by Carole Epp | Feb 20, 2011 | Uncategorized
Clay, to me, has a historical presence. It seems forever connected to our past and our cultural formation. I find that the material is imbued with a sense of time as if it were saturated with memories themselves.
This work is meant to straddle the present, simultaneously looking back to the past and towards the future. It catalogues the act of making, of constructing, of inventing, and reinventing.
Peter Johnson currently lives and works in La Grande, Oregon where he is an Associate Professor of Art at Eastern Oregon University. He earned his MFA from The Pennsylvania State University and a BS in Environmental Science at Wheaton College. Peter has been a resident artist and Visiting lecturer at the Alberta College of Art and Design, Australian National University, and the Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts. His work has been exhibited in Canada, Australia, and through out the United States.
www.peterchristianjohnson.com
by Carole Epp | Feb 19, 2011 | Uncategorized
Installation: White Athabaska III, Red, Red III, Red IV Athabaska 120 W x 75 H inches
Shifted & Drift Ceramic, Terra Sigillata, Oil Paint 74 H x 58 W inches, 25 H x 52 W x 91 L inches
Red Athabaska IV Ceramic, Acrylic 36 W x 73 H inches
@font-face { font-family: “Arial”; }@font-face { font-family: “Goudy Old Style”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); }div.Section1 { page: Section1; Xanthe Isbister was born in 1980 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts Honors degree from the University of Manitoba in 2004 and her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2008. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Lila Acheson Wallace Readers Digest Scholarship, from the University of Manitoba, a Hixson-Lied Graduate Fellowship and the Eisentrager Howard Scholarship from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Most recently she was awarded a Special Opportunities grant from the Manitoba Arts Council, and is currently a yearlong artist in residence at the Medalta International Artists in Residence in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. Since 2002 she has exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently at the National Conference on Education for the Ceramic Arts in Phoenix, AZ. Her large ceramic sculptures and installations explore the psychological significance and impact the natural environment has on human identity.
Installation: Burnt Ceramic and Glazes 144 H x 240 W x 180 L inches
www.xantheisbister.com.
by Carole Epp | Feb 18, 2011 | Uncategorized
Bio
As a child my parents took me on numerous trips to wonderful places such as Berea College, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and any potter’s studio that was open along the roadside. My parents always had Rowe Pottery and Bennington Pottery around the house and I became intrigued by the texture of the clay and the raised slip decoration. At the time I just thought it was fun but, in retrospect, it was the foundation for my love for ceramics.
When I enrolled at Kalamazoo College I planned on majoring in Biology. However when I was a sophomore my dad sat me down and advised me that he thought I should pursue what I really loved and what made me happy. At that point I changed majors and graduated in 2002 with a B.A. in Fine Arts and Art History.
Having worked for several ceramic artists I decided to open my own studio in 2005.
Artist Statement
I strive to make work that is well made and a pleasure to hold. My work is decorated with images that range from humorous to more abstract. My hope is to create pieces that enhance everyday life from drinking your morning coffee to enjoying your favorite piece of cake.
My designs are influenced from taking walks. It is during these walks alone I clear my head and observe everything from architecture to wildlife. Did you know there are freshwater jellyfish? Or what osage oranges are? I like looking at objects without distractions so I can absorb their form and process it into my own designs.
www.bellajoypottery.com
by Carole Epp | Feb 17, 2011 | Uncategorized
01. Stacked Rotary Servers, hand-built porcelain, cone 6, 19 x 11 x 7,” 2009.
Clay Leonard was raised in Midwestern United States. Growing up in a small farming community, interaction amongst community members and family gatherings were made priorities, and continue to serve as inspiration to his ceramic artworks. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Adrian College in Adrian, Michigan and in 2009 earned his Master of Fine Arts in ceramics from Bowling Green State University and was nominated for an outstanding thesis award for the exhibition.
02. Server with Nesting Plates, hand-built porcelain, cone 6, 18 x 15 x 5,” 2010.
His current body of work is his contribution to reintroducing the lost art of communication around the dinner table. Through his ceramic vessels, he investigates the important ritual of sharing a meal. His functional ceramic vessels focuses on the role ceramics has in stimulating communication and interaction in a communal setting.
03. Nesting Bowl Set, hand-built porcelain, cone 6, 10 x 10 x 5,” 2010.
Clay’s ceramic work has been featured in various international and national exhibitions, and included in multiple publications, as well as being featured in the May 2009 issue of Ceramics Monthly, as an Emerging Artist. He currently is serving as a Visiting Artist at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas.
04. Triangle Bowls #1, hand-built porcelain, cone 6, 6 x 6 x 4,” 2010.
05. Circle Server, hand-built porcelain, cone 6, 20 x 20 x 4,” 2009.
@font-face { font-family: “Arial”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }
@font-face { font-family: “Arial”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } ARTIST STATEMENT Some of my favorite childhood memories were formed around the dinner table with family and friends, eating and engaging in conversation. My work continues this dwindling tradition, and serves as a reminder of the importance of these experiences. Through my ceramic vessels, I investigate the important ritual of sharing a meal. This work is my contribution to reintroducing the lost art of communication around the dinner table.
Although I draw formal inspiration from mass-produced objects, I strive to reclaim the directness of human interaction with the material. I celebrate what my unique touch offers that is lost with a machine. Through subtle manipulation and gesture, I instill my work with personality, energy, and softness. The process of inventing and constructing these forms with my hands offers a reconnection to past traditions including the notion of honoring the humility of craftsman. In a face paced culture where communications is overwhelmed by current technology, my work and research offers an incentive to rediscover personal conversation and get back to the table.
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by Carole Epp | Feb 16, 2011 | Uncategorized
*** Special Note: Shannon Merritt is the Featured Artist at the Gallery of BC Ceramics from February 15th to March 15th make sure you stop by to see her work in person!
(gallery information here: http://www.bcpotters.com/Gallery/index.html )
Artist Biography
Shannon Merritt grew up in southern Ontario, tidy and shy. She received a B.A. in Native Studies from Trent University and moved to Yellowknife, NT where she spent winter nights tickling the aurora borealis, and summer days portaging her canoe through the forests of biting flies.
Shannon is a graduate of the Kootenay School of Arts in Nelson, BC where she lives, waking each day to the view of Elephant Mountain. She considers herself a writer disguised as a potter.
Artist Statement
I’m a potter and I’ve a fondness for words. I spent the better part of two days taking apart a typewriter so that I could press the keys into the flesh of the clay, recording my thoughts and observations onto pots. I’ve collected a number of things that are used as stamps. These miscellaneous cast-offs are more valuable than trimming tools and include antique letterpress blocks, pieces of retired machinery, and a caribou tooth from my adventures in the North. Together, the words and symbols become a story of my rhythm of making. Lessons, kindnesses, tattletales and laughs are highlighted using coloured slip beneath a clear glaze.
I am making modern day folk pots to create an intimacy in the way we consume the foods of our time. These hand built or wheel thrown and altered pots speak of precious functionality: bowls that are meant to be sipped from, and mugs with inverted handles, so that the user can cradle the cup, warming the hands. The proof of alteration has been left to remind the user of the individual attention the pot received.
These techniques come from a millennium of making, and applying them to contemporary functional porcelain pots is an exciting way of story-telling. It’s incredibly personal this shared journaling. And what I’m finding is that the pots I write stir something in the people who use them. It’s almost as if we’ve witnessed something together, like we share a great secret.
The words are a reaching out; a minute’s worth of conversation between us.
