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.
by Carole Epp | Feb 15, 2011 | Uncategorized
I am studio potter and teacher living on Vancouver Island. After many years without a place to call my own, I opened my studio and gallery, Dirty Girl Clayworks in 2004. My pots offer a contemporary, playful perspective on creating artful pottery that one can use to celebrate the everyday moments as well as unique occasions.
My work is informed by historical slipware. I use bright, fun colours, images, and text which reflect my belief that playfulness is an integral part of life. I have a love of words, both oral and printed. I find that the slip wants to be written on and into, carved and layered.
Text and simple, silhouette style stencils are the basis of my surface decoration. With this simple base I use printmaking techniques and inspiration from graphic novels, photography, poetry, politics, graffiti, and children’s books to tell stories on clay.
www.etsy.com/shop/dirtygirlclayworks
by Carole Epp | Feb 14, 2011 | Uncategorized
Jacqueline Robins works with clay, a timeless medium. In turn, she is compelled and inspired by the notion of heirloom. The cycles of life are a re-occurring theme in her work especially pieces that celebrate and record significant events in people’s lives.
Utilizing a variety of printmaking techniques, Jacqueline Robins illustrates and imprints the clay. When it is fired, the images and words are forever embedded in its surface. Her vessels are thus a narrative record: fragments of love letters, sheet music, photographs, maps, mementoes, and found treasures.
Vessels as memoirs, capturing specific moments, vessels as allegories: Jacqueline’s work is intended to be lived with, telling its story for continuing generations.
Jacqueline Robins lives in Vancouver, BC. By day she is a technician at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. By night, she slings clay in her East Van studio. Sailor, her black lab at her side.
Robins’ formal education in drawing, printmaking and ceramics was at Emily Carr, followed by an apprenticeship on Saltspring Island, BC. Robins has work in private collections throughout Canada, The United States, Europe and Japan. In her free time, she is learning to fly fish and is hunting for derby skates online. She also feels really awkward writing in the third person.
Jacqueline Robins
Ceramic Artist
www.jacquelinerobins.com
by Carole Epp | Feb 13, 2011 | Uncategorized
I have explored creativity in all its forms for as long as I can remember. For a long time I have taught painting and drawing to adults and children through schools, community centres, training organizations & my home based studio. I have had a great experience for the past few years studying ceramics at LaTrobe University in Bendigo. Now study has slowed my plan is to make, make, make and hopefully sell, sell sell 🙂 I hope you enjoy the view into my studio and the work I create.
I don’t usually do body casts but a good friend wanted a memory of her 3rd pregnancy, knowing it would be her last. it was done in earthenware and painted with underglazes.
by Carole Epp | Feb 12, 2011 | Uncategorized
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } I am a full time ceramics artist living in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I have had an active studio practice since 1999 when I graduated with my Diploma in Ceramics. For the past ten years I have balanced the practical work of fine craft with academic work, completing my B.F.A in Sculpture on a part-time basis in 2010. My ceramic work is diverse, encompassing both functional and sculptural work. I wheel throw, hand build, and use a wide range of clays, surfaces and firing methods to achieve particular effects.
My one-of-a-kind sculptural work employs traditional technique and craftsmanship to create experimental organic forms that reflect the inspiration of the natural world. Whimsical hand-built shapes, evocative use of positive and negative space, and rich surfaces characterize my sculptural ceramics. My objects seem to grow or move, shaping and animating the space around them. My sculptural ceramic practice explores the boundaries between art and craft, static and animate, tradition and innovation.
For more info and images visit Paula’s website.
