Joe Lung

Lung was born in Beijing in 1947. At two years old, following the Chinese Revolution, he fled with his family to Taipei, Taiwan where he was raised with five siblings on a military base. He finished school with a degree in engineering and worked in Taipei until 1972 when emigrated to the US to attend Missouri State University in the pursuit of a Masters in Engineering.

After one semester he decided to become an art major, which was where his true interest has always been. He focused mostly on painting and didn’t take a pottery class until his final semester. While in art school he began a relationship with a woman from Ohio and in 1978 they moved with their daughter to an isolated commune in Roane County, WV. This was during a period in American history known as the “Back to the Land Movement.”

They left the commune after a year and Joe found work as a caretaker on a Roane County farm. He set to work building a kiln and a pottery practice. Like many rural homesteads the property hosted a supply of natural gas wells he could use for fuel and he was able to source the firebrick from a defunct plate-glass factory in Clarksburg.

By 1980 he was working full time as a potter, participating in eight to ten craft shows each year. He continued this regimen for thirty years, developing his signature style of high-fire black and white sgraffito porcelain until, in 2010, he was forced to give up pottery due to chronic and debilitating back pain. Since then, he has explored new mediums including painting, jewelry making, and clay scratch boards.