by Carole Epp | Sep 19, 2014 | call for entry, emerging artist, job posting, monday morning eye candy, movie day, residency opportunity, show us your influences, technical tuesday
SCRIPPS COLLEGE
CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA 91711
LINCOLN VISITING ARTIST IN CERAMICS
AT SCRIPPS COLLEGE AND CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY
BEGINNING FALL 2015
Scripps College, a women’s liberal arts college with a strong interdisciplinary tradition, invites
applications for the Lincoln Visiting Artist in Ceramics position. This is a three-year
nonrenewable position beginning fall 2015. An M.F.A., demonstrated excellence in teaching at
the college level, and an active exhibition record are required. Applicant must be conversant in
contemporary art theory, hand building, wheel throwing, gas and electric kiln firing processes,
glaze chemistry, and ceramics history past and present.
Teaching load includes two undergraduate ceramics courses per semester, and working with
Graduate Art students at CGU one day a week.
Please submit a letter of interest, CV, artist’s statement, digital portfolio of your own and
students’ work, image list, sample syllabi, teaching evaluations, and three letters of reference to:
https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo.
Review of applications will begin Dec. 1, 2014.
Preference will be given to applicants with a commitment to the College’s goal of improving
higher education for underrepresented students.
Scripps College is one of seven members of The Claremont Colleges Consortium located 35
miles east of Los Angeles. In a continuing effort to build a diverse academic community and to
provide equal educational and employment opportunities, Scripps College actively encourages
applications from women and members of historically under-represented groups.
For questions, please contact:
Adam Davis
Chair, Ceramics Search Committee
Department of Art, Scripps College
1030 Columbia Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711
[email protected]
by Carole Epp | Sep 16, 2014 | Uncategorized
The Art Gallery of Burlington is excited to kick
off the Fall 2014 exhibition schedule with a celebration of contemporary
Canadian ceramics.
Coast to Coast to Coast will feature ceramic works from the AGB’s
permanent collection to tell of the development of contemporary
ceramics in Canada, and how the art form has developed through time.
Portrait of a Collector explores the influences of Herbert Bunt
on the growth of the AGB collection, and his role as the first major
donor to the Gallery.
Coast to Coast to Coast
September 27, 2014 – November 9, 2014
Location: Lee-Chin Family Gallery
Artists: Various artists from the AGB Collection
Curator: Jonathan Smith
Reception: September 28, 2-4pm
Related Lectures:
Coast to Coast to Coast by Jonathan Smith, October 8 at 10am
Unique and universal – Quebec ceramics by Denis Longchamps, November 12 at 10am
The Exhibition:
The growth of the collection over the years has enabled us to recognize not only the breadth of expression that the ceramic medium encompasses, but also the regional, national and international influences that are expressed in the work. Regional differences that were influenced by historic developments and nurtured by the craftspeople and institutions, bump up against international art movements that helped to create artists with highly personal viewpoints. Canada with its multicultural background has welcomed these influences and grown with them. The idea of ceramics as an art form is a relatively new development in the history of the country, only arising in the late fifties and early sixties. Before then the medium had only existed in the mass production of functional pieces. The movement began with the influx of artists working in the tradition of Leach and Hamada, and the young generation of Canadians that arose in the sixties. The new energy that arose in the sixties was at first focused on expressive functional work. Over the ensuing decades, this has broadened out with ever increasing emphasis on the sculptural aspect of the medium, in particular with the rise of artists who investigate the intersection of the functional with ever increasing sculptural intentions. This in turn is bringing the medium to multi-disciplinary intersections such as installation and video. This exhibition looks at the roots of the movement, the regional origins of trends and the growing maturity of Canadian ceramics in the wider world.
by Carole Epp | Sep 16, 2014 | call for entry, emerging artist, job posting, monday morning eye candy, movie day, residency opportunity, show us your influences, technical tuesday
about a month ago i had a conversation with one of my galleries about the price of my mugs. i’ve been selling them locally for $35 CDN pretty much regardless of size since the time put into each piece is roughly the same. i throw these cups on the wheel. handles are added. each has a unique one of a kind, not printed, but hand drawn illustration on it. they have numerous colors added and fired to cone 6 in electric.
for the holiday season this gallery is requesting 24 mugs. it’s alot for me. i can’t produce full time with all the other aspects of managing my career and of course raising my kids. i have 2 holiday sales coming up wherein i know mugs will be the best sellers, so it becomes difficult for me to justify shipping (and paying for that shipping) the work cross country only to receive %50 of the selling price.
if i was working full time these cups would take a proper weeks worth of hours. they are that labour intensive. so lets do the math shall we…. 24 mugs x $35 = 840. Divide that by %50 you’ve got $420. Shipping will cost me approx $60 for that (2 boxes properly packed so as to not lose any pieces). $420-$60 = $360. Packing materials = $12. Material expenses: clay – $25, glaze – $8, underglaze – $4, firings – $40 (approx on these material expenses, i haven’t weighed or calculated the extact glaze quantity, etc. but i base these on figures i established a few years back for a grant). Total material expenses: $77. Studio fees: well i use my basement and my garage so i won’t factor that in right now, but there are heating and electrical costs associated and i can only imaging if i was paying rent on a studio out of the home) so where are we at? $360 – $12 – $77 = $271. $271 divided by the 24 mugs = $11 a mug. or lets look at my time: one week of work, lets say 6 hours a day so 30 hours: $9/hour is what i’m paying myself.
oh and there is nothing left over for actual profit margin.
right.
minimum wage in Saskatchewan where i live: $10.20.
how much did those two degrees cost me again?
I’m venting i know. but i was offended when the gallery staff was reluctant to let me raise my prices.
how do i feel about $35? i feel a few things. i feel that the local community/audience has a limit of how much they’ll pay. i live in Saskatchewan. we are known for lower priced work. a local established potter during my undergrad years sold his mugs for less then $25 (at the time) and once told me i was disrespectful and presumptuous to ask for more then those that have been practicing for longer then i have been. i have since truly upped my middle finger to such talk.
there is a system that i understand i must work within. there are different levels of skill and techniques that are more labour intensive that can charge more. but i won’t pander to the idea that my years of experience can only charge certain prices. i like to think that i address the market demands and what they are willing to pay.
but then what happens when you sell at a %50 commission rate at galleries? and what happens when you sell outside of your local market, perhaps even internationally where price points differ?
so do i sell for $35 locally by myself, take a %50 cut with galleries (plus have to pay shipping costs), and then sometimes come in much lower then other artists in an exhibition in a different market – being the jerk that undercuts all their hard earned prices? in an more international market place how do we price our work to address all these scenarios? we aren’t selling and exhibiting locally anymore so how do we level the playing field or develop a system that works where in artists feel respected and well paid?
and if we are pushing our audiences to pay a proper price for our work, should our galleries not also be a part of that system of educating the audience to a fair and sustainable value for our work? i wonder how they answer the question of how can artists charge so much when mugs sell for $5 at walmart. cuz i personally am beyond tired of justifying that.
anyway, enough of a rant from me. the above image shows a lot of the answers I’ve received from artists. this of course doesn’t illustrate anything about scale, technique, market and the like, but it’s a interesting starting point for looking at the price of a mug.
