Born in 1969, Rochester , NY. Richard Nickel grew up with the benefits of the creativity of the 70’s. : Sid and Marty Croft, Gabe Kotter, The Children’s Television Workshop and Schoolhouse Rock. Snoopy, Cat Stevens, The Beatles. Mad Magazine. I think for this reason I am drawn to talking letters that are friendly and seem to want to help me to understand the world. Cartoons helped me understand the complex relationships between antagonists and protagonists. Bugs Bunny has many enemies, he like carrots, he gets lost when traveling. He knows we are watching him. In Junior High I was a Comic Nerd. I collected X-MEN I loved drawing! I gave up the X-Men when I found girls. Still LOVE DRAWING 1990’s Monroe Community College and Buffalo State College 2002 Grad School Finished MFA Ceramics Edinboro University of Pennsylvania .

Richard has been an active artist and educator. He has been published in several Lark books on ceramics, 500 Tiles: An Inspiring Collection of International Work Lark Books, 500 Animals In Clay, 500 Figures in Clay and 500 Bowls. His juried and invitational shows include, Tablets: text and Image in Clay Carbondale Cay Center, Colorado , Ink And Clay 34 Kellogg University Art Gallery at California Polytechnic, CA. Jurors: Darrel Couturier and Mark Greenfield, Forms & Shapes: Inspired by Architecture at Akar Gallery, Iowa City, IA , The George Ohr National Arts Challenge: Paul Soldner

The Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art, Biloxi, MS , he has been also awarded several Grants on research in Education and Ceramics, Faculty Innovator Grant, ODU Summer Research Fellowship.