A Vibrant Community

A Vibrant Community

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Conversation and Poetry with Bruce McCausland


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“Creative expressions through poetry and clay, reflections of emotions and feelings often with a sense of humor”
Bruce McCausland is a Western New York artist, potter, poet, and humorist whose family historically, is very familiar to the Buffalo art community; his mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother were all noted artists in Western New York.  His experience in pottery and writing poetry dates back to around 1980 when living in Connecticut where he was still in the US Navy.  There he  first starting writing humorous poetic  parodies,  and with his pottery developed his own unique techniques shortly after taking an introductory course in pottery at the art studio facilities available on the submarine base where he was stationed. Despite the evident demand that soon developed for his work while in the service, by the end of his enlistment commitment in late 1983 he no longer had use of those facilities and after nearly four years, reluctantly abandoned this past time to pursue a career and raise a family.  In the mid to late 1980's he again took pen to paper and composed many of his early popular poems, but after marriage in 1992, he took a hiatus from both pottery and poetry to concentrate on raising a family and his career in the IT field.  Now since 2009, after a 26 year break from his art, except for occasional opportunities when he put pen to paper or when a pottery wheel became available, he has immersed himself back into both of these forms of art. Links to his pottery are at http://buffalopotteryfaces.blogspot.com/ and http://ussboston-ssn703.blogspot.com/.
Trained in the US Navy as an Electronics Technician and a Nuclear Propulsion Reactor Operator, he served as part of the commissioning crew aboard the USS BOSTON (SSN-703), while aboard the submarine the crew circumnavigated the world while under water!  The sail from this now decommissioned submarine is now a permanent display in Buffalo, NY where it sits prominently near the terminus of the Historic Erie Canal at the foot of Pearl St., as part of the Buffalo & Erie County Naval & Military Park.  
Following the Navy, after being disillusioned by the idea of nuclear power as a truly clean commercial energy, he pursued a career in computer electronics and later became a programmer and VMS/VAX & UNIX system administrator; first, working for the Federal government, where after hours, at home he composed many poems. Then after more than a decade with the federal government, he worked for the Buffalo News where he was employed until August 2009.  Bruce has done course work at the university of Connecticut, Southeastern Connecticut University, and holds an AS degree from Mohegan Community College in Connecticut.  His interests include photography, especially stereo photography, writing poetry, singing, where he sings baritone with the Red Blazer Men’s Chorus, he collects wax cylinders, acoustical 78’s, he also enjoys restoring old wind-up cylinder machines and Victrolas.  He is currently researching and writing a book on the bicentennial history of Buffalo’s First Church, authoring a book of his own poetry, working on a couple of children's book, and a novel of historical fiction based partially on his time in the Navy, he is also active in many organizations, including the United States Submarine Veterans,Inc., and the USS Boston Shipmates, Inc.
Always a person who likes to “think outside the box” his work in clay reflects his sometimes wild and fertile imagination.  His style often combines “throwing” on a wheel with hand-building techniques with painted under glazes.   The result is a fully functional, one-of-a-kind, unique and food-safe piece of artwork.

1 comment:

  1. Folks can find out more about me and read some of my poems by reading my blogs:

    http://ussboston-ssn703.blogspot.com/

    and

    http://buffalopotteryfaces.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete