For potter, art is beauty, truth
Liberty Lake potter Mike Swatzell has been around.
A bohemian artist type, he hung out with breakthrough artists of the 1960s in San Diego, San Francisco, Berkeley and Los Angeles. One such artist was Marguerite Wildenhain, a potter who was trained at the Bauhaus in Germany. Swatzell studied with her for three years.
Though Swatzell has dabbled in other methods, the traditional European style is his forte. He throws his classically shaped pieces, traces his drawings onto the work, reworks the designs with carving tools, applies color slips, fires it, glazes it, and then fires it again.
The finished pieces reflect nature and the human condition. Flowers, natural shapes, regular people and saints decorate his stoneware. The work comes in all shapes and sizes and each contain an element of storytelling.
Swatzell, 66, incessantly drew as a kid and while his parents talked him into going into a more lucrative field, he was always drawn back to art. While studying Spanish at San Diego State, a Spanish professor talked Swatzell into pursuing his love – art. A fellow art history student introduced him to pottery and he was hooked. The medium allowed him to sketch directly into the clay.
He received a degree in advertising design from San Diego State, studied more in and around California, moving around a bit, and experimented with his artistic expression. “I had a lot of ‘funky digs’ that I painted in when I was younger,” he said. He showed his work as often as he could. He also got into architectural design and fine art jewelry. “When you’re an artist,” he said, “you want to do it all.”
He eventually ended up at Gonzaga University, where he got a teaching degree and eventually, a master’s degree. He settled in Colville with his wife, June, and their six children. He taught for GU and the Colville school district, specializing in commercial art and computers. Swatzell had a knack for computers, which led to his position as technical director for the Colville School District.
Five years ago, he moved to Liberty Lake and retired a few years later. His home is filled with unique art pieces, his garden is filled with abundance, and his studio gives him room to create.
One definition of art is the use of skills and imagination in the production of things of beauty. “You cannot separate the muses,” he said. So then, is not everything that we do at least a subtle form of art? To Swatzell, God equals beauty, equals truth, and art is beauty and truth. “It’s all a miracle,” he said.
Now Swatzell has plenty of time to produce beauty: his pottery, his garden and even his thinking. “I contemplate who made me, and when you think that way, you can’t help but be a better person.”
He regularly attends Mass and does what he can to serve others, making it his goal to be as good a human being that he possibly can.