John McCuistion
Biography:

      John McCuistion has been working as an artist, using clay as the primary medium of expression, for over forty years. He completed his undergraduate studies at Humboldt State University, Arcata, California and earned an M.F.A. in 1973 from the University of Montana, Missoula, working with Rudy Autio. John has been teaching at the University of Puget Sound since 1976. He holds the rank of full Professor and currently chair of the Art Department. He received the honor of Distinguished Professor from UPS in 1998.

      McCuistion has received numerous awards including the Suzanne and George Ramie Prize at the Biennale Internationale De Ceramique D’Art, Vallauris, France in 1994. In May of 1996 McCuistion was awarded first place in the Fifth Annual Figurative Small works Exhibition held at the Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach, Florida. He received a National Endowment for the Arts Craftsman Fellowship in 1979 and has exhibited in over 300 shows since 1968.

      During his tenure at the University of Puget Sound, McCuistion has received numerous awards. Notable among these awards are a Senior Sabbatical Fellowship to research pre-Hispanic ceramics in Mexico, Peru and Chile; the John Lance Sabbatical Enhancement Award to study the work of Bernard Palissy and Pablo Picasso in Paris, France in both 2000 and 2001; and a Martin Nelson Summer Research Award in 1999.

      McCuistion’s work has been included in a variety of publications over the years including  an article and photos in Electric Firing, Creative Techniques, The American Ceramic Society, 2008; “Homage to Palissy” in Ceramics Monthly, October 2005; Making Marks by Robin Hopper, 2004; Contemporary Ceramics by Susan Peterson, 2000; and The Best of Pottery, Rockport Publishers, Inc., 1996. John’s artwork is also part of numerous private and public collections including the Lamar Dodd Arts Center, LaGrange, Georgia; the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, B.C., Canada; the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, Texas; Arizona State University Art Collection; and the Fred and Mary Marer Collection, Claremont, California.
In July of 1996, McCuistion was invited to participate in a special National Endowment for the Arts initiative to create a permanent archive documenting the Visual Arts Fellowship Program.