by Carole Epp | Jun 7, 2013 | Uncategorized
Lee & Yolande Clark are dedicated
Canadian wood-firing ceramic artists. A tragic oil spill has devastated
their home, land, studio and kiln. Help them rebuild.
We are Lee Horus Clark & Yolande Clark. We are wood-firing
ceramic artists, and we have dedicated our lives to art, to clay, to
fire, and to our family for many years. We have worked extremely hard to
create a home for our children, and a kiln on our own land.
We have 3 beautiful children: Horus, 4, Treva, 2, and Felix, 10 months old.
The pottery and sculptures of both Lee and Yolande are recognized
nationally and internationally. We exhibit both in New Brunswick and
abroad, and we have both been the recipients of provincial arts grant
funding.
Lee Horus Clark has a large sculptural vessel in the permanent collection of the Beaverbrook Gallery, Fredericton.
Two years ago, after a decade of insecurity, we borrowed more money,
and finally moved to our home, a 1/2 acre property in the tiny hamlet
(population 75) of Queenstown, in rural New Brunswick. It took us a
year to build our Anagama kiln, and many thousands of borrowed dollars
for bricks and materials. We fired the Queenstown Anagama for the first
time in August, when our youngest child, Felix, was 2 weeks old.
What Happened?
Last week, on June 1st, 2013, there was a
large and catastrophic oil spill. Our heating oil tank began to leak,
and the oil streamed into the ground behind our house, down the hill,
and pooled around our kiln.
Our water well is located 4 feet from the oil tank. A stream, that
runs directly into the St. John River, is just feet from the kiln, where
the oil is concentrating.
We called the New Brunswick Department of the Environment immediately, and we evacuated our family.
Over the past few days, we have moved our possessions out of our home, as the nightmare has unfolded.
What Now?
We have been informed by the Department of the Environment that our
home is uninhabitable, our water undrinkable, and in order to clean up
the oil spill responsibly, the property will have to be excavated.
Please read more about the situation and how you can help.
www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-clark-wood-fired-pottery
by Carole Epp | Jun 7, 2013 | Uncategorized
Top L to R: John Dix, Jack Troy, Judith Duff
Bottom center: Nick Schwartz
JOHN DIX, JACK TROY, NICK SCHWARTZ and JUDITH DUFF
* This Monday, June 10 – 13 join me, Sandy Simon, for a symposium on “Women Working in Clay”
along with other women clay artists: Stacy Snyder, Cheryl Ann Thomas, Adrian Arleo, Charity Davis-Woodard held in Roanoke, VA at Hollins College Cost: $395 contact by email for more infomation, [email protected] or phone: 540.362.6021 space is still available but hurry
TRAX: New Work by Warren MacKenzie available online today
TRAX GALLERY 1812 5th Street, Berkeley, CA 94710
Wednesday – Sunday 12 – 5:30
by Carole Epp | Jun 2, 2013 | Uncategorized
Join us for the Opening of Indoor Gardens exhibition: Saturday 8 June 2013 @ 11h30 for 12
Guest speaker: Carmel Wolf from Sherwood garden centre
Music by Anthony Keogh
+ Pinch pot clay workshop – initiation to clay 10h30 – 11h30 (RSVP, max 30 participants).
+ Lucky draw of vouchers for Sherwood Garden Centre.
+ “indoor-plants problem solving”: Technical advice and products for sale.
+ Petits Delices French patisseries for sale.
For more info : Alliance Francaise of Port Elizabeth 041 585 7889 / [email protected]
by Carole Epp | May 31, 2013 | Uncategorized
If you follow Medalta on Facebook, twitter or Instagram (which you should) you’d have seen some pretty cool images lately of the 3D printing they’ve been doing. I was so intrigued that I bugged Aaron Nelson and Quentin Randall to send me some info and images to share with you guys. Below are some thoughts about the relevancy of the residency process for an artist and the integration of 3D printing technology.
“The value of art and artists
Artists
are experimenters, looking at new ways of using existing technologies
or developing new technologies to solve their own technical problems.
Artists today are not primarily focused on the final product. For every
piece in an art gallery, there are 100 piled in the corners of studios.
It is about the process; the experiments which yield new information.
Artist
residencies are the creative equivalent to scientific laboratories –
ideas come together and are explored to their natural end. Sometimes
it’s as a heap in the corner. In other times – exciting times – an idea
produces something revolutionary. When that happens, change happens.
Art
and Craft 3D printing is at the edge of our understanding and
development. By putting it in the hands of artists – people who make
careers out of pushing forward – their experiments will leave invaluable
and meaningful amounts of new information in their wake.
In
Medalta’s artists’ studios, 3D ceramic printing experiments are quietly
being conducted by many creative minds. The goal here is not to solve
the problems In fact, more problems are often created. The goal is to
push these two newly-convergent technologies (ceramics and 3D printing)
to their absolute limit in order to see further into the future. By
pushing further than before, artists at Medalta are able to help others
see the future. By experimenting and sharing, progress can (and will)
happen in positive, unexpected ways.
That
is the relevance of an artists’ work. To endlessly experiment, share
ideas, build on ideas, combine ideas and move this world forward.
Medalta’s artist residency program is devoted to that cause and
understands its role in the world. Medalta respects the process of
making and understands that process based learning produces new
knowledge that expands the definition of ‘possible.’”
Well if you’re like me I’m sure you’re dying to know more and if you’re lucky enough to be in the Alberta area you should make sure to check out their 3D printing demo and exhibition this weekend.
CERAMIC 3D PRINTING
Over 125 years of Ceramic technology in Medicine Hat
Exhibition & Demonstration
Saturday, June 1
7:00pm – 10:00pm
Yuill Family Gallery (Medalta)
No Charge
Artists
Steve Grimmer
Medalta is pleased to host
Ceramic 3D Printing,
a company from Omaha, Nebraska, who are using the methodologies
associated with contemporary art production in order to conduct research
into 3D printing. This company is at the leading edge of printing in
ceramics and organic material for the medical industry.
Artists
are experimenters, looking at new ways of using existing technologies
or developing new technologies to solve their own technical problems.
Artists today are not primarily focused on the final product. For every
piece in an art gallery, there are 100 piled in the corners of studios.
It is about the process, the experiments which yield new information.
Please
join us for a short demonstration of the process and to hear our five
feature artists discuss their involvement with this cutting edge
technology.
by Carole Epp | May 28, 2013 | Uncategorized
The Gardiner Museum, Kathy Venter – LIFE opens May 30, running until September 15, 2013.
Featuring
this celebrated ceramic artist, internationally recognized for her
life-size figurative sculptures, the exhibit introduces dialogues with
time, femininity, and community, capturing the continuity of the human
condition.
The exhibition presents a large installation of
Venter’s sculptures which she produced in series, including One,
Revision, Ostraca, Immersion, Coup d’Oeil and the never seen before
Metanarrative. Most of her figures are presented full scale – standing,
sitting, reclining or suspended by cables in space – while others are
limited to heads and torsos. Each work is direct and engaging; life-size
and nude. They are a measure of our humanity. Their strong presence
derives from the artist’s intimate engagement with her models – most of
which are women – who posed over long hours in her studio.
“We
are extremely excited to present Kathy Venter – LIFE at The Gardiner
Museum this summer,” says Rachel Gotlieb, Interim Executive Director
& Chief Curator, Gardiner Museum. “Kathy Venter chooses the
terracotta as a primary medium to explore the history of representation
of the female figure. This dramatic installation stimulates discussion
about sculptural praxis in contemporary art.”
Venter describes
each work as “a slow construction” by which she “applied the clay, piece
upon piece, within a silent dialogue between the model and myself,
comfortable with my medium and tradition, accepting of their
constraints.” The forms are built from the feet up using the traditional
coiling and pinching techniques, without the use of life cast molds or
internal armatures. The sculptures’ surface treatment is inspired by the
Tanagra figures of the Mycenaean period, encrusted and worn from
centuries of burial.
The exhibition is curated by Montreal author and critic John K. Grande.
What’s On Throughout the Exhibit?
Patron Circle: May 28, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
Exclusively
for Patron Members, artist Kathy Venter and guest curator John K.
Grande will lead a tour of the exhibition followed by a cocktail
reception with hors d’oeuvres by à la Carte Kitchen.
Member’s Preview: May 29, 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Members,
bring all of your friends and be among the first to experience Kathy
Venter – Life for this special preview. The gallery is reserved between
12:30 – 1:30 p.m. for members who have purchased tickets to the Members’
Lunch, which includes a private tour. Following the tour, artist Kathy
Venter will be available in the gallery from 1:30 p.m. Cost: Free for members
Members’ Lunch & Tour with Artist & Curator: May 29, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
Enjoy
a delicious lunch prepared by à la Carte Kitchen, followed by a tour of
the exhibition with artist Kathy Venter and guest curator John K.
Grande. Cost: $30 – Members only
Not a member? You can take advantage of the Gardiner Museum’s May Membership Promotion by clicking here.
Lecture: Kathy Venter and the ‘Flesh of the World’: June 6, 6:30 – 8 p.m.
Dr.
Elizabeth Legge, Associate Professor of Art, University of Toronto,
explores how Venter creates figures who seem at once ancient and fully
in the present, both a comfortable presence and an enigmatic
interruption of our experience of the world. Sponsored by Dr. Lorna
Marsden. Cost: $15 general admission, $10 for members
Lecture: Hands On: The Figurative Tradition in Terracotta Sculpture: June 20, 6:30 – 8 p.m.
Dr.
Betsy Bennett Purvis, Lecturer in Renaissance Art History, University
of Toronto, will examine a variety of figurative terracotta sculptures
from the Renaissance to the present, with a special emphasis on
life-likeness and the materiality of terracotta itself. Cost: $15 general admission, $10 for members
www.gardinermuseum.on.ca/exhibition/kathy-venter-life
111 Queen’s Park
Toronto, Ontario
M5S 2C7
Canada
Tel +1 416.586.8080
Fax +1 416.586.8085
