Brief Pottery Bio
Luke Metz, an award-winning ceramic artist, is passionate about pottery and especially raku. He grew up and attended college in New York City where he had a fascination with the art scene. While at college Luke learned stone sculpture. He majored in psychology, took numerous art appreciation courses, and graduated from Columbia University.
Luke Metz pursued graduate work at the University of Denver in both computer science and education. His business endeavors covered a broad spectrum including electronics repair, computer systems analysis, real estate, and teaching. In addition to ceramics, his interests also included rock climbing, hiking, camping, cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, motorcycling, scuba diving, and whitewater kayaking. While living in Denver, Luke spent about 5 years creating pottery as a hobby in the 1970s.
Although Luke Metz always loved ceramic art and dabbled in it, he did not see pottery as a viable career and did not commit to pottery until he “retired”.
Luke has been living in Sedona, AZ for 8 years now and has spent 7 of those years fully immersed in ceramics. In that time he has won a number of awards, has been in numerous shows and galleries. Currently, his pottery is on display at Village Gallery of Local Artists in Village of Oak Creek.
Being a “late bloomer” seems to be in his genes. Luke’s father retired in his sixties from being a partner in a Wall Street firm and took up sculpture. He put on a one-person show in New York City.
Art of Pottery Vision
Ceramics/pottery for Luke Metz is a wonderful and exciting medium. The possibilities seem to be endless and he loves exploring new techniques and combining them. The excitement and inspiration of this exploration keep Luke immersed in the medium. The organic and malleable qualities of clay fascinate him, and he often emphasizes this in his ceramic art. Whimsy and the unexpected are also qualities he strives to bring to his pottery. Although traditional forms are part of his repertoire, he loves to explore new forms (especially asymmetric) and to combine seemingly disparate elements. Color and texture is his playground. The spontaneity and pyrotechnics or raku are particularly enticing for Luke.
Learning is a passion for Luke Metz; the list of potters that he has studied with includes Jim Romberg, Patrick Shia Crabb, Sandra Blain, and Wally Asselberghs – they are well known ceramic artists. He continues his learning experience by studying with potter, Don Fethkenher at Coconino Community College in Flagstaff, Arizona. Luke is dedicated to continuing to evolve and improve his ceramic art.
Direct and intimate contact with the fire makes raku particularly exciting for Luke. For this reason, he has dedicated this site to raku and other alternative firing techniques. His passion for exploration results in non-traditional ceramic art and particularly raku ceramic art.
Luke Metz hopes you enjoy his pottery and would love for you to have it in your home. Below is a video showing a raku firing.
Website Development
As my art evolved I built different websites to reflect the current direction of my ceramic art. My first website was PotsByLuke.com. As I became engrossed in Raku and alternative fire techniques, I built RedRockRaku.com. Now I want my ceramic art to be more broad in its coverage and I have built this website. Over the years I have learned much about website design, development, and maintenance. I have designed and maintained and created sites for other galleries. I am in no way an expert at this, but I have improved greatly.
Learning to photograph my art has gone hand-in-hand with my website learning. I have tried numerous approaches and again as I learn my photography improve. My latest approach was taught to me by Ben Roti, a fellow ceramic artist, and potter living in the area. This technique uses only one light source. The lighting creates a gradient background from a monotone background. This technique did not require much equipment and is friendly to a shoestring budget.
Portfolio
My portfolio is limited to recent work that I consider to be the best of the bunch and is limited to pieces that photograph well (some really nice pieces do not photograph well). The portfolio starts with a brief bio and then has twelve images with descriptions.
Raku Pottery Video
Publicity
This article was published in Kudos (a local newspaper) on September 6, 2018.
Here is a recent article (May 2018) published in the Village View – a local newspaper. I have included a link to it here because I feel it is a good representation of me and the direction of my art.
I am one of the contributers to this Redfin article.
Thank you for viewing my website!