[Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Article: Ancient art reappears in modern homes: features artistBen Gilliam

[Shelley L. Rhodes]

Nashville City Paper, Tennessee
Friday, June 17, 2005

Ancient art reappears in modern homes: features artist Ben Gilliam

By Rebecca Rice, rrice at nashvillecitypaper.com

This summer's numerous home tours have revealed the popularity of granite 
for kitchen and bathroom; the stone is showing up on counters, floors, and 
tubs all over Nashville.

But for the more adventurous consumer, local artist and tile and stone 
installer Ben Gilliam offers something a bit more unique.

"A lot of the granite work I do for people can help customers keep up with 
the Joneses," Gilliam said "But the customers who choose the ceramics care 
about what they want and not about keeping up."

The ceramics Gilliam speaks of are more than the clay vase you made in your 
grade school art class. The ceramic installations range from sinks, coffee 
and poolside tables, fireplace mantels, and door moldings, as well as 
strikingly beautiful tile work.

But Gilliam hasn't always been dedicated to his ceramic craft, and he still 
does the more mainstream material installation that has kept him in business 
for 30 years.

"It's been a big transition from being a small business owner to being an 
artist," Gilliam said. "I used to be spoiled by things like food and money, 
but not any more."

Gilliam said that his ceramics craft emerged almost by accident just four 
years ago. His customers who wanted curved countertops needed uniquely 
shaped tiles to cover their rounded counters, and the business of more 
creative ceramics grew out of the need for custom tiles. Around that time, 
Gilliam also learned that he had a degenerative eye disease that will 
eventually leave him blind, and he began pursuing his passion while he was 
still able.

"Another reason for doing this was that I don't know how long my sight will 
last," Gilliam said. "I can do some of it in the dark, now, but I can't 
paint in the dark."

For now, Gilliam is doing installation and what he calls "ceramitecture" 
when he can.

As far as the business side of ceramitecture goes, Gilliam says there are a 
few misconceptions. First, that custom, hand-glazed tile would break the 
average budget.

"Often when I'm installing granite or beige tile, people look at [the glazed 
ceramics] and say they love it but could never afford it," Gilliam said. 
"When actually, the ceramics are comparable in price to something like 
granite installation, if not less."

The second common misconception is that the work is fragile.

"This work is guaranteed for, oh, only about 25,000 years," Gilliam said. 
"And of course, it may have to be re-grouted every 100 years or so."

If high-maintenance materials incite anxiety, have no fear when choosing 
ceramics.

"When they uncovered Pompeii, all that survived intact was the ceramic 
work," Gilliam said. "The stone had been destroyed."

And perhaps the most puzzling misconception is the idea that people prefer 
other material to ceramics because they want something "more traditional."

"This stuff has a 3,000 year history," Gilliam said. "Until 1930, ceramics 
was the most common building material. It was only after the socialist 
revolution in architecture, where they favored cheap materials and 
cookie-cutter structures in hopes that the money saved on building would go 
to the poor."

In adding ceramics to your house, through tile, a stand-alone piece, or 
mantels and moldings, you're not only adding a piece of original artwork to 
your personal space, but infusing it with the history connoted by the 
material itself.

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cfm?section_id=11&screen=news&news_id=42245


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