Chen Qi Nan (陳啟南) was born in 1960 in Taibao, Chiayi County, in southern Taiwan. He took a degree in electrical engineering and had built a career and a family before he first touched clay, beginning pottery lessons at twenty-seven under Master Qin Hua. In 1994 he left engineering to make his living from the work, opening the Eight Piece Ceramic Art Studio with his wife and six friends. The years that followed were lean. All six friends eventually returned to their old trades, and Chen sold plates and bowls from a roadside stand to keep the studio open.
He tried engineering once more and found his heart was no longer in it. Decades of Qigong had taught him to listen closely to himself, and he chose to work without regard for accreditation or reward. Recognition followed in Taiwan, then abroad, for his sculpture as much as his teaware. His sidehandle pots and kettles are built from a clay blend of his own making, durable and unusually light in the hand. The handle wood comes from two sources: trees he grows and shapes himself, by techniques he developed, and roots and branches gathered on his walks in the mountains.
