"the biggest inspiration has been that I've been able to combine the ideas of art with the ideas of science into something that makes visual sense to me".

Robert Sperry was an artist profoundly interested in new understanding and new ways of seeing the world. In the Northwest, his bright creative imagination lit the way for other artists to follow, as teacher, mentor and friend. Robert Sperry was an extraordinary risk-taker in the arts. He was intensely interested in visual ideas and their evolution, and he was fascinated with the interaction of materials. Although best known as a ceramic artist, Robert Sperry was also a printmaker, a painter, and a film maker, producing documentary, narrative, and experimental pieces.

This video documentary gives us a brief impression of his remarkable journey - his life, his work, his thoughts, his times and his humanity - as related to us through his voice and the voices of his community of colleagues - a community that he was so instrumental in building.

In 1954 with a freshly minted BFA from The Art Institute of Chicago, Bob went to the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana to work with Peter Voulkos and Rudy Autio. The Archie Bray Foundation was ground zero at an extremely exciting and innovative time for the field of ceramics. From Montana Bob moved on to the University of Washington where he earned his MFA and immediately joined the art faculty. As Chair of the Ceramics Program, he promoted experimentation grounded in technical excellence and fostered an atmosphere of keen debate and exchange. He deeply cared about his students, fostering many budding artists on to important careers. He retired as professor emeritus in 1982, but continued teaching part-time. In his last years he focused on creating computer-generated art. A man of passion and humor, Robert Sperry died in 1998.