Art Apprenticeship

Pfohl is a practicing ceramic artist who began an art apprenticeship with Levin in 2019.

Operating out of Levin’s Springfield, Illinois, studio, Pfohl prepares clay and glazes, performs studio maintenance and readies materials for wood firing — Levin’s traditional approach to heating clay in a kiln. All the while, Pfohl is creating new art under the guidance and critique of Levin. He has also managed the @1potaday Instagram account, which sells vessels by Levin that are available to purchase for one day only.

In early 2020, Pfohl showcased his work in a group exhibition with Levin and his other apprentice, Brian Chen, at Millikin University’s Perkinson Gallery in Decatur, Illinois. The show, “Lineage,” referenced how mentors and mentees influence one another. It featured individual work connected through the trio’s use of the same clay bodies and wood-fired kiln.

Pfohl said his time learning from Associate Professor Jane Shellenbarger and Assistant Professor Peter Pincus in RIT's Ceramics program aptly prepared him for the art apprenticeship. 

"Working with Jane and Peter gave me the perspective and technical skills I needed to mature as an artist," Pfohl said. "Without my time in the School for American Crafts I would probably not be pursuing this dream of mine. Jane and Peter were both invested in my growth as an artist and I am honored to say I studied underneath them."

Upon earning his BFA in Ceramics, Pfohl remained at RIT to obtain an art education degree in the Visual Arts-All Grades one-year MST program. The idea of being able to bestride making and teaching art appealed to him. He has designs on a career in art education following his apprenticeship, and values how the MST program simulated life as an educator.

“I was able to quickly learn the basic ins and outs of what it’s like to be a teacher,” said Pfohl, who had student-teaching placements at Fairport High School and Geneseo Middle School. “I really experienced the life of being a teacher through those placements.”

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