Ian Shelly was a graduate student at the University of Missouri in ceramics, working with the great Bede Clarke. He was among the first grads I taught and eventually developed good relationships with. His work, balanced in an evocative place between technical precision and playfulness, utilizes a modular methodology to arrive at installations that are unique and impressive. I sense dualities in his work: it’s emotional and flippant, gentle and muscled, intentional and intuitive. But it is in the continuum between those poles that deep meaning is conveyed. His project while at MU was impressive, and he’s continued that during his long-term residency at Hub-Bub in South Carolina. His work is now featured on the accessCeramics website.