Utah State University art faculty member John Neely was honored recently as one of 15 winners of the 1989 WESTAF/NEA Regional Fellowships for Visual Artists. Neely is the only Utahn chosen for the award this year.

The $5,000 cash award recognizes "distinguished achievement in a variety of craft media," said Terry Melton, executive director of the Western States Arts Federation.The panel of jurors reviewed nearly 10,000 slides of craft objects submitted by 947 entrants to come up with this year's 15 fellowship winners. In addition to the unrestricted cash award, winners received stipends for travel to the Chicago Exposition, where their work was showcased for collectors, curators, gallery owners and artists. Fifteen $1,000 matching subsidies are available to art centers and museums in the region to underwrite exhibitions of the fellowship artists' work.

Neely is developing the art of ceramics with his innovative twist in the firing process. Most of the pieces he submitted are "reduction cooled," a process the artist developed and which only he and his students use.

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The twist comes in the way Neely cools his clay to create distinctive colors and textures. Most stoneware is brown; Neely's processes create shades of gray and black.

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