William Shirley Artwork

William Shirley • Artist, Saratoga Springs, NY, USA

A ceramic artist, sculptor, and blacksmith whose work unites ancient craft with contemporary form. Raised across Arizona, early shard hunting and guidance from Heard Museum experts—and a marble cutter grandfather—seeded a lifelong reverence for materials and handwork. After moving to Saratoga Springs, he studied with Regis Brodie at Skidmore (University Without Walls), focusing on studio design and kiln construction; he now wood-fires Greek-style and multi-chambered noborigama kilns, explores salt glazing, and casts bronze in a charcoal fired foundry while forging iron at the anvil. Informed by Norse, Celtic, and early Japanese traditions, his vessels and forged forms feel both unearthed and unmistakably alive.

"Throughout my life I have been studying the past, especially the technologies which produced all those wonderful objects in the museums. I want to know how the things were made and I can best understand the work by replicating the processes, building period kilns, processing clay from the land and firing with wood over time to see if what I make can compare with the masters of old. Deriving inspiration from the various art movements I try to create objects which will be valued and appreciated over time, maybe even becoming treasured family heirlooms." -William Shirley