teaching process.
Being a Maker
I have been an artist /potter for fifty years. I have taught art in Public Schools, Museum Schools, Colleges, even a G.E.D. program in the County Jail. I have been associated with galleries, (large and small), Museums, and numerous private studios. My views on making “ART” over the years have slowly evolved into something that is finally becoming clear.
As an emerging “artist”, one is frequently told that fame and fortune is the goal; showing in reputable galleries, shows in big cities, knowing all the right people and dealers. Now, although I hold nothing against successful galleries and dealers, and still use them, I find that the “fame and fortune” part to be the least important factor. Rather, time alone in the studio when one's intuition is in control; THAT is the moment that we live for.
I look at examples of ceramic art venerated in museums today and much of the work is made by the anonymous potter. These potters were simply doing what they knew and enjoyed; making pieces for others to use and enjoy.
Today, with mass media and the ease of global communication, isolated cultures of the past are becoming homogenized into a global culture, blending everything together. I sometimes feel the need to isolate myself to free me to explore a variety of personal tangents, regardless of medium, with no distractions from outside influences. This, for me, is how “my art'' is made.
One should strive to surround themselves with things that are significant.
Guy Adamec, April 2020
I first came to Flint, Michigan in 1975. I had been living in Tucson, Arizona and my first impression of Flint was how small it was. Main street downtown was only a short drive, and then it returned to residential. I grew up in Chicago and was used to a city that took hours to drive through.
I started working for Flint Community Schools, their Community Fine Arts program, and quickly found out how popular art, and especially “making things by hand,” were in Flint. This city looked small, but the people were unique. They were used to working with their hands, making things for factories producing autos and machinery; they were being creative, but always for someone else. These classes provided an outlet for them to explore their own creativity, and they were eager.
This was the environment that Buckham Gallery was started in. The founders were energetic, working artists, and the audience in the city were eager to see new contemporary art. The “Art Community” in Flint was thriving, and the public embraced it. There was more energy in this “town” than many other places I had lived.
My relationship with Buckham, although not an actual founding member, started soon after its inception, and has continued ever since. It has been a great way for working artists in Flint to stay connected, and I typically have had a show here every two years. Being an instructor in the area, and being able to have my students, see pieces made, fired, and shown in a gallery space, has been invaluable to my teaching process.
Being a Maker
I have been an artist /potter for fifty years. I have taught art in Public Schools, Museum Schools, Colleges, even a G.E.D. program in the County Jail. I have been associated with galleries, (large and small), Museums, and numerous private studios. My views on making “ART” over the years have slowly evolved into something that is finally becoming clear.
As an emerging “artist”, one is frequently told that fame and fortune is the goal; showing in reputable galleries, shows in big cities, knowing all the right people and dealers. Now, although I hold nothing against successful galleries and dealers, and still use them, I find that the “fame and fortune” part to be the least important factor. Rather, time alone in the studio when one's intuition is in control; THAT is the moment that we live for.
I look at examples of ceramic art venerated in museums today and much of the work is made by the anonymous potter. These potters were simply doing what they knew and enjoyed; making pieces for others to use and enjoy.
Today, with mass media and the ease of global communication, isolated cultures of the past are becoming homogenized into a global culture, blending everything together. I sometimes feel the need to isolate myself to free me to explore a variety of personal tangents, regardless of medium, with no distractions from outside influences. This, for me, is how “my art'' is made.
One should strive to surround themselves with things that are significant.
