Raised in Chicago's south side, Paul McCoy began working in clay in 1964 under the direction of Daniel Edler at Scattergood Friends School, a boarding school in rural West Branch, Iowa. He taught ceramics in Chicago-area high schools for several years before moving to Texas to work in the oilfields. During this period, McCoy enrolled in evening ceramics courses at the University of Houston/Clear Lake, where he spent two years working under the supervision of Professor Nick de Vries, who McCoy credits as one of his most significant influences and mentors. After completing his graduate studies at the University of Iowa, McCoy moved to Waco in 1986 to direct the ceramics program at Baylor University.

McCoy's creative endeavors embrace both functional and sculptural ceramics. His work has been exhibited, published, and collected at national and international levels for the past 21 years.

MFA, University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA)
BA, Northern Illinois University (DeKalb, IL)

Time in the studio is essentially a time of silence during which the internal clutter and chaos of daily living is released in favor of the reality of wet clay and its attendant possibilities. Images are assembled from a synthesis of elements rooted in the natural world, industry, various avenues of human activity, and my own personal experience. The resultant objects spring from preoccupations I've held since childhood with the relationships of life and death, the human condition, and nature. They function more as markers of progress made and tangents explored than as statements of perceived truth, opinion, or narrative observation. Their construction represents an opportunity for me to make discoveries along the way; their completion affords me yet another window to look into the person I am still becoming.

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To view professional work, click on the thumbnails below.

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