Charles Cheek is a retired archaeologist who has been a potter for 40 years. He worked in the Maya area on architecture and pottery and uses some of those influences in his work. He makes high-fired stoneware that has a foundation in functional forms. He feels the same excitement discovering shapes in the raw clay as he has discovering the shape of the past and not just the thrill from finding pyramids and tombs and ancient sculpture. Archaeologists work with all the bits and pieces disordered by past human behaviors and by natural forces acting on the artifacts after discard. During analysis they take the results of the excavation and reorder them. They recreate the connections among the artifacts found in the earth and between them and the people who lived in the past. Potters create connections between form and decoration with the help of the wheel, clay, slips, glazes, and the fire. The creating and the recreating are satisfying both intellectually and aesthetically. Underneath it all, he likes the feeling of creating something from the earth with his own hands. He lives with his wife and two dogs in the Virginia Countryside.
