Potter Asks . . .
Potter Asks is for to all those in the clay arts. You are encouraged to share your experienced views in this forum by sharing your question and answer about what has made a difference in your artistic or educational or both work. Looking forward to your email.
Questions and works below on exhibit through December 2
Online with Ralph Stuckman
What is a source for your inspirations?
What are your thoughts in the various clay mediums?
"My inspiration for work is form and structure in the natural world. I am continually fascinated by the forms of plants, animals, rocks, and land formations. I am especially interested in the fruit, growth, and budding forms of plants.
I am also interested in the phenomenon of collecting. We have so many things today. We spend so much of our time shopping or otherwise acquiring things, then arranging, storing, and either getting rid of them or being crowded out of our living spaces by the accumulation. In my work, I look at counting and arranging.
Clay is considered a craft medium by most people in the U.S., but most of my current work falls into the category of sculptural installation in the medium of clay. I like to use the rich traditions of ceramics as a craft as issues in my work, particularly as they concern the concept of making.
I often make clay vessels in a series, so that I can try out several ideas at once. These are pots to be looked at rather than used, although the act of visual contemplation is certainly a function, too. I am inspired by plant forms and the movement of water over sea life. I am interested in happy, strange juxtapositions of color. When I am most absorbed in the play of ideas, form, and color, I begin to laugh with pleasure, and humor enters my work.
Having studied with potters, I think about the parts of the pot: foot, base, body (or belly), shoulder, lip, handles. These categories become areas of formal invention for me. I look at pots in history, such as Neolithic earthenware, Moorish decorated urns with flaring handles, eighteenth century European soft paste porcelains with extravagant decoration.
My inspirations and ceramic works serve as a basis for my teaching art at Augusta State University in Augusta, Georgia."
Priscilla Hollingsworth - Augusta, Georgia - http://www.aug.edu/~artpxh/
What are the thought processes behind your pottery designs?
"I draw lines by cutting apart and then immediately reassembling each pot. The result is a surface decoration with structural implications. This method of decoration is the platform upon which my formal, functional, and structural decisions interlace. Correlations between these decisions are discovered as I make and become part of the conscious intention of my work. I see each piece as an individually considered object, the outcome of an experiment based on beauty.
I am interested in the process of design and its impact on the overall aesthetic of my work. Decisions based on ergonomics, process survivability, durability, utility, and beauty all contribute to the aesthetic of the vessels. I do not work toward a final perfectly designed product, but rather, I hope that the solution to one problem will present new problems to be addressed. As an inventor at heart, my work is about design as an activity rather than a means to an end."
Jeff Campana - Bloomington, Indiana - www.jeffcampana.com
What is your approach to clay works? What is your present role?
"My studio interests primarily include ceramics and drawing. My clay work is inspired in equal part by archetypal vessel forms and the varied intersections of line and form. Informing these intersections and my working habits are my interests in letterform, graffiti art, and jazz. Guided by improvisation, my work relies on wheel-thrown and hand-built forms, most commonly presented as abstractions of cups, bottles, and vases. My current bodies of work are following a theme I call rigmarole involving vessels in several incarnations that play with graphic cloud images, graffiti and that hint at my multi ethnic identity.
I like to coordinate things that cause movement within my own creative processes. This approach helps me to set up new possibilities with making and looking at the same time. My work reveals influences from nature, contemporary culture, and past culture. I combine elements from these sources into intuitions of working clay informally with relationships and reversals. As a result, two and three-dimensional spaces take place.
This dimensional flexing has been more recently informed by my latest interest in and practice of rapid prototyping and computer aided modeling/drafting. Specifically I am using Rhinoceros 3D and various 3D printers. I am using these new tools and material outcomes to expand my intuitive building territory as well as finding new mix media applications in my work.
Presently, I am an artist and teacher in the role at Indiana University as Associate Professor of Ceramic Art. In addition to teaching and making I am an active lecturer and have recently presented workshops at Purdue University, Parkland College, and Syracuse University."
Malcolm Mobutu Smith - Bloomington, Indiana - www.malcolmmobutusmith.com
What situations have affected the nature of your ceramics?
What people influenced you to become a ceramic artist?
"I was born and raised in Casper, Wyoming where I lived until I was 27 years old. As a child my parents would take me to work with them every day where I was given a desk along with all the paper, tape, and glue that I wanted. I thoroughly enjoyed spending my time drawing and making the next big project. Even at home I spent most of my time creating artwork. Animals were a natural source of inspiration as we always had plenty of pets on hand.
Summer vacations were consistently taken in Yellowstone National Park and Jackson Hole where my parents instilled within me a deep respect, wonder and curiosity for nature. My father enjoyed fishing and never failed to take me to the most beautiful and wild places throughout the summer months. This impacted me greatly as my love and awe of nature is an indispensable part of the work I create.
I hated school, but always enjoyed art class. I excelled in art and have always considered myself an artist. During my last year of high school, my mother signed me up for an art class at the local community college which, for me, was exhilarating. Consequently, after graduating from high school, I attended Casper College where I majored in fine art.
Six years and three diplomas later, I decided to quit school. I took a job at a local flower shop. (I was a little confused as to what I was to do for a profession as an artist) After working two miserable years arranging flowers, I left my hometown to pursue my dream of becoming an artist leaving everything behind.
I attended the University of WY where I had the good fortune to study with the most incredible teacher and artist, Phyllis Kloda. She helped me grow artistically in ways I was unable to do on my own. I obtained my BFA and then moved to Las Vegas to pursue my MFA in ceramics under the guidance of the Amazing Mark Burns.
Currently I am an assistant professor of ceramics at the University of Nevada Reno where I continue to pursue my vision and passion for art. However, I must say that I wouldn’t be where I am today without the help and guidance of both Phyllis and Mark. I have gained more from them than I could have ever imagined and I am a much better artist for it."
Rebekah Bogard - Reno, Nevada - www.rebekahbogard.com
How did you first get interested in clay?
What inspires you to create?
"I first became interested in clay as a sophomore while attending Bethel College (MN). I did not go to Bethel as an Art major or have any intentions of becoming one, but Bethel being a liberal arts college requires all graduates to have at least one “art class” and ceramics was the one that I happened to choose. Although I was spending most of my time in the pottery studio, I was officially a Communications major until my Junior year when I finally switched to Art with an emphasis in ceramics.
Since graduating in 2002 there have definitely been serious moments of questioning as to whether the switch to art was the right move, but when the dust settles, I truly feel I am more interested making work in the studio than anything else.
It is difficult to say what it is exactly that inspires me to create pots. On a general level, creating functional utilitarian objects that can be used in everyday life is interesting to me. However, I feel I am drawn to clay specifically because of the aesthetic nature of the materials and the creation process. I believe clay possesses its own raw natural beauty, and its physical characteristics allow it to convey a certain warmth and softness that is unique when compared to other materials.
There is something about trying to create work within the “limitations” of functional pottery that I find interesting. Sometimes it feels like in the art world there is potentially no wrong answer. However given the way functional pottery needs to perform, I believe there is such a thing as a “wrong” mug/bowl/vase. I feel unique connections to work that is rooted in an established tradition, designed to fulfill certain objective requirements, and can still posses the personal character of the maker."
Todd Homberg - St. Paul, Minnesota - www.tlhpottery.com
How do you carve your traditional pottery vessels?
"My carved pottery is done in most traditional shapes and forms using a mixture of Desert Buff and Aurora stoneware from Highwater Clays. The piece is thrown and allowed to dry until it is firm but still damp. The design I selected is then free-handed onto the pot and outlined with a wire loop sgraffito tool. The ʽbackgroundʼ excess clay is then removed, making the design stand out in relief.
I use small wire loop tools to carve the design in further detail and rubber tipped tools and fingers are used to smooth it. Once dried and bisque fired it is coated with iron oxide, the excess wiped off, and the highlights of the design rubbed with a rubber eraser. Wax resist is applied to protect it from the glaze that goes on uncarved portions of the vessel. I glaze fire it at cone 5 to 6.
I find the process of bringing a design into 3-D relief endlessly fascinating. My carving obsession started with wood but quickly transferred to pottery. Though I might be doing a design that I have done in a similar fashion many times before, it remains new and challenging every time. I find great joy in the clay itself, the ʽbonesʼ of Mother Earth, and stick mostly to oxides in the effort to present this awareness of Earth to the viewer and handler."
Christy Dunn - Keysville , Virginia - www.christycrewsdunn.com
What is your background from which you established Kinsale Pottery and Arts Centre?
"I grew up in London in the 1960s. I went to boarding school at Westminster Abbey, singing in the choir for Winston Churchill’s funeral and the marriage of Princess Anne. I could not do art at the secondary school but had to do Latin! My next schooling took me to Sheffield University to study psychology where I graduated in 1978.
After 22 years in business in various research capacities, I gave up corporate life in favour of my own creative development. I studied ceramics and became engrossed with clay, which has been my chosen medium for about 15 years now. My clay work tends to be sculptural, drawing on a love of form and texture through smoke-fired abstract ceramic pieces and studies of people. In the last three or four years, I have increasingly brought color to my work developing my own stoneware glazes and a unique range of domestic ware including teapots.
Along the way, I met an Irish woman in Greece in 1985 and we went to live in London. In 2000, we moved with our 10 year old daughter to Ireland where I set up Kinsale Pottery and Arts Centre in the outbuildings of an 18th century farm. The centre caters to adults and children to study ceramics, arts, and crafts, and other creative media throughout the year."
Adrian Wistreich - Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland - www.kinsaleceramics.com
What are the foundations of your ceramic pieces? What are the highlights of your time lines from 1990 to the present?
"My current work is inspired by evolution, which has taught us survival-oriented traits, and horror films, which have allowed us to express our fears. Rooted in traditions of pantheism and superstition, the horror movie often depicts a dark side of human nature. The mutated creature, such as the ravenous werewolf, seems to be created from the murky depths of our collective subconscious. It provokes a psychological simile between animal and human, instinct and reason, the subconscious and the conscious
Humans experience a breadth of emotions that express our psychological and spiritual maturation–these include pain, fear and separation. In western culture, we are encouraged to numb and suppress many of these uncomfortable emotions, even though they can serve as a catalyst that melts barriers to our development. The eruptive animal mouth is symbolic of our need to express these stifled emotions in order to break free of a bridled, dormant existence. The suggestion of reverence offers solace to the viewer, adding a quality of the sublime.
I am concerned with confronting the shadows of the unconscious, having a dialogue with the grotesque and, therein, discovering beauty. The tenor of my work is macabre and emotional as I deal with extreme axioms to dramatize the dualities of our nature; these polar aspects reside within us and include the male and female, vulnerability and strength, the light and the dark.
The contrasts I explore exhibit a breadth of emotions that express our psychological and spiritual maturation. The emotions I'm concerned with are sometimes buried and inaccessible to most people. They include pain, fear and separation. Confronting these emotions can serve as a catalyst that melts barriers to our development.
From 1990 – 2002, I was a river guide in Alaska, California, and Nepal doing multi-day wilderness trips. This experience as an outdoor leader and wilderness enthusiast has had a huge impact in my work—offering me endless source material.
In 1996, I earned a Bachelor of Science degree in botany and studio art and then a Master of Fine Arts in 2004. Since 2005, I have taught figurative sculpture and advanced ceramic classes at the Oregon College of Art and Craft in Portland, Oregon. Currently I teach 3-D design at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.
My beliefs, other professional experiences, educational courses, and present role as a college instructor have all deeply impacted the nature of my ceramic creations."
Roxanne Jackson - Minneapolis, Minnesota - www.roxannejackson.com
What is your approach to clay?
"Clay is the perfect material for me. Its giving nature encourages and allows an intuitive approach, which evokes the imagination and curiosity, and encourages my subconscious to be voiced through my hands. By waking up my senses, I am attentive to impulses and images that make their way through my psyche into the physicality of the clay and ultimately into my sculpture.
The process of considering and working with the surface is as important to me as the making of each piece. Each sculpture generates an energy that informs the surface decoration, which I think of as the external landscape or consciousness of the object. My surfaces are painted with terra sigillatas, which are pigmented clay slips that are applied to the surface in multiple layers, and then fired in an electric kiln. An extensive palate of hand mixed colors helps achieve surfaces that are multilayered, at times obsessively detailed, and entertain a graphic sensibility. I like the idea of both getting lost inside the surface of a piece, and the clarity it takes to find the way back out.
As an artist, I have created a dialogue in my own peculiar language that witnesses and reflects an invitation into my world. "
Jenny Mendes - Chesterland, Ohio - www.jennymendes.com
What is the background to your “Ossuary Projects:
October Series?
Prof Bare talks about
his China exchanges
"When looking back over the past couple of years, the things that contributed the most to my development as an artist are my education and my visits to China. I have been very fortunate to receive two Artists in Residencies to China in two years. My first experience was in May 2002, a graduate student exchange scholarship through the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University to travel to the Fine Arts Department at Shanghai University, Shanghai, China. The exchange took place after completing two semesters of graduate study at Alfred. I spent five weeks working in the studio and traveling around China, seeing ceramic industrial cities and major cultural sites. I lectured about my work, co-taught a beginning sculpture class, interacted with Chinese students and shared my knowledge and passion for ceramics."
Educational Benefits of Exchange
"During these exchange programs at Shanghai University and at the Shanghai Pottery Workshop, I worked closely with Chinese graduate students in ceramics. I lectured to the students about my work and I taught a beginning sculpture class with Professor Guanghui Chen. I also gave them an assignment of my own focusing on line in space and making physical relationships and connections to environment. In the ceramics studio, the graduate students and I shared ideas about making, technical information about materials and attitudes about work ethics, studio habits, and what were our motivations for working, or what were we looking to accomplish with work. I had a space in which to work and experiment with ideas using Chinese materials. The students and I watched each other create and asked questions of each other. We had many conversations about studio practice."
Educational Benefit through Volunteering
"The artists and staff at the PWS donated our time to Project Hope that invites artists to share theirs skills with patients at the Shanghai Children’s Hospital. We helped the children paint colorful murals on the hospital walls to brighten their environment.
Also, I volunteered in my neighborhood at the English Corner, a public service designed to help local people learn conversational English in preparation for the year 2010 World EXPO to be held in Shanghai. The English Corner is a weekly meeting which gives native English speakers a chance and those who want to learn English a chance to exchange language skills."
Benefit to Artistic Creation
"One main benefit of my residencies in China was the time and space to expand my artistic accomplishments. Through daily work, I challenged myself to change and adapt my studio practice to a new environment. In China, I took artistic risks that I may not have taken in the States. I believe this was a response to Shanghai, its progress and change. It is also a reflection of me, and the work is a tangible culmination of my time in China and the studio."
Light and Shadow
"In the series “Abductions and Reconstruction,” I explored light and shadow relationships. I am interested in the physicality of light. The relationship between light and shadow offers an alternative point of entry to my work. A cast shadow forms a recognizable image of a teapot that locates a memory trace and draws the viewers’ attention for closer investigation."
Daniel Bare - www.danielbare.com
What are your thoughts about the maker and the user?
"I had a great grand mother that lived with us until I was 16. Born in 1879, this woman was a second mother to me. Growing up with her was like having a personal window into the past - my own radio show. She told stories of alligators, peddlers, dead dogs and moonshine. This was her life on the bayou of the Atchafalaya River in southern Louisiana, telling tales was not just limited to her though. My whole family had stories. My father was a WWII vet who served in Alaska, North Africa and Europe (Anzio beachhead in Italy - then on to France and Germany). He didn't talk about the bad things much, but there were other great stories.
What about your 3-D figurative imagism?
"The use of figurative imagism as a narrative is really nothing new. It has always been with us. As a young college student, I was interested in Cultural Anthropology - courtesy of a liberal arts education. This interest provided me a valuable means for interpreting individual, social, and cultural anomalies that were to later be translated into three dimensional images. The narrative aspect is unavoidable. It is interwoven."
What is the importance of narratives?
"All art has some degree of narrative associated with it. You can’t stack two rocks on top of each other without some narrative coming into play. In my work, sometimes it is a story I never intended - derived from a gesture or an object randomly chosen to be in juxtaposition to the nature of the figure. And sometimes it is a direct link to my life or the life of our culture and its history."
What is the importance of passion in your ceramic works?
"Passion is everything in my work. This is my one definitive statement about art and life. It is either made with passion or it is worthless. In ceramics, one must have physical and mental energy. Without the presence of both, working with clay is unsustainable. For me, the generation of mental energy comes from passion. It is a fuel."
What have been your various roles in higher education?
For the past 24 years, I have been teaching at LaGrange College, a small private liberal arts institution located in LaGrange, Georgia. I am very proud of the ceramics facility I have put together and I am grateful for the support the college has given all of us in the art department to develop an exciting art program."
Tim N. Taunton - LaGrange, Georgia
"In the past, I have explored the connection of household and collected objects to memory and identity. Currently I have shifted my artistic focus from domestic items to bones as a reflection of life.
As a pet owner of cats, dogs, and horses, I daily contemplate their instincts, behaviors, and feelings. This thought process produces a distinct awareness of my responsibilities to my pets as their owner. I am also fascinated by an animal’s ability to adjust and communicate with humans. Conceptually, this has led me to look beyond my personal household to larger cultural events that connect humans to animals.
My “October Series” focused on the yearly event of hunting season. The first photo, “Four Hundred Square Inches of Orange,” is the final work within this series. This piece includes porcelain doe skulls, reflective tape, and reflective tacks. Reflective tacks were chosen because hunters use them to mark a trail or track an animal while hunting. The second photo is a detail of the doe skulls. “October Series” was created to provoke an awareness of the sacred relationship between humans, animals, and survival."
Blake Williams - East Lansing, Michigan - www.blakejwilliams.com
What have been some inspirations you gained from storytelling?
"I always thought of myself as a left-brain person until, that is, I got my hands on clay. Clay has been part of a transformation in my life. The work of creating pots has taken me on an amazing journey of self-discovery. On the way, I have met wonderfully generous potters who continue to inspire me. Several years ago, at a special showing at the Freer Gallery in Washington, DC, I was fortunate to be able to hold in my hands a thousand-year-old Chinese pot. Feeling the pot's weight and tracing the marks left by that ancient potter was a powerful and uplifting experience because I felt that the pot was able to connect me to the unknown potter of centuries past. I believe that these connections between the maker and the user explain the attraction of handmade pottery and handmade work in general.
I stumbled upon pottery classes in 1992 while looking through Rec Center course offerings for some "distraction" from a full-time job and raising 5 kids. From the moment I touched the clay it became an obsession: a once a week class just wasn't enough! So, I started bringing clay home and hand-building. My husband helped me carve enough space out of a corner of the basement to put in a table and chair for me to get my "clay fix" every day. That Christmas, he surprised me with my own wheel: a motorized Brent kick wheel that sat in the middle of the kitchen for a year until we were able to expand the space in the basement. And so began my pottery quest!
Today, my studio has moved from the basement to a small barn in the back yard. My path to pottery has had many ups and downs. Until 2007, when I retired from my "day job" as an economics editor, it was a part-time endeavor. Because I came to pottery late in life, it is more a way of finding my bliss than of earning a living. It is a joy to find that people like my work and want to own my pieces, but pottery’s main purpose in my life is to keep me centered."
Graciela Testa Lynt - Alexandria, Virginia - www.glyntpottery.com
What have been your influences upon your present clay works?
"I was born in 1950 in Montevideo, Uruguay in South America and lived in Sao
Paulo, Brazil until the age of 5 before moving with my family to Dallas, Texas. In these early years the traditions, images, and icons of New World art and architecture surrounded me. I became fascinated with the rich tapestry of colors and the details of the narrative sculpture. These images inspired my studies in graphic design at the University of Texas in 1972 and the University of Northern Colorado.
In my various art careers, I have worked as a graphic artist, photographer, jewelry designer, and high school art teacher, but it was not until 2003 that I began my explorations in clay sculpture.
Currently, my art works are unique hand built clay sculptures. Like the beautiful icons of my childhood, I remain fascinated with rich textured surfaces and a bright color pallet. I impress the clay with the original carved stamps and roller tools I design and carve with the stylized images of my life. I repeat, overlay and group them together, conveying a narrative on the objects they impress.The finished works are then fired in a combination of high and low fire glazes ranging from cone 6 to cone 04-05 to enhance the surface textures and graphics of the objects."
Mike Keene - Englewood, Colorado - www.mikeeneart.com
50th Anniversary show
is a real celebration
The Michigan Ceramic Art Association is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a traveling exhibition. Michigan Ceramics 2008 showcases the excellence of ceramic art in its diversity across Michigan and in neighboring states, with a diverse group of 53 functional (vases, bowls, utensils and other tableware, etc.) and non-functional works by seasoned to emerging artists.
The juried show was open to all residents of Michigan, a state long known for its outstanding ceramic artists, and all MCAA members. Internationally renowned ceramic artist, Bonnie Seeman of Florida was the juror for the show.
Ceramic artists from around the state submitted works of porcelain, terra cotta, stoneware and clay. In order to try to focus on the quality of the works alone, Seeman wasn't given any names to accompany the pieces. But the work of artists Seeman had long admired, such as the figurative ceramic sculpture of Mark Chatterly (Williamston), the abstract ceramic work of John Stephenson (Ann Arbor), and the nature-inspired vases of Susanne Stephenson (Ann Arbor), was difficult to mistake as by anyone else. Other award-winners of the show include: Daniel L. Bare, Craig Hinshaw, Jeri Hollister, Clay Leonard, Chrys Lewis, Sarah Lindley, Elizabeth Lurie, Tom Phardel, Janelle Songer, Dennis Swartzlander, Thomas C. Szmrecsanyi, and Nate Tonning.
The show in currently in exhibition at the Community Arts Gallery in Detroit, Michigan. For more information, Lisa Baylis Gonzalez lbgonzalez@wayne.edu or Stephany Sowards ap2984@wayne.edu for 313-577-0770.
What is your background in providing a glaze education program?
"As a Special Education teacher of students with learning disabilities for five years, I developed programs that took complex information and made it simple for them to understand. However, my love of clay eventually led me on a journey as studio potter and ceramics teacher for 30 years. A few years ago, when I realized that many ceramic students and their teachers were struggling with the complex subjects of glaze chemistry and calculation, I decided to combine my two skills, and focus on making it easier to both teach and to learn glaze basics."
What is the nature of your organization for glazing instruction?
"Using my educational skills, I organized all of the glaze ingredients into a color coded chart that makes it very easy to explain how varying the ratios of 3 major components can affect the firing temperature, glaze fit, glaze surface, color and stability. My completed chart shows the overall "big picture" of ingredient relationships and how they can be used together to create glazes with the characteristics that you desire. Understanding these relationships makes the “science” of glaze chemistry much easier to comprehend.
Working in teams of two or three, students utilize those concepts while gaining practical experience with a glaze calculation program. My focus on the ratios of three glaze components leads students very easily to understand the math concepts of Weight % and the Unity Molecular Formula. Then, for some hands on experience, students design and test lines blends and double line blends, learning by analyzing each team’s results. Finally, each student designs their own glaze from scratch which is fired and the class analyzes the results of each test."
What is your aim in a glazing program?
"My glaze education program has been designed specifically for beginners who want to know how to alter or design their own glazes to get exactly the glaze they desire. In addition, those who have already been mixing glazes may gain a greater understanding of glaze terminology and basic concepts. I believe that every ceramic artist can easily learn glaze chemistry using my teaching methods and glaze games. As professionals, it is important for all ceramacists to understand the characteristics of a stable and an unstable glaze. While many schools and colleges are turning to commercial glazes, I want to insure that the art of glaze mixing does not become a dying art. I’ve designed a program which ensures that students will be able to answer the question, “What Makes a Glaze?”
Chic Lotz - Nevada City, California - www.PotteryPoet.com
Those on exhibit in Potter's Shed - "People, Places, Events" department of the soon-to-be release of the 2008-09 Art-to-Art Palette print journal edition are:
Mo Cahill of Chicago, Illinois
Cover department artwork
“Bound Together”
This begins a 33-page People, Places, Events exhibition
of clay artists from around country and beyond whom were originally featured in the Potter’s Shed’s electronic Section, but now recorded for print preservation.
Denise Wilz
Charlie Cox
Diana Brower
Bridget Cherie Harper
William Schran
Leisha Harper
Gene Reck
Kevin Coffee
Emily Ulm
Brian Gartside
Deb Slahta
Hilary Chan,
Bob Yost
Foo Choo
Alice Hunt
Midwest Clay Guild
Daniel Semler
Ronald Knight
Lisa Merida-Paytes
Steven Branfman
Jamie Yocono
Mayssan Shora-Farra
Melissa and Jim Hogenson
Julie Clark
Alex Solla
Angela Hayes
Jeffrey Baxter
Cindy Clarke
Tom Radca
Melody Ellis
Kurt Wild
Melvin Rowe
Heidi Maiers
Meryl Ruth
Wali Hawes
Cheryl Weisz
Marie-Elena Ottman
Daniel Bare
Laura McLaughlin
Judy Greets
Tom Turner
Ruth Radin
Tessa Morgan
Jesse Wiseman Hull
Mark Shapiro
Ovidio Giberga
Vipoo Srivilasa
Beth Lykins
Deborah Maxwell
Allyson May
Denise Dufresne
Michigan Ceramic Art Association
Kay Yourist
Kevin Lehman
Val Lyle
Lisa Ernst
In the Potter's Shed Section, you will also read about:
Ovidio Giberga of San Antonio, Texas
Section Cover artwork
“ Portrait Cup with Yellow Lines Ceramic”
Betsy Cox of Glen Dale, West Virginia
Cox: ‘Mud was great!’
Janis Mars Wunderlich of Columbus, Ohio
Artist turns family chaos into art
Far East travels gives couple a
lasting gratitude of ancient history
To order your print edition, email: arttoartpalette@watchtv.net with your name and address. Your invoice for $12.50 will come with your print edition.
- or -
Also, if you want to market your talents, services or venues in the Artist Marketplace - there is still time and so easy to place. Just email your copy - Section enters closing on Saturday, November 15, 2008.
For only $29.50, you will receive:
(1) a copy of the print journal edition
(2) 1 column by 2 inch deep display or classified liner under the heading of your choice in the print journal edition.
(3) A classified liner published in the Artist Marketplace On-Line Section for up to 3 months.
(4) This has been especially grouped and priced for all.
How and why did you get started in clay?
"When I was in high school, my mother told me it would be a good idea to take typing. I said, “Mom, I’m not going to be a secretary! I don’t need to know how to type.” So when I looked for a work-study job at Miami University, I had problems finding a job that didn’t require typing. The city recreation department had an opening for someone to assist the woman teaching the greenware casting program. This was my first contact (beyond mudpies) with clay. I came from a very pragmatic blue collar neighborhood (Parma, OH, SW of Cleveland, OH). Discovering that clay was this wonderful material that could be customized, then fired to be a real object that could be used in daily life really seduced me. Ever since then I’ve wanted to make work for the domestic environment. Function is important, but there’s every-day function (like coffee cups), and party or ritual function (teapots, for most people)."
Could you describe in a brief outline the process of creating your pieces?
"In making my work, I think about a form or function that interests me. Inspiration may come from objects (I’ve done jars inspired by galvanized poultry waterers from the farm hardware), historical pottery (Minoan pottery, Japanese, Chinese, and Middle Eastern are some favorites), work by other artists (I’ve learned a lot about plaster hump and slump molds from Steve Howell, a nearby potter), nature (especially plants), or what I want or have enjoyed using lately. As I mentioned, I work in series, so I make multiples of the object with variations in proportion and detail. I’ve been working on some thrown-and-altered square bowls, for example, and trying to see what height I like best, what the options are for handles, edge treatment. Since I anticipate doing majolica surface glazing and decoration, I make the pieces fairly simple. This is an asset in seeing form, and I try to make the most satisfying form I can. While decoration may compete with the form and may distract the viewer, it can’t really camouflage bad form. If I get stuck, I get out my sketch book and draw some variations. It’s good to let your imagination roam in your sketches, as you have minor investment of time and materials and can explore things that you may never actually make. This exploration helps me test my “givens”... sometimes I get in a rut and think that something HAS to be made a certain way, or that my most comfortable decision is the only one. I like to sort thru the options, even if in the end I decide my original idea has the most merit for the problem I’m trying to solve, because this sorting opens my eyes and leads me to think in more creative ways."
Linda Arbuckle - University of Florida - Gainesville, Florida
How did you first become interested in clay?
"I first became interested in clay when I was in high school. I took every art class that was offered and especially loved clay. My mother still has a really ugly slab built pitcher that I made in high school. After high school my love for art was put on the back burner and getting married and making a living took me down a different path. I lived in Tulsa, OK for a couple of years and they offered wheel classes through their Parks & Rec Dept. The instructor was very positive and encouraging and I loved having my hands back in the clay. But again, life happens, I moved to the Atlanta area and clay was shelved once again (literally I had a 50 lb. bag of clay that I moved from Tulsa to Atlanta that sat on a shelf for several years).
I had convinced myself to go back to school and get a degree in Library Science and become a Media Specialist. The first math class I had to take was excruciating and a friend of mine gave me a class schedule and application for Gwinnett Council for the Arts. I dropped out of college and enrolled in pottery classes at the art center and haven't looked back since. I took every pottery class they offered from every instructor. Gwinnett Council for the Arts has a wonderful facility with 2 raku kilns. Raku appealed to me because of the surprise factor. The same glaze will turn out entirely different depending on the thickness of the piece and the reduction time. A sculpture class taught by Greg Johnson was offered at Gwinnett and I knew after taking that class sculpture was the direction I needed to go."
What is your basic approach to sculptures? What is the nature of your raku works?
"My basic approach depends on the piece. I sometimes carve the figure out of a block of clay, cut it in half, hollow it out and put the two halves back together. Other times I coil build the body. I always work on the head separately and attach it last. Native American artwork and Southwestern artwork are very appealing to me and influence my work. I think if you asked a therapist they would say that my fascination with mother/child sculptures helps me deal with unresolved childhood issues. Working in clay is cheaper than therapy and way more fun.
My raku kiln is home made out of a trash can and I fire in my back yard. I typically use three glaze recipes, one is a shiny luster, one is a matte luster and the third is clear crackle. These glazes help define the native, rustic look that I try to achieve."
Christina Sullo - Jefferson, Georgia - www.christinasullo.com
Shown l-r "Hope" "Joy" "Love"
Works 'between resignation and hope'
"Erosion" began with a candid interest to capture in painting what Zach Medler of Portland, Indiana saw on his bike rides down quiet county roads. The initial idea for a traditional mural was, however, eventually developed into a wider thematic breadth to engage a new aesthetic sensibility, and by further extension, to transform commonplace subjects into iconic imagery to forward artistic expression and commentary on the human condition.
In this latest installation work, more than a hundred ceramic slab boxes of different shapes and sizes imprinted with dialectical images of technological advancement and nostalgia, are displayed on three wooden shelves that are reminiscent of a printer’s type tray. The artist’s manipulation of space, use of a muted celadon glaze, and simplicity of form achieves something that is at once haunting, intimate, and wistful. The unifying thread that runs through each unique piece is the conceptual concern with the subjective experience of the Self, and the Self’s relationship with his environment.
The title, "Erosion" alludes to the residual memory of a modest past that is juxtaposed with the new, modern realities of an industrial society. The artwork presents itself as a reaction against the corruption of values. Rather than a force that purports good, Medler feels that capitalism has empowered man to inflict greater violence on his environment, committed without remorse or guilt. Consequently, what is generally considered as progress is a continuing process of self-delusion where man’s perception of reality remains distant from the true degeneration he is facing.
At first sight, "Erosion" is a masterpiece that transforms the ordinary into the phenomenal but its lyrical simplicity belies its depth. Medler uses familiar subjects – gothic churches, television sets, corn fields, factories – that viewers can easily identify. The unfeigned candor and clarity of lines that are the hallmarks of Medler’s latest work strive for an organic vision of life. Yet read metaphorically, the work can also be a scathing commentary on the unnatural imbalance between man and his environment and the social structures of capitalism, where the quality of life is measured by the production-consumption capability. On both of these fronts, Medler’s portrayal of the town he lives in maintains a dialogical relation to the past. Forgotten images are remembered, rescued, and captured by suggesting there exists an unfortunate continuity between the past, present, and the future.
"Erosion" is also Medler’s acknowledgement of the urgent need to offer an alternative view of dominant culture ideology, to challenge existing, widely-held beliefs that many accept without question. By examining the nature of present-day capitalism and its global expansion and the resulting disregard for either human rights or human dignity, viewers are encouraged to ponder what has been done, and what is to be done. It is in this sense that "Erosion" resides somewhere between resignation and hope.
Reviewed by Mindy H. Tan, a PhD candidate
in American Studies at Purdue University.
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