joehadamik.com - Herald News Paper Article


	Herald News Paper Article

Herald News Paper Article

ARTWORKS

October 17, 2008
Publication: Herald News, The (Joliet, IL)
Section: LIFE
Page: E2

By: Denise M. Baran-Unland Special to the Herald News

During last year's cold winter, "peaceful potter" Joe Hadamik flipped through a mail order flower catalogue and fashioned a chrysanthemum out of clay. He brought it into the house and showed it to his wife, Chris.

"She said, 'Where do you come up with this stuff?'"

Hadamik, 46, of Joliet was pleased with her reaction. He said he lives for such feedback.

He was not finished with the flowers. "After that it was roses, tulips, all kinds of flowers, even fantasy flowers I had never seen."

Although Hadamik has painted, drawn, photographed and done woodworking, he prefers making pottery.

This love began when Hadamik was an eighth-grader on a retreat weekend at St. Charles Borromeo Center in Romeoville. There, he made a ceramic mug for his dad.

"When I picked it up I thought, 'This is so cool,' " he said.

Hadamik experimented with different art mediums in high school and at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, but there was no question pottery was his favorite.

Heaven for Hadamik is a gas kiln and a glazing room. Yet, even they are not as exciting as firing the raku kiln, using the Japanese technique of rapidly firing clay at 1,800 degrees. "It has a completely different look, more primitive," Hadamik said.

Pottery, however, took a back seat when Hadamik made the practical decision to study graphic art at the College of DuPage and spend 14 years working as a graphic artist. During that time, Hadamik focused on family, career and woodworking.

Lack of extra money encouraged Hadamik to collect scrap wood pieces and transform them into useful household items: a coat hanger, a shoe rack, a bathroom cabinet, shelves and a garbage can container.

"I really wanted to be a potter, but in the early '80s that whole field was changing," Hadamik said.

"My parents were concerned that with all the competition out there, I wouldn't be able to make it. I worked for Jewel Osco, Carson Pirie Scott and did a lot of freelance work.

"That was in the old days when you used to do wax and paste up. Design changes would come in while you were doing your paste up, and you'd have to know everything - the printing process and the photography process just to get the job done.

"I worked with a really creative, dynamic group which was a lot of fun. Then the computer came in and I walked away from it."

Ironically, Hadamik educated himself about graphic design software and worked as a salesman.

Five years ago, when Hadamik began teaching pottery at the Plainfield Art Factory, he persuaded Chris that their home also needed a kiln. He now has a raku kiln, as well as a sawdust kiln in the backyard and two electric kilns in the house.

Yet a couple times each week, Hadamik foregoes the wheel, and even the electricity, to work a ball of clay with just his hands. "It's a way for me to keep in touch with the clay," he said.

In addition to teaching, Hadamik has participated in the Fields Fine Arts Festival in Crest Hill and the Towne and Country Art Fair in Oswego. He exhibits his work at the Plainfield Art League Gallery and School.

Three years ago, a back injury followed by back surgery turned Hadamik into a full-time potter - for now anyway. The injury also restructured how Hadamik practices his craft. His pieces are smaller; he no longer lifts 15-pound bags of clay.

But he still signs his work with "Pax," which is Latin for "peace."

"I call myself the 'peaceful potter,'" Hadamik said. ""It just seems that there is so much turmoil in the world. It is just my little way of reminding people that peace starts in our own families."