Combining the art of clay and a lifetime of teaching
This weekend, one of Chattanooga’s human treasures is gifting the community with a rare opportunity to visit his studio. A lifelong artist, Bob Fazio is a veteran art teacher and member of the Rising Fawn school of pottery. Many patrons of Area 61 Gallery are familiar with his signature style of ceramic work, a beautiful and playful merging of functional pottery and sculpture.
Though Fazio is retired after 40 years of teaching, he still works regularly in his studio. For the last 28 years of his teaching career, he was at Baylor School, where he was eventually head of the fine arts department.
“In teaching studio arts, you become familiar with different procedures, different techniques, and different materials, because you have to teach those skills,” he says about this experience.
“I like to be known as a potter, but I’m also a painter and a sculptor. I’ve taught just about every kind of art project you can think of. In my years of teaching, I experimented with many different materials, but I always come back to my first love—clay.”
He tells us about how he started making clay objects when he was a child.
“I started sculpting when I was maybe four or five years old with modeling clay, making space ships, fast cars, and that sort of thing. I always loved to move the material around and change it.”
In 1973, he took a potter’s seminar from Charles Counts at Rising Fawn. At the time, Counts was a local guru of pottery, and was renowned nationally as a potter. His work can be found today in the Smithsonian.
After learning pottery from Counts, Fazio bought himself a potter’s wheel and a kiln, and the rest is history.
“From 1973 to today, I still throw pots on a regular basis,” he says. “Most of the work that I make is functional, and can be used for eating and drinking. I also do decorative pieces, like vases and sculptures.”
One of the hallmarks of the Rising Fawn school is the combining of sculptural elements with functional pottery. Fazio works in three different clays—porcelain, stoneware, and a high-fire terra cotta. He uses terra cotta to sculpt, because it has a lot of strength and resilience. He makes figurative sculptures, focusing on the human form and creating multiple pieces at a time.
Each series is united by a theme, and his newest is no exception.
“We’re getting ready to move Area 61 from Main St. to the plaza surrounding the new Weston Hotel,” he explains. “I’m creating a whole new line of pots and sculptures for that move. In the new space, people will see a series of mermaid pieces that I have made. There will be new, intriguing, and different things from what I have done in the past.”
The new series will feature mermaid sculptures and pots with mermaids on them. He has made many coffee mugs with faces on them.
“I call them face mugs, they’re lots of fun, they have different expressions on them,” he says. “I also do casserole dishes, pitchers, cream & sugar sets, things like that with faces on them. My newest work will also include a Chattanooga stamp on a beer stein sized mug.”
Fazio also paints in acrylic, watercolor, and gouache, but he overall love is simply spending time in his studio.
“First of all, as an artist, I try to have fun when I’m working because if it’s not fun, I don’t want to do it,” he explains. “I’m 71, and I’ve made a lot of stuff. I’ve been through lots of phases of production. I try to challenge myself every time I go into the studio, to create a new line of something. As a retired person, I have this freedom, which is very wonderful. The great thing about being retired is that every day is like a Saturday. I can model every day of my life to suit myself. Having a home studio makes it even easier—I can work there in the mornings, in the evenings, whenever I want.”
Fazio’s studio is located at Blueberry Hills Farm in Soddy Daisy. He is having an open house and art show there this Saturday.
“I’m trying to thin out my inventory of older pieces that were at Area 61, so that I will have room for the new inventory I’m making for our new location,” he notes. “In this sale, I will have everything from face mugs to teapots, paintings, and sculptures—and the price of everything will be drastically reduced so that I can make room for my new inventory.”
Trunk Show
Saturday, November 18, 1-5pm
Blueberry Hills Farm
8319 Gann Rd.
Soddy Daisy, TN
(423) 802-7921