# Dream a Little - Vessel

Low, wide, and quietly confident, this vessel feels like it has found its natural resting shape. The surface is divided into bold sections of deep navy, warm grey, yellow, orange, and red, each colour clean and precise against the others. Small circular marks appear across the surface, a detail that shows up consistently across Gustavson's work and connects it to the Miro-inflected visual language he has made entirely his own.

Wheel-thrown and then hand-stretched until the walls became almost paper thin, the form carries a subtle sense of lightness and movement that the weight of the surface colour never overrides. The reduction firing draws depth into each glaze area without flattening it.

Modest in size but strong in presence. It sits well on a desk, shelf, or low table.

[Browse all works by Michael Gustavson](/collections/michael-gustavson)

## Details

- **Price:** 4600.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Art Scout
- **Type:** Ceramic Sculpture
- **Tags:** buy original art online, California artist, ceramic sculpture, collector art, Michael Gustavson, original sculpture, raku, vessel

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 4600.00 USD | In stock |

## Images

- Dream a Little Vessel – studio raku ceramic by Gustavson with bold sections of deep navy, warm grey, yellow, orange, and red glaze with small circular marks on a low wide form
- Dream a Little Vessel by Gustavson – detail of bold colour sections and circular marks on wheel-thrown hand-stretched ceramic form

## Additional Information

- **Dimensions:** 14"×23"×16"
- **Artist Material:** Glazed ceramic
- **Artist Name:** Michael Gustavson
- **About The Artist Link:** https://www.artscout.pro/collections/michael-gustavson

### About The Artist Content

Michael Gustavson is a California-based ceramic artist who builds upon the traditional Japanese process of raku, reimagining it through a distinctly contemporary and highly personal methodology. His work bridges free-form organic sculpture and painterly abstraction, distinguished by unusually vivid, luminous color rarely achieved in ceramic sculpture.

Central to Gustavson’s practice is a firing approach he has developed and refined over decades, evolving from but ultimately departing from traditional raku. Rather than removing works from the kiln, he introduces pine needles at lower temperatures to create the reduction atmosphere while the pieces remain inside. This highly individual, studio-developed method allows him to work at significant scale and achieve exceptional chromatic depth and painterly nuance in glazed ceramic. Few ceramic artists pursue color with this level of painterly ambition.

Over a four-decade career, Gustavson has pushed the expressive potential of clay, developing a controlled yet highly responsive surface language. Describing himself as a painter-sculptor, he treats each form as a three-dimensional canvas built through layered glazes, textures, and color interactions. His vessels often suggest the human figure in motion, while his wall reliefs activate negative space as an integral compositional force. Large-scale outdoor sculptures and benches extend this painterly vision into powerful tectonic forms.

Inspired by Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, and Jackson Pollock, Gustavson’s surfaces often feature controlled dripping and expressive movement, translating the energy of abstract painting into fired clay.

Gustavson earned his MFA from San José State University in 1980. His work is held in major public and private collections worldwide, including IBM, Kaiser Permanente, Seagate, Cranbrook Museum, and Eastman Kodak.

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> Source: [Art Scout](https://www.artscout.pro/products/dream-a-little-vessel)
> Updated: 2026-05-20