Carl Beam - Ceramic Works and Pottery

Ceramic Works and Pottery

Beam minored in ceramic pottery at the Kootenay School of Art. Despite having received top notch training, he found he lacked the ability to express himself as compared to with canvas or paper. Beam abandoned pottery as an art form but only temporarily. Years later in 1980 while living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Beam again became interested in handmade pottery via his exposure to Santa Clara pottery and Mimbres bowls as were made by the Anasazi who lived in the area centuries before.

In the words of Ann Beam, “It was the Santa Clara blackwares that got us first” Beam became excited with the adventurous and bold designs he observed in these works. Eventually he met Rose Montaya who further exposed him to her techniques and those passed down from her mother. Having learned much from Rose, Beam was able to find his own clay and paint stones, fire outside with dried dung or wood, and experiment extensively – about 70% of the early works were lost due to trial and error – all works were handmade without a wheel, often unglazed and polished with a stone.

His Mimbres bowls were fabricated as a modern version of the ancient Anasazi ones - on the interior they were generally cream colored and quite smooth whereas the exterior appeared almost disregarded and less important (see Figures 1 and 2). Having studied all available exemplars found in museums, art galleries, shops, books, and otherwise, Beam’s contemporary versions were largely influenced by the materials and sophisticated art dialogue present in the Anasazi works he saw. Also in the Anasazi tradition, Beam’s bowls typically featured a bold design around the rim with his own unique images placed in the center. The result of his and Ann's early work was an exhibition in 1982 entitled “The Painted Pottery of Ann and Carl Beam” at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, with other shows to follow later.

Beam preferred the Mimbres bowl because it was a form conducive to his creative expression: “Finally, one form I could use to be absolutely creative in … the hemispherical quality of a large bowl still excites me like no cup, tea pot, plate or other clay shape can do…it is a universe unto itself where anything can happen – the designs are limitless.”

Beam continued to work on and off in pottery, creating bowls, snake pots and other handmade creations almost always decorated with his designs and images. The raven is featured prominently in many of his works – “Migwans”, Beam’s family name, means “feather” or “bird”. His works also feature news events (such as the Anwar Sadat assassination) or self portraits or the shaman figure and family, a theme often returned to (seen in Figure 1) Beam also shared the techniques learned and developed with others including his cousin David Migwans, now an accomplished artist living in M'Chigeeng First Nation, Manitoulin Island.