Michael Peed

Michael Peed received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Peed taught ceramics in the Montanan State University School of Art, but his work ranged from ceramics to painting, drawing, and sculpture.

Peed was interested in broadening his student’s experiences and created a summer course in indigenous ceramics. He and his students spent one week in the field on a ranch near Whitehall, Montana. There the students dug their own clay and built their own kilns in the hillside. Their ceramic work was fashioned on the site and fired in the kilns.

During his travels in Mexico, Peed became friends with many of the local artists working in clay and textiles. These connections led him to start a summer travel course taking students to Oaxaca, Mexico, for two weeks. While there, the students visited the studios and worked with local artists as well as going to museums and cultural sites.

Peed’s research led him to southern Utah to study local indigenous clays and the long history of ceramics in the area. In San Juan County, he explored the sites where Anasazi and Moki peoples lived. He studied the construction techniques used in pottery making in the area from 1 AD to 1000 AD. This research also led him to Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Durango.