Sam Uhlick

Alberta

Clay

Biography

Sam Uhlick was born in Edmonton, Alberta. He studied at the Banff Centre and Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1972 and apprenticed with Michael Cardew in England in 1977. He traveled to Japan to study pottery in 1972 and 1978 and in 1999 he had a show at Creer Gallery in Kyoto.

He has been a functional potter for more than twenty-five years. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is in many private, corporate and public collections. As well as making pottery, Sam has also built most of his pottery equipment and studio. He has, for the past year, been producing custom relief and decorated tiles. He lives with his wife Antonia Huysman, also a potter, and their four children near Ardrossan, Alberta. 

"I love the way functional pottery can enhance the food and drink that it serves. The feel, form and colour of pottery, the touch of a cup to the lips, all have an enriching (and important!) effect on daily life. I don't attempt to create perfection, nor do I strive for imperfection, but I do try to achieve beauty in function. In the more than twenty-five years that I have been a potter, I have made about 50,000 pots: cups, bowls, plates, teapots, etc. 

If all ceramics were divided into two groups there would be those objects that are dusted and those pots that are washed. Almost all of mine would end up in the kitchen sink."