Dwo Wen Chen

I was born in a little farming village in the southern part of Taiwan. I am very fortunate to have come from a family that encouraged my artistic endeavors. My greatest childhood dream was to become a bohemian painter working on the streets of Paris.  It is to my greatest surprise that I now find myself to be a studio potter living in New England.  To this I owe a great deal to my RISD education. While it discouraged any of my further fantasy of becoming a painter, yet fortunately introduced me to the wonderful world of pottery. Let me explain… 
Clay is a very forgiving medium. For an undisciplined artist such as myself, it suits me perfectly! I can translate almost anything within my imagination using my hands and clay. Sometimes with great success, sometimes with amusing end results! Either way, it only makes me want to explore the endless possibilities of clay-making even more.
Since I was not classically trained as a potter, I see no do's and don't in my pottery making. I am just as crazy about making a perfect rosette as I am throwing an oversized watering can. To paraphrase Duchamp, "I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste." But in my case, I truly do see beauty everywhere. I think that is very evident in the different variety of work that I make. Recently, I have become more comfortable in calling myself a studio potter. It started one day when I opened up my kiln and found an almost perfect little tea bowl with just the right glaze. To a potter, that was a perfect day.