Grace Nickel: Arbor Vitae @ The Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery

by | Jan 15, 2015 | Uncategorized


January 18 to March 15, 2015

 
Arbor Vitae is a body of work resulting from an intensive two
years of research including artist’s residencies in Jingdezhen, China,
exploring fabric formwork at the Centre for Architectural Structures and
Technology, and experimenting with fabrication technologies at
AssentWorks in Winnipeg.
 
Incorporating Rapid Prototyping technologies into her work, Grace Nickel’s
large-scale porcelain tree sculptures and installations negotiate the
relationships between the natural and the fabricated, rural and urban,
the austere and the embellished, growth and decay, and life and death.
Her newest work advances her investigations of natural forms pitted
against artificial construction and surfaces separated from and
reintegrated with forms.

Grace Nickel is a practicing ceramic artist who teaches at the University of Manitoba.

More at GraceNickel.ca, Facebook

Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery
25 Caroline St. N, Waterloo, Ontario

Opening reception Sunday, January 18, 2015, 2:00 p.m.

Grace Nickel, Host, 2015. Photo by Michael Zajac.

emerging artist: Mindy Andrews

by | Dec 21, 2014 | call for entry, emerging artist, job posting, monday morning eye candy, movie day, residency opportunity, show us your influences, technical tuesday

Artist Statement – Mindy Andrews

Trees and nature have always inspired my imagination. My playground growing up was the idyllic setting of Northwestern Ontario, Canada, situated on 98 acres surrounded by crown land. I believed that the trees would speak to me through their rustling leaves, and I would sing back to them. Many days were spent dreaming in my magical world.

I continue to love the smell, texture and light created by a magnificent forest. For over 20 years I have lived in or near the Canadian Rockies, with its majestic mountains, carpeted by endless forests.

My lifelong connection with nature has directly influenced my ceramic work. Through the use of porcelain clay I am able to create beautiful light and depth, and trees or flowers are painted on the vessels using a variety of slips and underglazes. Sometimes I will carve the trees to suggest the texture of bark. The resulting pieces are sometimes functional, while others are sculptural.

www.mayviewstudio.ca