emerging artist: Jennifer Hansen Gard

by | Mar 16, 2014 | call for entry, emerging artist, job posting, monday morning eye candy, movie day, residency opportunity, show us your influences, technical tuesday


My interest lies in medicinal herbs and plants that directly
affect the body. I am interested in using the ceramic vessel the explore
ethnobotony, which is defined as the study of “the relationship between people
and plants including various aspects of how plants are used for food . . . and
medicine” (Rai, Acharya, & Rios, 2011). As an artist I am questioning what
is the role of the plant in today’s society? What connects plants and people? I
am working to explore the relationship between plants and people through the
ceramic vessel.
I have set out to better understand specific plants through
researching the growing, harvest, and consumption. I supplement my ceramics
studio practice with a growing practice that includes an Herb Garden and greenhouse growing. I considered specific plant
needs for example companion planting and root structure in designing and
building growing containers. I used my hands to transform the clay through pushing,
pinching, and pulling creating vessels of containment.
 
At the same time I am growing, harvesting, and creating vessels
specific for the herbs I am also integrating vessels into my daily life. I
recently created a dish set that I used for every meal for a 30 days period. I
was thinking about the throw away culture we live in and how disconnected it is
from the growing practice that I am so deeply involved in. I question shouldn’t
what we eat and drink from have more value than trash? I performed the 30 Days
Project Part II later called The Dish Set
Challenge I through the month of November with a dish set that includes a
cup, bowl, and plate. I used it for every meal recording through photos and
updates on my blog. In December, I create The
Dish Set Challenge II with my husband Forrest where we used a connected dish
set plate, bowl and cup for every meal for one week. You can view both projects
at  gardclaystudios.blogspot.com

The work displayed in Coeval
as a product of my growing practice and includes turmeric, cayenne, and
moonseeds held in balance with a social practice. The Dish Set Challenge III will take place during the duration of
the exhibition from January 10th through February 7th,
2014. The project involves the help of five participants Belenda
Flucker, Aurelio Diaz, Keith Karchella. Violeta Chinni, and Jenny Lucas
Kaufman. These five participants and myself will be competing a 28 day Dish Set Challenge. The participants
will be presented with a handmade dish set made specifically for them. They
will eat and drink from it every day during the course of the exhibition. Each
day the participants will post on a group blog recording meals and reflecting
as they experience the project. The project
will commence at the opening reception with a meal that I prepare from 100%
local food I have collected from farms surrounding Mansfield. You can view the
projects daily progress at

emerging artist: Nina Kawar

by | Mar 15, 2014 | call for entry, emerging artist, job posting, monday morning eye candy, movie day, residency opportunity, show us your influences, technical tuesday

 

Within my studio
practice I am exploring the self and mechanisms we use to protect ourselves. My
research of defense mechanisms and self-presentations within psychology has led
me to examine human emotional responses and how they work within social-interactions.
I am investigating the unique layers of our identity and how we project
fragments of the self to others through behavior or impulses. One way I have
chosen to execute this concept is through a barrier or shield. The forms allow
the viewer to experience multiple perspectives that are present in human
relations when instinctive behavior patterns come in to play. This continues to
address my interest in human’s need for order and control because the ego is
trying to organize behavior within social environments.  
The delicate
nature of the ceramic forms highlights the sometimes-fragile fragments of our
ego. Some elements imply a softness or approachability while others suggest
precaution. Repetition of these forms is also signifying habitual patterns and
reoccurrences in our everyday experiences.
In addition to
psychology, architecture has been a significant influence in my work. Both
mashrabiyyas and muqarnas have been pertinent in my understanding of decorative
motifs and their functions within architecture. I believe there is a strong
interest in these structures because I have associated them to the body and I
continuing to contemplate how they can function as a psychological state. 
– Nina Kawar

ninakawar.weebly.com

job postings: Heath Ceramics

by | Mar 11, 2014 | call for entry, emerging artist, job posting, monday morning eye candy, movie day, residency opportunity, show us your influences, technical tuesday

Heath
Ceramics is a more than 60-year-old California company that makes
dinnerware and architectural tile of good and enduring design. 
We believe in the benefits of local manufacturing
and, with more than 100 employees and growing, we support a growing
community of people committed to and inspired by the process of
designing, making and sharing. 
We believe in fair compensation, provide full health
care benefits and make retirement benefits available. If you are
someone who shares these values and is inspired by designing, making and
sharing, we’d love to hear from you. 
If you would like to be considered for one of the
positions below, please send your resume and cover letter and let us
know about your availability (if you’re looking for part-time or
full-time work and location preference). 
Thank you for your interest! Email us at jobs(at)heathceramics.com

Production Director

We’re looking for a Production Director to oversee
the production of Heath’s dinnerware and tile products, made in our two
factories in Sausalito (dinnerware) and San Francisco (tile). This
position will be taking over from our current Production Director, who,
after seven successful and growth-filled years, is retiring. 
See the full job description and apply here.

Communications Director

We at Heath take an untraditional approach to Brand
Marketing. We don’t like either of those words, which is why this
position is titled Communications Director. That said, we recognize the
importance of said words in the industry and in large companies and we
mean no disrespect in using them sparingly in our company. 
See the full job description and apply here.

Ceramic Engineer

In a newly created position to address our growth
and expansion, the Ceramic Engineer at Heath will oversee technical
aspects of Heath’s dinnerware and tile production in our 2 factories
(dinnerware in Sausalito, CA and tile in SF, CA). 
See the full job description and apply here.

Industrial Machinery Electrician

We’re looking for a part-time Industrial Machinery Electrician to help at our Sausalito factory.
See the full job description here (pdf download).

Merchandise Planner

Heath’s Merchandise Planner maintains stock levels
of Heath Home offerings in our four retail showrooms in California.
After product selection by our creative buying team, this position is
responsible for the full product cycle from vendor to sell through.
See the full job description and apply here. 
www.heathceramics.com/home/pages/discover-heath/community/jobs

emerging artist: Lindsay Scypta

by | Mar 9, 2014 | call for entry, emerging artist, job posting, monday morning eye candy, movie day, residency opportunity, show us your influences, technical tuesday

The
table is the place where a need becomes a want. Something we have to
do—eat—becomes something we care to do—dine, and then something we care
to do becomes something we try to do with grace. Eating together is the
civilizing act, we take urges and tame them into tastes. 
—Adam Gopnik

The
table comes first, then the dishes, food, individuals and conversation.
There is trust and fear that comes with the meal—a trust that with an
honest conversation, knives will not be raised in anger, and a fear that
customs and rituals are not universally understood. Taste is our most
intimate sense, and the table is where we experience it socially. My
studio practice pivots around these notions of the table, and how the
work could bring people back to this place of social intimacy. In the
1880s dinnerware was advertised to women just like high fashion, where
the table was the mannequin that needed dressed. I am pushing ideas of
social iteration at the table through my towers, choreographing the
progression of the meal by stacking the dishes to be unwrapped as a gift
together. By investigating historical meals, I am able to imagine the
choreography of the footmen, who gracefully moved from guest to guest,
and guest to sideboard, and then to consider the modern hostess,
who scrambles to prepare the meal for her guests. These towers replace
the footmen and the frantic host, commenting subtly on such social
implications through their utilitarian attributes. I am using food as a
way of seeing the world, the tableware to create rituals through
decorum, and the table to build camaraderie. As the maker it is my
greatest wish to see these objects in use in the world, although beyond
this notion, my greater desire is through their utility, the necessity
of the table within the home becomes indisputable.

Lindsay Scypta
Clay Art Center 2013-2014 Artist In Residence