HOWARD PIERCE - Gaggle of 3 Honking Geese

For your consideration... Three honking geese by Howard Pierce.  Measuring 6", 7" and 9" tall, by 5 - 6" long and 2 - 2.5" wide respectively

Howard Pierce (April 22, 1912 - February 28, 1994) was a California ceramic artist known for his stylized desert-animal figurines.

Pierce was born in Chicago, Illinois. He attended the University of Illinois, the Chicago Art Institute and Pomona College before moving to Pasadena, California in 1934. In 1938 he began to work with William Manker at William Manker Ceramics where he learned to create beautiful translucent glazes. He established his own studio, and married his wife Ellen (nee Van Voorhis) in 1941.  In circa 1941, he began work at the Douglas Aircraft Factory (Long Beach, California) as a production illustrator. A job he held for about three years.

After the war, Pierce struck out on his own, working mainly in porcelain. He moved from Claremont, California to Joshua Tree in 1968 where he continued to make pottery on his twenty-acre rocky property until his death.

His animal figurines exhibit a semi-abstract quality. He preferred abstract, but the public preferred realistic, so he created this compromise.

His home in Joshua Tree served as both a studio and public art space. He installed several large cement sculptures. These included a 500-pound roadrunner, a 200-pound rabbit (named Pedro Conejo, Spanish for Peter Rabbit), a 150-pound raven named Edgar, and a 600-pound big horn sheep named Henry (formally Gertrude).