Ceramics Monthly February 2003 1 editor Ruth C. Butler associate editor Kim Nagorski assistant editor Renee Fairchild assistant editor Sherman Hall design Paula John production manager John Wilson production specialist David Houghton advertising manager Steve Hecker advertising assistant Debbie Plummer circulation manager Cleo Eddie circulation administrator Mary E. May publisher Mark Mecklenborg

editorial, advertising and circulation offices 735 Ceramic Place Westerville, Ohio 43081 USA telephone editorial: (614) 895-4213 advertising: (614) 794-5809 classifieds: (614) 895-4220 circulation: (614) 794-5890 fax (614) 891-8960 e-mail [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] website www.ceramicsmonthly.org

Ceramics Monthly (ISSN 0009-0328) is published monthly, except July and August, by The American Ceramic Society, 735 Ceramic Place, Westerville, Ohio 43081; www.ceramics.org. Periodicals postage paid at Westerville, Ohio, and additional mailing offices. Opinions expressed are those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent those of the editors or The Ameri­ can Ceramic Society. subscription rates: One year $30, two years $57, three years $81. Add $18 per year for subscriptions outside North America; for faster delivery, add $12 per year for airmail ($30 total). In Canada, add GST (registration number R123994618). change of address: Please give us four weeks advance notice. Send the magazine address label as well as your new address to: Ceramics Monthly, Circulation De­ partment, PO Box 6136, Westerville, OH 43086-6136. contributors: Writing and photographic guidelines are available on request. Send manuscripts and visual sup­ port (slides, transparencies, photographs, drawings, etc.) to Ceramics Monthly, 735 Ceramic PI., Westerville, OH 43081. We also accept unillustrated texts e-mailed to [email protected] or faxed to (614) 891-8960. indexing: An index of each year's feature articles appears in the December issue. You may also visit the Ceramics Monthly website at www.ceramicsmonthly.org to search an index of article titles and artists' names. Feature articles are also indexed in the Art Index, daai (design and applied arts index) and other services available through pub­ lic and university libraries. copies: For a fee, photocopies of articles are available through Customer Service, PO Box 6136, Westerville, OH 43086-6136; e-mail [email protected]; or telephone (614) 794-5890. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or per­ sonal use beyond the limits of Sections 107 or 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law is granted by The American Ceramic Society, ISSN 0009-0328, provided that the appropriate fee is paid directly to Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rose­ wood Dr., Danvers, MA 01923, USA; (978) 750-8400; www.copyright.com. Prior to photocopying items for edu­ cational classroom use, please contact Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. This consent does not extend to copying items for general distribution, or for advertising or promotional pur­ poses, or to republishing items in whole or in part in any work in any format. Please direct republication or special copying permission requests to the Senior Director, Publications, The American Ceramic Society, 735 Ceramic PI., Westerville, OH 43081, USA. back issues: When available, back issues are $6 each, plus $3 shipping and handling for first issue and $1 each additional issue (for international orders, shipping/handling is $6 for first issue and $2 each additional issue). postmaster: Please send address changes to Ceramics Monthly, PO Box 6136, Westerville, OH 43086-6136. Form 3579 requested. Copyright © 2003 The American Ceramic Society All rights reserved

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 2

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 4 FEBRUARY 2003/ Volume 51 Number 2

features

32 Maxine Chelini by Richard Garriott-Stejskal Meeting functional needs in Santa Fe 36 Great Pots A Landmark Exhibition at the Newark Museum by Ulysses Grant Dietz 42 I'll Take the Ruins byEricBotbyi Monumental figures comment on impermanence and fragility 45 A Wood-Fired Look from an Electric Kilnby Richard Busch Recipes for Cone 6 oxidation 48 Architectural Ornamentation Fragments and Elements 50 Wally Schwab A Marriage of Austerity and Ostentation by Mark Andres 56 Marcela Noriega Del Valle by Christian Toto Subtle texture inspires figurative work 58 Space and Form New Work by Maren Kloppmann by Jennifer Otis 63 Attaining Merchant Status by Mark e. Battersby How to build your business by accepting credit cards 64 The Ceramic Road Warrior An Interview with Ray Gross by Joel Betancourt 69 CJ Buckner's Raku Menagerie by Henry Atwater Animal figures with individual personalities 71 Denise Phillips by Marty and Brenda Stokes Smoke firing burnished pots on Hawaiian lava flows 74 Insights into the Resume of Vicki Hansenbyjeaniatka Building a profession brick by brick 77 Traditions and Innovations in Colombia by Kathryn Arango Using clay to make everything from beads to houses 80 David Bradley: Circular Relationships by Lakota Brown Vessels representing human interactions departments

10 letters 14 upfront 24 new books 82 call for entries 88 suggestions 90 calendar 104 questions 106 classified advertising 108 comment: Devious Details by Jim Danisch 112 index to advertisers

cover: "Teapot," approximately 10 inches (25 centimeters) in height, stoneware, with trailed glazes, fired to Cone 10 in reduction, by Wally Schwab; page 50. Photo: Bill Bachuber.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 5 upfront

14 Talent Search Emerging artist publicity opportunity 14 Free Listing for Summer Workshops Deadline for April issue announced 14 Exhibition of Ceramics for the Wall Juried invitational at Baltimore Clayworks in Maryland 14 Marlene Ferrell Parillo Sculpture at Flat Iron Gallery in Peekskill, New York 16 Experimenting with Clay Works by 20 artists associated with other mediums at Garth Clark Gallery’s Long Island City project space in New York 16 Nancy Legge Raku and pit-fired sculpture included in invitational at Falkirk Cultural Center in San Rafael, California 16 Bill Griffith Receives Fellowship Tennessee Arts Commission bestows $5000 award 18 Gayle Fichtinger Sculpture at Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham, Massachusetts 18 Margaret Keelan Figures at Richmond Art Center in Richmond, California 18 Oregon Clay Connections by Cynthia spencer Works by five potters at Contemporary Crafts Gallery in Portland

20 Exhibition of Cups in Boston by Scott Ruescher Invitational at the Society of Arts and Crafts’ Newbury Street gallery 22 Jimmy Yeung Sculptures at la Maison pour Tous du Champy in Paris 22 Karen Terpstra Ceramic and mixed-media sculpture at the Pump House Regional Arts Center in La Crosse, Wisconsin 22 Minkyung Choi Pottery at the Elzay Gallery of Art at Ohio Northern University in Ada

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 6 Ceramics Monthly February 2003 7

am too old to comfortably accept some of letters the directions that many contemporary potters’ works are going. So, I must ask a question: What is so Looking for Spontaneity great about this so-called platter that it I have always searched Ceramics Monthly for became the winner of the CM cover con­ work that incorporates great craftsmanship test? My first thought is that it would be without control. So much good design can’t impossible to use as a platter, or anything translate into clay, because it becomes else, what with those raised ridges from the overworked, and lacks spontaneity and casually brushed slip, plus those nine dis­ flow. Clay need not always become muddy! tinct little lumps of clay (I’m unable to This separates the artist from the craftsman. make out what they are) that were used to Anett Allbrett, Kailua, HI make those rows of pressed lines below each, and that hand-scribed circular line Pleased to See Palissy with some of those same little pressed Kudos to Ceramics Monthly for reprinting marks. There’s also that odd, useless line Henry Bollman’s wonderful article on across the center, made of more pressed Bernard de Palissy. What a coincidence, as shapes, that seems to visually cut the form this article appeared simultaneously with in half. my curatorial work on “After Palissy,” a Sorry, but it seems to me to be nothing show of 21 contemporary artists to be more than something that Miss [sic] Maishe exhibited in March 2003 at the Lacoste Dickman had some fun with while playing Gallery in Concord, Massachusetts. around with the clay. There’s nothing For me, the work of this renaissance serious about a potter’s respect for form and master has always provided a sensuous function in her [sic] work. So, I would ceramics experience, but unfortunately appreciate some kind of explanation of when we look for it in museums, we find so Ceramics Monthly values, reasons or what­ little of it. Therefore, hoping to discover ever for this “platter” being the winner. exciting new “Palissys,” I proposed a show William E. Pitney, Salisbury, CT of current work, inspired by and reminis­ cent of his style and surface treatment. Covers and Quality Just as Bollman’s article will acquaint Regarding the “On the Cover” article (De­ more people with this quintessential ceram­ cember 2002): The statements that getting ics giant, I hope that this upcoming show on the cover can be condensed into two will shed light on his influence, and delight words “quality photography,” and the the audience as much as the original. conclusion that “bad images of good Anne Wollman, Woodstock, VT work are still bad images” are true. How­ ever, the next sentence quickly slides by the Inspirational Covers quality of the work itself, instead of empha­ Congratulations on the new format and the sizing that good images of bad work are still return to fabulous photos of ceramic pieces bad work. It took a third reading of the on the covers. They’re so inspirational! paragraph for me to catch the mention of Sonja Rasmussen, Frederick, MD “the work itself,” thus leaving the average reader to assume that photography super­ Wonderings About Winner sedes the quality of work. My December 2003 issue of Ceramics Rimas VisGirda, Champaign, IL Monthly arrived safely in my mailbox in that plastic cover. [It has] the winner of the CM More on Cone 6 competition for position on the last cover of Every time I receive my copy of Ceramics the 50th volume year. Wow! That makes Monthly in the mail, I give it an immediate me feel old. I have been a subscriber since scan for information on Cone 6 oxidation 1953, with Volume 1, Number 1. I am 88 firing and glazes. It seems that most of the years old now, and I have been seriously time I’m disappointed, and I set the maga­ involved with ceramics since 1948, when I zine aside for later reading. Sometimes, I became an Alfred University student, with don’t get back to it for weeks. Charles M. Harder as my mentor. I realize serious ceramics artists enjoy Fifty years makes quite a difference in seeing examples of funky abstract pieces. style, attitudes, work habits and values. Of However, I’m a functional potter with a course, I see it reflected in the difference home studio and no access to a reduction between Volume 1 and Volume 50. And I kiln. I do value the Suggestions from Read-

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 10

letters

ers, and any articles on tips and techniques. Please, could we see some Cone 6 oxidation glaze recipes once in a while? Judy Edwards, Fort Collins, CO

Appeal Is in Variety I have subscribed to Ceramics Monthly for over 25 years. Sure, not all of the articles, exhibitions, etc., have appealed to me, but CM is the best for including a variety. Our medium—the materials, process, forms, etc.—is so diverse. Jan Preston Archey, Las Cruces, NM

No Cute Teapots Enough cute teapots! Please, no more. Clay should look like clay. Joan Connolly, Mayne Island, BC, Canada

Restricting Restrictions Each month, I read letters such as Howard Shapiro’s (December 2002) directing CM on its content. In the name of a “purist,” these people don’t request but rather tell CM what it can or cannot include. Letters that express a desire to restrict that which is published have no place in CM and should no longer be allowed. Clayton N. Baggs, Felton, CA

Coleman Kudos Thanks for the informative and beautiful article about Tom and Elaine Coleman in the January 2003 issue. When they left Oregon, I was fortunate enough to get to their “garage sale,” where I bought a large anagama vessel. At the time, I got the feel­ ing that Tom was not awfully excited about the look of the wood-fired piece, but now I imagine that he would see how beautiful it really is. It continues to have a place of honor in our home. Claudia O 'Driscoll, Colton, OR

Correction The size listed in the caption for “Stem Series” by Whitney Forsyth on page 70 of the January issue was incorrect; it is actually 5 feet (152 centimeters) in height.

In keeping with our commitment to providing an open forum for the exchange of ideas and opinions, the editors welcome letters from all readers; some editing for clarity or brevity may take place. All letters must include the writer’s full name and address, but they will be withheld on request. Mail to Ceramics Monthly, 735 Ceramic PI., Westerville, OH 43081; e-mail to [email protected] ; or fax to (614)891-8960.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 12 Ceramics Monthly February 2003 13 upfront works by 30 others to make up the show. “I have spent a lot of time thinking about making three-dimensional objects that work off the wall,” Sherrill stated. “There is an ancient history of artists and crafts­ men using clay on the wall for decoration or to communicate their vision. Though the wall is primarily the domain of the two-dimensional Talent Search artist, why should they have all the fun? Works on the wall have a way of Looking for an opportunity to show your work to the world? This May, being like a conversation between two people. The work and the viewer Ceramics Monthly will again publish a photo spread featuring the worlds face each other. of emerging clay artists. Anyone actively pursuing a career in ceramics “As juror, I found that the objects that engaged me the most were the (full or part time) for 10 years or less is eligible. To be considered for ones that were outside standard formal presentation and were able to inclusion in the article, submit up to five professional-quality, original take me to a new place when viewing them. To me, that is the essence of (not duplicate) slides or transparencies, along with full descriptions of what I find interesting in other people s work and what I try to achieve works, an artists statement and resume, to “Emerging Artist,” 735 in my own. A juror has a unique opportunity to see a great deal of Ceramic Place, Westerville, Ohio 43081. Submissions must be received people working out their ideas. It is nice to see that there truly is richness by February 28, 2003. Please include a padded envelope with appropri­ in our diverse imaginations.” ate postage for return of images. Concurrent with the opening of the show, Sherrill presented a hands-on workshop entitled “Thinking Big with Little Pieces.” Free Listing for Summer Workshops The “Summer Workshops” listing will appear in the April 2003 issue of Marlene Ferrell Parillo Ceramics Monthly. Potters, craft schools, colleges/universities or other “Second Story,” an exhibition of ceramic sculpture by Lincolndale, New art/craft institutions are invited to submit information about summer York, artist Marlene Ferrell Parillo, can be seen through February 27 at ceramics programs (regularly scheduled classes are excluded) by Febru­ Flat Iron Gallery in Peekskill, New York. “My latest body of work ary 7. Simply provide the workshop name andlor a synopsis of what will be covered, location, opening and closing dates, level of instruction, instructors name, languages spoken, fee(s), contact address, plus a telephone number that potential participants may call for details. Captioned slides from last years workshops are welcome and will be considered for publication in this listing. Please include a padded envelope with appropriate postage for return of images. Please mail information and slides to Summer Workshops, Ceramics Monthly, 735 Ceramic Place, Westerville, Ohio 43081. Announce­ ments may also be e-mailed to [email protected] or faxed to (614) 891-8960.

Exhibition of Ceramics for the Wall “Wall Works,” a juried and invitational exhibition of ceramics intended for the wall, will be on view through February 15 at Baltimore Clayworks. North Carolina artist Michael Sherrill invited 5 artists and juried in

Marlene Ferrell Parillo’s “Grouper Pot,” 20 inches (51 centimeters) in height; at Flat Iron Gallery, Peekskill, New York.

reconciles my different incarnations as a ceramist, a painter and furni­ ture maker, with my interest in narrative art,” Ferrell Parillo noted. “My observations, feelings and experiences are the themes for these pieces.

Jacquelyn Rice platter, 20 inches (51 centimeters) in length; They grow from the very real but very ordinary anxieties of parenthood, at Baltimore Clayworks, Maryland. home ownership, work, marriage, confinement, and my belief that

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 14 upfront artists express themselves in a new medium, they often reveal something quite significant about their creative intent; something not as readily apparent to those accustomed to seeing their usual pieces,” noted gallery hard work is hard work. My pieces are practical objects, meant to be owner Garth Clark. “It can provide a new and compelling reference accessible and functional. While the outside illustrates the themes of point for interpreting the artist’s message.” our daily life, the pots are useful in their ability to hold the souvenirs of our experiences. Nancy Legge “I have appropriated a variety of images that I use as symbols for the California artist Nancy Legge was 1 of 18 artists invited by the Falkirk narrative content of my work. Most of these symbols are based on my Cultural Center in San Rafael to participate in the exhibition “Memorias: personal observations.” Rabbits and fish, for example, “are symbols of El Dia de los Muertos” (Day of the Dead). “I am drawn to ancient stone fertility and abundance, and frogs represent my home. I have an interest circles, such as Stonehenge, the most famous in the south of England, in common household objects because of their autobiographical value. to the Stones of Boxes, shoes, books and garbage are all used in my sculptures. I enjoy Callanish, a more making my viewers look twice at these mundane objects and consider obscure configuration the stories they tell.” in Scotland,” Legge Ferell Parillo begins with either thrown or slab-built pieces, then commented. “They joins them together and sculpts them in the leather-hard stage. After have a powerful, medi­ bisque firing, a glaze is usually applied to the interior of the vessels, and tative quality that sug­ the exterior surfaces are treated with stains andlor slip. After glaze firing, gests the many roles watercolors are applied and the piece is sealed with acrylics. “My they may have played intention is for the warm color of the clay to show through. Skin, earth in the lives of the and clay are all shades of brown, and their foundation in this common people who inhabited color connects and unifies them.” these regions: fertility rites, burial ceremo­ Experimenting with Clay nies, human sacrifice. Ceramics by approximately 20 artists who are associated with other They also have a mediums can be seen through March 8 at Garth Clark Gallery’s Long strong figurative qual­ Island City project space in Long Island City, New York. “Visitors to ity that has influenced Clay” includes works by such artists as Thomas Hart Benton, Claes and challenged my Oldenburg, Lucio Fontana, Roy Lichtenstein and Anthony Caro. “When thinking about the representation of the figure and the power of abstraction.” In her figure sculp­ tures, “memory plays a central role—the memory of departed souls, the memory of found stones, the Nancy Legge’s “Torquil,” 11 ½ inches memory of the clay it­ (29 centimeters) in height, raku fired; at the Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael, California. self,” Legge noted. Her most recent work be­ gan during a summer workshop in Mendocino, California: “The cliffs offered up rock fragments, and I was drawn to their possibilities as environments for my figures.” Her pieces are raku and pit fired, and she has begun integrating stoneand iron into them, “exploringthe surface tensions of naturaland manmade materials.”

Bill Griffith Receives Fellowship Bill Griffith, ceramist and assistant director of Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, was awarded a $5000 Individual Artist Fellowship by the Tennessee Arts Commission. A graduate of Indiana State University and Miami University, Griffith has researched and studied ceramics in Ecuador and Taiwan, and participated in the International Workshop of

Anthony Caro’s “Iberian,” 21 inches (53 centimeters) in height, stoneware; Ceramic Art in Tokoname, Japan. He recently visited Peru, where he at Garth Clark Gallery’s Long Island City project space, New York. researched various craft centers within the Andes. As part of the fellow-

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 16 Ceramics Monthly February 2003 17 upfront The terra-cotta logs are built using thick coils, then carved. They are fired without glaze “to preserve the integrity of the material and be closer to its natural state,” Fichtinger explained. ship award, Griffith will exhibit his work in June 2003 at the Tennessee Arts Commission Gallery in Nashville. Margaret Keelan Ceramic figures by California artist Margaret Keelan were exhibited Gayle Fichtinger recently at the Richmond Art Center in Richmond, California. Created “Forest Fragments and Firewood Portraits,” a series of ceramic sculp­ to look like weathered wooden dolls, the figures recall “not only a tures by New London, New Hampshire, artist Gayle Fichtinger, was on view through November 3, 2002, at the Danforth Museum of Art in

Gayle Fichtinger’s “Firewood #46,” 18 inches (46 centimeters) in height, handbuilt terra cotta, once fired to Cone 01; at the Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, Massachusetts.

Margaret Keelan’s “Tribal Doll,” 24 inches (61 centimeters) in height, clay Framingham, Massachusetts. Fichtinger’s current series began after an with stains, and plastic; at the Richmond Art Center, Richmond, California. ice storm. “Our backyard filled up with broken branches like a gigantic nest. It took months of moving the tree debris from one pile to another. beloved, ever-present and abused child’s doll,” said Keelan, “but also We burned ice-storm wood for two years afterward. African tribal wood sculptures with their practical purposes of honoring “As natural objects, the split logs are fragments of the northern ancestors and connecting with the spirit world.” forest: firewood made from trees felled by storms, logging and develop­ ment; logs for the fireplace, the wood stove, the lumber mill and the Oregon Clay Connections new home. The balancing act between us and nature is always at play. by Cynthia Spencer “As sculptural objects, the split logs are modeled out of clay like A survey exhibition of works by Elaine Coleman, Tom Coleman, portraits. As in a portrait, history is revealed in each log by the accumu­ Henderson, Nevada; Patrick Horsley, Don Sprague, Portland, Oregon; lation of clues—bark patterns, growth rings, scars, saw cuts, lichens, and Wally Schwab, Aloha, Oregon, was presented recently at Contem­ moss and the chewing marks left by insects.” porary Crafts Gallery in Portland, Oregon. All the potters in “150

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 18

upfront

Divided by Five” have multiple connections to Oregon ceramics, even though the Colemans no longer live in the Pacific Northwest. When Patrick Horsley and Tom Coleman were fresh out of school, Wally Schwab was “one of the people to watch” among established potters. Schwab started a ceramics program at Maryhurst College and brought Horsley in to teach. Horsley, Sprague and Coleman shared a studio for a year. Sprague and Horsley then shared a studio and show­ room for 14 years. Tom and Elaine Colemans partnership is in marriage as well as in the studio. All have shown work together in smaller groupings and at invitational exhibitions for over three decades—too many times for any of them to come up with an accurate count. Over the years, a handle or a glaze may have been borrowed from one of the others and incorporated, but the biggest influence on each other was the drive and subtle competition in a small pottery commu­ nity. Together, they created a climate of excellence. The exhibition was an opportunity for Horsley to try some new construction techniques. He gave himself the singular parameter of the 1 teapot form, and took off from there. “Each teapot started out from my Don Sprague’s “Square Platter,” 18 /2 inches (47 centimeters) square, stoneware with Shino glaze. wanting to see what would happen if I made it a certain way,” he though the signals may not be apparent to anyone else. “One of the great joys is the little things that happen—to get really involved in the detail,” he commented. “There was a time when the only place I wanted to be was in the studio, but now I feel there are other things in life that are so much more important. I want this feeling to become part of the work, too.” While so much contemporary pottery seems to be about the process, the work in this show was all about the end objects. The pots on view represented a mastery of the craft brought to eloquent fruition. “I was blown away when I walked in and saw all the great pots,” said Sprague. “It sounds funny, but I was in awe of us, collectively.”

Exhibition of Cups in Boston by Scott Ruescher “Our Cups Runneth Over,” an exhibition of ceramic cups by more than 50 invited artists, was on view through January 19 at the Society of Arts and Crafts’ Newbury Street gallery in Boston. The widely inclusive show offered for sale abundant samples of the viscerally sculptural and Patrick Horsley’s “T-Pot/Black/Bronze,” 16 inches (41 centimeters) in height, thrown and altered stoneware; at Contemporary Crafts Gallery, Portland, Oregon. the quietly functional and everything in between—with just a bit of Christmas kitschiness thrown in to appeal to all shoppers. Included explained. “The challenge was to combine the many elements into a were traditional wood-fired mugs in earthen colors, with handles and work that presents a new view of a familiar form.” The work was thrown and altered, stacked, added to and carved into shape. It is a meticulous way of working that he characterizes as “as slow as watching grass grow.” The payoff is 12 pieces with very distinct personalities. Horsley has experimented with the teapot form for many years. Sporting a slightly more industrial look, his new work is a departure from his more signature organic bases and flattened forms. To his submarines and silos, he added spout snakes and wiry, thin handles that accentuated the harder edges of the new forms. Experimentation was carried over into different glaze treatments for each piece. Crystallized black, burnt bronze black, matt yellows and umbers, as well as electric blues and purples, enhanced the surfaces of the teapots. Because of a family loss, Sprague was hesitant to be in the show. Jeffrey Kleckner cups, 5 inches (13 centimeters) in height, porcelain; at the Society After working through it, however, he saw directions to try next, even of Arts and Crafts Newbury Street gallery, Boston.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 20

upfront heavy bases; tall tumblers glazed with geometric patterns and solid-color brims; hard-to-drink-from vessels that incorporate animals in their forms or surface imagery; tiny porcelain teacups; and elaborate clay creations, comprising multiple colors and surface decorations, but only loosely defined as cups. With the exception of a few large pieces, which occupied pedestals in the middle of one wing of the gallery, each vessel kept to its own small, transparent shelf at eye level on the wall, a foot or two from its neighbor on either side, the better to emphasize its uniqueness. All the shopper had to do was glide along the wall with a steady gaze, until the combination of style and price (ranging from $20 to $ 1000) was right Karen Terpstra’s “Big Horse,” 71 inches (180 centimeters) in height, ceramic for that special person in need of a classy gift. shards, with wood; at the Pump House Regional Arts Center, La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Jimmy Yeung Terpstra’s large jars and wood-fired horse heads, as well as functional Sculptures and ceramic paintings by Jimmy Yeung of France were pottery and drawings. exhibited through December 2, 2002, at la Maison pour Tous du “I’ve owned and ridden horses on and off for more than 40 years,” Champy in Paris. Constructed over a model, Yeung’s forms are influenced Terpstra commented. “Now that I don’t own the real thing, I make them. Part of our 5 acres of property looks like horse pasture, so I decided to make the life-size horses for my own enjoyment. Each one reminds me of a horse I’ve owned.” The assembled pottery and shards “come from test pieces or work that may have cracked or flawed in the wood kiln,” she explained. “Some of the pieces have a special meaning to me, and now hold a new meaning in the large horses.”

Minkyung Choi Ceramics by Kent, Ohio, artist Minkyung Choi were exhibited through December 20, 2002, at the Elzay Gallery of Art at Ohio Northern University in Ada. Choi’s main influences are the beauty and elegance of historical Korean and Chinese ceramics. “I admire their simplistic forms

Jimmy Yeung sculpture, 37 centimeters (15 inches) in height; at la Maison pour Tous du Champy, Paris. Minkyung Choi’s “Triple Layered Box” (disassembled), 11 inches (28 centimeters) by the Chinese ivory ball, according to ceramic-arts writer Liu Wan in height; at the Elzay Gallery of Art, Ohio Northern University, Ada. Chu: a small sculpture is built inside a larger one. When several of these structures are placed together, they look like a series of empty buildings. and wonderful colors, which influence the way I see and shape my own “Lonely City” is the term Yeung uses for this grouping. work,” she explained. Industrial design also inspires her work. For the most part, Choi throws a form, then alters and reassembles Karen Terpstra it. “The intent of my work is to elevate and make light of our own “Archaeohippus,” an exhibition of ceramics and drawings by Wisconsin rituals through the emphasis of functional pottery.” artist Karen Terpstra, was presented recently at the Pump House Re­ gional Arts Center in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Dominating the show were Submissions to the Upfront column are welcome. We would be pleased to consider press releases, artists’ statements and original (not duplicate) slides or transpar­ three full-scale horse sculptures whose bodies were composed of ceramic encies in conjunction with exhibitions or other events of interest for publication. shards, with wood or metal. Shown alongside these sculptures were Mail to Ceramics Monthly, 735 Ceramic PI., Westerville, OH 43081.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 Ceramics Monthly February 2003 23 new books The book touches on the basics—health and safety, tools, wheel, clays and kneading— then describes the processes of centering, coning up, opening, etc. Next, it covers how to throw a The Ceramic Surface simple cylinder and a bowl (showing possible by Matthias Ostermann problems for each), as well as how to throw from When the author of this nicely illustrated the hump. As throughout the book, detailed overview began asking artists for images of their how-to photographs, cross-sections of pieces work, he “found that many do not see them­ and sketches accompany selves as ‘decorators,’ with the perhaps implicit the steps. definition of lightweight on-surface patterning. The second section Most of them, in fact, approach the ceramic details the steps in mak­ surface with the same vigor and inventiveness ing 12 traditional func- that they apply to their research into form, tional forms, including function, spatial values, narrative, etc., and the a straight vase, plate, final surface treatments are an integral part of the candlestick, cake stand, total concept of work.” cheese bell, oval baking Focusing for the most part on vessel and dish, storage jar, etc. Trimming simple bases and platter forms by over 200 artists from around the foot rings, using chucks, throwing foot rings and world, the book is divided into 10 sections: decorative surfaces are covered in the next sec­ manipulated clay surface; color in clay; dry- tion. Finally, ways of making lids, handles and surface decoration; underglaze techniques; glazes knobs are described. 160 pages, including index. used for effect; in-glaze painting; resists and 674 color photographs; 60 sketches. $29.95. masking techniques; third-firing on-glaze tech­ ISBN 0-87349-346-X. Krause Publications, niques; fire, smoke and 700E. State St., Iola, W154990-0001; see website ash surfaces; and uncon­ www.krause.com; or telephone (800) 258-0929. ventional approaches. Each category includes Stoneware an image of one work by Richard Dewar per artist, along with Nicely illustrated, this overview “looks at the technical information fascination we as users of clay have had, both about the pictured piece, down through the ages and right up to the as well as an artist’s state­ present, with the eternal link between our raw ment. 207 pages, including forewords by materials and making techniques, and the ines­ Catherine Hess and David Whiting, glossary, capable geological origin of our planet. By the recommended reading and index. 223 color very fact of choosing to write on the subject of photographs. £301US$49.95. ISBN (Great Brit­ stoneware, one inevitably steps into the world of ain): 0-7136-5427-9. ISBN (United States): those who vitrify and melt rock by the use of fire. 0-8122-3701-3. A & C Black Publishers Ltd., This process is at the very heart and soul of those 37 Soho Sq.y London W1D 3QZ; see website who believe in it and www.acblack.com. Published in the United States thus practice it as a full­ by the University of Pennsylvania Press, 4200Pine time occupation.” St., Philadelphia, PA 19104-4011. The book is divided into four sections, with Thrown Pottery Techniques the first looking at the Revealed terminology and mate­ by Mary Chappelhow rials used in stoneware “Simply put, throwing is the shaping of a ball production. Part two of clay by the hands, on a revolving wheel,” states covers firings and kilns, the author of this well-illustrated how-to guide. and the third section discusses special effects in “This process, in the hands of an experienced stoneware (celadon, ash, and copper red glazes, potter, can look completely effortless....In real­ etc.). The final section profiles 24 artists who ity, a few basic techniques have to be mastered work in stoneware. Along with photos of their before this ease can be achieved. These tech­ pots and sculpture are descriptions of their work­ niques, however, are not cast in stone. Ask a ing methods, as well as glaze recipes. 128 pages, dozen potters how to perform a specific task and including glossary, list of suppliers and index. you will get 12 varying answers.” 178 color photographs. Softcover, £12.99/

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 24 Ceramics Monthly February 2003 25 new books Ltd., 37Soho Sq., London W1D 3QZ; see website www.acblack.com. Published in the United States by University of Pennsylvania Press, 4200Pine St., US$24.95. ISBN (Great Britain): 0-7136-5777-Philadelphia, PA 19104-4011. 4. ISBN (United States): 0-8122-1837-X. A&C Black Publishers Ltd., 37 Soho Sq., London Porcelain Repair and Restoration W1D 3QZ; see website www.acblack.com. Pub­ by Nigel Williams lished in the United States by the University of revised by Loretta Hogan and Myrtle Bruce- Mitford Pennsylvania Press, 4200 Pine St., Philadelphia, First published in 1983, this second edition PA 19104-4011. was revised by a colleague and a friend of the author after his death. “Books about porcelain Porcelain restoration have tended to imply that there is one by Jack Doherty way, and one way only, to restore porcelain,” “Porcelain makes demands on the sensitivity Williams wrote. “A and skill of the maker, and requires attention single-minded approach and care at every stage of production,” notes the to any problem can, of author of this well-illustrated guide. “Perhaps course, have its benefits, more than any other clay, it alters and changes and often the well-trod- during all stages of making. It has a greater den and proven path is shrinkage than stoneware or earthenware, a pro­ the best one to take.... pensity to warp and distort in the kiln, but it does But restoration and con­ undergo an almost magical transformation dur­ servation are very much ing the firing. It becomes a substance that has as a matter of individual taste. The ‘perfect’ method much in common with glass as it does with clay. advocated by one individual may be a cumber­ “In recent years, it has become clear that some and excruciating process to another.” many inventive ceramicists are challenging the His experience as both a teacher and a re­ preconceptions surrounding our definitions of storer of porcelain taught him “that expert re­ porcelain and are using new forming and firing sults can, in fact, be achieved with a variety of methods which exploit other qualities of the techniques and materials....There are many op­ clay,” Doherty comments. “Clarity of color, soft­ tions open.” ness when fired at low After a historical overview of repair methods, temperature, respon­ the book covers such subjects as documentation siveness to the subtlety and examination, dismantling and cleaning, of smoke firing, have all reconstruction, replacing missing parts, color become part of the lan­ mixing, spraying and painting, and finishing guage of contemporary touches. 160 pages, including appendixes on porcelain makers.” training, settingup a workshop, materials, manu­ Following a brief his­ facturers and suppliers; reading list; glossary; tory of porcelain mak­ and index. 78 color and 15 black-and-white ing and the development photographs; 21 sketches. $32.50/£23. ISBN of studio porcelain, Doherty identifies the mate­ 0-8122-3703-X. UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress, rials in and types of porcelain bodies. Forming 4200 Pine St., Philadelphia, PA 19104-4011. methods and problem solving are described next, as are various decorative techniques. Qingbai Ware He also covers firing processes—reduction, Chinese Porcelain of the Song and oxidation, wood, etc.—and glaze. “Firing the Yuan Dynasties purest, whitest porcelain clay in a wood kiln edited by Stacey Pierson which is subject to temperature variations and Qingbai or Yingqing ware, as it is commonly deposits of fly ash could be thought an eccentric known, is perhaps the most underappreciated occupation. But when the making and firing type of ware in the Chinese ceramics tradition, processes are understood and used sensitively, according to the editor of this well-illustrated wood firing can add a unique quality to porce­ book/catalog. “It is not one of the wu wei ci, or lain forms.” 112 pages, including bibliography, five classic wares of the Song dynasty. It was not list of suppliers and index. 105 color photo­ made exclusively for imperial use and its decora­ graphs; 4 sketches. Softcover, £12.99/US$26.50. tive styles and techniques were largely borrowed ISBN (Britain): 0-7136-5085-0. ISBN (United from other wares such as Ding and Yaozhou States): 0-8122-1827-2.A dr C Black Publishers wares. With the exception of Jingdezhen, where

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 Ceramics Monthly February 2003 27 new books “It was a rude shock therefore to find, after several decades, in the late ’80s, that the highly sanitary and environmentally safe clay cups (used it was primarily made, it also has not drawn cups would be thrown on the tracks and dust much interest from archaeologists. would return to dust) had been replaced by “This is unfortunate because...Qingbai ware plastic ones. However, in other ways, earth is in fact one of the most successful ceramic typescontinues to play a role in Indian life, though not produced in China and as comprehensively as it did in the past.” was emulated at numer­ This book is intended to “throw new light on ous kilns in many differ­ the ongoing investigations into the art of terra ent regions. High-qual- cotta,” Pal explains. “Indeed, whether fired or ity Qingbai wares were unfired, the clay objects remain the most spon­ produced in the Song taneous and unselfconscious expressions of both period [and] are today material culture and popular aesthetic impulses, some of the finest early particularly during the Prehistoric and Early porcelains produced in Historical periods of our history. Temporally, China. Qingbai was also the basis from which the scope of this book is limited and does not Jingdezhen blue and white porcelain was devel­ extend beyond the Gupta period (circa 300- oped, and as recent research shows, this ware was 600 CE). Spatially, how­ noted in ancient records, and was buried in ever, it covers the sub­ tombs of the Song and Yuan dynasties.” continent as a whole.” Composed of two essays—Qingbai porce­ The essay topics in­ lain and its place in Chinese ceramics history, clude terra cotta of the and technology, forms and decoration of the Harappan civilization, ware—the book is printed in English with sum­ creative legacy of the maries of each essay translated in Chinese. The Nilgiri Hills, terra-cotta remainder of the book is a catalog of Qingbai sculpture from the an­ wares; each photograph is accompanied by a cient Northwest, terra cotta of Bengal, terra­ description, as well as the approximate time cotta art in the Gangetic Valley, etc. 112 pages, period in which the piece was made. 255 pages, including index. 48 color and 65 black-and- including appendixes on further reading on white photographs. Rs 2250/US$66. ISBN Qingbai ware and Qingbai ware for export; and 81-85026-57-2.Marg Publications, Army and bibliography. 269 color photographs; 19 Navy Bldg, Third FI, 148, Mahatma Gandhi sketches. $30. ISBN 0-7286-0339-X. School of Rd., Mumbai 400 001, India; see website Oriental and African Studies, University of Lon­ www. marg-art. org. don, Thomhaugh St., RussellSq., London WC1H OXG, England; see website www.soas.ac.uk; or Introduction to Precious telephone (44) 20 76372388. Metal Clay by Mary Ann Devos Indian Terracotta Sculpture Following a brief introduction to the mate­ The Early Period rial, a glossary of terms and a list of necessary edited by Pratapaditya Pal tools and equipment, this how-to guide pro­ “Even though I was brought up in the 1940s vides instruction and step-by-step photographs in the urban environment of Calcutta, it is for 18 projects, prima­ remarkable how big a part earthenware played in rily various pieces of jew­ our lives,” observes the editor of this compilation elry. Also included is in­ of essays by various authors. “There was no formation on such topics refrigerator in the house and so drinking water as firing schedules, bu­ was stored in black earthen pots...to keep it cool. tane torch firing and sol­ The water also acquired a sweet taste, depending dering, patina surface on the quality of the clay, that I have never again finishing, incorporating encountered in any of the bottled water that I gemstones, etc. 95 pages, now habitually drink whenever I visit... .At wed­ including index. 369 color photographs. $19.95, dings and other feasts, we ate off banana leaf and softcover. ISBN 0-919985-36-X. PMC Connec­ drank from low-fired clay glasses and cups, tion, 303 Donora Blvd., Ft. Myers Beach, FL which were also the principal vessels for imbib­ 33931; see website www.pmcconnection.com; or ing beverages like tea or coffee across the land. telephone (866) 762-2529.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 28 Ceramics Monthly February 2003 29

PHOTOS: PAT POLLARD, KEN WILSON

Covered jar and pitcher, to approximately 9 inches (23 centimeters) in height, wheel-thrown porcelain, with slip trailing and celadon glaze.

Maxine Chelini by Richard Garriott-Stejskal

On a recent visit with Maxine Chelini at her studio in Santa Fe, slab roller and tables fill up the main room. The back wall is New Mexico, I bought a celadon-glazed porcelain pitcher. It covered by shelves. One corner is given over to “office” space. sits in my dining room, waiting for me to find a spot for it Chelini moved through the space as we talked, pausing to among the other objects that have come home to live with me. touch one piece, pick up another, then move on. This is her space; I have had time to study it, to let it sink into my awareness. I hope she and her husband built it, and it works well for her. someday to understand why I like it as much as I do. She works with both stoneware and porcelain, preferring to Chelini’s home and studio hang on the side of a rugged start out making something specific rather than working sponta­ canyon on Santa Fe’s east side. The studio’s south wall is nearly neously. “I’ve just always made useful things. It gives me a all windows and faces out over the canyon. The words “vista” and format in which to work,” Chelini explains. “A lot of the ideas “panorama” have a real meaning here. The treetops were below come from a need for something. A small plate for small my feet as I looked out across the valley. The voices of two servings in the house, no-spill dishes for the boat, pairs of bowls ravens in the trees were about the only sounds I heard. for wedding gifts, things like that.” The design of the studio facilitates production flow, from Of late, she has also been making torso slab vases. She says making to shelving finished work. An arrangement of a wheel, a that they grew out of watching pots form. “The discovery with

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 32 the torsos had to do with the clay. When I pushed it in one place, it curved out in another, much like what the human body does. It was a natural for the torso form. The most pleasing functional ceramic forms seem to mimic the flow of the human body.” She also enjoys glaze development. Several years ago, the manager of a local clay studio left and took all the glaze recipes with him. Chelini stepped in and set about re-creating all of the glaze recipes from scratch. “I did it finally, but I also came up with some pretty weird glazes. The sculptural artists at the clay studio loved the weird ones.” One of my favorites from her current palette is a celadon glaze made from ash collected when the Cerro Grande forest fire burned parts of Los Alamos in 2000. Her work has a casual elegance. There is a sense of directness and effortlessness that bespeaks her facility on the wheel. “I’m only just beginning to know and

Equipment, tables and shelves in Chelini’s studio are organized to facilitate production.

Chelini’s Santa Fe studio hugs the side of a canyon

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 33 Bowl set, to 11 inches (28 centimeters) in diameter, porcelain with Celadon Ash Glaze.

“Royal Torso Family,” to approximately 14 inches (36 centimeters) in height, porcelain, with alabaster glaze.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 34 The following glazes were developed, using Austra­ lian potter Ian Currie’s grid method; they are based on ashes from the Cerro Grande fire that swept through Los Alamos, New Mexico. Specifically, the ashes are from Martha Pearlburg’s kitchen, from a pile leftover after a fruitless search for her wedding ring that had been on the windowsill when she evacuated. “Melon Teapot Set,” to approximately 10 inches (25 centimeters) in height, thrown and altered porcelain, with copper red glaze, by Maxine Chelini, Chelini collected the ashes with Pearlburg at what Santa Fe, New Mexico. was left of her house before the clean-up crew took the rest away. The intention was to develop these glazes and offer them for use by those whose lives have been affected by the fire. The ashes were unwashed. The glaze was screened through a 60-mesh sieve. By dry weight, the leftover in the screen was approximately 9% of total ash. love the subtleties of it. The more time I spend on the wheel, the more I learn. The options are endless and never boring.” The pitcher I bought rises upward from a small foot; the Celadon Ash Glaze movement is unmistakable. It swells like a flower bud ready to (Cone 10, reduction) burst open. There are two lines, indented finger marks and a Cerro Grande Ash...... 22% quickly trailed line of slip on each side. There is a horizontal Whiting ...... 22 Custer Feldspar...... 22 break about halfway up, an accent, just below the neck. The neck EPK (Edgar Plastic Kaolin)...... 24 rises elegantly to the lip. The lip is angled sharply up toward the Silica (Flint)...... 10 pouring end. The handle flows off the back side of the lip. It was 100% pulled while on the pot and arcs gracefully back down, ending in a small curlicue perhaps 3 inches above the foot. Its arc follows Because the ash was from a house fire, it probably included the imaginary line of the body if it were extended rather than metallic elements from the melted plumbing and nails. If this recipe is mixed with only wood ash, an addition of pinched in toward the neck. 1-2% iron oxide may be necessary. For higher gloss, add The light green celadon glaze highlights its making. The more silica. glaze pools in the indents and runs off the high spots. It appears almost liquid, as if it will continue to flow even now. I can see Ocher Ash Glaze small bits and pieces floating in it. I can follow the line where (Cone 10, reduction) one drop of glaze flowed from the rim to the foot. Cerro Grande Ash...... 30.96% Each time I see my Chelini pitcher, I find myself tracing its Kona F-4 Feldspar...... 42.87 Ball Clay...... 26.17 form, appreciating the nuances. It feels good in my hands. When I pick it up by the handle, the pitcher feels balanced and surpris­ 100.00% Add: Yellow Ocher...... 11.36% ingly light. When I fill it up and try pouring, the water flows out. If I stop, there is one single drop that hangs on to the rim. If For olive green, add 0.25% cobalt oxide I pour out the rest, the last little bit in the bottom is as easy to pour out as the first. It has become one of my favorite pieces.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 35 GREAT POTS A Landmark Exhibition at the Newark Museum by Ulysses Grant Dietz

Since 1910, when it mounted its first decorative arts The underlying premise of the show is that a great pot exhibition, “Modern American Pottery,” the Newark demonstrates the passion with which a ceramics artist Museum in Newark, New Jersey, has been collecting interacts with clay and glaze, shape and surface. A great contemporary handmade ceramics. In the post-World pot doesn’t have to be a large pot, and a great potter War II years, it began to focus on studio pottery, begin­ doesn’t have to be a famous artist. No matter how he or ning with a 1948 exhibition called “The Decorative she approaches the work, the result is always an expres­ Arts Today,” which included works by Maija Grotell, sion of the relationship the potter has with the medium. Gertrud and Otto Natzler, and Edwin and Mary Scheier. The diversity of the museum’s holdings, including On February 14, the museum will open “Great Pots: American, Asian, African, Native American, British and Contemporary Ceramics from Function to Fantasy,” an European pots, will be represented. The similarities that exhibition devoted to studio pottery from the late 1930s link these pieces to each other and to ceramics history are to the present. at the core of the exhibition. It and the accompanying Featuring approximately 175 pieces by 138 potters, book are divided into three main themes: The Beautiful “Great Pots” will explore the many ways in which ce­ Pot, The Useful Pot and The Wise Pot. These themes are ramics artists have approached the vessel since the 1930s. further subdivided into eleven categories, each dealing

“Deep Bowl,” 4¾ inches (12 centimeters) in height, “Cylindrical Vase,” 10 1/4 inches (26 centimeters) in height, wheel-thrown stoneware with brushed decoration, 1946-51, stoneware with dark brown and white glazes, 1937, by Shoji Hamada, Mashiko, Japan. by Maija Grotell, New Brunswick, New Jersrey.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 36

“Vessel with Black Surface,” 211A inches (60 centimeters) “Large Lidded Jar,” 23½ inches (60 centimeters) in height, in height, coiled earthenware, 1995, by Magdalene Odundo, wheel-thrown and altered porcelain, 1984, by Chris Staley, Wrecclesham, Farnham, Surrey, England. State College, Pennsylvania.

with a different take on the vessel, such as The Painterly potters. At the same time, Native American potters, seek­ Pot, The Sculptural Pot, The Narrative Pot and The ing a new means of subsistence and cultural revival, were Impossible Pot. entering Euro-American art-consciousness in a big way. At the root of the Newark exhibition is the belief that The success of the early Native American matriarchs, there is no one kind of studio pottery that is better than such as Maria Martinez, Nampeyo, and Rose Gonzalez, another, that there is no one particular ceramics aesthetic was linked to the essential “modernity” of their pots. that has the right to claim art status more than another. These women, consciously or not, made pots that were All of the pots in this exhibition are treated with equal in sympathy with modern painting and sculpture of the respect, and their place in ceramics art history is given 1920s and ’30s. Subsequent generations have built on equal importance. this tradition. If Lolita Concho’s black-and-white can­ Although the exhibition is not strictly chronological, teen (circa 1980) draws knowingly on archaeological it does begin with pieces from the 1930s. Maija Grotell’s sources for its design, it also demonstrates a very mod­ dazzling black-and-white vase (made in 1937 when she ern-day graphic and design sensibility. was teaching at Rutgers University in New Jersey) em­ Native American pottery is routinely segregated in bodies the new modernism that this Finnish-born potter museums, completely ignoring the fact that an artist brought to the American ceramics world. She was among such as Lolita Concho is approaching her art in much the first to absorb and teach the idea that pots could be the same way that Shoji Hamada did in the 1950s. Like modern art. Concho’s work, Hamada’s painterly bowl (1946-51) is Long before Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada began both modern and ancient. The abstract painterly decora­ to influence them, American potters were already deeply tion of which Hamada was a master has its roots in tied to Asian prototypes and techniques. Grotell’s influence ancient Chinese utility wares, but it inspired studio pot­ had marked the beginning of a new direction for studio ters in the 1960s and continues to do so today.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 38

As many contemporary studio potters do, Concho conceived her canteen as a work of art—to be used visually but not physically. Hamada’s bowl, on the other hand, was intended to be functional. That, however, in no way lessens its status as a work of art. Both Hamada and Concho made their pots using traditional techniques, and both are meant to evoke a distant past, while at the same time being completely of the present. Hans Coper’s pots are revered internationally as “art,” yet they were as deeply rooted in the functional past as any folk pottery. It is this remarkable dual sense of antiquity and modernity that makes a Coper pot so compelling. His powerful (and underrated) “Tripot” of the late 1950s is a case in point. Like many of his vessels, this one has its origins in an archaic Chinese vessel form, found both in metal and clay. And yet there is something inescapably “fifties” about the shape. The tapered torpedolike forms seem iconic for the post­ war decade, appearing in everything from plastic hanging lamps to silver tea sets in the United States. There is still another subtlety at work here: the asymmetrical triple vase, each of its parts a slightly different height, pays homage to the serious Japa­ nese art of ikebana, or flower arranging. This is not a sculpture; this is a vase, meant to be used by someone who understood the elegant minimalism of this ephemeral Asian art form. While Coper’s search for self-expression was tem­ pered by his deep reverence for the utilitarian heri­ tage of his medium, Peter Voulkos and John Mason were both defying tradition and exploring new ways to attack clay. The results of their experiments ex­ pressed both a passion for clay and passionate yearn­ ing to be recognized as art. The irony is that Coper’s “Tripot” of 1958 is as great a work of art as any­ thing that Mason or Voulkos or their followers made in the late fifties. It is only a Western human frailty, the inability to see art and utility at the same time, that makes it hard to understand the funda­ mental artistic greatness of many pots. The most vivid contemporary comparisons to Coper’s iconic work are the magical pots of England’s Magdalene Odundo. It is bizarre that museums purchase her work for their African collections. Even though most museum collections (including the Newark Museum) no longer lump African ma­ terial into an “ethnology” category, it is hard to imagine how Odundo’s pots could be exhibited along with tribal shields and ceremonial masks, without any sort of explanatory interpretation. If there is any potter today who expresses the global worldliness of art, it is Magdalene Odundo. “Behind Quiet Veils of the Blue Window,” Raised in Kenya, but far removed from any 26 inches (66 centimeters) in height, whiteware tribal setting, Odundo studied art in London. She returned to Africa to study traditional with brush decoration and painted wood, 2001, by Red Weldon Sandlin, Decatur, Georgia. pottery making among women, but she also studied Greek painted slipwares and visited Maria Martinez in New Mexico. Her work does evoke African forms (in this case the 19th-century figural vessels of the Mangbetu people), but Odundo also is inspired by

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 40 Elizabethan costume and Japanese pottery. Her work is totally modern and sculptural, but she pays constant homage to timeless pot-making traditions. Chris Staley and Adrian Saxe would seem to be polar opposites in their approach to the vessel, but they share a sensibility that makes use of the formal qualities of the useful pot—in this case the covered jar—to produce a sculptural vessel. In both Staley’s 1984 jar and in Saxe’s 1979 jar, it is the visual relationships among the body, the foot and the lid that produce the sculptural whole. Staley’s pot is very hands on. Its monumental scale and luxurious glazes recall the work of his teacher at Alfred University, Val Cushing. The rough handling of the clay and the evident gestural scars show the influence of art potters, such as Voulkos, but Staley uses all of these influences and elements, and transforms what might have begun as a 16th-century Japanese tsubo (tea leaf storage jar) into something that is a distinctive personal expression, as well as an icon of postmodernist pottery. It is tough and decorative, brutal and beautiful. Saxe, on the other hand, is very hands off. His self­ consciously exquisite celadon-glazed jar, with its stone­ ware antelope poised primly at the top, is a different kind of postmodern take on a different kind of antique Asian jar. Here is the glamorous porcelain jar from a scholar’s study, rather than the rough mingei tea leaf jar from the storage room. There is more irony in Saxe’s approach to his pot, but both he and Staley pay homage to ceramics history and the love of clay without sacrificing anything of originality or personal vision. Finally, in a work that could certainly be classed as an “impossible” pot, Georgia potter Red Weldon Sandlin’s “Beyond Quiet Veils of the Blue Willow” takes off on the mythical china pattern called Blue Willow, which was in fact a willful misrepresentation of a bogus Chi­ nese legend used to sell English dishes to American consumers in the late 18th century. This multipart painted and sculpted pot—a teapot sits on top of a lidded jar, which revolves on ball bearings, all of which sits on a man’s head emerging surreally from a trompe l’oeil painted book—narrates the phony story of the two cursed lovebirds, while at the same time evoking America’s complex relationship with China, tea-drinking and con­ sumerism. A contemporary fantastic pot par excellence, it embodies the quest for individual expression begun by Maija Grotell in the 1930s; it achieves the nonfunc­ tional status of a painting or a sculpture explored by Voulkos in the 1950s; and it celebrates a complicated “Antelope Jar,” 141/2 inches (37 centimeters) ceramics and cultural relationship between two nations. in height, carved porcelain and stoneware, Moreover, it exudes a sense of wit and wisdom that has distinguished the best contempo­ 1979, by Adrian Saxe, Los Angeles, California. rary pottery in the past 30 years. These are just a few of the stories told by “Great Pots: Contemporary Ceramics from Function to Fantasy,” which will remain on view at the Newark Museum (www.newarkmuseum.org) through June 1, 2003.

The author Ulysses Grant Dietz has been the Curator of the Decorative Arts Department at the Newark Museum in Newark, New Jersey, since 1980.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 41

I cherish those times in life when I find myself completely en­ out through the process of creating. We soak up experiences, both gulfed in an action, then something compels me to stop and take visual and tactile, assign them meaning and associate them with account of what I am doing. These times most often occur in the emotion. We hold them in, sometimes for decades, and make studio where I find myself up to my elbows in clay, shaking my them our own. head and thinking, “That’s where that came from.” It is during After my first year of college, some friends from the ceramics those moments that I slow down enough to learn something department and I took a road trip through the Petrified Forest, about myself. I learn something about why I am making what I Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Monument Valley. Now, I am, and that I am making because of who I am. grew up in South Jersey and was studying in Tennessee, so this Recently, I found myself standing on the top of a stepladder, was, to say the least, a drastic change in landscape compared to ripping through layers of a 1200-pound monolith of wet clay anything I had seen. We hiked those canyons until our legs with a pressure washer. Without giving it much thought, this burned. All my food money was spent on film and postcards. would have been just another day in the studio, fumbling and I could not escape the fact that those canyon walls were just bumbling after my intuitions. Then I asked myself, “What are dirt. I was working with dirt and my work didn’t look a thing like you doing 12 feet in the air, covered in mud, with a power hose in that. I saw the landscape as sculpture; formed by time and weather, your hands?” It was one of those defining moments. permanent by its sheer mass. It was one of those times when you I recalled a time when I was five years old, carving out caves think, “I’m taking this with me.” with a garden hose for my army men in the front yard. Twenty- That trip changed my work entirely. The western landscape some years later, there I was still playing in the mud. The only taught me the power of scale and erosion. I began to think bigger. difference was I had given meaning to my playing and my tools Over the next few years I traded in my slurry bucket, needle tool were more expensive. Instead of army, I was playing millennia of and wooden rib for a wheelbarrow, turkey fork and shovel. I weathering on Monument Valley. borrowed a pressure washer, made stupidly large amounts of clay, It never ceases to amaze me how our obsessions make their and got to work. way from our hearts to our hands. Artists are like sponges. We The French poet/potter Jean Cocteau once said, “Distrust that endlessly soak up textures, forms and colors, then wring ourselves which is merely pretty.” The quote caught my attention because

“Mending by Breaking: Three Torsos,” to 17 inches (43 centimeters) in height, raku fired.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 child. I remember thinking, “There is nothing pretty about an old rotten tree stump.” I was right. Now I choose to believe that that painting was a self-portrait of my grandmother. She was born and grew old. She birthed six children and mothered all of their children. She smiled and cried for and because of them all. Her body sagged and slumped under gravity. Sixty years of life have worn her thin to where her skin is softer than the day she was born. The metaphor (and the beauty) is that she still stands well rooted. My grandmother was never once in her life pretty, and she continues to be beautiful. During the spring semester of my sophomore year, our ceram­ ics class took a day trip to Nashville. We were all artist wannabes and hungered to stand in awe under a reconstruction of the Parthenon, built to scale for the World’s Fair in the early 1900s. The statue of Athena, which was rumored to stand over 45 feet tall, had us salivating. I remember sitting in the van on the way there, hunched over my sketchbook, scribbling anticipations of grandeur. It was comforting to know that the heart and soul of European art history could be found in Nashville as well. We arrived, walked in and throughout, inspecting and sketching and smelling and soaking up every square inch. On the way home, my sketchbook mysteriously morphed into my second-grade blue book, “The Parthenon was big. Athena was big. It was nice. It was pretty.” My classmates raved for two hours with much of the same vocabulary, only less poetic. If they were drunk on the experience, then I was hung over. Honestly, if I had discovered a Baskin Robbins beneath the western pediment and a Chick-fil-A under the eastern, I would not have been surprised. The reconstruction was too “pretty.” My hope for an aesthetic experience had been trampled somewhere between faux finishes

“The Exodus,” 79 inches (201 centimeters) in height, raku-fired figure, and the smell of modern janitorial products. unfired base, left to weather, by Eric Botbyl, Jackson, Tennessee. Forgive me, but I’ll take the ruins. Give me a dozen broken columns textured with windburn. Give me figure fragments stained with rain. Give me the evidence of strength and history. Let me my work at the time had been described as being not as pretty as it stare at 5000 years of weathering. Let me shrink under man’s best used to be. The comment did not change my focus, although it attempts to be permanent. Let me smirk because man succeeded did make me stop to think that, perhaps, by gaining an aesthetic in his own fragile way. Maybe the difference between pretty and I had lost an audience. At the time, I was not really interested in beautiful is Nashville and Greece; maybe it’s the golf course and either, but the quote and the comments made me think about the Grand Canyon. the difference between pretty and beautiful. Now, I do not lose Whatever the difference, these ideas and experiences have sleep over the debate, but coupled with my experiences out been the catalyst behind my most recent body of work. The two West, it did trigger these thoughts: Pretty washes off. It is caked primary elements are figurative and earthen forms. The earthen on the surface. Neither soap nor a thousand years of weather can forms reference a physical relationship between evolution and dissolve beauty. erosion, while the figures reference the balance of a spiritual exile I have never heard someone comment on the ugliness of a tree. and exodus. Imagine any tree—the one you climbed as a child or read under The earthen forms are built solid and “eroded,” while the during college. Let it grow old and die. Strike it with lightning. figures are pieced together and formed from the inside out. I Admire the break. Weather it down to a stump. Cut it in half. enjoy the juxtaposition of surface treatments that results from the Count the rings. Take it out of the ground and plant it upside two opposing techniques: dissolving the form’s surface versus down. Imagine its history—from seed to sprout to sapling. swelling it from within. Ultimately, I am striving to create a Think of its buds and blossoms, its myriad colors in autumn, relational tension that references the permanence and fragility of and its nakedness in winter. It is beautiful at any and every stage our physical and spiritual bodies. of its life and death. My mother’s mother painted the portrait of an old rotten tree The author Eric Botbyl is currently resident artist at Morris Pottery stump that has hung in our home in New Jersey since I was a in Jackson, Tennessee.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 44 A Wood-Fired look from an Electric Kiln by Richard Busch

Bowl, 2½ inches (6 centimeters) in height, thrown and faceted stoneware, with brushed stain and layered glazes, fired to Cone 6 in an electric kiln.

Like most people who take up pottery, I was limited at the If, as they say, necessity is the mother of invention, I would beginning of my career to firing my pots to Cone 6 in an electric suggest that frustration can also be that mother. At least it was for kiln. This was at the local community center where I lived in me. Out of that sense of frustration came the desire to develop a northern Virginia. I say limited, but for the first year or so it Cone 6 oxidation glaze that would yield the wood/salt-fired look didn’t seem like a limitation. Just learning to center, make simple that had become something of an obsession. forms and digest a lot of basic information about the pottery So I started playing around with glaze recipes, and after a process was enough to keep my focus pretty narrow. But it wasn’t while, came up with something that filled the bill—until a couple too long before I began to notice the differences between oxida­ of years ago, when I finally built the salt kiln I’d been dreaming tion- and reduction-fired pottery. about for a long, long time. A few years later, I took a wood-firing workshop with McKenzie Not only did my ersatz wood/salt-glazing technique keep me Smith at Baltimore Clayworks. Out of that kiln—which we fired happy for years of electric-kiln firing, it also fooled a lot of people, to Cone 10 in about 14 hours, throwing in some salt around including some pretty experienced potters—at least at first glance. Cone 8—came some of the warmest, toastiest, most wonderfully Of course, when they picked up a pot and looked at the bottom, earthy and handsome pots I’d ever seen. It was inspiring. It they could see that the unglazed clay body had not been reduced. changed my outlook. I was hooked on the whole idea. But then, Nevertheless, the illusion was good enough for me. And over the not seeing any possibility of doing wood/salt myself on a regular years, I’ve had a number of people ask me for the recipe, which basis, I grew frustrated. I’ve always been happy to give.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 45 “Spaghetti Jar,” 11¾ inches (30 centimeters) in height, stoneware, with stain and glazes, fired to Cone 6 in an electric kiln.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 46 The recipe is actually a combination of two glazes that I mix in I would encourage anyone who wants a wood/salt look from different proportions, depending on the result I want. One of Cone 6 oxidation firings to experiment a bit with kiln tempera­ them is called White Satin Matt, which we used at the commu­ tures and with layered glazes. With a few tweaks here and there to nity center. The other is the one I developed; I call it Nutmeg: adjust for your own kiln and firing techniques, you’ll likely find a combination of color and texture that suits your taste to perfec­ White Satin Matt Glaze (Cone 6) tion. And who knows, you might even wind up fooling your Gerstley Borate...... 31.63 % friends in to thinking you’re actually firing with wood and salt— Talc...... 13.95 at least at first glance. Kona F-4 Feldspar...... 19.80 EPK (Edgar Plastic Kaolin) ...... 4.98 Silica (Flint)...... 29.64

100.00% Add:Zircopax...... 5.11% Bentonite...... 1.99 %

Nutmeg Glaze (Cone 6) Dolomite...... 23.30% Spodumene...... 23.30 Frit 3134 (Ferro)...... 6.80 Kentucky Ball Clay (OM 4)...... 23.30 Silica (Flint)...... 23.30

100.00% Add: Red Iron Oxide...... 1.07 % Yellow Ocher...... 3.24% Tin Oxide...... 4.85 % Bentonite...... 1.94% Most of the time, I mix the two glazes together in a ratio of two-thirds Nutmeg to one-third White Satin Matt. This gives me a light toasty color. For a darker, more quintessential wood-fired appearance, I decrease the proportion of White Satin Matt to about one-quarter or less. On many of these pots, I also added some black brushwork. An oxide stain was applied with a long, thin brush made from deer bristles. This recipe was passed along to me by my former teacher, mentor and good friend, Sybil West:

Sybil's Black Stain

Black Copper Oxide...... 24 % Cobalt Oxide...... 2 Manganese Dioxide...... 49 Nickel Oxide...... 5 Red Iron Oxide...... 20 100%

Note: Health risks are associated with metal oxides, particularly manganese. Handle care­ fully and fire in a well-ventilated kiln. To enhance the look of the black brushmarks, I first applied a fairly thick—roughly the consistency of heavy cream—swash of White Satin Matt over the main glaze combo, using a wide brush. This lightened the area behind the black, and made the brush- Vase, 9 inches (23 centimeters) in height, faceted stoneware, work really pop out. with brush decoration on glaze, fired to Cone 6 in an electric kiln, I also discovered that I could alter the surface texture by by Richard Busch, Leesburg, Virginia. varying the kiln temperature. Pots fired to about Cone 5 tended to produce a drier surface, while those fired to Cone 7, or even a little higher, came out with a shinier, more salted appearance.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 47 “Meditation I,” 48 inches (122 centimeters) In height, multiflred stoneware, “Mist,” 38½ inches (98 centimeters) in height, by Matt Nolen, New York City. by Elizabeth MacDonald, Bridgewater, Connecticut.

Architectural Ornamentation FRAGMENTS AND ELEMENTS

“Architectural ornamentation gives texture and visual interest to the space we inhabit and shapes we see in the streetscape. If architectural ornamentation is defined as that which is site-specific and integral to the structure, then the vocabulary becomes rich with possi­ bilities of columns, capitals, pediments, friezes, stained glass, arches, brickwork and many other forms of ornament,” commented Chris Rifkin, chief curator of “Architec­ tural Ornamentation: Fragments and Elements.” On view through November 3, 2002, at the South Shore Art Center in Cohasset, Massachusetts, the show featured architectural installations by 26 artists. Seven of those artists—Pam Golden, Marshfield, Massachusetts; Chris Gustin, South Dartmouth, Mas­ sachusetts; Elizabeth MacDonald, Bridgewater, Connecticut; Matt Nolen, New York City; Judy Rossman, Scituate, Massachusetts; Syma, Hingham, Massachusetts; and Su­ san Tunick, New York City—work in clay. Seventeen of the artists were provided with a shadowbox panel (intended to be their “raw canvas”), and asked to “interpret the architectural ornamentation in their work.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 48 PHOTOS: LANCE W. KEINIG, COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS

“Architectural Element: Student Window Corner,” 13 inches (33 centimeters) square, “Study for Brighton Clay Re-Leaf,” 30 inches earthenware, by Syma, New York City. (76 centimeters) high, by Susan Tunick, New York City.

They developed 17 very different solutions in a vibrant, interesting and exciting re­ sponse,” Rifkin noted. Nine artists were then asked to build a column, the only guide­ lines being that it have a flat, black, 44-inch-square base and a capital. “In both cases, the artists and architectural firms rose to [the] challenge and exceeded expectations.” Concurrent with the closing of the exhibition, the center sponsored a panel discussion on “The Nature of Ornamentation: Why it Matters to Modern Architecture.” “The synergies of this exhibition, like any good collaboration, extended well beyond my original dreams,” commented Syma, who proposed the show to the center. “Judging from the attendance and the audience response at the panel discussion, I think that we did spark interest in art as architectural detail, architectural ornament. And I think we raised an awareness of the value of having some way to continue the dialogue between artists and architects interested in this field.” A selection of works from the original show has since traveled to the Boston Architec­ tural Center, and will remain on view through February 14.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 49 Wally Schwab A Marriage of Austerity and Ostentation by Mark Andres

Large slab tray, 20 inches (51 centimeters) square, stoneware slab with a thrown foot, with base glaze poured and dipped, then several glazes trailed on top, fired to Cone 10 in reduction.

There is a delicate balance in all successful polychromed sculp­ ologies but as forms—by the necessity of their visual language. A ture: the more complex the form, the simpler the coloration may work of art must grab our attention, but unlike advertising, it need to be; the simpler the form, the more complex the coloration must also continue to hold it. can be. Many artists will no doubt take exception to such a The work that Oregon potter Wally Schwab had done up until proclamation. There are those who prefer simple form with simple three years ago might be characterized as austere in form and coloration, and there are those whose additive aesthetic is sensory restrained in coloration. His solidly functional vessels—jars, plates overload. The former risks the trap of purity, with the elements so and bowls with elegant proportions and understated glaze modu­ reductive they become dull or fail to hold our attention. The lations—were sober, beautiful and modest. How then to predict latter risks the trap of excess; it gets our attention all right, but the that he would suddenly shift his attention to complex coloration elements compete with one another so much, we give up trying to and ornamentation? For those familiar with Schwab’s long career, sort them out, and wonder why the artist hasn’t done a better job the shift was startling, rather like seeing someone who typically of doing this for us. The Chinese say the Middle Way is the most dresses in solid black and white appear one morning wearing difficult; it is also the riskiest, as it is always easier to justify artistic colored polka dots and checks. What happened? decisions on the basis of some idea of purity or of excess. Ulti­ Although it is problematic to speculate on artistic intentions mately, all such decisions have to justify themselves—not as ide­ and processes in general, I can only conclude that Schwab saw the

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 50 Oval tray, 18 inches (46 centimeters) in length, handbuilt stoneware with trailed glaze design, fired to Cone 10 in reduction. genuine risks and challenges of the Middle Way, and embraced There is no question his vessels have become energized by the them with vigor. The result has been a series of refreshing and addition of these lively patterns. The tension created between animated responses to the problems of form and coloration. form and ornament is especially appealing. The ornamentation Schwab’s signature sculptural elements are present in this work could just as easily overwhelm the form or be merely a timid and are immediately recognizable—sturdy, functional casseroles appendix, but these works allow both form and ornamentation to with fat handles and snug, solidly fitting lids; lidded jars standing have full effect. on short, wide feet with a substantial knob on the lid; and tall For example, one form that Schwab favors is the cylindrical cylindrical vases with tapered waists. They could be the great­ vase. The tallest of these (to about 20 inches in height) have a grandchildren of early American or English vernacular forms— strongly vertical profile, their upward energy accentuated by the functional, durable, dependable; elegant in their simplicity. tapered waist. But when these forms are painted in grids of fish or But now, these slightly austere forms are being decorated with reptile scales, the horizontal bands of the decorations slow down bands of scalloped, overlapping semicircles or alternately, dia­ the vertical pull of the silhouette, creating a contrapuntal tension. mond crosshatchings, each with a small brightly colored dot in The success of this tension depends on one element not over­ the center. These simple patterns (Asian in reference, derived whelming the other; thus, the color designs, though based on from abstractions of fish scales and reptile skins) completely cover complementary pairs or secondary triads, are usually connected some vessels or alternate in larger grid patterns on others. With through some major color extension of either red iron oxide or glazes of red iron oxide, Venetian red, cobalt oxide and chrome cobalt blue, creating a somewhat muted, though very rich, tonal­ oxide in various quantities and combinations, Schwab has found ity. If the colors were more intense, the pattern would overwhelm a wide range of color effects, giving some of the works a warm the form; if the form were more elaborate, the pattern would seem russet glow, and others the cool rich depth of the night sky. like noisy distraction.

Large bowl, 18 inches (46 centimeters) in diameter, thrown stoneware, with trailed glazes over a base glaze, then brushed with wax resist and additional glaze poured over base glaze in center, fired to Cone 10 in reduction Large covered jar, 18 inches (46 centimeters) in height, thrown stoneware with trailed glaze decoration, wax resist and additional glazes, fired to Cone 10 in reduction.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 53 Teapot, 10 inches (25 centimeters) in height, thrown and assembled porcelain, fired to Cone 10 in reduction.

The lidded jars employ a somewhat different strategy. They are simpler profiles (straight cylinders with no tapering) and have somewhat squatter pro­ portions. To these, Schwab adds very short, wide feet, which lift the jar about ½ inch off the ground. The lids are flat disks, each topped with a large, round, solid handle glazed in cobalt blue. These knobs fit snugly into the hand and have a very pleasant heft. The fact that all the knobs are blue creates, on the one hand, a unifying design element, and on the other, a distinctly goofy note. What is it about all these blue knobs that seems so unexpectedly silly? They function formally against the red iron oxide (cobalt blue being a near-perfect complement to iron red). They also lighten the sobriety of the form, elevating the visual weight of the tops, just as the tiny feet elevate the bottoms. Color choices intelli­ gently modulate sculptural forms. Although the fish and reptile patterns Schwab uses are simple enough to diagram, in the glazing

Vase, 20 inches (51 centimeters) in height, thrown stoneware, with trailed glazes over base glase, fired to Cone 10 in reduction. process they involve three separate applications, using wax resists, has refined the balance of elements to ever more subtle relation­ and then the addition of accent colors (the little bright dots in the ships. What began as an investigation into surface pattern on center of each scallop or diamond). For all these glazes to fire standard forms has now evolved into a more complex relationship successfully and to interact compatibly, there is a very narrow to both. margin for error. For more recent teapots, he has abandoned the hexagonal In addition to vases and jars, Schwab also decorates his famil­ body for a more extravagant and fluid form. His latest series of iar casseroles and large plates. In both these forms, he is confront­ teapots, which resemble two ship’s bells placed mouth to mouth ing the circle rather than the cylinder as the main sculptural and outfitted with large looping spouts and handles, seems to element. The plates are shallow concavities, whereas the casserole carry the spirit of extravagant ornamentation into sculptural form; lids are shallow convexities. Given the complexity of the casserole these are glazed in simple monochromes. forms, Schwab wisely applies ornament only in a wide decorative It is particularly interesting and inspiring to see a mature artist band around the edge of the lid. This band of alternating reptile with a long exhibition history undertake a new and complex and fish patterns has a way of keeping the large blank expanse of challenge with such intelligence, sensitivity and humor. He has the lid from feeling empty by slowing down the eye from its opened up a new dimension in his work at a time when many inevitable spiral to the center. potters lapse into virtuosity. On most plates, the trailed glaze patterns fill the entire surface. With this work, Wally Schwab has succeeded in complicating Here the scales take on a much more active role, filling the plates the simple without negating it. He has found a vitalizing and with bubbling energy. happy marriage of austerity and ostentation—a true Middle Way. The bulk of this current work was begun during a sabbatical year from teaching at Portland Community College in Portland, The author A painter and a writer, Mark Andres resides in Port­ Oregon. Since that first foray into complex ornamentation, Schwab land, Oregon.

Casserole, 13 inches (33 centimeters) in height, thrown stoneware, with dipped and trailed glazes, fired to Cone 10 in reduction, by Wally Schwab, Aloha, Oregon; http://spot.pcc.edu/~wschwab . MarcelaNoriega Del Valle by Christian Toto

“Clay and Peru are one and the the United States to complete same,” commented Marcela Nori­ her art education. She earned a ega Del Valle, when talking about B.F.A. at the Corcoran School the landscapes of her homeland, of Art in Washington, D.C., be­ as well as the pre-Columbian ar­ fore enrolling at nearby Ameri­ tifacts that decorate so many of can University. Peru’s public and private interi­ “The Corcoran proved to be ors. “Clay is everywhere.” the opposite of the Peru school. She came from “the desert, The professors didn’t teach much from the coast, one of the driest about craft, but about creativity deserts on the earth.” The purity and ideas,” she noted. “In the and elegance of Peru’s dunes and beginning, it was shocking.” beaches can be found in her clay Making matters worse was sculptures. Their surfaces re­ her struggle with English, a battle semble those dry landscapes, now long since won. Today, she cracked and stressed, yet teeming works out of her Chapel Hill, with vitality. Some ripple with North Carolina, home. sinewy potential. She prefers to impart subtle Noriega Del Valle may never messages through her sculpture, have discovered her calling if not not easily interpreted stories or for an innocent question posed morals. She also rarely strays far by a professor. The young artist from her clay’s natural tones. was working toward a master’s de­ “I’m not a colorist,” said gree in sculpture at American Noriega Del Valle. “If I use a University in Washington, D.C., colored glaze, it’s only as an ac­ when the professor asked why she cent for a piece.” didn’t fire her pieces rather than “Warrior,” 25 inches (64 centimeters) in height, handbuilt stoneware, Before beginning a sculpture, cast them. Previously, her work accented with oxides, fired to Cone 6 in oxidation, $950. she sketches her thoughts “to vi­ had involved casting clay in stur­ sually solve any structural prob­ dier materials. lems lurking in the design. In “I realized I always had a sense of disappointment in seeing the previous years, I found inspiration in the animal kingdom, nota­ clay cast in another material....There was something lost. This bly from proud animals like horses and canines. Lately, I discov­ was what I was looking for. Why did I wait so long?” ered just how much seal and walrus skin resembles the craggy From that point on, her work changed. So did the intensity quality of my daywork. she brought to it. “When you see seals or walruses, hundreds of them, they look She had begun her art career at the School of Fine Arts in Peru, like they’re made of clay. Their skin looks exactly like what I like a government-run institute that hammered home the basics. “You clay to do...even when their skin collapses. When they’re basking go from nine in the morning until nine at night,” she recalled. in the sun, their skin looks like old leather. The experience was invaluable for a neophyte artist needing to “To understand the nuances of seals’ bodies, I made numerous learn fundamentals; however, the government ties sometimes en­ trips to the nearby National Zoo, sketchbook and camera in tangled her lessons in the politics du jour. Courses frequently hand. I take pictures, but when I draw, I understand. A few trips were postponed while teachers struck for higher wages. to the Islas Ballestas in Peru where seals live and breed fleshed out So about 12 years ago, Noriega Del Valle decided to come to my education.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 56 “To create one of my clay seals, I begin by using a base of paper building from the neck up with small slabs rolled thin with a wrapped with plastic. Occasionally, I use a piece of aluminum rolling pin. Once the seal’s pose has been properly set, I remove wire to help define a curve or twist in the seal’s body. the plastic and allow the clay to dry. Chunks of foam cut into “Then I make the slab, using heavily grogged sculpture clay. different shapes, some curved, some straight, support the clay The clay is placed between two pieces of thick plastic that has until it is strong enough to hold its shape alone. The final step is been previously wrinkled. When the clay goes through the slab to create and affix flippers to the form. roller, all of the plastic wrinkles transfer onto the slab, giving it a “Once the clay is stiff enough, I carefully carve a hole under look very similar to that of seal skin. the seal so that it can be attached to a pedestal. Then, I bisque fire “Next, I cover the structure with the textured slab, which may it at Cone 06. Oxides and stains are used to accentuate the clay’s have to be cut to fit precisely. The body is shaped with the plastic folds. No glaze is applied. The second firing is at Cone 6 in an still attached to preserve the wrinkled texture on the clay. electric kiln or at Cone 10 in a gas kiln.” “The tail is created by pinching one end of the body shut. The Like her ancestors, Noriega Del Valle draws inspiration from other end is left open to receive the head, which can be created the spare beauty of Peru’s landscapes. It’s a connection for which separately, then attached. More often, though, I will continue she remains grateful.

“Seal,” 20 inches (51 centimeters) in height, stoneware, “Seal,” 21 inches (53 centimeters) in length, handbuilt stoneware with oxides, fired in oxidation with oxides, fired to Cone 6 in oxidation, $600. to Cone 6, $600; by Marcela Noriega Dei Valle, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 57 Space and Form New Work by Maren Kloppmann bv Jennifer Otis “Stillness is what I want my work to carry. Still­ ness at dusk when shadows disappear into dark­ ness. Stillness at dawn when shadows grow with the sunlight until the zenith makes them live illu­ sive.” For ceramics artist Maren Kloppmann, the concepts of space and containment are sources of inspiration. She investigates these ideas through a series of vessel forms that range from large, un­ adorned bowls to increasingly complex wheel- thrown and altered vases and boxes. “The thrown pots I make find their identity in the dialogue of form and function; the handbuilt coil vessels express, in their simplicity, the essence of a container,” explains Kloppmann. By concen­ trating on the essence of a vessel, she intends to “extend the idea of functional containment to that of sculptural presence.” Kloppmann is also interested in the vessel as an archetype. “Our culture does not need con­ tainers for the domestic ritual of carrying water daily from the well to the house. This ritual I perceive as archetypal—an archetype of funda­ mental human existence. When the vessel is taken out of its utilitarian context, it begins to function in the conceptual terrain. Nonetheless, the notion of utility preceded the artistic concept. The philo­ sophical space of a vessel is therefore anchored in its utilitarian predecessor.” The visual language with which Kloppmann has chosen to communicate uses an intentionally reductive vocabulary. She describes her work as “a minimal expression of form and surface.” By do­ ing so, she links her aesthetic decisions to those of

Above: Vase, 8 Inches (20 centimeters) in height, soda-fired porcelain.

Left: Platter, 10 inches (25 centimeters) in length, soda-fired porcelain.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 59 Kloppmann’s move to her new studio in St. Paul, Minnesota, Kloppmann demonstrating throwing during the “American Pottery Festival 2001” reinforced her interest in spatial relationships and perception. at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Hans Coper, Richard DeVore and Ruth Duck­ to observe a tentative visitor approaching a vase worth. However, she has developed her own dis­ form, walking with caution around it, stooping tinct voice within the boundaries of soda firing slightly to peer inside, like someone who is look­ one glaze and three terra sigillatas, a decision that ing through the window of unfamiliar buildings gives her a palette of four colors and two types of to determine if they are inhabited or abandoned. surfaces. Limiting choices reflects her desire for Another visitor did not hesitate to pick up a simplicity and clarity of process and form. box and remove the lid. This action revealed an On visiting Kloppmann’s exhibition “Space and interior space segmented into black and white Form” at AKAR Architecture + Design in Iowa sections of precisely applied glaze. When the piece City, Iowa, the first pieces to capture my undi­ was put down and the lid replaced, the box re­ vided attention were two small vase forms, thrown sembled a model of a modern edifice. Kloppmann’s cylinders that had been altered to the point of architectural references are subtle, yet deliberate. almost eliminating the interior space, leaving just It seems appropriate that this, her first solo exhi­ enough room to offer the possibility of function­ bition, was held at a gallery run by two architects ality. Moving on, I encountered two platters that with a passion for ceramics. are essentially the same form: On top of an el­ The British art historian Philip Rawson wrote egant foot sat an elongated slab, sloping gently about the interplay that exists between ceramic down in the center and gradually tapering to a objects and the human psyche in his book Ceram­ point at either end. ics. “The basis of expression in ceramics—as in Despite their apparent simplicity, they manage the other arts—is the way the forms of a pot to trigger within me a feeling of awe. The colors implicate in their presence a wide range of the on one are predominantly white with hints of spectator’s personal experience,” Rawson noted. green, gray and black. There is a delicately incised “As we live our lives, we accumulate a fund of line down the recessed center. These formal ele­ memory traces based on our sensory experience. ments of line, shape and color suggest a leaf that is In our minds, these remain charged, it seems, about to lose all memory of being green. The with vestiges of the emotions that accompanied platter becomes a poignant reminder of a process the original experiences. of transformation. “It is in the realm of these submerged memory Small, geometric shapes had been cut through traces that creative art moves, bringing them into the sides and tops of several vases, providing a the orbit of everyday life, and making them avail­ direct invitation for people to access and contem­ able to the experience of others by formalizing plate the interior spaces. I stopped for a moment and projecting them onto elements of the familiar

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 60 Box, 5 inches (13 centimeters) in height, soda-fired porcelain with terra sigillata and glaze.

Vessel, 6 inches (15 centimeters) in height, soda-fired porcelain.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 61 world that can receive and transmit them....The relate to the thrown and constructed work. To simple, everyday object, the pot, upon which all exhibit a body of work together is yet another the feeling responses are focused, is able to carry a dimension, as the pieces begin to relate to each complex meaning from one mind to another.” other in their completion.” For Kloppmann, this dual concept of memory This latest work included pieces fired in an “nourishes my aspiration to create, as it speaks electric kiln, as well as the soda-fired ware. “Aes­ directly from the spirit within. The vessel of the thetically and conceptually, I work within certain body is a container for dual memory, for the parameters,” says Kloppmann. “Technically, conscious and the unconscious, for memory and boundaries are being crossed; the thrown pieces memory traces. The clay vessel can equally present are somewhat in juxtaposition to the more or­ a containment for duality, bearing substance as ganic coil work, and the atmospheric soda surface well as place for memory.” is now related to the controlled electric firing.” The year 2001 was transitional for Kloppmann. Kloppmann grew up in Germany, where she She not only had her first two solo exhibitions began her studies in ceramics. After an appren­ (the first at AKAR in Iowa City; the second at the ticeship, she left Germany for what she thought Rochester Art Center in Rochester, Minnesota), would be a six-month visit to the United States; she also moved her studio from Stillwater, Minne­ however, various opportunities and connections sota, to St. Paul. led to a change of plans. She graduated from the She found “the opportunity to create work for University of Minnesota in 1996. two solo shows in such short succession immensely As she continues to settle into her new studio exhilarating. A solo exhibition is significant be­ space, she thinks “about how we inhabit space, cause it creates another level of focus and intent. how space can be perceived as abundant or con­ When I am working, I already am thinking about stricting, and how we create our personal space, creating a body of work, not just individual pieces. living as well as working, within a given param­ For example, I think about how the coiled pieces eter of structure.”

Platter, 13 inches (33 centimeters) in length, soda-fired porcelain, by Maren Kloppmann, St. Paul, Minnesota. Attaining Merchant Status by Mark E. Battersby

Today, nearly all commercial firms accept credit cards. Not only can counts even before the crackdown and the threat of new bankruptcy customers buy whenever the impulse strikes them, credit-card sales laws. Any merchant going to a lender to open a credit-card account mean almost instant money in the business’ bank account. In fact, has long been required to make a full financial disclosure, just as any business that does not accept credit cards cannot compete in though asking for a loan. today’s marketplace. Not providing customers with the ease of using For every potter whose bank has denied him or her a merchant credit cards means that sales will be lost. Unfortunately, the ripple account, there is a so-called independent service organization (ISO) effect of new federal guidelines issued for the so-called subprime just waiting to serve. The ISO contracts with the bank, in effect, credit-card businesses that cater to customers with poor credit or low bearing the risk of doing business with the potter. Naturally, the ISO income is already trickling down to studio ceramics businesses. The will charge for its services. A word of warning: although there are impending passage of the first reform of our bankruptcy laws in over over 1400 ISOs in the United States, they are not regulated. Investi­ 25 years will also make that coveted “merchant” status more difficult gate the extra charges before entering into any agreement. to obtain and more expensive to maintain. The government’s new guidelines have already pushed some credit- Accepting Plastic card companies specializing in the subprime market—estimated to While computer terminals have helped combat fraud, the tech­ be as much as 37% of all credit-card loans—to move toward chang­ nology has also increased costs for merchants, as the scanners are ing their accounting methods and to tighten their lending practices. more expensive than the manual imprinters of the past. On the The crackdown’s impact on those who process the credit-card sales of bright side, the electronic processing of credit charges often means small businesses is also causing the industry to be more selective the money is available much sooner. An imprinter can still be ob­ about who will be permitted to accept credit cards and at what price. tained for about $25; however, a scanner, under a four-year lease, will usually run $75 to $100 per month. Of course, scanning equipment Credit-Card Basics can be purchased, but be sure to find out what the bank will charge to It is important to understand the basics of credit-card transac­ connect that equipment to its system. The extra costs may make tions—and the charges that accompany merchant status. That un­ renting less expensive than buying. derstanding means more than merely deciding which cards to accept— Another, less expensive, option is also available: software for your Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, etc. The charge paid own computer. Just make certain beforehand that it is compatible to these card companies will vary, depending on your sales volume with the bank’s system. and the size of the average transaction. The average fee usually runs between 2.5% and 5.5% percent of sales, although American Express Staying the Course is usually a bit higher. As with everything else, shopping for the best At the time of a sale, your bank will authorize any charges and and most affordable rates makes a great deal of sense. Never assume notify the credit-card company (or an agent acting on its behalf) of that the rates charged by banks and credit-card companies are the the charge. The credit-card company will collect the money from the same, or that they are the same for every ceramics business. bank that issued the card, send it to your bank and bill the customer. Among the terms encountered will be the discount rate, which is Once your bank has the money, it will deposit it (minus the discount the percentage that is deducted from the total transaction amount rate) into your account. and paid to the credit-card company and the issuing bank (2.5% to It is an unfortunate reality that any business that has too many 5.5%). It is comprised of the transaction charges, the interchange “chargebacks” may be in danger of losing its merchant card account. rate and the transmission costs. It is a good idea to know what the chargeback rate is, as well as the The transaction charge is essentially the profit that the processing limit set by the credit-card company (usually about 1% of credit network makes. It is usually included in the discount rate, but it may sales). If your business is getting close to that limit on a particular be charged separately. The transaction charge is often the only ele­ credit card, perhaps customers could be asked to pay using one of the ment of the discount rate that can be negotiated. If one bank has a credit cards that isn’t in danger. transaction fee higher than another bank, ask the bank why that is so. So-called “procedural chargebacks” occur because the business And don’t forget to ask whether additional services are available for didn’t follow the rules set by the bank. The frequency of these that higher fee. chargebacks can be reduced by developing a routine that is always The interchange rate is the cost of processing the charge through followed. For example, always check the expiration date before run­ the particular credit card’s network. For example, the current inter­ ning the card through the scanner. change rate for “swiped transactions” is 1.3% for MasterCard and Customer-initiated chargebacks occur when customers attempt 1.35% for Visa. Federal regulations require an additional charge of to cancel the transaction for some reason, usually because the goods about 0.3% each for the “nonswiped” transactions. Thus, the total were damaged or because they claim the charge was excessive. A interchange rate for nonswiped transactions is 1.6% for MasterCard chargeback differs from a simple return of your merchandise because and 1.65% for Visa. the credit-card company is involved. In other words, the customer The transmission cost is the fee charged for running the sales has complained not to you, but to the credit-card company. If the information through the processing network. It is expressed as a cost customer complains directly, you can repay the customer without per ticket and runs about 18<£ to 23<£ per transaction. affecting your chargeback status. With a little investigation, every studio artist should find that Applying for a Merchant Account attaining merchant status is not only possible, but affordable. All that With credit-card fraud topping $200 million each year, banks is required is better understanding of the entire credit-card process and other lenders were skittish about commercial credit-card ac­ and a little shopping for the best deal.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 63 THE CERAMIC ROAD WARRIOR An Interview with Ray Gross by Joel Betancourt

“Harley,” 60 inches (152 centimeters) in length, porcelain, with glazes and lusters.

On the corner of South M Street in Lake Worth, Florida, is a sider coming closer, but then I heard Ray shout, “Hey, Joel.” He small peach-colored house. It’s a lonely little place that doesn’t had a foot-long ceramic toothbrush in hand. He called the dog even look lived in. over, and I was no longer in danger of becoming a new chew toy. “Just go around the back,” I remember Ray Gross saying in a Ray’s studio consists of a large outdoor work area covered by telephone conversation that took place close to seven years ago. I an aluminum awning and a nylon tarp. He has two kick wheels, a was applying for an apprenticeship then. slab roller and five worktables. His kilns are inside a shed with On a recent visit, I pulled into the driveway and glanced over two large rooms. The first is used for his electric kilns and kiln at the house. It still looked empty to me. No one would ever furniture. The second room serves as his office and indoor studio. expect to find a ceramics studio behind it. When I apprenticed with him, we usually worked outside. I As I walked toward the work area, I was greeted by an 80- looked down at the pieces in front of him. He had close to 20 pound Weimaraner named Helmet. His barks made me recon­ leather-hard toothbrushes waiting for details.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 64 From what I remember of our first meeting, Ray has always he was preparing for a Buyers Market of American Craft in made “things.” Not pots or sculptures, but “things.” Most are re­ February. He sent the magazine editors his slides and a letter that creations—from pens and pencils to Craftsman tools, even a life- proposed, “If you give me a page, I’ll come to the February show size Harley Davidson motorcycle. Some forms are reproduced to with a full-size Harley Davidson.” Time went by. “Thirty-one scale; others are exaggerated. I still remember extruding a 2-foot- days before the show, all my stuff gets shipped back. No cover long hexagonal cylinder that later became a pencil. letter. No nothing. My heart sinks. I think the whole thing is “I make these everyday objects. People call it pop art revised,” done. Dead in the water.” he once told me. Ray gave up and decided to go back to making the usual items His aim is to get people to really see. “Since I was trained in for the show. “I had already made up my mind. My whole the beginning to be a painter, I was taught to coordinate my eye thinking was that I could make $10,000 worth of paint brushes— with my hand. You’re really taught to see again.” little things instead of this motorcycle.” He is amazed by the number of people who don’t ever truly A few days passed and he received a complimentary issue of look at their surroundings. It seems as though everything is merely American Style in the mail with a note attached: “Dear Ray, Check glanced at, never examined. out page 41.” Ray ruffled through the pages to 41 and inside he Ray often tells the story about a ceramic camera placed on a found an article. “It promised that I was going to have this shelf in his outdoor studio. “I had two or three people come visit motorcycle to show.” me and say, ‘You shouldn’t leave your camera sitting out here.’ Ray was caught completely off guard. “I hadn’t even made the They never saw it as a piece of art because they never really saw it. clay. I didn’t have the glaze bought.” They never really looked at it.” His work teaches people to see details as an artist sees them. “It’s really trying to educate people to look and to see beauty in different kinds of things.” Ray’s interest in art began at an early age. His mother worked at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum. “I grew up running up and down the halls with the dinosaur bones and the pottery and all the exhibits.” His love of ceramics began around the same time. “I remem­ ber there was a little Mexican teapot that was made of underfired clay.” It was for a child’s play set. “When you poured water into it to make tea, it actually smelled like dirt.” As a teenager, he played football and basketball, but it wasn’t until after an accident that Ray moved from the football field into the art room. “When I was a junior, I cut my leg badly. I couldn’t play football. So, I started hanging out in the art class more.” From then on, he was determined to become a painter. He started studying at Palm Beach Community College, then trans­ ferred to Florida Atlantic University. It was at FAU that he fell in love with his chosen medium, clay. “What I liked about it was that it was multitasked,” he said. “Every day there was a different deal. One day, you’re mixing clay; the next, you’re firing a kiln. The next day you’re fixing the kiln.” He still enjoys this juggling act, which is similar to but differ­ ent from that of a potter: “The way I work is really different than what most people do. My friend Don Davis is famous for his teapots. He gets up in the morning. He does his push-ups on his fingertips, then he makes 100 bowls, all the same size. You might as well put me in prison if I had to do that. What I like is the variety. For me, it’s the thrill of designing a new piece.” Ray’s comment made me think of one of his biggest design challenges: a life-size Harley Davidson. There’s an interesting “Tool Pouch,” life-size, porcelain with glazes and lusters. story behind its construction. Ray said it all started on a dare. Apparently, he wrote to American Style and promised a life-size bike if the magazine would print a story on his work. At the time,

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 65 When Ray shared his dilemma with assistant Mark Fairchild, Mark replied, “Oh wow. This is a challenge. Let’s just do it.” Pressured by time, they immediately went to work. “I got up the next morning at five o’clock,” Ray said. “Mark showed up with a pot of coffee, and we started making this motorcycle.” In the beginning, Ray’s enthusiasm became more of a hin­ drance than a help. “I was so excited that I didn’t think it through. I started thinking of it like it was metal. I started thinking that I’m making a real motorcycle.” His five attempts failed. “It cracked and it fell apart.” Ray was working backward. He built the bars and frame first, then made the motor and seat. The motor was so large that it kept the moisture in the seat, preventing everything from drying evenly. “It was not the right way to do it. What I should have done was just make a slab and put the motor on it, then build everything around it and it would have been fine.” Building the bike was one problem. Loading it into the kiln was another. “It took an hour to get it into the kiln. We had to dismantle the entire kiln to get it in there.” After heating for three days on low, it was then brought up to temperature. Shortly after the firing, an incident gave Ray and Mark a glimpse of the effect the Harley was going to have on people. “Mark and I were frantically working,” Ray recalled. “I was drill­ ing the porcelain to screw it together. “A guy stopped by to read the water meter. Mark looked at me and said, ‘You know what that was?’ “Yeah, it was the meter man.” “Yeah, but do you know what happened?” “What do you mean, what happened?” “He thought we were working on a real motorcycle.” The Harley not only fooled several people, it also caught the attention of other artists and arts professionals. It even caught the attention of one museum, the American Craft Museum (now the Museum of Arts + Design) in New York City. While Ray had his booth set up at the Buyers Market of American Crafts, two museum representatives approached him about doing a show. Ray jumped at the chance. “Where do I sign? What do I have to do? Who do I have to shoot?” was his reply to their offer. He was given a solo emerging artist show in June 1999. On the day of the opening, Ray stood outside the museum and watched people press their noses against the window. “It was phenomenal.” Given this experience, one might think that Ray was always lucky. Not so. His father passed away when Ray was 18, and he stayed in Florida for the duration of his education to help out his mother. At FAU, David Tell, his ceramics instructor at the time, had pushed Ray to pursue a master’s degree at Alfred University. Instead of following his professor’s advice, Ray decided to attend the University of Florida. He was uncomfortable moving so far away from his widowed mother. “Paint Can Obelisk,” 64 inches (163 centimeters) in height, porcelain. After grad school, Ray was faced with the predicament of making a living. A friend suggested he work for the post office. The idea was to work as a postman in the morning and concen­ trate on artwork in the afternoon. When he explained his postal

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 66 plan to his uncle, Jack Schmidt, he was not too happy with it. Jack excused himself, left the room and returned with a surprise. “He came out and handed me a check and said, ‘You’re not going to be a postman. If you go and work for the post office for a week, you’re going to end up being a postman for the rest of your life. You won’t be an artist. Here’s enough money for you to buy a kiln, a wheel and 5 tons of clay.” There was a hitch, though. To repay his uncle, Ray had to check up on close to 40 apartments that Jack owned. “Every time Mrs. Jones’ toilet broke, I was there fixing it. If the roof leaked, I was on the roof on Saturday fixing it.” Jack kept a credit list of Ray’s work, but he always refused any money that Ray would offer to pay back the loan. “Every time I did something, he credited my account, but every time I’d get some money, he’d say, ‘No, no, no. Just put your money back into your business. Buy more clay. Buy more glaze.’” In the beginning, Ray was a little overwhelmed. School had prepared him to be an artist, not a businessman. “I didn’t know how to run a business. That’s one of the bad things about going to school today. They give you an education in art—what’s good and bad art. They teach you about art history. But nobody ever tells you that you need a building permit or a business license.” His initial work was more traditional—primarily functional ware. It was a chance meeting with a rich patron that led to the work he does now. “I met this woman in Palm Beach who wanted me to make flowers.” The patron was tired of wasting money on flower arrange­ ments that were constantly dying. She proposed to give Ray “the money that I pay the Palm Beach florist in the year as a commis­ sion. ‘My flowers are always dead,’ she said. ‘My maids are con­ stantly throwing the flowers out. I want you to make these flowers out of clay.’” Ray wasn’t too excited. “I just looked at her and said, ‘I don’t want to make flowers.’” As the woman was about to storm out of his studio, she caught sight of several sumi brushes dipped in glaze. “She looked at me and said, ‘Okay, if you won’t make me flowers, make me brushes.’ And that’s what started the whole thing.” From the brushes came the tubes of paint. Then at a show Ray overheard a comment from a child. “Mommy, mommy, look at the toothpaste.” So from the paint tubes came toothpaste tubes. With time, other items evolved. “Paint Brushes,” life-size, porcelain, with glazes and lusters. Early on, Ray also became involved with Clay Concepts, a company in West Palm Beach, which was started and backed by Joan Demers. The company held classes and sold equipment as well as ceramic work. Ray was in charge of a crew of five people. In her travels around the world, Joan would often find interesting work to reproduce. “She would go to Spain and see some new kind of pottery,” Ray recalled. “She would come back with terra­ cotta bowls with gold rims. She’d say, ‘We have to make these. They’re so Palm Beach; we have to make these.’” “Four or five years into that I was just frustrated. I wanted to do art shows too. I wanted to do my own work,” Ray explained.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 67 transferred. There was no charisma. There was no hook. They were boring. They were like blue-light specials from Kmart.” Making a living as an artist is “a proverbial roller coaster,” Ray observed. “You have to learn to balance yourself. One of the biggest problems for anybody who’s going to go into studio work is that you have to capitalize yourself. In other words, you’ve got to have the bucks somehow.” Another thing he pushes is organization. “The people who are successful in life organize themselves. They have a list. Ninety percent of all people are in a sailboat and they don’t know how to hold the rudder. They’re just going and the wind is blowing them wherever they go. They really don’t have a plan. If you’re going to be a studio artist, you need to have a plan. Get a plan and stick to the plan. You also have to be smart enough to steer the boat. So, if you’re making your items and nobody is buying them, then you have to change. “Another thing you have to decide is: are you going to deal with galleries, or are you going to do wholesale or retail, or are you going to do a little bit of each? Everybody’s work is different and everybody has a different appeal. Some people can place work in galleries, and it sells like crazy. Other people can’t.” When Ray shows his work, he also understands that everyone is going to have an opinion. “You have to be thick skinned. Some people like it; some people don’t. Some people just don’t under­ stand it. Whatever they say, you have to deal with it, and you can’t get mad.” He also mentions that artists really need to listen to their

“Arson! Gas Can and Bic,” life-size, porcelain with glazes and luster, customers. “You have to listen to your public if you’re going to be by Ray Gross, Lake Worth, Florida. in business,” Gross said. “This is going to be like nails to a chalkboard to a lot of people, but a gallery is a glorified gift shop in a lot of ways. You have to have things that appeal to people or that they can give as gifts.” “The potential to make more money was in Palm Beach, but I When it comes to wholesale distributors and galleries, “it’s a really liked the freedom factor.” fickle business. You’ve always got to have another deal cooking He left Clay Concepts and joined Gristmill Pottery at The Inn and you’ve got to work at it. You have to return telephone calls on at Gristmill Square in Warm Springs, Virginia. There he was time. You have to be responsible. If you say you’re going to ship given the freedom to work on his own, as well as with a team. something out at a certain time, you’ve got to do it.” While in Virginia, he rented an apartment that was part of an old He also mentioned that artists have to research galleries and country store. Five years later he bought the entire property and distributors. When he travels, he talks to other artists to find out turned it into a gallery. He left the gristmill when his gallery, which are reliable. “There are a lot of people that don’t pay.” Expressions Incorporated, opened. Ray stresses the use of contracts when it comes to consign­ Ray has opened or helped open and run several galleries over ment. They don’t have to be lengthy contracts made by attorneys, the years: RSVP in Bar Harbor, Maine; Expressions Incorporated but something has to be in writing. “You need to write things in Warm Springs, Virginia; and Lake Avenue Gallery in Lake down. If you allow people to take advantage of you, then a lot of Worth, Florida. times, they will.” At the present time, Ray is only involved with his art. “I enjoy When asked about what an artist should do when approaching doing the work but I like doing it on my own terms. a gallery, Ray answered very directly: “Be neat. Be polite. Be “It’s important to be involved with what you want to do. It has together. Call before you go. Always make an appointment.” to come from your heart.” I made an appointment with Ray one more time to check a He admitted a time when he pumped out several pieces just few details in the interview. Back at the lonely little house on for profit: “I went to Coconut Grove one time and made 200 South M Street, I thought about how empty it still looked. It’s little soap dishes, thinking I’d get 10, 15 or 20 bucks a piece for amazing that something so empty looking can have so many them. I broke one and brought 199 back with me. Nothing stories and such good advice just behind it.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 68 The pieces are fired on a metal rack, which aids in removal from the kiln The rack and pieces are placed in a barrel filled with combustibles.

CJ Buckner’s Raku Menagerie by Henry Atwater

Colorful elephants, giraffes, cats, pigs, lizards, birds and a Buckner spent her early childhood years on a farm, where host of other whimsical creatures are sighted frequently at animals caught her fancy at a young age. That interest in Galeria el Jardin, Cuyamungue, New Mexico, 10 miles north animals and life sciences led to a bachelor’s degree in biologi­ of Santa Fe. This mischievous menagerie of raku-fired figures cal sciences from the University of Iowa, and a master’s degree is the creation of artist CJ Buckner of Los Alamos, New Mexico. “Each creature is my interpretation of an animal with a unique personality,” she explains. Although she has made many cats, for example, each has a distinct appearance and is given an individual name, often using a play on words that reflects her acknowledged “off- center sense of humor.” A recent feline was the fiendish- looking “Lucy Fur.” “Basically, my aim is to make each piece fun,” says Buckner. “I want the viewer to smile and have an immediate friendly relationship with the critter. I think most people feel that they are adopting a friend, not just buying a hunk of clay. It always amazes me when I talk with people who have one (or more) of my pieces and they refer to it by the name I have given it, rather than as ‘one of your cats.’” “Red Neck Chick” (left), and “Red Neck Chicken,” handbuilt, raku fired.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 69 in zoology from Arizona State University. Then she decided At this stage, the clay will remain workable for several days to follow an urge to try her hand at watercolor painting. She if stored in a heavy plastic bag. This allows time for her to took a few painting classes initially, but was largely self- shape the head, arms, legs and any other appendages by hand taught. Since she was living in the high mesa and canyon and attach them to the torso. country of the Pajarito Plateau adjacent to the Jemez Moun­ When the clay has thoroughly air dried, Buckner bisque tains, it was natural for Buckner to paint outdoor scenes of fires the animal to Cone 06 in an electric kiln. She then northern New Mexico’s grand landscapes and skies. patterns the surfaces of the bisqueware by penciling in lines to She worked exclusively in that medium for the next 20 define the regions that will receive the various glaze colors. years, selling her landscapes and still-life paintings through Next, she brushes a wax over these pencil lines. The waxed lines will be black at the completion of the post­ firing smoking, serving as both design elements and separators between the dif­ ferent glaze colors. Once the animals are glazed, Buckner carefully inspects and organizes them for the raku firing. She usu­ ally fires several pieces with similar glazes together in a batch, since these glazes will mature at approximately the same time. Buckner built her raku kiln from a heavy-duty, 30- gallon, galvanized trash can. The can’s inside vertical sur­ faces are lined with 1 to 2 Left to right: “Purrina Cat,” “Old Biddy Hen,” “High Minded Giraffe,” “Son of a Bun Rabbit,” inches of ceramic fiber hav­ “Mouse Trap Cat,” to approximately 8 inches (20 centimeters) in height, handbuilt, brushed with glazes, ing a 2700°F rating. Three raku fired, by CJ Buckner, Los Alamos, New Mexico. hardbrick halves on the bot­ tom of the kiln support a regional galleries and art shows. Then came the day when a kiln shelf. A single propane burner at the bottom of the can close friend invited Buckner to join her in Roger Sweet’s provides adequate heat. sculpture class at the University of New Mexico in Los Alamos. When the glazes are mature, Buckner (wearing heat-pro- Buckner recalls, “I was soon having a good time building tective clothing) turns off the gas and removes the pieces from animals from clay.” the kiln. She then places them in a nest of straw that lines the While developing her clay sculpture skills, she continued bottom of a retired Civil Defense water storage can. The hot painting at a reduced level. But after taking a class in raku pieces immediately ignite the straw. Placing a lid on the can firing, Buckner realized she needed to choose between paint­ creates a reducing atmosphere that consumes oxygen from ing or clay sculpture. “I decided to pick the medium that was both the air and the metallic oxide glaze. the most fun for me,” Buckner says. After the hot pieces cool for about 20 minutes, Buckner She begins each animal’s torso by molding a commercial quenches them with a water spray. When they are completely raku clay over a smooth river rock that has been covered with cooled, she cleans each with a soft-scrub pad and toothbrush, a cloth to prevent the clay from sticking. She covers the cloth removing the characteristic residue. with an approximately 3 /s-inch-thick slab, which she pats She sells her work exclusively through Galeria el Jardin until it conforms to the rock’s contours. Trimming excess (www.collectorsguide.com/sf/g265.html), a co-op gallery of clay from the “equator,” she lets this hemisphere stand until which she is a charter member. Each of the gallery’s 13 the clay is self-supporting, then repeats the process for the partners works in the showrooms two or three days a month. other half. Joining the two halves together results in a form Galeria el Jardin also carries the work of 17 consignment closely resembling the rock’s size and shape. artists and three direct-sale artists.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 70 DENISE PHILLIPS

by Marty and Brenda Stokes

The West Maui Mountains served as a backdrop for the Phillips’ work believe that the coil-built vessels emit a deep blue and turquoise waters of Ma’alaea Bay. “It is the powerful mana. In the Hawaiian language, mana refers season for whales,” Denise Phillips explained. They swim to a dynamic supernatural power or influence flowing “down from Alaska to birth their calves.” from certain objects, spirits or individuals. The huge forms could be seen clearly from her sixth- “It’s an intimate process to create a large piece, one floor vantage point. However, the view inside the con­ coil at a time,” Phillips said. “Although I may have an dominium was just as spectacular: satin-polished, idea of the size or shape of the vessels, I never really sawdust-fired, 3- to 4-foot-tall vessels towered over their know how they will turn out. They simply ‘become,’ smaller, bulbous counterparts. Many people who collect each one as individual as our own spirits.”

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 71 She was born on Oahu, but moved to the mainland at an ing various kinds of sawdust and wood chips. “After several early age, and does not remember living there as a child. hundred pots and much determination, good things began However, entranced by photographs and her mother’s stories to happen. One day I went out to the fire and there it was, about their life on the islands, Phillips had long dreamed of this beautiful, glowing ‘dream finish’ that I immediately fell returning. “I have these vivid memories of my mother turn­ in love with. I remember thinking, ‘This is it. This is what I ing the pages of a big, black-lacquered photo album, inlaid have been working so hard to achieve.’” with mother-of-pearl, and representing the Hawaiian Is­ By retracing her steps and re-creating the same circum­ lands. We would sit together, for what seemed like hours, as stance, she was able to duplicate that result in subsequent my mother would tell the stories about our life when we firings. As she studied this burnished and smoked work over lived on the islands.” the next few weeks, she realized she had found her “signature By her 18th birthday, she had saved enough from a finish.” The search was over. The “gift from the fire” had summer job to make her first return trip, and “the islands arrived, but it was not until years later, while attending a cast their spell. I felt such a strong spiritual seminar with a close friend, sense of belonging. All the pictures that Phillips finally made her stand. and stories just came to life.” From “We were discussing where we that point on, she would maintain a belong, and what we should be do­ connection to the islands through pe­ ing in life, when I realized that I had riodic visits. been talking about moving to Ha­ While living in Nashville, Ten­ waii for years, but never had the cour­ nessee, she took her first ceramics age to just do it. I was sitting amongst class in wheel throwing, and became a group of women when, all of a quite proficient with the clay. She sudden, I announced to the group soon fell in love with her new-found that I was moving to Hawaii. My ability. As Denise explains, “I became friend looked at me rather aston­ hopelessly obsessed with all the new ished and asked, ‘When?’ I paused techniques and endless possibilities and answered ‘Summer.’ Summer that ceramics had to offer. I would was only six months away, but I felt lie awake at night scheming, ‘What a great sense of relief. I had finally if I did this?’ or ‘What would hap­ made the commitment. I had my pen if I did that?’ The next day I house painted, and placed it on the would be in the classroom testing market. Much to my surprise, it sold out those late-night theories.” immediately. My antiques and other Working in clay began to take belongings I had been collecting for over, and as the years passed, Phillips Phillips coil builds large pots on a lazy susan, which she years were auctioned. became increasingly convinced that turns with her foot as she adds coils. “As I watched my life being sold she could make a living in Hawaii bit by bit, I couldn’t help but feel selling her pottery. With photographs from frequent trips to sad. There I was, alone in a house that was no longer mine— Maui pinned over her work area, she began to focus on the no car, no furniture, no antiques and no keys on my key possibilities of a future there. ring. I began to think, ‘What in the world have I done? Even though her wheel-thrown work was selling well in Have I lost my mind?’ After a good cry, all regrouped, I the Nashville area, she never felt a personal connection. “I realized it was a good thing. Everything was going exactly as felt as if I was headed in the wrong direction. I loved the clay, planned and the magical, mystical island of Maui was wait­ and made pots that I loved, but I was never able to make a ing for me.” genuine connection with the glazed surfaces.” A week after arriving in Maui, Phillips found a place to It was that “disconnection” that forced Phillips to explore call home: the sixth floor of a condominium with one of the alternative firing processes. She was particularly attracted to most spectacular views on the island. She was so exhausted primitive firing processes, particularly that of Native Ameri­ from the move and “selling her life,” she took some time out can, Indonesian and African potters. In researching their to regroup and check out the local art scene. During this works and lives, “a new fire was kindled. It was like starting time, she heard about “Art Maui,” a juried art show that all over again,” Phillips explained. “I checked out a library takes place on the island every year. “From my understand­ book on coiled pottery, and immediately went to work. On ing, this was a very prestigious show, and the selection pro­ the first few shapes, I rolled the coils by hand. But as my pots cess was very competitive. I knew it would be great exposure grew, the extruder offered a much more uniform coil.” if my pottery were to debut there.” Phillips worked to perfect her coiling and burnishing After hauling materials up to her sixth-floor living room techniques, as she experimented with the firing process, us­ studio, she set up a 3x5-foot table against a wall, and used

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 72 the area underneath to store extruded coils—½-inch coils for small vessels and ¾-inch coils for the larger ones. She was ready to begin working. Her process was simple. Using only a wooden modeling tool, a scraper and a lazy susan, she began coiling while sitting on the floor. As the pot progressed, the coil seams were erased inside and out. When the wall was high enough, she stood up, turning the lazy susan with her foot as she added coils. A light burnishing with various smooth stones took place almost immediately as the white stoneware began to harden. The process was continued until the pot was completely dry. Stroke by stroke, Phillips dragged the appropriate stone across the surface of the vessel. When the pot had a mirrorlike shine, it was carried out to the balcony to be bisque fired in an electric kiln. The bisqueware was then taken to a friend’s yard for a pit firing, using local wood chips, such as mango, koa, eucalyptus and monkeypod. Phillips’ determination and hard work paid off when one of her pieces was selected for the “Art Maui” exhibition and was purchased, making that her first Maui sale. Because of the exposure in the “Art Maui” show, she was approached to teach a class in primitive techniques at the Hui No’eau Visual Arts Center, located in Makawao. This proved to be a fortunate step, as her work was included in the center’s annual juried members’ exhibition as well. Shortly after that “Behind the Veil,” 18 inches (46 centimeters) in height, coil-built, burnished and sawdust-fired stoneware, by Denise Phillips, Kihei, Hawaii. show, she received a large commission from the Four Seasons Resort, Maui. “I had been firing all of my work on my lanai [balcony] The commissioned pieces would be the largest she’d ever in an electric kiln that measured 21 by 16 inches,” Phillips attempted, and she knew she would need help to complete recalled. “Needless to say, this was the largest possible piece I the project, so she telephoned her brother, Matt James, on could fire. But after receiving this commission, I became the mainland, to see if he might be up for the challenge. He certified to fire the gas kiln at the Hui No’eau to bisque all agreed, and she sent him a one-way ticket. When the com­ my large pieces.” mission work was finished, he stayed on. It was also time to find another location for her pit James fell in love with the island, as well, and is now a firings. Her need to fire more volume, more often, pushed very important part of the business. “We work so well to­ her to find a place that afforded more privacy. She had always gether,” Phillips noted, “and he has such a strong presence, loved the desolate beauty and isolation of the ancient lava great enthusiasm and respect for the firing process. Together, flows, which graced the south shore. “There is nothing but we make a great team. It’s very rewarding and challenging as lava rock, big wind, big waves and a strong sense of mana well, to create large pieces and have them live through all the here. The King’s Highway goes through this area. Also, there stages to become what they were meant to be.” is no fire hazard, because there is nothing to catch on fire. I After living on Maui for nearly five years, Phillips bought didn’t want to headline the six o’clock news for setting a a house, which afforded her three to four times the workspace, piece of paradise on fire.” plus room for a custom-built electric kiln to accommodate As other opportunities presented themselves, Phillips rose work up to 6 feet in height. She remains passionate about the to the challenge. She was approached by the Maui Visitors whole process. “In the whole scheme of things, there’s this Bureau to display an assortment of her work in the center of huge ceramic pie, and I know my tiny little sliver, inside and the airport for a three-month period. Soon she was contacted out.I realize my knowledgeis not broad,but very specific to by a gentleman, who was remodeling his home, and given a what I do. I love creating from the earth up, realizing that $53,000 “dream commission.” He simply pointed to the these vessels are truly born from the four elements of earth, areas in his home where he would like several large pieces, wind, fire and water. I am very thankful every day to be and said, “Whatever you want to do over there and over living here on Maui, successfully pursuing my dreams.” there, etc.” She had complete freedom to create whatever she thought would look good in those areas. As Phillips said, “It The authors Marty and Brenda Stokes have operated Holley- was a dream come true.” Hill Pottery in Holley-Navarre, Florida, for 25 years.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 73 Insights into the Resume of Vicky Hansen by Jean Latka

Who am I anyway? Am I my resume? —from A Chorus Line

For artists, resumes are simply too one-dimensional. Even if their pages are so numerous they could qualify as a book, resumes fail to provide the essential details of an artist’s life. What does a resume tell us about an artist, other than he or she has a particular talent that has been recognized repeatedly? The spaces between the accom­ plishments generally hold huge, untold stories of move­ ment, problem solving and the insights that propel an artist from one artistic level to the next. These unmen- tioned particulars are the specifics that provide the inte­ gral elements to understanding a person’s life and work, and the relationship between the two. It was only through talking with clay artist Vicky Hansen that I learned she began working with clay while a student at William and Mary College in Virginia. The concept that clay could be transformed by fire, from a pliant dust of earth to a resistant memory, enthralled her. “Clay remembers, it is fired, it contains, yet is spir­ ited.” It is this spirit, originating from the Latin word, spirare, meaning to breathe, that is the essence she strives to convey in her work. To me, this is vital information, providing an orientation from which to understand her initial motivation. The address lines on her resume gave no clue to the adventurous spirit that resided at that domicile. In the early 1970s, while many of us were prowling through the caverns of our minds looking for signs of visible life, Vicky Hansen (along with her artist husband, Richard, and two college friends) was traveling throughout the Southwest seeking a possible site for a home and studio. Their idea was to find land, with low monthly pay­ ments, where they could create an arts community that would have separate living areas and shared studio spaces. Though New Mexico was the initial destination, they Hansen’s wood-fired kilns look over a major influence in her work: the Colorado landscape quickly realized that acquiring property would require researching ownership rights that extended back to the Spanish land grants, and this would quickly consume their $1600 budget. Traveling north, they eventually settled in southeast­ ern Colorado, selecting a property that is dotted with pinions, cedars and majestic vistas of the vast plains and

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 74 “Canyon Series IV,” 11 inches (28 centimeters) in height, white stoneware, with Carbon-Trap Shino Glaze, wood fired.

eastern ridge of the Rocky Mountains. And they began to build. It was basically a bare-bones operation under the unrelenting summer sun. Friends appeared to help make the 23,000 adobe bricks that were used to con­ struct the array of buildings. The main lodge with a painting studio on the second floor was their first focus, followed by a pottery studio that doubled as a gallery. Over the years, a smaller kitchen/bathroom building was added, a storage structure and finally a private residence. Today, Vicky and Richard are the only remaining mem­ bers of that intrepid troop. Vicky began her career as a studio potter, making functional ware for the locals. Her career took an oppor­ tunistic turn when a sawmill operator down the road offered her free slabs and end cuts if she would remove them from the property. This provided her with the opportunity to fire her work practically for free. Little did she know that wood firing would prove to be the vehicle that would secure her reputation as a clay artist. Over the past 30 years, Vicky has constructed a vari­

“Canyon Series II,” 10 inches (25 centimeters) in height, wood- and saggar-fired ety of wood-burning kilns. In 1993, for her M.F.A. stoneware, with Shino and Chun glazes, and carbon trapping. research, she used the Fred Olsen fast-fire kiln as a model,

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 75 F. Carlton Ball's Blue Chun Glaze (Cone 10) Dolomite...... 9.45 % Gerstley Borate...... 9.45 Strontium Carbonate...... 1.15 Whiting...... 2.83 Zinc...... 1.89 Custer Feldspar...... 45.33 EPK (Edgar Plastic Kaolin)...... 1.57 Silica (Flint)...... 28.33

100.00% Add: Tin Oxide...... 2.83 % Iron Oxide...... 2.14%

Carbon-Trap Shino Glaze (Cone 10) Soda Ash ...... 4.0% Spodumene...... 15.2 Kona F-4 Feldspar...... 18.4 Nepheline Syenite...... 45.0 Ball Clay...... 16.4 Bentonite...... 1.0

100.0%

Vicky's Half-and-Half Glaze (Cone 10) Baking Soda...... 1 part “Syncline Series II,” 17 inches (43 centimeters) in height, wheel-thrown and altered Kaolin...... 1 stoneware, wood and saggar fired, by Vicky Hansen, Penrose, Colorado. 2 parts

Mixed by volume measurement (tablespoons, cups, etc.). Apply a thin spray on white high-fire clay or and built a small, softbrick, wood-burning kiln, one that porcelain for a translucent, orange-peel finish. would fire from “dead cold to Cone 11 in less than 4 hours.” Economy and efficiency were the goals. Paul Soldner had warned her that the kiln would definitely be fast, clean and lean, but there would be little ash buildup because of the short firing cycle. She remedied this aes­ that her inspiration is a weaving of contemporary dance thetic shortcoming by raking the coals frequently and the Colorado landscape. The vast expansive plains throughout the firing and slowing the firing near the stretching to the horizon is mirrored by the undulations end. This deposited significant amounts of ash on the in clay forms that seem suspended upon their pedestals, work, resulting in fluxed wood-ash glazes. ready to take flight. “My intention is not to imitate Vicky’s resume goes on to list the juried exhibitions nature or movement but to express the elemental power, she has participated in across the country (three pages), the mystery, the delicacy of the landscape and dance.” her awards and grants (one page), and closes with a list This is an artist who strives to create a dialogue that is of her lectures, workshops and professional activities. clear, the alignment correct, where the “forms breathe These were necessary bits of information to procure a and take on an expressive life of their own.” job as associate art professor at the University of South­ At last, a glimpse of the essential nuances, of the ern Colorado, but there are no specifics about her three- threads that weave a life and work together to provide a dimensional accomplishments—her daywork. basic understanding of the thought processes that com­ Nor does Vicky’s resume contain any mention of the prise an artist’s work. Suddenly, those spaces between the driving force that propels her as an artist. She told me accomplishments are filled with a personal story.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 76 A site-fired house in Colombia, with four rammed columns for a planned addition; other fired buildings can be seen in the background.

Traditions and Innovations in Colomb ia by Kathryn Arango

Our hearts were beating hard as we inched our way up the steep, how to work the earth to make houses and useful implements. grassy mountain. We were approaching 3600 meters, or almost They were the first potters! When they became old they went 12,000 feet, above sea level, and oxygen was scarce. The clouds back to the lake and took the form of serpents, retiring forever swooped up from the valleys below, misty and cool. We were into the dark waters. climbing in the Andes of central Colombia, in the Iguaque Flora A three-hour road trip north of the capital Bogota, this beauti­ and Fauna Sanctuary. Here, according to Muisca legend, is where ful valley in the Candelaria Desert has a pleasant autumnlike humankind began: climate all year long. It is dry most of the year, with a rainy season Long, long ago, from the depths of a cold lake, emerged the around October and November. Towns like Raquira, with its first woman, Bachue, carrying a young boy in her arms. They vividly painted colonial houses, are known for pottery, including went down to the plains in the valley below, and when the boy decorative mobiles, sculptures, beads and whistles, as well as came of age, they married. Bachue was very prolific, giving birth pitchers, vases and large urns. More than 80% of the population to as many as six babies at a time. And so they populated the of this small village is involved in this cottage industry. world. They taught their descendents about the gods, about agri­ It is natural that ceramics should prosper here—the clay is culture, and how to spin and weave wool. They also showed them right underfoot. Most houses have a trough in the yard full of clay

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 77 that has been brought from local mines. It is put into a 55-gallon drum equipped with a paddle that is turned by a donkey or horse. The animal walks around and around, blending the clay into a pliable mass. The prepared clay is then worked into molds or wheel thrown into hundreds of different shapes. Coal-fired dome kilns, also on the premises, are used to fire the ware. Most of the daywork of the region is unglazed terra cotta, although the cooking pots and dinnerware are burnished. It is sold either in Raquira or packed, with ferns as cushioning, into trucks for distribu­ tion throughout Colombia, and as far away as Europe and Israel. Another town in the valley, Villa de Leyva, which was founded in 1572, has also maintained its colonial architecture. Actually, it has been de­ clared a national monument. Whitewashed walls line the cobblestone streets. The adobe walls of the original houses are about 3 feet thick. New houses (no more than two stories are permitted to preserve the colonial look) are also made of native bricks laid sideways; that is, side by side rather than end to end to make a thick wall. The bricks and Spanish-style roof tiles used locally are fired with coal in the many nearby chircales or kilns, which hold about 1000 bricks per firing. Men make the bricks by packing clay into wooden forms. The roof tiles are also made

The unfired portion of the house was enclosed in a temporary kiln made of stacked bricks. in molds now, but originally they were formed over the thigh of the maker. The clay is dug on location in a pit where, again, the animals are put to work mixing it, this time with their hooves. By far the most innovative thing we saw on our treks through the valley was the construction of a clay house, which was fired on location. Since this region is quite arid, the house will last a long time. A few other homes have already been built this way, and they have proven to have high ther­ mal value—cool on hot days, warm on the cool nights. Another advantage is the minimum main­ tenance they require.

A typical Colombian chircal surrounded by large planters.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 78 To begin construction, wooden forms, placed at the corners and key support points, are rammed with earth. When the columns are firm, the forms are removed and the walls are built upward with courses of clay in a rather free form, letting it dry enough between courses to add successive layers. Spaces are left to allow for windows and doors, and also to permit artistic details. If a crack ap­ pears as the house is drying, more clay is added to fill the space. The house is then fired section by section by building up brick walls inside and out; in effect, making a large, portable kiln that is fired with coal. Once the section is fired, the kiln is moved to the adjoining section. The process con­ tinues until the whole house, roof and all, is fired. Today, the region produces not only functional and decorative items for the home, but has evolved a new technique to produce the house itself!

Clay stored in this trough is processed in the large drum next to it by hitching a horse or donkey to the shaft.

The handbuilt house, complete with clay figures as part of the roof, is fired with coal one section at a time.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 79 David Bradley: Circular Relationships

by Lakota Brown

The concept of relationships as containers led to a recent body of one night that I was still working there. Sitting up in bed, I saw a work by Arizona ceramist David Bradley. “Each of us has many cart of clay that still had to be wedged.” different relationships—one kind of relationship with our spouse, After two years, Bradley left Marshall Pottery to begin gradu­ another with a neighbor, still another kind with a coworker. Any ate work in ceramics at the University of North Texas. While relationship is like a container because everything shared by the there, he experimented with divergent firing methods and mate­ people in that relationship is contained within it.” rials: spray paint, plastic tape burned with a torch, wood firing, One work in this series, entitled “Two Couples, Out for a Walk,” consists of two pairs of legs thrown from brown stoneware; each contains two smaller figures. The legs remain unglazed, while slips and underglazes on the interior pieces suggest the richness of human interaction. These pieces illustrate how the identities of two people in a close relation­ ship can be joined to create an entirely new entity. In such a relationship, two people cre­ ate a new world separate from that which they have individually. Bradley’s first work with clay was in col­ lege. He was required to take ceramics for his painting major, but from that first moment, he was hooked. After graduation, he appren­ ticed at Marshall Pottery in East Texas. He began as a potter’s helper, or “ball beater,” wedging the clay by repeatedly pulling it through a wire, then slamming the pieces down on top of one another to develop even consis­ tency. He kept the water bowls full and car­ ried finished wares to the drying room, conveying as much as 6000 pounds of clay a day. In spare moments, he practiced on the wheel. After nine months, he was promoted to making dog dishes. His mentor at Marshall Pottery was E. J. Humphries. A third-generation folk potter, E. J. was a thin, wiry man standing only 5½ feet tall. He was quiet and soft spoken, but tough as leather, Bradley says. “He could make “Two Couples, Out for a Walk,” to 16 inches (41 centimeters) in height, clay act like it was alive, just squirming itself thrown and altered stoneware, glazed and fired to Cone 5, $8000. into a churn. “E. J. treated me like kin, telling me many stories of the three salt glazing, pit firing and raku. Working alongside other graduate generations of potters in his family. He was very generous with his students was informative as well, as each explored a wide variety time, patiently showing me how certain pots were made, and how of creative possibilities with clay. “It was more of a playground I could improve my skills.” than work,” Bradley recalls. “I wanted to stay forever.” Memories of his apprenticeship echo still. “The work was very As he expanded his focus from functional ware to metaphori­ tangible, very physical,” Bradley recalls. “I remember dreaming cal forms, Bradley began to exaggerate traditional terminology for

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 80 parts of vessels. “My pots began sprouting bellies, buttocks and again allows you to move hands, mind and clay to create a new breasts. I began to explore many versions of figurative pots and way of being.” sculptures based on the concept of the body as a container.” At the same time, Bradley views the concept of control as a Bradley credits a workshop with Peter Voulkos for teaching slippery illusion, a fragment of balance projected onto time. He him that ceramics is an act and a process, as well as a product. But believes that the dance with clay requires persuasion—not brute it is the philosophy of Don Reitz that continues to stimulate and strength. “There are so many variables: texture and softness of inspire him. Bradley says that Reitz pointed him to a style that clay, the particular shape of the piece and size you want to get out meshed with his own personality and interests. “E. J. taught me a of the clay,” he notes. “You must [establish a] dialogue with the lot about how to make pots, but Don taught me that pottery clay and the object and wheel to negotiate as much of the out­ making could shape me into something else.” come as you can.” That “something else” took many forms over the next several To Bradley, the relationship formed with clay also becomes a decades. Bradley created sculpture and functional pottery for sale, vehicle for self-understanding. “In working with clay over the gave private lessons, and provided contract work for production years, I have learned things about myself—how to have patience, potters. The work he has enjoyed most, however, is teaching how to be more accepting of myself, how to be nonjudgmental. ceramics to elementary and high-school students as an artist-in- I’ve recognized the virtue of focused attention over the long term residence for the Arizona Commission on the Arts. in order to gain a broader view of things. I have accepted the need He particularly enjoys helping these students create wall mu­ to see simple things simply, in order to then deal with more rals and other art projects that forge a relationship with their complex issues.” communities. Most important is that the students themselves design and create the mural, while he adopts the secondary role of guide and facilitator. “I believe that art is a form of problem solving for the artist,” Bradley says. “All great artists communicate through creation, because they are searching for answers through art. Students need to hear that and be encouraged to express what is important to them, not mimic the ideas of others.” Bradley also teaches at a local community college. There he evaluates the current skills of students, and challenges them to step to the next level. When things are working well, the class buzzes with energy. “I feel I’ve helped them learn new things about themselves. I believe that people are more alike than differ­ ent—that we all have what it takes to be creative and artistic.” For the most part, Bradley teaches his college students the methods learned at Marshall Pottery, because he feels they are logical and efficient. For example, he believes that potters work best standing up, with the wheel raised to waist level; he also teaches opening the clay with the right palm instead of with the fingers or thumbs. These two techniques alone cause less physical stress to the potter’s back and wrist than the commonly used methods, and thus allow for higher productivity. For example, after two years at Marshall Pottery, Bradley says he was able to throw over 2000 pounds of clay in an 8-hour shift. “Working Relationships,” 12 inches (30 centimeters) in height, Through his exploration of relationships, Bradley also exam­ wheel-thrown and handbuilt stoneware, with glass, fired to Cone 5, ines the bond between himself and the art he creates. “I think that $800, by David Bradley, Phoenix, Arizona. art is not a noun but a verb,” he said. “Production pottery has had a bad reputation as a block to creativity. But, like practicing scales in music or learning to dance, doing the basic steps over and over

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 81 February 12 entry deadline call for entries Carbondale, Illinois "The Clay Cup IX" (March 28- May 2). Juried from slides. Juror: Richard Shaw. Application Deadlines for Exhibitions, Fairs, Cash awards. For prospectus or further informa­ Festivals and Sales tion, contact School of Art and Design, SIUC, Carbondale 62901-4301, attn: Clay Cup; e-mail [email protected] ; or telephone Mandy Gerth at (618) 453-4315. International Exhibitions February 14 entry deadline Wilmington, North Carolina "Spring Forward, Fall February 7 entry deadline Back" (April 4-May 2), open to works in all media. Icheon, South Korea "The Second World Ceramic Juried from 3 slides (with SASE) and artist's state­ Biennale 2003 Korea" (September 1-October 30), ment. Entry fee: $25. Contact Gallery Mia Tyson, open to works in 2 categories: use and expression. 271 N. Front St., Wilmington 28401; e-mail Preliminary selection from 2 slides per entry; up to [email protected] ; download prospectus from 3 entries. Final selection from actual works. Cash awards. For further information, contact Office for www.miatyson.com ; ortelephone(910)762-0196. February 21 entry deadline International Competition, Exhibition Dept., Lincoln, California "Feats of Clay XVI" (April 26- WOCEF, Icheon World Ceramic Center, Gwango- May 25), open to artists working in the United dong San 69-1, Icheon, Gyeonggi-do, South Ko­ States and its territories. Juried from slides. Juror: rea 467-020; e-mail [email protected] ; Joe Mariscal, ceramics instructor at Delta College, see website www.ceramicbiennale.org or Stockton, California. Fee: $15 for 1 entry; $25 www.worldceramic.or.kr ; telephone (82) 31 631 for 2; $30 for 3. Purchase, place and merit awards. 6512; or fax (82) 31 631 1614. February 14 entry deadline For prospectus, send #10 SASE to Lincoln Arts, 540 F St., Lincoln 95648; or see website Tallahassee, Florida "18th Annual Combined Tal­ www.lincolnarts.org . ents: The Florida International Competition" (Au­ gust 25-September 28), open to artists 18 years Denton, Texas "Wide Awake" project (April 4-28), open to artists, musicians, dancers, actors, and older. Juried from slides. Entry fee: $15. etc., to create andlor perform pieces that interact Awards: $1500. For prospectus, see website with and temporarily transform the perception of www.fsu.edu/~svad ; or telephone Jean D. Young an outdoor space (campus of Texas Women's at (850) 644-3906. University). Juried from proposals; can be accom­ May 2 entry deadline panied by slides and/or other documentation. No Carouge, Switzerland "International Ceramics entry fee. For entry form, send SASE to Colby Competition: A Ceramic Spoon" (September 20- Parsons-O'Keefe, TWU Dept, of Visual Arts, Denton November 23), open to ceramic spoons no larger 76204; or download from website http:// than 40 centimeters (approximately 16 inches). home.att.net/~wideawake/. Juried from 2 transparencies and a short curricu­ March 3 entry deadline lum vitae. Awards: City of Carouge Prize 2003, Kent, Ohio "Third Annual National Juried Cup 10,000 chf (approximately US$6700); plus 2000 Show" (May 14-June 14), open to ceramics artists. chf (approximately US$1300) and 1000 chf (ap­ Juried from slides. Juror: William Brouillard, ce­ proximately US$670). Contact Musee de Carouge, ramics department chair, Cleveland Institute Place de Sardaigne 2, CH-1227 Carouge; e-mail of Art. Cash awards. Send SASE to Anderson Turner, [email protected] ; see website www.carouge.ch ; Director, Gallery 138,138 E. Main St., Kent44240; telephone (41) 22 342 33 83; fax (41) 22 342 33 81. June 1 entry deadline e-mail [email protected] ; see website http:// dept.kent.edu/art/gallery138. Yingge, Taiwan "International Large Outdoor Ce­ March 6 entry deadline ramics Lantern Workshop" (duration, September Missoula, Montana "Functional Review" (April 6- 1 -October 15), a workshop in which 10 artists will May 3), open to clayworks that serve as a func­ create a large ceramic lantern. Juried from slides of tional piece of art. Juried from up to 3 slides. Juror: 3 works (3 slides of each work from different angles), and a work proposal. Each artist will be Charles Davis. Entry fee: $25. Cash awards. For provided a space to work, plus clay, materials, prospectus, send SASE to the Clay Studio, 910 access to kilns and living accommodations. Airfare Dickens St., Missoula 59802; or e-mail [email protected] . and NT$2000 (approximately US$60) per day for March 7 entry deadline living expenses are provided. Contact the Taipei State College, Pennsylvania "Crafts National 37" County Yingge Ceramics Museum, No. 200, (June 10—July 18). Juried from slides. Juror: Ruth T. Wenhua Rd., Yingge Jen,Taipei 239,Taiwan R.O.C.; Summers, Executive Director, Southern Highland e-mail [email protected] ; see website Craft Guild, North Carolina. Fee: $25 for 3 entries. www.ceramics.tpc.gov.tw ; fax (886) 2 8677 4104. Awards: $3500. For prospectus, contact Crafts National 37, PO Box 1023, State College 16804; United States Exhibitions e-mail [email protected] ; or see website www.arts-festival.com . February 2 entry deadline March 15 entry deadline Louisiana, Missouri "Make Shroom" (May 1-18), Great Barrington, Massachusetts "Containment" open to work related to mushrooms. Juried from (May 10-June 9), open to works in all media. Juried 3-6 slides. Entry fee: $10. Awards: best of from slides. For prospectus, send #10 SASE to SKH show, plus best of class in 3 divisions. For prospec­ Gallery of Textiles and Fine Craft, at the Railroad tus, send SASE to the Old School, Dixon Gallery, Station, PO Box 273, Great Barrington 01230; or 515 Jackson, Louisiana 63353; e-mail telephone (413) 528-3300. [email protected] ; or telephone (573) 754-5540. Louisiana, Missouri "Red, White and Blue" February 10 entry deadline (May 22—July 6), open to work related to patrio­ Guilford, Connecticut "Ceramics 2003" (July tism, the United States, or the colors red, white 6-August 23). Juried from slides; include and blue. Juried from 3-6 slides. Entry fee: $10. 1 full view and 1 detail of each piece entered. Awards: best of show, plus best of class in 3 Applicants may enter up to 3 pieces. Juror: Susan divisions. For prospectus, send SASE to the Old Peterson. Entry fee: $15. Awards: first place, $1000; School, Dixon Gallery, 515 Jackson, Louisiana second, $500; third, $250. Commission: 40%. For 63353; e-mail [email protected] ; or telephone prospectus, contact Guilford Handcraft Center, (573) 754-5540. PO Box 589, Guilford 06437; or see website March 20 entry deadline www.handcraftcenter.org . Westmont, Illinois "Crossed Connections" (May

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 82 Ceramics Monthly February 2003 83 August 1 entry deadline call for entries Westmont, Illinois "The Mud Show" (September 20-0ctober 31), open to clayworks. Juried from photos or slides. Fee: $3.50 per entry (limit 5) 11-June 14), open to works in all media. Juried fitting into a 6x6x8-inch box; or $6.50 per entry from slides or photos. For prospectus, send legal- (limit 3) over that size. For prospectus, send legal- size SASE to TLD Design Center and Gallery, 26 E. size SASE to TLD Design Center and Gallery, 26 E. Quincy St., Westmont 60559; or see website Quincy St., Westmont 60559; see website www.TLDDESIGNS.com, exhibits page. www.TLDDESIGNS.com; or telephone Tammy at March 22 entry deadline (630) 963-9573. Missoula, Montana "Second Annual Soda Na­ May 2 entry deadline tional" (May 2-June 4), open to stoneware or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania "Elizabeth R. Raphael porcelain works that have been fired in a soda Founder's Prize" (November 12, 2003-March 20, atmosphere. Juried from up to 3 slides. Juror: 2004), open to ceramics addressing the theme of David Pledge. Entry fee: $25. Cash awards. For transformation. Juried from slides. Guest jurors: prospectus, send SASE to the Clay Studio, 910 Jimmy Clark, former director, the Clay Studio, Dickens St., Missoula 59802; or e-mail Philadelphia; and Thomas Piche Jr., senior curator, [email protected] . Everson Museum, Syracuse. Entry fee: $35. First- March 31 entry deadline place award: $5000 cash plus purchase award, Las Vegas, Nevada "Jackpot!" (May 2-30), open exhibition and video of artist. Contact Elizabeth R. to functional or sculptural teapots that use clay as Raphael Founder's Prize, Society for Contempo­ the primary medium and that do not exceed 36 rary Craft, 2100 Smallman St., Pittsburgh 15222; inches in any direction. Artists may submit up to 3 see website www.contemporarycraft.org ; tele­ teapots. Juried from up to 2 slides per work. Juror: phone (412) 261-7003; or fax (412) 261-1941. Mark Burns. Entry fee: $20. Commission: 40%. Awards: grand prize winner receives a weekend trip to Las Vegas and a Mark Burns teapot. For Regional Exhibitions further information, contact Contemporary Arts Collective, Attn: Jackpot!, 101 E. Charleston Blvd., February 5 entry deadlline Ste. 101, Las Vegas 89104; or telephone (702) Athens, Ohio "Art on View" (March 21-May 4), 382-3886. open to artists who reside or work within a 200- April 1 entry deadline mile radius of Athens, Ohio. Juried from slides. Iowa City, Iowa "Shapes and Forms: Year of the Contact the Dairy Barn, PO Box 747, Athens45701 - Cup" (May 19-June 13), open to functional and 0747; e-mail [email protected] ; ortelephone sculptural ceramic cups. Juried from 3-6 slides. (740) 592-4981. Juror: Clary lllian. Fee: $10. For prospectus, send March 14 entry deadline SASE to AKAR Architecture + Design, 4 S. Linn St., Niceville, Florida "11th Southeast Regional Juried Iowa City 52240; e-mail [email protected] ; Fine Arts Exhibition" (May 19-June 12), open to see website www.akardesign.com ; or telephone artists 18 years and older who reside in the South­ (319) 351-1227. east region of the United States. Juried from slides. April 11 entry deadline Fee: 1 entry, $30; each additional entry, $5; up to Lancaster, Pennsylvania "CraftsNational" (August 3 entries. For prospectus, send SASE to M. A. Eady, 9-September 14). Juried from slides. Juror: Holly Arts and Design Society, 17 First St., SE, Ft. Walton Hotchner, director, American Craft Museum. Beach, FL 32548; or e-mail [email protected] . April 1 entry deadline Awards: $2000. For prospectus, send SASE to Lancaster Museum of Art, 135N. Lime St., Lancaster Clemson, South Carolina Artist proposals for site- 17602; or telephone (717) 394-3497. specific public art commission at Clemson Univer­ April 15 entry deadline sity; open to artists residing in Alabama, Florida, Houston, Texas "CraftHouston 2003: National Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennes­ Juried Exhibition" (August 8-October 12, then see or Virginia. $30,000 budget, includes artist's traveling), open to all craft mediums. Juried expenses and installation expenses. Juried from from slides. Juror: Lloyd Herman. Awards: 3 project proposal, 10 slides, resume (with SASE). merit prizes of $1000 each, plus others. For Contact Joey Manson, Art Partnerships, Clemson entry form, contact the Houston Center for Con­ University, 123 Lee Hall, Art Dept., Clemson 29634; temporary Craft, 4848 Main St., Houston 77002; or e-mail [email protected] . e-mail [email protected] ; download from April 28 entry deadline website www.crafthouston.org ; or telephone (713) Santa Barbara, California "California Plates" (June 529-4848, ext. 400. 28—July 26), open to clayworks by past and present Kewaunee, Wisconsin "Barnsand Farms" (June residents of California. Juried from slides. Juror: 6—July 27), open to works in all media pertaining to Otto Heino. Awards: $600. For prospectus, send the exhibition title. Juried from slides. Selection SASE to California Plates, Tierra Solida: a clay art juror: Bonnita Budysz. Cash awards, plus opportu­ gallery, 1221 State St., Ste. 8, Santa Barbara nity for solo or group exhibition. For prospectus/ 93101; e-mail [email protected] ; or telephone further information, send SASE to Barnsite Art (805) 884-8224. Studio/Gallery, 109 Duvall St., Kewaunee 54216; e-mail [email protected] ; or telephone (920) Fairs, Festivals and Sales 388-4391. Mid April entry deadline February 3 entry deadline Southport, North Carolina "National July Show" Seattle, Washington "U District StreetFair" (May (July), open to 2- and 3-dimensional works. Juried 17-18). Juried from 3 photos of work. For fur­ from slides. 3-D juror: Hiroshi Sueyoshi. For pro­ ther information, contact Marney Ayers, the spectus, send SASE to Associated Artists Southport, Greater University Chamber of Commerce, 130 E. West St., Southport 28461; or download at 45191/2 University Way, NE, Ste. 203, Seattle www.arts-capefear.com/fsgallery . 98105; e-mail [email protected] ; see May 15 entry deadline website www.udistrictstreetfair.org ; or tele­ Mableton, Georgia " 16th National Juried Art Exhi­ phone (206) 547-4417. bition" (July 14-August 17). Juried from up to 3 February 14 entry deadline slides. Entry fee: $25. Cash awards. For prospec­ Findlay, Ohio "23rd Downtown Findlay Arts Festi­ tus, send SASE to SCAA, 5239 Floyd Rd., Mableton val" (June 7-8). Juried from 3 slides of work (with 30126; or see website www.artshow.com/ SASE). Entry fee: $5. Booth fee: $90. Contact 2003 mablehouse. Downtown Findlay Arts Festival, The Arts Partner-

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 84 call for entries

ship, 112 W. Front St., Findlay 45840-3408; or telephone (419) 422-3412, ext. 27. February 15 entry deadline Rochester Hills, Michigan "Fine Art at Meadow Brook" (June 21-22). Juried from 4 slides of work plus 1 of booth. Entry fee: $15. Booth fee: $225. Contact Donna Beaubien, Festival Director, PO Box 70656, Rochester Hills 48307; e-mail [email protected]; telephone (248) 689- 8734; or fax (248) 689-8720. February 28 entry deadline Lancaster, Pennsylvania "Long's Park Art and Craft Festival" (August 29-September 1). Juried from slides. For further information, contact Long's Park Festival, PO Box 1553 CML, Lancaster 17608- 1553; e-mail [email protected] ; see website www.longspark.org ; telephone (717) 295-7054; or fax (717) 290-7123. March 1 entry deadline Orange City, Iowa "ArtBurst" (May 17). Juried from 5 slides or photos of work. Entry fee: $5. Booth fee: $45 for a 10x10-foot space. Best of show awards. Contact ArtBurst, Orange City Arts Council, PO Box 202, Orange City 51041; e-mail [email protected] ; telephone (712) 707-4885. Salina, Kansas "Smoky Hill River Festival Fine ArtlFine Craft Show" (June 14-15). Juried from 6 slides. Entryfee: $15. Booth fee: $250fora 10x10- foot space. No commission. For further informa­ tion, contact Karla Prickett, Visual Arts Coordinator, Smoky Hill River Festival, PO Box 2181, Salina 67402-2181; e-mail [email protected] ; see website www.riverfestival.com; telephone (785) 309-5770; or fax (785) 826-7444. Salina, Kansas "Smoky Hill River Festival Four Rivers Craft Market" (June 13-15). Juried from 6 slides. Entry fee: $15. Booth fee: $150 for a 10x 10-foot space plus 10% on sales over $ 1000. For further informationlentry form, contact Karla Prickett, Visual Arts Coordinator, Smoky Hill River Festival, PO Box 2181, Salina 67402- 2181; e-mail [email protected] ; see website www.riverfestival.com; telephone (785) 309-5770; or fax (785) 826-7444. March 10 entry deadline Highland Park, Illinois "The 19th Annual Port Clinton Art Festival" (August 23-24). Juried from 4 slides of work plus 1 of booth. Entry fee: $35. Booth fee: $575; corner, additional $200. For application, send SASE to Amdur Productions, 90 Oakwood Ln., Ste. 101, Lincolnshire, IL 60069; see website www.amdurproductions.com ; or tele­ phone (847) 444-9944. Madison, Wisconsin "Art Fair on the Square" (July 12-13). Juried from slides. Entry fee: $29. Booth fee: $340. Contact Art Fair on the Square, Madison Art Center, 211 State St., Madison 53703; seewebsite www.madisonartcenter.org ; telephone (808) 257-0158. March 15 entry deadline New Brunswick, New Jersey "29th Annual New Jersey Folk Festival Juried Craft Market" (April 26). Juried from slides. Entry fee: $5. Booth fee: $130. For application, e-mail [email protected] ; see website http://njfolkfest.rutgers.edu ; or telephone Helene Grynberg, American Studies Dept., (732) 932-5775.

For a free listing, please submit information on juried exhibitions, fairs, festivals and sales at least four months before the event’s entry deadline (add one month for listings in July and two months for those in August). Regional exhibitions must be open to more than one state. Mail to Call for Entries, Ceramics Monthly, 735 Ceramic PI., Westerville, OH 43081; e-mail to [email protected] ; or fax to (614) 891-8960.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 86

be added back into the glaze batch. You can do holding my needle tool. Placed in this slot, it is suggestions the same thing for the inside of a pot, but the always easy to grab without being stabbed. From Readers glaze should be just a tad thinner.—ValProphet, Wooden ribs can be floated in the water or Dillon, MT balanced on the back corners, and the chamois

Reglazing a Glazed Pot Hospital Pottery Supplies Did you ever reglaze a glazed and fired pot, Hospital patients are usually given some only to see the new coat of raw glaze run off in personal care items when they are admitted to a rivulets? I let my glaze batch sit overnight, then room. These are discarded upon checking out. I pour as much water off the top as possible into have found two of these items to be useful when another container. I then stir the batch, gradu­ throwing pots. ally adding water back in. When the glaze is like I use the wash bucket for my throwing water. thick cream or a little thicker, I dip the already- Mine measures 10x13 inches. There is a small fired pot into it. The rest of the water can then slot in one of the 13-inch sides that I use for draped over the edge of the basin. This allows me to have all my necessary tools easily available while throwing. The other useful hospital supply item is the kidney-shaped emetic basin. I place it to the left side, just outside my splash pan so that I can use

it to collect soft clay pieces and heavy slip. When I am finished throwing, I just take the clay from this basin and dump it onto a plaster bat to dry to a usable consistency. My splash pan is much easier to clean without this extra clay and slip.— Liz Guiheen, Chicopee, MA

Avoiding Glaze Monotony Instead of glazing for an eight-hour day every couple of days, I glaze a table full of pots (20-30) every day. This reduces drudgery and allows ideas to keep flowing.—Susan Dimm-Fry, West Chatham, MA

Nonstick Stick A really good tool for all of us having prob­ lems using wires or steel tools to cut off pieces thrown from the hump is a Teflon knife. Such knives can usually be found in the cake-decorat- ing section of a cookware store. They are really cheap and clay does not stick to the flat surface used for lifting the pots.—-Jorge Nabel, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Share your ideas with others. Previously un­ published suggestions are welcome individu­ ally or in quantity. Ceramics Monthly will pay $10 for each one published. Include a drawing or photograph to illustrate your idea and we will add $10 to the payment. Mail to Ceramics Monthly, 735 Ceramic PI., Westerville, OH 43081, e-mail to [email protected] or fax to (614) 891-8960.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 88 Ceramics Monthly February 2003 89 Norway, Oslo June 20-23 "Oslo International calendar Ceramics Symposium: Concept and Material" will in­ Events to Attend—Conferences, clude keynote speeches by Tony Cragg, Judy Fox and Jun Kaneko, lectures and panel discussions with Ronald Exhibitions, Workshops, Fairs Kuchta, Jackson Li, David McFadden, Hiroko Miura, Kimpei Nakamura, Bjorn N 0rrgaard, Anton Reijnders, Judith Schwartz and Sang-Ho Shin, plus exhibitions. Conferences Fee: NOK 5000 (approximately US$675); students, NOK 2500 (approximately US$340). For further infor­ Alabama, Birmingham February 7-9 "The 18th mation, e-mail [email protected] ; see website www.oics.no ; Annual Alabama Clay Conference," participating art­ telephone (47) 95 75 15 71; or fax (47) 22 99 55 85. ists include host Peter King, architectural ceramics; South Africa, Johannesburg May 1-4 "Clay Fes­ plus Rosette Gault, paper clay; Barbara Simon, pre­ tival '03" will include workshops by Ian Calder, maiolica; cious metal clay; and kilnbuilders Lowell Baker and Hilmar Eichhoff, mold making; Ian Garrett, Scott Myers. Break-out sessions will include electric handbuilding, burnishing and pit firing; Eugene Hon, kiln repair and the Rossiter Method, an exercise pro­ lecture on the plasticity of clay; Meshack Masuku, gram to alleviate repetitive-motion injuries. Contact throwing; Hennie Meyer, handbuilding; Peter Tena Payne, 5520 Rex Ridge Ln., Leeds, AL 35094; Mthombeni, modeling and handwork; Annette Schultz, e-mail [email protected] ; telephone (205) 956- paper clay and scratching into tiles; Caroline Schultz- 8985; or (205) 942-9033 (work). Vieira, children; Anthony Shapiro, throwing; John Arizona, Yuma February20-22 "The 24th Annual Shirley, glazing; and Clive Sithole, hand painting/ Yuma Symposium" will include slide presentations, decorating; plus demonstrations and exhibitions. Con­ lectures and demonstrations, 2 of which are demon- tact Cynthia McAlpine, Association of Potters of South­ strations/slide presentations by ceramists Kathryn ern Africa, PO Box 2900, North Riding, 2162 Gauteng, McBride and Paula Rice. For brochure, contact Neely R.S.A.; e-mail [email protected] ; telephone (27) 1 1 791 Tomkins, 78 W. Second St., Yuma 85364; e-mail 5153; or fax (27) 1 1 797 5076. [email protected] ; telephone (520) 782-1934; or Wales, Aberystwyth July 4-6 "International Ce­ fax (520) 782-5934. ramics Festival" will include demonstrations, lectures, California, San Diego March 12-15 "Borders in slide presentations, kilnbuildings and firings, etc. Flux," 37th annual conference of the National Council Fee: £92 (approximately US$145); North and South on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), will in­ Wales Potters members, £82 (approximately clude keynote address by artist/writer Robert Irwin, US$ 130); students, £60 (approximately US$95). Con­ closing lecture by Don Reitz, plus demonstrations by tact International Ceramics Festival, Aberystwyth Les Lawrence, Beth Lo, Jeff Oestreich, Jane Arts Centre, Penglais, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion SY23 Shellenbarger, Michael Sherrill and Lana Wilson. Con­ 3DE; e-mail [email protected] ; see website tact NCECA, PO Box 777, Erie, CO 80516-0777; or www.internationalceramicsfestival.co.uk ; telephone telephone (866) 266-2322 or (303) 828-2811. (44) 19 70 62 32 32; or fax (44) 19 70 62 28 83. North Carolina, Asheboro March 7-9 "The 16th Annual North Carolina Potters Conference" will in­ Solo Exhibitions clude demonstrations and slide presentations by Randy Johnston, Jan McKeachie Johnston and Marie Woo; Arizona, Carefree February 1-28 Kaiser Suidan. plus a lecture by Andrew Maske, curator of the Essex through April 1 Fong Choo; at Andora Gallery, 7202 Museum. Fee: $150, includes 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches E. Carefree Dr. and 2 dinners. Contact Philip Shore, Randolph Arts California, El Cajon March 3-21 Paul Scott, Guild, PO Box 1033, Asheboro 27204; e-mail "Cumbrian Blues." Les Lawrence, "There's Too Much [email protected] ; or telephone (336) 629-0399. Killing in This World"; at Grossmont College Hyde North Carolina, Clyde April 24-27 "2003 Arts Gallery, 8800 Grossmont College Dr. Business Institute" will include workshops and lectures California, La Jolla through February 16 Sayoko on product development, pricing, public relations, Becker; at Gallery Alexander, 7925-A Girard Ave. accounting, wholesaling and retailing, etc. E-mail March 7-May 31 Ricky Maldonado; at the Divan [email protected] ; see website Studios, 7661 Girard Ave. www.artsbusinessinstitute.org ; or telephone (800) March 14-April 19 Paul Soldner; at the Grove 224-5106. Gallery, UCSD Crafts Center. Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh April 3-6 "Craft and California, San Diego March 7-22 Keisuke Mizuno; Economic Development," national conference for craft at David Zapf Gallery, 2400 Kettner Blvd., Ste. 104. administration professionals, will include keynote March 8-April 5 Brad Burkhart, "Narrative Wall speech by Bill Strickland, president and CEO of Relief"; at Galleri'a dell'Aria, 3042 N. Park Way. Manchester Craftsmen's Guild and Bidwell Training March 10-April 1 Michael Jones McKean, "The Center, Pittsburgh; plus presentations on funding, Rainbow, Quasar, Roller Coaster Divide"; at San Diego art's role in economic development, artists in resi­ Mesa College Art Gallery, 7250 Mesa College Dr. dence, financial managementfor nonprofits; plustours. California, San Francisco through February 8 Contact the Society for Contemporary Craft: see Bean Finneran, hand-rolled porcelain curves; at website www.contemporarycraft.org/coda ; or tele­ Braunstein/Quay Gallery, 430 Clementina St. phone (412) 261-7003. Hawaii, Honolulu through February 4 David Virginia, Richmond February 27-March 1 "The Kuraoka, vessels and tiles; at the Contemporary Mu­ Old-Garde Ceramic Symposium" will include demon­ seum at First Hawaiian Center, 999 Bishop St. strations and slide lectures by Don Bendel, Jim Leedy Indiana, Ft. Wayne February 1-April 13 "Picasso: and Don Reitz. Participation is limited. Contact Barbara 25 Years of Edition Ceramics"; at the Fort Wayne Werner, VCU Crafts Office, (804) 828-1477. Museum of Art, 311 E. Main St. Canada, British Columbia, Kelowna August 22- Iowa, Iowa City February 3-24 Posey Bacopoulos. 26 "Kelowna Clay Festival" will include hands-on March 7-28 Michael Kline; at AKAR Architecture + workshops with David Roberts and Marcia Selsor, Design, 4 S. Linn St. demonstrations with Randy Brodnax and Don Ellis, Maryland, Frederick February 28-March 30 Jeff Cathi Jefferson and Les Manning, plus exhibition and Shapiro, "Ceramic Art = Concept + Material + Form + sale of presenters' works. Contact Kelowna Clay Festi­ Process," wood-fired forms; at the Hodson Gallery, val, Glenmore PO Box 30025, Kelowna, British Colum­ Tatem Arts Center, Hood College. bia V1V2M4; e-mail [email protected] ; Massachusetts, Boston through February 5 Phil see website www.bobhamm-art.com/clayfest ; or fax Rogers, "Form and Spirit"; at Pucker Gallery, 171 (250) 868-3240. Newbury St.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 90 February 7-March 4 Malcolm Wright, wood-fired pottery; at GenoveselSullivan Gallery, 23 Thayer St., Second FI. Massachusetts, Lenox March 22-April 27 Pe­ ter Lenzo, "Self Portraits"; at Ferrin Gallery, 56 Housatonic St. Michigan, Royal Oak through March 1 Lucian Pompili; at the Sybaris Gallery, 202 E. Third St. Minnesota, Minneapolis February 28-April 5 "Warren MacKenzie: Pots"; at the Northern Clay Center, 2424 Franklin Ave., E. Montana, Helena through March 9 Ellen Ornitz, "Resurrections," cast paper, ceramic and multime­ dia sculptures; at the Holter Museum of Art, 12 E. Lawrence St. New York, Alfred through March 30 Marc Leuthold, "Four Times"; at the Schein-Joseph Interna­ tional Museum of Ceramic Art, New York State Col­ lege of Ceramics at Alfred University. New York, Brooklyn through February 9 Judy Chicago, "The Dinner Party," installation of porcelain plates depicting important women in history; at Brook­ lyn Museum of Art, 200 Eastern Pkwy. New York, New York through February 9 "China Refigured: The Art of Ah Xian"; at the Asia Society, 725 Park Ave. February 4-March 1 Gwyn Hanssen Pigott. March 4-29 Ah Leon. Chun Liao; at Garth Clark Gallery, 24 W. 57th St. New York, Oneonta February 13-May25 Roberta Griffith, retrospective; at the Yager Museum, Yager Hall, Hartwick College. New York, Peekskill through February 27 Marlene Ferrell Parillo, "Second Story," sculpture; at Flat Iron Gallery, 105 S. Division St. New York, Port Chester February 1-22 Geoffrey Wheeler; at the Clay Art Center, 40 Beech St. North Carolina, Chapel Hill March 27-June 15 Siglinda Scarpa, retrospective and exhibition of cur­ rent sculptural and functional work; at the Chapel Hill Museum, 523 E. Franklin St. North Carolina, Charlotte through February 28 Thomas Hoadley, nerikomi porcelain; at W.D.O., Hearst Plaza, Ste. 1, 214 N. Tryon St. North Carolina, Durham February 20-March 30 Siglinda Scarpa, clay and mixed-media sculptures; at the Durham Arts Guild, 120 Morris St. Oregon, Portland through March 2 Timothy Foss, "Memories of Our Conquerors or Containers that Cry at Night"; at the Contemporary Crafts Gallery, 3934 S.W. Corbett Ave. Pennsylvania, Allentown through March 1 Ron Hand, pottery; at the Martin Art Gallery, Baker Center for the Arts, Muhlenberg College, 2400 W. Chew St. Pennsylvania, Philadelphia February 7-March 2 Sana Musasama, sculpture. Marty Shuter, large-scale heads. March 7-30 Ying-Yueh Chuang, garden struc­ tures. Candy Depew, "Climbing Mountains"; at the Clay Studio, 139 N. Second St. Pennsylvania, West Chester through February 26 Etta Winigrad, sculpture; at McKinney Gallery, Mitchell Hall, Church and Sharpless sts. Tennessee, Smithville through February 23 Heeseung Lee, "The Sublime and the Mundane: Deco­ rative Functional Ceramics." March 2-April 11 Gayle Fichtinger, terra-cotta sculpture; at the Appalachian Center for Crafts, 1560 Craft Center Dr. Texas, Arlington through March 1 Scott K. Roberts, "Clarity of Purpose"; at Art Corridor 1, Tarrant County College Southeast Campus, 2100 Southeast Pkwy. Texas, Houston February 15-March 15 Piero Fenci; at Goldesberry Gallery, 2625 Colquitt St. Virginia, Bridgewater February 3-27 Mark Gor­ don, sculpture and vessels; at the Miller Art Gallery, Bridgewater College, 402 E. College St. Wisconsin, La Crosse through February21 " Marcy Neiditz; at Viterbo University Art Gallery, Fine Arts Bldg., 815 Ninth St., S. Continued

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 91 porary Ceramics and Craft" exhibition of over 200 Mike Vatalaro; at the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gal­ calendar clayworks; atthe Ceramics Research Center and Nelson lery, Scripps College, 1030 Columbia Ave. Fine Arts Center, Arizona State University. California, El Cajon March 3-21 "The Vitrified Arizona, Tucson through February 16 "Talking Image: International Ceramics Invitational." March Wisconsin, Madison February 8-March 1 Rachel Birds, Plumed Serpents and Painted Women: The Ce­ 10-15 "Outdoor Ceramic Sculpture" by Susan Beiner, Telfer, "Siphonophoria: Ceramic Sculpture"; at Higher ramics of Casas Grandes"; at the Tucson Museum of Jaye Lawrence, Jeanne Otis and Jim Wilsterman; at the Fire Clay Studio, 2132 Regent St. Art, 140 N. Main Ave. Grossmont College Hyde Gallery, 8800 Grossmont Wisconsin, Sheboygan through April27 Deborah California, Chula Vista March 12-April 10 "Speak­ College Dr. Fisher, "Tools for If You Are Afraid of the Dark"; at ing Figuratively," ceramics by Susan Banks, Donna California, La Jolla February 22-March 29 "The John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 608 New York Ave. Billick, Vicki Chock, Miriam Davis, Robert Matheny, Word Made Clay: Ceramic in Its Own (W)rite"; at the Beverly Mayeri, Armando Munoz, Fabiola Renau, Esther Athenaeum Music and Arts Library, 1008 Wall St. Group Ceramics Exhibitions Shimazu and Laura VanDuren; at the Southwestern California, Sacramento February 6-March 1 "Af­ College Art Gallery, 900 Otay Lakes Rd. finity for the Cup," national juried exhibition; at ex­ Arizona, Scottsdale February 3-28 "Ceramic Art­ California, Claremont through April 6 "Ceramic ploding head gallery, 924 12th St. ists of the Archie Bray Foundation"; at Gallery Materia, Annual 2003," curated exhibition of works by Susan February 14-May 25 Exhibition of 12th- to 18th- 4222 N. Marshall Way. Beiner, Margaret Boozer, Robert Devers, Eddie century Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese trade ceramics; Arizona, Tempe February 8-May 18 "Shared Pas­ Dominguez, Cary Esser, Amanda Jaffe, Marc Leuthold, at the Crocker Art Museum, 216 O St. sion: Sara and David Lieberman Collection of Contem­ Mary Roehm, JoAnn Schnabel, Virginia Scotchie and California, San Diego through March 15 "Re- Inventing Pleasure: Ornamentation in Contemporary Ceramic Art," works by Tutsuji Aono, Susan Beiner, Kathy Butterly, Neil Forrest, Phyllis Green and Walter McConnell; at the SDSU University Art Gallery. March 1-April 1 "Blue," curated exhibition of works by 15 artists; at the San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery, 7250 Mesa College Dr., D104. March 1-April 15 "Salvaged Shipwrecked Ce­ ramics from China and Vietnam"; at Circa AD, 3867 Fourth Ave. March 7-22 "NCECA 2003 Clay National Exhibi­ tion"; at David Zapf Gallery, 2400 Kettner Blvd., Ste. 104, and at R. B. Stevenson Gallery, Ste. 103. March 7-April 7 "On the Edge," ceramics by Liz Surbeck Biddle, Michaela Angela DiCosolo, Priscilla Hollingsworth, Lundin Kudo, Laura Jean McLaughlin, Deborah Rael Buckley, Ceil Leeper Sturdevant and Cheryl Tall; at the Ramsden Morrison Gallery, 343 Fourth Ave. March 8-April 5 "Teapot Show," works by 17 artists; at the Publication's artgallery999, 3822 Ray St. March 10-April 1 "From Paper and Prosthetics to Toilets and Turbines," survey of industrially produced ceramic materials and products; at the San Diego Mesa College Learning Resource Center, 7250 Mesa College Dr., D104. March 12-15 Sculpture by Robert Burt and Jaye Lawrence; at the Garage Gallery/Robert Burt Studios, 435 Third St. California, Santa Ana March 1-30 "Signifiers: New Directions in Clay," works by Petronella Bannier, Crispin Gonzales, Robert Harrison, David Harton, Amy Kephardt, Colby Parsons-O'Keefe, Jerry Rothman, Brett Thomas, Barbara Thompson and Veronica Watkins; at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, 117 N. Sycamore. Illinois, St. Charles February 15-March 29 "Touch­ stone: Claymirth at the Fineline," works by 7 artists; at Kavanaugh Gallery, FineLine Creative Arts Center, 6N158 Crane Rd. Louisiana, Covington February 8-April 5 "Clay 2003," regional invitational; atthe St. Tammany Art Association, 317 N. Columbia St. Maryland, Baltimore through February 15 "Wall Works," invitational and juried exhibition of works by 35 artists. February 20-March 29 "Vivat! Chamotte," ceramics by Russian artists Vladimir Gorislavtsen, Sergei Isupov, Mihail Kapustin, Kirill Kopelkov, Mikel Kopelkov, Natalia Savinova, Vladimir Tsivin, Noi Volkov and Irina Zaytceva; at Baltimore Clayworks, 5707 Smith Ave. Massachusetts, Concord March 1-20 "After Palissy: Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture Inspired by Bernard Palissy"; at Lacoste Gallery, 25 Main St. Michigan, Ann Arbor through February 13 and February 17-April 17 Ceramics by John and Susanne Stephenson; at the University of Michigan Cancer Center and Geriatrics Center, Main Lobby, Floor B2, 1500 E. Medical Center Dr. Minnesota, Minneapolis February 28-April 5 "2003 Regis Masters Series Exhibition," vessels by

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 92 Gutte Eriksen and Janet Mansfield; at the Northern Saucer Invitational," works by 22 ceramists; at Mt. sures from an Unknown Reign: Shunzhi Porcelain"; at Clay Center, 2424 Franklin Ave., E. Hood Community College, 26000 S.E. Stark St. the University of Virginia Art Museum, Thomas H. Missouri Joplin through February 23 "Prairie Fire," Pennsylvania, Philadelphia through February 2 Bayly Bldg., 155 Rugby Rd. ceramics by Keith Ekstam, Elaine O. Henry, Kevin "Associate Artists' Group Exhibition." February 7- Washington, Cheney February 20-March 17 Hughes, Jeff Johnston, Howard Koerth, Malcolm March 2 "Claymobile Exhibition"; at the Clay Studio, "Two by Two: Small-Scale Ceramic Sculpture Bien­ Kucharski, Lisa Lockman and Marcia Polenberg; at the 139 N. Second St. nial"; at the Gallery of Art, Art Bldg. 140, Eastern Spiva Center for the Arts, 222 W. Third St. Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh through February 26 Washington University, 526 Fifth St.

Missouri, Kansas City March 7-29 "Rising Stars," "AI2O3«2SiO 2«2H 20," ceramics by Jeff Schwartz, Laura ceramics by studio members; at Red Star Studios Shaffalo and Mike Vincent. February 28-April 23 "Pot­ Ceramics in Multimedia Ceramic Center, 821 W. 17 St. ters Who Teach"; at the Clay Place, 5416 Walnut St. Exhibitions Montana, Helena through April 27 "Wit and Texas, Houston through March 3 "The Wilson Wine: ANew Look at Ancient Iranian Ceramics"; atthe Potters: An African-American Enterprise in 19th- Arizona, Mesa through March 8 "25th Annual Holter Museum of Art, 12 E. Lawrence. Century Texas"; atthe Museum of Fine Arts, Caroline Contemporary Crafts," juried national competition; at Montana, Missoula February 7-March 5 "Be­ Wiess Law Bldg., 1001 Bissonnet St. Mesa Contemporary Arts, Mesa Arts Center, 155 N. hind the Production," individual works by potters at February 15-May 3 "Poetics of Clay: An Interna­ Center St. Whitefish Pottery; at the Clay Studio, 910 Dickens. tional Perspective"; at the Houston Center for Con­ California, Davis February 7-March 4 "Fire Earth New Jersey, Newark February 14-June 7 "Great temporary Craft, 4848 Main St. and Turquoise Sky," including ceramics by Susanne Pots: Contemporary Ceramics from Function to Fan­ Virginia, Charlottesville through March 23 "Trea­ Kuebler French; at the Artery, 207 G St. Continued tasy," over 150 works from the late 1930s to the beginning of the 21st century; at the Newark Mu­ seum, 49 Washington St. New Mexico, Santa Fe through February 15 Re­ cent works by Bill Gilbert and Maren Kloppmann. February 21-March 22 "Summer Workshop Artists' Preview Exhibit," works by Lisa Clague, Michael Corney, Chris Gustin, Nick Joerling, Kathy King, Matt Long, Liz Quackenbush, Virginia Scotchie, Bobby Silverman and Michaelene Walsh. March 28-April 26 "Snowbirds: Potters from the Midwest"; at Santa Fe Clay, 1615 Paseo de Peralta. through September 7 "Ceramica y Cultura: The Story of Spanish and Mexican May6lica"; at the Museum of International Folk Art, 706 Camino Lejo at Milner Plaza, off Old Santa Fe Trail. New York, Long Island City through February 23 "Visitors to Clay"; at Garth Clark Gallery's project space, 45-46 21st St. New York, New York through February 8 "The Functional Referent," ceramics by Josephine Burr, Sanam Emami, David Packer, Patrick Purcell. Exhibition of ceramics by Matthew Coluccio, Peter A. Davis and Michael Humphreys. February 27-March 29 "Ves­ sels: Tracing the Archaic in Contemporary Art." "Carved Forms"; at Jane Hartsook Gallery, Green­ wich House Pottery, 16 Jones St. through February 9 "From Court to Caravan: Chi­ nese Tomb Sculptures from the Collection of Anthony M. Solomon"; at the Asia Society, 725 Park Ave. through February 28 "Winter Wonders." March 1- 3 7 "Japanese Masters"; at Dai Ichi Gallery, 249 E. 48th St. through March 28 "Clay Works: 20th-Century American Ceramics from the Everson Museum of Art"; at the UBS PaineWebber Art Gallery, 1285 Avenue of the Americas. March 27-June 15 "Quiet Beauty: Fifty Centuries of Japanese Folk Ceramics from the Montgomery Collection"; atthe Bard Graduate Center, 18 W. 86th St. New York, Nyack March 29-April 19 "Salad for 12," exhibition of functional and sculptural ceramic bowls; at the Klay Gallery, 65 S. Broadway. New York, Port Chester March 1-29 "Watershed Winter Residents"; at the Clay Art Center, 40 Beech St. North Carolina, Asheville through February 28 "Bestiary," clayworks with animal imagery by 22 art­ ists; at Odyssey Gallery, 242 Clingman Ave. North Carolina, Chapel Hill through February 22 "Glamorous Pots"; at Green Tara Gallery, 1800 E. Franklin St., 18b Eastgate. Ohio, Cincinnati through February 28 "Amphora Pottery," approximately 100 pieces; at Treadway Gal­ lery, 2029 Madison Rd. Ohio, Columbus through March 23 "Ohio Art Pottery: Tradition and Legacy," Roseville, Rookwood and Weller, plus contemporary ceramics by 16 artists; at the Ohio Craft Museum, 1665 W. Fifth Ave. Ohio, Wooster March 18-April 11 "Functional Ceramics 2003"; at the Wayne Center for the Arts, 237 S. Walnut St. Oregon, Gresham February 6-March 7 "Cup and

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 93 calendar

California, La Jolla March 12-April 13 "Figurative Work in Clay and Glass," juried exhibition; at Gallery Alexander, 7925-A Girard Ave. California, Pomona through February 14 Ceram­ ics, prints and drawings; at the W. Keith and Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery, California State Poly­ technic University, Pomona, 3801 W. Temple. California, San Francisco through February 2 "Ashes to Art," funerary art; at Ft. Mason Center. Florida, DeLand through February28 "Stetson Art Faculty Exhibition"; at Duncan Gallery of Art, Sampson Hall, 421 N. Woodland Blvd. March 21-May 18 "Florida Craftsmen's 50th Anni­ versary Exhibition"; at the DeLand Museum of Art, 600 N. Woodland Blvd. Florida, Orlando February 27-March 9 "Creative Arts Exhibit at the Central Florida Fair"; at Central Florida Fairgrounds, 4603 W. Colonial Dr. (Rte. 50). Florida, St. Petersburg through March 29 "Paper to Gold: Anniversaries Redefined," commemorating the organization's 50th anniversary; at the Florida Craftsmen Gallery, 501 Central Ave. Florida, Tampa February 2-April 20 "Magna Graecia: Greek Art from South Italy and Sicily"; at the Tampa Museum of Art, 600 N. Ashley Dr. Hawai'i, Honolulu March 9-April 18 "The 8th International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition"; at the University of Hawai'i Art Gallery, 2535 McCarthy Hall. Kansas, Topeka March 1-28 "Topeka Competi­ tion 25"; at the Alice C. Sabatini Gallery, Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, 1515 S.W. Tenth Ave. Kansas, Wichita February 25-March 29 "Art Show at the Dog Show"; at CityArts Gallery, 225 W. Lewis. February 26-April2 "Art Show at the Dog Show"; at the Foyer Gallery, Century II Convention Center. April 4-6 "Art Show at the Dog Show"; at the Sunflower Cluster Dog Shows, Kansas Coliseum. Kentucky, Louisville through February 16 "DinnerWorks"; at the Water Tower, 3005 River Rd. Massachusetts, Boston through February 14 Se- lectionsfrom "Architectural Ornamentation: Fragments and Elements"; at the Boston Architectural Center, McCormick Gallery, 320 Newbury St. Massachusetts, Worcester through February 22 "Adult School Student Show." February 28-April 6 "New Traditions 2003"; at Worcester Center for Crafts, Krikorian Gallery, 25 Sagamore Rd. Minnesota, Bloomington through February 22 "Figure Show," including ceramic figures by Melody Villars. February 28-April 12 "One Desire for Three," two-person exhibition including ceramic sculpture by Natasha Dikareva; at the Bloomington Art Center Gallery, 10206 Penn Ave., S. Minnesota, Minneapolis through March 76 "Eter­ nal Egypt: Masterworks of Ancient Art from the British Museum"; at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, 2400 Third Ave., S. Missouri, Kirksville March 24-April 15 "13th Annual National Art Competition"; at the Truman State University Division of Fine Arts, 100 E. Normal. Missouri, Warrensburg through February 28 "Greater Midwest International XVIII"; at the Central Missouri State University Art Gallery. Montana, Helena February 14-April 21 "Arte Cubano: The Art of Cuba," includes ceramics, prints and paintings; at the Holter Museum of Art, 12 E. Lawrence St. New Jersey, Demarest March 13-April 12 "14th Annual New Jersey Small Works Show"; at the Old Church Cultural Center School of Art, 561 Piermont Rd. New Jersey, Newark through June "Southeast Asian Images in Stone and Terra Cotta"; at the Newark Museum, 49 Washington St. New Mexico, Silver City February 14-April 12 "Out of the Bag," two-person exhibition including

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 94 calendar

ceramics by Nancy Phillips; at the Blue Dome Gallery, 307 N. Texas St. North Carolina, Charlotte through April 6 "Com­ ing of Age," 20th- and 21st-century crafts, including ceramic sculpture and vessels; at the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, 220 N. Tryon St. North Carolina, Hillsborough February 1-30 "Tea- Leaves," two-person exhibition including ceramic tea sets by Susan Wells; at the Orange County Historical Museum, 201 N. Churton St. Ohio, Columbus March 4-April4 "Contemporary Works of Faith '03"; at the Schumacher Gallery, Capi­ tal University Library. Oklahoma, Tulsa through March 16 "Changing Hands, Art Without Reservation: Contemporary Native American Art from the Southwest"; at the Philbrook Museum of Art, 2727 S. Rockford Rd. Oregon, Portland through April30 "Designed by War," exhibition of approximately 40 objects whose designs were influenced by war; at Contemporary Crafts Gallery, 3934 S.W. Corbett Ave. Tennessee, Gatlinburg March 7-April 19 "Spring Faculty Invitational Exhibition"; at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway. Texas, Beaumont February 1-28 "Annual Tri- State Plus," juried national; at the Beaumont Art League, 2675 Gulf St. Texas, Denton February 1-March 23 "Materials Hard and Soft," juried crafts national; at Meadows Gallery, Greater Denton Arts Council, 207 S. Bell. Virginia, Alexandria March 21-April 27 "Avant- Garden," juried exhibition of works related to or inspired by the garden; at Target Gallery, Torpedo Factory Art Center, 105 N. Union St. Washington, Bellevue through April20 "Darren Waterston and Beatrice Wood: A Personal Alchemy"; at the Bellevue Art Museum, 510 Bellevue Way, NE. Washington, Moses Lake through February 28 "Annual Baked, Mashed or Fried Exhibition"; at the Moses Lake Museum and Art Center, 228 W. Third Ave. West Virginia, Wheeling through February 23 "Fourth Annual Guild Competition"; at the Wheeling Artisan Center, 1400 Main St. Wisconsin, Sheboygan February 16-May 11 "Formed to Function?" includes ceramic sculpture by Marek Cecula, Sarah Lindley, Katherine L. Ross and Alex Schweder; at John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 608 New York Ave.

Fairs, Festivals and Sales

California, San Francisco March 8-9 "Contem­ porary Crafts Market"; at the Festival Pavilion, Ft. Mason Center, Marina Blvd. and Buchanan St. New Jersey, Lincroft March 21-23 "Art for the Home," sale of fine art and crafts; at the Brookdale Community College Gymnasium.

Workshops

Arizona, Mesa February 21-22 A session with Nobu Nigishiwara. Fee: $95. Contact the Mesa Arts Center, 155 N. Center St., Mesa 8521 1; or telephone (480) 644-3235. Arkansas, Mountain View March 24-28 "Sec­ ond Annual Ozark Folk School" will include "Firing a Wood-Fired Groundhog Kiln." Participants will have limited space for bisqued, Cone 10 objects. Also will include "Beginning Pottery and Slip Decorating." Instructors: Judi Munn and John Perry. Fee: $200. Living accommodations available. Contact Kay Thom­ as, Ozark Folk Center, PO Box 500, Mountain View 72560; e-mail [email protected] ; ortelephone (870) 269-3851. California, El Cajon March 12 "Performance-Style

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 96 Ceramics Monthly February 2003 97 tions" with Sheri Leigh. May 3-4 "Making Pots for tions, loading and firing anagama; unloading March calendar Use: Communicating Through the Senses" with Sandy 16. Fee: $380, includes 5 cubic feet of kiln space. For Simon. May 10-11 "Handbuilding Functional Pottery further information, telephone (707) 963-3129; or with Slabs" with Nancy Bulkley. May 17-18 "Outdoor see website timrowan.com. Workshop: Large Korean Onggi-Style Throwing and Installation" with Jacey Dunaway. May 24-26 "Fire California, San Diego March 8-9 A session with Slip Decoration." For further information, contact and Beauty of the Arch Form" with Kent Rothman. Steven Hill. Fee: $125; Ceramic Artists of San Diego Grossmont College Hyde Gallery, 8800 Grossmont May31-June 1 "Building Vessels" with Alexis Moyer. member, $ 100. (Membership is $25 per year.) Contact College Dr., El Cajon 92020-1799; or telephone (619) Contact the Mendocino Art Center, 45200 Little Lake CASD, Attn: Jackson Gray, PO Box 22524, San Diego 644-7299. St., PO Box 765, Mendocino 95460; see website 92192; e-mail [email protected] ; or California, La Jolla March 15-16 A session with www.mendocinoartcenter.org ; telephone (800) 653- see website www.ceramicartistsofsandiego.org. Paul Soldner. Fee: $125. Contact Ron Carlson, UCSD 3328 or (707) 937-5818. California, Solana Beach March 8-9 "Majolica Crafts Center/Grove Gallery: e-mail [email protected] ; California, Menifee April 26 "Throwing Big" with Tile-Painting Workshop" with Irene deWatteville. Fee: or telephone (858) 534-2021. Patty Yockey. Fee: $45; members, $40. Contact the $115, includes materials. Limited to 12 participants. California, Mendocino March 29-30 "Rethink­ Mt. San Jacinto College/Fine Art Gallery, 1499 N. State Contact Irene de Watteville: telephone (858) 755- ing Surface: The Tactile Pot" with Forest Lesch- St., San Jacinto, CA 92583; or telephone (909) 487- 0627; or fax (707) 431-8455. Or e-mail Middleton. April 5-6 "Introduction to Clay" with 6752, ext. 1531. [email protected]. Karen Grijalva. April 12-13 "Finding Your Own Way" California, Napa March 1-9 "Wood Firing Inten­ California, Walnut Creek February 22 "Decora­ with Paul Soldner. April26-27 "Precise Slab Construc­ sive" with Scott Parady and Tim Rowan, demonstra­ tive Techniques and Exploring Our Creative Potential" with Jenny Lind and Allan Walter. March 9 "Smoke Firing Techniques" with Jane Perryman. Fee/session: $50. Contact Walnut Creek Civic Arts Education, PO Box 8039, 1313 Civic Dr., Walnut Creek 94596; or telephone (925) 943-5846. Colorado, Boulder February 7-9 A session with Don Reitz at the City of Boulder Pottery Lab. Fee: $180. Telephone Nancy Utterback, (303) 441-3446. Connecticut, Guilford February 8-9 "Hand­ building" with Hayne Bayless. May 3-4 "Sketching Pots: Handbuilding with the Wheel" with Chris Gustin. Contact the Guilford Handcraft Center: e-mail [email protected] ; see website www.handcraftcenter.org ; telephone (203)453-5947. Florida, Miami March 1-2 "Carving and Burnish­ ing" with David Greenbaum. Fee: $120; league mem­ bers, $100. Slide presentation is free. Contact the Ceramic League of Miami, 8873 S.W. 129 St., Miami 33176; see website www.ceramicleaguemiami.org ; or telephone (305) 233-2404. Florida, Orlando February 6-7 Slide lecture and workshop with Susan Vey. Workshop fee: $25. Slide lecture is free. Contact Dr. Phillips High School, c/o Mike Lalone, 6500 Turkey Lake Rd., Orlando 32819; e-mail [email protected] ; or telephone (407) 355-3200, ext. 2203, or voice mail 4203. Florida, West Palm Beach February 8-9 "Archi­ tectural Ceramics" with Peter King. February 24-28 "Clay Figurative Sculpture in the Classical Tradition" with Eugene Daub. Fee: $540, includes $50 clay allow­ ance. March 1-2 "Surreal Narratives in Clay" with Sergei Isupov. March 29-30" Handbuilding with Slabs" with Barbara Knutson. Fee (unless noted above): $160. E-mail Harvey Sadow, Armory Art Center, [email protected] ; or telephone (561) 832-1776, ext. 37. Georgia, Atlanta February 1-2 "Pottery Surface Decoration/Majolica Techniques" with Linda Arbuckle. March 1-2 "Pots and Stuff" with Ron Meyers. Fee: $90; or 1 day only, $50. Contact Glenn Dair, Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, 980 Briarcliff Rd., At­ lanta 30306; e-mail [email protected] ; see website www.callanwolde.org ; or telephone (404) 874-9351. Illinois, Lake Forest February 13, 20 and 27 "Glazes: from scratch and batch," hands-on session with Chris Plummer, modifying existing glazes for color, texture and temperature, plus creating new ones. Fee: $90, residents; $115, nonresidents; in­ cludes firings of glaze experiments and the book Clay and Glazes for the Potter by Daniel Rhodes. March 9 and 16 "Ceramic Decoration," hands-on session with Lisa Harris, creating and decorating tiles with various techniques in week one, applying glazes and stains to bisqued tiles in second week. Fee: $80, residents; $95, nonresidents. Contact Chris Plummer, Stirling Hall Arts and Activities Center: e-mail [email protected] ; or telephone (847) 615-7480. Illinois, Sugar Grove February 19-22 A session with Jason Hess. For further information, e-mail Doug Jeppesen, Waubonsee Community College, [email protected] ; see website at

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 98 www.waubonsee.edu ; or telephone (630) 466-7900, February 22-23 "Handbuilding with Paper Clay" with 28 "Clay Constructions" with John Gill. Fee/session: ext. 2505. Judy Nelson Moore. Fee: $90. March 2 "Low-Fire Salt $225. To register, telephone the 92nd Street Y Art Iowa, Ames March 1-2 "Tile—Making, Glazing, Firing" with Greg Ondo. Fee: $65. March 8 "Precious Center (212) 415-5500; or see website www.92y.org. Marketing" with Paul Lewing. Fee: $80. Contact Lora Metal Clay" with Judi Anderson. Fee: $100, plus For further information, telephone (212) 415-5562. Funk, Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Ave., supplies. March 15-16 "Mold Making" with Pierce February 21-23 or March 74-76 "PMC Connection Ames 50010; e-mail [email protected] ; see Clayton. Fee: $95. Contact Art + Clay, 1804Espinacitas Artisan Certification." Fee: $450, includes materials website www.octagonarts.org ; or telephone (515) St., Santa Fe 87505; see website www.artandclay.com ; and membership in the PMC Guild. February 22-23 or 232-5331. or telephone (505) 989-4278. March 15-16 "Techniques in Precious Metal Clay." Maryland, Baltimore February 21-22 Slide pre­ April 5-6 "Jam-Pots, Garlic Pigs, Egg-Bakers and Beginning and intermediate skill levels. Fee: $250, sentation and demonstration with Sergei Isupov. Other Objects of Delight" with John Reeve. Fee: $160, includes materials, tools and firing. Contact Vera April 5-6 "Slab-Built Pouring Forms" with Sam includes clay and bisque firing. May 3-4 "Post-Firing Lightstone, 347 W. 39th St., New York 10018; e-mail Chung. For further information, contact Baltimore Techniques" with Gretchen Ewert. Fee: $160, includes [email protected] ; see website www.silverclay.com; Clayworks, 5707 Smith Ave., Baltimore 21209; see lab fee. Contact Santa Fe Clay, 1615 Paseo de Peralta, or telephone (212) 947-6879. website www.baltimoreclayworks.org ; or telephone Santa Fe 87501; e-mail [email protected] ; see New York, Oneonta February 20 A lecture with (410) 578-1919, ext. 10. website www.santafeclay.com; telephone (505) 984- Roberta Griffith. Contact the Yager Museum, Hartwick Maryland, Frederick March 1-2 A session with 1122; or fax (505) 984-1706. College, (607) 431-4038. Jeff Shapiro. Fee: $165. Contact Joyce Michaud, New York, New York February 20-21 "Pouring New York, Port Chester February 1-2 "Color and Hood College ceramics program, at (301) 696-3456. Pots: Idea and Process" with Sam Chung. March 27- Form" with Geoffrey Wheeler. Fee: $150. March 22 Massachuetts, Somerville February 7 Slide pre­ sentation with Haystack clay artists. Free. February 8-9 "Bowls That Pour" with Carole Ann Fer. Fee: $250; members, $125. February 15, March 1 and 29 "Tabletop Fountain Workshop" with Anne Hodgsdon. Fee: $220; members, $110. March 2 "Introductory Clay on the Wheel Workshop." Fee: $30. March 8 and 22 "Sprig Moldmaking Work­ shop" with Gabriel Penfield. Fee: $220; members, $110. March 30 Parent and child workshop: handbuilt cookie jars. Fee: $35/pair. April 5-6 A session with Miranda Thomas. Fee: $250; members, $125. Contact Mudflat, 149 Broadway, Somerville 02145; see website www.mudflat.org ; telephone (617) 628-0589; or fax (617) 628-2082. Massachusetts, Stockbridge March 24-28 " El­ egant Handbuilding, Elegant Firing" with Donna Polseno. Fee: $425, plus materials fee. April 12-13 "Glazing!" with Angela Fina. Fee: $215, includes materials. May 17-18 "Treasures from Shards: Mak­ ing Mosaics" with Marlene Hurley Marshall. Fee: $215, includes materials. Contact IS 183, Art School of the Berkshires, PO Box 1400, Stockbridge 01262; e-mail [email protected] ; see website www.IS183.org ; telephone (413) 298-5252; or fax (413) 298-5257. Massachusetts, Williamsburg April 12-13 "Raku Glazing and Firing." April 25-27 "Beginner Wheel Throwing." May 17-19 "Painting with Fire: Low-Salt Fuming and Saggar-Fired Ceramics." In­ structor: Bob Green. Contact Snow Farm: The New England Craft Program, 5 Clary Rd., Williamsburg 01096; e-mail [email protected] ; see website www.snowfarm.com ; or telephone (413) 268-3101. Massachusetts, Worcester February 75-76 "Re­ sponding to Touch—Porcelain Pots Thrown and Al­ tered" with Leah Leitson. Fee: $210; members, $185; includes materials. April5-6 "Expressive Clay" with Joe Bova. Fee: $180; members, $155. For further information, telephone the Worcester Cen­ ter for Crafts, (508) 753-8183. Minnesota, Minneapolis March 1 "Regis Mas­ ters Lecture" with Gutte Eriksen. Contact the Northern ClayCenter, 2424 Franklin Ave., E, Minneapolis 55406; e-mail [email protected] ; see website www.northernclaycenter.org ; or telephone (612) 339-8007. Missouri, Kansas City February 8-9 A session with Maren Kloppmann. March 29-30 A session with Ken Ferguson. Fee: $120. Contact Red Star Studios Ceramic Center, 821 W. 17 St., Kansas City 64108; see website www.redstarstudios.org ; or telephone (816) 474-7316. Montana, Helena May 23-25 A session with Liz Quackenbush. Contact Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, 2915 Country Club Ave., Helena 59602; see website www.archiebray.org ; or telephone (406) 443-3502. New Mexico, Santa Fe February 8 "Cone Six Glazing for Reduction and Oxidation" with Martin Butt and Stuart Mills. Fee: $60. February 15 "Raku Firing Sculptural Vessels" with Kellogg Johnson. Fee: $95.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 99 and Mimi Strang. April 7-11 "The Art of Throwing and calendar Raku Firing" with Harry Hearne. April 14-18 "Pots with Handles: Mugs, Creamers, Pouring Bowls and More" with Louise Harter; or "Sculptural Transforma­ "Tempest in a Teacup" with Matt Nolen. Fee: $75. tions in Clay" with Tr£ Arenz. Fee/session: $340. For April 5-6 "Handbuilding Construction Techniques" further information, contact Arrowmont School of Arts with Paula Winokur. Fee: $150. May 3-4 A session and Crafts, PO Box 567, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg with Peter Callas. Contact the Clay Art Center, 40 Beech 37738; telephone (865) 436-5860; or fax (865) 430- St., Port Chester 10573; telephone (914) 937-2047. 4101; e-mail [email protected] ; or see website New York, White Plains February 18-20 www.arrowmont.org . "Handbuilding and Wheel Throwing" with Todd Texas, Dallas April 11-13 "Form and Surface in Wahlstrom. Fee: $136.25. Contact the Westchester Art the Electric Kiln" with Mary Barringer. Fee: $275; Workshop, Westchester County Center, 196 Central members, $225. Registration deadline: April 1. Mem­ Ave., White Plains 10606; telephone (914) 684-0094. bership dues: $45. Forfurther information, contact the North Carolina, Asheville May 22-24 Hands-on Craft Guild of Dallas, 14325 Proton Rd., Dallas 75244; workshop with Sam Chung. Fee: $325. Contact Odys­ see website www.craftguildofdallas.com ; telephone sey, PO Box 18284, Asheville 28814; see website (972) 490-0303; or fax (972) 490-0304. www.highwaterdays.com ; telephone (828) 285-0210. Texas, San Antonio February28 "A Conversation North Carolina, Bakersville May 10-15 and 17- in Clay," slide lecture with Mary Barringer. Free. Feb­ 22 "Wood-Firing Workshop" with Mark Peters; bring ruary 28-March 2 "Building a Surface" with Mary bisqueware. See website www.pinerootpottery.com ; Barringer. Fee: $245; members, $220. Contact the or telephone (828) 688-1332. Southwest School of Art and Craft, 300 Augusta, San North Carolina, Chapel Hill April 5, 12 and 26 Antonio 78205-1296; see website www.swschool.org ; "Downdraft Gas Kilnbuilding Workshop," building or telephone (210) 224-1848. and firing a 40-cubic-foot catenary-arch kiln. To regis­ Washington, Longview February 8-9 "Glaze ter, telephone Central Carolina Community College at Chemistry" for beginning and advanced potters, (919) 542-2201, ext. 0; for further information, e-mail with Paul Lewing. For further information, contact Dan Rhode at [email protected]. Trudy Woods, Lower Columbia College, Longview North Carolina, Penland March 9-May2 "Porce­ 98632; e-mail [email protected] ; or telephone lain Pots: Food and Culture" with Silvie Granatelli and (360) 442-2510. Leah Leitson. For further information, contact Penland Washington, Suquamish May 10-11 "Tiles and School of Crafts: telephone (828) 765-2359; or see Sinks" with Linda Blossom. Fee: $150. ContactClaySpace website www.penland.org . on Puget Sound, Brenda Beeley, PO Box 1339, Suquamish Ohio, Wooster April 9-13 "Functional Ceramics 98392-1339; e-mail [email protected] ; see website Workshop" with demonstrations and slide presenta­ www.clayspaceonpugetsound.com ; or telephone (360) tions with Randy Johnston, Liz Quackenbush and Lee 598-3688. Rexrode. Fee: $ 165; full-time students, $90; includes 4 Washington, Tacoma April 4-6 A session with meals and full-color exhibition catalog. Location: Wayne Steven Branfman. Contact the Clay Art Center, 2636 Center for the Arts. For further information, telephone Pioneer Way, E, Tacoma 98404; see website (330) 345-7576. www.clayartcenter.com ; telephone (800) 952-8030; Oklahoma, Norman March 1-2 Slide lecture and or fax (253) 922-5349. workshop with Gail Kendall. Fee: $101, includes reg­ West Virginia, Ripley March 7-9 "23rd Potter's istration fee. Limited to 20 participants. Contact Gathering" with Phil Rogers at Cedar Lakes Crafts Firehouse Art Center, 444 S. Flood, Norman 73069; or Center. Fee: $100; full-time students, $50. On-site telephone (405) 329-4523. accommodations available. For further information, Oregon, Gresham February 7-8 "Vessels that e-mail [email protected] ; see website Pour," demonstration and hands-on session with www.cedarlakes.com ; or telephone (304) 372-7873. Linda McFarling. Fee: $75. Contact Stephen Mickey, Wisconsin, Fish Creek February 10-12 "As the MHCC Ceramics, Mt. Hood Community College, Wheel Turns—Function and Beauty" with Jeanne 26000 S.E. Stark St., Gresham 97030; e-mail Aurelius. April21-25 "Introduction to Porcelain" with [email protected] ; or telephone (503) 491-7309. Greg Pieper. Fee: $135. May 12-15 "Making Ceramics Pennsylvania, Philadelphia February 9 "Paper for Sushi" with David Caradori. Fee: $145. Additional Clay" with Jerry Bennett. Fee: $100; members, $90. fees for amount of clay used. Contact Peninsula Art February 22-23 "Pinch Pot Workshop" with Jimmy School, PO Box 304, 3906 County Hwy. F, Fish Creek Clark. Fee: $175; members, $160. March 22 "Slide 54212; e-mail [email protected] ; see Documentation Basics" with John Carlano. Fee: $10. website www.peninsulaartschool.com ; telephone March29 "Pit-Firing Weekend" with Jimmy Clark. Fee: (920) 868-3455. $ 115; members, $ 100. Participants of previous pinch- potworkshop: $105; members, $90. Location: Chester International Events Springs Studio. April4 A lecture with Patti Warashina. Fee: $5. May 3 "Basic Business Practices for Artists" Belgium, Oostende through February 16 Exhibi­ with members of the Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers tion of ceramics by Claudi Casanovas; at PMMK, for the Arts. Contact the Clay Studio, 139 N. Second Romestraat 11B. St., Philadelphia 19106; e-mail [email protected] ; Canada, British Columbia, Salt Spring Island see website www.theclaystudio.org ; or telephone (215) February 1-2 "Handbuilding Clay Workshop" with 925-3453. Cynthia Spencer. Fee: Can$70 (approximately US$45). South Carolina, Charleston February22-23 "Cut Limited space. E-mail [email protected] ; or and Paste: Exploring Form and Function in Earthen­ telephone (250) 537-2184. ware" with Joan Bruneau. For further information, see Canada, British Columbia, Vancouver February website www.gibbes.com ; or telephone the Gibbes 15-16 Demonstration with Trudy Golley, sculptural Studio at (843) 577-7275. handbuilding techniques and using "paper-plaster" Tennessee, Gatlinburg March 17-21 "Lidded and mold-making techniques. Fee: Can$74.90 (ap­ Forms in Earthenware" with Ron Meyers. March 24- proximately US$45). Sponsored by the Potters Guild of 28 "Pottery for the Kitchen Table and Windowsill" BC and the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. For further with Terry Gess. March 28-29 "Quichua Potters Dem­ information or to register, telephone (604) 291-6864. onstration" with Esthela and Mirian Dagua of Puyo, March 6-31 "Flores," sculptural porcelain vessels Ecuador. March 28 "The Pottery of the Amazon," by Rachelle Chinnery; at the Gallery of BC Ceramics, lecture with Joe Molinaro. March 31-April 4 "Tile: Granville Island. Experimentation and Technical Details" with Gloria Kosco Canada, British Columbia, Victoria March 29-30

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 100 Ceramics Monthly February 2003 101 through March 16 "The New Mosaic: Selections phy—Ceramic Work," workshop with Ole Akh 0j. Fee: calendar from Friuli, Italy"; atthe Royal Ontario Museum, 100 DKr 800 (approximately US$110); students, DKr 500 Queen's Park. (approximately US$70). March 28-April 6 "Cross- February 6-March 2 Exhibition of functional por­ Draft Kiln," wood-firing workshop. Fee: DKr 500, plus A workshop with Ron Meyers, throwing, appliques, celain objects by Thomas Aitken; at the Guild Shop, firing expenses by volume of work. Registration dead­ drawing and decorating. Fee: Can$115 (approxi­ 118 Cumberland St. (Yorkville) line/workshop: March 3. For further information, con­ mately US$75), includes lunch. Contact Meira February 6-May 25 "The Artful Teapot: 20th- tact Guldagergaard, Heilmannsvej 31A, DK-4230 Mathison, Metchosin International School of Art, Century Expressions from the Kamm Collection"; at Skaelskor; e-mail [email protected]; see website 650 Pearson College Dr., Victoria V9C 4H7; e-mail the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, 111 Queen's Park. www.ceramic.dk; telephone (45) 5819 0016; or fax [email protected] ; see website www.missa.ca; China, Jingdezhen May 23-June 29 "Ceramic (45) 5819 0037. or telephone (250) 391-2420. Study in China." Fee: $4495, includes airfare, in- Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo through Canada, Ontario, Burlington through December country travel, living accommodations and 6 cred­ February 16 "Elit-Tile 2002/2003"; at the Museum of 21 "Recent Acquisitions." February 9-July 27 Exhibi­ its. For further information, contact Bob Anderson, Modern Art, Plaza de la Cultura. tion of ceramics by Alex Yeung; at the Burlington Art Head of Ceramics, West Virginia University: e-mail England, Hanley through March 2 Exhibition of Centre, 1333 Lakeshore Rd. [email protected]; see website art and craft from surrounding areas; at the Potteries Canada, Ontario, Toronto through February 22 www.wvu.edu/~ccarts/china/chinaceramicsmain.htm ; Museum and Art Gallery, Bethesda St. Exhibition of pottery by Bruce Cochrane; at Prime or telephone (304) 293-2140, ext. 3135. England, London February 21-March 29 Exhibi­ Gallery, 52 McCaul St. Denmark, Skaelskor March 21-22 "Photogra­ tion of vessels by Gordon Baldwin; at Barrett Marsden Gallery, 17-18 Great Sutton St., Clerkenwell. March 11-April 10 "Constructed Clay—Modern British Handbuilding"; at Galerie Besson, 15 Royal Arcade, 28 Old Bond St. England, Sherborne through March 1 Pottery by Jack Doherty, John Jelfs and Ruthanne Tudball. March 15-April 19 Ceramics by Ashraf Hanna, Duncan Ross and John Ward; at Alpha House Gallery, South St. Italy, Certaldo April 12-19 "Raku Workshop" with Pietro Maddalena. For further information, con­ tact La Meridiana, Loc. Bagnano 135, 50052 Certaldo, Florence; e-mail [email protected] ; see website www.pietro.net ; telephone (39) 571 66 00 84; or fax (39) 571 66 08 21. April 27-May 10 "Single-Fire Workshop" with Steven Hill. Forfurther information, e-mail Lynne Burke at [email protected] ; or see website www.potteryabroad.com . May 23-June 7 "Architectural Ceramics Workshop" with Marcia Selsor. Fee: $1900, includes meals and lodging; full payment due April 30. June 7-21 A session with George McCauley. Fee: $1900, includes meals and lodging; full payment due May 15. Contact Marcia Selsor: e-mail [email protected] ; see website http://home.attbi.com/~mselsor/Tuscany2003.html ; or telephone (406) 671-8557. Japan, Kyoto and Shigaraki May 11-June 11 Four-week study program sponsored by the University of Georgia. For further information, contact Glen Kaufman: [email protected] ; telephone (706) 542-1660. Mexico, Oaxaca February 2-10 or March 16-24 "Oaxacan Clay Workshops," digging clay, hand­ building, burnishing, tumble-stack bonfiring, etc. For further information, e-mail [email protected] ; or see website at www.manos-de-oaxaca.com . Netherlands, Arnhem through February 22 Ce­ ramics by Ivo Nijs. March 16-April 13 Ceramics by Jean Fontaine; at Galerie Keramaikos, Oranjestraat 121. Netherlands, De\itthrough March 1 Hein Severijns, crystalline-glazed porcelain vessels. February 8-March 22 Mieke de Groot, "Rolling Stones." March 8-April 19 Horst Gobbels, porcelain objects. March 29-May 70HenkWolvers, porcelain objects; atTerra Keramiek, Nieuwstraat 7. Netherlands, Deventer through February 8 Exhi­ bition of ceramics by Siegfried Gorinskat. February 16- March 15 Ceramics by Martin Barnsdale and Luk Versluys; at Loes and Reinier, Korte Assenstraat 15. Netherlands, Leeuwarden through May 11 Hans van Bentem, large-scale figure sculptures; at Princessehof Leeuwarden, Grote Kerkstraat 11.

For a free listing, submit announcements of confer­ ences, exhibitions, workshops and juried fairs at least two months before the month of opening. Add one month for listings in July; two months for those in August. Mail to Calendar, Ceramics Monthly, 735 Ceramic PI., Westerville, OH 43081; e-mail to [email protected] ; or fax to (614) 891-8960.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 102 Ceramics Monthly February 2003 103 questions Answered by the CM Technical Staff

Q How is it that a glaze that contains chrome, which is usually a sure-fire green color every time I have used it, will go pink when there is tin present? This doesn't exactly keep me awake at night, but I am just very interested to know how this works. Does it have to do with specific amounts of chrome and tin, or is it more about the ratio between the two? Are there other things that need to be present as well? Will this work for a matt glaze as well as a gloss glaze? Thanks!—C.G. First, let’s back up a few steps. A glaze is a glass coating fused to a ceramic substrate. Like all glass, it is a frozen liquid—a liquid that has become rigid without crystallizing. The reason for this is that, in most firing schedules, there is typically not sufficient time during the cooling process for full crystalliza­ tion to occur. This, of course, will vary to some degree from glaze to glaze and schedule to schedule. Nevertheless, when a glaze cools at the end of the firing process, it is not uncommon for at least some crystals to form in the glaze. When they grow large, they become visible to the naked eye. How­ ever, when they remain small (which is most often the case) they merely change the color, appearance, etc., of the glaze without being visible as individual crystals. The pink color that occurs when chrome and tin are both present in a glaze is an example of the latter effect. In essence, when you have both chrome and tin in a glaze, there exists the possibility of forming a chrome-tin pigment crystal. The structure of this crystal is such that the environment of the chro­ mium ion is changed so that the color can be something other than green. The color of this pigment depends on the weight ratio of the chro­ mium oxide to the tin oxide. Generally speaking, when the ratio is 1 to 5 (1 chrome to 5 tin), the color will remain green. When it is 1 to 15, the color will be purple. When it is 1 to 17, the color will be red or perhaps maroon. When it is 1 to 25, the color will be pink. Although not absolutely necessary, this effect works better if calcium oxide and silica are present in the glaze. The reason for this is that the pigment crystal is not formed from just chrome and tin. Most chrome-tin pink crystals are chromium- doped calcium-tin silicate. This effect should work in a matt glaze as well as a gloss glaze. An exception would occur if the opacifying crystals in a matt glaze hide the chrome/ tin color crystals. Richard A. Eppler Ceramics Consultant Cheshire, Connecticut

Have a problem? Subscribers’ questions are welcome, and those of interest to the ceramics community in general will be answered in this column. Due to volume, letters may not be an­ swered personally. Mail to Ceramics Monthly, 735 Ceramic PI., Westerville, OH 43081, e-mail to [email protected] or fax to (614) 891-8960.

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 104 Ceramics Monthly February 2003 105 Ceramics Monthly February 2003 106 Ceramics Monthly February 2003 107 Comment I devious details byjim Danisch

My favorite pot was purchased after the In Nepal, such jars are common house­ epiphany of discovering a Tharu firing hold items, used for carrying water from the house—filled wall-to-wall with its giant, well, replaced every year during the harvest smoking, knowing, mud-covered kiln—in festival, and appreciated for their accuracy to Nepal. Living with this pot for many years the prototype that everybody expects—water has informed me a lot about “pot-ness” and jars are made exactly the same by all the some of the ways pottery interacts with its potters in each village. Village to village, they environment. Of all the possible items that differ slightly in surface treatment. They all can be made from clay, pots are distinguished have about the same resonant frequency. by their ability to contain: perhaps air (and Transported out of its culture, the water sound), water or any of the myriad substances jar became an abstract pot. When my wife that we require in our lives. exhibited her collection of Nepali household I should explain that in spite of the popu­ objects in the Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art larity of the word “vessel” (which implies a Museum several years ago, she wanted to container that needs a title, since it doesn’t display a terra-cotta distilling pot in house­ have a clearly defined function), I still prefer hold context along with the brass containers “pot,” since it specifically implies clay and that went with it. The museum wanted to maintains a relationship with what used to show all the brass items—regardless of func­ be important functions and values in our tion—together. culture. My Tharu water jar plays so specific Since we aren’t isolated village specialists a role in its culture that it has a name to anymore, where do we as potters find distinguish it from other sizes and shapes of significance in our work? What are the ele­ water jars: ghaito. ments that make pots different from paint­ On the other hand, I really enjoy the ing or sculpture? For me, pot-ness is described abstract qualities of pots. As an undergradu­ by: the volume, the skin that contains it and ate, I was heavily influenced by abstract ex­ the space that surrounds it; inside/outside pressionism in paint and clay, and acquired a interpenetrations; surface qualities/state­ snobbish attitude about the superiority of ments, such as color, reflectance, significant sculpture over pottery (which I unlearned a spots, rhythmic relationships, projected fan­ long time ago). Over the course of my career, tasies and circumferential stories. Pots have I have steered away from production pottery, an inside and an outside, but are described only because it’s contrary to my nature, but by a single continuous surface. when I think about the pots I like the most, In the Hindu myths, the potter’s wheel they are a cup I made and the ghaito from originated as Vishnu’s discus. As such, it re­ Nepal. My cup is intended for drinking and plays the creation of the universe every time contemplating, and the painting on it is sug­ a lump of shapeless clay is spun on it. From gestive of the mood of the day it was made, the primary still point at the center of the expressed through gesture and color. The wa­ wheel, the creator’s hands first shape a linga ter jar tells a specific story of which village it (the male principle), then a yoni (the female was made in, and has a rigidly defined pur­ principle). This balance achieved, an endless pose and form. variety of forms is ready to spin into life. Made in a village in southwest Nepal, the In Niko Kazantzakis’ Zorba the Greek, ghaito was in the discard heap next to the Zorba’s boss notices that part of his index firing house (since it was slightly distorted by finger is missing, and asks what happened: the fire and did not conform to village aes­ “You can’t understand, boss,” Zorba re­ thetics, as it was “disfigured” by a large circu­ plied, shrugging his shoulders. “I told you I lar design on its belly) when I found it. I had been in every trade. Once I was a potter. thought it was the best “vessel” I’d ever seen, I was mad about that craft. D’you realize and bought it at a discount. It has a strong what it means to take a lump of mud and ringing resonance with lots of overtones when make what you will out of it? Ffrr! You turn you tap or sing into it, and visually I find it the wheel and the mud whirls round, as if it magical and magnificent. were possessed while you stand over it and

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 108 Ceramics Monthly February 2003 109 comment say, ‘I’m going to make a jug, I’m going to make a plate, I’m going to make a lamp and the devil knows what more.’ That’s what you might call being a man: freedom.” “Well? What about your finger?” “Oh, it got in my way in the wheel. It always got plumb in the middle of things and upset my plans. So one day I seized a hatchet....” Besides giving form to passion expressed through the responsive immediacy of clay, containers made on the wheel possess or im­ ply volume—a quantity of space defined by a skin. Volume is also defined by its resonant qualities: chant a tone into a large jar and you’ll understand what I mean. A quart of space that is long and thin is very different from the same quart in spherical form. A well-made jar will have a major resonant fre­ quency, and any number of overtones to en­ rich its sound. Overtones are echoes and slightly different vibrations from the domi­ nant tone, pleasing because of their inexact likeness, which creates complexity and inter­ est. Vibrations that are too different create dissonance. If the volume of the pot is not fully realized, it will fail the acoustic reso­ nance test. Our eyes as well as our ears understand resonance. A jar that sounds pleasing will usually satisfy the eye as well. Beyond that, it has a surface that reacts to the space around it, catching light and reflecting back. If you ask the surface where the inside stops and the outside begins, it won’t be able to tell you; it thinks it’s all one. The mouth of the pot can speak better to this. Although it has a clear location, it may have no definite boundary line; it is a transition zone, rather than a border with guards. Inside is clearly there, but where does it start? Without an inten­ tionally placed line to define the border, you can’t tell which “country” you’re in. When you pour water out of the jar, it will fall, but whether it falls free from the edge or not depends on defining that line and, of course, how quickly the jar is tipped. With my water jar, I watch how the light dances on the wet curve of the lip, defining spots that emphasize changes in curve and color. The circular motif that defines its belly is not manmade; it is a projected fantasy of the fire, where the jar was resting on the

Ceramics Monthly February 2003 110 Ceramics Monthly February 2003 111 comment to enhance areas that separate the torso from significant spot, which also repeats the circle the head, the hips from the torso, the feet of the lip. What joy there is in discovering a from the ankles. Each potter’s wife in Gadawa, potter’s small mark, deliberate or accidental, mouth of another Nepal, has her own set of stories that she tells on the base of the pot. jar in the kiln, caus­ with a finger dipped in terra sigillata. She For the connoisseur there is the technical ing differences in re­ calls it gabij, which might illustrate rice grow­ mystery of the black and red areas. These duction. Traditional ing, flowers blooming, water flowing or “we’ve were provided by the fire, which is only potters don’t do always done this.” The placement is always slightly controllable. The blacks occurred these things deliber­ the same—around the shoulder. And except where there was terra sigillata on the surface. ately; uniform color when she’s carrying the jar on her head to the It was reduced during the firing, turning red is their goal. Chance well, it is seen from above, as the jar sits in its iron oxide to black, and possibly trapping fire marks have a hollow in the house. Given the way she holds carbon. The terra sigillata vitrified more than naturalness that I often find lacking in con­ and rotates the pot on her foot while deco­ the body, due to its smaller particle size, and temporary wood-fired pieces, with their self- rating, it would be difficult to place the paint­ when the jar re-oxidized in cooling, it re­ conscious flashings. ing in any other location. tained the black color. Imagine projecting a slide (or a fantasy) Rhythmic relationships are about the This jar has remained my favorite for years, onto the surface of a pot, then moving the dance between likenesses and contrasts of in large part because of its devious details, projected image about. You will at some point line and shape. My favorite “dance floor” the most interesting of which are the subtle find a composition that has a natural rela­ surfaces are cups with handles, where the shadows at the edge of the fingerpainting, tionship to the form. Projected imagery makes shape of the handle provides a springboard and the crescent-shaped dark at the right of a statement that originates outside the form, for all sorts of interesting pirouettes and the circular motif. As part of my personal unlike circumferential stories that exist in imaginative leaps on the adjoining surfaces. history, it has been an important teacher, as painted or relieved bands defining latitudes It’s like back in the days when we used to well as a container for the memory of a specific originating from the spinning wheel. My own dance the jitterbug, when partners had to village and family. It evokes images of women surface work often starts from the way sun­ relate rhythmically or end up on the floor. at the well with water jars on their heads, light shining through a window redefines the This curve goes north; its mirror image goes while offering a permanent record of its firing form of a pot, providing a takeoff point for a south. You pull this way; I’ll pull that way. position and temperature in the great heap meaningful meander. On my water jar, primary rhythmic rela­ of red-hot water jars. I continue to enjoy the Circumferential stories on pots are like tionships—likenesses that are inexact—are mystery of its resonance and its circumferen­ necklaces and belts on our bodies; they serve the curve of the pot to the curve of the tial story line as it unrolls over time.

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Ceramics Monthly February 2003 V\2