Artist Statement
My work moves across mediums as an exploration of time and transformation. Process is central to how I work, often unfolding through repetition and mark making. Rather than following a linear path, each body of work emerges from where I am at the time, shaped by shifting questions and sensitivities.
Over time, my relationship to the work has changed. I’ve been settling into a more open way of seeing, and that shift has shaped how I make. While some earlier work held more explicit meaning, I’ve come to value balance as a way to reset. Returning to formal concerns gives me a place to pause and focus on proportion, weight, and a restraint that carries into how I see the world and my interactions within it.
This shift feels connected to living in a dense and fast-moving moment. The more I try to understand and engage, the more I notice how easily the mind fills with interference. Keeping some inner quiet has become important. In response, the work has grown quieter too, less about declaring something and more about paying attention.
My most recent body of work, Instruments of Consciousness, centers on tools designed to invite presence and expand awareness of time. The work explores how objects might guide us toward a more attentive life, with less resistance. I hope to complete the newest iteration in 2026, following six years of sustained development.
Bio
Rocky Lewycky, born 1977 in the San Francisco Bay Area, is a contemporary artist living and working in Santa Cruz, California. His resume includes teaching positions at the University of South Carolina, Institute of American Indian Arts (I.A.I.A.), the Santa Fe Community College, Foothill College, Monterey Peninsula College, and De Anza College where he is currently head of ceramics. Rocky has been featured in museum shows, as well as gallery exhibits of contemporary sculpture, installation and performance throughout the country. Rocky was recognized by the Santa Fean magazine as ”One of the top five artists to watch in New Mexico,” and “Top Talent from emerging to established and our region’s most influential talent of all time,” in 2007 and 2008, respectively. Rocky was chosen by Jo Lauria of the American Craft Council to install a ceramic art piece at the Eastern State Penitentiary for the 2010 Philadelphia NCECA conference. He was also honored with a $20,000 award from the Santa Cruz Rydel Visual Arts Fund of 2012/2013. In 2019, he founded Rockford Gallery Contemporary Ceramics in Boulder Creek, California. In his first summer at the space Rocky exhibited three of his most recent bodies of work.
