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Richard Bresnahan, Artist in Residence
Excerpts from A Passion for Pottery
By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
Admirers of the pottery crafted by Richard Bresnahan can't seem to agree on its origins.
Bresnahan, a 1976 graduate of Saint John's University who has served as director of Saint John's Pottery Program since 1980, is definitely American: He was born in Casselton, N.D. and attended Saint John's Preparatory School.
But he spent his senior year in college and three years after that in Japan as an apprentice with the Nakazato family, who have crafted pottery for 13 generations and are a Japanese "national living treasure family."
"[Americans] sometimes say, 'Richard makes Japanese-style pottery,' and then the Japanese who come here say, 'Boy, Richard, you sure make American-style pottery,'" Bresnahan admits.
What does the artist himself think?
"I say it's Minnesota pottery," he says.
Bresnahan praises college faculty, particularly Sister Johanna Becker, OSB, of Saint Benedict's, who made the connections for his Japanese apprenticeship.
"There are these moments [at small colleges] when a university teacher can almost [be] like a wing covering a young bird," Bresnahan says.
But when he returned in 1979, Bresnahan spread his own wings. Saint John's agreed to help him set up a totally indigenous pottery studio with the agreement that sales of the work would sustain the studio after the first two years.
Bresnahan and his wife, Colette, live with their son and two daughters in Avon, Minnesota. He credits his wife, an accomplished head nurse, as indispensable in his life and work.
"I've gotten tremendous accolades as an artist," he says. "But if you don't have a great partner to walk through life with, you're miserable."
Rest assured that Richard Bresnahan is far from miserable.
Photo: Richard with daughter Margaret and son 'little' Richard.