John Wissinger was unsure about his career path when he enrolled at Grand Canyon College (now Grand Canyon University) as a freshman, but he knew it would be something creative. He took a variety of art classes, including painting and jewelry making, but the one that stuck was pottery. It was the beginning of a lifelong journey working with clay.
By day, Wissinger works for a company that moves precious artwork for world-class museums and galleries — including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. — but Wissinger is also a prolific ceramicist and potter who creates objects of art as well as everyday items, such as mixing bowls, platters, mugs, and bakeware.
Neighbor Ethan Watermeier is a loyal customer and a fan of Wissinger’s work. Watermeier saw some of Wissinger’s work at a local crafts fair and purchased a few pieces.
“Since then, I’ve purchased several more pieces of his, both previously made and commissioned for us, including mugs, vases, pitchers, large decorative bowls, and a beautiful full set of custom dishes (large and small plates, and large and small bowls). He also made a custom-designed set of large coffee mugs with a hand-stamped chai symbol (Hebrew for ‘life’) as gifts for some theatre colleagues.”
“I think I was originally, and continue to be, drawn to the overall modern, rustic, Zen aesthetic of John’s pottery,” Watermeier said.
“Many of his pieces have a solid, stoneware look and feel: bold, thick, often gently rounded shapes that I know will withstand the test of time and regular, practical household use; subtle, touchable textures of stone, sand, or smooth striations of the spun clay; comforting earth-toned hues of speckled tan and brown, jade greens, pastel and pastoral blues.”
Wissinger’s foray into pottery actually started much earlier than that first class in his freshman year. Growing up in rural western Pennsylvania, he enjoyed making things and spent a lot of time in the woods connecting with nature. He remembers being intrigued by the tracks animals left in the mud, which helped spark his interest in the versatility of clay.
“It’s the sense that you can almost make it into anything,” he said.
Seeing the footprints in the mud fueled Wissinger’s love of making patterns and stamps in clay, which he did quite a bit as a child.
“Everything just carries over for me, and it’s very natural,” the artist noted. “I also have a very keen interest in early American tools and folksiness, so pottery kind of scratches that itch for me a little bit, too.”
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in ceramic arts from Grand Canyon, Wissinger enrolled in Northern Arizona University’s graduate ceramics program. During his time there, he studied with a professor whose specialized field was glazes — the color coating that gives ceramics their color and durability.
After a year of study and work in the studio, Wissinger started a Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Tulsa, where he received a graduate assistantship.
At Tulsa, Wissinger conducted a deeper exploration of ceramics and pottery, including their history and significance to certain cultures, along with firing techniques.
“One of the cool things about those years, too, is that my professor, Thomas Manhart, would bring in artists to do workshops for students, which was important as we were somewhat isolated in Oklahoma.”
These visiting artists were instrumental in Wissinger’s development as a ceramicist. Students prepared hundreds of pounds of clay and learned about pottery and ceramic work from non-Western traditions.
Wissinger spent four years at Tulsa, graduating with his MFA and meeting his eventual wife, Lisa, a visual artist and former dean for the School of Visual and Performing Arts at George Mason University. He worked various jobs in Tulsa museums before he, Lisa and two friends bought old equipment from a deceased potter and opened a ceramic gallery and studio in downtown Tulsa.
“We were making functional things,” Wissinger said. “I was making hybrids of ancient and modern, and at that period, I was trying to make amphorae. But then I got into making dinnerware because some friends needed some.”
Today, that Tulsa studio is a thriving business in the city’s gentrified arts district, but Wissinger and Lisa eventually sold their stake and moved to Tampa, Florida, for Lisa’s job at the Tampa Museum of Art. Wissinger later accepted a position in the museum’s collections and exhibitions department.
He also taught ceramic classes and experimented with various pottery processes, including replicating Roman and Greek techniques, working with different slips and using different types of clay.
After six years in Tampa, Wissinger and Lisa moved to Hyattsville in 2006.
From his small but efficient backyard studio, Wissinger now produces more functional items and receives orders from neighbors. He works with red- and white-body clays and experiments with glazes that produce muted colors. He also experiments with applying special graphics to pieces based on customer requests.
Pottery requires many steps, including designing the piece, preparing the clay, shaping it on the wheel, drying, firing the bisque, glazing, and sometimes a second firing. Wissinger says it takes about three or four minutes to shape a piece, several days to dry, and roughly 16 hours to fire.
Wissinger still works full time moving precious art — he once moved a Rembrandt — so his studio time varies.
“It ebbs and flows,” he said. “During COVID, when I wasn’t working, I was in here seven hours a day. It was great.”
For now, pottery scratches a creative itch and allows Wissinger to explore ancient techniques that satisfy his intellectual curiosity. While orders are not yet consistent enough to rely on pottery for income, that may change.
“I think about switching over to it, especially when I retire,” he said. “Hopefully, I can retire in about four years, if I’m lucky, and then I’m definitely going to be in here a lot.”