Sean O'Connell

BLUE RIDGE, NORTH CALIFORNIA

With a devotion to natural materials and the handmade, ceramicist Sean O'Connell decorates his functional ceramics using own studio-made calligraphy pens.

Sean O' Connell began his artistic career as a silversmith’s apprentice at the age of 14 in his hometown of Fayetteville, Arkansas.He received his BFA,from the Kansas City Art Institute, and MFA in Ceramics at the School for American Crafts, Rochester Institute of Technology in New York State. He has since attended several Artist-In-Residencies across the United States, and was named one of Ceramics Monthly’s Emerging Artists and in 2016. Currently based in his home studio in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, Sean also lectures at universities and leads workshops nationally.



Sean's first encounters with crafts

From the young age of 14, Sean’s interest in crafts found direction as a silversmiths apprentice. After completing a BFA in Sculpture, Sean became increasingly interested in making functional pottery and continued his studies with an MFA in Ceramics at Rochester Institute of Technology. He has since been featured in numerous exhibitions across the United States, and attended a handful of long-term residencies, with a focus on the communal aspect of craft-making and deepening his skill and understanding of crafts.

While ceramics is his primary profession, Sean’s studio practice involves several aspects of making that go beyond the working of clay, including carving wooden utensils, calligraphy brushes, paintings and sculpture, with homemade utensils supporting the processes of his ceramic craft processes. 

“Creating by hand is a deliberate attempt at slowing down, connecting to something deeper, and taking time to appreciate the unique beauty in natural materials.”

Sean finds value in being intentional with- and having a hand in the objects we surround ourselves with and use, seeing it as an active antidote to a consumerist culture.

Set of wooden brushes with white bristles on a beige background



In his North Carolina hillside home studio, Sean forms his pottery using a non-electric pottery wheel powered by continuous back and forth foot motions. After throwing and glazing his work using white slip and cold wax resist, applied with his handmade calligraphy brushes, Sean fires his stoneware in a wood-kiln — requiring continuous management of the fire, with the complete process taking several days to complete. 

Characteristic of his ceramics, paintings and sculptures is a focus on abstract, visual studies and patterns of repetitive mark-making.