Linda Lighton

Thoughts and Prayers

Ceramic

2018

May 2-30, 2025, Snap Gallery

All my work has always been about feminism and feminist imagery. As a woman I feel to be honest and to have integrity I must reveal and discuss what I know. 

My work has mostly been based in organic forms from nature. Lately however a Mother's worries about the world has subsumed my reverence and glorifying of the natural world and wondered at the glorification of violence and the elements that inflict them. Thus, flowers, pods and crystals have grown guns, gas pumps, bullets and lipsticks as the proliferation of war implements flower in our lifestyle. 

Guns seem to be flowering like weeds with a reverence for brute force and a resistance to humanity. In speaking with our state representative and the police commissioner. I believe the best I can do is to keep this conversation alive. 

Proliferation of arms, greed, consumption How guns are viewed 

Ceramics is extremely labor intensive. I cannot finish a piece in less than 2 months. There is building time, firing time and glazing time. I must think carefully where I want to put my time and energy. I want to use seduction and often humor as a way to get in. Then I want the viewer to have the opportunity to think about a concept. 

Gorgeous craftsmanship is what I strive for as these ceramics have the opportunity to last for 100,000 years. Might as well make them as beautiful as I can. 

I believe that women think in a more circular way, less top down. Women ask, "What do you think?" This gets more involvement from the group and more ideas for consideration. The feminine way tends to enfold the many. 

My attraction to nature never wavers. To see the blooming, the unfolding in nature and the coming forth of life, as well as the retreating, is a constant in my work.

Linda Lighton is an internationally recognized ceramic sculptor. She has had over 80 solo exhibitions and participated in over 230 group shows. Linda has worked and shown her art internationally in countries including China, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, India, Latvia, Lithuania, Spain, Switzerland, and Turkey.

She is represented in many national and international museums, including the Nelson-Atkins and the Kemper Museums of Art in Kansas City, MO, the Ariana Museum in Switzerland, the Fule International and American Museums of Ceramics in Fuping, China, and the International Ceramic Museum in Icheon, Korea. Linda is also featured in museums in Hungary, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Spain, and Taiwan.

Linda Lighton is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics. She is the founder and director of the Lighton International Artists Exchange Program, which has sent over 186 artists to 52 countries and the Arctic Circle.

In 2016, Lighton received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Council for the Education of the Ceramic Arts and the Distinguished Alumni Award at Pembroke School. She has also received the State of Missouri Artist Award and the Award for Excellence in Visual Arts and Education from the Kansas City Art Institute. Recently, Lighton completed two large commissions. The first, a 1% for the Arts program, involved producing a twenty-foot-long mural titled "Ode to the Tallgrass Prairie" for the new Kansas City International Airport. The second was a large chandelier titled "Luminous," installed in the Grand Salon at the Kansas City Museum.

She is a fervent arts activist and has served on numerous arts boards. Currently Linda is working on a retrospective that will debue in September 2025 at The Nerman Museum and has work on display at the Indian Ceramics Triennale in New Dehli.