Don Pilcher
Birth Date: 1942

Artist Gallery
Ceramicist Don Pilcher, born in Los Angeles in 1942, attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles and the Rhode Island School of Design. Pilcher studied with the great ceramicists Otto and Vivika Heino, Robert Archambeau, and Ralph Bacerra. He held the position of professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois from 1966 - 1999. In the 60s, 70s and 80s, Don Pilcher was one of the most dominant ceramics artists in the Midwest, making large stoneware pots and porcelain bowls with incredible glazes. In 1986, he ceased ceramic production, coming back to it after retiring from teaching with a line of ceramics called “Georgette Ore introduces Rascal Ware.” Rascal Ware was a fictional company created by Pilcher with imaginary employees such as Junior Bucks, Mosley Bunkham, Hairy Potter, and Shakespeare. Each imaginary person Pilcher created reflected a different point of view or “quirk.” The name and personality of Georgette Ore were a reinvention and spin off of actual Biloxi potter George Ohr, known as “The Mad Potter of Biloxi.” Ohr became dissatisfied with the limits of round pots and began to experiment by altering his shapes, creating thin-walled, twisted and buckled forms. The unconventional work was neither well-understood nor well received, and with negligible sales his “art” remained virtually unrecognized during his lifetime. Inspired by this, works made by the fictional Georgette Ore and the real Don Pilcher are distorted, crumpling and caving in on themselves. Within the works, each lobe, bump, and dimple is individually crafted. His distorted forms were produced quickly, as he worked with a drier than usual clay that would collapse if he didn't. To facilitate distending the vessels’ walls, Pilcher created clay prosthetic extensions to his fingers, especially useful when working in small spaces. His preferred medium was high-fire porcelain, which is notoriously difficult to shape. Works made by the fictional Georgette Ore and the real Don Pilcher were stamped or stickered with RASCAL WARE GEORGETTE ORE, typically on the underside. Pilcher officially closed his studio in 2016. Pilcher is perhaps best remembered for his mastery of glazing and the unique forms he created. He explored surface treatments including lead glaze, salt glaze, slips, overglaze, underglaze, luster glazes, volcanic glazes, oxidation, reduction, sandblasting, single firings, multiple firings, and intentional over-firings. The multitude of functional pieces he produced were often decorated with incised images or embellished with smaller pieces of porcelain. The artist’s work is in many collections, including Illinois State Museum, Krannert Art Museum, the National Folk Museum in Tokyo, The Taipei Fine Art Museum in Taiwan, the University of Utah, the American Museum of Ceramic Art in California, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.