Ron Milligan...
began potting casually in 1972 during his years as an undergraduate student at Leeds University in England. It wasn't until 2007 that he revisited the art medium, when he threw himself (and his pots) into action. His creations spilled out of his garage studio and into the family courtyard, to which his wife begged "Please make something useful!". His artistic style mimics natural colors, patterns and shapes, drawing inspiration from the natural world around him: anything from tide pools to lichen. In 2015, Ron developed paralysis in his left arm and had to reinvent traditional pottery methods for a one-handed artist. His pots today are thrown, sculpted, glazed and finished with one hand.
"Perfection offends the gods" he says
as he pulls vase after plate after bowl out of the small kiln in his garage studio in San Diego. You can hear the faint sound of glaze setting on the pot between your hands as it adjusts to the garage air temperature--a sound like tiny glass shards raining down on a crystal landscape. The process can last weeks, and each moment and new stage of the artistic process render distinct creations. A single glaze formula can react differently to different clays, temperatures, or even the shape of the pot. Ronald Milligan's pots honor this ambiguity, his process embracing the esoteric and celebrating the subjectivity of each creation's journey. Your pot is one of a kind, imbued with it's own unrepeatable story.