Donald Sutherland outside his studio in Eastport, Maine. This location was the culmination of a search extending over much time and many miles. The goal was to find a place of stability, continuity, and community.

After graduating with an M.F.A., Sutherland's first studio was in Newport Beach, California. Proximity led to ocean racing, desert camping, backpacking in the High Sierras and big wall rock climbing. High altitude glacier basins, desert rock formations, and the sensuous curves of high performance yachts all provided inspiration for sculptural form in that most plastic of all mediums--clay.

Being in the center of the large Los Angeles/Orange County design community gave access to projects utilizing large pottery and wall relief murals. Pipeline natural gas, a large kiln, a boom economy, and ability made it possible to stretch the envelope beyond the teapot and dinnerplate scale. After 17 fruitful years, following the trend of a changing economy, he relocated to the mountainside town of Los Gatos in Silicon Valley.

There followed a four-year immersion in Silicon Valley's superheated economy with its population shifts, traffic, road rage, and re-zonings. Though exciting, this was not conducive to a considered approach to the ongoing exploration of form and color. It was time to find a tranquility base from which to operate.

After a prolonged reconnaissance up and down both coasts and points in-between, the search ended at the fishing village of Eastport on the North coast of Maine hard by the Canadian border.