Collection: HP Bloomer - Featured Artist

HP Bloomer attended the University of North Texas where he received his Bachelors of Fine Arts in 2007 and a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics in 2011. While growing up his father was an architect and painter and his mother was a potter and art educator. In his teens and twenties, while working on his degree, he was involved in the Texas punk scene and toured and gigged with bands. Inspired by this diy ethos his work focuses on highly decorated utilitarian forms which draw inspiration from interests in architecture, and abstract designs inspired by fashion and textiles to highlight the intersection between the manmade world and often overlooked indigenous plant species . His most recent work explores the flora of North Texas and his personal narrative. He has been an Artist in Residence at The Carbondale Clay Center, Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts, and Cobb Mountain Art & Ecology Project and is currently a Adjunct Professor at University of North Texas and Dallas College.

Artist Statement:

My forms are rooted in an aesthetic developed through an interest in architecture and design. The understated designs developed by mid-century architects and designers provide a springboard to help resolve the relationship between form and function. These concepts for organizing space are put to work on clay through proportion, segmentation, and through the use of color and surface. 

By using divergent and contrasting glazes, surfaces, patterns, and mark making methods my work explores the relationships between urban development and the natural world.  These surfaces include a tactile quality, and ecological inspirations juxtapositioned with geometric patterns to create a rhythmic play between divisions directly referencing structures, neighborhoods, and development. The floral patterns are designed to highlight the important local flora and stress the importance of our relationships with the natural world through highlighting often overlooked indigenous species of plants. These floral patterns range in representation from direct to abstract to encourage the viewer to explore the native species in their local ecosystem.  

These forms, patterns, and glazes may at times seem busy. Their intent is to highlight and parallel the eventful and vibrant world in which we live by reflecting ways we often segment, structure and compartmentalize our lives while playfully providing handmade objects for everyday use.

Find HP Bloomer’s Artaxis page: https://artaxis.org/artist/hp-bloomer/

Find HP Bloomer on Instagram: @hpbloomer

** HP Bloomer's Artaxis Shop has ended. You can find more work available for sale by visiting the other Featured Artist collections HERE