James C. Watkins

James C. Watkins (1951 - ) was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1951 and raised in a farming family in Athens, Alabama. He is a ceramic artist living in Lubbock, Texas who has worked with clay for over 40 years. He is known for his large scale double-walled ceramic vessels and laser cut porcelain substrate tiles. He is recognized for his textured surfaces, created by using alternative firing techniques. His porcelain substrate tiles are fumed Archived 2014-09-07 at the Wayback Machine with stannous chloride and multi-fired using ferric chloride, gold and platinum luster to achieve colorful surfaces.

Watkins gained recognition through his inclusion in the 1993 White House Collection of American Crafts, which was curated by Michael Monroe, who was then the director of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution. Watkins' work is held in 21 permanent collections, including the Clinton Library in Little Rock, Arkansas, the Shigaraki Institute of Ceramic Studies in Shigaraki, Japan, the Everson Museum in Syracuse, New York, the Tweed Museum in Duluth, Minnesota, and the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana. His work has been widely exhibited in 40 solo exhibitions and 164 group exhibitions.