A piece by James Budde, professor of ceramics in the Department of Art, Design and Visual Studies, will be on display at the Baker Museum in Naples, Florida, starting Jan. 10, 2026. An anonymous donor gifted Budde’s piece, entitled “All Aboard,” to the Baker Museum’s permanent collection.
Budde was born in the small farming community of Red Bud, Illinois. He received his BA in art from Southern Illinois University and his MFA from California State University. He began teaching at Boise State in 1994. “All Aboard,” completed in approximately 2009, is part of a larger series of works in the teapot form that depict various animals. The series takes inspiration from Aesop’s fables — a collection of stories credited to Aesop, a slave who lived in ancient Greece, which include “The Tortoise and the Hare” and “The Ant and the Grasshopper.”
To create his teapot forms, Budde starts with a to-size sketch and slabs of clay. A structurally sound base, and the patience to let one piece dry before adding the next, are key in his process.
“I’m like a seamstress where I use a pattern,” Budde said. “I lay that on clay slabs and cut it out, round it out, stick it together. I work in sort of assemblage methods — you have to make things, and then before you add something else on top, the first thing has to be firm enough that you’re not going to collapse the whole piece.”
Public collections of Budde’s work include the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, and the Boise Art Museum, among many others.
Still, Budde said he can’t always anticipate where his pieces will find their homes. He said it was an honor to receive correspondence from the Baker Museum.
“I’ve sold a lot of work that I don’t know who bought it or where it ended up,” Budde said, “so when you find out something like this, it’s really nice, thinking that the piece will endure for a long time for people to enjoy.”