William McKinney
OXFORD, Miss. –William McKinney, a Master of Fine Arts student in ceramics, is representing the University of Mississippi this month at the Taoxichuan Creative Fair in Jingdezhen, China.
Selected by the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, McKinney is among seven students chosen to represent universities in the United States.
“It’s a huge honor … it was pretty amazing I got this opportunity to do this,” said McKinney, who received his bachelor’s degree in ceramics from West Virginia University. “It will be good to get out of my comfort zone. I’ve been at Ole Miss for two-and-a-half-years, and this trip is going to challenge me.”
His work in ceramics is experimental in nature and investigates function versus abstraction, and explores environmental changes that are happening across the country, specifically in his home state of West Virginia.
McKinney is looking forward to new artistic ideas and perspectives and hopes that his experimental approach to ceramics will bring something special to the fair.
“I’m hoping to show people that this is a traditional material for pottery, but it can be adapted into very sculptural means and push those boundaries,” McKinney said.