Where art and science meet

have trapped tiny blasts under the hold of their glazes, so an obvious energy exists as they sit quietly on the shelves.

Tilton has mastered the rare form of porcelain glazing known as crystalline porcelain, a way of heating crystals in the molding so little explosions decorate each pot.

“The glazes are like putting little universes on the sides of your pots,” Tilton said. “They have all these types of crystals in them in the matrix of the glaze so all these neat effects are happening.”

In his garage turned art studio in Alachua, Tilton molds pottery from when it spins between his hands during the shaping process, until one of his five kilns heats the pots to glazed perfection.

He’ll be showing off a sample of his collection Saturday and Sunday at the 41^st Annual Santa Fe Spring Arts Festival in Gainesville. Out of the 230 participating artists from all mediums, 30 of those are locally based artists like Tilton.

Kathryn Lehman, the festival’s organizer, said the Gainesville show is one of the top places in the country for artists like Tilton to display their work.

“What artists tell us is they love to come here because it’s a great location and Gainesville has one of the most intelligent, art savvy crowds they get at any festival in the country,” she said. “People here appreciate the arts, they buy art and they really love it.”

Santa Fe College created the festival 41 years ago when local artists saw a need in the community, Lehman said. Since then it has grown to where organizers expect more than 130,000 visitors this year.

Artists also compete for a winning title in their categories from mixed media and ceramics to photography and painting. More than $20,000 in prize money is on the table for the artists, and the Best in Show winner will have their art purchased and displayed by the college’s gallery.

For Tilton though, a competitive spirit is nowhere in sight. Though he has placed Best in Show four times at the festival since 1997, he is happiest catching up with old friends at the festival and sharing his work with those who will appreciate it.

“I’m not making these pots to make them better than anybody else’s pots,” he said. “My tendency is to be quiet.”

Although he demands his pots to burst with life, Tilton reaches that energy by simple hard work.

His studio is also a sanctuary, where he works every day after his morning meditation and will return there after his evening meditation.

“The spiritual element of the pots just happens, I don’t do that on purpose,” he said. “But the purity of the forms has to do with the spiritual stuff I’m working on myself.”

His pots could be molded in a matter of a week, but Tilton takes his time and makes each pot’s birth a slow process. He will often spend a month or two on one pot, though several are stacked in his studio waiting to be finished from one year ago.

“Good work takes longer to make than bad work,” he said.

The love for his art form started when he was studying mathematics at the University of Florida in the 1960s. He traded the idea of being a mathematician for his calling as an artist and received his Master of Fine Arts from the University of South Florida in 1972.

Since then his mastery of such a rare form of porcelain art has been his career for 42 years. His art has been featured in books and magazines and is currently featured in a show traveling across Europe.

Despite his art’s worldwide appeal, Tilton still said the key to his art is energy.

“It’s subtle,” he said. “I’m just looking for things to have spirit.”

If you go...

 What: 41^st Annual Santa Fe Spring Arts Festival; 230 artists from all platforms will exhibit their work for display and for sale. Entertainment from clogging to jazz will also be featured each day, with performances until 8:30p.m. on Saturday. 

When: April 10 – 9a.m. to 5:30p.m.

           April 11 – Noon to 5:30p.m.

Where: Downtown Gainesville: Northeast First Street

More info: http://www.sfcollege.edu/springarts/