(Left) Pour Boys (Right) Justin LeBart)
Potter Justin LeBart loves to inject humor into his work. While art can often veer into the stuffiness of so-called “fine art,” LeBart tries to “put the fun into the functional.” He sees his role as “making smiles and creating respites of happiness.” His pottery is showcased at Red Chair Gallery in October.
Pour boys is the name he gives to small vessels with gaping mouths and buggy eyes. They can be used for pouring syrup or oil and vinegar, or as vases or planters, or just as conversation pieces. His Cereal Killer bowls feature smiling monster faces. Mugs with cartoonish black cat faces were inspired by a black kitten he owned. (LeBart considers black cats good luck rather than bad and currently has two of them.) He designs planters with large googly eyes so that the plant’s leaves will grow to resemble hair above the eyes.
Born and raised in coastal Massachusetts, LeBart became entranced with art in high school under the tutelage of a teacher who arranged for him to take advanced placement art courses. He started out at the University of Massachusetts —
Dartmouth in ceramics but was so bad at it that he switched to sculpture. Along the way, he worked in mixed media performance and installation. For a college project, he borrowed a giant popcorn maker from a movie theater, bought a 50 pound bag of corn and filled an entire room with delicious smelling popcorn. “It was a playful way of looking at art,” he laughs, “kind of poking fun at how serious the fine arts were.”
After graduating, LeBart managed a local video store while continuing his art in his free time but the Blockbuster chain opened a competing location and forced the other store out of business. So he decided to follow some college buddies who had moved to Phoenix. There he started out bartending and working in restaurants and hooked up with a potter friend who was teaching at the Phoenix and Mesa Art Centers. His friend encouraged him to make clay sculptures but he also became skilled at throwing pots on a wheel. Soon he got an apprenticeship there and began helping with classes while continuing to make his own pots.
Eventually, LeBart attended Northern Arizona State University to get a master’s degree in teaching. For his student teaching requirements, he instructed at NATO’s military headquarters, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), near Brussels, Belgium. That gave him the opportunity to visit other parts of Europe, where he saw a lot of stuffy fine art and plenty of newer art in museums and galleries.
After graduation in 2007, LeBart decided to move to Bend, again following friends. He joined the Cindercone Clay Center here to get back into ceramics. After a few years of substitute teaching and restaurant gigs, he eventually purchased a house in Deschutes River Woods, which he named Journeyman Studios. There he makes and fires his pots and also rehearses with his band, gBots and the Journeymen, for which he plays the bass. He is also an adjunct professor at Central Oregon Community College in the Art and Design Department.