Ceramic sculptor, teacher, musician, builder and all-around mensch Phil Lyons is wrapping up one of the longest of his illustrious gigs as an artist — a “maker of things,” as he calls himself.
As the current semester approaches its end, Lyons will retire after 30 years of teaching ceramic arts in public schools, the last 17 at Madison West High.
A retrospective of his selected works is on exhibit in West’s Colucci Gallery through May 3. Forty percent of the receipts from work sold will benefit the West High Visual Arts Endowment Fund.
The easygoing Lyons was in a reflective mood as we settled in to talk at the gallery. He was fresh off recording an episode of The Potter’s Cast, Paul Blais’ influential podcast (Lyons appears on episode 514).
“I was lucky to have a very meaningful career teaching and being able to make art at the same time,” he says.
Lyons has a large as-yet untitled work in progress in the nearby workroom, slick red clay taking voluminous shape in an earthy tradition old (almost) as mud and as universally intimate as a soup bowl.
A Lyons work might be a “head sculpture” or bust, or a pre-Columbian-influenced mask, long and sober-faced, or perhaps a wheel-thrown vessel in the Bauhaus manner, with elegant lines and shimmering reflections.
Lyons knows where he’s going before he begins a new work, visualizing his form and drawing preliminary sketches to map his course.
“I love figures and faces,” he says, gesturing to the fantastic wood-fired and glazed clay sculptures that surrounded us. “Teaching is showing how it works.
“I like art that tells a story and also has multiple levels of meaning,” Lyons explains. “I want viewers to engage viscerally and intellectually. At the technical level, I love the feeling of, Wow, how’d he do that?”
He tells me that the concepts of form and function are entwined in his philosophy. He doesn’t mince words about certain “jackasses in art school” who place wheel-thrown functional ware (cups, bowls, urns, teapots, no matter how exquisite) on a far lower aesthetic rank than solely expressive works (such as figurative and abstract imagery).
“I believe the useful object, rather than being dismissed as merely utilitarian, is actually a higher calling,” he says. “There’s a human intimacy and a relationship in something like a cherished coffee cup made by an artist. We ourselves are vessels.”
It’s no exaggeration to say that Lyons and his ceramics program are legends at West and beyond. He is a beloved teacher of hundreds, if not thousands, of students over the years, some of whom are flourishing as working artists in far-flung places, from New York City to Washington state and overseas.
Several examples of Lyons' sculptural and wheel-thrown work.
One former student, Brooklyn-based ceramicist William Coggin, just sold a major installation to a hip restaurant in Paris. Closer to home, ceramic sculptor Lejia Dongzhu teaches and works at Dongzhu Pottery Studio on Monroe Street.
Dongzhu says Lyons was an important inspiration in pursuing his career as an artist and teacher. “It’s not just the great technical demonstrations,” says Dongzhu. “It’s also about character-building and being a good person. He leads by example.”
Lyons cites West’s legendary ceramics program founder, and his predecessor, the late Don Hunt, as his mentor and role model. It was through Hunt that Lyons began his ongoing work with Habitat for Humanity and a community-spirited, energetically engaged approach to life in and out of the classroom.
“It was Don’s passion for life that was so infectious,” says Lyons. “He did so much. He’s the reason there are art galleries in all of Madison’s high schools.”
Hunt also inspired Lyons to pursue his education in ceramics. After graduating from West in 1977, Lyons earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in Alfred, New York. “The best program in the world,” he says. “They even developed the tiles used on the Space Shuttle.”
He received his master’s degree in fine arts at UW-Madison in 2007. With his wife, Judy Dwyer-Lyons, a respected veteran nurse, he raised three sons and built a house in Middleton that he calls his “greatest sculptural work.”
Lyons is also an accomplished musician; he plays bass and trombone in several Madison bands, including VO5 and Steely Dane, and for years he coached youth sports.
Lyons is looking forward to his retirement, saying he plans to devote an extra hour each day to practicing his musical instruments. In the meantime, he will continue to create art and is working hard to ensure that the ceramics program at West “continues purring at a high level.”
Like his mentor, Don Hunt, Lyons won’t entirely leave the ceramics workroom on his last day at West. May the fires they tended blaze on.
Philip Lyons Retrospective Exhibition
Colucci Gallery, Madison West High School, 30 Ash Street, through May 3.
Free admission and open to the public during school hours.
Closing reception May 3, 4:30-6:30 p.m.
