Rick Dillingham

From 1968-1970, Dillingham attended Ventura Junior College, also in 1970 he attended Moorpark Junior College, both in Ventura County, California. In 1970-1971 he attended the California College of the Arts in Oakland, California. Dillingham received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1974 from the University of New Mexico. After graduating with his BFA, Dillingham went on to Claremont Graduate School of Scripps College, where he studied with Paul Soldner. He received a MFA degree in 1976 from Claremont Graduate School. ==Biography==

Rick Dillingham was born to Dil and Nancy Dillingham Dillingham curated numerous exhibitions, exhibited his own work nationally, and lectured on Native American pottery. His own ceramic work was inspired by the pottery of the Ancestral Puebloan people. ==Art==

In 1972 Dillingham began a series of ceramic gasoline can sculptures as a commentary on American car culture and gasoline-dependent modern lifestyles. These vessels harkened back to traditional Pueblo-style ceramic water jars, but with a socio-political message. The following year the Middle East oil embargo began, and the ensuing American "oil crisis". He continued to produce this series for over a decade. Dillingham's experience studying and repairing Native American pots, as well as his interest in anthropology influenced his own art work. He is known for pioneering a process in which he hand-built a vessel, pit-fired it, deliberately broke it into shards, randomly painted both sides of each shard, Dillingham's vessels were produced by coil or slab work. He used traditional methods of using clay from local sources, and raku or dung firing his ceramics without a kiln. ==Awards and honors==

Dillingham received two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1977 and 1983, ==Collections==

Dillingham's work can be found in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Mint Museum of Craft and Design, His work is also found in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Everson Museum of Art, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, among others. ==Death==

Dillingham contracted the AIDS virus yet continued "living well with the disease", even riding cross-country to attend a Harley-Davidson convention with his oxygen tank strapped to the back of his motorcycle. Dillingham appears on the AIDS Memorial Quilt, his panel having a style reminiscent of many of his works. ==Legacy==

The University of New Mexico press posthumously released the book Fourteen Families in Pueblo Pottery, an expansion of his book Seven Families in Pueblo Pottery. ==References==