FROM ONU.EDU/NEWS__Luke Sheets, BFA ’95, traces his passion for ceramics to a class he took at Ohio Northern University 34 years ago.

“It’s almost a cliche among ceramicists, but the moment I started working with the material, I was hooked,” he said.

Sheets, now professor of art and director of ONU’s School of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences in the Getty College of Arts & Sciences, started at ONU as an undergraduate engineering major with an art minor. But as he worked through his first-year courses, “I realized that art was where my interest was.”

That interest has taken him all over the world. In February, he returned from Thailand where he took part in the Silpakorn Clayworks 2026: Sanam Chandra International Ceramic Art & Design Workshop. In October, 2025, he was selected for the Mehmet Nuri Gocen Foundation’s 12th Ceramic Workshop in Turkey.

Over the years, he has shared his work and learned from other ceramicists all over the U.S. and internationally. He’s lived in, done workshops and residencies in Turkey, Thailand, Denmark, Japan, Botswana, Guatemala, and Czechia (also known as the Czech Republic), and other countries. 

“Travel in general will open your eyes and expose you to things that are different than what you assume to be the norm,” he said. “When it comes to art, that’s an opportunity to exchange techniques and learn the nuances that other artists are working with.”

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