Montana Art

 
 

The imagery of my style is considered to be a refreshing alternative to production pottery and classical functional ceramic forms. An opportunity is presented to create a personal visual narrative using a tactile vocabulary in clay starting with abstraction, moving through textured patterns towards a motif that is personified characterized, and finalized with a molded anatomical personality, all existing within a single unit of ceramic sculpture.

- Ben Sams

 

Principal 
1967-72  

The Principal album is broadly representtive, but not totally comprehensive. Other albums in this section and in Washington Art focus on significant topics and periods of time, resulting in some overlap. An album is devoted to mugs in each section because Sams viewed them as a significant art form and produced them prolifically throughout his career. Only representative samples of the mugs in the Early Works and Unfinished albums are included in the Mugs album. He produced graphics primarily in his early years, but throughout his time in Montana.