About
Draft biography for Richard to approve.
I’m Richard Ward, the artist behind Dirt Creature. I started making art at fifteen, and have spent the years since moving between painting, design, building and sculpture. The materials keep changing. A few questions have stayed with me.
Living off-grid in the Arizona desert made working with the ground a practical part of daily life. I built a home and studio, learned to work with local materials, and founded Terraform Together. Over nearly four years, the nonprofit brought more than 400 students into hands-on learning in natural building and trades.
Clay first became part of my life at the scale of a wall. Eventually, I started making things that could fit in a kiln. Today I bring ceramic forms together with rawhide, reclaimed metal, collected minerals and found objects. I like materials with some history in them, and I’m interested in what happens when they have to live together.
Dirt Creature brings those threads into one practice: making objects, working with the land, teaching, and following an idea far enough to see what it becomes.
Wild Clay Residency, 2026
Artist-in-residence at Visitor Center Artist Camp, Ewen, Michigan, July 25 to August 8.
ABOUT-RES-01Residency photo 1Wild Clay Residency, Visitor Center Artist Camp: working, the place, the work made there ABOUT-RES-02Residency photo 2Another residency photo ABOUT-RES-03Residency photo 3Another residency photo ABOUT-RES-04Residency photo 4Another residency photo
Artist statement
Draft statement for Richard to approve.
I make ceramic and mixed-media sculpture about contact, change and the ways things hold together.
A vessel gives me a familiar place to begin. I open it, shift it or bring another material into it. Clay, rawhide and metal each behave differently. Their relationships change both the form and the way we read it. A support can feel protective, awkward or forceful. I want that uncertainty to remain.
Living and building with earth has made me attentive to material: where it comes from, what it can do and what it asks of us. The same interest runs through the paintings, buildings and objects I have made over the years.
I think of the work as artifacts for a species trying to remember how to belong to the earth.
Grants and residencies
- Artist Opportunity Grant Recipient, Arizona Commission on the Arts
- Artist-in-Residence, Wild Clay Residency, Visitor Center Artist Camp, Ewen, MI, July 25–August 8
Exhibitions
- Pieces of Us: The Art of Resilience and Recovery, Tucson, AZ
- Upcycling Exhibition, Tubac Center for the Arts, Tubac, AZ
- Featured Artist, Endeavor Gallery, Benson, AZ
- Voices of Cochise, Henry F. Hauser Museum, Sierra Vista, AZ
- 5 C’s of Arizona, Ventana Gallery, Tucson, AZ
- Rotica, Subspace Gallery, Tucson, AZ
- Solo Exhibition, Cochise College, Douglas, AZ
- Central School Remake Show, Bisbee, AZ
Public projects
- Lead sculptor, Pit Fire Rattlesnake, Pit Fire Festival, Cochise College, Douglas, AZ
Selected art fairs and markets
- Rio Grande Arts & Crafts Festival, Albuquerque, NM (upcoming)
- Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival, Santa Fe, NM (upcoming)
- Spring Market, Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
- Art State Arizona Markets, Tucson, AZ
- Art in the Park, Huachuca Art Association, Sierra Vista, AZ
- Fall Market, Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
- Art State Arizona Markets, Tucson, AZ
- Art in the Park, Huachuca Art Association, Sierra Vista, AZ
- Art State Arizona Markets, Tucson, AZ
- Bisbee Art Market, Bisbee, AZ (regular artist)
Publications
- UNDERCOVER ARTS Magazine (Art State Arizona), published artist, 2026
- MIRAGE Magazine (Cochise College), published artist, 2024, 2025 and 2026
Education
- BFA, Communication Design, minor in Psychology, University of North Texas, 2009–2013
- Continuing coursework in ceramics, fine art and welding, Cochise College, 2022–2026
Professional experience
- Founder and artist, Dirt Creature, July 2025–present
- Nonprofit founder and lead instructor, Terraform Together, July 2020–January 2024. Natural building, trades training and hands-on education; more than 400 students.
- Commissioner and board member, Bisbee Arts Commission, February 2024–April 2025
- Independent designer and creative director, Things Align Design, February 2016–present
- Graphic designer and art director, professional design agencies, December 2007–February 2016