Sharing his passion for Pottery
W
hile working in product design during the day, and spending nights and weekends at the 92nd St. pottery studio in New York City, David got a call from his uncle, requesting that he come home to Jamaica. Initially he resisted, but eventually the lure of following his passion for clay full time in his own studio, the island breeze and all the creative potential it held, was too much to ignore. Now, Master Potter David Pinto, calls Good Hope in Trelawny home, with his studio situated in the most unlikely of places – the middle of a 2,000 acre citrus plantation! Proving that one can draw inspiration from one’s surrounding, Pinto is a man inspired and one highly respected both locally and internationally for the calibre of work he fires regularly in his many kilns. He is an invited artist to the National Gallery Biannual exhibitions and his work is part of the permanent collection in the National Gallery of Jamaica. Having exhibited extensively in Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, the United States and Japan, he finds joy as well as peace in the beauty of nature and all it entails. Reveling in the delight of creating unique functional pottery and sculptures, Pinto will be the first to tell you that his love affair with clay began as a young teenager in high school when he realised that the primordial materials of earth and waters can be transformed into lasting and beautiful works of art to be cherished. After several years and having acquired a degree in Industrial Design from the Rhodes Island School of Design (RISD), the symbiotic relationship between Pinto’s steady hands and clay has not waned. As he puts it “art is not only my passion but also my life”. Having served on the board of the National Gallery of Jamaica, he is doing his part in crafting ceramic courses
A piece from the ‘New Growth’ series
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