A conversation with Mr. Mosher
What brought you to Mesa State?
I ran my own business, Mosher Pottery, from 1974 to 1990
and taught evening classes at Mesa State. I started teaching
full time at Mesa in 1990. As a single parent, I found teaching
allowed me the time needed to raise my daughter Amanda.
What's your personal philosophy on educating students?
I believe in thoroughly grounding my students in the technicalities
of the art process, then allowing them to move in new directions.
I never stop searching, questing for knowledge, and I try
to instill that in my students.
Your background qualifies you to teach more than
just ceramics. What else can you teach?
This semester alone I teach all three sections of
bronze foundry, ceramic sculpture and wheel-throwing, as
well as the second half of a noborigama kiln-building class.
I’ve taught ceramic handbuilding, two-dimensional and
three-dimensional design, woodworking, stone carving, and
sculpture. I consider myself a dinosaur, one of a dying
breed, one of those teachers who have been trained to teach
multiple disciplines. I think I am the ultimate multi-tasker!
Do you have other duties at Mesa State in addition to
teaching?
I am also the Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) for
Mesa State. As a former four-sport athlete who raised a
three-sport daughter, I really like being involved in athletics.
The FAR is responsible for "oversight" of all
facets of athletics as mandated by the NCAA. It is a huge
responsibility and takes years to learn enough to become
sanctioned by the NCAA, but it is very satisfying. I’ve
also been involved with multiple liaison projects between
MSC and various schools in creating bronze sculptures. About
a dozen in all, these projects were usually topics foundry
classes, such as when the "Maverick" in the MSC
commons area was created.
If you could go back to college and study anything
but art, what would you study?
I once thought of going back to school to study wildlife
conservation, but that changed when my ex-wife died and
I became a single parent. I attend workshops every chance
I get, not to just learn but to see what other artists are
doing. I like to see other ways of approaching clay, and
then expose my students to new ideas.
What do you do with your weekends?
I take care of my farm on Orchard Mesa and occasionally
slip away to hunt, fish or go to the mountains. Right now
Saturdays involve teaching the second half of a yearlong
wood-fired kiln-building class. We plan to develop our own
clays and glazes specific to this kiln, with at least one
firing anticipated by the end of the spring 2004 semester.
You recently completed a sabbatical in Australia and
New Zealand. What prompted a trip to such remote countries?
I always wanted to build a wood-fired kiln. On my own
I studied about wood kilns in Canada and the United States,
then decided to go somewhere with a large number of wood-fire
potters. That led me to Australia and New Zealand in the
fall of 2002. I met all the big-name wood-fire potters in
the two countries, many of whom very graciously took me
into their homes, then introduced me to other potters —
a kind of network. I took over 4,000 slides and prints,
bought numerous pots, then put on a show of my trip in the
Johnson Gallery in September 2003. I developed a yearlong
class to build a multi-chambered noborigama kiln as a result
of this trip.
Written by Ruth A. McCrea, Mass Communications student
