OUTPOUR 2013 CATALOG

Pegasus Pouring Can, 2013 Stoneware, wood fired and decal fired $200

Gulf Pouring Can, 2013 Soda fired stoneware, Sandblasted, Decal $300

DANANDERSON

DANANDERSON

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

Dan Anderson was born in Ramsey County Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota on November 2, 1945. He grew up in a typical middle-class family that operated a family run corner grocery store in Hudson, Wisconsin. Dan spent the better part of his youth in the out-of-doors, many in the Boy Scouts. He earned the highest scouting award, the Eagle Scout award.

Dan attended the University of Wisconsin-River Falls where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Art Education in 1968. At the time, he had every belief that he was going to be a high school art teacher. During his junior year, he traveled to Italy through the university studies abroad program. This serendipitous experience, apprenticing for Renato Bassoli (a Renaissance artist who lived and operated a studio in Milan) turned Dan’s life topsy-turvy. When he returned to the United States he finished his undergraduate degree in 1968 and immediately applied to graduate school at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Dan graduated with his MFA degree from Cranbrook in 1970. He received several job offers to teach college level ceramics and began his college level teaching at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville (SIUE). L11School of Crafts, Penland School, Anderson Ranch, Peters Valley Craft Center, Watershed and Arrowmont School. A multiple grant/award recipient, he has received a NEA Artist Fellowship, twelve Illinois Arts Council grants (including six Artist Fellowships) and a Ford Foundation Grant.

Major galleries represent Dan across the United States and his work is in numerous private and permanent collections.

His “mounds’ anagama wood kiln is fired at his rural Edwardsville studio, Old Poag Road Clay & Glass, twice a year.

He has been wood firing for over thirty years. Dan is married to Caroline Bottom Anderson, a glass/metal artist. They have two adult daughters, Sarah and Molly, both living in Portland, Oregon and three grandchildren, Penny, Loretta and Archer.

For more the twenty years, the bulk of my ceramic work has been inspired by the ubiquitous water tower. While browsing through second hand and antique stores, I noted with interest how my favorite “rocket ship” shaped water towers were amazingly similar to the oil and gas cans that occupied many of the filing stations of my youth.

As a result, over the past two decades, I have been waffling back and forth between making clay water tanks and clay gasoline and oil cans. The decals that are fired on the ceramic cans feature logos of oil companies from foreign countries as well as from the USA, past and present.

My ceramics, an amalgam of vessel and industrial artifact, is full of irony - handmade replicas of man-made objects, soft clay renderings of hard metal objects, aged and impotent reminders of a once-powerful age. The oil and gasoline cans represent the machinery that once threatened to devalue the work of human beings. Now, they seem like the hard-working humans they served - stoic, dignified, straightforward, but plumb wore out.

The usefulness of machines (objects) in their original states is limited - as the products of progress, they’re doomed to obsolescence - but by recreating the cans in a “primitive” medium (clay), I believe they will endure through the ages.

They have been transformed for eternity into art. In this way, too, I feel I have taken the aesthetic and political ugliness out of industry, reminding everyone that change can be both hurtful/traumatic and positive/healing. Once again underscoring the power of art to uplift the human condition.

By firing the miniature water tanks - and in this show an oil can - in an atmospheric wood kiln, I am convinced that instead of merely heating the clay, the flame and ash have the capacity to alter and enhance my clay oil can. The glazed surface, created by flame and fly ash from the sustained firing, imbue a “poetic” richness. What an interesting conspiracy: artist, clay and wood firing.

Dan Anderson was born in Ramsey County Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota on November 2, 1945. He grew up in a typical middle-class family that operated a family run corner grocery store in Hudson, Wisconsin. Dan spent the better part of his youth in the out-of-doors, many in the Boy Scouts. He earned the highest scouting award, the Eagle Scout award.

Dan attended the University of Wisconsin-River Falls where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Art Education in 1968. At the time, he had every belief that he was going to be a high school art teacher. During his junior year, he traveled to Italy through the university studies abroad program. This serendipitous experience, apprenticing for Renato Bassoli (a Renaissance artist who lived and operated a studio in Milan) turned Dan’s life topsy-turvy. When he returned to the United States he finished his undergraduate degree in 1968 and immediately applied to graduate school at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Dan graduated with his MFA degree from Cranbrook in 1970. He received several job offers to teach college level ceramics and began his college level teaching at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville (SIUE). L11School of Crafts, Penland School, Anderson Ranch, Peters Valley Craft Center, Watershed and Arrowmont School. A multiple grant/award recipient, he has received a NEA Artist Fellowship, twelve Illinois Arts Council grants (including six Artist Fellowships) and a Ford Foundation Grant.

Major galleries represent Dan across the United States and his work is in numerous private and permanent collections.

His “mounds’ anagama wood kiln is fired at his rural Edwardsville studio, Old Poag Road Clay & Glass, twice a year.

He has been wood firing for over thirty years. Dan is married to Caroline Bottom Anderson, a glass/metal artist. They have two adult daughters, Sarah and Molly, both living in Portland, Oregon and three grandchildren, Penny, Loretta and Archer.

For more the twenty years, the bulk of my ceramic work has been inspired by the ubiquitous water tower. While browsing through second hand and antique stores, I noted with interest how my favorite “rocket ship” shaped water towers were amazingly similar to the oil and gas cans that occupied many of the filing stations of my youth.

As a result, over the past two decades, I have been waffling back and forth between making clay water tanks and clay gasoline and oil cans. The decals that are fired on the ceramic cans feature logos of oil companies from foreign countries as well as from the USA, past and present.

My ceramics, an amalgam of vessel and industrial artifact, is full of irony - handmade replicas of man-made objects, soft clay renderings of hard metal objects, aged and impotent reminders of a once-powerful age. The oil and gasoline cans represent the machinery that once threatened to devalue the work of human beings. Now, they seem like the hard-working humans they served - stoic, dignified, straightforward, but plumb wore out.

The usefulness of machines (objects) in their original states is limited - as the products of progress, they’re doomed to obsolescence - but by recreating the cans in a “primitive” medium (clay), I believe they will endure through the ages.

They have been transformed for eternity into art. In this way, too, I feel I have taken the aesthetic and political ugliness out of industry, reminding everyone that change can be both hurtful/traumatic and positive/healing. Once again underscoring the power of art to uplift the human condition.

By firing the miniature water tanks - and in this show an oil can - in an atmospheric wood kiln, I am convinced that instead of merely heating the clay, the flame and ash have the capacity to alter and enhance my clay oil can. The glazed surface, created by flame and fly ash from the sustained firing, imbue a “poetic” richness. What an interesting conspiracy: artist, clay and wood firing.

Ewer, 2012 Stoneware, soda fired $350

Cruet with Funnel and Tray, 2012 Wood fired stoneware $150

BOB ARC H A M B E A U

B E N B A T E S

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

Robert Archambeau is a Canadian studio potter from Winnipeg and Bissett, Manitoba. He received his MFA from Alfred University and taught at RISD (4 years) and the University of Manitoba (23 years), retiring in 1991. Robert is the recipient of a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts and a Manitoba Arts Council Senior Grant. His pottery is represented by Akar Gallery (Iowa City, Iowa, USA) and David Kaye Gallery (Toronto, Ontario, CANADA).

My aim in creating is not the decoration or didactic or clay as visual entertainment, it is not political. Instead, I hope my crockery is, in some measure, a distillation of the magic and mystery that surrounds me on this, my part of the Canadian Pre-Cambrian Shield. I strive for, at its best, pottery that is serene, rich in detail, detached from the mundane and timeless. The ewer in this Ben Bates curated OutPOUR show is made out of stoneware clay. It has been glazed with a combination of Suzy Lindsey’s Yellow Shino glaze under Wayne Higby’s Water Blue sprayed glaze. Once removed from the cooled soda firing, the teapot was sandblasted, oiled and washed.

Ben Bates, a resident of Libertyville, IL, was born and raised in Southern California, earned his BFA at Kansas City Art Institute (1995) and his MFA at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (2000). After graduate school Ben established himself as the head Resident Ceramic Artist at Crabtree Farm a living museum in Lake Bluff Illinois (1998 – 2003). He was also the Lead Consultant for the construction of the Sterling Hall Ceramics Center (1999 – 2001) and Art Department Chair at Woodlands Academy (2003 – 2005) both in Lake Forest, IL. His work has been featured in Feats of Clay, NCECA Clay National, Strictly Functional, 30 x 5 at AKAR Gallery, History in the Making, Lillstreet International, American Studio Ceramics, George Ohr Challenge, Platters and Pourers, Burnt, Yunomi Invitational, Linearity and as a solo Featured Artist at AKAR gallery. Ben was Personal Studio Assistant to Ken Ferguson (1993 – 1995) and to Ruth Duckworth (2004). He is currently a Ceramics Studio Artist, Ceramics Instructor and Ceramics Studio Technician at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois.

I am interested in the functional format as a realm of exploration, but I strive for my pieces to transcend their utilitarian boundaries and function as sculptural elements. I use the ideals of the vessel to clarify design and explore form as it relates to space.

I want to manipulate the plasticity of the material and accentuate its softness to heighten the viewer’s awareness of the forms interior volume.

My hope is to make pieces that are able to communicate feelings and ideas without recalling specific objects.

I intend for these compositions to be mysterious and open-ended enough to evoke multiple interpretations.

Jug Wheel thrown, woodfired stoneware. Cone 11 $120

Sauceboat, 2012 Wood fired stoneware, NiChrome wire $125

B E N B A T E S

J O E B E N N I O N

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT CONTINUED

Ben Bates, a resident of Libertyville, IL, was born and raised in Southern California, earned his BFA at Kansas City Art Institute (1995) and his MFA at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (2000). After graduate school Ben established himself as the head Resident Ceramic Artist at Crabtree Farm a living museum in Lake Bluff Illinois (1998 – 2003). He was also the Lead Consultant for the construction of the Sterling Hall Ceramics Center (1999 – 2001) and Art Department Chair at Woodlands Academy (2003 – 2005) both in Lake Forest, IL. His work has been featured in Feats of Clay, NCECA Clay National, Strictly Functional, 30 x 5 at AKAR Gallery, History in the Making, Lillstreet International, American Studio Ceramics, George Ohr Challenge, Platters and Pourers, Burnt, Yunomi Invitational, Linearity and as a solo Featured Artist at AKAR gallery. Ben was Personal Studio Assistant to Ken Ferguson (1993 – 1995) and to Ruth Duckworth (2004). He is currently a Ceramics Studio Artist, Ceramics Instructor and Ceramics Studio Technician at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois.

I am interested in the functional format as a realm of exploration, but I strive for my pieces to transcend their utilitarian boundaries and function as sculptural elements. I use the ideals of the vessel to clarify design and explore form as it relates to space.

I want to manipulate the plasticity of the material and accentuate its softness to heighten the viewer’s awareness of the forms interior volume.

My hope is to make pieces that are able to communicate feelings and ideas without recalling specific objects.

I intend for these compositions to be mysterious and open-ended enough to evoke multiple interpretations.

Joseph Bennion is a native of Utah. For the past 36 years he has lived and worked in Spring City, Utah with his wife Lee Udall Bennion who is a painter. Joseph attended Tuscarora Pottery School and Brigham Young University where he earned a MFA in Ceramics. He has lectured and taught workshops in Japan, Europe, Canada, Jamaica and through out the United States. His work, which is widely published, appears in numerous private and public collections in the US and abroad.

He currently operates Horseshoe Mountain Pottery and works seasonally as a Grand Canyon river guide.

The influences that most powerfully shape who we are located in the household and family. I want my pottery to be there and to promote and influence that growth, however small its part may be. The family dinner table is sacred space and the venue of first choice for my pottery.

I prefer domestic pottery that is plain, quiet and understated. I try to make pots that will play in the background, that speak gently but carry a great deal of information to those willing to wait and listen.

I love the kinds of surfaces derived from wood firing and salt glazing processes. In the case of the wood fired kiln I also enjoy the deeper involvement with process that the stoking of the kiln affords me.

I love to sit with a kiln late at night and listen to the wood popping and the quiet sounds of the draft.

Because of my decision to make intentionally quiet pottery I have had to leave the more public sales venues of street fairs, shops and galleries and sell my pottery at home where it is made. Somehow that environment shows my work to best advantage. I live and work in a small Mormon farming village in the mountains of central Utah. Over the past ten years I have shifted my marketing to bring people to my door rather than sending the work out. This seems to work best and it feels right to me.

ARTIST STATEMENT II enjoy making pottery by hand on a foot powered treadle

wheel. The physical involvement places me deeper in the process. The gentle sound of the wheel and the soft resistance of the clay in my hand are at once comforting and pleasant. Pleasure is an important element of our life in this world. It gives meaning and balance to the confusion, pain and sorrow we encounter here. I hope that as people take my pottery in hand and raise it to their lips they will recognize some of the experience I have had in making it and will find pleasure of their own in daily use.

Blue Leaf Tea Set, 2011 Porcelain and Earthenware $600

Teapot Wood-fired porcelain $300

MARGARET BOHLS

D AV I D B O LT O N

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

Margaret Bohls teaches ceramics at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. She previously taught ceramics at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and at Sam Houston State University in Texas. She has also taught as visiting faculty at Penn State University, Ohio University, and NSCAD University in Halifax. She received a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 1989. She was an artist-in-residence at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helen, Montana from 1990 to 1992. She then received an MFA from Louisiana State University in 1995. She has given lectures at universities across the U.S. and has taught hands-on workshops at art centers such as Greenwich House Pottery in New York, Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Aspen, Colorado and Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. Bohls’ work has been shown in over 100 group and solo exhibitions since 1995 and is included in the permanent collections of the Minnesota Museum of American Art, the American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA), and in the Sonny and Gloria Kamm Teapot Foundation Collection. She has written articles for the Journal of the National Council for Education on Ceramic Arts and Pottery Making Illustrated, and her ceramic work has been featured in periodicals such as Ceramics Monthly and Studio Potter Magazine.

Interior volume is a key element in functional forms.

It defines the potential for containment. This body of work combines a strong sense of interior volume with a net- or grid-like surface of textural lines that contains and shapes that volume, creating buoyant, full, yet architectural forms. These seemingly upholstered forms are draped with a series of rich, complex glaze surfaces, many of them crystalline, lustrous, or having deep visual texture. These surfaces are sometimes further adorned with sprigs, floral glaze decals or metallic lustres. Porcelain forms are often placed in or on earthenware baskets or trays. The result is a layering of disparate and complex elements that become integral. These pieces, in form and in the details of form, are created to visually communicate their use or function. Their complex shapes and rich surfaces embellish and enhance this use.

David Bolton is the Head of Ceramics at the College of Lake County.

In my work I reference textile patterns and patterns from other sources and apply them to the “fabric” of the clay. Often these patterns are tessellations, patterns that repeat and go on and on, only to be met with a seam, a lip, a foot and then continue on in the next panel in a different direction. Many of these patterns are nostalgic to me, such as paisleys, plaids, checkerboard, hound’s-tooth, and other loud patterns found on 70s clothing. The patterns are created digitally, and then wood fired. The idea of new and old process fascinates me, but in the end it is the variation in color and soft flowing kiln atmosphere that blurs the tight edge designs that pleases me most. The firing gives the “fabric” a sense of time and wear like an old work shirt, albeit a fancy work shirt.

I come from a working class family in rural, southern Indiana. My father is a retired factory worker, who produced “Faultless” casters. His father was a carpenter and a cabinetmaker. My mother works as a seamstress who learned sewing from her mother. So I have a respect for the trades and working with ones hands. I see my family as my first teachers with their strong work ethic, sense of craftsmanship, and their ingenuity with working with available materials. I had my first experience with ceramics in high school with my teacher, Don Crane, who encouraged me to study at the University of Evansville (UE).

I strongly resonate with the metaphor of the ceramic vessel and the human body. My undergraduate teacher, Les Miley at UE, made me well aware of the references of the human body to pottery. His simple and eloquent use of the words “the foot,” “the lip”,” the shoulder,” and “the belly” taught me how to look at a pot. Jim Lawton, my teacher at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, compared altering his pots with the process of darting clothes. Instead of altering a garment around the human body, the vessel is altered around a conceived volume.

Coffee-pot Wood-fired porcelain $300

Pouring Pots White slip, clear glaze, $40 Unglazed, wood-fired, $40 Unglazed, wood-fired, $60

D AV I D B O LT O N

CHRISCAMPBELL

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

David Bolton is the Head of the Ceramics at the College of Lake County.

In my work I reference textile patterns and patterns from other sources and apply them to the “fabric” of the clay. Often these patterns are tessellations, patterns that repeat and go on and on, only to be met with a seam, a lip, a foot and then continue on in the next panel in a different direction. Many of these patterns are nostalgic to me, such as paisleys, plaids, checkerboard, hound’s-tooth, and other loud patterns found on 70s clothing. The patterns are created digitally, and then wood fired. The idea of new and old process fascinates me, but in the end it is the variation in color and soft flowing kiln atmosphere that blurs the tight edge designs that pleases me most. The firing gives the “fabric” a sense of time and wear like an old work shirt, albeit a fancy work shirt.

Chris Campbell is a potter living in Austin, Texas. Since earning his Master of Fine Arts from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 2000 Campbell has focused on unglazed, wood fired pottery. His work is exhibited nationally. Currently Campbell is the ceramics lab technician at the University of Texas at Austin.

My choice to make functional pottery is a way to engage individuals through all their senses, something that sets this art form apart from others. Referencing the vast history of ceramics I focus on those cultures that place a deep significance on functional objects and at times have elevated a mundane pot to sublime status. Forms developed from these sources tend toward the understated and the familiar. I typically use unglazed clay fired in a wood-burning kiln as the finish on a piece. Occasionally an austere glaze may be used to cover the form. In either case these pots will probably challenge the definition of beauty. These surface choices help to hold the users attention and perhaps discover something new and unexpected about the pot in particular and the experience of using a functional object. My pots contain ideas lying somewhere between comfortable and uncomfortable, familiar and unfamiliar, ugly and beautiful. This middle ground has the potential to interact with the individual on levels more closely associated with fine art such as feelings of spirituality or of personal reflection.

I come from a working class family in rural, southern Indiana. My father is a retired factory worker, who produced “Faultless” casters. His father was a carpenter and a cabinetmaker. My mother works as a seamstress who learned sewing from her mother. So I have a respect for the trades and working with ones hands. I see my family as my first teachers with their strong work ethic, sense of craftsmanship, and their ingenuity with working with available materials. I had my first experience with ceramics in high school with my teacher, Don Crane, who encouraged me to study at the University of Evansville (UE).

I strongly resonate with the metaphor of the ceramic vessel and the human body. My undergraduate teacher, Les Miley at UE, made me well aware of the references of the human body to pottery. His simple and eloquent use of the words “the foot,” “the lip”,” the shoulder,” and “the belly” taught me how to look at a pot. Jim Lawton, my teacher at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, compared altering his pots with the process of darting clothes. Instead of altering a garment around the human body, the vessel is altered around a conceived volume.

Cooking Oil Can $250

Cloud Teapot, 2013

Porcelain, China painted 6” x 8” x 6.5”

$650

L I N DA C H R I S T E N S E N

S A M C H U N G

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

Linda Christianson is an independent studio potter who lives and works in rural Minnesota. She studied at Hamline University (St Paul, Minnesota), and the Banff Centre School of Fine Arts (Banff, Alberta, Canada). She exhibits nationally and internationally, including one person exhibits in London and St. Louis. Her pieces are in numerous public and private collections, including the American Museum of Ceramic Art and the Glenboe Museum.

An itinerate educator, Linda has taught at colleges and universities, including Carleton College and the Hartford Art School. She received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the McKnight Foundation.

Her recent writing appeared in Studio Potter and The Log Book. One of her goals is to make a better cup each day.

The qualities that I search for in my work are fairly straightforward. I am interested in a pot that does its duty well yet can stand on its own as a visual object.

These pots are not sculpture, and they are not art. They seem to act more like engaging tools than anything else.

Sam Chung received his MFA from Arizona State University (1997) and his B.A. degree from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota (1992). He taught at Northern Michigan University from 1998-2007 and has been teaching at Arizona State University in Tempe since 2007. Sam’s work is inspired by pottery form, function, history, and contemporary design. His work is both hand-built and wheel-thrown/altered. He has exhibited at Harvey Meadows, Cervini Haas, AKAR, Dubuque Museum of Fine Art, Sherry Leedy, Santa Fe Clay, Lacoste, Taipei County Yingge Museum and Incheon World Ceramic Center. Sam’s work is included in the collections of The Crocker Art Museum (CA), Incheon World Ceramic Center (Korea), Guldagergaard (Denmark), San Angelo Museum (TX) and ASU Ceramics Research Center (AZ).

My most recent work draws imagery from cloud motifs originating from Korean art and design. I am interested in these clouds’ reference to my own cultural background, but also their representation of a phenomenon that is constantly in flux. Its nature to morph and adapt is similar to the way in which I relate to my own vacillating sense of identity. The clouds also suggest a fluidity and freedom in their physical form, and inspire me to introduce shapes that are less bound by a tradition.

Pitcher Wood Fired Stoneware $260

Pitcher, 2012 Porcelain, wood/soda-fired $150

B E D E C L A R K E

CHARITYDAVIS-WOODARD

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

Bede Clarke has been a Professor of Art at the University of Missouri since 1992. He received his Master of Fine Arts from The University of Iowa (1990) and a BFA from Eckerd College (1982). Bede’s work is found in public and private collections in the U.S. and abroad.

My goal in making this work has been to create quiet, simple pots, which like a good meal, leaves a healthy, full feeling. Pots like these have been my constant companions for over forty years. They are forms and surfaces that I never grow tired of. They are rooted in ceramic history, yet, I hope they reflect a personal and individual quality. Above all, these pots are intended to be good to live with and interact with on a daily basis. They are made with others in mind.

Charity has been a full-time studio potter since earning her MFA in 1997 from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. In her home-based rural studio she focuses on limited production porcelain functional pots which she fires in a Bourry-box style wood kiln. A part-time community college instructor, Charity is also a frequent workshop presenter for clay guilds, universities and craft schools such as Anderson Ranch and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. Her work can be seen in numerous professional publications and at exhibitions and gallery events around the country.

To express what I find moving and beautiful through the making of functional ceramics is a great privilege. The life of a potter demands something from all aspects of one’s being and is a wonderful dance of routine and experimentation, hard work and soulful searching. I am most interested in making pots that can be held in the hand and enjoyed visually and tactically, and every work session in the studio is an opportunity to explore new variations on familiar themes, keeping them fresh and recharged. I am deeply influenced by the environment I grew up in as well as by the natural world, architecture, functional objects of many types and historical decorative arts.

Through my work I hope to contribute something to people’s lives that may help them pause and reflect on a bit of beauty or on a memory that brings pleasure during their daily routines or ritual celebrations.

Bede maintains a studio in Columbia, Missouri where he produces his ceramic art work and continues to exhibit worldwide, recently at: Yingge Ceramics Museum 2012 Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA, and, Arvada Center for Fine Arts and Humanities, Arvada, CO. www.bedeclarkestudio.com

For me, good pots spring from compassion. My “technique” amounts to wishing the work well as it moves through the process of forming, articulation of the surface and firing. I try to find ways of working that respond to the only ability I have ever had, wishing the work well and silently encouraging it to “be good, be good.”

I keep returning to the studio simply trying to bring as much sincerity as I can muster to bear upon the work.

Pitcher, 2012 Salt/soda fired stoneware $180

Covered Pitcher Wood fired Stoneware 9H x 9W x 7D $80

JOSH DEWEESE

PAUL DRESANG

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

Josh DeWeese is a ceramic artist and educator. He is an Assistant Professor of Art teaching ceramics at Montana State University in Bozeman, where he and his wife Rosalie Wynkoop have recently built a home and studio. DeWeese served as Resident Director of the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana from 1992-2006. He holds an MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred, and a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. DeWeese has exhibited and taught workshops internationally and his work is included in numerous public and private collections.

I am interested in how pots can be used to bring art into our lives, enhancing our experience with food, adorning our homes, and providing a necessary ritual to nourish our soul and mind as well as our bodies. I enjoy the personality a pouring form takes on, and am challenged by the engineering involved to make them actually work.

M.F.A. in Ceramics, University of Minnesota, 1974

I make ceramic sculpture and functional pots. Each of these informs the other in many ways. The practice and skill, which comes from making pots, supports more accuracy when assessing the details of all forms, be they “simple” cup or trompe L’oeil sculpture. The careful consideration of balance, volume, profile, skin, tension, and the rhythms of light and shadow scrutinized in the sculptural work, hones these same sensibilities of the potter. When we potters realize that we are all making sculpture, we make much better pots. Some of our work holds soup or conveys coffee to the lips, and these pieces are no less engendered with significant aesthetic concerns. Ceramic sculpture may function in additional ways, to convey a complex narrative, political point of view, or some social agenda. A sculptural piece may help to inform you about your political leaders’ squabbling and robbing you, and a bowl may help you to eat while you weep. Though both forms of work develop from training, planning, and intuition, the “multiples” nature of pot making allows for a flow of intuition through a series of objects. Training and intuition with sculptural work evolves from a series as well, but it is centered in an ongoing sorting or analysis within the individual object (sculpture).

Currently Distinguished Research Professor, Department of Art and Design Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville Ceramics and Glassblowing Paul has also published several books, served as a juror in exhibitions, lectured around the nation, been widely exhibited and presented with distinguished grants, fellowships and awards, with works in private and public collections.

Ewer 1 (left) Porcelain with incised pattern $140

Teapot, 2012 Porcelain, incised/layered glazes Cone 6 oxidation $135

Ewer (right) Porcelain with incised pattern $140

NEIL ESTRICK

A D A M F I E L D

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

Neil Estrick holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Art with an emphasis in ceramics and photography, and a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics. He has been making pottery for 20 years, and specializes in wheel thrown porcelain. Neil was born and raised in Colorado, but currently resides in Grayslake, IL with his wife Sara, a veterinarian, and his two young sons, Jack and Henry.

There is a cupboard full of hand made mugs in my kitchen. Over the years my wife and I have decided which of the mugs are our favorites, and those pieces have migrated to the front of the cupboard. The rest of the mugs rarely see the light of day, unless we have a large party. All of the mugs in our cupboard have some level of visual appeal, but what sets our favorites apart from the rest is that they are a pleasure to use. There is something about the quality of their construction and design that makes us want them to be a part of our daily lives. I want every pot I make to have that same appeal.

Born and raised in Colorado, Adam earned his BA in Art from Fort Lewis College. For two years he immersed himself in the culturally rich art scene of the San Francisco bay area, where he began his full time studio practice. From there, he relocated to Maui, where he established a thriving studio business. He spent most of 2008 in Icheon, South Korea, studying traditional Korean pottery making techniques under 6th generation Onggi master Kim Il Mahn. Adam has recently established his studio in Durango, CO. His works are included in private collections internationally.

I am fascinated with antique artifacts, the way they can speak of mastery of lost peoples, places, and cultures. This inspires me to create works that both radiate history and capture my own place and time. I work toward a clean aesthetic that celebrates the masterful simplicity of antique Far Eastern pottery, while retaining the modest utility of colonial American wares. The surface of my pottery is meticulously carved with intricate designs that borrow from nature and incorporate the human touch. Much of the carving on my work is informed by the pattern languages found in indigenous fiber art, such as Hawaiian tapa, Incan cordage and Zulu basketry.

For the past 8 years he has been the owner of Neil Estrick Gallery, LLC, in Grayslake. In addition to being a working studio and gallery, the business has a large classroom studio space where Neil holds pottery classes for kids and adults. Neil also offers workshops for teachers, sells kilns and other pottery equipment, and repairs pottery kilns and wheels in the Chicago-Milwaukee area.

I demand from myself a high level of craftsmanship. My pots must be light enough to be handled comfortably, but not so thin as to make them too fragile for daily use.

The walls must be of consistent thickness for good balance, and the glaze application must be clean and even.

This attention to detail helps to ensure that my pots will be used for their intended purpose. Functional pieces that are aesthetically pleasing but do not successfully perform their intended function will not be used, and will be destined to sit in the back of the cupboard.

Water Ewer and Cup, 2013 Soda fire porcelain 7x4x4 $260

Teapot Stoneware soda/salt fired cone 10 7” x 5.5” $150

J U L I A G A L L O W AY

J O H N G L I C K

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Julia Galloway was born and raised in New England. Her utilitarian pottery has been exhibited across the United States and Canada and she has demonstrated at the NCECA and the Utilitarian Clay Conferences. Her work can be found in the collations of The Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Museum, Washington, DC , The Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV, Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT , The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and The Woodman Collection: The University of Colorado, Boulder, CO. She earned her undergraduate degree from New York State School of Ceramics at Alfred University and Graduate degree at the University of Colorado in Boulder. For nine years Galloway taught at the School for American Crafts at RIT and recently she moved to Missoula where she is a Professor of Ceramics and Director of the School of Art at the University of Montana.

st recent work, I observe and create city and home landscapes, public and personal landscapes, and internal and external landscapes on the surfaces of the pottery. I am interested in the contrasting elements of the cityscape I see from my window, and the abundant rich landscapes of my imagination. These surfaces illuminate the morning and evening, domestic and urban. The images on these pots represent this time passage; they surround and embrace the actual use of the pots. And there may be nothing finer than the idea of drinking from drawings of our neighborhoods.

Born: Detroit, Michigan, July 1, 1938 Wayne State University B.F.A. - 1960 Cranbrook Academy M.F.A. - 1962 United States Army - 1962 - 1964 Started Plum Tree Pottery in 1964 continuing to present time

COLLECTIONS: PARTIAL LISTING Renwick Gallery, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.,Gift of Mr. S. Hada, a Plate, 1978, accepted in 1985. A Sculptural Vessel, 1961, Gift of Hilbert De Lauter, accepted 1996

This teapot and pitcher represents a 50 year passion with function. For this length of time I have been engaged in exploring the shapes and functional issues of these forms. An equally important aspect for me is the surface and color, texture and mark making which are all integral parts of the character of my pots.

ARTIST STATEMENT I am interested in pottery that is joyous; objects that weave into our daily lives through use. Pottery decorates our living spaces with character and elegance. Teapots celebrate our drinking tea; a pitcher decorates a mantel when not in use; a mug with slight texture inside the handle allows our fingers to discover uniqueness. Pottery is a reflection of us. In making cream and sugar sets I am curious about their own inherent dialogue; the set itself is reminiscent of close conversations and their ritual celebratory use.

An exhibition and gallery location is a brief but very important place for pottery. It is through the act of “show” that the public first comes to see and understand the work. Specific displays of pottery can bridge the viewer with the content in work. Displaying square tumblers on library-type shelves supports the ideas of all kinds of nourishment. Exhibiting cups at eye level decorated with the skyline of Rochester gives the viewer the sense of being inside looking outside.

I make pottery out of porcelain clay. It is extremely sensitive and responsive to the human touch when it’s soft; when fired it becomes dense and strong. It is this responsive nature of clay that continues to interest me. It responds to your touch, then you respond to it. The same happens in the firing process with glaze materials and the atmosphere of the kiln. Clay is a supportive an demanding medium for the creative journey of making.

I am insistent about making things with my hands. A need for beautiful domestic objects and an instinctual drive to create things are tremendous dance partners for idea and desire. Utilitarian pottery supports and represents our intimate rituals of nourishment and celebration.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, a Bowl, 1987, a Lidded Box, 1997

Pitcher Stoneware soda/salt fired cone 10 12” x 6.5” $150

Porcelain Pourer, 2012 Thrown, altered, co 6 electric fired $480

J O H N G L I C K

S T E V E N H I L L

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Grants, recognitions

This teapot and pitcher represents a 50 year passion with function. For this length of time I have been engaged in exploring the shapes and functional issues of these forms. An equally important aspect for me is the surface and color, texture and mark making which are all integral parts of the character of my pots.

Steven Hill has been a functional potter since 1974, originally working out of a backyard studio and selling his work mostly at art festivals. He received his BFA from Kansas State University in 1973.

During the mid 1990’s Hill began a resident artist program for aspiring potters, and other ceramic artists to work. Red Star Studios and 2010 Steven lived in Sandwich, IL and co-founded Center Street Clay. Steven is now working at 323 Clay in Independence, MO and concentrating on what he does best, making pots and teaching. Steven has taught over 250 workshops throughout the United States and Canada. Hill’s work is featured in nationally juried shows and in many ceramics books.

A trip to Italy in 1995 profoundly influenced my direction with glazing. It wasn’t the Majolica pottery that Italy is famous for, but the colors and textures of Tuscany that spoke to me. The weatherworn painted wood and stucco surfaces, which highlight architectural form by stripping away surface embellishment, exerted their influence on my pottery.

Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant in Ceramics, 1961.

Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant in Apprentice Assistance Program with Rostislav Eismont, 1972 - 1973.

National Endowment Grant for the Arts for aid in writing book on studio potting, 1974.

Farmington Community Arts Council Artist in Residence Title and Grant, 1977.

Michigan Foundation for the Arts Governor’s Award, 1977.

National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grant, 1977.

National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grant, 1988.

Michigan Council for the Arts, Individual Artist’s Grant, 1990.

American Craft Council Fellow Elected 2001 Governors’ Michigan Artist Award Art Serve Michigan 2001

ARTIST STATEMENT I simply have to make pots! While making pottery nourishes my soul, selling it puts food on my table. When I am sitting at the potter’s wheel with music reverberating through my studio, life is good! The dance that is born of clay spinning through my fingers is the place in my life where magic happens. I’ve always had a relatively narrow focus, making wheel thrown, single-fired functional pottery. My work never stands still, however… It has been a slow evolution of form and surface. Function is what keeps me rooted, but I don’t mind stretching the boundaries of usefulness just a little as I explore my tiny vision.

I also love the atmospheric variation that occurs naturally across the surface of salt, soda and wood fired pots, but fired in gas reduction throughout most of my career. To give my pots the surface quality I was after, I learned to create my own atmospheric surfaces through careful blending and layering of sprayed glazes.

In December 2008 I discovered that reduction plays a rather insignificant role in the finished look of my pottery. The cascading rivulets of ash-like glazes and mysterious microcrystalline mat surfaces work just as effectively in oxidation as they do in reduction! Even the rich brown and orange colors that I have always attributed to reduction firing are possible in oxidation. In 2009 ago I began the transition to ^6 oxidation fired porcelain, and the journey has been extremely rewarding.

Sometimes I wonder what direction my life would have taken if I had not discovered clay. The only thing I know for certain is that I lead a privileged life making my living doing something I love as much as making pottery.

Sake Bottle and Cups Earthenware, Pit Fired $175/set

Sake Bottle and Cups Earthenware, Pit Fired $175/set

CHUCK HINDES

CHUCK HINDES

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EDUCATION: MFA, Rhode Island School of Design BFA, University of Illinois, Champagne 1961-1963, Wisconsin State College, River Falls, WI

My work has two primary inspirations. First, the Japanese aesthetic that views imperfection and irregularity as forms of beauty. Second, more on a subconscious level, the Abstract Expressionist painting movement.

WORKSHOPS AND LECTURES: Archie Bray Foundation, Penland School of Crafts, Arrowmont School, Cub Creek Foundation, Red Lodge Clay Center, Anderson Ranch, RISD, Cranbrook, Chicago Art Institute, University of Georgia, Utah State University, University of Minnesota, University of Manitoba, Cleveland Art Institute

Those mottled surfaces of color and texture forge an indelible record of the entire firing. That composition documents conclusively the journey of the flame and the aggressive atmosphere generated within the kiln. The resulting image reflects the effect that Abstract Expressionism has had on my work.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE: 1973-2006, Professor, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 1972-1973, Adjunct Professor, Rhode Island School of Design 1969-1972, Instructor, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL GRANTS: 1973-2006, Five Sabbatical leaves, The University of Iowa 1974, Craftsman Fellowship, NEA 1970, Summer Research Grant, University of Florida 1968, Summer Residency, Archie Bray Foundation

My pots are hand built in a manner that allows the natural development of gesture and asymmetry. These two characteristics are the genuine result of the forming process, not an affectation. This construction method preserves the natural, inherent, plastic quality of the clay.

The processes of atmospheric firings have provided me with a viable vehicle for surface articulation and enrichment. These firing methods create a varied palette of colors and textures. The intense interaction of fire and clay composes a distinct façade. The pot is riddled with textural imperfections and irregular non-descript patterns of color. These highly sought after characteristics are to be appreciated as positive attributes and not perceived as defects or flaws.

EXHIBITIONS: 2011 Yunomi Invitational – Akar Gallery; 2011 Two Person (Ron Meyers), Baylor University; 2009 “Soft Beauty of Traditional Shinos”, Concord University; “Drawn and Created”, Lil Street Gallery, Chicago; “Different Stokes”, International Woodfire Invitational, The University of Iowa; “Ashen Beauty”, Traveling Woodfire Exhibition; “2nd International Ceramic Competition”, Mino, Japan; “A Century of Ceramics in the US, Everson Museum; 31st Annual Scripps Invitational, Scripps College.

COLLECTIONS: Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Museum; Archie Bray Foundation; Everson Museum; St. Louis Museum of Art; International Museum of Ceramics, Alfred University; numerous private collections

In spite of their active physical posture, I view my pots as a quiet read, a read requiring a thorough, up-close perusal.

Leaf close-up, 3 Piece Cruet Set Slab-built, salt/soda fired stone $250

Stacking Leaf Cream & Sugar Set Wheel-thrown, hand-built, salt/ soda fired stoneware $150

C AT H I J E F F E R S O N

C AT H I J E F F E R S O N

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Cathi’s work is altered wheel thrown and hand-built functional and sculptural salt/soda fired stoneware.

Her work is influenced by the natural environment that surrounds her living on the Cowichan River near Duncan on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

There is a ritual of use that can be shared and give special memories to celebrations and every day occasions between family and friends. Hand made pieces contribute unique qualities that engage the everyday moment. One must pay attention to lifting the oil then vinegar cruet from their tray and pouring them on a plate for bread dipping or over a fresh garden salad. Adding milk and sugar to the cup of tea becomes ceremonial. Raising the creamer from the top of the sugar bowl and pouring, then using the clay spoon for the sugar and replacing the creamer back on the sugar bowl, ready for the next use.

Cathi’s work is altered wheel thrown and hand-built functional and sculptural salt/soda fired stoneware.

Her work is influenced by the natural environment that surrounds her living on the Cowichan River near Duncan on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

There is a ritual of use that can be shared and give special memories to celebrations and every day occasions between family and friends. Hand made pieces contribute unique qualities that engage the everyday moment. One must pay attention to lifting the oil then vinegar cruet from their tray and pouring them on a plate for bread dipping or over a fresh garden salad. Adding milk and sugar to the cup of tea becomes ceremonial. Raising the creamer from the top of the sugar bowl and pouring, then using the clay spoon for the sugar and replacing the creamer back on the sugar bowl, ready for the next use.

Bourbon Bottle Thrown and Altered, Wood Fired Cone 12 $300

Small Bottle Thrown and Altered, Wood Fired $100

DOUG JEPPESEN

DOUG JEPPESEN

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Doug Jeppesen holds a BA in Art History and a BFA in Art with an emphasis in ceramics from the University of Tulsa, and a MFA from Northern Illinois University. Doug is an Associate Professor of Art/Ceramics at Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove, Illinois where he has taught full time since 1998. He specializes in wood firing and has built a number of different styled wood fired kilns at the college. The latest was an Anagama, which was completed during the fall of 2006 and is one of only three in the state of Illinois. His work has appeared in numerous national juried and invitational exhibitions across the United States. Doug has presents workshops at area colleges and universities, and participated as a panel member at the International Wood Firing Conference at Northern Arizona University in 2006.

Today we live in a world of convenience rather than one of necessity, and to make functional pottery is a reaction against this convenience. From a solitary morning cup of coffee, a noisy family dinner, or sipping a cup of whiskey with a friend, pots are used every day by millions of people as they record and discuss their ideas, activities and experiences. For me, this opens a door to a part of our society that wishes to rekindle a relationship with our past and push beyond the industrialized object of contemporary society.

Doug Jeppesen holds a BA in Art History and a BFA in Art with an emphasis in ceramics from the University of Tulsa, and a MFA from Northern Illinois University. Doug is an Associate Professor of Art/Ceramics at Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove, Illinois where he has taught full time since 1998. He specializes in wood firing and has built a number of different styled wood fired kilns at the college. The latest was an Anagama, which was completed during the fall of 2006 and is one of only three in the state of Illinois. His work has appeared in numerous national juried and invitational exhibitions across the United States. Doug has presents workshops at area colleges and universities, and participated as a panel member at the International Wood Firing Conference at Northern Arizona University in 2006.

Today we live in a world of convenience rather than one of necessity, and to make functional pottery is a reaction against this convenience. From a solitary morning cup of coffee, a noisy family dinner, or sipping a cup of whiskey with a friend, pots are used every day by millions of people as they record and discuss their ideas, activities and experiences. For me, this opens a door to a part of our society that wishes to rekindle a relationship with our past and push beyond the industrialized object of contemporary society.

Pitcher, 2012 Cone 3 Soda-fired Red Clay $200

Upside-Down Weather pitcher, 2012 Earthenware, slip, glaze, thrown, altered,

$120

B R I A N R. J O N E S

M AT T K E L L E H E R

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Brian R. Jones grew up in Syracuse, NY and is now an artist living and working in Portland, OR. He shows work nationally and has been a resident artist at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts and The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, PA. In 2001 he graduated with a BFA from Alfred University. He earned an MFA degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX in 2007.

My current work lies in my interest in the investigation of the transformative character of memories. A remembrance of a time, place, or feeling serves as the point of departure for contemplation of form, color, and tone.

The nature of how a piece reveals itself over time to an audience is the long echo of that initial reverie. My work is both a reservoir and an initiator of memories.

Matt Kelleher is currently a working potter in Madison County, found in the mountains of western North Carolina. In 2005, he made the decision to leave University teaching and pursue full-time studio work through a three-year residency at Penland School of Crafts. Matt has also been artist in residence at Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT (1999-2001) and Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in Shigaraki, Japan (2003). As Matt continues a career of investigating soda-fired tableware, he has broadened his interests to include sculptural vessels, bird inspired forms, and collaborative work with Shoko Teruyama.

The slab built pitcher in this show is a continued investigation of “pitcher form” I started during graduate school in the 90’s. I have returned to this idea a few times as I discover new possibilities and questions. I am currently working with soda-fired red clay at cone 3. The surfaces show my interest in satin matte flashing slips that create veils of color and mysterious landscapes. I am excited by how the dark clay breaks through the slip on edges and corners.

Teapot Cone 6 Porcelain $200

Teapot Porcelain 7x 5.5” $180

B E N K R U P K A

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Ben Krupka is currently a studio artist and assistant professor of ceramics, sculpture and design at Bard College at Simon’s Rock in the Berkshire Mountains of southwestern Massachusetts. Krupka received his MFA from Utah State University in 2002. Following graduate school he was a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation from 2003– 2005 where his work focused primarily on wood fired functional pottery. Since that time Krupka has taught many workshops nationally and internationally, most recently at King Mongkut’s University of Technology and Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand where he was resident artist and visiting faculty. His work has been exhibited in over 150 exhibitions; at galleries, art centers, colleges and museums and is held in a number of public and private collections. He regularly exhibits at Ferrin Gallery (MA), Akar Gallery (IA), The Clay Studio of Philadelphia (PA) among others. In his free time he can usually be found on his bike, the trail, or in the kitchen.

I’m interested in how aesthetic ideals and both intentional and unintentional self-imposed parameters lead to a body of work. Most recently this question has driven me to ease my parameters, allowing for the exploration of ideas to take form outside of a previously prescribed “style.” This pursuit has opened the doors for investigation into both functional and sculptural work.

Jayson Lawfer is a potter and director of an online art gallery and art consulting business entitled The Nevica Project (www.thenevicaproject.com). After graduating from the University of Montana, Jayson completed an artist residency at Guldagergard (200 2) in Denmark, The Archie Bray Foundation (2004), A.I.R. Vallauris in Vallauris, France (2006), and Lillstreet Art Center (2007). His work has been featured in prestige American exhibitions at the Lancaster Museum of Art (Pennsylvania), Missoula Art Museum (Montana), Cedar Rapids Museum of Art (Iowa), and New Hampshire Institute of Art. His pottery has been selected for the Totally Teabowl exhibition in England, the Sydney Meyer Fund International Ceramic Award in Australia and The Salzbrand 2006 competition in Germany. The American Society of Ceramics awarded Jayson one of the “2005 Emerging Artists of the Year”. From 2002-2006, he was the Executive Director of The Clay Studio of Missoula (USA), Gallery Director of its exhibition space and Resident Director of its artist-in-residence program. He was a Resident Artist and Guest Curator at Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago, Illinois from 2006-2007 and their Executive Director of the nonprofit sector of Lillstreet from 2010-2011. Jayson’s talents of being an artist and holding positions of directorship have granted him the opportunity to present lectures and lead workshops in Mexico, Italy and in the USA.

It is important for a teabowl or cup to engage with the user a sense of existence and duty. I feel that in the world we live today, where many objects are mass produced and without thought, a handmade ceramic pot reveals something more.

It reveals a sense of dedication and determination by the creator to release artistic thought and meet the demands of practical purpose.

The atmosphere of soda and wood firings engulf my senses. I wonder and study about how flashing patterns, wood ash deposits, and glaze colors are formed and challenge myself to find answers. I do so knowing that some of these answers are left unknown within the special life that lives and breathes inside of each kiln. Passion lives within everybody. Mine is in the momentum of clay.

I see the stabilizing practice of making pots as a language in which I as maker, remain dedicated to the evolving conversation with material, aesthetic ideals and function. I work within the parameters of aesthetic functionalism while striving to build pots that look and feel soft and fresh, tell a story and maintain a historical reference. My most recent pots reference Oribe style ceramics but through a contemporary lens; both in pattern and narrative themes, as well as in form which is influenced by my lifestyle and how I eat and drink. The teapot in this exhibition is wheel thrown porcelain with a hand built and press molded spout fired to cone six in the electric kiln.

Pourer Porcelain and glaze, soda fired 4.5 x 5 x 6” $80

Ewer $48 Pitcher $110

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S I M O N L E V I N

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Jayson Lawfer is a potter and director of an online art gallery and art consulting business entitled The Nevica Project (www.thenevicaproject.com). After graduating from the University of Montana, Jayson completed an artist residency at Guldagergard (200 2) in Denmark, The Archie Bray Foundation (2004), A.I.R. Vallauris in Vallauris, France (2006), and Lillstreet Art Center (2007). His work has been featured in prestige American exhibitions at the Lancaster Museum of Art (Pennsylvania), Missoula Art Museum (Montana), Cedar Rapids Museum of Art (Iowa), and New Hampshire Institute of Art. His pottery has been selected for the Totally Teabowl exhibition in England, the Sydney Meyer Fund International Ceramic Award in Australia and The Salzbrand 2006 competition in Germany. The American Society of Ceramics awarded Jayson one of the “2005 Emerging Artists of the Year”. From 2002-2006, he was the Executive Director of The Clay Studio of Missoula (USA), Gallery Director of its exhibition space and Resident Director of its artist-in-residence program. He was a Resident Artist and Guest Curator at Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago, Illinois from 2006-2007 and their Executive Director of the nonprofit sector of Lillstreet from 2010-2011. Jayson’s talents of being an artist and holding positions of directorship have granted him the opportunity to present lectures and lead workshops in Mexico, Italy and in the USA.

It is important for a teabowl or cup to engage with the user a sense of existence and duty. I feel that in the world we live today, where many objects are mass produced and without thought, a handmade ceramic pot reveals something more.

It reveals a sense of dedication and determination by the creator to release artistic thought and meet the demands of practical purpose.

The atmosphere of soda and wood firings engulf my senses. I wonder and study about how flashing patterns, wood ash deposits, and glaze colors are formed and challenge myself to find answers. I do so knowing that some of these answers are left unknown within the special life that lives and breathes inside of each kiln. Passion lives within everybody. Mine is in the momentum of clay.

In 1993 I fell in love with the movement of flame through a wood-kiln. Its sensuous quality is something I seek to capture in my work with soft forms, sensuous full curves and flame paths etched into the surface. This quest led me to an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. I now own Mill Creek Pottery in Wisconsin, where my apprentices and I work to advance the cause of wood-fired pottery. The next step on the journey is as a Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan exploring the potential of local materials. Come visit: SimonLevin.com.

I believe that our lives are richer for being connected to our everyday objects. Artistic potters are privy to a unique and subversive role in contemporary art.

Whereas much of late twentieth century art has been an attempt to merge art and life, pulling art out of galleries and bringing life scenes into the setting of the museum, the functional pot continues to hold a place in everyone’s home. A cup is one of the first things we hold in the morning and often one of the last things we touch at night. When we touch our cups to our lips, it is an intimate moment. Honored by that intimate space, I hope to fill it with deep connections between user and maker, clay and fire, in an ageless exploration of emotion.

ARTIST STATEMENT Connection to our world and people around us is the failed promise of technology; technology alone cannot bring us closer. Touch, interaction, engagement and conversation are the inroads to intimacy. Functional pottery in the home, in the hand, can begin to forge connection between artist and user, between object and human, between process and people. I see my work as an artist is to forge deeper connections; to create interactive forms that communicate across the synapses of our compartmentalized world. My work speaks eloquently about my love, exploration and development of a hugely rich and ancient process of wood fired ceramics. I use technology as a tool to create opportunities where the intimate connection to clay can occur. My website, SimonLevin. com, is a resource for information, relevant links, images of work and kilns, published articles, and recently, candid photos of pottery in other people’s homes.

I believe in making the pots with a revelation of process. I integrate throwing lines and evidence of human touch into surface design. I do not hide attachments of handles or spouts. I seek the inherent qualities in the marks tools make and I approach each individual pot with a similar feel though the tool might differ. This revelation of process harmonizes with the choice of wood-firing. Ware from a wood kiln speaks loudly about its making. The end result is a narrative of the journey of raw clay to usable pot.

Darted/Stacked Coffeepot, 2012 Salt-fired stoneware $170

Teapot, 2013 Technique wood-fired stoneware $85

S U Z E L I N D S AY

L I Z L U R I E

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Suze’s stoneware pots subtley suggest figure and character as she manipulates her forms by altering them after they are thrown. Handbuilt elements , made from slabs, are integrated with thrown parts to create functional forms that have a personality of their own. An integral part of her work includes surface decoration to enhance form by patterning and painting slips and glazes for saltfiring. Her mark-making is strongly influenced by studying historical ceramics from cultures in Japan, Crete, Chile, China, and Native North Americans. The springboard for form and function started with the study of Bernard Leach’s ideas while she was a CORE fellow at Penland School of Crafts in 1987-89, and continue to feed her interpretation of altered forms that function well.

I believe pottery can transcend the purely utilitarian, becoming a work of art that is integrated into our daily living. I envision functional pottery not only in terms of straightforward usefulness, but also, its ability to invite the user to take pleasure in everyday activities, inviting participation, promoting hospitality.

Liz Lurie has worked as a studio potter and teacher since 1991 in New York, Georgia, Massachusetts and Texas.

She received a BA degree from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY, in 1991, with concentrated study in dance and ceramics, and went on to participate in residencies at the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts and Peter’s Valley Craft school, building two wood kilns and a salt kiln along the way. From there she moved to Georgia and was studio production manager at the Wild Rabbit Pottery in Athens, Georgia, as well as running her own ceramic studio. In 1999 she became studio technician at the Worcester Center for Crafts in Massachusetts.

From 2001-2009, Lurie moved to Dallas Texas where she as helped build and design a large commissioned trainstyle wood kiln.maintained her own studio and taught classes at Southern Methodist University, Collin County College and Brookhaven College.. In 2010, Liz Lurie recently resettled in upstate New York, where she is building her wood kiln, making pots and teaching in her own studio. Lurie gives workshop, exhibits and sells her work in galleries and stores throughout the United States.

when I go home to visit, they hold rich memories of forty plus years of use. It is my hope that my pots provide for their users in a similar manner, and in so doing become an intimate part of the daily rhythm of life.

Suze received her MFA from Louisiana State University in 1992, and was an artist in residence at Penland School of Crafts from 1993-1996. She owns and operates Fork Mountain Pottery with her husband and fellow potter, Kent McLaughlin. They live and work in the mountains of western North Carolina.

Our culture appears to have less and less appreciation for meaningful ritual, such as Sunday suppers at Grandma’s. The gathering together of family and friends around the dinner table can be a catalyst for ritual. As we see more people at fast-food restaurants, it appears that a home-cooked meal is a thing of the past. Since pottery has a strong relationship with food service and meal times, it has the potential to intensify the depth of meaning and memory each person carries away from the table. Cooking, eating, and sharing, are all important uses for my pots.

Pottery exists in a socially interactive framework involving daily rituals that vary from the mundane to the exalted. My work varies according to the event, such as a homey breakfast for two, a candelabrum to light a dinner party, or a platter to serve a main course.

ARTIST STATEMENT I grew up in a household where there was a tremendous respect for things handmade. Furniture, books, paintings and pottery all helped to transform our house into a home. They radiated warmth, a life, a history, a beauty, and a strength which enriched our lives. They provided solace, were used in celebration, contempla tion and sometimes broken in anger.

I am struck by Milan Kundera’s words, “There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting”. I would like to think that I make work which takes time to discover. The dark nuanced surfaces are a quiet background to celebrate food and drink. Perhaps after each use one notices something different, a subtle gesture or mark that involves one to such a degree that for a moment the user is compelled to pause and slow down.

I am comforted by the place that pots occupy in the home. They reside in bookshelves and on desks, behind closed cupboards waiting to be chosen, and on countertops ready for use. Though pottery may live in the recesses of our domestic clutter, it remains an integral part of why home can be such a grounding force in our lives.

Even after fifteen years of un-stacking wood kilns, I find there are endless surprises. Opening the kiln door always gives me an adrenalin rush: successful pots that are too few in numbers, pots that need more developing, pots that were complete mistakes. I go back to the studio rejuvenated, and the cycle of making and firing begins again.

Bird Bottle, 2012 reduction fired Stoneware $45

Teapot, 2013 Technique wood-fired stoneware $85

L I Z L U R I E

KENT MCL AUGHLIN

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ARTIST STATEMENT

Liz Lurie has worked as a studio potter and teacher since 1991 in New York, Georgia, Massachusetts and Texas.

She received a BA degree from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY, in 1991, with concentrated study in dance and ceramics, and went on to participate in residencies at the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts and Peter’s Valley Craft school, building two wood kilns and a salt kiln along the way. From there she moved to Georgia and was studio production manager at the Wild Rabbit Pottery in Athens, Georgia, as well as running her own ceramic studio. In 1999 she became studio technician at the Worcester Center for Crafts in Massachusetts.

From 2001-2009, Lurie moved to Dallas Texas where she as helped build and design a large commissioned trainstyle wood kiln.maintained her own studio and taught classes at Southern Methodist University, Collin County College and Brookhaven College.. In 2010, Liz Lurie recently resettled in upstate New York, where she is building her wood kiln, making pots and teaching in her own studio. Lurie gives workshop, exhibits and sells her work in galleries and stores throughout the United States.

when I go home to visit, they hold rich memories of forty plus years of use. It is my hope that my pots provide for their users in a similar manner, and in so doing become an intimate part of the daily rhythm of life.

Kent McLaughlin is a studio potter who began his training in 1973 at Brevard Community College, the University of Central Florida, and Penland School of Crafts. He apprenticed with a production potter before opening his own studio in 1985. Since 1996, he has owned and operated his private studio, with his wife, Suze Lindsay.

I make pots because I love the process and limitless possibilities involved when working with clay. I am attracted to the idea that mankind made pottery before the written word. Pottery was an essential and fundamental part of early civilization. Yet today pots fulfill a different requirement in modern life by carrying a message of life. I have made this object with my hands with the intentions of you using it with your hands.

Your touch embracing my touch. The direct connection between maker and user. This is an essential and fundamental consideration I enjoy when I work.

ARTIST STATEMENT I grew up in a household where there was a tremendous respect for things handmade. Furniture, books, paintings and pottery all helped to transform our house into a home. They radiated warmth, a life, a history, a beauty, and a strength which enriched our lives. They provided solace, were used in celebration, contempla tion and sometimes broken in anger.

I am struck by Milan Kundera’s words, “There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting”. I would like to think that I make work which takes time to discover. The dark nuanced surfaces are a quiet background to celebrate food and drink. Perhaps after each use one notices something different, a subtle gesture or mark that involves one to such a degree that for a moment the user is compelled to pause and slow down.

I am comforted by the place that pots occupy in the home. They reside in bookshelves and on desks, behind closed cupboards waiting to be chosen, and on countertops ready for use. Though pottery may live in the recesses of our domestic clutter, it remains an integral part of why home can be such a grounding force in our lives.

Even after fifteen years of un-stacking wood kilns, I find there are endless surprises. Opening the kiln door always gives me an adrenalin rush: successful pots that are too few in numbers, pots that need more developing, pots that were complete mistakes. I go back to the studio rejuvenated, and the cycle of making and firing begins again.

He makes his living selling his pots, and teaching workshops. Kent has taught Fall concentration at Penland School of Crafts, Penland NC, a summer course atAnderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass CO. and has also been an instructor at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg TN. Recent exhibitions include “Functional Ceramic Invitational”, at the Wayne Center in Wooster OH , The American Pottery Festival at Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, and “La Mesa” Santa Fe Clay NCECA Invitational, Portland OR.

Coffee Pot, 2012 Wood/Soda Fired Porcelain 6”h x 6”w x 4”d $165

Teapot, 2012 Wood/Soda Fired Porcelain 4”h x 5”w x 3”d $145

LORNA MEADEN

LORNA MEADEN

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

Lorna Meaden grew up in the western suburb of Chicago, La Grange. After receiving a B.A. from Fort Lewis College in 1994, she established a studio in Durango, Colorado where she worked as a studio potter for the next eight years. She received an MFA in ceramics from Ohio University in June of 2005. She has recently been a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana, and at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado.

She is currently a studio potter in Durango, Colorado.

My work is soda fired porcelain. It begins with the consideration of function, and the goal is for the form and surface of the pots to be interdependent. Making the work starts with a three dimensional division of space, continues with drawing on the surface, and finishes with the addition of color.

New ideas are gradually incorporated into previous bodies of work through making. Source information for my pots can be motivated by something as simple as looking at the patterns in the stacked bricks of my kiln to something as complex as the forms in 18th century European manufactured silver. I experience the evolution of my work through creative repetition in the studio.

I am interested in having my work display both practical and extravagant attributes. I am drawn to work that is rich in ornamentation, with lavish use of materials, both scarce in a culture of mass production.

Functional pottery, in its connection to sustenance, closely relates to the human body, revealing what it means to be human. Handmade pots are potent in their power to reveal the extraordinary, within the ordinary. I am driven by the i nsatiable pursuit of the “good pot”. Successful in terms of tactile, visual, and functional attributes; lastingly significant when packed with the passion of the make, reflecting humanity, and contributing to the craft.

Lorna Meaden grew up in the western suburb of Chicago, La Grange. After receiving a B.A. from Fort Lewis College in 1994, she established a studio in Durango, Colorado where she worked as a studio potter for the next eight years. She received an MFA in ceramics from Ohio University in June of 2005. She has recently been a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana, and at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado.

She is currently a studio potter in Durango, Colorado.

My work is soda fired porcelain. It begins with the consideration of function, and the goal is for the form and surface of the pots to be interdependent. Making the work starts with a three dimensional division of space, continues with drawing on the surface, and finishes with the addition of color.

New ideas are gradually incorporated into previous bodies of work through making. Source information for my pots can be motivated by something as simple as looking at the patterns in the stacked bricks of my kiln to something as complex as the forms in 18th century European manufactured silver. I experience the evolution of my work through creative repetition in the studio.

I am interested in having my work display both practical and extravagant attributes. I am drawn to work that is rich in ornamentation, with lavish use of materials, both scarce in a culture of mass production.

Functional pottery, in its connection to sustenance, closely relates to the human body, revealing what it means to be human. Handmade pots are potent in their power to reveal the extraordinary, within the ordinary. I am driven by the i nsatiable pursuit of the “good pot”. Successful in terms of tactile, visual, and functional attributes; lastingly significant when packed with the passion of the make, reflecting humanity, and contributing to the craft.

Woman Salt & Pepper Set, 2012 Pinch/coil built, decorated with Terra sigilatta, electric fired $280

Teapot Low -fire Salt Earthenware $220

JENNYMENDES

R O N M E Y E R S

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT CONTINUED

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

Jenny Mendes earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1982, and has been a full time studio artist since 1994. She has exhibited her ceramic artwork nationally at galleries and juried shows. Since finishing a three-year residency at the Penland School of Crafts in 2007, she has completed additional short-term residencies in France, Slovenia, Macedonia, and the US. She currently resides in Ohio, teaches an occasional workshop, and gardens for pleasure.

Ceramics become hearty enough in the firing process to survive for centuries if allowed to remain intact. Clay is keeper of history in so many ways. Ancient artisans that used this very same material to speak about the worlds they were living in have been my inspiration. Like my predecessors, I use clay to document the world around me. Stories, observations, dreams, current events, longings and entanglements, and my deep connection to the natural world are source material. I feel most engaged in my process as I move from innocence into awareness. This discovery occurs while sculpting an object, as well as during the slow process of surface development.

Ron Meyers is an emeritus professor of the University of Georgia, Athens, GA where he taught for over 20 years.

He received his BS and MS degrees in Art Education from the State University College at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY and received his MFA degree in Ceramics from the School for American Craftsmen, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY. His work is represented in many museums and private collections and is a 2007 recipient of the NCECA Excellence in Teaching Award and by the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, MN as the 2008 Regis Maters Series Honor. The Regis Master s series honors senior artists that have had a major impact on the development of 20th and 21st ceramics in the United States.

Working in clay and making functional pottery has never been a problem for me. I have never felt the need to dismiss or disregard the concept of function because it was something less than art. I have never found making useful pieces confining or restrictive. In fact, I find that the opposite seems true. The longer I stay involved, the more alternatives and possibilities there are that seem to present themselves. Along with the functional aspects of the piece, I strive to have the end product reflect my own sensitivity and awareness to the material itself and its traditions. The pieces that I’m most pleased with are those that come closest to best integrating the form and surface, the spontaneity and fluidity of the clay along with the object’s use.

ARTIST STATEMENT Working with red earthenware clay I pinch, sculpt, and work intuitively, listening to the clay as it speaks through my hands. Being an attentive listener is important to my process. Objects are then overlaid with a detailed decorative narrative that I create by layering colored clay slips in a painterly manner. The content of the surface is revealed to me organically, as story and texture.

In an increasingly digitally propelled world I try to make objects that people can connect with in physical and emotionally intimate ways. My ceramics do this by actively engaging the observer’s imagination.

Most pieces can be held in the hand. My fingermarks in the fired clay become an indelible connection to the future hands that will hold a piece of my work and experience my sense of touch, wonder and investigation. The stories I use act a portal for the viewer to enter into, and begin weaving the narrative I have begun with a meaningful and personal archive of their own.

When I ask myself or am asked the question, what is my work really is about, the most honest answer I return to again and again, is that this is the most truthful way that I know of to make sense of the world.

Cruet High Iron Stoneware, Wood fired, reduction cooled Cone 9 $150

Teapot Iron Stoneware,forged steel, Wood fired, reduction cooled Cone 9 $500

T E D N E A L

T E D N E A L

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

Born and raised in rural upstate New York, Ted has received degrees from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (MFA 1998), Utah State University (BFA 1995), and Brigham Young University Idaho (AAS 1991). After graduate school Ted taught as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

He moved back to Logan Utah in 2001 to take the position of technology instructor and studio coordinator for the ceramics area at Utah State University.

(2001 – 2006) His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions including: Earth Matters NCECA 2010 Invitational in Philadelphia, PA, Strictly Functional Pottery National in East Petersburg PA, Forms and Shapes: The Useful Teapot at AKAR Gallery in Iowa City, IA, NCECA Clay National in Columbus, OH, and Feats of Clay XXIII at Lincoln Arts in Lincoln, CA Ted is currently a studio artist and Associate Professor of Ceramics in the Art Department of Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.

In all of my work one constant is my use of the vessel as a framework upon which to hang concepts of utility and self-expression. Specifically, my utilitarian work is most satisfactory when a single object occupies space as both a useful object and one that also embodies loftier ideas such as beauty, connectedness and shared kinesthetic experiences.

Born and raised in rural upstate New York, Ted has received degrees from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (MFA 1998), Utah State University (BFA 1995), and Brigham Young University Idaho (AAS 1991). After graduate school Ted taught as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

He moved back to Logan Utah in 2001 to take the position of technology instructor and studio coordinator for the ceramics area at Utah State University.

(2001 – 2006) His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions including: Earth Matters NCECA 2010 Invitational in Philadelphia, PA, Strictly Functional Pottery National in East Petersburg PA, Forms and Shapes: The Useful Teapot at AKAR Gallery in Iowa City, IA, NCECA Clay National in Columbus, OH, and Feats of Clay XXIII at Lincoln Arts in Lincoln, CA Ted is currently a studio artist and Associate Professor of Ceramics in the Art Department of Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.

In all of my work one constant is my use of the vessel as a framework upon which to hang concepts of utility and self-expression. Specifically, my utilitarian work is most satisfactory when a single object occupies space as both a useful object and one that also embodies loftier ideas such as beauty, connectedness and shared kinesthetic experiences.

The concept of pure function is to me a misnomer, and I challenge the notion than any object can really fit this description. If I envision the work as a truly useful object then it can really only be complete when it is employed in that role daily. It is my hope that the object is not passive, but participates by elevating awareness during the experience.

All of these vessels are thrown using an iron rich stoneware clay body. While no glaze has been applied to the surfaces, I do utilize high iron slips and clays on the bisque surfaces. Each is then fired in a train style wood kiln in a process called reduction cooling. This process creates natural ash glazes common to most wood fired forms, but also promotes the dark metallic surfaces by a controlled reduction of oxides (primarily iron) in the cooling cycle.

The concept of pure function is to me a misnomer, and I challenge the notion than any object can really fit this description. If I envision the work as a truly useful object then it can really only be complete when it is employed in that role daily. It is my hope that the object is not passive, but participates by elevating awareness during the experience.

All of these vessels are thrown using an iron rich stoneware clay body. While no glaze has been applied to the surfaces, I do utilize high iron slips and clays on the bisque surfaces. Each is then fired in a train style wood kiln in a process called reduction cooling. This process creates natural ash glazes common to most wood fired forms, but also promotes the dark metallic surfaces by a controlled reduction of oxides (primarily iron) in the cooling cycle.

Ewer and cups Reduction fired/cooled stonewar $300

Charleston Station, Ewers w/stand Wheel-thrown, hand-built $425

J O H N N E E L Y

LOU PIEROZZI

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

John Neely has taught ceramics for 28 years, and has exhibited widely, in the United States, New Zealand, China, Korea, Australia, Japan and Yugoslavia. Most recently he has held workshops and lectured in Arizona, Kansas, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, California, Colorado, New Jersey, Iowa and Wyoming. He has also been active abroad in China, Norway, New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan, Korea and New Zealand. Not only has he written about ceramics in numerous publications but others have written about him. Richard Zakin writes in Ceramics: Ways of Creation that “it is not easy to say whether John is essentially a utilitarian potter, a potter whose work attests to his immersion in Japanese culture and ceramics, a technical ceramist, or an inventive ceramist. He balances all of these characteristics in his work.”

I first traveled to Japan when I was nineteen years old, and spent the better part of the next eleven or twelve years there. Although my initial interest in Japan was sparked by some awareness of medieval stonewares and the writings of Bernard Leach about the modern folk art movement, what captured my attention as a resident was quite different. Wrapped up in the ordinary details of day-to-day life my focus shifted to the needs of the contemporary kitchen and table top....

While the teapots I make are invariably functional, I am certainly not dogmatic about utility. I think of utility as a kind of continuum, with the generic or universal idea of containment at one end, and specific, focused, single purpose tools at the other. The teapot, a “machine” for brewing and serving tea, would be found at the specific end, but it also serves as a vehicle for my explorations into the materials and processes of ceramics. My approach lies somewhere between that of the alchemist and that of the scientist; discovery, rather than expression, is my primary motivation.

Lou Pierozzi was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois.

His interest in ceramics started his first year in college. Pierozzi is deeply interested in making forms that are functional, but the real excitement happens when he alters the form and surface of the piece. He strives to make work that is more sculptural than functional.

Lou Pierozzi received his BFA from De Paul University and his MFA degree in ceramics from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Pierozzi is currently a Professor of Art at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, IL. His work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums throughout the country, featured in multiple publications and represented in various public and private collections.

I am primarily interested in functional ceramic art that is more than just a utilitarian object. My vessels, although functional, draw upon a unique time in history when machines first became mainstream. The rise of the Industrial Revolution brought trains, boilers, steamships, iron clad warships and other heavy steel machinery. I am particularly interested in the smoke stacks, rivets, gears, and steels plates that made up this early machinery. My ceramic pieces look to emulate the visual weight, and mechanical parts that were present in these historical objects. I want my viewers to be able to make a slight connection to this time period, but also be able to see the stylization that make my pieces unique.

The process I use to create these industrially inspired objects involves throwing most of the pieces on the potter’s wheel. I first throw the main body of the piece on the potter’s wheel and alter the shape considerably.

Once I have created the main body, I then decide what shapes will work best for the extruding parts. I then throw the extruding parts, cut them and reassemble them into various mechanical forms. Once the vessel is fully assembled I carefully handcraft each rivet and meticulously place them onto the piece. Finally, I carve in the lines to make the piece look metal plated. After each piece is completely assembled and bisqued, glaze is applied and fired to cone 10. This long and evolved process combines to make an industrially inspired vessel that is not only functional, but also sculptural.

Skull jug, 2013 Wheel thrown, low-fire redware $85

Creamer Porcelain Wheel thrown and hand built $75

ADAM POSNAK

D E B S C H WA R T Z KO P F

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT CONTINUED

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT CONTINUED

I grew up in Macon, Georgia. The pottery (of my Mom Becky Posnak, Michael Simon, Ron Meyers), music (Little Richard, Otis Redding, rural blues), religion (hoodoo, rattle-snake handlers, etc.), of this region is my foundational inspiration.

I have been greatly inspired by West and Central-African traditions and the various African-inspired, syncretic religious-cultural practices of North, Central and South America, particularly those of Cuba and Haiti.

Within the Afro-Cuban cosmological view specifically, the concept of “El Monte,” which in this context roughly translates as “The Wild,” has complex and deep significance. In a nutshell, the natural world is seen to be both the source of spiritual power and the home of various personified embodiments of this power. I have drawn on this concept in approaching the decoration of my work. In my investigation of indigenous cultural material I embrace the notion of “Primalism,” a term coined by Yale Art Historian Robert Farris Thompson:

Deb Schwartzkopf was born and raised in Seattle. In 2002 she got her BA at the University of Alaska Anchorage and worked for professional studio potters. In the Spring of 2005, Deb completed a MFA at Penn State. She has taught at Ohio University, Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the University of Washington. She has worked nationally at the Archie Bray Foundation, Mudflat Studios, the Clay Studio, and Pottery Northwest and internationally at Sanboa in Jingdezhen, China, and the Ceramics Workcenter in Berin, Germany. Deb also teaches workshops and exhibits nationally and internationally. In 2010, she returned to Seattle to set up a studio.

“…primalism lets us measure just how far we’ve traveled -- how far we’ve been pulled forward -- from the devouring primitivism of the past.”

-Robert Farris Thompson, Art in America, July 1997

I find it rewarding and challenging to make pots people will use. In my home growing up, hand made objects held special value. They were gestures of consideration and love. I continue to find objects a dwelling place for intention and association. The parameter of function both limits and frees me. It gives me direction and attaches me to community. Eating with family and friends instills a sense of place and relation. At the table I assess finished work and connect studio practice to living. This starts the cycle of making again.

I want my pots to live in the kitchen where economy and celebration infuse life with purposeful beauty.

The processes I use yield complex forms defined by animated lines and soft planes. Simple wheel thrown and hand built parts are pieced together.

With practice the process has become nimble and intuitive. This is freeing to me. I find refinement like a glacier moving down a valley: troublesome areas are meditatively eroded away and new ideas spring to mind. Slow practice yields fluidity in process, allowing me to shift focus to formal elements, intentional references, and how a pot will feel or fit into life.

Pots are a place where I embrace abstraction of emotions and communication in form. Birds are starting places in my study of stance and expression. I want to capture their expressions of precision and breath.

The awkward pelican and elegant, buoyant loon embody curious shapes I mesh with geometric, sensual, and architectural elements. On the surfaces of my work, I merge our culture’s signals and nature’s placement of hue. Humming birds flash and scoot for nectar from my rosemary bush. Traffic lights illuminate the night, demanding attention as I bike through the city. With intentional placement, these visual messages imply function, trigger associations, and call for exploration. I find the relationship between form and surface integral and defining. Each informs the other within my cyclic studio practice.

The reciprocal relationship between my work and my life is unfolding; my chosen pathway in clay directs my life.

I am gathering and truing my ideas, process, and dreams.

I am building community and establishing my studio.

Besides Georgia, I have had the privilege to live in Louisiana, Florida, and Arkansas, where I currently reside in the White River Valley of the Boston Mountains.

ARTIST STATEMENT Having grown up in Macon, Georgia, the culture of the southern United States, whether in terms of pottery, music, or folk-religion has been the basis for much of the investigations of my life, and continues to fascinate me. In terms of inspiration I look to traditional “Folk” (for lack of a better term) artists of The Americas (writ large: North, Central, and South), as well as contemporary artists such as Jose Bedia, Eduard Duval Carrie and Belkis Ayon.

In a separate but related endeavor, I also make a limited number of religious vessels for practitioners of African and African-Diaspora religions, including West African Yoruba-Orisa, Haitian Vodou, Cuban Lukumi (Santeria) and Palo Mayombe, and Brazilian Candomble.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Oil Pourer Porcelain Hand built $120

Bourbon Bottle, 2013 Soda fired stoneware $125

D E B S C H WA R T Z KO P F

BRAD SCHWIEGER

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT CONTINUED

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

Deb Schwartzkopf was born and raised in Seattle. In 2002 she got her BA at the University of Alaska Anchorage and worked for professional studio potters. In the Spring of 2005, Deb completed a MFA at Penn State. She has taught at Ohio University, Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the University of Washington. She has worked nationally at the Archie Bray Foundation, Mudflat Studios, the Clay Studio, and Pottery Northwest and internationally at Sanboa in Jingdezhen, China, and the Ceramics Workcenter in Berin, Germany. Deb also teaches workshops and exhibits nationally and internationally. In 2010, she returned to Seattle to set up a studio.

With practice the process has become nimble and intuitive. This is freeing to me. I find refinement like a glacier moving down a valley: troublesome areas are meditatively eroded away and new ideas spring to mind. Slow practice yields fluidity in process, allowing me to shift focus to formal elements, intentional references, and how a pot will feel or fit into life.

Pots are a place where I embrace abstraction of emotions and communication in form. Birds are starting places in my study of stance and expression. I want to capture their expressions of precision and breath.

The awkward pelican and elegant, buoyant loon embody curious shapes I mesh with geometric, sensual, and architectural elements. On the surfaces of my work, I merge our culture’s signals and nature’s placement of hue. Humming birds flash and scoot for nectar from my rosemary bush. Traffic lights illuminate the night, demanding attention as I bike through the city. With intentional placement, these visual messages imply function, trigger associations, and call for exploration. I find the relationship between form and surface integral and defining. Each informs the other within my cyclic studio practice.

The reciprocal relationship between my work and my life is unfolding; my chosen pathway in clay directs my life.

I am gathering and truing my ideas, process, and dreams.

I am building community and establishing my studio.

Brad Schwieger has been teaching at Ohio University since 1990 and is presently a Professor of Art and Ceramics Area Chairman. Prior to that he was an Associate Professor at Vincennes University in Indiana (1985-1990). Brad received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Utah State University in 1983 and his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa in 1981. Brad has shown his ceramics nationally and internationally. His work has been included in exhibitions through out the U.S.A., Japan, Korea, Taiwan, England, Germany, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Spain.

In the past year my work has addressed my interests in architectural landscapes, usually cityscapes and the surrounding industrial areas. Architectural forms I’ve witnessed in the natural world also intrigue me.

I’ve tried to synthesize these interests and produce work that is sculptural as well as vessel oriented.

While my work is primarily wheel thrown, a recent interest in mold making and slip casting has helped me identify more specific forms I find interesting within the industrial landscape such as metal cylinders, perforated steel sheathing and drainage pipe.

I find an interesting parallel between architecture and pottery. Like architecture, pottery deals with elements of form and structure, interior/exterior, utility or containment, surface detail and adornment. I have attempted to produce work that shares the minimal and complex, the miniature and monumental, the formal elements of design, the implied and the possibility of actual function.

ARTIST STATEMENT I find it rewarding and challenging to make pots people will use. In my home growing up, hand made objects held special value. They were gestures of consideration and love. I continue to find objects a dwelling place for intention and association. The parameter of function both limits and frees me. It gives me direction and attaches me to community. Eating with family and friends instills a sense of place and relation. At the table I assess finished work and connect studio practice to living. This starts the cycle of making again.

I want my pots to live in the kitchen where economy and celebration infuse life with purposeful beauty.

The processes I use yield complex forms defined by animated lines and soft planes. Simple wheel thrown and hand built parts are pieced together.

Teapot, 2012 Reduction fired stoneware $125

Teapot, 2012 Thrown, Stoneware, Soda fired, $275

BRAD SCHWIEGER

JANE SHELLENBARGER

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

Brad Schwieger has been teaching at Ohio University since 1990 and is presently a Professor of Art and Ceramics Area Chairman. Prior to that he was an Associate Professor at Vincennes University in Indiana (1985-1990). Brad received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Utah State University in 1983 and his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa in 1981. Brad has shown his ceramics nationally and internationally. His work has been included in exhibitions through out the U.S.A., Japan, Korea, Taiwan, England, Germany, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Spain.

In the past year my work has addressed my interests in architectural landscapes, usually cityscapes and the surrounding industrial areas. Architectural forms I’ve witnessed in the natural world also intrigue me.

I’ve tried to synthesize these interests and produce work that is sculptural as well as vessel oriented.

While my work is primarily wheel thrown, a recent interest in mold making and slip casting has helped me identify more specific forms I find interesting within the industrial landscape such as metal cylinders, perforated steel sheathing and drainage pipe.

I find an interesting parallel between architecture and pottery. Like architecture, pottery deals with elements of form and structure, interior/exterior, utility or containment, surface detail and adornment. I have attempted to produce work that shares the minimal and complex, the miniature and monumental, the formal elements of design, the implied and the possibility of actual function.

Jane Shellenbarger was born in Detroit, Michigan. She was a CORE student at Penland School of Crafts in Penland, North Carolina from 1987-1989. Jane received her B.F.A. degree from the Kansas City Art Institute, and her M.F.A. from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

I am interested in the connection between hand and eye and memory. My work focuses on a vessel aesthetic, incorporating historical references with domestic objects. The pieces are thrown and altered with highly personal surface treatments.

While function continues to be an essential concern, I am most intrigued with the ability of pots to transcend themselves as objects and convey information. Form, and surface treatment and the ability for the work to draw relationships to history through imagery, content, and pattern hold my fascination.

Following graduate school, she worked as a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, MT, 1996-97. She established her studio pottery, Mill Station Pottery, in rural Hale, Michigan in 1997.

She has held teaching positions at multiple academic institutions, Kansas City Art Institute and Northern Michigan University and currently, she is an Assistant Professor in The School for American Crafts at Rochester Institute of Technology. She has taught at many craft schools around the country, among them, Penland School of Crafts, Arrowmont School of Crafts, and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.

Shellenbarger has exhibited her work in several prominent galleries around the country including: Leslie Ferrin Gallery, Lacoste Gallery, Lill Street, AKAR Gallery, Santa Fe Clay, Philadelphia Clay Studio, Red Lodge Clay Center and Baltimore Clayworks.

Her work is also in the permanent collections of the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., San Angelo Museum of Fine Art, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, The Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, and The University Museum, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

I work in porcelain and stoneware clays, firing with atmospheric kilns. Often the pieces undergo multiple post firings to achieve a depth of surface.

Pots are intimate by nature. They have the ability to choreograph domestic experience affecting people in a deep and interactive way. This is unparalleled by other objects. There is a need to keep these interactions vital.

The rhythm of making pots is, for me, an endless pursuit to express ideas and define interactions through form.

Teapot Stoneware, Polychrome Glaze 6.5” x 10” x 6.5” $275

Dancing Teapot Porcelain Clay, Raw glazed, single fired cone 10, soda kiln $175

L I N D A S I K O R A

GERTRUDE SMITH

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION CONTINUED

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

Linda Sikora is a studio potter and professor of Ceramic Art at Alfred University. Academic study in visual art and an apprenticeship in ceramics began in British Columbia, Canada. Formal education continued at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University (BFA) and, University of Minnesota–Minneapolis (MFA). Authored articles are printed in Studio Potter, Ceramic Review and, online at Interpreting Ceramics. Professional activities are national and international: residencies include Archie Bray Foundation; Chunkang College of Cultural Industry, Korea; Tainan National College of The Arts, Taiwan; Clay Edge, Australia. National exhibition venues have included Ferrin Gallery, MA; LaCoste Gallery, MA; The Clay Studio, PA; AKAR Gallery, IO. Public collections include: Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; Racine Art Museum; Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art; LA County Museum of Art; Minneapolis Institute of the Arts; Everson Museum of Art; Huntington Museum of Art.

Linda Sikora’s home and studio is in western New York where she is also a professor in the Division of Ceramic Art at the New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University. Born and raised in Canada, academic study in visual art and an apprenticeship in ceramics began in Nelson, British Columbia at (David Thompson University Center) Kootenay School of the Arts (Diploma). Formal education continued at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University (BFA), and the University of Minnesota–Minneapolis (MFA). Authored articles are printed in The Studio Potter, Ceramic Review and Interpreting Ceramics (online journal). Professional activities are national and international: residencies include Archie Bray Foundation; Chunkang College of Cultural Industry, Korea; Tainan National College of The Arts, Taiwan; Clay Edge, Australia. National exhibition venues have included Ferrin Gallery, MA; LaCoste Gallery, MA; The Clay Studio, PA; AKAR Gallery, IO. Public collections include: Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; Racine Art Museum; Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art; LA County Museum of Art; Minneapolis Institute of the Arts; Everson Museum of Art; Huntington Museum of Art.

Gertrude Graham Smith, nicknamed Gay, is a studio potter and teaching artist single firing porcelain ware in a soda kiln near Penland, NC. She held artist-in-residencies at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana and at Penland School in Penland, NC. Her teaching credits include workshops at Penland, Haystack, Harvard, and Findhorn, Scotland. Her work is represented internationally, is in collections such as the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC, and Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taiwan. She’s been featured on the cover of Ceramics Monthly magazine, and her work is in numerous publications such as Making Marks and Functional Pottery by Robin Hopper, and Working with Clay by Susan Peterson. Grant awards include a North Carolina Arts Council Visual Artist Fellowship award and two Regional Artist Project Grant. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Penland School of Crafts.

I celebrate porcelain clay, its liveliness, its responsiveness, with the vessels I form on my pottery wheel. Spontaneous and thoughtful manipulation of forms, surfaces, and attachments animate the work. Handles sweep up and out from bellies and shoulders. Jars raised on feet dance in space. Surfaces appeal to the tactile sense, and smaller forms long to be held. In the kiln, flames filled with sodium decorate anticipated edges, and brighten a wide, colorful palette. I often question the relevance of living as a practicing artist in a world struggling with conflict, exploited for resources. Years as a working potter seems to develop qualities I believe may benefit: caring attention, commitment, honesty, courage, passion, hard work, love of beauty, and a willingness to get one’s hands dirty. I intend my vessels to bring joy, usually a welcomed quality, with their use and presence. And I’m imagining a reality where when a hand grasps a handle, compassion arises in the heart.

Impress Teapot Porcelain Clay, Raw glazed, single fired to cone 10, soda kiln $175

Pitcher, 2012 Woodfired stoneware $150

GERTRUDE SMITH

T A R A W I L S O N

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

Gertrude Graham Smith, nicknamed Gay, is a studio potter and teaching artist single firing porcelain ware in a soda kiln near Penland, NC. She held artist-in-residencies at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana and at Penland School in Penland, NC. Her teaching credits include workshops at Penland, Haystack, Harvard, and Findhorn, Scotland. Her work is represented internationally, is in collections such as the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC, and Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taiwan. She’s been featured on the cover of Ceramics Monthly magazine, and her work is in numerous publications such as Making Marks and Functional Pottery by Robin Hopper, and Working with Clay by Susan Peterson. Grant awards include a North Carolina Arts Council Visual Artist Fellowship award and two Regional Artist Project Grant. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Penland School of Crafts.

I celebrate porcelain clay, its liveliness, its responsiveness, with the vessels I form on my pottery wheel. Spontaneous and thoughtful manipulation of forms, surfaces, and attachments animate the work. Handles sweep up and out from bellies and shoulders. Jars raised on feet dance in space. Surfaces appeal to the tactile sense, and smaller forms long to be held. In the kiln, flames filled with sodium decorate anticipated edges, and brighten a wide, colorful palette. I often question the relevance of living as a practicing artist in a world struggling with conflict, exploited for resources. Years as a working potter seems to develop qualities I believe may benefit: caring attention, commitment, honesty, courage, passion, hard work, love of beauty, and a willingness to get one’s hands dirty. I intend my vessels to bring joy, usually a welcomed quality, with their use and presence. And I’m imagining a reality where when a hand grasps a handle, compassion arises in the heart.

Tara Wilson is a studio potter living in Montana City, Montana. Wilson received a BFA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and an MFA degree from the University of Florida. She has been a resident artist at The Archie Bray Foundation and The Red Lodge Clay Center.

Wilson was selected as an emerging artist for the 2006 NCECA conference and was a presenter at the 2006 International Woodfire Conference in Flagstaff. She has given lectures and workshops throughout the United States; and her work has been exhibited internationally.

Quiet pots initially speak softly yet reveal complexity in both form and surface through continued investigation and use. Embodied in my wood fired vessels is the serenity that I experience by surrounding myself on a daily bases with a rich natural environment.

www.tarawilsonpottery.com

The rich surfaces of the vessels represent the natural world. Nature also inspires form, in some cases quite literally, as river rocks become saucers. Other pieces speak of this passion more subtly. Bases reference the landscape, evoking a sense of space and awareness of the land. Parallels can be drawn between geological processes and the atmospheric firing process. Pots physically capture and record their firing process similar to the way sedimentary and metamorphic rocks speak of their history.

Pottery’s inherent relationship to the figure is accentuated in my gestural forms. The dialog between the forms changes as the pieces are used. The simple things in life are often the most important. My pots speak of my passions, while at the same time allowing the user to recognize the important things in their own lives.

Feeder, 2013 Matte crystalline glazed porcelain 3” x 7” x 4” $65

Feeder, 2013 Matte crystalline glazed porcelain 3” x 7” x 4” $65

GWENDOLYN YOPPOLO

GWENDOLYN YOPPOLO

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT CONTINUED

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

ARTIST STATEMENT CONTINUED

Gwendolyn yoppolo is currently a studio artist in residency at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. She spent the previous years as a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation, a Studio Technician at Alfred University and as Assistant Professor at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. She received her MFA from Penn State University in 2006. While at Penn State she received two fellowship awards for her research using the scanning electron microscope to photograph the tiny landscapes of beach rubble, sugar cereals, plant seeds, and insect parts.

She creates sensuous kitchen- and table-wares that use the physical experience of hunger and satiation to allude to larger issues of human desire and consumption. Her visionary designs challenge us to rethink the ways we nourish ourselves and others within contemporary food culture. By preparing whole foods with minimal technology, by sharing food with a group from a single serving dish, or by sitting down with a loved one to create a shared experience, we break apart from the individualized ready-to-eat mentality of our industrialized food system.

Making utensils enables me to dwell in the moment of appetite, where the anticipation of satiation moves the body through the world of materials towards the consumable. It is a movement driven by desire and guided by memory, by ancestry, and by our sense of self. A utensil extends the body and transforms the energy of this movement into purposeful action. The verbs of the kitchen are not only the processes of food preparation – grind, separate, mix, ream, drain, heat – they are also metaphors for our internal processes of combustion and transformation.

Gwendolyn yoppolo is currently a studio artist in residency at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. She spent the previous years as a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation, a Studio Technician at Alfred University and as Assistant Professor at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. She received her MFA from Penn State University in 2006. While at Penn State she received two fellowship awards for her research using the scanning electron microscope to photograph the tiny landscapes of beach rubble, sugar cereals, plant seeds, and insect parts.

She creates sensuous kitchen- and table-wares that use the physical experience of hunger and satiation to allude to larger issues of human desire and consumption. Her visionary designs challenge us to rethink the ways we nourish ourselves and others within contemporary food culture. By preparing whole foods with minimal technology, by sharing food with a group from a single serving dish, or by sitting down with a loved one to create a shared experience, we break apart from the individualized ready-to-eat mentality of our industrialized food system.

Making utensils enables me to dwell in the moment of appetite, where the anticipation of satiation moves the body through the world of materials towards the consumable. It is a movement driven by desire and guided by memory, by ancestry, and by our sense of self. A utensil extends the body and transforms the energy of this movement into purposeful action. The verbs of the kitchen are not only the processes of food preparation – grind, separate, mix, ream, drain, heat – they are also metaphors for our internal processes of combustion and transformation.

ARTIST STATEMENT To be held in the hands or

The pieces I make are questions, and they remain open-ended until fulfilled through use. My work makes tangible my intentions, and aims towards the receptivities of your attention. Through a minimalist design that attracts the quiet eye and responsive touch, my forms invite you to access your own silence, listening to the echoes of my gestures for the arousal of your own resonance and response.

ARTIST STATEMENT To be held in the hands or

The pieces I make are questions, and they remain open-ended until fulfilled through use. My work makes tangible my intentions, and aims towards the receptivities of your attention. Through a minimalist design that attracts the quiet eye and responsive touch, my forms invite you to access your own silence, listening to the echoes of my gestures for the arousal of your own resonance and response.

touched to the lips, these are intimate objects. The forms I make engage the threshold of subjectivity by offering a conduit for nourishment into the body or between bodies. The experience is more than visceral, as the body’s pursuit of sensual experience is tied into the process of making existence meaningful on all levels. How we choose to feed ourselves and others is connected not only to our sensations of hunger and gratification, but also to our deeper perceptions of ourselves, and of the larger stories we live by

The moment of consumption also transcends bodily experience, invoking our senses of culture, body image, emotion, and relational identity. By making visible those layers of meaning that reside in a food event, the forms I create arouse the physical and nonphysical faculties and extend our understanding of significance.

A service designed for a dining ritual can shift the perceptual horizons through which we comprehend food as nourishment, and nourishment as relationship.

touched to the lips, these are intimate objects. The forms I make engage the threshold of subjectivity by offering a conduit for nourishment into the body or between bodies. The experience is more than visceral, as the body’s pursuit of sensual experience is tied into the process of making existence meaningful on all levels. How we choose to feed ourselves and others is connected not only to our sensations of hunger and gratification, but also to our deeper perceptions of ourselves, and of the larger stories we live by

The moment of consumption also transcends bodily experience, invoking our senses of culture, body image, emotion, and relational identity. By making visible those layers of meaning that reside in a food event, the forms I create arouse the physical and nonphysical faculties and extend our understanding of significance.

A service designed for a dining ritual can shift the perceptual horizons through which we comprehend food as nourishment, and nourishment as relationship.