2012 NCECA Journal 2012: Volume 33 by NCECA

Journal 2012

Volume XXXIII

Chronicle

of Presentations from the

46th Annual Conference and Preceding Organizational Efforts

Robert Brady

nceca 1 Journal 2012 nceca 1 Journal 2011

Journal Vol. 33 2012

National Office: 77 Village Square, Suite 280 Erie, CO 80516-6996 Toll free: 866.266.2322 Local: 303.828.2811 Fax: 303.828.0911 Email: office@nceca.net Web: www.NCECA.net No part of this publication may be reprinted in whole or in part without the express written permission of NCECA. NCECA Journal, ISSN 0739-1544 is published by the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, a nonprofit organization, as a service to its members. Change of Address (including all pertinent contact information) should be sent to NCECA, 77 Village Square, PO Box 777, Erie, CO 80516-0777, or feel free to contact the office by Email: office@nceca.net. For MembersFirst registration information, visit our website. Regarding ADA/504: NCECA is a national organization with centralized administrative offices, geographically widespread governance and membership, programming offered through the Annual Conference and a variety of supporting materials and events that reinforce education, celebration, and dissemination of knowledge in the ceramic arts. NCECA is committed to the fair and equal employment of people with disabilities. Reasonable accommodation is the key to this non-discrimination policy. In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, accommodations will be provided to qualified individuals with disabilities when such accommodations are directly related to performing essential functions of a job, competing for a job, or to enjoy equal benefits and privileges of employment. As well, every reasonable attempt will be made by NCECA to accommodate persons with disabilities in attendance at all NCECA events; information and assistance will be available at registration and information kiosks, as well as through NCECA Event staff members. The opinions expressed in the NCECA Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. All photos are attributed to the artist/author, unless otherwise indicated. All small black and white index portraits are by NCECA staff photographer Glen Blakley unless otherwise indicated. Art Direction: Marko Fields, NCECA Publications Director Graphic Design: Brad Daniels, Marko Fields, Andy Wyss, Eric Hendrickson Editing: Leslie Watson This Publication is a production of NCECA Publications and was printed with pride by: HKM Direct Market Communications, Cleveland, Ohio.

The NCECA 2012 Conference is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal agency.

Artworks on the cover of this publication are by 2012 NCECA Emerging Artists, Simultaneous Demonstrators, New Works artists, RSJE artists, NCECA Clay National artists, and other 2012 Conference participants. Front, left to right Back, left to right Row 1: Mika Negishi Laidlaw . Tara Polansky Row 1: Nicholas Bivins . Dylan Beck . Tip Toland . Beth Cavener Stichter Row 2: Matt Nolen . Peter C. Johnson . Mathew McConnell Row 2: Christina Cordova Row 3: Jason Walker . Darien Johnson . Walter Keeler Row 3: Robert Brady . Margaret Keelan . Adrian Arleo Row 4: Chandra DeBuse . Christa Assad . Jae Won Lee . Nicholas Kripal

nceca Journal 2012 Acknowledgments nceca 2012 • • Acknowledgements 2 2Journal

GREETINGS FROM THE NCECA PRESIDENT...

Welcome to Seattle! Once again our dear friends and colleagues gather to share time, ideas, education and fellowship in clay. Many of you have not missed an event in years. Others will be here for the first time in a long time, or for the first time ever. The mix is always different, but somehow it’s familiar and fabulous! Since last year NCECA has co-sponsored the well-received Regional Shared Journeys symposium which was hosted by West Virginia University. We have received grants and other opportunities for the advancement of our mission and strategic plan. Finally we’ve been planning for a great conference here in Seattle. I’ve been thrilled to watch the conference materialize with the capable leadership of our On Site Conference Liaisons and the board and the NCECA staff. The programming should provide high quality fare for artists of all interests. Our commercial exhibitors, who are such an important part of the conference education, are here. And we have a slate of exhibitions that is overwhelming! I want to welcome all of our local, national and international attendees. I am convinced our team has done whatever it can to make your experience here rewarding. We hope you have a great experience with us. Sincerely, Keith J. Williams, President

...and THE ON-SITE LIAISONS

FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR From the Center to the Edge and Back Again…

The Journal of NCECA’s 46th Annual Conference documents the ideas and people that coalesced around a central point defined by place time and theme. Edge, the noun around which our 2012 theme revolves, can be defined as a place farthest away from the center of something. In ceramic art, the center represents something beyond a geometric or geographical concept. More than a place or point, center represents a process, an energy, a spirit of meditation and creation. Many of us became familiar with this notion as a result of contact with the M.C. Richards book, Centering in Pottery, Poetry and the Person. Published in the mid-1960’s this influential and cryptic work synthesized plain speech and intellectual concepts of creation with incantation. Richards integrated realms of perception, craft, education, creativity, and spirituality while championing the richness of mindful daily experience, and the creativity of the average person, writing, ‘‘Poets are not the only poets.’’ Perhaps less known to her readers, is that in the summer of 1952, Richards participated in a theatrical event, considered by many to be the first radical, mixed media and interdisciplinary “happening,” John Cage’s Black Mountain Piece. Students and faculty entered a dining room set with a formal arrangement of chairs. Resting on top of each was an empty cup, purpose undefined. At one edge of the seating area, Cage was perched atop a ladder reading a lecture. At another edge stood a second ladder from which Charles Olson and Richards read poems. In the space between them, standing among four of his tall white paintings on which images were projected, Robert Rauschenberg played scratchy records on an Edison horn Gramophone. Dancing among the aisles followed by a dog was Merce Cunningham. A pianist, a projectionist and others were also on hand. At the conclusion of 45 minutes, the time it took Cage to complete his lecture, the performance ended when the empty cups, even those used as ashtrays, were filled with coffee. In Black Mountain Piece, seemingly cacophonous events occurred simultaneously, but not randomly. Rules of order, space, sequence and duration were pre-established. The terms of framework of this happening, were not so dissimilar from NCECA’s Annual Conference. Within the large organizing principles of theme, time, place and structure, the artistic and conceptual outcome of the Conference can only result from interdependent decisions and contributions made by the individuals involved. NCECA and its contributors invest in this Journal’s creation to disseminate these contributions and report on events and accomplishments. It is our hope that this document will enable the people, ideas and experiences of the Conference to reverberate, influence and inspire debate in the years ahead. Fill your cup.

EN SEEK UH

It seems like we have been uttering this funny word for years, starting 46 years ago when NCECA was a young, small organization focused on college professors and their professional interests in communicating and, once a year, gathering in a designated studio on a big university campus, usually in the Midwest, to show off what we knew, to figure out what we didn’t…and to dance. The urge to gather and share (and to party) remains, but now it is not academia that is the only loci of ceramic programs. The role of independent organizations has become increasingly important over the decades. In the Northwest we have, of course, the University of Washington, whose faculty and their student progeny have had a tremendous impact on the contemporary ceramic scene. The North and South Seattle Community College programs here are thriving; Bellevue College too. We also have the grandfather of residency programs nearby, the Archie Bray Foundation. Pottery Northwest, coincidentally the same age as NCECA itself, Seward Park Clay Studio, Moshier Art Center, Kirkland Art Center, and Redmond’s infant clay program grow by leaps and bounds. Residencies and centers are all over the country - The Clay Studio, Worcester Craft Center, Clay Art Center, Watershed, Philadelphia Clay Studio, Baltimore Clay Works, Penland - and there are more! On your way to grad school, just out of school, between studios, with a change of life, you may need a physical or geographical change to jolt you out of the everyday and move the work off the plateau and over the edge. That’s why we, NCECA and these programs, exist and why we gather each year. NCECA is a more diverse and dynamic organization than ever before and in this Journal, whether you are a novice, a K12 teacher, a master, a potter, a teacher or a collector, you will find NCECA a place to learn about new people and their ever evolving intuitions and intelligence. Pay attention! NCECA is changing, still centered but often edgy.

KOKO In the exhibitions in Seattle, we see shows including hundreds of artists and their work, some from our international community. We are proud we have facilitated these exhibitions in the city and the region. Please listen to each other, dance a lot in the evenings, and feast on the visuals during the day. Be inspired to seek your edges and to keep on keeping on. KOKO! 2012 • Letters nceca nceca 2012 • GREETINGS 3 Journal 3 Journal

NCECA JOURNAL 2012 Volume 33

CONTENTS 2011 ANNUAL REPORT 2012 NCECA AwARds, FELLOws ANd hONORs

Outstanding Achievement Award: William E. Strickland, Jr. NCECA Excellence in Teaching Award: Chuck Hindes & Jack Troy NCECA Regional Award of Excellence: Jean Griffith Honorary Members of the Council: Ruth Braunstein & Don Reitz

6 10

IN MEMORIAM: Past Masters KEYNOTE AddREss: Mark dion: Troubleshooting: Adventures in Archaeology and the Culture of Nature

13 15

NCECA EXhIBITIONs

2012 NCECA EMERgINg ARTIsTs:

2012 NCECA dEMONsTRATINg ARTIsTs

2012 NCECA NEw wORKs ARTIsTs

2011-2012 NCECA REsIdENCIEs & FELLOwshIPs

2012 NCECA Invitational Exhibition 2012 NCECA National Student Juried Exhibition Dylan Beck, Nicholas Bivins, Chandra DeBuse, Darian Johnson, Peter Christian Johnson, Matthew McConnell

Christa Assad, Walter Keeler, Tip Toland, Jason Walker Nicholas Kripal, Matt Nolen, Jae Won Lee

Regina Brown Undergraduate student Fellowships

Ariel Bowman, Alexander Clinthorne, Kristy Leverock

NCECA graduate student Fellowship

Dandee Pattee, Lindsay Rogers

NCECA International Residencies

Ray Chen, Marc Leuthold

FROM ChINA TO wEsT VIRgINIA: shared Journeys II - Linda Rosefsky YOgA FOR POTTERs: Finding Your Personal Edge - Debra Chronister pANELs sUsTAINABLE CERAMICs

Nancy Selvage, Moderator • Gerard Blaauw & David Binns, Panelists

sO YOU wANT TO TALK gLAzE ChEMIsTRY...

EVOLVINg ROLE OF REsIdENCIEs

LIFE ON ThE EdgE - MAshIKO REBUILds

dIsTILLATIONs & ERUPTIONs

sUBsTANCE: ThREE ARTIsTs’ PAssIONs

sTUdIO PRACTICE / ENTREPRENEURIAL ATTITUdE

Tina Gebhart, Moderator • Matthew Katz, William M. Carty, Hyojin Lee & Dave Finkelnberg, Panelists Martina Lantin, Moderator • Benjamin Carter, Cynthia Consentino & Jill Oberman, Panelists Lynn Zetzman, Moderator • Valerie Zimany, John Baymore & Ayumi Horie, Panelists

40 43

Priscilla Hollingsworth, Moderator • Jen Mills, Beth Sellars & Christian Bernard Singer, Panelists Richard Notkin, Moderator • Tip Toland & Patti Warashina, Panelists Peter Beasecker, Moderator • Andy Brayman, Ayumi Horie & Alleghany Meadows, Panelists

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Panels, continued

TEACHING 3D ART ON A VIRTUAL PLANE

CERAMICS AT THE EDGE OF FORM

Jennifer Frahm, Moderator • Sin-Ying Ho, Sonya M. Pakune & Shana Salaff, Panelists Amy Gogarty, Moderator • Daniel Bare, Susannah Biondo-Gemmell & Linda Swanson, Panelists

lectures distinguished co-lecture: curatorial PersPectives

Stefano Catalani & Gwen F. Chanzit

CO-LECTURE: NEw DIRECTIONS IN CHINA PAINTING Paul Lewing & Marci Blattenberger

102

CO-LECTURE: IN CONTEXT: ANNE HIRONDELLE CERAMICS

104

CO-LECTURE: SODA KILN DOCTORS

107

CO-LECTURE: HOw TO PRACTICALLy APPLy DIGITAL TECHNIqUES TO CERAMICS

111

CO-LECTURE: THE LAND wITHIN THE SEA II

113

FROM THE MELTING POT INTO THE FIRE: Contemporary Ceramics in Israel

116

THE OLD, wEIRD CLAyMERICA: Performance and Transgression in 1970’s Clay

118

CO-LECTURE: ELECTRIC KILN DOCTORS

121

CO-LECTURE: ROOM OF A THOUSAND PORCELAINS

123

ON THE EDGE: Boredom, Repetition and the Creative Act

127

CONFESSIONS OF A HOBBy CRAFT CRIMINAL

129

THE CERAMICS PHD - RETHINKING CREATIVE PEDAGOGy

130

GO FIGURE! The Contemporary Figurine

132

W. Lowell Baker

Jo Lauria & Jake Seniuk

Gail Nichols and Matt Long

Greg Pugh & Mark Hall

John Roloff & John Grade

Yael Novak

Garth Johnson

Julie Emerson & Mimi Gates Janet DeBoos

Charles Krafft

Dr. Andrew Livingstone

SAwDUST INJECTION BURNER

Saadi Shapiro & Mike Swauger

Paul Mathieu

CLOSING LECTURE: in’t(y)o’-it

138

PROJECTS SPACE ACKNOwLEDGEMENTS NCECA JOURNAL GALLERy

144 144 145

Robert Brady & Sandy Simon

32 pages in color, supporting the journal text

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2011 Annual Report OVERVIEW 2011 CONFERENCE

NCECA’s 45th Annual Conference, Tidal Forces-The Next Wave, took place from March 24-28 in Tampa-St. Petersburg Florida. Brian Ransom of Eckerd University and Anna Calluori Holcombe of the University of Florida served as On-Site Conference Liaisons, and assembled a community advisory committee to help site and promote exhibitions throughout the Tampa-St. Petersburg region. Overall, more than 100 exhibitions were installed and promoted through NCECA during the conference. The keynote address was delivered by University of Florida alumnus Carl Hiaasen, a renowned journalist and satirist. Other individuals involved in planning and steering the conference included NCECA’s Exhibitions Director, Linda Ganstrom, Programs Director, Steve Hilton and President, Keith Williams.

Conference Registration and Participation

Official count for the 2011 NCECA Conference in Tampa Florida was 3438. This included 2336 standard registrations, 183 internationals, 850 full-time students in higher education and 69 K-12 students, primarily of high school age. 87 served as conference volunteers. Conference survey respondents indicated the following: About 49% were part-time or fulltime ceramic artists; 19% are teaching part-time or full-time in higher education; 16% are studying in undergraduate schools; 8% are in graduate school; and, 8% are teaching in K-12 education.

Conference Programming

The Conference program included 82 presenters including four simultaneous demonstrating artists. 13 educational and artistic videos were screened during the 2011 Conference. 24 students presented panels and or lectures in Student Perspectives program. 8 Educational Showcase rooms at the Hyatt displayed work of students, faculty and alumni of invited national and regional institutions. 200 programming hours were included in the 2011 Conference. 151 non-profit and commercial exhibitors were on hand to share information about their programs, opportunities, products and publications. Respondents indicated they were either satisfied or highly satisfied with the balance and quality of conference program content, presenters, and technology used in sessions. NCECA made $48,015 in honoraria payments to conference presenters and support staff.

CONFERENCE EXHIBITIONS

NCECA received $50,000 in support from the National Endowment for the Arts for exhibitions, related programming and operations in support of the 2011 Conference. 105 exhibitions, placed in 83 venues with approximately 1,000 artists participating were on view during the 2011 Conference. Some of the best attended venues in St. Petersburg included the Morean Arts Center, which hosted a solo show of works by Christina Cordova and a group exhibition entitled Elastic Authenticity; Peace/ War, Survival/Extinction: An Artist’s Plea for Sanity: Artwork of Richard Notkin at the Florida Holocaust Museum, and Archie Bray Foundation Residents and Visiting Artists from 2010 at the Train Station. The NCECA Biennial Exhibition took place at the Tampa Museum of Art. Jurors, Glen R. Brown, Julia Galloway and Arthur Gonzalez reviewed 1634 images to select 45 works for the NCECA Biennial at the Tampa Museum of Art. A print and CD exhibition catalog were produced. Through NCECA allocated budget resources and sponsorships, awards to artists reached $8061 in value. Over 17,500 visitors viewed the exhibition during the month of March 2011. Jurors, Ayumi Horie and Neil Forrest reviewed 611 images to select 42 works for the 2011 National Student Juried Exhibition at the University of South Florida. NCECA distributed $3100 in artists’ awards through the National Student Juried Exhibition.

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Over 1550 visitors viewed the exhibition in the University of South Florida galleries during the NCECA Conference. 7 galleries from across the nation presented work in the NCECA Expo in the Central Hall of the Tampa Convention Center. 9 individual artists and one collaborative team of artists created new works in Projects Space during the Conference. NCECA provided in-kind support valued at $8500 to the National K-12 Ceramic Exhibition Foundation to support the annual exhibition, where about 150 works by K-12 students reached a national audience. NCECA also made two $100 merit awards to students in the exhibition.

Impact Beyond the 2011 NCECA Conference

NCECA awarded a total of six student fellowships including three for graduate students and three for undergraduates totaling $11,400. Three International residencies were funded at $2500 per artist per site for a total of $7500. The NCECA Cup Sale yielded $15,338 in revenue for the NCECA Fund for Artistic Development. Volume 6 of NCECA’s Spirit of Ceramics Film Series, Linda Arbuckle: Fresh Color on Pottery, released during the 2011 Conference was made available for a NETA feed in July 2011. As of August 2011 the program has aired on 99 occasions on 57 stations, in 36 markets and 18 states with coverage of 19.35% of viewers. The film was also honored with The Videographer Award in the documentary category. Pete Pinnell’s lecture on drinking vessels, The Art of Drinking, the highest rated presentation by survey respondents, was presented with NCECA’s sponsorship at SOFA at the Navy Pier in Chicago in November, 2011.

UNCOMMON GROUND

NCECA’s Uncommon Ground: Impact and Influence exhibition took place at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities from September 15- November 13, 2011. NCECA Exhibitions Director, Linda Ganstrom worked with the Arvada Center to arrange loans of works by important artists from West of the Mississippi whose work has opened paths that push against boundaries that define and redefine the ceramic arts including Frank Boyden, Bede Clarke, Thomas Coleman, Julia Galloway, Arthur Gonzalez, Jonathan Kaplan, Nan McKinnell, Peter Pinnell, Don Reitz. Peter Voulkos and Patti Warashina. Concurrently exhibited at the Arvada Center was the exhibition Edition to Clay: Ceramic Artists as Printmakers, which featured monotypes, lithographs, etchings and other prints created by artists primarily known for their work in ceramics.

SHARED JOURNEYS II

Through an exceptional partnership with Shoji Satake, Boomer Moore, Bob Anderson and the administration and students of West Virginia University, Morgantown, NCECA produced a successful Shared Journeys II symposium that took place October 14-16, 2011. The professionalism, hospitality and helpfulness WVU’s team shared with the 185+ participants and presenters involved made the experience informative and enriching for all. The event drew a wide demographic of participants ranging in age from teens through NCECA Honors and Fellows. While the greatest number of participants came from the mid-Atlantic Region others came from as far away as California, Montana, Utah, North Carolina, Missouri, Kentucky and Indiana. Demonstrating artists from China, were Professors Lv Pinchang (CAFA), and Li Chao (JCI) along with Master Overglaze Decorator Feng Shangjin, Master Thrower Zhan Shaolin and Master Trimmer Dai Guangyu. Presenters from the US included Bill Strickland, Val Cushing, John Neely, Dryden Wells, Dan Murphy and Joe Molinaro. Thanks to a National Endowment

NCECA Overview continues on Page 9

NCECA SUPPORT and AWARDS A hallmark of NCECA’s commitment of service to the field has been its efforts to elevate and amplify the achievements of its student and full members through scholarships, fellowships and awards. The following members were recognized by NCECA in 2011 for their accomplishments. Their work has positively influenced communities, students, studio practice and scholarly inquiry.

ARTISTIC SERVICE AND RECOGNITION 2011 Honorary Members of the Council

Excellence in Teaching Awards

Linda Arbuckle, Micanopy, FL Ron Kuchta, New York, NY

David MacDonald, Syracuse, NY

Fellows of the Council Robert Harrison, Helena, MT

Regional Awards for Excellence Beth Ann Morean, Saint Pete Beach, FL

Cups of Merit Awards Martina Lantin, Brattleboro, VT Scott Bennett, Birmingham, AL Alysse Bowd, Red Deer, AB, Canada

EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT 2011 International Residencies

Roxanne Jackson Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China Marc Leuthold Medalta International Artists in Residence, Medicine Hat, AB, Canada Ray Chen Ceramics Workshop, School of Art, ANU, Canberra, Australia

Regina Brown Undergraduate Student Fellowships Kristy Leverock, Indiana University Southeast Ariel Bowman, Kansas City Art Institute Alexander Clinthorne, University of Hawaii

NCECA Graduate Student Fellowships

NCECA Graduate Awards for Student Excellence 1st Place- Charlie Schneider, School of the Art Institute of Chicago 2nd Place- Peter Pincus, NYSCC at Alfred University, Alfred, NY 3rd Place- Patrick Paine, State University of New York, New Paltz, NY

NCECA Undergraduate Awards for Student Excellence

1st Place, Shaina Lund Northwestern College, St. Paul, MN 2nd Place, Stephanie Ratliff Morehead State University, Morehead, KY 3rd Place, Lea Griggs Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO

Dandee Pattee, University of Florida Lindsay Rogers, University of Florida Charlie Schneider, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Muddy Elbow Soldner Mixer Award for Student Excellence:

NATIONAL STUDENT JURIED EXHIBITION Rodger Lang Award for Student Excellence:

Mark Stafford, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL

Kwok Pong Tso, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

Aardvark Clay Purchase Award:

Andrew Gilliatt, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

Retired Professors Award:

Forrest Gard, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

KBH Merit Award:

Andrew Molleur, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

Michael Kern, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater, WI

Paper Clay Award:

The Studio Potter Merit Awards – Undergraduate: Andrew Molleur, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI Tess H Stilwell, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO

The Studio Potter Merit Awards – Graduate: James Tingey, Ohio University, Athens, OH Melissa Griffin, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

NCECA Support and Awards continues on Next Page nceca 7 Journal 2012 • Annual Report nceca 7 Journal 2012 • Annual Report

2011 Annual Report FINANCIAL SUMMARY NCECA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in the State of Colorado. It utilizes an annual budget of $1.5 million to provide its 4,500 members and conference attendees with educational programming, publications and other services.

2011 REVENUE

INVESTMENT 19% $241,415 EVENTS ---$95,563

CONFERENCE 53%

CONFERENCE 37% $457,847

S EX AD & $159 HIBIT S N ,850 ORS % O TI 2 13% ------CA ,14 I S 6 T BL $8 AN NORS R U G DO P MEMBERSHIP & % 8 ,53 $55 % $148,996

2010 REVENUE

IN V ESTM EN T 8% S EX H AD I BI T & S OR S N O I T % % CA % I ----BL TS PU MEMBERSHIP AN ORS R N G O &D %

EVENTS ----- %

2011 EXPENSES CONFERENCE 61% $740,459 EXHIBITIONS 11% $135,009

TH O

RD OA 8 B 8 N & 0, 5 MI $12 AD 10% 11% $134,743 PUBLICATIONS

2010 EXPENSES

EX H

I BI T 7% IONS

CONFERENCE 51%

ER S AM R 8% G O 3 PR 2,09 $9

AR D ADMIN & BO 20%

OT H

ER P 12 ROGR % A

PUBLICATIONS

NCECA Support and Awards continued from Previous Page

NCECA Biennial Exhibition Awardees: NCECA Purchase Awards Andy Brayman, Kansas City, KS Lindsay Oesterritter, Gatlinburg TN Steve Olszewski, Pinckney, MI Tara Polansky, Columbus, OH Jose Sierra, Tucson, AZ Old Poag Road Clay and Glass Merit Award Sam Chung, Tempe, AZ

Skutt Kilns Purchase Award Josh DeWeese, Bozeman, MT

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AMACO/Brent Purchase Award Clay Leonard, Bowling Green, OH

Paper Clay Award

David Linger, San Francisco, CA Outstanding Functional Pot by Trax Gallery Merit Award Tara Polansky, Columbus, OH

L & L Kiln Mfg, Inc Purchase Award Adam Posnak, West Fork, AR

Ceramics Monthly Purchase Award Kala Stein, Alfred, NY

2011 Annual Report FINANCIAL SUMMARY NATIONAL COUNCIL ON EDUCATION FOR THE CERAMIC ARTS (A Nonprofit Corporation) STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION as of June 30

2011

ASSETS Current Assets Cash Grants Receivable Prepaid expenses Investments (fair market value)

Total Current Assets

84,352 $ 50,000 22,783 1,169,779 1,326,914

2010 345,898 43,888 929,630 1,319,416

2011

2010

14,003 2,035 11,576 27,614

24,353 17,488 9,345 51,186

91,620

67,170

Total Unrestricted

3,226 102,590 904,147 1,101,583

3,226 102,590 904,147 1,077,133

Temporarily Restricted Fellowship Artistic development Total Temporarily Restricted

88,160 120,171 208,331

93,560 116,762 210,322

183,853 1,493,767 1,521,381

183,853 1,471,308 1,522,494

LIABILITIES & NET ASSETS Current Liabilities Accounts payable Deferred revenue Accrued vacation payable

Total Current Liabilities Net Assets

Property & Equipment Furniture, fixtures, equipt. Less accumulated depreciation Net Property & Equipment

122,514 (115,876) 6,638

120,285 (140,086) 16,199

3,026 183,853 187,829

3,026 183,853 186,879

1,521,381

1,522,494

Other Assets Prepaid expenses Long term investments

Total Other Assets

TOTAL ASSETS

Unrestricted Net Assets Unrestricted, undesignated Unrestricted, designated for: Fellowship Development Endowment

Permanently restricted fund Total Net Assets TOTAL LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS

NCECA Overview continued from Page 6 for the Arts Consortium grant made to Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild to develop partnership opportunities with West Virginia University, guest artists from Jingdezhen were able to participate in outreach demonstrations for Pittsburgh high school students in the days prior to the symposium.

NCECA RECEIVES GENEROUS GRANT from the WINDGATE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION

The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) recently received an extraordinary three-year grant from the Windgate Charitable Foundation. The $124,500 gift will help advance developing careers of Emerging Artists as well as awareness of their work on a national level. According to NCECA President, Keith Williams, a Professor at Concordia University in St. Paul, MN, “The Windgate Charitable Foundation’s significant award to NCECA ani-

mates the organization’s recently adopted strategic plan. In the midst of a very tough economic environment for the arts and artists, this grant enables us to increase value for NCECA members through essential, high quality and unique programs and services in a very real and meaningful way.” NCECA has made Emerging Artist awards since 1996 and annually assembles a panel of experts to identify six worthy talents whose work has reached the cusp of open new, promising and sometimes challenging dimensions in contemporary clay. Executive Director, Joshua Green states, “Nurturing the next generation of ceramic artists is critical to NCECA’s mission of inspiring passionate interest and reflective practice in ceramic arts and education.” The Windgate Charitable Foundation is a private grant-making foundation established in 1993. A principal goal of the foundation is to fund projects that promote art and craft education.

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2011 NCECA AwArds ANd hoNors Outstanding Achievement Award: William E. Strickland, Jr. NCECA Excellence in Teaching Award: Chuck Hindes & Jack Troy NCECA Regional Award of Excellence: Jean Griffith Honorary Members of the Council: Ruth Braunstein & Don Reitz

Outstanding Achievement Award williAm E. striCklANd

with eBay founder Jeffery Skoll and twenty-three others. His book, Make the Impossible Possible, is published by Broadway Books.

Excellence in Teaching Award ChuCk hiNdEs

The remarkable life and career of William E. Strickland, Jr., has been tied to community. Coming from the impoverished Manchester neighborhood in Pittsburgh, he was inspired by high school ceramics teacher Frank Ross, who helped Strickland’s insightful mind grasp the connection between the arts and human potential. Strickland founded the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, which uses arts education as a positive source of social change and the success of individuals. The Manchester Bidwell Corporation now boasts beautifully designed facilities integral to the experiences provided, ranging from pottery, to jazz, to culinary arts, to horticulture focused on orchids. The quality of this model has been recognized and is being reproduced in other locations of need, with a goal of 100 guilds around the country. For realizing this vision, Bill Strickland has been recognized with a MacArthur Genius Award and with a Goi Peace Award, which he received in Tokyo in 2011. He was recently named to serve on the White House Council for Community Solutions

Chuck Hindes has been a truly influential teaching force in contemporary ceramics. He is known for his visceral forms, which were saggar-fired early in his career and have been wood fired in Anagama kilns in recent decades. His work and his experiments with kiln design, kiln-building and firing have made him a central figure for students and fellow colleagues who seek mastery of the wood-fired surface. He received his BFA from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Art and Design. He enjoyed a long teaching career that included teaching classes and workshops at The Penland School of Crafts and The Cranbrook Academy of Art. He also received an NEA

Chuck Hindes, tea bowl

grant through the Archie Bray Foundation, but his longest and most influential tenure was at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Working there from 1973 until his retirement, he built the program’s focal point of wood-fire exploration and education.

nceca 10 10 Journal 2012 • Awards, Fellows & Honors

sively. One by one we learned that touch is a magic catalyst; that making things with clay is a variant intelligence—an alternative way to devise and solve problems besides using only words and numbers. On a good day, teaching acknowledges that the vessels of our being overflow with gratitude at finding an animating passion. Good teachers focus our attention in memorable ways: Jim Kietzman, who introduced me to clay, might have suggested, “Learn to trust your muscle memory.” Instead, he offered, “Jack, if you have to ask, it isn’t centered.” My second teacher, Louis Mendez, could have said, “Let’s have a little talk about craftsmanship,” but he asked, “Jack, do you want to keep making what you’re making, or do you want to learn to make really good pots?” At that moment, potting ceased to be a serious hobby for me, and became something nuanced, and curiously

Chuck Hindes, cylinder

Under his leadership, kilns were designed and built and redesigned over decades, and the program hosted celebrated wood fire conferences. The unique connections to Japanese traditions found in his work and his educational focus helped him to become a force in our field.

Excellence in Teaching Award

Jack Troy It is my good fortune to accept this award, and have my name added to the list of mentors, two of whom—Don Reitz and Val Cushing—have taught and inspired me personally, while others exemplified how to make a life from touch-based learning. It is also quite jolly to know that NCECA was officially founded on my 28th birthday, May 8th, 1966, and, having majored in English, I can’t help wondering about the odds of a ceramics major being honored by the National Council of Teachers of English. 2012 is my fiftieth year of working in clay and associating with others who know what it’s like to be at the mercy of an intense curiosity about the materials and processes of our craft and art. One lifetime isn’t enough for conjuring how to combine our experience and our hunches meaningfully and expres-

Jack Troy, jar

inviting. Miska Petersham, my teacher at Kent State, talked up a fledgling ceramics organization, and in April 1967, Mish and I found ourselves at the first NCECA meeting in Lou Raynor’s home in East Lansing, Michigan. The membership could have fit in an average size freight elevator. At some point we all traded pots, and Don Reitz, like almost everybody else, wore a necktie. I’ve missed three of these conferences—once due to mumps and twice for lack of funds. A perfect at- Jack Troy, bottle tendance record might have made me an even better teacher. For some of us, the real “reason” we keep working with clay is elusive, always just beyond reach of a net we might swing at it—a net made of words.

nceca nceca 11 Journal Journal 2012 2012 •• Awards, Awards, Fellows Fellows & & Honors Honors

Honorary Member of the Council Ruth BRaunstein

Outstanding contributions to the field of ceramic art rarely come from those who are not full-time makers, but Ruth Braunstein’s contribution to our field is one remarkable exception. This visionary professional has been a significant part of the San Francisco art scene since establishing her gallery in 1961. She has continued to inspire collectors, support the ceramic arts, and helped to bring many clay artists to national and international prominence during the ensuing sixty years. The Braunstein/Quay Gallery has a reputation for quality, consistent with its mission to discover and promote regional artists of excellence. I m p o r t a n t l y, it was the first gallery in the Bay Area and among the first in the world to exhibit sculptural ceramics, fiber arts, furniture and glass alongside traditionally defined fine arts. Ruth has promoted the work of dozens of clay artists including Toshiko Takaezu, Peter Voulkos, Richard Shaw and Susan York side by side with paintings and drawings, making no class distinction between media. In 1988 the gallery further advanced its mission by establishing the ACCESS program to provide emerging artists with a gallery venue. It moved to its current location in 1999. Photo of Ruth: Cheryl Bowlan

Honorary Member of the Council Don ReitZ Already recognized by NCECA as a Fellow of the Council because of his outstanding service to our organization decades ago, Don Reitz has now been recognized for his contributions to the field of ceramics for his truly remarkable career. Now in his eighties, Reitz’s production alone has helped shape the history of the field. Reitz came out of the Abstract Expressionist school of thought during the clay revolution of the ‘50s and led the way in establishing salt-fired surfaces as a fixture in contemporary ceramics. In time he also investigated blackware bodies and surprisingly switched to low-fired colors and surface drawings even when his dealers demanded his earlier style. Reitz has most recently been wood firing his forms, which have evolved over decades from the func- Don Reitz, large jar tional vessel, to the sculptural pot, to pure sculptural forms. He has also undertaken architectural murals and printmaking. Among his many contributions to the field are the thousands of workshops he has presented. The education, energy and inspiration that these have provided untold clay artists across the world, combined with his career at the University of Wisconsin, contribute to the towering teaching influence he has been for decades.

Regional Award of Excellence

Jean GRiffith

A recognized force in the Seattle art scene, Jean Griffith has devoted her professional life to making significant contributions to the ceramic arts in the area. She first began working in clay in 1957 and it never let her go. She became an early local practitioner of raku and since the mid-1960s she has helped hundreds of others find their voice in clay. In 1966, guided by a very simple mission of developing and promoting excellence in the ceramic arts, she co-founded Pottery Northwest, which grew out of the Seattle Clay Club. While working on her vision for the organization, she completed her MFA in 1971 at the University of Washington under Robert Sperry. Griffith established Pottery Northwest’s permanent location in 1975 and assumed both leadership and teaching roles with the organization, including serving as its director for over 30 years. Her leadership and influence has received national recognition, including being named as a Fellow of the American Craft Council. Pottery Northwest recently established the Jean Griffith Fellowship in her honor, bringing in such diverse and prominent artists as Beth Cavener-Stichter, Josh DeWeese, Richard Notkin, Tip Toland and Andy Nasisse as Resident Artists.

nceca 12 Journal 2012 2012 •• Awards, Awards, Fellows Fellows & & Honors Honors nceca 12 Journal

IN MEMORIAM: Past Masters Malcolm Davis 1937-2011 An elegant orange brush line ascending the wall of a distinctive porcelain form, through the warm grey of the iconic glaze he mastered, becomes a metaphor for the life of Malcolm Davis. His brilliant lines, accents, and flourishes against those often darkened embellishments forms make the metaphor complete. Malcolm Davis’s life was a bright arc that bridged two careers and a long marriage. His passion for people in their world found its focus at the United Theological Seminary in NYC and found its voice as a United Church of Christ Campus Pastor at the United Campus Christian Ministry of George Washington University. He was a strong advocate for social justice issues, working actively for civil rights, women’s rights and world peace. He was deeply invested in this intensive work and turned to clay for release. When he first touched clay at age forty, he famously reported that he knew he had been a potter all along. He became a full time potter in 1980, working in Tallmansville, W.V., but maintaining connections to D.C. and Baltimore. He taught and led workshops throughout the U.S., Canada and Italy and gave generously of his time to the many who fell in love with his glaze and his work. He never lost his deep caring for justice and peace in the world, and decided that the making of pots was a way of preserving human culture. He valued “the making of pots as a way to celebrate the mundane rituals of life and to make them holy.” Davis was 74 and is survived by silk fiber artist, Judy Davis.

Tashiko Takaezu 1922-2011 Well known for works of quiet emotional impact that artfully integrate glaze color and surface qualities with austere forms, Toshiko Takaezu was named an honorary member of NCECA

in 1993. Born in 1922 in Pepeekeo on the Big Island, Takaezu’s interest in pottery initiated at the Hawaii Potters Guild on Oahu. She attended the University of Hawaii at Manoa before going on to receive her MFA at the Cranbrook Academy of Art under Maija Grotell. Later, she taught at Cleveland Institute of Art and subsequently established studios in Clinton and Quakertown, N.J. In 1992 she retired from teaching at Princeton University from which she was subsequently awarded an honorary doctorate. Her lifelong, passionate dedication to her art and teaching were recognized through a Living Treasure Award from the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii. Dan Anderson shares the following remembrance of his dear friend: Much has been written and documented about Toshiko’s life and her marvelous ceramics, fiber pieces, bronzes and paintings. Her obvious legacy will certainly be the thousands of her artworks that reside in both public and private collections. She spent the last two years of her life de-accessing her vast inventory of signature ceramic pieces to public collections. Her not-so-obvious gift will be the impact she has had on the contemporary ceramics community, particularly female ceramic artists. Never marrying, she was still able to have a large “family” consisting of her former apprentices, students and many, many friends. An apprentice once remarked, “Toshiko was mother to us all!” Words like passion, commitment, loyalty, dedication, caring, altruistic, toughness and love guided her daily existence. Toshiko lived life to the fullest and on her own terms. She was as comfortable picking string beans in her vegetable garden and cooking in her kitchen, as she was turning porcelain closed forms on her Shimpo potters wheel in her basement studio. In fact, she often commented how there was really no difference between the three: growing vegetables, cooking and making pots. Those members of NCECA who knew her will have their own stories and memories to share about her life and genius. As for me, although I am deeply saddened by her death, I am able to celebrate her life and her beauty, and the ex-

ceptional memories I possess, lingers just beyond the cloud that her final passing brings for the moment.

Stephen De Staebler 1933-2011 Northern California sculptor Stephen De Staebler passed away on May 13, 2011. His death marks the end of a lifetime of originality, creativity, and artistic production infused with the artist’s sense of enduring humanity. Many know Stephen for his elongated, fractured, and often solitary figurations, though his earlier sculptures were horizontal geologic-abstractions as well as seating forms. He completed public commissions like the soaring 37’ Wall Canyon (1975) at Embarcadero Station in San Francisco, and the five-piece elegiac ensemble of altar, crucifix, lectern, tabernacle, and presider’s chair in situ in the Newman Center chapel at UC Berkeley. Perhaps lesser known is The Chapel of the Little Portion with nearby bronze Pietà in New Harmony, Indiana—the state where De Staebler summered as a boy. His sculptures can be found in many museum collections like The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The poignancy of Stephen De Staebler’s figures is their capacity to resonate both power and nuance of the human condition. This theme guided much of his work, resulting in memorable pieces like Standing Woman and Standing Man (1975) or Winged Woman Walking VI (1990) in the collection of The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. His last body of ceramic sculpture, where voids interplay with imbalance, integrates the conceptual. Stephen’s sculptures render human remnants that are broken or disassociated from the complete form. It is through their incompleteness coupled with the artist’s subtle use of integrated color stains, that they attain an assertive and recessive duality that defines this artist’s body of work. This concept, visibly present in his sculptural

nceca 13 Journal 2012 • In Memoriam

IN MEMORIAM: Past Masters Stephen De Staebler, continued output, first appeared in his 1954 undergraduate thesis for Princeton University on St. Francis of Assisi where he states, “The mystic’s soul is held in tension between completeness and incompleteness, or between perfection and imperfection. This tension is the mainspring of his striving.” Using clay, color stains, and occasionally bronze, Stephen De Staebler developed a body of work that engages materiality to manifest ethereal intent. He pioneered grand form while attaining unconventional results. He welcomed the physicality large-scale clay projects provided, and is known to have thrown himself onto wet clay achieving the effect of extreme forces. Through his collaboration with gravity he both analytically and intuitively developed a profound artistic vocabulary. Like his friend Robert Arneson (1930-1992) and teacher Peter Voulkos (1924-2002), Stephen De Staebler uniquely contributed to the development and direction of ceramics, redefining its artistic role. Often recognized as a prolific sculptor of compelling work, Stephen De Staebler was also a humanitarian, environmentalist, and a man of peace. He had a sense of humor and wove great conversations while sharing a cup of tea. His life is celebrated by his wife Danae Mattes who is also a sculptor, their daughter Arianna, and Stephen’s sons Jordon and David from his first marriage to Dona Curley, who died in 1996.

Eva Ziesel 1906-2011 Eva Ziesel’s soft purity of form was influenced by both Modernist trends and classical design traditions. But she filtered those through her own unique vision, enriched by raising her family and using objects in the home. She was born in 1906 and educated at the Royal Academy of Art in Budapest, her home city. Her professional life took her to Paris for a major exposition of modernist decorative arts where she encountered Art Deco, Bauhaus and the International Style first hand. She left studio

pottery in 1928 for design positions in Germany, after which she made influential travels to the Ukraine and Leningrad where more classical design influenced her notions of modernism, but ultimately she fled Europe in 1938 to avoid both Stalinists and WWII. Castleton China of PA hired her on as a designer and she started her family with her husband Hans. This is when she achieved her mature style of modern design, taking a more humane and even gently humorous approach to the clean but cool modernist traditions. She hoped her designs would create warm relationships for their users the way family members do. Passing at 105, her incredible vision spanned a nine-decade career, as she even has a line of lighting designs slated to roll out in 2012. In 1984 the Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts held a retrospective of her work and in 2004 Overlook Press published her book entitled Eva Ziesel on Design. When asked about how she achieved the pure beauty of her forms she simply said, “You just have to get out of the way.” She is survived by her daughter Jean, her son John and three grandchildren.

Sanford (Sandy) Besser 1936-2011 Influential collector of contemporary ceramic art, Sandy Besser, resident of Santa Fe since 1997, died at the age of 75 on Friday, November 25th. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1936, son of Ida and Herbert Besser, Sandy moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1944 at the age 8 and lived there until 1997. Sandy graduated from Vanderbilt University on a ROTC scholarship (B.A. ‘58) and was stationed at Treasure Island in San Francisco while in the Navy. He spent the majority of his career with the investment banking firm Stephens Inc. of Little Rock, Arkansas. Sandy and his wife Diane Pettit Besser, who preceded him in death, earned national recognition as art collectors. A voracious collector since childhood, Besser began accumulating art in earnest by the mid-1960s and

nceca nceca 14 Journal 2012 2012 •• In In Memoriam Memoriam 14 Journal

was instrumental in the growth of the Arkansas Arts Center. The Bessers’ eclectic collections ranged across 20th century drawings, tribal arts from Indonesia and Africa, contemporary Hispanic carvings, figurative ceramics, and teapots. He was recognized as one of the top 100 collectors in the country by Art & Antiques magazine in 2002. He truly loved artists as well as their art. Sandy and Diane made a commitment to sharing their collection with both the novice and the aficionado, including gifting the majority of their collection over time to a number of institutions, including: Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, Spanish Colonial Arts Society, and International Folk Art in Santa Fe, Arizona State University Art Museum in Tempe and the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock. In 2007, following a large gift to de Young Museum in San Francisco, Besser celebrated his 70th birthday with the opening of the eponymously named exhibit, The Diane and Sandy Besser Collection. Sandy, also known as “Scrappy Besser,” was not afraid of confrontation. In the art world his opinions were strong. Some battles created enemies, but more battles created change for the good of the appreciation of art. His greatest pleasure was the hunt, discovery and promotion of emerging artists. His greatest pride and joy was in his sons: Matthew, Grant and Kenneth.

Emmanuel Cooper 1938-2012 Emmanuel Cooper, a distinguished potter, editor, critic, curator and advocate of gay rights, was a force of energy and entrepreneurial savvy. His cultural and artistic interests and knowledge made him a powerful advocate for the crafts and visual arts. Among other positions, he served as co-editor of Ceramic Review and Visiting Professor of Ceramics and Glass at the Royal College of Art. Ambitious and enterprising, Cooper moved beyond the studio to en-

In Memoriam continues on Page 142

2012 NCECA Keynote address -

troubleshooting: Adventures in Archaeology and the Culture of Nature

Mark Dion 2012 NCECA keynote speaker Mark Dion’s artistic inquiry examines the ways in which dominant ideologies and public institutions shape our understanding of history, knowledge, and the natural world. His talk will examine the shifting nature of artistic practice in the 21st century as it moves beyond limits of traditional studio, institutional and disciplinary constructs. “I’m not one of these artists who is imagining a better ecological future,” says Dion. “I’m more of an artist who is holding up a mirror to the present. We’re at this moment in time where we have a great test ahead of us in terms of our relationship to the world.” By locating the roots of environmental politics and public policy in the construction of knowledge about nature, Dion questions the authoritative role of the scientific voice in contemporary society. He has received numerous awards, including the ninth annual Larry Aldrich Foundation Award (2001). Major exhibitions include Miami Art Museum (2006); the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2004); the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut (2003); and Tate Gallery, London (1999). Appropriating archeological and other scientific methods of collecting, ordering, and exhibiting objects, Dion creates artworks that question the distinctions between “objective” (“rational”) scientific methods and “subjective” (“irrational”) influences.1 “There are a lot of tools that the artist has that the scientist doesn’t have…,” he says. “[H]umor irony, metaphor... these are the bread and butter of artists.” Dion’s Neukom Vivarium (2006) is a permanent outdoor installation and learning lab for the Olympic Sculpture Park commissioned by the Seattle Art Museum. Neukom Vivarium is a hybrid work of sculpture, architecture, environmental education and horticulture that connects art and science. Sited at the corner of Elliott Avenue and Broad Street, it features a sixty-foot-long “nurse log” in an eighty-foot-long, custom-designed greenhouse. Set on a slab under the glass roof of the greenhouse, the log has been removed from the forest ecosystem and now inhabits an art system. Its ongoing decay and renewal represent nature as a complex system of cycles and processes. Visitors observe life forms within the log using magnifying glasses supplied in a cabinet designed by the artist. Illustrations of potential log inhabitants—bacteria, fungi, lichen, plants, and insects—decorate blue and white tiles that function as a field guide, assisting visitors’ identification of “specimens.”2 To create the piece, Dion worked with a team to harvest a large hemlock that had fallen in the forest outside of Seattle on February 8, 1996, and gathered natural material from the surrounding environment. Transported to the urban landscape, Dion’s work transforms the grounds of a former hazardous waste into an arts space with environmental education as a central mission. It’s said that when a large tree like this falls to the forest floor, only half of its lifespan has ended. The tree supports a living bio-system within it; the tree gives life through its death. The other half supports hundreds of different organisms that ultimately return to soil. Once it’s finished, it’s just starting. Mark Dion’s remarks from an upcoming interview with Namita Gupta Wiggers, Curator, Museum of Contemporary Craft in partnership with Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, will appear in a future publication of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. Learn more about Mark Dion at http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/mark-dion

1 blog.Art21.org. 2 seattleartmuseum.org.

We’re at this moment in time where we have a great test ahead of us in terms of our relationship to the world.

There are a lot of tools that the artist has that the scientist doesn’t have… [H]umor irony, metaphor... these are the bread and butter of artists.

nceca 15 Journal 2012 • Keynote

NCECA EXHIBITIONS

2012 NCECA Invitational • 2012 NCECA National Student Juried Exhibition rapid prototyping, used in Kohler Diptich by Sarah Lindley and Norwood Viviano. The active touch of making is very different in its implication from the touch of a fingertip on a remote that follows the command “push play.” On the other hand, multitudes are being designed for current generations growing at the Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, Washington ofup products with virtual interfaces and a generally more screen-centered lifestyle. These advancements not only bid us to push play to allow being transported to a virtual environment, but they also bring about a paradigm shift in the interpretation of the play activity. Play has serious adult implications; it is fundamental to work by Timea Tihanyi and to craft. Only by allowing ourselves to explore the potentials of what can be may we find solutions that invigorate and sustain The 2012 NCECA Invitational Exhibition: Push Play was cuthe practice of making. Sennett’s craftsman develops a relationrated by Linda Ganstrom, NCECA Exhibitions Director, and ship to the material through the process of play, relentlessly makStefano Catalani, Director of Curatorial Affairs and Artistic ing rules and modulating them through repetition in order to gain Director of the Belleuve Arts Museum. complexity.2 Working with clay, the material reality talks back in One arrives at the Bellevue Arts Museum, the only mureal-time, constantly correcting the making process and informseum of the Pacific Northwest with a unique mission to focus ing the idea. on craft and design, with a feeling of expectation. Designed by During times of hardship, like war, recession, or a faltering Steven Holl, the museum is nestled cozily into an upscale shopeducation system, it is natural to wonder if our culture has lost ping strip in downtown Bellevue, which, due its capacity for play. In the early 1940s, play to its close location to the headquarters of theorist Johan Huizinga studied this question Microsoft and Nintendo, seems to be in a in depth. In his eyes, postwar art, having bestate of permanent boom. The Bellevue Arts come a self-conscious, intellectual pursuit, Museum has been a great supporter of the had lost something of its childlike innoclay medium: introducing the first biennial cence.3 He observed the plastic arts to be the exhibition of contemporary ceramics, BAM only ones to retain a play-function, for they Biennial 2010: Clay Throwdown!, and hostwere “especially operative where mind and ing a major retrospective of Robert Sperry hand move most freely.”4 in 2009. Entering the building, one is transContemporary ceramics defies being ported from a world of plasma screens and limited to boundaries of skill and proficiency. microchips to a world of materials more anAs Robert Sperry remarked, “craft is simply cient but no less relevant. a verb, a means to art.”5 The artists of Push There is a natural connection between Play, while having a sophisticated mastery clay and play that every child knows intimateover their process, cannot be reduced simply ly. Squeezing a colorful ball of Play-Doh, rollto Homo Faber (Man the Maker). Thoughtful ing it out between the palms, pressing it toand serious, they are also Homo Ludens (Man gether to form a snake, a circle or any number the Player), drawing us into play by exploring of shapes, ignites the imagination for creating a wide range of themes through this versatile narratives, forming new worlds, testing altermedium. realities yet unknown. Richard Sennett refers Many of the pieces are playful, referto clay as an “impoverished” material, open Chris Staley, Self - Portrait 16 Cups, stoneware, wood, encing toys and games. Megumi Naitoh’s photo. to interpretation; while craftsmanship draws 6/12/2009 recalls the plastic novelty cards on the discipline of following rules the same way that children we used to collect, where the image would move and change learn in play’s dialogue with materials.1 Clay responds to push like when tilted. On the scale of a mural, it becomes a window, a no other material. Through the action of touching and pushing we threshold signifying two places at once. Here, a scene from Secinstantly create a signature of our identity, mood, and energy. ond Life (SL), a 3D virtual world environment, is interwoven In Push Play a wide range of these haptic signatures can be with an image of an actual laundromat as one walks back and observed, from the primordial deposit of unfired clay encrusting forth in front of it. User experience in SL is governed by the the Monument to a Quarter Million Dreams by Ian Thomas and same rules Huizinga considered as fundamental to play: “Play Ryder Richards, through Chris Staley’s improvisations on lanis distinct from ordinary life both as to locality and duration.”6 guage and the visual vocabulary of touch in 16 Cups 16 Metaphors, As a participant in SL settles down in front of the computer and to the modern industrial techniques, such as pressure casting and (metaphorically) pushes play, she is diving into a new kind of

Push Play:

The 2012 NCECA Invitational Exhibition

A Review

nceca 16 Journal 2012 • NCECA Exhibitions

Megumi Naitoh, 6/12/2009, earthenware, screen-printed tiles, 19.5x30.5x2.25”

Yoko Sekino-Bove, Hanafuda Sake drinking game set, porcdelain, luster, 18x22x22”

like a protective cave with pitted raw surfaces created by layers participatory experience of play. Through her avatar—for Naiof crater glaze. From the outside, the position of the humans toh, an anime girl bunny outfitted with saucer eyes and a full mimics that of the animal in the center, legs tucked under in a bosom in a skin-tight leopard print top—she is participating in posture of rest and wait, laden with expectation. virtual social interactions. In the same manner as players in SL establish rules for their game, in Yoko Sekino-Bove’s HanaAnne Drew Potter’s installation of figures, The Captains fuda Sake Drinking Game Set the Congress, is also a gathering but ritual of a drinking game becomes of a very different group. On simthe tool for creating social conple shipping boxes arranged in a nections through commands like circle, kindergarten-aged girls, dance, strip, and sing. To reject the each wearing a folded paper hat, order of the game is to lose particisit together. Mouths are forming pation in the community. words; frowning with displeaOne of the most intriguing sure, distrust and anger; arms are works in the show is an instalthrown out in exclaim or gripping lation of figures, Nave, by Mark the hip tightly as if scolding. In Chatterley. Raw, almost life-scale this heated debate, no one pays human creatures in crouched poattention to the other; each is imsition stack neatly to form a semimersed in telling her own story, circular fort. Although the faces Mark Chatterley, Nave, stoneware, cone 6 reduction, 5x7x7’ making her voice heard. Distorted are benign, almost curious, the by emotions, their faces and little sheer mass of bodies banded together has a discomforting presbodies are grotesque, like a convention of toads in a fairy tale. ence. Their insolent stares focus on the center of the circle, in They form a tight group, implying secrecy—this is for us, not for which a tiny rabbit is similarly crouched, held fast by peaceful others—a notion so fundamental to play.7 Outside of the circle slumber or frozen dead by fear. From the inside, the wall feels sits a lone figure, poised and proportionate. Her body is more mature than the others’. With eyes closed, her face is turned up, contemplating her inner world. She may be an outcast of this group but she is the one better for it. “Play creates order, is order. Into an imperfect world and into the confusion of life it brings a temporary, a limited perfection.”8 This striving for perfection is evident in the role-play that the poised figures of Judy Fox, Ayatollah and Nkondi, engage. Their immaculate young bodies are those of children, but the severity of the pose and the intent look in their eyes mimic with all seriousness their adult roles. The terra cotta figurine of Ayatollah takes up the teaching stance of the leader of the religion, while Nkondi (representing a traditional power figurine from the Congo Basin) lifts his right hand in the pretend play of holding a dagger. His eyes are centered but not gazing outwards, while the other hand is cupped in front of the belly, as if he was sheltering a bird. For play is a ritual, uniting the world of the sacred with the Anne Drew Potter, The Captains Congress, stoneware, wood, acrylic, world of the well-honed tradition. newsprint, 5x12x24’ In contrast, Bougie Putty by Clayton Keyes shows a cherub re-

nceca 17 Journal 2012 • NCECA Exhibitions

clining languidly atop of a cushion. Immersed temporary abolishment of the ordinary world in his own pleasure, there is sensuality in the outside. The autotelic experience of creatpose that defies his tender age. The pale and ing for its own sake, for the sake of telling a rosy glistening of flesh, reminiscent of Carastory, is unique to the artist. Merging action vaggio, is combined with the soft blond hair with awareness, while forgetting self, time, that cascades down his back. His nude body is and surroundings is described as the flow unabashedly on display as he forgets the world experience.9 Whether it is found in the hours in this moment of self-abandon. He is a child of spent immersed in the utopia of the studio, means (“Bougie” being a derogatory term for or in the narrative and transportive quality bourgeoisie, the upper social class perceived as of the artwork itself, art initiates play by beTara Polansky, If I had met my Grandma, translucent hedonistic), but he had shed all good manners porcelain lithophane, 10x12x0.02” ing able to draw others into our constructed and parental rules with his clothes, except for worlds of stories, memories, and potentials. a lacey cuff around his wrist. Free of societal The feeling of flow is a result of the satiscontrol, he moved into a dangerous territory Below: Margaret Keelan, Hopscotch, low-fire oxida- faction of the circle being completed. For of play, exploring the sweet taste of his own tion, 29x16x23” us, makers and viewers, this power of propower, the blood of his prey (perhaps former jection onto inanimate objects, the magic of companion), a pet bunny. Eyes are fixed in ecanthropomorphizing and animating mud that stasy on the heavens above; fresh blood stains continues in adult life, is the joy and the true the lips of this brat. Is he still playing? The embodiment of play. boundary between play and real is often flu1 Richard Sennett, The Craftsman (New Haven & Lonid; crossing over from the realm of innocent, don: Yale University Press, 2008), 273. beautiful, and the sacred to the dangerous and 2 Ibid., 272. savage is a step easy to make. 3 Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens (London: Routledge Beth Cavener Stichter represents the & Kegan Paul Limited, 1949), 202. tension between innocence and the shadowy 4 Ibid., 201. depths of the unconscious in the figure of a giant wolf in Come Undone. A looming ar5 Oral History Interview with Robert Sperry, 1983 Aug. 11, by LaMar Harrington for the Archives of chetypal animal figure is painfully expelling American Art’s Northwest Oral History Project. Availthrough its mouth a representation of the esable at http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/ sence of the feminine: lace flowers, steams oral-history-interview-robert-sperry-13172 (accessed Feb. 29, 2012) and rivers of crocheted yarn, and plastic butterflies. Fanciful and exaggerated, both 6 Huizinga, 9. dramatic and comic, the archetype of male 7 Ibid., 12. power is being exposed in a moment of its 8 Ibid., 10. own vulnerability; it is coming undone. 9 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity (New York: The fluidity of boundary between play HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1996), 122. and the real world can also be explored in the fragile illusion Tara Polansky creates with light and a paper-thin sheet of porcelain, Timea Tihanyi is a visual artist based in Seattle and a faculty which she meticulously etches with the image. Litophane, origimember in the School of Art at the University of Washington. nating from China, gaining huge popularity in the early 1800s in Europe, is based on the varying translucency of the material. When backlit, the unevenness of thickness creates an image that seems both three-dimensional and ethereal. Capturing a gentle moment that never existed, Polansky’s image plays the “what if” game of the mind. By inserting herself into appropriated photographic scenes, she re-creates history, her own story of origin. A sense of fragile nostalgia is a recurring theme in many of the works, among them Charlie Cummings’s installation, Retuning The NCECA 2012 NSJE was open to all full time undergradto the Light. Between the wall filled with ceramic monoprints uate, graduate and post-baccalaureate students (as defined by their and the group of inflated inner tubes made of porcelain on the home institution) enrolled in the United States of America, except floor, a scintillating projection bounces back and forth, creating a for those enrolled at the institutions of the jurors. The applicant shimmering, fleeting effect of light playing on the surface of wamust be working towards a degree or be a post-baccalaureate in ter. In the postcard-like scenes, snapshots of an idyllic summer art at the time of submittal. vacation reveal themselves. The images are non-specific; they For the 2012 NSJE, works by 38 students from 20 states were could be that of Cummings or anyone else. A sense of the perfect accepted into the exhibition. freedom so fundamental to play, which comes from momentarily Cash merit awards will be determined by the jurors from the forgetting about the world is what seems to be at stake: both lost actual works and will be announced during the Opening Recepand found, over and over again. tion and at the Second Members’ Business Meeting. As we inevitably jump forward in a hopscotch game that is life (like the girl in her red patent leather shoes, by Margaret Awards have included, but are not limited to: Keelan), for the artist, play remains inherently part of life by the

The 2012 NCECA National Juried Student Exhibition

Jacob Lawrence Gallery, University of Washington

nceca 18 Journal 2012 • NCECA Exhibitions

Dandee Pattee, Jar III, Porcelain, cone 10 reduction, 6x6x7”

Luke Severson, blue whip, slip cast porcelain, altered & assembled, painted, 12x5x7”

Duncan Tweed, Three Flasks, porcelain, flashing slips, soda fired cone 10, 12x5x4”

NCECA Undergraduate Student Awards; 1st, 2nd, 3rd place; NCECA Graduate Student Award; 1st, 2nd, 3rd place; Rodger Lang Award for Student Excellence; Retired Professors Award; KBH Merit Award; Aardvark Clay Purchase Award; Soldner Clay Mixers by Muddy Elbow Manufacturing Award of Excellence; Studio Potter Graduate and Undergraduate Awards; and, the Paper Clay Award. The jurors for the NCECA 2012 NSJE were Mark Burns, Professor of Art, University of Nevada Las Vegas, and Kathy King, Instructor and Assistant to the Director of the Ceramics Program–Office for the Arts at Harvard in Allston, MA. We encourage eligible students to enter the 2013 NSJE, to be held at The Glassell School of Art of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in conjunction with Earth/Energy, the 2013 NCECA Convention in Houston, Texas. The application dates are April 11, 2012 - September 20, 2012. Jurors: Bonnie Seeman and Kevin Snipes.

Joel Weissman, Bitch Cups, Porcelain, cone 10 salt, offset iron oxide screen-printed decal, 5x4x4” each.

Below: Jason Kiley, My Feminine Side, earthenware, 14x14x2”

For information go to www.nceca.net

Brian Pierce, individual paradox (detail), white stoneware, woodfired cone 11, 7.5x2.75x2.75” each

nceca 19 Journal 2012 • NCECA Exhibitions

2012 NCECA Emerging Artists:

Dylan Beck, Nicholas Bivins, Chandra DeBuse, Darian Johnson, Peter Christian Johnson, Mathew McConnell Dylan Beck: An Overwhelming Trust in Progress

there is an attempt to situate things in relation to cultural and historical information. In terms of our relationship to the landscape and spatial issues, this can have detrimental consequences. Recently I have been concerned with the prevalence of develMy artwork explores the interaction between built space and opmental practices and advances in infrastructures (transportation the natural environment and the idea that manmade landscapes exand information) that take no account of the natural landscape, press a society’s material and political priorities. There is a great existing architecture, or the public realm. In our hypermodern deal to be learned from examining a society’s built spaces. When world there is doubt as to whether history carries any meaning or looking at the United States we find a relevance to the “now.” Why would one large amount of land devoted to the autocare about the past when the buildings and mobile, retail, and large-scale monoculproducts of the present and future are exture farming. This type of land use shows ponentially better than what came before? no consideration for the existing natural Americans have stopped caring about forlandscape and environmental processes mal architecture and arrangement of space and systems. Consequently, one could in favor of the perceived convenience of make certain assumptions about the genauto-centric, single-use development, and, eral priorities of Americans. of course, advertising space. The lack of consideration for the Many decisions regarding spatial renatural environment has created a myriad lationships within our built environment of environmental issues, such as excessive depend on the flow of goods and consumrunoff, habitat fragmentation, and a generers from place to place. We have totally al decline in ecosystem health. Though the abandoned planning that considers the development of the American landscape pedestrian, creating landscapes only fit since World War II embodies all of the for vehicular travel: non-places devoid of above systemic problems, it has created, human presence. This is a result of late until recently, a robust economy and the Dylan Beck, Deep Cut, 2009, terra-cotta, bisque porcelain, capitalism. Unmanaged emergent growth, high standard of living that most Ameri- 8” x 96” x 36”. known as sprawl, has contributed to probBeck, The Air Must Be Thick With Words, 2008, porcecans enjoy. It is difficult for me to take Below: lems with transportation, the environment, lain, terra cotta, paint, steel, rubber, 50” x 32” x 8”. sides in this argument. Though my personand the economy. At the same time, this al beliefs tend toward criticism of this kind growth has created new housing and emof land use, I attempt to maintain a neutral ployment opportunities. One only need perspective in my creative research. consider the American dream of owning The condition of Hypermodernity a home and having a piece of land (while has created places that have no relation to still enjoying the conveniences of the city) the natural environment in which they reto understand how suburban development side. These places include airports, shopwas born. Suburban sprawl created a glut ping malls, and various housing developof affordable housing, promising that the ments. Hypermodernity, in brief, entails American dream was obtainable. Considan overwhelming trust in progress, new ering that the notions of fulfillment and technologies, and the future. This blind universal social desires were manifested in trust leads to a lack of consideration not the suburban neighborhood, it is hard to be only for the past, but for the present as too critical of so many people’s decisions. well. After all, in a world of 24-hour news Therefore, I try to situate my work between feeds, a never-ending abundance of inforcriticism and veneration. mation on the Internet, and high-speed Similarly, there is a dialectic between travel, by the time we start to consider the my aesthetic attraction to images of built present there is a flood of new informalandscapes and my feelings toward the istion to evaluate. This makes it difficult to sues that they embody. I use several tactics relate to the present, let alone try to situto illustrate this dialectic. My practice is ofate the present in terms of the past, even ten image-based; images and symbols tend the recent past. This is in opposition to to dominate my creative thinking. Through the condition of postmodernism, in which the examination of the world around me,

nceca 20 Journal 2012 • Emerging Artists

Nicholas Bivins, Toasting Cups (8), 2012, Pots: porcelain, glaze, decals; Tray: MDF, automotive paint, rubber, 10” x 14” x 10”. Dylan Beck, Microwave Safe, 2011, porcelain, underglaze, paint, steel, rubber, plastic, 30” x 100” x 84”.

aerial photography, and satellite imagery, I select ubiquitous forms. I then use that information to construct sculptural arrangements, drawings, digital images, animations, etc., employing the same spatial relationships that are inherent in our built environment. As a means of creating a congruous material-to-concept relationship, I construct my sculptures from materials that are found in the retail and domestic setting, along with those used in home construction. I often employ industrial techniques of fabrication and computer-aided design to create my works. For example, I might select a handcrafted reproduction of a historical architectural element and then create a mold to cast it in multiples. This is a means of illustrating the decline of handmade architectural ornament due to costsaving measures and efficiencies in industrial methods. My material choices are not solely dictated by my training as a ceramic artist. I am primarily driven by the idea of a material-to-concept relationship. Therefore, ceramics is not always the appropriate material to communicate a particular concept. I believe in a holistic approach to art making, an approach that balances aesthetic judgment, craftsmanship, concept, and material. I often see beauty in the mundane and sometimes in the very things that embody poor planning and environmental degradation. This condition intrigues me, and I make use of the contradiction in my practice. It is of great interest to me to observe how complex and multifaceted most of the aforementioned issues of planning, development, environment, and the like can be. That is why my work neither condemns nor celebrates the built environment. Rather, it is designed to encourage a more critical discussion of the issues that we currently face due of the encroachment of the built environment upon that of the natural world.

Nicholas Bivins: Methodologies of Utility I make utilitarian wares using a precise, minimal, and efficient geometric language as I maintain a focused interest in looking for a personal definition of perfectly handmade. It is this fascination that propels me to practice my craft every day while continually searching for a satisfying balance of how much evidence of handwork I put

Below: Bivins, Cruets (2), 2012, Pots: porcelain, glaze, decals; Tray: MDF, automotive paint, rubber, 11” x 5” x 9”.

in, and how much handwork I take out. My approach to making objects is greatly influenced by my experience in athletics. Repetition, reduction, and precision are methodologies I used in sports that I now translate into my aesthetic sensibility. It is through the making process that I determine the degree of tension between perfect and handmade in my work. I keep a rhythm that is informed by my idea, my patience, and my knowledge of ceramic process that compels me to complete each task and move forward to the next step. This rhythm is a balancing act as I try to stretch my desire for tightness and precision with my requirements for forward motion and productivity. The roots of my ideas involving sets stem from looking inwards at my life and noticing reoccurring needs. I then imagine how others share these needs with me as a way to work outwards and connect to my audience. I combine my observations of the particular need I want to fill, with my imagined ways of solving that problem better. In doing so, I work with perpetual questions about how to find a balance with my aesthetic goals, functionality, versatility, and ergonomics. Through use, the connection between maker and user stimulates the body and mind by providing a dynamic experience that helps keep life from becoming anonymous and mundane. During the use of my work, the simultaneous attention of the user on the objects and the attention of objects on the user reveal the unique nature of personal production for personal use. The act of use is then enriched by objects that require the viewers’ attention while at the same time allowing them to enjoy the experience of replenishment. This perpetual shifting in focus shows that through function, the object holds power in its passive waiting for an active participant. This precise collaboration with the viewer/user then allows a more conscientious operation, thus presenting questions about what occurs when the perceived traditional definition of handmade is denied, the ambiguity of perfection, and the role that objects play in our lives.

nceca 21 Journal 2012 • Emerging Artists

days in the studio were characterized by escape. The best way for me to escape, as many others have discovered, was to engage in creative studio play. Creative play invigorates my imagination, relieves stress, gives me joy, and motivates my accomplishments. Play is powerful medicine. While pursuing my Master of Fine arts degree from the University of Florida, my research focused on play as it relates to achievement. Catch, my graduate thesis project, was an installation of ceramic service ware including cups, plates, a jar and candy dishes that together told a story of accomplishment through the metaphor of a squirrel. My strategies included color-coding, graphic narration and spatial design of grouped vessels. Through displaying the narration of Catch on functional service ware in a fantastical woodland installation, I created for the viewer an expeNicholas Bivins, Coffee (4), 2012, Pots: porcelain, glaze, decals; Tray: MDF, automotive rience and a memory of a playful story, which could be revisited paint, rubber, 11” x 23” x 15”. through the intimacy of use outside of the gallery setting. Originally from the California Bay Area, Despite the adage “don’t play with your food,” ceramic vessels Nicholas Bivins has received degrees from have historically served as objects of amusement. English fuddling the University of Washington (BFA, BA) and cups and puzzle jugs make games out of consuming liquids. Greek Ohio University (MFA). He has been an artistand Persian rhytons often employed a humorous approach to wine in-residence at Red Lodge Clay Center and is drinking with satirical forms that became facemasks through use. currently a long-tem resident at the Archie Bray Amid the strict roles of Victorian society, tables were abundant with Foundation in Helena, Montana, where he replayful majolica serving pieces, referencing character and landceived the Matsutani Fellowship. scape. My ceramic designs continue this tradition of playful pots and inventive form, inviting fresh interpretations of service ware. My sketchbook is my primary tool for idea development and serves as a playground for my imagination. When I’m ready to transfer my ideas onto specific ceramic forms, I reach for a variety of methods. I use soft slabs, plaster and bisque molds and I alter wheel-thrown cylinders to make my pots. Because I strive to integrate two-dimensional pattern and imagery onto the three-dimenMy functional pottery incorporates narrative imagery, pattern sional forms, I will cut, dart, stamp and stretch the forms to suit and form to reflect my attitudes toward play and to encourage a the drawings. Patterns and images dance playfully on and around playful approach to life. A handmade vessel infused with bouncing each piece. Much of the decoration is completed at the leather hard lines, candy colors, low relief and hand drawn elements provides stage. My techniques include using sprigs, stamps, underglaze the user with time to explore playful messages while cultivating painting, inlay and sgraffito. In an effort to evoke a sense of play, a sense of discovery. Because play is an experience, my vessels I use color that represents emotion and my own memory, as well serve as a conduit to a playful mindset, poising the user to engage as realistic colors. in their own state of play, resulting in an Recently I moved from south Florida enriched life. to the mountains of eastern Tennessee. AlI strive to find a state of play in the though Gatlinburg and West Palm Beach studio. I yearn for the freedom to immerse are 800 miles apart and are situated in difmyself in realizing my notions, however ferent climates, the similarities between far-fetched or silly. I want to conjure up a the two places are remarkable. Both areas fat bunny, whizzing by on roller skates with contain natural landscapes of astounding flowers growing from her head. I want to beauty, but many visitors forego trips to feel the excitement of a beginner, forgetting the ocean or the mountains for a more conthat I should be afraid of failure. trived setting, such as a world-class golf reWhen someone laughs at a character sort, theme park, or outlet mall. Manicured I’ve drawn, spills their drink because they and controlled, these playscapes exploit Chandra DeBuse, Nut Stash Jar, 2011, white stoneware, cone were investigating the bottom of a cup, or 7 electric, underglaze inlay, sgraffito, soda ash wash, 4” x 5” x 3.5”. the pleasures of nature without the fear of finds joy in discovering a plump spoon nesthe wild. Through observing landscapes of tled inside a pocket, I know the pots were successful. Feelings of leisure in these two regions (parks, golf courses, beaches, swimjoy, delight, and amusement spark the imagination and poise us to ming pools), I am inspired to create voluminous three-dimensional engage in playful behavior. forms with manicured, controlled surfaces and divided spaces. Although I have been unable to craft a single definition of play Salt and pepper landscapes, multi-level treat servers, and jars, for all humans and animals, I know the value of play on the psyche plates, cups, and bowls show hand-drawn characters engaging in and I know that crafting a playful disposition takes effort. After various playful activities. Imagery often wraps around a piece to high school I earned a degree in Psychology, which led to a job in encourage use and exploration. The work’s relationship to comics human services. I found pottery while taking a community class and children’s book illustration through graphic narration creates to cope with the stress of working with survivors of abuse. Those a sense of accessibility. The drawings are easily read and under-

Chandra DeBuse: Play: A Path and a Destination

nceca 22 Journal 2012 • Emerging Artists

Darien Johnson: A Current Entanglement

Chandra DeBuse, Swimming Pool S&P (detail), 2010, white stoneware, cone 6 electric, underglaze, glaze, luster, 8”x6”x5”. Below: DeBuse, Grouping of Character Cups, 2011, white stoneware, cone 7 electric, underglaze inlay, brushwork, Each 4.5”x4”x3”.

Prevailing technologies facilitate the instantaneous acquisition, manipulation, and subsequent redistribution of perceptual experiences. This recording and transfer of ideas enables us to form an alternative understanding of existence. How does absorbing information through digital media define a person’s notion of reality? How does it affect our interpretation of “real”? My work represents the current entanglement of human cognition and digital processing. For over a century, photography has been used as a tool to record visual memory. But the recent proliferation of the camera-phone enables us to record spontaneously. Experience is interrupted to capture and store moments. The recordings are used for recollection; however, over time our reliance on the twodimensional image to replace perceptual experience flattens and fragments the memory. By dissecting and altering these fragments, my work raises awareness of a continually altered state of visual consciousness. It makes reference to a shift in contemporary experience relating to the cognitive processing of sight. This conceptual framework is directly tied to my studio practice. I begin the process by responding to a visual cue, and intentionally interrupt my experience to capture and store the memory with a camera-phone. I photograph the mundanely familiar, subjects that are otherwise overlooked. These images, when reorganized and removed from context, reference the rampant use of photography. They are digitally manipulated, altered, fragmented, and recomposed. The resulting composition is then rendered onto a slip-cast porcelain form. Using china paint, I build an image consisting of multiple layers. The first layer begins with light washes of paint. With each coat, I render more detail and depth of color, while considering its firing range.

stood, employing exaggeration, humor and metaphor, and facilitating the viewer’s ability to capture the narrative and apply it to his or her own life. Patterns found within nature, such as tree bark, water waves or flower petals, are abstracted and simplified, ricocheting across forms. Drawings show characters dwelling within the landscape of a vessel, inviting human fingers to also roam the topography, seeking out their own morsels of delight. Often it is only through experiencing the piece—physically holding it, exploring it, and hopefully using it—that the whole image can be seen. It is my hope that through this interaction between user and object, a playful attitude is sparked. Play is my path and my destination. My pots are an invitation to join the journey. Chandra DeBuse received a BA degree in Psychology from Nebraska Wesleyan University. She studied ceramics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln before receiving her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Florida in 2010. Following graduation, she completed an artist residency at the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach, FL. Chandra exhibits her pottery nationally. In 2012 her work will be shown at Blue Spiral One in Asheville, NC, and Red Star Studios in Kansas City, MO. Currently, Chandra is an artist-in-residence at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN.

Darien Johnson, RGB, 2011, porcelain, china paint, thread acrylic, plexiglass, MDF, 15” x 19” x 9”.

The forms onto which I paint are produced by a combination of modeling, mold making, and slip-casting. The smaller forms are initially constructed out of a solid block of clay, molded, and then slip-cast. To produce the larger forms, I fabricate a wooden substructure that is filled with foam and covered with a layer of plaster. The plaster is refined and sanded until smooth. After sealing the plaster with urethane, I produce a plaster shell mold. The forms are cast using a cone 6 porcelain casting slip (Forrest Snyder’s Translucent #1). The forms act as a solidified representation of the fluidity of human cognition. The intrinsic reality of form contradicts the undefined intangibility of thought, thereby extracting an otherwise inter-

nceca 23 Journal 2012 • Emerging Artists

Darien Johnson, Layered, 2011, porcelain, china paint, thread acrylic, plexiglass, 23” x 15” x 11”. Darien Johnson in studio.

of inventing, and of reinventing. In the studio I step into the shoes of an engineer, or inventor, creating metaphoric objects that allude to an unidentifiable function. My sculptures are not recreations of objects from our culture, but abstractions of the things we find ourselves surrounded by. These aged objects are meant to spur reflection of our pursuit of “progress” in relationship to the vast expanse of human history. The themes of artifact and invention have been a consistent exploration of my artwork over the last ten years. I am intrigued by the historical prevalence of clay, a material so strongly linked to our cultural formation. The material seems imbued with a sense of time, carrying with it references to the many clay objects created by past civilizations. This rich history seems to be connected to the primal act of making itself. Much of my practice has been influenced by the time and place in which I work. Eastern Oregon, like so many places in America, is littered with artifacts from a way of life that seems to be on the verge of extinction. Whether they are abandoned lumber mills or rusting farm equipment, the littered landscape becomes a record of the activities of previous generations. I find these objects, which represent a clear record of the passing of time, to be a major inspiration for the objects I create. My process of working attempts to support the exploration of time I want my work to reflect. I engage with our technology-driven and computer-facilitated culture by designing my pieces on a computer, while building them in an intentionally low-tech way, as a means of keeping them rooted in past traditions of making. The aid of a 3-D modeling program provides a number of advantages to my process. Conceptually, it reinforces the contemporary industrial aesthetic I want my work to have. On a technical level, it allows me to work out ideas on the computer before making them in my studio. The ability to rotate forms and look at them from multiple perspectives permits me to better assess

nal formation of understanding. Areas of the form are flattened; this references a fluid experience, interrupted by capturing the digital recording. White thread often extends from the flattened surface and leads into a plexiglass container, which houses bits of colored thread. This creates both a visual and metaphoric connection to the breakdown and storage of information. The resulting work conveys an entanglement of artistic intuition and digital processing, and comments on the integration of digital media and human cognition. Darien Johnson earned his MFA at Arizona State University. He has been a resident artist at Emmanuel College, Boston MA, and the Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China. His work is shown and published nationally, having received multiple awards including a Juror’s choice award in Currents: Contemporary Ceramics. Johnson is currently an Assistant Professor at Buffalo State College, Buffalo, NY.

Peter Christian Johnson: Invention and Artifact As an artist I am interested in how the artifacts we leave behind speak to our history and cultural identity. My work is meant to straddle the present, simultaneously looking back to the past and towards the future. It catalogues the act of making, of constructing,

nceca 24 Journal 2012 •Emerging Artists

Peter Christian Johnson, Blue Turbine: from the Construction series, 2011, white earthenware, stains, linseed oil, tractor paint, 20.5” x 20.5 “ x 19”.

the potential strength of the piece before I commit to the relatively lengthy process of building it in the studio. The choice then to build the pieces using traditional hand-building techniques leaves slight distortions in form, and a trace of the hand to exaggerate the human act of constructing and reinforce the temporal distortion I am trying to achieve in my work. Ultimately the pieces I make read as components of a larger whole. They reference ambiguous fragments selected as treasures from a bone yard of a distant tradition. They are meant to be familiar but vague. The surfaces suggest metal, wood, and concrete—all materials intrinsic to the act of construction. The grand

Mathew McConnell: As Ashes or an Overcast Sky: Variations in Gray Recently I have been making work that abides by a simple set of constraints. These rules were devised to allow abundant freedom in the execution of my work while also remaining grounded in a few simple concerns. Among them: understanding art as a translation process and understanding translation as a craft process; using fidelity (the degree of exactness in which a thing is reproduced) as a tool to mediate between perceived originality and the merely imitative; and examining the results of passing appropriated works (and their associated content) through a lens of formal design strategy. The rules are as follows: Peter Christian Johnson, 3D Model/ Sketch #2, digital image, 2010.

Below: Johnson. Black Turbine: from the Construction series, 2011, white earthenware, stains, linseed oil, 22” x 22 “ x 13”.

1. Select a proven1 work of art.2 3 2. Reproduce selected work, at any level of fidelity to the original.4 Authenticity and faithfulness to the original work is of less value than the impetus to create an object of any kind.5 6 7 3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until a sufficient bank of objects is available to begin composing a unique arrangement of reproduced artworks.8 4. Add, adjust, arrange and discard objects at will in an attempt to fulfill imaginary parameters required for a complete composition.9 10 These parameters will vary from day to day.11 5. Ignore language-based interpretations and content inherent to original12 artworks where possible,13 with the ultimate goal of creating a unique arrangement that at once denies interpretation and simultaneously offers visual coherence.14 6. Where objects fail to adhere to the above principles, discard offending objects and repeat from step 1.15 7. When a deadline forces completion of the arrangement,16 choose a title of another artist or author’s creation. This can also be manipulated as a reproduction at any level of fidelity.17

scale of the objects further enforces the sense of their being a part of some monumental function. Through my work I want to engage with a larger narrative about how we as people build the society in which we live, both skirting and being consumed by the pitfalls of progress. Peter Johnson currently lives and works in La Grande, Oregon, where he is an Associate Professor of Art at Eastern Oregon University. He earned his MFA from Penn State University and a BS in Environmental Science at Wheaton College. Peter has been a resident artist and visiting lecturer at the Alberta College of Art and Design, Australian National University, The Archie Bray Foundation, and the Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts. His work has been exhibited in Canada, Australia, and throughout the United States.

Mathew McConnell, Closings: March 19-27, 2011 (New York, Berlin, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Munich, Paris, Madrid), 2011, detail view, plasticine, mixed media, 6”(h).

McConnell, Closings: ... detail view, plasticine, mixed media, 6”(h).

1 Works selected must be proven in that they have been exhibited in a major museum, major gallery, or have been reviewed or discussed in a major art publication. This simple step ensures that every object I will eventually duplicate has already withstood the verification of its status as art. Logically then (or not so logically), everything I make has already been designated as having real-art merit.

nceca 25 Journal 2012 • Emerging Artists

Leaving the burden of proof with someone else gives me maximum permissibility in what I will allow myself to produce: “Hey, why not, MOMA owns one just like it,” or, “If Larry Gagosian says it’s ok....” 2 The selection of artworks I will eventually replicate begins with gut-level reactions to existing works. Most of the works are object-based, and in many cases they are non-objective. In cases where recognizable imagery exists, that imagery often puts into question its own validity as a suitable subject for art. The question of “Why does this qualify as art?” drives most of the choices for works I eventually reproduce. The Austrian artist Heimo Zobernig has said of his own work, “With art I would like to raise questions and as a result produce things that put themselves into question” (tate. org.uk/stives/exhibitions/heimozobernig). Zobernig might as well have been saying, “I wish to confuse you.” These are of the category of objects I feel the strongest desire to replicate; I am drawn to that which I am most skeptical of. 3 In selecting works I am also often thinking of a means of obscuring any kind of narrative reading of the work I am arranging. In some instances, once a pattern of objects has been established, I will search for just the right work to negate any simple relationships that could be found between the previous works I have selected. This is an intuitive process and there is never one correct solution to the task of denying the viewer’s impulse to assemble simple lineal readings of the finished work.

of art, a mediation between what I already understand and what the original artist intends to communicate. 7 At the bottom line, if I am to be honest with myself (and you), I know no other way of making than to start with a theft. Almost anything will do. I just need a place to start. 8 At some moment in the process there exists a time when I must begin to find a suitable arrangement for the reproductions I have been amassing. This step may be the most difficult. The decision about which reproduction is used first, how and where it is situated, and how to begin building around the first object is a question that defies logical explanation. The question is akin to asking how one recognizes the first useful brushstroke of a painting. Finding when to start and with what to start is an intuitive moment and many false starts may result. In the end, perhaps it is simply a matter of starting anywhere, as many adjustments will follow. Mathew McConnell, Many Things New and More of the Same, detail view, 2010, raku-fired earthenware, india ink on plywood. Below: McConell, Many Things New and More of the Same, detail view.

4 If everything we make is a mashed-up, stolen re-hash—predicated by countless iterations that came before—is fidelity the only real tool we have as a driver of individual and singular responses to those prior iterations? 5 It is important the originals themselves not dictate the reproductions, even if that is where the impetus for the reproduction lies. When the reproduction of an artist’s work differs significantly from the original work, I see the resulting discrepancies not as a failure to deliver on a perfect replica, but as a document bringing into focus my own preferences, habits, and desires for completion. 6 Having many times been told that making and thinking are intrinsically linked, I can’t help but to sometimes see these incursions as an extended investigation into the nature of the original works. I sometimes imagine I have found a means of accessing ideas and methods otherwise left untouched by those limited to studying works through other, less haptic means. It is, in some sense, a way of coming to an alternate understanding of a work

nceca 26 Journal 2012 • Emerging Artists

9 In my experience, working through a composition is a trial and error process. Aside from a basic knowledge of design principles, intuition is the most reliable guide in finding what stays and what goes, what needs to be added, and when to stop. Of course, intuition is the manifestation of a series of learned behaviors, and one’s prior experience in looking at art will determine what is deemed a complete composition. Having spent years as an observer and practitioner of art, some decisions resolve themselves with little scrutiny, while others seem to possess no logical end.

10 A friend of mine who attended a Ken Price lecture once recalled him as saying, “There’s what works, and there’s what doesn’t work. I aim for what works.” At the time I heard this it seemed an insane standard to self-apply. Really, it’s still something I struggle to make sense of. Yet, somehow, when I am in the final moments of piecing together a composition, I am fully operating on the standard of what works, and, when forced to articulate why one decision holds merit over another, I also resort to ludicrous language as an explanation: magic, energy, that something else, etc. Somehow this issue seems near to the crux of all art-making. 11 Often, when I return the next day, I discover that what worked yesterday no longer does. Why is this? Is this just self-doubt, or have I changed in some fundamental way? Has the work itself changed me? 12 Original? I’m not sure that’s ever the right word, but I know you know what I mean.

13 I have aimed in my method to create a process whereby the content and intentions of the original artworks are of secondary importance to their visual characteristics. In doing this, I am treating the works from which I draw as a simple palette of formal devices to be employed in new arrangements carried out by me. I understand, as my viewers may have specific knowledge of the artists and works being reproduced, this reduction may be impossible. However, when it does occur that prior content is reduced to formal devices, the viewer is only left with questions of process and context to analyze the new version, and the objects themselves must be understood by how they are felt. As we all know, visual art is not the best way to say things: if you wish to say something, you would be better served by using words.

15 Often it is apparent after a work’s completion that it must be reworked, or that an element needs to be switched out in favor of something else. This process of arranging and rearranging is integral to the work—err, something I’ve learned to live with. 16 Forcing the works to a close, the exhibition deadline acts as a point of decisiveness in a process muddled with uncertainties. As the deadline draws near, decisions are forced about what can be realistically completed, which elements are integral to the composition, and which elements can be changed. There is always a moment where time decides the finality of the arrangement. Otherwise the work would remain open to continued manipulation. I just can’t help myself. 17 Titles, unsurprisingly, follow a similar process to the generation of the works themselves. All the titles are found titles, either used exactly as they were found or slightly altered to suit the work. And, just as the physical components of the assemblages place secondary importance on the original artist, so do the titles.

Mathew McConnell (b.1979) is currently serving as Visiting Assistant Professor of Ceramics at the University of Arkansas. He holds an MFA in Ceramics from the University of Colorado at Boulder (2009) and a BFA in Studio Art from Valdosta State University (2004). McConnell has held numerous solo exhibitions and his works have been included in group exhibitions in China, Australia, New Zealand, and in many venues across the United States. He has been a resident at the Archie Bray Foundation, where he was awarded the Lilian Fellowship in 2011 and the Sage Scholarship in 2007. In 2010, McConnell served for a year as Artist in Residence and Visiting Lecturer of Contemporary Craft at Unitec in Auckland, New Zealand.

The European Ceramics Magazine

Comprehensive coverage of international developments in ceramics with a special focus on Europe

Daniel Levi (NL)

14 I have long thought the real job of art is to trigger speculation. I can’t remember who it was that said, “Art is that which moves us to attentiveness,” but their simple words sum things up nicely (and have stuck in my mind for years). It’s a fundamental aspect of human nature to dwell on ambiguities and uncertainties, and there is a deep satisfaction in the search for answers. Thus, I see my job as providing a sensitizing experience that awakens the viewer to his or her own instinct to explore and question. I hope to provide an experience that revels in the speculative and provides only a glancing view of the individual concerns that my amalgamations are comprised of. I’m always hoping that my formal decisions and my choice and handling of materials and imagery are enough to move the viewer to attentiveness.

NEW CERAMICS

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nceca 27 Journal 2012 • Emerging Artists

2012 NCECA DEMONSTRATING ARTISTS Christa Assad, Walter Keeler, Tip Toland, Jason Walker

Dynasty, and moving on to my favorites, the Tang and Song Dynasties. The challenge of emulating those powerful silhouettes on the potter’s wheel was enough to engage me completely at first. I became obsessed with form, proportion, and profile—aspects of art and design that still captivate me. Even with my most As a child growing up in Pittsburgh, PA, I was strongly recent turn to sculptural objects, these historical sources are key influenced by the Steel City’s dying industry and the grit of its to my aesthetic. The history of ceramics is the backbone of my abandoned sites, often tagged with graffiti. The traces of trespractice, and without it I would be floundering in the superfipassers and squatters and other physical remnants left behind ciality of contemporary art trends. By the union of the ancient at the closed factories are archaeological artifacts of human and the modern, I seek an origibehavior and societal evolution. nal voice—one that resounds with My early interest in geometry, honesty, clarity, and intent—to dearchitecture, and aeronautics led scribe the musings of our collective to admission into Penn State Unisubconscious. versity’s Aerospace Engineering Like most artists, I struggle to program. Yet I emerged four and a define in words what comes more half years later with a Bachelor of naturally in three-dimensional Arts degree, a minor in Art Histoform, color, or symbolic content. ry, and only two semesters of clay Making art is the language by classes: the first taught by Dave which I best communicate ideas. Dontigny; the second by Chris Throughout history, artists have Staley. A stroke of good fortune accompanied scientists and schollanded me in Walter Ostrom’s caars in the pursuit of technological pable hands as his Fulbright Scholadvancement, even if on a small ar, and from there to Anderson scale, yet our role in society is often Ranch Arts Center in the rocky overlooked, even threatened. With mountains of Colorado, where I the Industrial Revolution came iron met mentor Doug Casebeer. The and steam technologies, followed Ranch residency program tested by the advent of steel and other almy potting endurance, trained loys. Subsequently, the Machine my skills as a craftsperson, and Age introduced mass production, launched my professional career. moving assembly lines, enormous Securing my MFA in 2000 at InChrista Assad, Wood Burners, porcelain, oxides, glaze, to 14” height; wheelmachinery for high-volume output, diana University was the culmina- thrown and hand-built, cone 6 oxidation. and the development and deploytion of my academic pursuits, and ment of modern war machines such as tanks, submarines and the there John Goodheart and Tim Mather guided my investigation modern battleship.1 All of this “progress” affected craftspeople of industrial-design wheel work combined with slab construcin an adverse way: Mass consumerism and national branding retion. It was during those three years of graduate study that I placed local buying and skilled crafts. Large corporations emdeveloped a method of working from “the model”—the model ployed low-skill laborers, and their exploitation eventually led to often being an antiquated machine or outdated industrial appatrade unions. Nations fighting over energy and material resourcratus—to create, first, functional pottery designs, and second, es contributed to the causes of two world wars. Ironically, these larger-scale objects that glamorize the ordinary. coveted natural resources were soon employed in the fabrication The ceramic vessel’s rich history spanning more than 5,000 of weapons of war. years was my gateway into the clay world, beginning with the Visually, I am drawn to photographs that document the Inrope-impressed Jomon pottery of Ancient Japan. Equally intrigudustrial and Machine Ages, particularly the work of Berenice Abing to me were the Chinese bronzes of the Zhou and Song Dybott (1898-1981), whose black and white images often document nasties for their ritual use and elaborate surface decoration. The the relationship between technology and society. Photographs of mold-making and bronze-casting technologies employed to craft industrial buildings and structures by the famous German colthese masterpieces still dazzles today, centuries later. The reverlaborative duo of Bernd (now deceased) and Hilla Becher have ence for bronze, ceramic and other objects varies from culture to inspired many forms in my studio, as has Daniel Mihalyo’s book culture, yet one thing is certain: Clay pots appear throughout huWood Burners. I owe a great debt of gratitude to these artists. man history, without fail, in domestic settings, celebratory cerTheir visual translation of societal development and its changing emonies, burial rituals, religious observances, sacrificial rites, landscape gave me access to the larger concept of humanness and every occasion involving food and drink. Clay is a material and the hand. If machines can perform most human tasks better, deeply ingrained in our DNA. bigger, faster, and cheaper, then where exactly do we, as modernI fell in love with clay Chinese vessels, starting with the Han

Christa Assad: Extra Ordinary

nceca 28 Journal 2012 • Demonstrators

day craftspeople, fit in? What does handmade mean anymore, By presenting the grenade and the spray can side by side and and what is the value of such things? enlarged for dramatic effect and closer examination, I re-present These questions have fueled the last several years of my art these objects in the context of my artistic lens. Although the idea making. There is no longer any need for handmade pottery in of bombing might not be immediately obvious to all viewers, its our culture, although want or desire for such items may remain. subtext is open for discovery and interpretation. The role of potter in the community has changed from valued Beer Bottle. The bottle shape I have chosen is the most contributor to novelty act at best. As the Information Age takes commonly used and recognizable beer bottle. Signifying alcofull hold of us all, the hand is used less in each activity—replaced holic beverages of all kinds, this operates as a covert symbol for by electronics, smart gadgets, and computer networks too large poison and/or death (sorry, beer lovers). Alcohol is yet another to fathom. Even cursive handwriting is disappearing from the killer we humans hold in our hands. grade-school classroom. These realizations have motivated me to Fire Hydrant. The fire hydrant is my favorite extra ordiexamine the power of the hand—physically and metaphorically— nary object. Found on every street corner in America—whether through a series of thrown and constructed allegorical objects. urban, suburban or rural and, in some cases, literally out in the Following are some of the important personal icons and sticks—the fire hydrant is an indispensable safety instrument, common themes to my work, my life and my subconscious: delivering high-pressure water to extinguish fires. For firefightThe Iron. For more than a decade I have worked with images ers and civilians alike, this common apparatus is the ultimate and abstractions of this appliance. I’m attracted to its triangular, vessel for water, a life force. The size (most measure about 26” flat-bottom shape, its weighty, sturdy presence, and the metaphor tall) already makes reference to the torso with its stumpy arms of labor. The late 1800s models are my favorites, powered by charand helmet-like top. Elevating the hydrant, both literally and figcoal, alcohol, kerosene, and gas before uratively, by recreating it from clay they were wired for electricity. Some by hand and then positioning it on a weigh up to twenty pounds, and while pedestal allows the viewer to access their use has often been relegated erthis object from a fresh perspective. roneously to women in the domestic Ideally, its new orientation raises the setting, it was often tailors—men— old fireplug to the level of potential and commercial cleaners who handled reverence. these heavy contraptions. Rather than Wood Burner/ Incinerator. I reattempting a feminist statement with fer specifically to wood burners from this work, I am instead focused on the the sawmills of the Pacific Northsymbolism of iron as power, energy, west, where industrial forestry in the work, and human labor. form of water-powered mills began Grenade. Certainly, the grein 1827. Such technological advances nade is a controversial device to use as higher strength steels for use in as inspiration, and the ultimate irony band saws and the introduction of is that the hand is employed to launch steam power had a dramatic impact this weapon of war. We humans have on the amount of lumber milled, and invented a hand-held bomb. A comconsequently, on the volume of waste pact explosive, the grenade harnesses produced. Flammable chips and dust enough destructive power to set an Christa Assad, Anagama Iron Teapot, porcelain, 9” x 10” x 8”; wheeloverwhelmed small mills. Before the enemy camp ablaze. Interestingly, thrown and constructed, wood-fired to cone 10. advent of particle- and chip-boards, the word “grenade” is the French word for pomegranate. Soldiers and even paper, the amount of sawdust, slabs, chips, planer shavcommented on the similar shape and size of early grenades and ings, bark, edgings, and remnants was staggering. Early soluthe name entered common usage.2 As a potter and maker of handtions involved floating waste wood down the river, or worse, held objects, I find this comparison between a hand-held killing incinerating the scrap in an open pit that caused many fires and weapon and a life-nourishing fruit of the same approximate size destroyed some uninsured mills. (Even by the 1950s, despite the and shape too paradoxical to overlook. By enlarging this object to innovative use of lumber waste in plastics, rayon, turpentine, torso size, I discover its anthropomorphic qualities. The shift in broom handles, and pressed fire logs, still only 30 to 40 percent scale also dramatizes the grenade as a symbol of power, control, of every logged tree was utilized.) Large-diameter steel smokeand domination—qualities our nation embraces. stacks were first designed to safeguard against outbreaks of fire, Spray Can. Whether the common aerosol can or the graffiti which led to the most popular, conical shaped incinerator first artist’s tool, the spray can is an industrial icon. Americans Lyle patented in 1916 by Colby Engineering of Portland.6 At ten or Goodhue and William Sullivan are credited as the inventors of more stories tall, these striking silhouettes lined the American the modern spray can.3 According to Wikipedia, “Their design landscape up until the late 1960s when the new secondary wood of a refillable spray can, dubbed the ‘bug bomb,’ was patented in products industry and newly legislated environmental restric1943 and is the ancestor of many popular commercial spray prodtions effectively rendered them obsolete. ucts. Pressurized by liquefied gas, which gave it propellant qualiGrounded in my love of geometry, my attraction to the coneties, the small, portable can enabled soldiers to defend against shaped incinerator encompasses obsessions with fire, flames, malaria-carrying mosquitoes by spraying inside tents in the fuel, and harnessed power. Not unlike a kiln, the wood burner Pacific during World War II.”4 Another irony unearthed is that consumes fuel, and it contains and restrains fire. The notion of “bombing” in urban language refers to the art of either throwing controlled natural forces speaks to my fascination with pressurup a huge graffiti piece or tagging many areas in a single night.5 ized and/or explosive contents—the spray can, fire hydrant and

nceca 29 Journal 2012 • Demonstrators

Christa Assad, Nesting Grenades, porcelain, oxides, glaze, largest grenade is 14” x 10” x 10”; wheel-thrown and hand-built, cone 6 oxidation.

grenade. By recreating and re-presenting these objects each in iconic form, either enlarged or diminished in scale, I am offering comparisons between the devices themselves and also their metaphorical functions. By making them the same size, I create a sense of equality while other scale shifts and orientations purposely highlight one object’s dominance over another. The slow, personal process by which I make these icons—each is individually wheel-thrown and constructed—subverts our acceptance of the fast, impersonal, machine-made. The glorification of ordinary apparatuses is another result of this method of careful, deliberate fabrication. Ultimately, I feel responsible only for the suggestion of relationships that may or may not exist between objects. It is the task of the viewers to investigate, interpret and take from the work what meaning they discover. 1 Wikipedia, s.v. “The Machine Age,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_Age. 2 Online Etymology Dictionary, s.v. “grenade,” http://etymonline.com/?term=grenade. 3 Kimberley A. McGrath and Bridget E. Travers, eds., “Summary” in World of Invention, Detroit: Thomson Gale, ISBN 0-7876-2759-3. 4 Jim Core, Rosalie Marion Bliss, and Alfredo Flores, “ARS Partners With Defense Department To Protect Troops From Insect Vectors.” Agricultural Research Magazine, Vol. 53, No. 9 (September 2005). 5 Urban Dictionary, s.v. “bombing,” http://www.urbandictionary.com/define. php?term=bombing 6 Daniel Mihalyo, Wood Burners (Princeton Architectural Press, 1997), 7-11.

Christa Assad can be found combing the railroad tracks and Ironworks District of West Berkeley, CA, for discarded treasure. A teacher, traveler and full time ceramicist with an MFA from Indiana University, Assad’s work is in the permanent collections of The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, The Ceramic Research Center at Arizona State University Museum, and The Penn State Fulbright Scholar Collection, among others. Assad is represented by Ferrin Gallery, Harvey Meadows Gallery, and Fourth & Clay. She teaches and exhibits internationally, creating both useful and sculptural pieces that begin on the potter’s wheel, but move beyond the round.

nceca 30 Journal 2012 • Demonstrators

Walter Keeler: What Are We Doing? Pottery is separate from conceptual or fine art, but it is no less significant and no less capable of communicating rich and subtle ideas. Pottery has as much expressive potential as any art form. But its weakness, and its strength, is its domestic context. What other art form infiltrates people’s lives the way domestic pottery does? You clasp it in your cold hands and bring it comfortingly to your lips to sip a reviving drink; laugh at its posture—its presumption—and negotiate its challenge and feel rewarded and enriched as you pour from it. On the other hand, put it on a plinth in an austere gallery, and however thoughtful (and potentially thought-provoking), it is just crockery. It is frustrating for one who has devoted a life’s work to innovative, useful thrown pottery to feel marginal in the broad context of studio ceramics that, embarrassingly, attempts to snuggle ever closer to the world of fine art that is perceived as more prestigious. We clay workers are devoted to our material and technology,

Walter Keeler, Spiky Dish, earthenware, inkwash glaze.

and to our skill, in a way that we feel sets us apart. My late friend (and relation) the painter Alan Green was as committed to his materials as any ceramicist. He mixed his colours from raw materials (some familiar to any potter) and worked them in an intimate tactile way into his uncompromisingly abstract works. It was good to talk to him about work—he took me so seriously. He was interested in my decisions and engaged as critically with one of my mugs as he did with his paintings or etchings. Indeed we shared so many concerns that it was more enlightening to me than talking with another potter, convincing me that in all creative vocations we are striving for similar goals, where it is quality, not category, that counts. I think it is so important to remember that pottery, most specifically of all the ceramic genres, has been at the heart of human society since the dawn of civilisation. The fact that it is virtually indestructible means that it is often the only concrete record of a culture, but also that the pieces themselves communicate so vividly with us who work with clay now. We can follow their maker’s logic, be astonished by their skill, and appreciate their achievements with scant resources. In the past pottery contributed to a community, and it achieved its vitality and authenticity by engaging with the habits of its people, their cuisine, and their agriculture. The contribution that we make to society now is not as simple. Most of the things in our lives are produced industrially; they are flawless when they are new, but gradually deteriorate, become scruffy and damaged. In the past things made by hand from natural materials became polished, patinated, enriched through use. Many things were made and re-

Walter Keeler, Teapots, earthenware, inkwash glaze.

paired at home, simple and beautiful things in everyday use, not consciously appreciated but nevertheless unobtrusively fulfilling. As I said earlier, the potter has the power to infiltrate, to sneak into the private intimacy of people’s daily life. By doing so can we satisfy some essential human tactile need, can we touch lives softly in ways that are enriching, compensating for unnoticed deficits in our technological world? Or are we just self-indulgent narcissists absorbing surplus income from the comfortably off? Born in London, England, in 1942, Walter Keeler trained at Harrow School of Art under Victor Margrie and Michael Casson. He established his first studio in Buckinghamshire from 1965 to 1976 and has operated his present studio in South Wales since 1976. Keeler was a pioneer of saltglaze revival in 1970s and developed distinctive range of useful saltgazed pottery that is still in production. He also makes innovative earthenware pots that reflect a deep-rooted interest in pottery from the past.

Tip Toland: About My Process Each figure I make is autobiographical. Each one is an aspect of myself that has inched its way to the foreground of my awareness and is ready to become fleshed out. The character that most closely embodies the particular aspect waiting to come into being makes him or herself known to me through little thumbnail sketches. Although many details come to the foreground as the piece evolves, I sense the essence of the character right off the bat. There is also a necessary waiting period between when I sketch initially and when I revisit the drawing to see if it stills holds energy for me. If it does, then I begin to take it seriously and draw a number of variations until I have more of a sense of it. There is usually a strong energy driving each piece to be made. I understand this to mean that this aspect of myself is ready to know me a lot better. The long process to make and complete each figure always results in my feeling very tender towards them. Like kids, they come from me, as stand-ins for some part of me, yet in the process they also become their own fully formed selves. In this way, I can imagine how authors initially invent a character and as more time is spent with the character, he or she comes to direct his or her own course in this subtle process of individuation.

What to Make: The process begins when I am still, whether meditating or drawing or daydreaming, without distractions. All ideas or imaginings are welcome, uncensored, and I try to document everything with thumbnail sketches. It all goes into my sketchbook and I forget about it, adding new thumbnails when they come, until months later when I get curious and go back and take another look. I wait to see if anything speaks to me. The good news is that I don’t any longer need to “understand” why I want to make a piece. It is enough that it holds my energy and compels me. So I move into the planning of the piece trusting that more will be revealed to me father along. The Details and the Hows: After many more drawings, decisions like scale, color, props, and particularly gesture are determined. When most of these details are in place, I begin the search for a model. I always prefer an actual model but sometimes my model is a collection or a collage of numerous body parts from photos I’ve collected over the years. When I do use models, I photograph them extensively, take many measurements, and work from those photos and numbers. To determine an armature, I draw a basic armature on top of the photographs from a few angels to see how it would work. I’ve found that it helps to make a scale drawing of the model in the gesture and sketch the armature into that drawing. The armature I generally use is 1/2-inch galvanized metal plumbers pipe, screwed into a base flange that is screwed to a plywood-reinforced base on heavy castors so it rolls. The armature acts as a simple skeleton on which I can pack solid clay to flesh out the figure. I use Soldate 60 clay by Aardvark as it is very sticky and tolerant of being used to build large figures. I seem to need to work this way because it enables me to see the whole figure at once. Plus, I love the firmness of a solid clay figure to bash and pack clay onto. As the figure is articulated it also is stiffening, and when it reaches just past leather hard it is ready to be cut up into many pieces for hollowing. Each piece is hollowed and compressed, keeping a consistent thickness throughout the whole figure, and then scored and reassembled. Drying happens very slowly. Shrink slabs are made and the piece is put on top of the shrink slabs to be loaded into the kiln. I fire Soldate 60, a cone 10 clay, to cone 2. It is strong at cone 2 as well as being absorbent and doesn’t warp and shrink as much as it would if fired to cone 10. After Firing: The piece is halfway finished; this is really Tip Toland, Deafening, 2010, stoneware, paint, chalk pastel, lifesize.

nceca 31 Journal 2012 • Demonstrators

Jason Walker: About My Process

Tip Toland, Letter to God, 2011, stoneware, paint, chalk pastel, hair, steel, 22” x 38” x 19”.

when I want to call in the elves. Usually the figures are fired in sections so they need to be glued together afterwards. So begins the cycle of gluing and sanding and more gluing and sanding until no one can detect a seam. Then I begin to mix colors for the base coat using water-based primer house paint. I thin it down and paint the entire piece with many coats to achieve opacity. After that, I get about ten other colors—also thinned, water-based house paint—that I think would make a good skin tone and begin the flecking process. With a toothbrush I fleck a fine spray over the whole surface. When it dries I begin with another color. For the last few coats I use a damp sponge to blot the wet paint and blend everything together. Then I stand back and squint a lot and after about a dozen coats of various colors, skin emerges. Now it’s time for the dry pigment. I like to use NU-pastels, shaved into powder to mix with Daniel Smith bottles of dry pigment making multiple colored dust piles. Using dry, soft and hard bristle brushes, I apply pigment as if I were making a pastel drawing. It’s good to have a vacuum handy or do this outside so I’m not blowing dust everywhere. When it’s time, I spray it with a final spray matte varnish by Golden. This will darken the color somewhat so I always go back for final touch ups. The piece is now ready for hair. I won’t go into details about how the hair is applied. But I will say that it’s tricky and I have a long way to go before I can say that I have it down. I am always a little flabbergasted at the finish of making a piece. It is so familiar to me and yet very strange simultaneously. I feel like I am meeting them for the first time. It’s a giddy feeling. Tip Toland was born outside of Philadelphia and now lives in Vaughn, Washington. She received her MFA from Montana State University in 1981. In 1986 she received a visual arts Fellowship grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She was awarded first-place in 2005 for the Virginia Groot Foundation grant. Tip is a full-time studio artist and a part-time instructor in the Seattle area. In addition, she conducts workshops across the United States and in Europe. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally. She is currently represented through Barry Friedman Gallery LTD. Her work is represented in both private and public collections, including the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian, Kohler Art Center, The Museum of Art and Design and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

nceca 32 Journal 2012 • Demonstrators

The challenge of combining two-dimensional imagery with three-dimensional form has intrigued me since I first discovered its potential early in undergraduate school. Originally I went to art school to pursue a degree in illustration and perhaps a minor in ceramics, because I was told the only way to earn a living as an artist was to pursue a career in commercial art. However, I discovered I could combine my love of drawing and painting with my passion to make objects out of clay. Currently I use a cone 10 porcelain clay body and hand build with slabs. I combine my hand-built forms with slip cast parts and spend an immense amount of time painting two-dimensional imagery over the entire piece. I have used numerous different painting techniques, but for the past ten years I have painted on bone-dry clay using commercial underglazes. Recently, I have become disenchanted with the limitations in color with underglazes. In a search to find a resolution to this problem, I traveled to China twice within the last year to experiment with the technique of china painting on high-fired porcelain. Pleased with the results, I have integrated this process into my sculptural ceramic work. My dream to become a studio artist has been the product of a conscious decision and good fortune. I am currently represented by Ferrin Gallery based in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. For the past eight years I have built a strong relationship with Ferrin Gallery, and they have invested a great deal of time and energy promoting my work. I have many people to thank such as friends and teachers

Jason Walker, A Hand in Two Worlds, 2009, porcelain, underglaze, luster and concrete, 19” x 10” x 15”.

for encouragement and collectors who have given financial support with the purchase of a piece. I received a BFA from Utah State University working with John Neely and an MFA from Penn State University working with Chris Staley and Liz Quackenbush. After schooling I moved to Napa, California, and worked at Napa Valley Community College as a lab technician and part-time instructor. I accepted my position at NVCC out of a need to earn a living and desire to remain in an artistic environment, and a realization that I wanted to dedicate myself to a goal of living as a studio artist. The first obstacle toward my goal was finding an outlet to sell work. I researched crafts shows, and I applied to many different events and galleries. I was accepted to the ACGA (The Association of Clay and Glass Artists of California) and participated in an annual craft show sponsored by this organization in the San Francisco Bay area for two years. The sales from the craft fair were very encouraging and they put enough money in my pocket to pay the

for my work. In the same vein as the Hudson bills, but at that time I did not have the means or River School painters, I have traveled to specific the facilities to start my own studio. I had to find American wilderness locations and backpacked an intermediary place to continue making my with my sketchbook to gather imagery. I call work and build up financial resources. I applied these trips my “imagery collection expeditions.” and was accepted to be an artist-in-residence at For instance, I have walked more than 100 miles the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts through Yosemite National Park and wandered and moved to Helena, Montana. I worked at the many canyons of The Grand Staircase Escalante Bray for two years and found it the perfect place National Monument in Southern Utah. I have to begin life as a studio artist. My experience at also explored the landscape of technology. This the Bray was invaluable to my growth as an artis to say, I have pounded the pavement in some ist. It showed me it was possible to survive as a of our most iconic urban centers like Seattle and studio artist, and permitted the necessary focus Chicago, gathering imagery from the humanto bring the resolution and confidence to my ideas made environment. that continue in the sculptural work I make today. I felt it important to travel large cities and In my ceramic sculpture, I have been explorwilderness areas in order to explore the dichoting American ideas of nature and how technology has changed our perceptions of nature. Besides the Jason Walker, Mechanized Life: The Jackrabbit and omy of culture and nature. I selected designated Carin, 2008, porcelain, underglaze and luster, wilderness areas because wilderness is one place obvious advantages technology may bring to our the 19” x 12” x 15”. that embodies our most ideal perception of nalives, there lie unintended consequences and unture. Speaking of wilderness William Cronon wrote, “For Ameriderlying messages behind every creation that forever change our percans wilderness stands as the last remaining place where civilizaceptions, our social interactions and our relationship to nature. For tion, that all too human disease, has not fully infected the earth. It is instance, I wear eyeglasses to correct my vision. Corrective lenses an island in the polluted sea of urban-industrial modernity, the one are a remarkable invention, and before human beings had this invenplace we can turn for escape from our own too-muchness.” tion deteriorating vision was a natural and accepted part of mortality. Paradoxically, from our “own too-muchness” our ideas of wilAfter the first person put on a pair of glasses, how did this subconderness are conceived. Through exploring the dichotomy of culture sciously affect how we perceive certain natural processes of our own verses nature, I have come to realize my own appreciation for nature bodies? Did it make us feel empowered as though now we had a leg has come from culture. Ultimately, ideas of nature and/or wilderness up on nature? Did we think we were no longer truly bound to its laws are human constructs, ever changing through human cultures at difbecause we could create something to correct it? ferent moments in history. For example, in the late 1700s wilderness, The word “nature” has become such an oblique term in our present in America, was a place to be feared. It was wild and dangerous and ideology that it has altogether lost its meaning. What is nature exactly? a hell for those cast out of civilization by God. Next, with the ideolWhat images come to mind when you hear or read the word nature? ogy of Manifest Destiny, wilderness became a landscape to tame Webster defines “nature” as, “something in its essential form and cultivate. Presently, wilderness is perceived as a place of mediuntouched and untainted by human hand.” By this definition we tation or self-reflection. It is a refuge to be protected and honored exclude ourselves from nature. It creates two separate worlds—the and a safe haven to reconnect with mortality through direct physical human-made world and the non-human-made world. In America we experience. I am fascinated with these changing perceptions and in hold tightly to this dualistic point of view, and I suggest the way my work I aspire to question and rethink our perceptions of nature, we perceive nature speaks volumes about the way we perceive ourculture, wilderness and civilization. Perhaps through examination selves. It is a significant aspect in defining what it means to be huwe may once again reinstate our own naturalness and, one day, find man at this precise moment in history, because it describes how we balance between the planet and ourselves. Ultimately, in doing so see ourselves fitting into a sometimes unexplainable world. we may come to a better realization of what it means to be human. I feel technology plays a primary role in shaping our perceptions of ourselves and of nature, consciously and unconsciously. Jason Walker, a studio artThis is the base line for my ceramic work and I narrate this by ist, lives Bellingham, Washingcombining elements of technology and biology in the forms I creton. He received a BFA from Utah ate and the imagery I paint on the pieces. I aspire to develop a State University and an MFA dialogue to critically examine the way technology affects me, and from Penn State University. He contemporary culture. Technology is both friend and foe. It can has taught at numerous places, be disorienting. Like a moth to a flame or a light bulb, as a culture including at Haystack Mountain we are pursuing our technological aspirations with a sort of blind School for the Crafts, Penland admiration. By communicating these ideas, my ceramic work is School for the Crafts, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute in China and a form of social critique, but at the same time it is a form of selfthe International Ceramic Studio in Kecskemet, Hungary. He spent examination. Technology is woven into the fiber of being. I wear two years as an artist-in-residence at The Archie Bray Foundation glasses, I drive a car and I have electricity in my home. for the Ceramic Arts, receiving the Taunt Fellowship award. He has Visually, I tell this story with the use of forms and imagery also been awarded an NCECA International Residency Fellowship encompassing objects from my everyday existence, such as light for a residency in Vallauris, France. He has work in major collecbulbs, electrical conduit and automotive parts. For quite some time tions including the Fine Art Museum of San Francisco: de Young; the inspiration for the imagery came from my day-to-day expethe Carnegie Mellon Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and the rience, because I felt the experience of an average day informed Arizona State University Art Museum, Ceramic Research Center my perceptions more significantly than anything else. However, in Tempe, Arizona. He is represented by Ferrin Gallery. I have started incorporating travel experiences into the research

nceca 33 Journal 2012 •

Demonstrators

2012 NCECA NEW WORKS ARTISTS Nicholas Kripal, Matt Nolen, Jae Won Lee

Nicholas Kripal: About My Studio Practice Over the past several years one aspect of my studio practice has been an investigation of site-related/site-specific installations. Specifically, but not exclusively, I have placed sculptural installations within sacred spaces. I am interested in the history of the site, the religious rites that take place within the site, and Nicholas Kripal, Swarm, 2010. Terra cotta and digital painting, dimensions variable. Philadelphia International Airport. the architectural iconography of the site. The last is of particular interest as it operates as a signifier for #5. I was delighted to see how a manufactured food container the other two. Unlike traditional exhibitions in white box galdesigned to reference the structure of a Gothic cathedral could lery spaces, these sculptural installations involve interface with also generate sculptures that referred to Islamic patterns, Judaic the site’s congregation, and extensive research and development symbols, and the structure of DNA. I began to collect other food for preliminary proposals that describe and negotiate the concepmolds and containers whose form and style reflect the various tual and aesthetic integration of the sculpture to the site. Consedesign issues/trends of the time they were produced. This requently, all of the above affect and determine the format of the lationship between food presentation, commercial design, and final installation. Furthermore, the research for these site-related architecture led to a large installation at Philadelphia Internainstallations inevitably generates ideas that extend other aspects tional Airport in conjunction with the 2010 NCECA conference. of my studio practice. Titled Swarm, it consisted of over seventy terra cotta sculptural For example, research for the site-related sculpture Crown assemblages, each made from combined casts of antique, period, at St. Stephen’s Church in Ridgefield, CT, led me to drawings retro, or contemporary food molds and serving containers. These of Baroque cathedral floor plans and axonometric depictions sculptures were constructed in layers and grouted, a reference to of Renaissance church interiors that suggested the structure of the rich tradition of architectural ornamentation and its iconographic implications. Installed in three, twenty-foot-long display cases, the sculptures were arranged and ordered like a cityscape, from low-lying outskirts to dense city centers. The walls of the cases were painted with a digitally abstracted image of a swarm of starlings. From this installation came two other works, which utilized similar cast sculptural assemblages arranged on tables. Confection refers to the tradition of still life painting, historic ceramic vessels, and the way collected objects are presented or displayed. Contrivance refers to formal gardens, topiaries, and banquet centerpieces, and is finished with a gloss black glaze similar to commercial wall tiles. I continue to find aesthetic and conceptual challenges with this “new work” and revel in the research for, and the play of, its creation. Nicholas Kripal, W.S Variation #2, 2006 (detail). Earthenware, 3.5”x 72”.

snowflakes and fractals. This led me to create Santo Spirito 4 x 4, a multipart cast concrete floor sculpture, for a site-related installation at the Philadelphia Art Alliance. A colleague familiar with this sculpture introduced me to a Williams Sonoma cathedral-shaped bundt cake pan. The form of the pan was not unlike sculptural models I had created in the past, but as a found object presented a new arena to investigate. This, combined with research centered on sacred geometry and the use of the golden mean in architecture, resulted in several floor and wall sculptures. These works played with various patterns that the bundt cake pan could generate, including W.S. Variation # 2, #4, and

nceca 34 Journal 2012 • New Works

Nicholas Kripal is Chair of the Crafts Department Tyler School of Art, Temple University, and Professor of Ceramics Program. His studio practice utilizes the ceramic medium as a source for sculptural installations, and site-specific/ site-related installations, which explore architectural iconography. These installations have been seen as part of Contemplations on the Spiritual Site Projects: Glasgow, Scotland (2001), Site Projects: Kristus Kircke, Cologne, Germany (2002), Site Projects: Sala Uno,

Rome, Italy (2001), and Site Projects: The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, NYC (2002). Along with sculptor Jeffrey Mongrain he has created site installations for St. Patrick’s Church, Indianapolis, IN (2004) and Corpus Christi Church, Baltimore, MD (2005) and Crane Arts Old School, Philadelphia, PA (2011). Recent solo exhibitions include New Work, Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, (2012), and Swarm, Philadelphia International Airport (2009-2010); He is the recipient of a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, a Pollock-Krasner grant, and three Pennsylvania Foundation for the Arts Fellowships. He lives and works in Philadelphia, PA.

Matt Nolen:

Matt’s Grotesque Garden As a painter, architect, and storyteller, clay provides the means by which I can marry my loves: the painted surface, three-dimensional form and narrative content. Ceramics gives me the language to communicate my stories to a worldwide audience—a language the entire world has used for centuries. I discovered clay as a young man in New York City and have since used it to process the cacophony of social, political, and psychological themes that life in a diverse urban center can inspire. I have come to see NYC as an experiment in world peace; a place where disparate energies must live successfully together in order to survive/thrive. This has inspired the complexities and layering of my ceramic works for twenty-eight years. Most recently, I have turned to the human figure as inspiration for ceramic form departing from the lavishly painted vessels and tiled environments of previous works. This progression happened in response to my need as a maker to innovate and keep the work fresh and unrecognizable to myself. In doing so, the stories that I am telling have become more personal and often are informed by the “inner landscape of self”: (1) the notions of “shelter” that explore what it is that we protect and keep private versus that which we choose to reveal; (2) the desire to “escape” through dreams; and (3) contemporary takes on the figure from ancient Greek and Roman portrait busts to the architectural load-bearing Caryatid and Atlas. When my work shifted away from the vessel form about five years ago and the figure became the primary vehicle for my storytelling in clay, the work expanded materially to include found objects, metal, wood and stone. I also be-

gan to move away from the tightly painted ceramic surfaces that I had been rendering for many years and began to use multiple firings to build the surface, encouraging the loose movement of glaze in early high firings and then responding with more controlled painted “moments” with successive firings at lower temperatures. As a result, the painted surface recedes, leaving the expressive qualities of the complex modeled figurative forms to carry the narrative. Also, my use of text in the work began to disappear with these changes, seeming much less integral and essential to the new vocabulary. A recent body of work, Grotesque Garden, was developed over three years and exhibited in November 2010 at the Jane Hartsook Gallery in NYC. This narrative installation is intended to evoke the mystery and aura of contemplation found in a walled secret garden. The individual works draw inspiration from garden seating, fountains, grottoes, topiary and especially the statuary found in Italian Mannerist gardens such as the “Monster Garden” of Bomarzo. These figures tell the stories of those who are challenged by conflicts and are in the midst of emotional and psychological transitions. Using the available allegories and metaphors found in natural cycles, landscapes and gardens, I hoped to create a twisted world where life is lived within these margins of change and where the beautiful and the grotesque can live together as equally important moments along the continuum of life in the 21st century.

Matt Nolen: Rose and Thorn, 2010, multiple fired porcelain, 48” x 48” x 6”. Photo: Caryn Leigh Photography Below: Matt Nolen: Spill (garden seat), 2009, stoneware, 27” x 48” x 48”. Photo: Caryn Leigh Photography

Matt Nolen lives in Harlem and maintains a studio in the South Bronx, New York City. His work is in numerous public collections including The Museum of Arts and Design, NYC; The CooperHewitt National Design Museum, NYC; The Newark Museum, NJ; The Everson Museum of Art, NY; The Houston Museum of Fine Art, TX; The de Young Museum, CA; The Racine Art Museum, WI; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA. He is an adjunct faculty member at New York University and Pratt Institute and has recently served as President of the board of trustees at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, ME. Nolen has received awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

nceca 35 Journal 2012 • New Works

nature and the world. I see landscape paintings expressing both the actual topography of a grand site and the layers of psychological and art historical meanings that are embedded in the scenery. Painting is no longer simply about the description of the visible world. I am intrigued to use it as a means of conveying the inner Under the title In Search of Streams and Mountains, I have emlandscape of the artist’s heart and mind. barked on an artistic journey to a new territory for the literal exploI also recalled studying basic Chinese characters while ration of landscape views depicted in traditional Asian painting and growing up in my native Korea and how those characters were poetry. The study of these genres is a rich field of inquiry, which latdeveloped in such a visual way that mimics nature itself. The coner develops into a highly personal visual language. In recent years densation in Chinese poetry left me indelible recollections. Thus, I have contemplated the issues of human frailty and immortality. It I started to study Chinese characters to revisit the poetry of the is known that some living creatures return home when they sense Tang Dynasty poet, Li Bai. The hieroglyphic nature of language impending death. The creative direction of my new work is geared draws inspiration from visual imagination to artistic interpretaby this homing instinct, seeking out a way to return home, a physition. Life is about contacts and encounters, and cal, geographic place of birth. However, the way my new work necessarily reveals the nature of back home is not as simple as selling everything that contact. in an adopted place and going back to rebuild life As I incorporate a poetic investigation of after a prolonged absence in the homeland. botanical forms, streams and mountains inspired The initial research in books and literary by Asian landscape paintings, I continue to emsources begins with gathering information on the body a moon garden inspired by a lunar theme. usage of the macro view of nature depicted in traThe previous usage of floral patterns and elditional arts of painting, poetry and calligraphy of liptical shapes serves to suggest other realities the Far East. It is followed by a firsthand study of of introspection. When I survey my old work, I Chinese landscape painting and nature in China realize it indicates what I was paying attention as a historical, time-invested, perceptual disto back then, while my new work comments on course. This then leads to the development of my the old by pointing out what I was not previously own visual interpretation, one that is personal, yet engaged in. Noticing things is crucial to making abstract. This new journey explores the divisions art: things about ourselves, problems, and chaland unifications of nature, culture and society. lenges. Making art allows us to declare who we It also investigates the acculturation of Eastern ideas in a Western environment. In turn, it leads Jae Won Lee, Blue Mountains (view), cup & saucer, are. The Zen proverb tells us that for the beginner dish set, porcelain, wooden shelves, 72x72x6½”, 2010 there are many paths, but for the advanced, only a to the conceptual, philosophical foundation of my few. I decided to take a beginner’s approach of many paths in order work, which investigates multidimensional and contextual relationto generate unresolved issues in the pursuit of an artistic adventure. ships between the ancient and the contemporary, while incorporating A series of travels has enabled explorations of certain materials I the relationship between the Eastern and the Western. I pursue the encountered on specific sites in Korea, China, and Taiwan. Instead dialogue and interaction between the two contrasting but mutually of creating a visually cohesive body of work, I remain open to recomplementary elements of yin and yang. In the end, the ceramic sponding to future new findings at different locations. objects are the metaphorical crucibles of my spiritual introspection. Constant questions arise while aiming to reach beyond the surface concerns of a visual problem, and touch on profound insights through reductive expressions and visual condensations. The understanding of the origins of ceramic materials and processes is of inestimable value to me. I offer an aesthetic perspective that recalls the muted sensibilities of internal reflection through the congruity of Asian philosophy with natural materials as well as the incongruity between the philosophical tranquility of nature and contemporary, industry-driven social paradigms. These formal and conceptual contradictions demonstrate how basic elements can be utilized in generating a more holistic relationship between humankind and the natural world.

Jae Won Lee:

In Search of Streams and Mountains

Jae Won Lee: Prologue: In Search of Streams and Mountains (detail), porcelain, decals, wood, metal rod, 8x36x8½”, 2011

During my first travel in China in 2007, I reflected on how geographic proximity and political affiliation played key roles in China’s influence and inspiration of ancient Korean art and culture. I was compelled to study traditional Chinese landscape paintings and pay close attention to the Chinese terrain and landscape. Landscape paintings represent not only a portrayal of nature itself, but also a codified illustration of the human view of

nceca 36 Journal 2012 • New Works

Jae Won Lee makes intimate-scaled porcelain box forms, as well as porcelain sculpture shaped by numerous small multiple components of nuanced whites and off-whites and assembled into a large singular unit toward conveying the idea of white winter as a place to contemplate simplicity, silence, and solitude. Lee received an MFA from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and she is currently Associate Professor at Michigan State University.

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nceca 37 Journal 2012 • New Works

2011/2012 NCECA Fellowships & Residencies Regina Brown Undergraduate Student Fellowships

Ariel Bowman, Alexander Clinthorne, Kristy Leverock

NCECA Graduate Student Fellowships

Dandee Pattee, Lindsay Rogers

NCECA International Residencies

Ray Chen, Marc Leuthold Ariel Bowman

My research trip to Europe this fall was even more educational and inspirational than I had expected it to be. I was able to study prehistoric mammals and present-day animals extensively and greatly expand my knowledge of the history of ceramics and porcelain. Specifically, I studied the animal in clay and the history of the Meissen animals. The first part of my trip focused on the Paris Natural History Museum. The extensive collection of animal skeletons in the Gallery of Comparative Anatomy gave me a unique insight into the differences between animals. I was able to closely study parts of animals and relate them to one another. At the Gallery of Paleontology I was able examine full skeletons of the prehistoric mammals that I create in my own work. Sketching and photographing these skeletons has given me a much better understanding of the presence of these animals, as well as their anatomy. Another part of the museum, the Gallery of Evolution, allowed me to see a wide variety of taxidermy specimens and study animal anatomy. In addition to these museums, I experienced the other art that Paris had to offer, at the Louvre, the Decorative Arts Museum, the Muse d’Orsay, and the Museum of Hunting and Nature. At the Decorative Arts Museum, I viewed a special exhibition titled Animal, which consisted of furniture, ceramics, and fiber art all focusing on animals as a subject. I was also able to visit the National Museum of Ceramics and tour the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory.

Rhinoceros, about 1731, hard-paste porcelain with oil paint, 26 ¾ x 43 ⅛ x 18 ½” Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Porzellansammlung, Dresden, Germany

nceca 38 Journal 2012 • Fellowships & Residencies

The second part of my trip focused on Dresden and Meissen in Germany. Meissen is the oldest porcelain factory in Europe, and Dresden holds one of the largest collections of porcelain in the world. At the Porcelain Museum I visited the Hall of Meissen Animals, which offered a beautiful, up-close look at some of the first animals manufactured in porcelain. Created in 1731, the large scale of these animals was incredible. The porcelain museum also contained the entire royal porcelain collection of Augustus the Strong. Traveling to the Meissen Porcelain Factory, I learned about how these animals were created and fired. I toured the factory and saw demonstrations of the various processes used to manufacture porcelain. Meissen was the first site of true European porcelain, discovered by Johann Friedrich Böttger at the Albrechtsburg castle, the original site of the Meissen Porcelain Manufactory. While in Dresden I also visited the Royal Palace, the Historic Green Vault, and the Turkish Chamber. These museums contained amazing collections of decorative arts from ceramics, to bronze, glass, and ivory. I also saw the Dresden zoo, which is renowned for its collection of Asian animals. The pictures from my trip will continue to aid my research now that I am back in the studio. The ability to study prehistoric mammals and the history of the animal in clay has become an integral part of my sculptures.

Alexander Clinthorne I began my ceramic journey at Peter’s Valley, New Jersey, where I took a workshop with Hayne Bayless’s Fabulous Extruder Fabrications; a tool that I had little experience with. The way the extruder creates such machined crisp edges works wonderfully with my pieces as it brings a kind of order to a seemingly chaotic composition. My next ceramic sojourn happened in Watershed, Maine. My residency took the form of intense manual labor directed by Markus Urbanik and Hunter Stamps as a team of residents constructed a large catenary arch kiln designed for wood/salt firing. I learned how to cut angle iron and hard brick, and to weld. After filling the kiln with resident and staff artwork and naming the kiln, the team fired the “Salubrious Brother” over the course of three days. After spending the rest of the summer teaching ceramics to kids the air became cool and crisp and leaves started to change color; fall was here and it was time to go to Shigaraki, Japan. From the experience at Watershed, I knew that being a resident artist was a real pleasure and privilege, but Shigaraki was a dream come true. Luckily, I had previously spent a year in Japan and I was able to communicate and bond with local Japanese artists and

Alexander Clinthorne at work in his studio

staff. I also had the privilege of being the translator for the other resident artists. Thanks to my experience at Shigaraki I have ceramic artist friends in France, Iceland, India, Japan and Taiwan. The staff at Shigaraki was incredibly helpful and kind and the facilities were no less amazing. Every couple of days, a group of school children came to tour the Shigaraki Cultural Park. My Japanese fluency made me the main attraction. The collection of dried bugs on my shelf and the fact that I was making a giant ceramic spider caught kids’ attention and raised questions from the kids and teachers alike. A potter named Yuji stopped in the studio and after we became friends, he gave me a true treasure: clay from his personal supply that was harvested from a mountain in his backyard. This is the foundation for Shigaraki’s traditional clay body and only 500 kilograms remain. What my friend Yuji gave me was more precious than gold and happened to be the exact reason that I came to Shigaraki. Raw materials excite me and are one of the reasons I chose to work in clay. My excitement manifested itself as a tea bowl. I put my Watershed wood-fire experience to the test when my Indian friend Adil Writer and I did two wood firings together. I was invited to the 12th Symposium of Large-Scale Ceramics in Estonia, thanks to Adil’s recommendation. At the end of my stay I had an opening for my first international solo exhibition! In order to give back to my community, I went back to the University of Hawaii as an alumni and built a small high temperature charcoal-fired kiln; I learned the design through firing one during my time in Shigaraki.

Kristy Leverock The time I spent in the Grand Tetons National Park and Yellowstone National Park gave me a better perspective on native animals in a more natural setting. While I was there I observed beavers, moose, elk, bison, coyotes, mule deer, pronghorn, yellowbellied marmots, and bears. I also saw a large assortment of birds. The behavior of the wildlife was very different from behavior of wildlife that I see in my own backyard. Usually if I see a wild animal around my neighborhood it runs away as soon as a person notices it. I think the animals in Yellowstone and the Tetons do not feel as threatened by people as the animals in my suburban area because so much of the land is covered in shelter and feeding grounds for them. Only 3 percent of the Grand Tetons is occupied

Kristy Leverock, You’d Better Get Used to It

by human space, and animals have the other 97 percent to live on. It’s hard for a wild animal to have a place in a suburban setting, when so much space is occupied by humans needs. The behavior I see in squirrels, raccoons, skunks, white-tailed deer, and the rare coyote in my suburban area is always running, confusion of where to go, panic, and fear. I think those behaviors come from having nowhere to go. So it was interesting being in Yellowstone and the Tetons, where I was the outsider in their home. November 26th was the opening for A Delicate Conversation. I wanted to create an experience for the viewer that would engage them in a personal moment with the pieces. After returning from my trip to Yellowstone, I was thinking a lot about where wild animals and people can coexist together. I am interested most in the conversation alone, since so many people just want them to go away without caring what happens or where they go. We are faced with the reality that we are here and we are expanding and require space, but at the same time they are here as well. I am interested in the conversation about the options, but I am not interested in providing those options. While in Wyoming, I heard many of the controversies about bison, and wolves, and elk, all dealing with those animals being there. Where I am from, on my side of the country, those animals aren’t here. They have already been pushed out, or other large wild animals have already been pushed out. For most we have already answered the conversation of what do we do about coexistence. We have answered this with “we kill them and take over everything.” My work is inspired by the controversies and issues and resolutions. And so I have made a series on a deli-

FELLOWSHIPS & RESIDENCIES continues on Page 136 nceca 39 Journal 2012 • Fellowships & Residencies

From China to West Virginia: Shared Journeys II

A Review by Linda Rosefsky

fessor Dan Murphy, Missouri State University Professor Dryden Wells, USU Professor John Neely, and JCI Professor and Symposium Coordinator Li Chao. For Wells, materials and processes deAmid the booming, dizzying spectacle of urbanization a new veloped and mastered by Chinese artisans over thousands of years art market is flourishing in China. As China enters the internationwere “so different, so new. Even the clay in Jingdezhen was differal art arena Chinese ceramics are beginning to share the spotlight ent. At JCI,” he recalled, “you have to throw preconceived notions with painting, installation, sculpture, video, and works on paper. out the door. It’s interesting to see the different ways people adapt Drawing inspiration from China’s past, from the West, and from to new materials and surroundings.” In the end the panel agreed individual experience, contemporary Chinese artists are creating that in order to fully benefit from the WVU/JCI Study and Travel a new form of ceramic art that is expressive, multi-faceted, and Program it is essential to be flexible and open to new experiences. evocative of a rapidly changing culture. Until the late twentieth Symposium participants were asked to reconsider their precentury, ceramics in China were regarded as craft and those who conceived notions regarding China in the Keynote Lecture delivmade them were considered artisans rather than fine artists. When ered by Dr. Elizabeth Lacouture of Colby College in Maine. LacouChina opened up to the West in the 1980s artists began to question ture challenged socio-political norms and deconstructed what she long-held beliefs and explore issues of identity—both individual referred to as the “made in China” myth. A growing number of and cultural. Doors that had long been closed were finally open and Americans view the rise of globalization as a dangerous threat to international alliances soon developed. the struggling U.S. economy. “This fear is politically motivated,” In October 2008 over eighty ceramicists ventured across Lacouture argued. “It threatens to divide us at a time when Chinese the Atlantic to Jingdezhen, China, to attend Shared Journeys, a artists are struggling to find an international ground-breaking international symposium voice and American artists are looking beon Chinese and American ceramic educayond geographical borders to broaden their tion sponsored by NCECA in affiliation perspectives.” with Jingdezhen Ceramics Institute (JCI) In the inspiring lecture “Ceramic Art and West Virginia University (WVU). as a Pivotal Force in Education, Social DeThree years later in October 2011 NCECA, velopment,” CEO and community leader JCI, and WVU joined forces once again and Bill Strickland described pivotal events held Shared Journeys II in Morgantown, in his life that led him to form ManchesWest Virginia. For three days over 180 artter Craftsmen’s Guild and Bidwell Trainists, educators, and students from across the ing Center—enterprises that bring hope to U.S. assembled at WVU to engage in multiimpoverished areas in Pittsburgh, Penncultural discourse through a series of panel sylvania, through innovative educational discussions, lectures, and ceramics exhibiprograms in which the arts are emphasized. tions. In addition symposium participants Val Cushing delivers the Distinguished Lecture Personal Strickland uses clay to change the lives of surveyed four ceramicists born and edu- Reflections on Modern China’s Opening to the West and Effects on Ceramic Art and Education. disadvantaged youth. “When we get better cated in China “work their magic,” as one at clay we get better at living,” he stated passionately. “The arts are awestruck observer described the ongoing throwing, trimming, a bridge to walk into a better life.” glazing, and sculpting demonstrations. Smoothly synchronized by Alfred University Professor Emeritus Val Cushing, who lecWVU Professor and Ceramics Area Coordinator Shoji Satake and tured at the first Shared Journeys symposium in Jingdezhen, deAssistant Professor Robert “Boomer” Moore, Shared Journeys II livered the Distinguished Lecture “Personal Reflections on Modprovided a rare and unique opportunity to explore Chinese ceramern China’s Opening to the West and Effects on Ceramic Art and ics history, technique, materials and, most significantly, the posEducation.” Drawing on forty-two years experience as an educator sibilities of collaboration and shared experience—both in studio Cushing shared his thoughts on new global ideas and aesthetics in practice and in life. contemporary art. “With the rise of capitalism in China we will It was during a visit to Jingdezhen in the 1990s when now see more individual studio potters, the opening of public and priretired WVU Professor Bob Anderson first realized the infinite vate art schools, galleries, and technological advancements such as potential of collaboration. In 1996 Anderson forged a partnership rapid proto-typing. Tradition will diminish,” Cushing maintained. between WVU and JCI and a six-week summer residency program “What are the implications of all this?” was established. For the first time American students had the opAs thought-provoking as the lectures were, the greatest reward portunity to study at the only institution of higher learning in Chiin attending Shared Journeys II was the privilege of viewing the na solely devoted to ceramic art. After WVU acquired a compound creative expertise of Master Overglaze Decorator Feng Shangjin, of buildings on the former JCI campus, semester-long residencies Master Trimmer Dai Guangyu, and Master Thrower Zhan Shaowere offered to students, independent artists, and visiting profeslin—all from Jingdezhen—as well as that of Professor Lv Pinchang sors. In the panel discussion “Ceramic Opportunities for Westernof the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. With a slow and ers in China,” first-hand impressions of the WVU/JCI Study and steady hand Shangjin painted highly detailed imagery such as an Travel Program were shared by Utah State University (USU) Pro-

NCECA Continues to Cross Cultural Borders

nceca 40 Journal 2012 • Shared Journeys II

eQuad-Pro Kilns Left to right: Master Trimmer Dai Guangyu and Master Thrower Zhan Shaolin. Below, Dai Guangyu trims a pot thrown by Zhan Shaolin.

ethereal landscape encircling a porcelain vase and a procession of fish swimming gracefully across a milky-white platter. In contrast Guangyu and Shaolin produced an astonishing number of ceramic urns, bowls, and platters in rapid succession. The thrower and trimmer are familiar with performing at a fast pace; in Jingdezhen it is customary to throw the local porcelain quickly so that refinements may be made by the trimmer when it is nearing a bone-dry state. Throughout the demonstrations Guangyu and Shaolin struggled with pre-mixed clay generously donated by Standard Ceramic Supply in Carnegie, Pennsylvania. Although the consistency of this new material was unlike that of local porcelain in Jingdezhen the masters managed to create remarkable works in clay that would later be utilized as educational tools in WVU’s ceramic studios. Video cameras and widescreen monitors were positioned at every workstation, providing a technological window through which to view techniques and customs preserved for centuries by artisans in China. As pottery wheels spun and ribbons of clay fell silently to the floor Li Chao spoke to the captivated audience and clarified what a traditional ceramics education in Jingdezhen entails. “Ceramicists from Jingdezhen learn their craft from their masters and do not consider themselves artists,” he explained. “They are craftsmen commissioned to accomplish one singular task. At JCI there are seventy-two different steps in the process completed by seventy-two different people.” As Chao gestured to Shaolin he continued, “He does not create from his own design; he does only what he is commissioned.” To illustrate this point Chao proposed a “thrower challenge” and invited symposium participants to conjure up a design, sketch it onto a piece of paper, and hand it to Shaolin to reproduce. A particularly memorable submis-

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nceca 41 Journal 2012 • Shared Journeys II

pressive; it moves beyond functionality toward sion was a pencil drawing of a rather complex the personal vision of the artist. According to shape rendered by Eastern Kentucky University Chao, piecing together multiple slices of clay to (EKU) student James Webb. Calling on sixteen build a sculpture is common studio practice at years throwing experience Shaolin effortlessly JCI but the shapes are never hollow. Pinchang’s created Webb’s fanciful design in a matter of “inside-out” technique blends tradition with minutes. modern innovation. His unconventional method Shaolin’s ceramics education differs greatly of sculpting prompted several symposium parfrom that of American students such as Webb. ticipants to think about how they approach their The award-winning master thrower represents own work. A high school student from Pittsburgh thousands of ceramicists in Jingdezhen who are exclaimed “I’m studying sculpture and this way still part of a centuries-old apprenticeship sysof working really excites me. I want to work like tem. In the U.S. students are educated at univerthis—I can’t wait to try this in the studio!” sity where the focus tends to be on theory rather The symposium concluded with an informal than materials and processes. For better or for discussion led by EKU Professor Joe Molinaro in worse, apprenticeships have been lost in western WVU’s ceramic studios; it is difficult to imagine culture and learning has become a private experia more appropriate place in which to reflect on ence rather than a shared one. Since traditional Master Overglaze Decorator Feng Shangjin. the Shared Journeys experience. Surrounded by Chinese ceramicists are trained in an “off-univerEKU Professor Joe Molinaro, long-time pottery wheels encrusted with dried clay WVU sity” system and work collaboratively, personal Below, NCECA member and former NCECA Programs School of Art and Design Chair Alison Helm, expression and authorship are not as important Director. NCECA President Keith Williams, President as they are in the U.S. With the opening up of Elect Patsy Cox, and Executive Director Josh China, however, attitudes concerning the role of Green listened intently as participants shared the artist are changing dramatically. Responding their impressions of the event and expressed to contemporary western art, Chinese artists are their fears and hopes for the future. Was Shared questioning cultural customs and ideologies of Journeys II successful in meeting their expectathe past and a more individualistic approach is retions? According to EKU student James Webb, placing collaboration in the studio; this trend was it was. “Collaboration and shared experience are perceptible at Shared Journeys II. Throughout the what Shared Journeys is all about,” Webb said symposium Guangyu and Shaolin worked side by enthusiastically. “It’s a cross-cultural exchange side, rapidly generating a number of beautiful and between China and the U.S. where we get to see useful utilitarian objects. In contrast Lv Pinchang first hand the blending of cultures. They [Chiconstructed something quite exceptional: a freenese ceramicists] do specialty work; they’re takform ceramic sculpture. ing that tradition and bringing it here where it Pinchang began the demonstration by buildwill bleed into our own. I designed a pot, Shaolin ing a tall pliable cylinder from a flat sheet of clay. threw it, and I’m taking it home to trim. The pot is a very literal Similar to a master thrower, the artist inserted the entirety of his and personal representation of what this symposium was supposed right arm inside the vacuous form, simultaneously molding and to accomplish and for me, it did.” shaping with both hands—inside and out. After several hours a This is an exciting time to be an artist as well as a challengnearly life-sized, lusciously round female torso materialized. Using one. In this era of intense commercialization, urbanization, ing the same approach the artist then added a pair of fleshy legs, and globalization the desire to build community and form meantwo plump arms, and a weighty head that rested dreamily upon the ingful relationships is strong. Connections may be made on the shoulders of the figure. By the end of the symposium a captivating internet through social networking sites or online groups such as woman in clay reclined languidly across the platform on which the Joe Molinaro’s ClayArt but there is intimacy in gatherings such artist worked. as this. Those who had the good fortune to attend Shared JourUnlike traditional Chinese ceramics Pinchang’s work is exneys II witnessed the potential of artistic collaboration to cross cultural borders and promote mutual understanding. Thanks to the combined efforts of NCECA, JCI, and WVU hundreds of artists, educators, and students have explored Chinese culture from a range of perspectives, finding links between the past and present and building bridges between the East and West.

Lv Pinchang’s demonstration comes to a dramatic finish. All photos by Glen Blakely

nceca 42 Journal 2012 • Shared Journeys II

Linda Rosefsky is an independent scholar with an MA in art history from West Virginia University. She frequently lectures on contemporary art at WVU as well as Southeastern College Art Conference and Midwest Art History Society.

YOGA for Potters: Finding Your Personal Edge by Debra Chronister Yoga helps us become stronger, more centered, and more aware of our bodies. It can be a tremendous strength trainer without expensive equipment or gym fees. Finding and defining your personal edge can strengthen your body for making your art, and strengthen your mind for guiding your art. Building muscle in focused sessions can reduce your potential for injury in the studio, and can help you create with greater ease, which may bring a more effortless appearance to your work. Many of us grew up fit and healthy, but we may have experienced times in our life when we were not as fit as we would like— when we felt “out of shape.” This timeless problem was described in the 15th century by one of the sage yogis: “The body soon decays like unbaked earthen pots thrown in water. Strengthen and purify the body by baking it in the fire of yoga.” At one point I found myself at the bottom of the metaphorical recycle barrel. I could barely perform a single sit-up and pushups were entirely out of the question. It took a year of focused work including regular yoga to re-engage my body. The unexpected benefit was that it re-engaged my mind and my creativity as well. It kick-started my “moxie.” For me and many other ceramists, the manner in which the physical body moves is documented in each mark made in the clay. Our physical movement can be as inextricably linked to the appearance of our work as our ideas. I learned how important it is to keep the art machine in good working order! Yoga is more than physical exercises, it is a philosophy of mindfulness. To find the edge of our ability, to push that edge and hone it, we must practice being completely honest with ourselves. In yoga, being aware of our personal truth is called “satya.” Practicing satya in your art means staying true to your own vision. Practicing satya in your workout means acknowledging what your body is capable of at that moment in time and respecting those limits. This mindfulness, or awareness, will enable you to be your own best teacher/trainer so you can safely challenge your body to its next level.

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Strength Building Basics Warm the body with some mild activity. A brisk walk with the dog, a yoga sun salutation, a bike ride, anything that increases the flow of blood through the body. Finding a warm-up that works with your existing daily routine may create a more sustainable habit than adding a new habit out of the blue. Oldies are goodies when it comes to the most effective strength builders. Situps and push-ups can be done anywhere and require no equipment, not even a yoga mat! Both work to strengthen the core muscles of the body throughout the torso. Focusing energy here can alleviate many symptoms including digestion/elimination issues or back pain. How slow can you go? We work briskly to warm the body, but slowly to build strength. The slower the movement, the less the body relies on momentum to accomplish the task, requiring the power of the muscles to do the job. Quality over quantity! It is essential to keep the body in proper alignment to prevent injury. Like our art, good form (the alignment of your body) is fundamental to good work. Maintaining good form is easiest when moving slowly. Stop the action before the quality of the form is compromised. Repeat the action slowly and meditatively. Your muscles may begin to quake, but as long as you maintain good form, continue until your body says it has reached the edge of its ability. Body-builders call this “working to failure.” Certainly we have all pushed our clay work to this edge! You may only accomplish one repetition in the beginning, but one movement in good form is better than the two that might damage you. Knowing and acknowledging this limit is practicing satya. Feel the burn! Embrace your pyromaniacal nature by appreciating the sensation of heat in your muscles. Feeling the “burn” means transformation is taking place, just as in our kilns. Building muscle

requires tearing the existing muscle fiber slightly. The shaking and burning tell you that you are, in fact, building strength. Cool down after your work session by gently stretching those muscles you just targeted. Rest that part of your body through the next day. After the muscles have worked to failure they must rebuild, which requires rest, hydration and good nutrition. It is normal for those muscles to feel somewhat gelatinous and wobbly for a day while they grow the fresh, stronger muscle tissue. For the most rapid strengthening, work your targeted area to failure every other day. Once you have attained a level of strength that feels right for you, maintain it by working to failure periodically, say once a week or so.

Getting Started How many of us have started on a fitness path, only to stop because we feel unsuccessful, injure ourselves, or simply feel lost? Often this is because we are thinking of how something should look on the outside, instead of focusing on what is happening on the inside. (Note yet another great pottery metaphor!) Below is an insider’s description of an excellent way to perform the basics of strength building by working with your body and your breathing, and without injury. These simple exercises will strengthen the body’s major muscle groups—belly, back, chest, arms and legs—when performed with satya. Do a warm-up of your choice (I do a sun salutation similar to the one in last year’s NCECA Journal)

Belly Sit ups: Lie on your back, knees bent, toes lightly touching the floor (or bring the folded legs higher over the belly, ankles can be crossed). Hands are lightly touching behind the ears, elbows wide. Inhale while reclined and lengthen the spine through the crown of the head. Exhale slowly and steadily while you draw the forehead up toward the knees. Inhale slowly, rolling back down

nceca 43 Journal 2012 • Yoga for Potters

with control. Try to visualize each vertebrae contacting the ground one at a time. Repeat slowly, keeping the elbows wide as you challenge yourself, while maintaining awareness of your “satya”. Stop before you feel like you are “heaving” yourself up or tugging on your head with your hands.

Push your edge: Try to tip the tailbone up off the ground a bit at the end of each exhale by engaging the lowest abdominal muscles. Also, engage the obliques by inhaling and drawing the shoulder to the opposite knee (remembering to keep the elbows wide and out of the way).

Opposite Leg Extensions: Lie on your back, legs folded over your belly. Bring awareness to your lower back, those 5 lumbar vertebrae where we ceramicists frequently experience discomfort. Press this area into the floor by gently drawing the navel toward the spine and extending long through the spine from the navel area towards the tailbone and from the navel towards the crown of the head. Inhale and hover the head above the floor an inch or two; feel how this simple move engages the entire front of the torso. Arms can be (in order of challenge) along each side with palms pressing gently into the floor; reaching vertically toward the sky with palms facing each other; hands touching lightly behind the ears with elbows wide; or arms reaching overhead next to your ears with palms facing each other.

Exhale and extend one leg straight up and/or out while maintaining the gently lifted head and pressed lower back. Moving in slow motion, inhale and change

legs. Exhale as you extend the second leg as far as is challenging for you at this time. Satya! Repeat in a meditative mindset as long as you can maintain the pressing engagement in the lower back, inhaling as you change legs, exhaling as you extend one. Keep in mind that the priority is the abdominal support of the lower back, not how far you can straighten your leg or how far you can lower it. Control how much work you ask your body to accomplish by how far you lower your leg and how slow you go.

Pause where you find yourself, at the end of your exhale, then slowly inhale back up to plank or modified plank. Be sure the hips are always in line or above the line of the body. Repeat as many times as you can while maintaining the form. In the beginning your satya might be to bend your elbows only slightly before lifting back up. Do as many of those shallow pushups as you can in good form, until your arms begin to shake, and you will build your strength!

Chest and Arms Triceps Pushups: Begin on your hands and knees with your hands spread wide like stars, and under each shoulder. Distribute the weight across your hands by pressing into the floor with your finger pads. Step your legs back one at a time supporting yourself on the balls of your feet and feel the muscles of the entire torso engage. In yoga this is called “plank,” and should look just like that, a straight board on an incline or with hips lifted above the incline, never below. If your body isn’t ready for this and the hips sink, lower your knees to the floor in “modified plank” to protect your lower back and perform your pushups from here. Extend your spine from the center out: from the navel to the tailbone lengthen toward the heels, and from the navel upwards extend toward your crown. Your shoulder blades should be broad and strong across your back, and pressing away from the ears. At this point your arms and legs are extended but the joints are not “locked”; you should have a microbend in your knees and elbows.

Begin the actual pushup by inhaling in place and refocusing on your form. As you exhale, slowly lower your body toward the floor by bending your elbows. Keep the elbows tucked close to the ribcage to work the triceps. Lower your body to the point where you are still able to press yourself back up in good form.

nceca 44 Journal 2012 • Yoga for Potters

Push your edge: Take a breath or two, or several, to lower yourself…and several to raise yourself. How slow can you go? Chest Pushups: The form is the same as above, except the hands are placed outside the width of the shoulders, and the elbows point outwards as they bend. You will feel your pectorals engaging as you press down and up. Maintain the same torso strength and spinal alignment as with the triceps pushups.

Legs and Back Chair: Stand with feet hip distance apart or closer, expanding the spine from your center by rising through the crown and grounding through the tail-bone, shoulder blades hanging comfortably down your back (aka mountain pose). Your gaze is slightly in front of you. Inhale here, then exhale bending the knees and lowering your hips as if you were intending to sit, and lengthen the upper body slightly forward, expanding through the chest with shoulder blades working down the spine. Your arms can be (in order of challenge) with hands on hips, folded with palms up as if you are holding a platter near your chest, extended forward with palms facing each other, or with arms next to the ears. Breathe here. Draw the belly lightly toward the spine, and continue to lengthen through the spine in one long line from tailbone to crown. Remember to expand through the chest and press the shoulders away from the ears no matter which arm position you choose. Stay for a breath or two before inhaling up to mountain pose again. Repeat. How many breaths can you stay each time until your legs shake?

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your body! Breathe here. Attend to your satya and return to the floor or move to the next challenge.

Push your edge: Deepen your seat in chair until your thighs are parallel to the ground. Work your calves by rising onto your toes while you are in chair. Tough!

Locust: Inhale to balancing on your mid-section bringing the arms to your sides, palms facing your thighs, parallel to the ground. Really reach back with your fingers as if you were trying to reach your toes. Breathe here.

It is exciting to feel the body moving through these phases of work, recovery, and ensuing strength. You will surprise yourself with a greater sense of ease, grace and even gusto while creating your art. What seems difficult or even impossible at first will become second nature with practice. The mindfulness and satya you cultivate while working with the form of your body will enhance your mindfulness and satya while making your clay forms. The more we invest in ourselves, the more we have to give to our art. Endnotes

Exit this exercise by bringing the hands under the shoulders, pressing into them to shift the hips back towards your ankles into child’s pose with knees slightly wider than your torso. Soften the arms in place by bending the elbows or bring the hands near the ankles for a well-deserved rest.

1 The activities described in this article are designed for those who are in good health and are physically fit. Those with existing medical conditions would be wise to consult their health care professional before embarking on any new physical activity or changing your weight significantly. The author and the officers, employees and agents of NCECA and The Victoria College disclaim any liability for loss or injury in connection to the information shown and advice expressed herein. 2 Gheranda Samhita, Yoga, A Path to Holistic Health, trans. B.K.S. Iyengar (Dorling Kindersley: New York, 2008). 3 Use fists if this is painful to your wrists. Thumbs should face forward in the triceps pushup, inward for the chest pushups.

Back Superman variation: Lay on your belly, feet hip-distance apart, resting your chin or forehead on the floor/mat. Bring your hands lightly behind each ear, elbows wide. Exhale here. Inhale, lifting your upDebra Chronister, ceramic artist per body and legs so that you are balancAfter your workout relax completely and Associate Professor of Fine Art at ing on your mid-section. Lift your elbows for a few minutes. This allows the body Victoria College, began practicing yoga as high as you are able to help as a teenager in the 1970s. Yoga expand the chest. Lengthen the has greatly enhanced her ability spine into a long arc as you lift Finding and defining your personal to teach ceramics as well as to and extend through the crown practice her art. The nature of edge can strengthen your body for and lift/extend through the balls clay and the rhythm of working of the feet. Breathe here. You it have helped to shape her daily making your art, and strengthen your should find that your gaze is on yoga practice. mind for guiding your art. the floor slightly in front of you. Return to the floor and rest your head or continue directly to the next challenge. time to re-calibrate right down to a cellular level. In yoga we accomplish this in “savasana” by lying comfortably on our backs, completely relaxed for 6-10 minutes for each hour of workout. This period of rest allows the body to acknowledge the hard work and to begin the building proSuperman: Inhale to balancing on cesses where more muscle is required. your midsection, this time with your arms extended in front of you, like Superman. Feel the extra work required of your back muscles to hold your hands so far from

Recovery

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nceca 45 Journal 2012 • Yoga for Potters

panel: SUSTAINABLE CERAMICS

Nancy Selvage, Moderator • Gerard Blaauw & David Binns, Panelists Sustainable Ceramics: contradiction or possibility? by Nancy Selvage

Conserving natural resources: Will your granddaughter be able to fire copper reds?

Fundamentally a sustainable ceramics practice is one that contributes to conserving natural resources and keeping atmospheric carbon dioxide below dangerous levels. According to an analysis by Saul Griffith, “The world currently runs on about 16 terawatts (trillion watts) of energy, 90% of it burning fossil fuels. To level off at 450 ppm of carbon dioxide (from our current 390 ppm level), we will have to reduce the fossil fuel burning to 3 terawatts (from 14.5) and produce all the rest with renewable energy, and we have to do it in 25 years or it’s too late.”1 Since the current global infrastructure for replacing fossil fuel energy generation with renewable energy generation is extremely limited, an interim period with an aggressive mix of energy conservation, carbon offsets, and renewable energy generation will be necessary for reaching sustainable goals. Efforts to establish a sustainable balance between cultural practices and natural resources are generating new technologies, production methods, expressive strategies, and aesthetic values. Knowing how to evaluate, discuss, and improve the environmental impact of one’s ceramics practice is a critical art/craft survival skill. Artists and educators need to: (1) address carbon footprint issues with galleries, clients, and students concerned with “being green”; (2) work effectively with school administrators responsible for compliance with municipal/state/ federal regulations and university energy goals; (3) provide detailed energy information to juries evaluating their art projects for LEED-certification; (4) determine the most effective approach to reducing their energy impact within their unique locale; and (5) critically evaluate energy saving claims by equipment suppliers.

Since clay is continually replenished by the geological weathering of feldspar, which comprises about 60% of the earth’s crust, we do not have to worry about depleting this renewable resource; however, the mining and processing of clay and other minerals used in ceramics can have negative impacts on land use, water quality, health, and atmospheric carbon levels. In contrast to the abundance of clay, supplies are limited for most of the ceramic materials used for glazes and clay body colorants. The usable global reserve (the amount of the reserve base that can currently be mined or produced economically) of copper, chrome, cadmium, lead, and tin—essential minerals for reds, pinks, yellows, oranges, greens, and blues in ceramics—could be depleted within twenty to thirty years at current global demand levels, and within forty to sixty years with improved technology or enhanced economic impetus.2 In addition to being unsustainable resources, the mining and irresponsible disposal of these minerals pollute land, air, and water resources. A sustainable ceramics practice would eliminate the use of these minerals or purchase them from environmental clean-up operations. If they were used, 100% recovery (nothing down the drain) from glazing operations rinse water would be essential. Sequestering the recovered glaze sludge by firing it in “throwaway” bowls is a waste of energy and valuable minerals. Reuse the sludge in scrap glazes and “worthy of firing” ceramic products or save it until options are available for reclaiming the separate minerals. The sludge will gain value as the global demand for this limited supply of materials increases.

In the NCECA panel lecture I address: • Terms and measurement standards used for environmental impact evaluations. • Environmental impact of ceramics compared to other materials and products. • Resource depletion of critical ceramic colorants within a generation. • Two shocking studies in the 1990s indicated that fabricating, using once, and throwing away a disposable Styrofoam cup had less of an environmental impact than fabricating and washing a ceramic mug for reuse. • The most effective options for making your ceramics “more sustainable than Styrofoam.” • Fuel options including issues of “carbon neutrality” in firing with wood. • Examples of functional and symbolic ceramics created to address issues of sustainability. Gerard Blaauw will address the design, construction, and firing of energy efficient kilns. David Binns will address strategies for the creative use of clay and glaze waste materials. I will address resource conservation, firing emissions, and fuel options.

nceca 46 Journal 2012 • Panels

Rinsing brushes to separate and save mineral colorants for reuse.

In my personal practice and at the Harvard ceramics program, I instigated a system of rinsing brushes and other glazing tools in sets of containers for different colors of underglazes, stains, and oxide washes. Depending on your own palettes and/or recipes of materials, you can design a similar system to save and reuse these valuable ceramic materials.

Keeping atmospheric carbon dioxide below dangerous levels: Is your ceramic mug more sustainable than a Styrofoam cup? Before I began to research data on the environmental impact of ceramics production, I assumed that the energy investment might be comparable or not much more than the energy cost for other materials and that the durability and longevity of fired clay would easily compensate for its energy investment. I firmly believed that using a ceramic mug was much more environmentally friendly than using a disposable paper, plastic, or foam cup. However, this belief has been shaken by reading the analysis of two shocking studies. Based on the data available in the early 1990s, both studies concluded that fabricating, using once, and throwing away a disposable Styrofoam cup had less of an environmental impact than fabricating and washing a ceramic mug for reuse.3 Paper, foam, and plastic are more energy intensive (per unit of weight) to produce than ceramics, but since a ceramic cup weighs more than a plastic, paper, or foam cup, it has more embodied energy. Based on the average energy values calculated in both studies for the initial production and subsequent washings for a ceramic cup, it was only possible for the ceramic cup to “break even” with the Styrofoam cup after 2000 reuses and cleanings in a Canadian dishwasher powered by some hydroelectric energy. But the ceramic cup never caught up with the Styrofoam cup in an American dishwasher powered by less hydroelectric energy. In the Dutch study, which calculated broader indirect environmental impacts than energy use, the ceramic cup never “broke even” with the disposable Styrofoam alternative. These studies are extremely depressing, but they provide a useful baseline for evaluating the comparative energy consumption of our own practices. Since firing is the primary energy user in ceramics production and since these studies were based on the average performance of industrial kilns twenty years ago, energy efficient kiln design, construction materials, and firings are essential for making our ceramics “more sustainable than Styrofoam.” Note that more energy consumption does not necessarily mean less sustainability if that energy comes from power sources that do not add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, or if that energy comes from biofuels that compensate for their combustion emissions when new fuel crops grow and absorb the carbon dioxide emissions.

Non-combustion energy options: Electricity. If you are not able to generate your own green power, the most effective, quickest, and perhaps cheapest way to decrease the environmental impact of your ceramics practice is to purchase electricity from a company that provides and/or invests in electricity generated by wind, solar, or water. I pay extra to get green electricity from my Massachusetts electric company, which buys electricity generated from wind farms in New York and Maine; therefore all my husband’s and my kiln firings use green electricity. Solar. Despite the fact that a solar kiln was built more than 200 years ago, using solar energy directly (without converting it to electricity) is not currently a viable option for kiln firing more than a small pot at a time. Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus (1651–1708) was a German scientist who invented a solar furnace by constructing and using large mirrors and lenses to concentrate sunlight and reach temperatures of up to 1500°C. With his knowledge of geology and ability to experiment with materials at high temperatures, Tschirnhaus facilitated Böttger’s “discovery” of porcelain in 1709.

Nuclear. After the disasters in Chernobyl and Fukushima we are all too aware of the environmental and economic disadvantages of generating energy and radioactive waste from nuclear fission. So far the better environmental option of generating energy from nuclear fusion has yet to be mastered.

Combustion fuel options: Natural gas, the fossil fuel created by heat and pressure deep in the earth from buried organic matter. Natural gas produces more concentrated energy and less green house gas emissions than other fossil fuels and most biofuels. Natural gas is becoming a plentiful resource as hydraulic fracturing releases more and more of it from local USA shale by injecting explosive fluids deep into the rockbeds, but natural gas is not a renewable resource and its extraction methods (which can and do contaminate aquifers) are not sustainable. Natural gas, biogas from the decay of organic matter in shallow sediments and landfill. If the challenges of capture, delivery, compression, and storage can be improved, firing kilns with biogas could become an available option. This type of combustion would have a beneficial environmental impact since allowing biogas to escape into the atmosphere is worse than burning it. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, methane is twenty times more effective than carbon dioxide at trapping atmospheric heat over a 100-year period. Wood. Even the most efficient smokeless wood kiln firing produces more carbon dioxide and other greenhouses gases per unit of energy than natural gas, oil, or coal. However, because trees absorb carbon dioxide as they grow more wood, and because dead wood will gradually decay and release almost as much carbon dioxide as a firing would, most potters consider firing with wood to be a sustainable carbon-neutral practice. The equation is not so simple. Firing wood creates carbon dioxide that can be offset, but not until and only if replacement wood is grown. A 2010 study commissioned by the Massachusetts Department of Energy analyzed the impact of generating heat or electricity with wood compared to generating heat or electricity with gas, oil, and coal in a sustainably managed Massachusetts forest.4 If wood from that forest (instead of natural gas) is burned for thermal energy, in twenty-four years the excess carbon dioxide emissions created by burning wood instead of natural gas will be absorbed by that forest. In forty-eight years, all of carbon dioxide created by the wood firing will be absorbed by that forest. Then the wood firing that was done many decades ago can be considered “carbon neutral.” If the replacement wood continues to grow, the firing can be considered “carbon negative.” Our planet needs “carbon negative” activity in order to get our atmospheric carbon load below dangerous levels. Firing with wood has that long-range potential as long as global forest supply exceeds global demand. If you fire with wood and claim it is carbon neutral, then you have the responsibility to invest in or oversee the long-term growth of replacement wood or make sure that your wood supplier does. As early as the Southern Sung dynasty in 1127-1279 there was serious deforestation in China. By the 17th century in Jingdezhen, the center of Chinese porcelain production, fuel wood had to be gathered from more than 100 miles away and represented one-third of the imperial factory’s production expense. Now wood is the main energy source for heating and cooking for half of the world’s population. Compared to that half, the average American uses fifteen times more wood for other purposes, such as building material, paper and packaging.5 Global supply and demand for wood is in a precarious balance, and demand will grow as fossil fuels are depleted or phased out.

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4 Manomet Study of Woody Biomass Energy Released,” (Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, June 2010), http://www.manomet.org/sites/manomet. org/files/Manomet_Biomass_Report_Full_LoRez.pdf. 5 American Association for the Advancement of Science, http://atlas.aaas.org/ index.php?part=2&sec=natres&sub=forest. 6 http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2008/12/05/scientists-create-toughceramic-that-mimics-mother-of-pearl/.

Nancy Selvage received a BA in Art History from Wellesley College and an MFA in Sculpture from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University. Her artwork addresses issues of sustainability and has been recognized and supported by numerous reviews, several grants, residencies, and awards including a Massachusetts Artists Foundation Sculpture Fellowship and two Massachusetts Arts Council New Works Commissions. Her work can be seen at: http://www.nancyselvage.com. As the Director of Harvard’s Ceramics Program, Selvage convened artists, scholars, and students from around the world for culturally focused symposia, workshops, lectures, and museum collection study tours. As an honorary professor at Tohoku University, Japan she has contributed an art/science perspective to a variety of interdisciplinary, international conferences.

Less is more (more or less) Clay figure, Quimbaya culture, Precolumbian, Colombia.

Other biofuels. All biofuels create carbon emissions that can be offset by replanting the biofuel crops, ideally with shorter offset periods than wood forested in Massachusetts. Used vegetable oil and agricultural waste are biofuel options that do not compete with food supplies but require different kiln and/or kiln burner designs. The US Department of Energy is investing in research on new efficient methods for biofuel production. The unfired clay option. For creating sculpture, unfired ceramics is a very energy efficient option. Two-hundred-year-old unfired clay sculptures at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA survived transportation from China in a sailing ship and centuries of New England’s changing atmospheric moisture. Biomimicry. Marco Polo was so impressed with how similar porcelain was to the lustrous hard surface of a shell, that he named porcelain with the name of the shell “porcellana.” Very recently scientists have discovered how to make a very strong and lightweight ceramic material by studying the structure and composition of seashells and by freezing seawater to form a rigid scaffolding of thin layers.6 Perhaps we can learn to grow our ceramics at ocean temperatures instead of firing them. 1 “That level (450 ppm) supposedly would keep global warming just barely manageable at an increase of 2 degrees Celsius. There still would be massive loss of species, 100 million climate refugees, and other major stresses … America’s leading climatologist, James Hanson, says we must lower the carbon dioxide level to 350 ppm if we want to keep the world we evolved in.” http://longnow.org/seminars/02009/jan/16/climate-change-recalculated. 2 Bjorn Berge, The Ecology of Building Materials (Elsevier, Ltd, 2009), p. 3. 3 Martin B. Hocking, “Reusable and Disposable Cups: An Energy-Based Evaluation,” Environmental Management 18(6) (1994): 889-899; J. van Eijk, J. W. Nieuwenhuis, C. W. Post, and J. H. de Zeeuw, “Reusable Versus Disposable: A Comparison of the Environmental Impact of Polystyrene, Paper/Cardboard and Porcelain Crockery” (House of Ministry, Physical Planning and Environment , Zoetermeer, The Netherlands, 1992).

nceca 48 Journal 2012 • Panels

by Gerard Blaauw, Panelist

In this paper I will consider general methods for reducing the energy needed to fire ceramics. In my lecture presentation, I will discuss case studies that demonstrate specific energy savings in new efficient kilns. I have 35 years of experience with building and firing kilns— creative and technical experience gained from working in universities, schools, research labs, pottery shops, small factories and industry. This experience includes 28 years as an educator at the world-famous Design Academy in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. At the Academy sustainability is an important focus of studies. It was an important part of my courses and guided projects in the creation and firing of ceramics. As the director of my kiln building company, I visit many institutions all over the world. I love the making industry, especially the making of ceramics, but I am also aware that the sources from mother earth used in ceramics are declining. In the “making industry” people are using materials and energy in the most efficient way, because it needs to be a cost-efficient operation and the industry needs to be competitive. The industry is constantly looking for improvements on production and quality, because it’s a necessity to survive in the market. In the education industry, the situation is the opposite. Students and teachers are talking about sustainability, but when it comes to creating their work, they like to fire every piece of work that they produce. Is it really necessary to fire the work to learn something? I think there are many ways to study without firing or glazing the ceramic piece. I feel the same way about making glaze tests over and over again. What I see is that too many things that are not “valuable” are fired and even glazed. If the students and teachers really had to work sustainably, their attitude might change and open the route to alternatives. I believe students might develop their taste and feel for ceramic form and colour more quickly by exploring other processes. By using less materials and less energy, students will contribute a different approach to the field of ceramics once they finish their education.

In discussing using less energy to fire ceramics I will focus on gas kilns because I consider them more energy-friendly than an electric kiln. This is the case when electricity is generated from fossil fuel resulting in a loss of 60% of its caloric value. There are some important things we need to consider to lower the use of energy: first, the firing schedule; second, the quality and loss of materials; and last, the temperature at which we fire the ceramics.

temperature or an atmospheric issue? If ceramic people put more trust in automation, have a more scientific approach to monitoring a firing, and have more knowledge of what is happening inside the kiln, that will help save energy by lowering the waste of materials through firing loss. The kiln is the final critical stage of making ceramics, yet there is so little knowledge of what is happening during the firing process. In my profession I was able to help individuals and some industries decrease their percentage of work loss from about 15% down to 4-5%.

Firing Schedule

The Firing Temperature

Firing

From my perspective common firing knowledge is mostly Everybody understands that the lower the temperature we based on conservative and conventional methods. Most firing fire, the less energy we have to use. For example if you fire a schedules that people like to use are from ancient times with anbisque load to a 1000º C, that load uses half of the amount of gas cient kilns and clays that need slow firings in uneven kilns. Noas when we fire the same load up to a 1265º C in a reduction probody wants to lose his/her piece of ceramic. I can understand cess. I am now talking about a fast firing curve of 6 to 7 hours in a that, but change is necessary for more efficiency. The clays that are developed now can withstand a much faster cycle of firing and cooling. Some kilns that are available now can do a much more even firing in a much shorter firing cycle with better quality. As an example, ten years ago in the ceramic tile industry the firing cycle was 60 minutes to cone 10 up and cooling down. Now it’s roughly 50 minutes to cone 10 up and cooling down, and they are still improving that. I have seen cycles from 30 minutes up and down. There are many different firing schedules in the industry; the type of product being fired determines what kind of schedule is necessary. The production of roof tiles and bricks in a tunnel kiln has a totally different firing schedule than porcelain that can be fired in a few hours in a periodic kiln. The energy used for firing heavy clay products in a tunnel is amazingly low compared to the periodic kilns used in schools and universities, but tunnel kilns cannot have a variety of output of different products. This is why you see Gerard Blauuw building a kiln. more and more periodic kilns within the industry, even though they are less efficient, because of the diversification in sophisticated kiln. If you use a traditional firing schedule it is even products, colours and textures in one production plant. The industry worse. So if we are talking about sustainability and less energy likes to find a solution to match the energy use from a periodic kiln use, the lowering of the temperature is a significant factor, which with the tunnel kiln. means that the clay and glaze industry must adapt their recipes What is the ideal firing cycle for the type of ceramic work from to create a product of similar looks and at a lower temperature. If students, small manufacturing industry, potters and designers? As I there is a large demand for greener ceramics, the supplying indusstated before, there are many differences in products, but the faster try will follow. you fire the better it is in terms of energy savings. For clay pieces up Good Kiln Design to half an inch thick in a periodic kiln, I advise going to cone 10 in a 5–6 hour firing curve and to cone 6 in a 4.5–5 hour firing curve. The When I talk about kilns, I talk about less is not more but more thicker the work gets the longer the firing cycle will be, but with an is less. American people love to buy at low prices, and ceramists average of 40 to 50º C. (104–122º F.) per hour you can fire almost any often have the romantic urge (and economic need) to build kilns thickness of ceramic in a good state of the art kiln. Longer firings themselves. Cheaper? I believe the opposite is true if you look at are unnecessary. The faster you fire, the less energy is transported the gas and electricity consumption. through the walls of the kiln. I have measured dramatic changes in Because of the low price of kilns on the market, almost all the heat loss in walls of kilns after longer firings. kiln builders try to supply a kiln at the lowest price to be competi-

Quality and Loss of Materials The loss of work (quality) is a dramatic waste of material and energy. All the materials and energy are thrown away when the firing is wrong. It can go wrong at many stages, and we need to have more understanding of the causes: Is it a firing, a cooling, a

tive. They use the least material possible to produce a low-priced kiln. The walls of the kilns are as thin as possible, the technical installation is just sufficient to reach temperature. Because of the minimal insulation the kilns get too hot on the outside. Therefore most of the kiln builders supply the vented double walled kilns to lower the outside temperature. Heat is lost very quickly in those

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kilns. The consequences of a cheaply constructed and a poorly insulated kiln are lots of energy loss each time the kiln is fired and a short life span, contributing to more trash waste. What is a good insulation and why is it so important? Everybody understands that we want to heat up the work and not the environment. To do that you need to keep as much heat inside as possible, which requires a very good insulated kiln. Lightweight insulation is the best. There are computer programs that calculate the heat loss through the wall of a kiln. A good insulated kiln has at least a wall of 150 mm (6 inches) thickness and is made of the correctly calculated insulation. Because of that thickness we need more kiln construction and more materials, but that investment is nothing compared to the long-term energy savings. A hard brick kiln or a castable kiln is the worst you can produce because the heavy kiln wall needs to be heated up. It is also important that the kiln can reach temperature within an efficient time period. If the kiln is not well insulated, it will take a longer firing. The walls heat up more easily in a longer firing and will transfer the heat faster and faster. High emissivity coatings on well-insulated walls further increase the firing efficiency. A well designed, insulated, and equipped kiln is a sustainable investment that pays for itself more quickly than you might think.

Efficient Combustion If we talk about efficient combustion in gas kilns, it is important to have the optimum heat out of the fuel source. In the most efficient combustion there is little oxygen left in your flue gases. If the kiln fires with excess air (with 20% of oxygen), that amount of air will cool down the flame and will therefore use more energy to heat up the kiln to a certain temperature. Especially when the kiln gets to a higher temperature, the heat of the flame needs to be as hot as possible to transfer the energy to the ceramics. The bigger the difference between the ceramics and the temperature of the flame, the more efficient the process is. A good process controller that controls the air and the gas is important for this reason. In case of a reduction firing, the surplus gas is cooling the temperature of the flame dramatically and is therefore very inefficient. A reduction firing can use as much as 150% more gas to get the kiln to temperature, especially at higher temperatures.

Recycling Heat A good option for getting more benefit from the burned fossil fuels is to recycle or recuperate the waste heat. The easiest way is to recuperate heat in the cooling process. That’s clean and hot air, which you can use directly for different purposes. In other cases, heat recuperators are needed for heating up work spaces in combination with your central heating system. The hot air can be used for drying chambers. If there is a group of kilns in use, it is best is to recycle heat in a cascade control, so that recuperation can be used all the time. If you have a gas kiln, the recuperated heat can make the firing more efficient because of preheated combustion air. The hotter the air that is used for combustion, the more energy efficient it becomes. To obtain the maximum efficiency from combustion you need a sophisticated kiln, but with some simple adjustments on any gas kiln you can easily obtain preheated combustion air and heat for dryers. Gerard Blaauw has 35 years of creative and technical ceramics experience gained from working with universities, schools, research labs, pottery shops, small factories and industry. He studied ceramic art and design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and taught industrial design for 28 years at

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the world-renowned Design Academy in Eindhoven. Since 1984 Blaauw has worked as the director of Blaauw Products, designing and building hundreds of custom, energy efficient, computerized kilns for individuals, universities, and industries throughout Europe, North America, and Asia. Blaauw combines computer technology with excellent insulation materials to create energy efficient gas and electric kilns for numerous applications. His North American clients include Archie Bray Foundation, Nova Scotia School of Art and Design, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Louisiana State University, University of Michigan, and the Cleveland Institute of Art.

A Methodology For Recycling Ceramic Waste: An investigation of the creative potential of re-cycled glass and ceramic waste. by David Binns Introduction The root of this research began through the making of ceramic sculpture within a craft studio environment, over time evolving into a systematic, scientific research project. The research originated partly through accident, responding to observed phenomena; partly through a desire to say something new creatively; and partly through recognition that as a ceramic practitioner, one should be adopting a more sustainable approach within one’s practice. Over time however it became apparent that the processes being developed within the context of studio practice might have wider creative, functional and commercial possibilities, beyond the craft workshop. The paper maps this journey.

Project Aims The project aims have been to investigate sources of recycled glass and mineral-based waste materials; to explore how they might be combined within a kiln casting process for the development of material with unique aesthetic qualities; to examine the creative potential of the material for architects, designers, artists and craft makers; and to lower the potential environmental impact of ceramic production.

Background to the Research The background to the research has been essentially twofold. Firstly, the creative trajectory of my own ceramic practice has naturally led me towards seeking new materials and visual properties, whilst challenging conventional processes and practices. Secondly, as a ceramic practitioner, the potentially negative environmental impact of my practice has steadily developed in my consciousness as environmental responsibility has moved up the social and political agenda.

Adapting Clay Bodies with Aggregate Inclusions A fundamental principle throughout my creative practice that has fuelled this research has been the notion that the inherent aesthetic properties of the body itself can provide the focus of visual interest—that what is seen on the surface of the form extends through the entire core of the piece. Initial investigations involved adding granular or “aggregate” materials to clay bodies, with the aim of enriching the visual and textural properties of fired clay,

without necessitating applied decorative treatment.1 The process itself was hit upon almost by accident, when refining a previously fired surface with sandpaper revealed the fine grog / chamotte inclusions within the body, offering a contrasting “geological quality” to architecturally inspired sculptural forms. This simple discovery led the researcher to consider the inherent visual properties of the clay; if rich enough, it might provide the primary focus of visual interest. Initially the aggregates added to the body were pre-fired chamotte and molochite, obtained from ceramic suppliers. It was then realised it was possible to manufacture aggregates to a predetermined colour and size. Ceramic pigments and metallic oxides were mixed into a plastic porcelain body, which was broken into smallish pieces and fired to 900ºC. Once fired, the porcelain was crushed then graded through various mesh sizes, in order to control particle size and remove any fine dust. The crushed particles were then hand wedged into the base clay, usually porcelain or terracotta, the amount and size of aggregates to clay determining the desired visual effect. Having created the aggregate bearing body, the piece would be formed, either through pressing into wooden or plaster moulds or free built from small pieces of clay, consolidating each piece as it was added. Progressing, the investigation led to considering the possibility of adding “found” materials gathered from a specific geographic location, developing work that had a direct association with a particular place. A memory or locational narrative of a place (or journey) could be embedded in a work that was comprised in part of materials collected from a particular place, replicating the geological process and “freezing” the mineral material in a ceramic permanence. In order to realise the full richness of the matrix of clay and aggregate inclusions, it was necessary to investigate an efficient method of grinding back the top surface layer. When working with a body containing a high percentage of large aggregate material, the finer base clay tends to migrate to the surface, leaving the interesting aggregates hidden beneath the surface. As the material was extremely hard following firing, it was necessary to find a power tool capable of removing the top layer of fired material, efficiently. The machine found to be most appropriate was a Flex angle-grinder, commonly used within the granite and glass industries. The process involves working through a series of diamond pads, from very course to fine polish. Once a basic set of processes had been established, the project involved extending the repertoire of potential aggregate inclusions. This basic set of technical processes has been the foundation for all future research.

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Glass Inclusions A desire to amplify the visual drama of the conglomerate material led to an exploration of other more reactive materials, including crushed virgin glass. Ratios of clay, aggregate and glass were systematically tested. A clear correlation emerged between increased visual interest and gradual elimination of clay content— the most visually dramatic results being derived from a blend of aggregates, combined with the glass. As the ratio of glass inclusions within the body was increased, it became apparent that the form started to melt and distort, with the molten glass flowing from the body. Observing this led to the need for a containment mould, and research into appropriate mould mixes. Initial findings examined gypsum-based

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moulds with a variety of added inclusions that allowed attainment of higher temperatures without the mould breaking down. Whilst tests proved successful, gypsum-based moulds were found to have a ceiling temperature of around 1100º C. As the optimum temperatures for the process were 1170º C, it became necessary to investigate other possible mould materials. Doctoral research into creative applications of Refractory Concretes (RC’s), undertaken by Alasdair Bremner (2008) at the University of Central Lancashire2 led to an examination the potential of this material as a high temperature casting mould formula. RCs are almost exclusively used as refractory linings within the steel and chemical industries as high temperature, hot face furnace linings, both as castable and pre-cast monoliths. Certain castables were found to be very appropriate as re-useable mould casings. The mould is filled with the appropriate blend of glass and ceramic material and fired in a conventional intermittent ceramic kiln. Following heating and cooling, the mould is cut away from the cast then cold worked (cut, ground and polished) in order to complete the piece. Further investigation revealed that it was possible to introduce increasingly large particles of pre-fired material, to the point where the fragments retained a recognisable form (> 5mm). Broken fragments of waste tableware were the primary area of investigation. It was discovered that the significant amounts of glassforming material meant the material had flow properties, allowing it to accommodate larger fragments with the mix. The visual appearance of adding large aggregate inclusions gave the impression of geological fossils encapsulated within the matrix, opening up many new aesthetic possibilities not possible with plastic clay.

Context Designers, architects, and artists continually strive for new forms of expression and innovative solutions to problems. A consequence of this is a hunger for new materials to sustain their creative aspirations. This relentless demand for new materials is however placing unsustainable demands on the finiteness of many mineral resources. Simultaneously, higher standards of living are creating ever-greater amounts of waste material that more often than not end life as landfill. Whilst the arguments for embedding sustainability throughout the construction and design industries are well established and firmly embedded in the consciousness of architects and designers, it often conflicts with their desire for materials that offer new aesthetic properties. It is therefore becoming increasingly important that alternative products are developed that both offer a new aesthetic and are environmentally sustainable and less reliant on virgin raw materials. As Wackernagel & Rees (2007) state, “the Earth’s ecosystems cannot sustain current levels of material consumption, let alone increased levels.”3 Concern over sustainability of resources is echoed in both UK Government and European Union strategy, stating the need to increase the breadth of applications for recycled materials. DEFRA UK (2006), whilst acknowledging waste is a fact of life, identifies “sustainable management of waste, optimising recycling and reuse” as a core aspect of Government policy.4 Government strategy goes further, emphasising the importance of “value added” opportunities from recycled materials, i.e. high quality products that have a value beyond those already present in recovered materials.

Current Research Initially investigations were limited to the use of virgin glass cullet and the making of one-off art objects. However, concern over the demand new materials and products place on non-replenishable

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Examples of cast prototypes made from 97-100% glass, ceramic, and mineral waste (Binns & Bremner 2010).

mineral resources led the research towards considering how re-cycled mineral waste might be used to replace virgin materials within the process. Following a successful application for a research grant from the Arts & Humanities Research Council (UK) in 2008, a significant amount of research has since been undertaken into fusing varying combinations of glass, ceramic and other mineral waste. Materials tested have included domestic waste container glass, waste from the ceramic tableware and sanitary-ware industries, iron and steel industry waste and quarry spoil. For the new material to have any long-term commercial future, it has been necessary to ensure that the sources of waste are sustainable, in order to maintain quality. As the research has progressed, as wide range of colour and textural qualities have been developed. Where a specific colour has been required, tiny proportions of ceramic pigment have been included in the mix (never more than 3% of the total mix). In most cases however, the material is made from 100% recycled content.

Materiality and Place As well as providing a sustainable alternative to imported stone and clay products, the material offers another interesting attribute. Materials have philosophically and historically engendered a strong association with place. Traditionally, the majority of construction materials were sourced locally to the site of construction, imparting a unique aesthetic character to any given location, strengthening the sense or identity of place. Using local materials therefore, plays a crucial role in helping characterize “placeness.” Mineral waste sourced onsite or close by, e.g. ceramic waste, damaged stone or masonry from demolished buildings, may form up to 50% of the total primary aggregate within this new material. Utilizing local mineral waste promotes a meaningful visual and philosophical connection between materiality and place, enhancing notions of identity and ownership, whilst also avoiding “standardization” and resolving the embodied energy-related drawbacks of imported materials. The aesthetic properties of the material are unique. Colour and texture can be engineered to an artist’s or client’s specific requirements; to either blend or contrast with existing materials, fine or course in texture or embedded with larger ‘fossil’ fragments of mineral waste.

Recyclability Any second-quality casts or waste from machining may be directly returned into the production process, avoiding any manu-

facturing waste, thus satisfying the desirable objective of “closedloop” manufacturing. At end of life, the product may itself be recycled. This would entail simply re-introducing it into the original manufacturing cycle as a raw material rather than the more common process of “downcycling” to less valuable products further, enhancing the eco-credentials of the materials.

Recycling Waste within the Ceramic Studio As a studio artist producing ceramic sculptural forms over many years, I have grown increasingly concerned about the negative environmental impact of my practice—an awareness raised by the ever-increasing debates about global warming, consumption, reducing our carbon footprint, and the need to start adopting a more environmentally responsible life. These thoughts neatly coincided with and fuelled my evolving research. Whilst the research into using ceramic, glass and mineral waste had grown out of my art practice, it had moved into a broader arena, suggesting industrial production, with a focus on developing alternative architectural products such as cladding, tiling, etc. It made sense to apply the knowledge back into my art practice. Over the last two years my personal artwork has involved using a high proportion of recycled ceramic and mineral waste. Teaching on a large ceramics programme within an higher education institution has meant I have access to significant amounts of waste materials—reject work, waste glaze slop, damaged kiln furniture, replaced kiln linings, etc. I am now able make use of all this waste material within my artwork, meaning the department has reduced waste to almost zero. Reject work in particular is crushed down to form varying sizes of grog, which is added to plastic clay when students required a courser textured body. My colleague and I were recently commissioned by the University to produce a large cladding panel on a newly commissioned building. The cladding will be made from 100% waste material, a significant proportion being waste from the ceramic department, together with sanitary ware removed from another university building during a renovation process. Whilst not every ceramic studio or small ceramics department will generate enough waste to allow any meaningful commercial production, artists might consider developing small products from their studio waste. Alternatively, waste could be gathered regularly from workshops within a relatively small geographic location, much akin to kerbside collection of domestic waste. This could create a significant amount of waste, allowing the development of larger scale projects. The project highlights how research that started life within art practice has led to a formalised systematic scientific methods of investigation, taking the research from the familiar craft studio to the alien environment of the science laboratory. Furthermore, it presents a possible method by which studio-based ceramic artists and ceramic educational departments can lower their waste output and reliance on non-replenishable sources of often-imported raw materials. It is the researcher’s hope that this material may offer artists, architects, and designers the opportunity to use a durable, versatile, silicate-based material, with considerable eco-credentials, that has unique aesthetic properties, that forges a strong link between material and place and that contributes to a more sustainable society.

1 David Binns, “Additions to Clay Bodies: A Research Project,” Ceramics Technical, 23, pp 57-62 (AHRC Small Research Grant 2003 – Aggregate Additions to Clay Bodies). 2 A. Bremner, “An Investigation into the Potential Creative Applications of Refractory Concrete” (PhD Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK, 2008). 3 M. Wackernagel & W. Rees, Notre empreinte écologique (“Our ecological footprint”) (2009), ISBN-13: 978-2923165486. 4 DEFRA, Department of Environmental Food and Rural Affairs, Report of the Market Development Group, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR), (1999), Chapter 5, accessed October 10, 2006, http:// www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/strategy/mdg/report/5.htm#2.

David Binns has his studio in North Wales, UK, and is a lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK. His work can be found in many collections throughout the world, including the International Ceramics Museum, Zibo, China; Sevres Museum, Paris; World Ceramics Museum, Fuping, China; Anadolu University, Eskişehir, Turkey; Museum of Applied Arts, Riga, Latvia; HanhangLim Gallery, Korea; Dokuz Eylul Universitesi, Turkey; and the International Ceramics Studio, Kecskemet, Hungary. Recent selected exhibitions include International Ceramics Museum, Zibo, China (2011); Sevres Museum, Paris (2010); Ceramics & Architecture, Eindhoven, Netherlands (2009); Object Factory – Museum of Art & Design, New York (2009); World Ceramic Museum, Fuping, China (2008); International Silicates Triennial, Kesckemet, Hungary; and the Art of Industrial Ceramics, Gardiner Museum, Toronto, Canada (2008).

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panel: so you want to talk glaze chemistry...

Tina Gebhart, Moderator • Matthew Katz, William M. Carty, Hyojin Lee & Dave Finkelnberg, Panelists How Glazes Melt by Dave Finkelnburg, Panelist The development of electric kilns, whose elements don’t last long at traditional porcelain firing temperatures (in the range of cone 10), created a need in the 20th century for clay bodies and glazes that mature at temperatures not hotter than 2192°F (1200°C) or cone 5. This midpoint between low fire bodies and high fire bodies, this mid-fire range, changed the glaze equation by requiring boron, as a glaze ingredient, to achieve full, rapid glaze melt and still produce a variety of attractive and interesting glazes. To begin, how do glazes mature? Obviously, glazes have to melt. There is no evidence any significant maturing of glazes occurs due to solid-state reactions. Glaze atoms simply cannot and do not rearrange themselves into glass and/or crystal structures of a mature glaze without going through a liquid phase. Naturally, for this to happen glaze materials must get hotter than their melting point, but how do glazes melt if some of their components are materials which, if kept by themselves, won’t begin to melt at far higher temperatures than we normally fire to? The classic example is a pile of whiting or flint on a test tray that is run through a cone 10 firing. Either one, fired by itself, will emerge from the kiln as the same dry powder that went into the firing. The word eutectic is frequently discussed in ceramics. The meaning of eutectic is simple. It’s the lowest temperature at which a given group of materials will melt. A eutectic composition is the ratio, on a molecular basis, of the materials in the group that produces that lowest temperature melt. What’s important, though, is not the word eutectic, but what really happens when a glaze is heated. Any unfired glaze is a mixture of a number of materials, all with different melting points. Typically, none of the glaze ingredients will have a eutectic composition. The only way a eutectic composition will occur in the unfired glaze is at very small, randomly distributed points where atoms of different minerals making up the glaze may come into physical contact in a eutectic composition. The first melting of the glaze either occurs when the rising kiln temperature reaches the melting point of the lowest meltingpoint material in the glaze, or, when the temperature reaches the eutectic temperature for which there is some eutectic composition within the glaze. Once melting occurs and the first small amount of liquid forms, then the melting party really gets started. With some molten liquid present, where before there were only bits of solid clay, quartz and other materials, atoms which were previously held bound in their mineral crystals can now move about. This movement always lowers the concentration of any particular element at any point in the liquid. A sodium atom, for example, once immersed in the glaze melt, always diffuses, or moves in the direction of the lowest concentration of sodium atoms. In the process this atom moves closer to some clay or quartz particle and helps to melt it into the now growing pool of liquid. This process proceeds until the entire glaze mixture is liquid. Research has shown flux atoms can move as far as 8,000 atom diameters dur-

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ing the course of a firing. If one were a glaze atom, one would have to walk four miles in that time to move a proportionate distance! Remember, however, the flux atom cannot move one whit until some liquid forms in the firing glaze. The sooner liquid forms, the faster a glaze will melt. That’s, of course, why flux elements like sodium and potassium, which have lower eutectics with common glaze ingredients, produce faster firings and lower temperature glaze melting. Simply put, the process of glaze melting requires the presence of a liquid, molten glass, through which atoms can diffuse. Tossing in some low melting glass former, such as boron, jump starts the process by producing liquid that the little flux atoms can move around in to get away from their neighboring sodium, potassium, calcium, etc. atoms and to a place with less of those elements, which happens to be nearer to clay and quartz particles with lots of aluminum and silicon atoms that need flux atoms in order to melt. If you have studied glazes you know that comparing them by looking at fired glaze tests is easy. You also know that comparing glazes by reading their recipes on paper is not easy. All properties of a fired glaze depend upon the chemistry of that glaze. Divining that glaze chemistry from a written recipe is difficult, if not impossible. In the late 1800s German chemist Hermann Seger developed a useful system of comparing glazes by representing their chemistry in an uncomplicated way. Seger’s system allowed a glaze worker to examine a glaze recipe and tell whether two glazes made from widely different ingredients were chemically similar or different. All that needed to be known was the recipe and the chemical analyses of the different glaze ingredients. This system set the total quantity of fluxes in a glaze equal to one and compared the silica and alumina in the glaze to that unit of fluxes. The system sums up a glaze in its unique Unity (for one unit of fluxes) Molecular Formula, or UMF for short. Applying the UMF system, a glaze could be 1 fluxes : 0.4 Al2O3 : 4 SiO2. This is a glaze that upon being fired will contain

Stull Diagram

one unit of fluxes, a 0.4 units of alumina and 4.0 units of silica. Those familiar with this system will recognize the example as a cone 10 glaze. All of the glazes in our discussions will be presented using the UMF format. Many scientists have applied the UMF approach, among them R. T. Stull and W. L. Howat. Back in 1914 they followed previous work by Seger and using a flux ratio of 0.3 K2O:0.7 CaO, they varied alumina and silica to see which compositions melted at various temperatures. Stull’s work shows which glaze compositions will melt when fired at Cone 11. All glazes were fluxed identically (0.3 R2O, 0.7RO) while silica and alumina amounts were varied. If one examines ancient Chinese glazes by converting the published chemical analyses of their fired samples to a UMF basis, one thing is quickly apparent. High-fire glazes have had a remarkably consistent chemistry over the last two millennia. That says that for the raw materials being used, similar chemical compositions and similar firing temperatures had to be used. Stull and Howat found that glossy glazes at cone 10 have between 5 and 15 times as many moles of silica as alumina per mole of flux. Twenty-five published analyses that Matt Katz found of fired Oriental glazes, most from Nigel Wood’s Chinese Glazes (A.C. Black & University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), have silica to alumina ratios within those boundaries. The average SiO2:Al2O3 for all 25 was 7.61.

15 times as many moles of silica as alumina in the glaze, and a durable glossy glaze will result. Alkali? Alkaline earth? What are these? These are simply all the fluxes ceramic artists use in glazes. They come from the first two columns of the periodic table. The alkali elements (Li, Na, K) and alkaline earths elements (Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba) occur in the leftmost two columns of the Periodic Table of Elements, shown here. The alkalis are sodium, potassium and lithium. Their oxides are represented by chemists as R2O because it takes two alkali atoms to charge balance a single oxygen atom. The alkaline earths are calcium, magnesium, barium and strontium. Their oxides are represented as RO because a single alkaline earth atom has the same charge as an oxygen atom. Thus, in UMF shorthand, the fluxes in Seger’s cone 10 glaze would be given as 0.3 R2O: 0.7 RO. We know from experience, of course, that barium can’t be substituted freely for calcium without risk of dramatically changing a glaze, and replacing sodium with lithium will dramatically lower a glaze’s expansion if it doesn’t cause the glaze to devitrify altogether. The three R2O elements are similarly active fluxes—they ag-

As shown above, glazes from Nigel Wood’s book Chinese Glazes are plotted in dark grey on the diagram of Stull’s work shown in the previous diagram (p.54). The 25 glazes have an R2O:RO ratio of 0.3:0.7 +/-0.15. This is important because it points out that the chemistry of glazes is not constrained by some industrial chemist’s artificial “limit formula.” Rather, to get a glaze to melt one has to mix a glaze with reasonably specific chemistry. The fact that potters with no knowledge at all of chemistry were able, over centuries and centuries and centuries, to make and lose and rediscover again reliably glossy glazes is testimony that given the raw materials available, they needed to fire to similar temperatures and mix glazes to quite similar chemical compositions. They judged their results by glaze melt rather than chemistry, of course, but the result was the same. Seger discovered the chemistry and it hasn’t changed any more in the last hundred years or so than it did in the previous 2,000. Fire to about cone 10, use fluxes in a ratio of 0.3 moles of alkali to 0.7 moles of alkaline earths, use between 5 and

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gressively lower a glaze melting point—but have different effects on glaze color, opacity, and thermal expansion. The RO elements also have a similar effect to each other on glaze melting point but also differ from each other in their influence on color, opacity and expansion. As chemical shorthand, R2O and RO may conceal come useful information, but all that is detail and for another session. The point is, R2O is alkali, RO is alkaline earth, and they will initiate glaze melt at different temperatures. Alkalis will promote glaze melting at the lowest possible temperatures. For this reason we consider them active melters. The alkaline earths do their part, but they don’t kick in as soon during a firing, having to wait until the kiln gets hotter for them to begin turning the glaze ingredients into molten glass. With the rising popularity of electric kilns and mid fire, the question became how to make glazes melt quickly and fully. Research shows there are three ways to do this. One is to lower the physical proportion of silica and alumina in a glaze to minimize the amount of refractory material that must be melted. The problem with this approach is apparent by referring to Stull’s work. At least if one wants a glossy glaze, it is clear that there is a lower limit below which there is not enough alumina and silica to form a glass and the glaze will come out crystallized and matte. A second approach is to alter the flux ratio by increasing the proportion of alkali. This brings in more of the fluxes which melt at lower temperatures. This definitely works, and for mid-temperature glazes an alkali to alkaline earth ratio of 0.5:0.5 is generally prescribed. However, the alkalis are higher expansion fluxes and shifting the flux ratio to the alkalis will increase a tendency to glaze crazing. Also, increasing the proportion of alkali fluxes reduces the chemical and mechanical durability of a glaze. Matt Katz will discuss the third approach, which is to utilize boron. He will explain why it is such a useful material, how to predict its effect on glaze melting and more. Dave Finkelnburg is a consulting engineer, studio potter, Technical Editor of Ceramics Monthly and a founding partner of Matt and Dave’s Clays. He has an MS in Ceramic Engineering from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and has taught glaze workshops around the US. He was a presenter at NCECA in 2008 and 2010.

The Effect of Firing Time on Glaze Chemistry:

Introduction:

It is commonly assumed that the body and the glaze interact to a limited extent during the firing process. This assumption has been difficult to evaluate because of problems associated with measuring the body-glaze interactions due to (1) the lack of a practical way to mark the original body-glaze interface (prior to firing) and (2) challenges in measuring chemistry migration that could be used to determine the extent of the body-glaze interaction. Even the variability of glaze application thickness, and the corresponding shrinkage of the glaze during firing, make post-mortem analyses problematic. We have solved the first problem by introducing a marker (zircon) or by identifying existing markers (such as mullite precipitates from grog particles). Using Wavelength Dispersive Spectroscopy (WDS), an efficient electron microscopy analytical tool, solved the second problem. These results clearly indicate that the body-glaze interactions are significant and increase with increasing firing time. If the body-glaze interaction is significant, the chemical analysis of a glaze shard, chipped off of a piece of ware, only shows a part of the picture. A glaze chip necessarily includes dissolved body and undoubtedly is the chemistry presented in all of the published ancient glaze chemistries. A glaze formulated to match the composition of the glaze chip will not be a perfect match for the original glaze because the reformulated glaze will also interact with the body and thus the fired glaze composition will shift by the amount of body dissolved into the glaze during firing. In investigating the body-glaze interactions in industrial ware, as illustrated below, in Figure 1, it was evident that the glaze

Figure 1

dissolved approximately 60 µm (a depth similar to the diameter of a human hair).1 Several other glazed bodies showed similar interaction levels, and we naively thought this would be constant.

Deciphering Ancient Practice Through Forensic Analysis of Pottery Shards by William M. Carty & Hyojin Lee, Panelists Summary:

By studying glaze-body interactions (penetration depth) on ancient ceramic pottery shards (for example, 12th century Korean Celadon specimens, “Koryó” period) we have determined that ancient ceramics were fired for very long times, potentially up to four days at peak temperature. These long cycles result in a significant alteration of the glaze chemistry during firing due to body-glaze interactions (the dissolution of the body into the glaze). From these results we have been able to determine the glaze batch chemistry of ancient glazes as initially applied and have proposed batch corrections that allow similar glazes to be developed with modern (i.e., significantly shorter) firing times.

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Figure 2

The Korean government has funded work over the past several years to determine the firing conditions of ancient Celadons from the Koryǒ period (918-1392 CE) with the goal of producing a similar glaze quality. We have participated in this work, and when analyzing a 12th century tea bowl, were confronted with a dilemma: the body-glaze interactions appeared to be approximately 200 µm— nearly 3½ times greater that we had typically seen (Figure 2).2

We were able to map the firing temperature of the Koryǒ body through measurements of the glass chemistry in the fired body, so we were relatively certain that the soaking temperature was 1250°C (2280°F), or the modern equivalent of about Cone 7.3 (Based on the soak time later determined via body-glaze interaction, it is expected this was likely equivalent to Cone 12 or 13.) Our only other variable that would explain such a deep body-glaze interaction was time. To model the effect of time on body-glaze interactions, preliminary experiments were conducted to identify a suitable marker by introduction into either the body or the glaze (or at the original body-glaze interface). Zircon introduced in the body (10% by weight) provided the best chemical marker as it is marginally soluble in the glaze, insoluble in the body, and the particles are small enough to be unlikely to migrate (via settling due to gravity) during firing.4 The glaze was a standard pottery glaze, commonly known as “4321” and was applied to a slip cast commercial body (Porcelain for the People, Matt and Dave’s Clays, Alfred, NY) containing the zircon addition. Both bisque and green tiles were glazed then fired (for twice- and single-fire penetration measurements) at 1300°C for 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 hours. After firing, the glazed tiles were sectioned perpendicular to the glazed surface, polished, then mapped using WDS (JXA-820OF Electron Probe Microanalyzer, JEOL, Ltd, Tokyo, Japan). The images clearly showed the original body-glaze interface (by the abrupt lack of zirconium) and indicated that the glaze-body interactions followed a log-log relationship

What this plot clearly shows is that in order to obtain the 200 µm penetration depth measured on the Koryǒ Celadon, the piece would have needed to be fired for approximately 96 hours (4 days) at temperature. Some other ancient Korean Celadons exhibited a smaller penetration depth indicative of a two day soak.

Using this Information to Calculate the Glaze Chemistry Shift Based on the ratio of the glaze to the body (after firing) the chemistry shift associated with body dissolution into the glaze can be calculated. For example, if the glaze application thickness was 100 µm and the overall glaze thickness was 200 µm, the final glaze chemistry would be a 50-50 mixture of the body and the glaze. The change in chemistry can be calculated using what is commonly known as a “Rule of Mixture” or ROM. This is illustrated schematically in the graphic below:

Table I. Chemical analysis of Korean Celadon glazes and bodies.5 SiO2 Al2O3 TiO2 FeO Na2O K2O MgO Glazes 57.6 12.4 0.1 2.1 0.7 2.8 4.2 58.1 13.9 0.2 1.4 0.5 2.9 1.8 59.6 14.1 0.1 1.4 0.8 3.8 2.7 Bodies 76.0 17.0 0.8 2.1 0.7 2.5 0.5 73.0 17.5 0.9 2.8 0.8 2.6 0.7 73.0 18.0 1.2 2.5 0.9 3.4 0.5

of penetration depth with time, as illustrated above. Somewhat surprisingly, the data also clearly indicates there is little, if any, difference between single-fire and twice-fire body-glaze interactions with respect to penetration depth. In the case of the ancient Koryǒ Celadon, the original bodyglaze interface would need to be identified. When analyzing the WDS chemistry maps in the body-glaze interaction region, it became evident that there were mullite (3Al2O3-2SiO2) particles imbedded in the glaze. Mullite is a common precipitated phase in a fired body, but it is not possible to crystallize mullite from the glaze during firing (based on the glaze chemistry). Also, Koryǒ Celadons were single-fired systems meaning that mullite would not be a viable crystallization product in the interfacial regions. Therefore, the only way for mullite to be present in the glaze would be if fired body had been crushed after firing and used as grog for new body. Twelfth-century Koreans practiced recycling. Figure 2 shows the mullite grains imbedded in the glaze layer and can be used to identify the original body-glaze interface, thus indicating a 200 µm glaze-body interaction zone.

CaO 17.7 19.9 16.0 0.3 0.2 0.5

Table II. Korean Celadon glazes and bodies in a Seger format using the average compositions of the three compositions listed in Table I. SiO2 Al2O3 TiO2 FeO Na2O K2O MgO CaO Glaze 2.24 0.31 0.00 0.05 0.02 0.08 0.16 0.73 Body 19.8 2.7 0.19 0.49 0.21 0.48 0.23 0.09

Previously published body and glaze chemistries are listed in Table I.5 These chemistries are converted to a Seger format in Table II. Recently measured values are similar. Since Koryǒ Celadons are single-fired systems, we can simply subtract a proportional level of body from the as-fired glaze chemistry to obtain the initial glaze chemistry. If this calculated glaze was applied to a similar body and fired at a similar temperature for a similar time frame (4 days at temperature) a similar glaze character would be obtained. However, modern firings are significantly shorter, usually on the order of 3-4 hours, so if this glaze-body pair were fired using a modern cycle, the glaze would still not be the same due to a significant reduction in dissolved body. Therefore, the glaze for use in modern cycles would need to be modified to accommodate the reduction in bodyglaze interaction.

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Based on the penetration depth and the average composition of the body and the glaze, the “as-applied” glaze chemistry (ChemG,A) was calculated using a rule of mixtures in which depth was substituted for fraction: dG,f × ChemG,f = dB × Chem B + dG,a × ChemG,A (1) Where ChemG,f is the final glaze chemistry (measured from a shard), dB and dG,a are the penetration depth into the body and the glaze thickness to the original body-glaze interface (i.e., applied thickness), respectively. When added together, dB + dG,a equal the final glaze thickness (dG,f ). ChemB is the overall chemistry of the body. Analysis of the Koryǒ Celadon shown in Figure 2 indicates that the average application thickness was 125µm with a body penetration depth of 200 µm after firing. Using this approach, the initial glaze composition, as applied to the body (in the 12th century), is Table III. Calculated chemistry of the as-applied Kory! and as a Seger formula. SiO2 Al2O3 TiO2 FeO Na2O 35.6% 7.5% -0.4% 0.5% Seger 0.564 0.070 -0.002 0.007

Celadon glaze in weight percent K2O 3.8%

MgO 6.8%

CaO 46.7%

0.039

0.160

0.794

presented in Table III. All calculations need to be on a weight percentage basis and must incorporate the thicknesses of the layers. To calculate the glaze chemistry intended for a modern firing practice, it is necessary to re-calculate using a reasonable application thickness and the anticipated glaze-body interaction depth. For these calculations, and consistent with common practice, an application thickness of 125µm was used. This is also consistent with the apparent application thickness of Koryǒ Celadons. For a three-hour soak time, and a corresponding body-glaze interaction depth of 60 µm, the overall glaze depth, after firing, would be about 185 µm and this is close to what is normally observed in fired ware. Based on these values, the chemistry of the glaze, prior to application, is presented in Table IV. Table IV. Calculated chemistry of a glaze to mimic Kory! Celadon glaze using a modern firing cycle with a three hour soak at 1250°C, (weight percent and Seger formula). Al2O3 TiO2 FeO Na2O K2O MgO CaO SiO2 52.3% 11.8% 0.0% 1.3% 0.6% 3.4% 4.1% 26.7% Seger 1.393 0.186 0.000 0.013 0.016 0.058 0.163 0.764

There are a couple of interesting things to note: First, the calculations clearly indicate there is little to no iron in the applied glaze. This is consistent with the appearance of the glaze when applied over a white slip (i.e., the glaze remains white with no hint of green from the iron). Second, this glaze has a relatively small amount of added alkali, equivalent to about 20% potash feldspar and is high in alkaline earth, probably from a local limestone with a dolomite impurity (to account for the MgO), combined with just enough clay to keep things suspended. For comparison, candidate glaze recipe batches were calculated for the Koryǒ Celadon and an equivalent for a modern firing cycle. If the glaze application thickness were thinner, the glaze batch composition would shift towards the calculated chemistry of the applied Koryǒ Celadon glaze. If all goes as planned, these glazes will be batched and tested prior to NCECA in Seattle. End notes:

1. D. Finkelnburg, “Bubble Evolution and Sintering in Whiteware Glazes” (M.S. Thesis, Alfred University, 2006). 2. C. Kim, T. Lam, G. Wynick, W. Carty, and H. Lee, “Wavelength Dispersive Spectroscopy Analysis of an Ancient Korean Celadon Glaze,” Ceramographic Exhibit, Amer. Ceramic Soc. (2008). 3. H. Lee and W. Carty, “Determination of Sintering Temperature of Korean

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Celadon,” PacRim Conference, Cairns, Australia (2011). 4. T. Rein, “Glaze-Body Interactions as a Function of Sintering Time” (B.S. Thesis, Alfred University, 2010). 5. N. Wood, Chinese Glazes (A&C Black Pub., London, 1999), 38, 40.

William M. Carty is the John F. McMahon Professor and Chair of Ceramic Engineering at the Kazuo Inamori School of Engineering at Alfred University. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Ceramic Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla (1985 and 1987), and a Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Washington (1992). He and his research group have, with the help of many graduate and undergraduate students, conducted research in all aspects of traditional ceramics (clay, bodies, and glazes). He has authored or co-authored over 80 papers and been a frequent contributor to NCECA. After sixteen years of teaching ceramic science to artists, he is slowly understanding the potential benefits of applying science to solve ceramic art creation problems. Hyojin Lee is a Senior Research Scientist at Alfred University and has worked with Professor Carty for over 16 years. He received his B. S. and M.S. in Ceramic Engineering from Kyonggi University in Korea (1993 and 1995) and an M. S. in Ceramic Engineering from Alfred University in 1997. He has authored or co-authored over 40 papers and works in both traditional and advanced ceramic processing.

Mid-Temperature Glaze Science by Matthew Katz, Panelist Formulating glazes that melt in the cone 5-6 range is difficult. The natural, and historic, system for a strong, durable glaze is a high-fired (cone 10 range) alumino-silicate glass fluxed by a combination of alkali and alkaline earth metals. The firing temperatures available in electric kilns however, have led to the rise of cone 5-6 firing. There are multiple ways to make glazes that work in this temperature range and there are advantages and disadvantages to each. Our research supports that inclusion of Boron provides an ideal combination of melt characteristics and is the best option for developing a durable and attractive glaze at cone 5 to 6.

Simple Mid-temperature Glazes and their Shortcomings Before considering boron, however, let’s discuss creating simple (alumino-silicate) glazes. It is possible to create mid-temperature glazes with only the materials available for high temperature glazes. To achieve this we must increase in the effectiveness of the melt based on the increase of R 20.

Shown above, is a series of tests by Brian Quinlan documenting the recreation and expansion of Stull’s original UMF map. The three variations are various R 2O:RO levels with consistent silica and alumina at cone 10. The maps document gloss meter readings with black indicating no gloss and grey, high gloss. An experiment by Brian Quinlan while a graduate student in the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred Universi-

ty1 demonstrated it is logical to increase the proportion of alkali fluxes relative to alkaline earth fluxes in a glaze. This expands the ability for materials in lower R 2O formulas that would remain unmelted to melt with higher R 2O levels. However, increasing R 2O is not without consequences. Glasses created with excessive alkali levels (>0.3) are less chemically and mechanically durable. This durability is regularly strained during the stress of daily use and cleaning, resulting in hastened wear on the ware Just as water created the Grand Canyon, water and soap can destroy our work. Excessively alkali glaze is weak in the face of the destructive power of a dishwasher. Very hot water (120-160°F), a great solvent, is combined with very basic detergents. The pH of dishwasher soap can be as high as 13.5 on a scale of 14. A hot, highly alkaline soap solution can be very destructive to a poorly formulated glaze. We tested glaze durability in a dishwasher by creating a series of glazes with constant silica and alumina levels (3.5 SiO2: 0.5 Al2O3, a 7:1 Si/Al ratio, perfect for a glossy glaze according to Stull’s diagram). We created a series of eleven test tiles where we altered the alkali to alkaline earth ratio from all alkali to all alkaline earth in 0.1 increments. As natural materials aren’t pure, we actually began 0.95 alkali :0.5 alkaline earth to the opposite extreme of 0.01 alkali:0.99 alkaline earth. We sprayed these glazes onto 4”x4” tile and fired them in an electric kiln at a rate of 5°C to a temperature of 1240°C with a 1 hour soak at peak temperature. After the firing each tile was photographed and a gloss meter (Photovolt “G-3”) readings were made. The gloss meter gives us a numeric value for the percentage of light reflected by the glaze. We recorded three different angles (20°, 60°, and 85°) of reflection with the meter in five different locations on each tile (each corner and the middle). The highest reading was recorded for each angle.

ness created by excessive alkali can also lead to potential problems with leaching colorants from functional ware. The glazes represented here were clear glazes which had no inherent toxicity. The addition of coloring oxides, many of which are heavy metals, creates the potential that they can be absorbed by the food held in the ware. To prevent heavy metal leaching we recommend glazes for use on food contact surfaces always have an alkali:alkaline earth ratio of 0.3:0.7 +/- 0.1. as defined by Dave Finkelnburg

Working with Boron If a durable glaze with a flux ratio of 0.3 alkali:0.7 alkaline earths will not melt at mid-temperature, what is the alternative? Boron is the best alternative, but boron is frequently misunderstood. While it melts at a much lower temperature than silica, it is still a glass former, not a flux. What this means is that boron is the material that makes up the body of the glass, as silica does. A flux is a material which, in combination with other materials, forms a lower melting temperature mixture than the melting temperatures of any of the individual materials. Because boron melts at a relatively low temperature, we can take advantage of this property to lower the temperature of our glaze melting. The pertinent question becomes, how do we utilize boron in a recipe? Historically, there have been conflicting theories about how much boron is needed and what are its limits. Because of the confusion over whether boron is a flux, even its place in the UMF has been fluid. While boron is a glass former and must be considered that way, glazes are still composed primarily of silica. Thus boron should be considered a complementary glass former. That means that in the UMF system, boron is not lumped in with silica and alumina. This allows one to still see the valuable silica to alumina ratio that predicts whether a glaze will be gloss or matte. Since boron is being utilized to lower glaze melting temperature, we have provided that the boron is shown separately in the glass former area. For example, a representative UMF formula would be: SiO2:3.5, Al2O3:0.5, B2O3:0.2, R 2O:0.3, RO:0.7 Clearly, the ratio of SiO2 to Al2O3 is 7:1. Having established how to represent boron in the UMF, the question then becomes, how much do we need? We have been able to suggest the amount very simply.

Above, a graph documenting the melting of a series of tests fired to 1240°C; the tests are fluxes with only alkali and alkali earths. We then took these tiles and ran them through 50 cycles in a dishwasher (Bosch Model SHE33MO5UC, using the power scrub plus setting, with Do it Automatic Plus Lemon dishwasher detergent. The detergent pH was 13.1). After 50 cycles the samples were removed and another gloss meter reading was taken. The results were striking. The glazes as a whole lost an average of 34.82% of their gloss after only 50 cycles, what would be less than two months in regularly used dishware. The minimum loss was 19.76% while the maximum degradation was 43.88%. This loss of glossiness is normal in any glaze. Most ceramics will degrade to some degree with this kind of exposure. The weak-

Above: a series of tests where in a glaze with a UMF composition of 3.5 silica 0.5 Alumina, 0.3 R2O and 0.7 RO. In addition, incremental amounts of boron were added in 0.05 UMF increments. Each of these samples was fired in 50°C increments.

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The maps document gloss meter readings with black indicating no gloss and grey, high gloss. This chart shows the relationship of boron is a linear relationship between temperature and the amount of boron required to form a gloss glaze at any particular temperature. The chart displays 0.05 mole incremental additions of boron to a formula with set silica, alumina and flux levels. Each point on this chart is exactly the same as all the others, except for additions of boron. What we see clearly is that we need roughly a minimum of 0.1 mole, on a UMF basis, of boron for every 50°C reduction in firing temperature from 1300°C. For the maximum value we conducted tests where samples were fired on perfectly flat tiles set at a 45° angle in the kiln. After the firing the glaze thickness at the top and bottom edges of the tile were measured and the difference of the thicknesses is considered to be the degree of running. We consider the running of the glaze to be indicative of an over-melted glaze. As can be seen in the chart, at roughly double the minimum boron amount, we achieve flow and what would be considered maximum recommended boron levels. These values are so consistent the trend is linear all the way from cone 10 down to cone 04.

Above, this graph shows the glaze running from the samples in the previous figure. The coloration indicates the percentage discrepancy of thickness from the top of the sample to the bottom. Black indicates no discrepancy while grey indicates high discrepancy, indicating running of the glaze. All of this does not mean that adding boron will make a midtemperature glaze equivalent to high-temperature glaze. A series of boron tests was also cycled in the dishwasher 50 times. The samples proved to be much more rugged than the alkali tests. The average degradation was 20.89% with a minimum of 10.12% and a maximum of 38.45%.

Other functions of boron Based on our initial results, we decided to explore alternative uses of boron. As the role of boron in lowering glaze melting temperature is essentially linear, we wondered if the same applied in reverse. In other words, could one increase the amounts of silica and alumina (thus increasing the melting point of the glaze) and then add boron to lower the melting temperature, to obtain a glaze that matured at the original firing temperature but had a different composition with respect to alumina and silica, and thus different properties?

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The challenges of this particular series of tests arose from use of a body that was under-fired because the user was unable to fire any hotter. Because the clay was under-fired, there was unavoidable crazing. The principle is shown in Stull’s work where increasing silica and alumina in a glaze reduces crazing. As discussed by Dave Finkelnburg, while minimizing silica and alumina will decrease the melting temperature, the inverse is also true. Increasing the amounts of silica and alumina will increase the melting temperature of a glaze. So we wondered if we could increase the glass former content high enough to minimize or eliminate the crazing on the body and then use additional boron in the recipe to keep the firing temperature the same. The result was we were able to eliminate crazing in the glaze on the under-fired rapid-fire body. We confirmed this result by placing the final sample in an autoclave and exposing it to 150 psi steam without causing crazing of the glaze. To achieve this result, a glaze was created with a UMF of SiO2:4.39 Al2O3:0.53 B2O3:0.7 R 2O:0.29 RO:0.71 in a glaze fired to 1163°C in approximately 54 minutes. The level of boron does exceed the limit previously recommended. This is because the un-vitrified body and the rapid firing cycle required higher total boron content. As useful as Stull’s diagram is, it can be misleading in that it implies that glazes will continue to melt as silica and alumina values increase. This is true only as long as there is no upper limit to the firing temperature. There is a clearly defined upper limit to silica and alumina in a glaze which will melt if cone 10 is more or less the peak firing temperature. Beginning after the 0.5 alumina level, glazes fired at cone 10 begin to become underfired. Seger acknowledged that these upper limit glazes will melt with an increase of firing temperature, but that does not provide much advantage, since the practical maximum temperature for the art ceramicist is around cone 10. We wanted to know, could we add boron to glazes that would be under-fired at cone 10 and induce melting? We created a series of recipes to be tested at cone 10. We took glazes with increasingly high glass former levels and added incremental amounts of boron. We found that a glaze with UMF composition SiO2:4.2, Al2O3:0.70, B2O3:0.7, R 2O:0.3, RO: 0.7 fires to an exceptionally glossy surface. In fact, the surface is glossier than any surface we have created with a simple clay, feldspar, quartz, alkaline earth system. Surely the question will be asked, “Can I add X amount of boron to my glaze and turn a high-temperature glaze into a midtemperature glaze?” The answer to that question is definitively, “Not unless you’re extremely lucky!” The addition of boron allows us to create new glazes in terms of firing temperature, color, and texture. That said, this is not a panacea. Adding boron to an existing glaze will lower the maturing temperature of the glaze, but it almost always changes the fundamental character and appearance of the glaze also. This subject thus requires more study. The expansion of the understanding of the behavior of boron in glazes is a great tool. It gives us a greater ability to create and alter glazes at a variety of temperatures and applications. 1 “The Unity Molecular Formula Approach to Glaze Development” (M.S. Thesis., Alfred University, Alfred, NY, 2002).

Matthew Katz is a ceramics nerd from Alfred, New York. He is an adjunct professor at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. He is also one of the founders of Matt and Dave’s Clays.

panel: evolving role of residencies Martina Lantin, Moderator • Benjamin Carter, Cynthia Consentino & Jill Oberman, Panelists Introduction

As an extension of the educational experience, residencies offer a transition by Martina Lantin, Moderator from formal and structured training to an independent and (hopefully) self-supResidencies, particularly long term, porting studio practice. Many residencies seem more prominent in the field of ceoffer the opportunity to work amongst ramics than other art disciplines. An infora diverse group of makers; sometimes mal survey at NCECA 2011 of incumbent across mediums. For an artist’s developgraduates, both Bachelor’s and Master’s, ment, residencies are environments that revealed a strong sense that residencies embrace a variety of making strategies, presented the only rational next step formotivations and results. ward. Participants indicated that residenMy own experience is true to this cies not only provided greater networking description of the residency experience. contacts in the field and the opportunity I arrived at Baltimore Clayworks eager to continue making work, but that a resito establish my own studio practice afdency meant you were serious, competiter years as an apprentice and production tive and dedicated to a career in ceramics. potter. In this urban studio environment This panel seeks to address the role I was exposed to a wide range of artisof residencies in an artist’s professional tic endeavors and skill levels that opened development. Accepting a residency my eyes to the potentials of the medium. position often means we uproot ourWhile not coming straight from an underselves to explore new territory both geograduate program, this residency helped graphically and in our studio practice. me to understand the requirements of beAs extensions of our formal education, ing a working artist. Established studio residency opportunities may lead us in a Martina Lantin with a completed commission – 2 large wood fired artists, successfully marketing their work myriad of directions. vases, Baltimore Clayworks, 2005. through American Crafts Council shows The evolving role of residencies, as or local venues, and emerging makers as well as the avid students of imagined when this panel was originally conceived, was specific to the education program, generated a positive environment throughthe artist. How may our relationship with residency programs change out the Clayworks studio. It was here that I recognized my desire to as our careers develop? Does what we seek from a program regarding teach and further develop my work. creative and professional development change, and if so, what types This recognition is another aspect of the role residencies play in of residencies may suit these differing needs? While the panelists an artist’s professional development. Not all residents go on to pursue will address these questions, I was curious to hear from some resicareers as studio artists. Through their own infrastructure and edudency directors about how they perceive the role of their programs. cational programming, residencies may lead residents to career paths While our goal has been to avoid as much as possible a discussion not even imagined, including community centered arts programof the merits of one program over another or to provide information ming, administration, gallery and exhibition curating, and non-profit about specific residency organizations easily available online or in management. So while the focus may be on time to explore, create the exhibition hall, I have contacted the directors of some programs and experiment within the medium, residencies may also be a time to gain an insight into how these residencies may have originally for individuals to divine where their career paths may take them. been conceived and how they may have changed over time. In their responses, residency directors also addressed the relaMany directors concur that the role of their program is to suptionship between residents and other constituents of the art center port artistic and professional development. For Deborah Bedwell, as well as the broader community. Monica Leap, director of Studio founding member and longtime director of Baltimore Clayworks, 550 states, “The resident artists here are viewed and respected as the organization is challenged to provide career support for the the heart of our art center. They keep the studio running, they share program as a whole and for artists on an individual basis. Keeping their expertise with the community through classes and workshops facilities and technology current and relevant to changes in the field … and they share their work in the gallery. I couldn’t see our art was another challenge stipulated by Benji Schulman, current Claycenter working without resident artists.” works director. Programs are also competing against each other to Worldwide there are dedicated facilities with international attract top quality residents, and continually soliciting funding to reputations as well as small communal local art centers, industrial keep residents financially supported. organizations and schools offering ceramic residencies. ApplicaDirectors and educators, as well as the artists, are familiar with tions are thorough and sometimes costly. How does an artist, at any the challenges that face the residents, including managing the balstage of their career, navigate these choices? What are the benefits, ance between paid work, studio time and personal time. They cite risks and challenges? This panel draws broadly from the ceramics the current economic climate as a reason for the increase in both the community to address these concerns. establishment of new programs and the sense amongst graduates From her perspective as director of the Clay Studio of Missouthat it is the only feasible way to continue their studio practice.

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la and her extensive experience with a variety of residency models, Jill Oberman will discuss the collaborative nature of the residency relationship. Studio potter Ben Carter will speak about his time in a variety of residency programs and how they contributed to his professional development and understanding. Sculptor Cynthia Consentino will share her experiences in both industrial and international settings focusing on the benefit of experiencing different cultural perceptions through the medium. As moderator of this panel, I have tried to ascertain whether the role of residencies themselves has changed over time. There is a consensus among residency directors regarding the motivation and therefore the primary responsibility of a residency program, regardless of its longevity: to provide an environment in which artists can thrive, focused on their studio practice and challenged to grow. It is our hope that this panel may spur further conversation regarding the increasing prominence of residency programs, their strengths, potential and variety in the field of ceramics. Martina Lantin, a professor at Marlboro College in southern Vermont, received her BA from Earlham College in Indiana and MFA from NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A firm believer in the residency experience, Martina has been a resident at Baltimore Clayworks and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. Selected by Ceramics Monthly as an emerging artist in 2002, her work has been shown widely in the USA and Canada and she has upcoming workshops at Arrowmont and Penland in 2012.

A Real-World Application by Benjamin Carter, Panelist

Through study at a four-year academic institution I learned art history, aesthetics, and technique. These tools were essential to my foundation as an artist, but without real-world application they remained intellectual pursuits. It was not until I left the academic cocoon that these tools attained their practical value. The transition from the safety of the institution to the realities of artistic self-sufficiency was a jarring experience. Whereas ideas are the currency of academia, cash is the currency of the real world. Turning ideas into cash is a challenge that was both overwhelming and confusing. To help smooth my transition from student to artist I chose to participate in both short- and long-term residencies. These communities offered the advantages of shared costs, interaction with other artists, and access to established networks of patrons. The switch from academia to the residency system involved a switch from curriculum-based learning to observational learning. By default curriculum-based learning has a defined form. Within this form the teacher externally motivates the student by assigning problem-solving tasks that progress in a linear direction. After completing the curriculum the student has attained the knowledge embedded in the assignment. This style of education is one-sizefits-all. It can be spread over large groups of people to standardize the quality of education while maximizing the quantity of learners.

Curriculum-based Learning

In contrast observational learning is self-directed and unique to each learner. For me this starts when I experience an idea or object I cannot easily understand. My lack of understanding feels like an intellectual itch that I have to scratch. To satisfy my curiosity I work backwards from solution to question in an attempt to reverse

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engineer the understanding that I am seeking. It is an intuitive process that involves lots of wandering and mistake-driven redirection.

Observational Learning

I have found it helpful to give a loose form to this non-linear process, which shares many similarities with the scientific method. First a catalyst for observation is chosen. This might be the intricate patterns of a historical piece of pottery or another artist’s explanation of his or her aesthetic. With my interest piqued I search for any information on the subject. I might ask my fellow resident artists, or if no personal connection can be made I head to the internet for information. Armed with a breadth of knowledge I test different research paths hoping to find one that will yield a repeatable process. This style of learning is not efficient in terms of time but it creates a comprehensive understanding of the subject. Observation does not guarantee understanding but it allows the learner to choose the form learning will take. This freedom of choice is empowering, leaving the full responsibility of inquiry on the shoulders of the learner. When individuals take ownership of their learning, unexpected and exciting discoveries can happen. This style of learning has continued beyond and throughout my formal education. As I reevaluate my knowledge base I see the reciprocal nature of both curriculum-based and observational learning. After participating in three residencies where I learned mostly by observation, I went back to graduate school. Reentering the academic environment with a more developed sense of observation served me well. I was able to approach curriculum-based learning with an engaged perspective that helped me yield more information from the assignments I was given. The experience I had of switching between academia and residencies has become very common for my generation of ceramic artists. The title of this panel speaks to the evolving nature of the residency. This evolution is in response to its symbiotic relationship with academia and the greater ceramic community. One innovation that I would like to highlight is the increased role residencies play in teaching practical business skills. As art institutions are crunched by budget cuts and time constraints the capacity to include business and other non-art specific topics is diminished. Unfortunately, student need for this information remains. When the need arises the residency can fill gaps in academic curriculums. During my time as a resident I experienced lectures on business topics that were arranged by residency directors. I also learned through observation from older residents who ran financially viable businesses during their residency. Three aspects of small business practice that I learned while being a resident artist were marketing, price determination, and using gallery pressure as motivation. As a summer resident at the Canton Clay Works I became familiar with the structure of a small business. This craft center in the northwest corner of Connecticut is run by Tim Scull, an excellent potter and marketing whiz. I watched him develop an “if you build it, they will come” strategy that emphasized creating an infrastructure of kilns and facilities that would support a community of makers. His first marketing step was to link his new busi-

ness to traditional New England by emphasizing the history of the 1890s era creamery building that housed the center. By naming it The Creamery Gallery, he connected to a historical context that was easy to identify within the community. If he chose to name the gallery after himself, or made up a name, he would need to create name recognition from scratch. His second marketing step was creating a publicity campaign that used traditional print, online presence, and word-of-mouth advertising to notify the public of the center’s programming. A simple tactic that created large amounts of support was inviting his students to participate in the center’s pottery sales. Displaying students’ work encouraged them to take ownership in the center’s success. As students felt included in the business, they marketed the center to all of their friends. This word-of-mouth advertising is especially important in a small town. I saw these simple marketing tactics pay large dividends. One particular sale generated over $20,000 by offering a range of low cost student works to complement the higher quality works that were for sale. My second residency was a long-term appointment at the Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts in Asheville, NC. The residency provided me a studio, discounted firings, and materials in exchange for eight hours of work per week. The low overhead during this time allowed me to open a small business to sell my pottery. Early sales opportunities included local craft sales like the River District Studio Stroll and the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands. During these sales I shared our Odyssey booth with five other resident artists who divided the workload and booth fees. Operating a craft fair booth gave me direct interaction with the buying public. Beyond feedback on the design of my work, I saw how my pricing affected sales. The relationship between my perceived value of the work and the actual sales value was something that my academic experience could not have simulated. I had to see the pots sitting on the shelves at the end of the show to understand the balance between a buyer’s desire and price. Through talking to self-supporting artists I learned a simple pricing formula that I have referenced for years. Adding material cost to labor calculates your basic production cost. Wholesale price is production cost multiplied by two, while retail price is production cost multiplied by four.

necessity but it also served as a positive form of peer pressure. Up to this point I had the misconception that my work had to reach some unspecified pinnacle before I could actively engage the greater ceramic community. In my head I thought I would someday create a fully-formed body of work that would achieve gallery acceptance. The drawback of this type of magical thinking is that I always saw myself making these imaginary pots in the distant future. This allowed me a comfortable level of procrastination with exhibiting my work. I even had conversations with other emerging artists about the pitfalls of exhibiting underdeveloped work. While I still partially believe this sentiment, I think this was more a reflection of my internal fears than the pots I was making. As the artist I am too close to the work to properly judge it. My job is to make the best work that I can and put it out into the community. After watching the other residents I realized that I had to plan my studio life so that I had to create good work now. There was no golden time where I would make perfect work that I would be totally happy with. I had to use gallery commitments as a way to rise to the occasion. I had to bite off more than I could chew as a way of forcing myself to grow. I have mostly described my personal evolution as an artist through the residency experience, but I would like to end with an observation about the residency model itself. The greatest strength of the residency is the ability to quickly change its structure to better serve the participant. While many residencies have bureaucratic decision-making structures, the majority are controlled by smaller entities that can enact changes quickly. Whereas numerous committees must meet to change an academic curriculum, a residency’s fluid structure can be changed in a short amount of time. Evidence of this sort of change can be seen in the way residencies distribute

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Price Formula

I have since adjusted my retail price based on what the market will bear. To establish this I compared my retail price to similar objects made by artists who are in the same level of their career. Although pricing formulas are common knowledge among working artists, this was a revelation to me at that stage of development. I needed to learn a practical method after my unsuccessful sales showed me I needed to change. A final key business practice is using gallery commitments as motivation. As a resident at Anderson Ranch Arts Center I had the opportunity to work with studio artists in all stages of development. Being an emerging artist, I closely watched the practices of the more established artists. I noticed a similarity between the successful members of the group: They all planned gallery commitments at least a year if not more in advance. While not sacrificing experimentation, they harnessed gallery expectations as a force pressuring them to make work. This long-term planning was a financial

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nceca 63 Journal 2012 • Panels

fellowship funds. In the five years since I last was a resident, one major art center has gone from a six-month partially funded residency to a fully funded ten-week residency. Because the experience is now fully funded, the participants don’t have to maintain other jobs to pay for studio costs. This frees up large amounts of time that each resident would otherwise have to spend outside of the studio. Another example of adaptability is the residency’s ability to rearrange studio equipment to help residents. I have seen residencies arrange larger spaces for installation artists or rearrange shelving for studio potters. Kilns have been dismantled and rebuilt to meet the style of residents. These are just a few of the numerous examples of a residency changing to better meet the needs of its participants. Around the world, residencies continue to provide facilities and support for artists working in ceramics. I have been fortunate to participate in a few of them, and I look forward to participating in more in the future. Benjamin Carter received his BFA in Studio Arts from Appalachian State University and his MFA in Ceramics from the University of Florida. He currently serves as the educational director of the Pottery Workshop Shanghai in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China.

ence of all to my work and teaching. Kohler had everything down to a science for consistency and efficiency. Casting slip came out of faucets situated throughout the ceramics factory. The slip was checked daily to ensure that it was always the same. Casting times were exact because the temperature and humidity of the air was regulated to control drying, and the molds consistent. I have a far greater understanding of the commercial applications and potentials for both iron and ceramics, and a greater appreciation of and interest in industrial design. The academic setting of my next residency greatly contrasted with Kohler’s industrial setting. The Oregon College of Art and Craft, a small and rather unique school in Portland, places its artistin-residents in studios adjacent to classrooms and studio equipment. As a result I was able to observe classes and students working while I worked on my own projects. I also took some workshops and sat in on other classes. I had decided upon OCAC because I wanted to increase my knowledge of kilns and glaze chemistry and see what I had missed having not studied ceramics as an undergraduate. Because it was predominantly a craft school, as well as being in a state that particularly supports the crafts and small business development, OCAC did an exceptional job at preparing students for life after graduation. They offered courses and workshops that not

Lasting Influences

by Cynthia Consentino, Panelist I started going to artist residencies because I wanted to learn more and have access to equipment, larger kilns, glaze labs and even larger work spaces. I also wanted to work alongside other artists who were focused intensely on their art. After my undergraduate and graduate studies, I struggled to maintain my studio practice. It was difficult to balance earning a living with making art and exhibiting. For many years I worked out of my basement and I greatly missed the support and inspiration of working next to other artists. Residencies offered everything I was missing: financial support, concentrated time to make art, the camaraderie of other artists, and a respite from the demands and distractions of teaching and side jobs. At first I only applied to residencies that provided a stipend and housing so that I wouldn’t need to worry about making money during that time. Later I applied to grants to help pay for residencies that had fees or travel costs. Over the years I have participated in seven residencies. Three of these were clay specific, three were programs abroad, one I worked right in the factory, and in another I worked alongside students at an art and crafts college. Most offered the benefits of equipment and facilities, but two had no equipment other than table and chairs. They ranged in length from seven days to three months. Each residency provided very different experiences, but all were beneficial and had a profound impact on my work and career. John Michael Kohler Arts Industry Program was my first full residency out of graduate school. Offering both a cast iron and ceramics program, artists worked right alongside employees in the Kohler factory and had access to much of the equipment and materials. Known for their cast iron/enamel sinks and tubs and ceramic toilets and sinks, Kohler is probably the ultimate place to observe industrial applications of ceramics and iron. I went to cast in iron and learn further about molds. The working conditions of a factory are challenging, but the technical assistance and access to equipment, materials and industrial processes are unmatchable. The exposure to industrial methods has had the most profound influ-

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La Napoule Foundation, La Napoule-Mandelieu, France, 2003.

only developed art skills, but taught practical business skills such as how to do your taxes and run your own business. This educational emphasis has greatly impacted my own teaching philosophy and curriculum. It is important to emphasize practical and professional development skills in order to help young artists transition from school to careers as artists. I chose international programs for the last three residencies I attended. These experiences were a way of combining my love of traveling with my desire to feed my artwork. Two of the residencies were not media specific and had little for facilities and equipment. At La Napoule Foundation in France I benefited from working alongside writers, video artists and other sculptors from Europe and the US. At the International Symposium of Modern Art in Carei, Romania, I got a sense of what interested painters and sculptors in Eastern Europe in particular. These two experiences were more about exchanging ideas than producing lots of work. Because there was no ceramic equipment in France I spent the two months there drawing and working out ideas for future projects. Interestingly, the limitation of facilities turned out to be among the top benefits of both residencies. Setting aside two months to work differently

International Symposium of Modern Art in Carei, Romania, and its director, 2004.

and allow myself to develop my ideas via drawing exclusively was invaluable and an experience I would like to repeat. In Romania I planned ahead and came up with a new way of working because I only had three days to actually produce art. The time restraints led me to manipulate commercial figurines and add new elements to them, as well as use a sculpting epoxy in place of clay. I funded a residency at the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Center with a grant from American Crafts Council. I had studied Japanese in college and had wanted to go to Japan for years. I picked the Shigaraki program because it was in a city with a long tradition of ceramics and had a well-equipped ceramics facility. Shigaraki is a clay artist’s dream come true. The cultural park includes two ceramics museums, a permanent outdoor ceramic sculpture garden, an exposition building for area ceramic events, and the residency center with its own housing, studios, and ceramic facilities. Down the road are many small ceramic shops and galleries with local ware ranging from traditional to contemporary, several clay companies and a glaze research center. There were about fifteen clay artists in residence there. Five were invited as “master” artists and gave demonstrations of their work while they were there. Several of the artists had just completed their undergraduate studies in Japan. The rest of the artists were at different stages of their career and had come from Denmark, Sweden, the United States, and Korea. This was the first time I worked alongside professional ceramic artists at a residency (other than a ten-day work exchange at Watershed in Maine). It was incredibly wonderful and helpful to be with other clay artists. Most of us worked together in a large studio so I could really observe everyone’s process of making art. We exchanged technical information, but best of all was learning about ceramics in the countries the residents were from and seeing the differences in values, trends, methods of working, education, exhibiting, and career opportunities. Japan was visually powerful and life altering. I visited many cultural sites and soaked up the aesthetics and philosophy of life. I particularly benefited from visiting the ceramics department at Kyoto Seika University and going to gallery exhibitions in Kyoto and nearby towns. I have a far broader understanding of ceramics and art in general from my international experiences. What was perhaps the most valuable was to realize how aesthetic values and trends are

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The Collaborative Nature of a Residency Program

not universal and how the field of ceramics differs greatly among countries. My work was far more specific to ceramics in the United by Jill Oberman, Panelist States than I had realized. My heritage was Arneson, Frey, Warashino, Judy Fox, and Arleo. My interest in social commentary also For the contemporary ceramic artist, completing a residency proved specific to the culture and time of my formative years. This has practically become a mandatory rite of passage, a critical bullet understanding hasn’t changed what I create, but has kept me more point on one’s resume. And, as a result of this (or perhaps a contribaware of my audience and how people from other cultures might uting cause), there are plenty of residency programs to choose from. perceive my work. As artists shop around for the residency experience of choice, they I am still interested in residencies for the same reasons. I have consider factors such as location, stipend amounts, length of residenbecome more selective, though, about which ones to apply to becy, facilities offered, reputation, and other personal issues. In their cause time away has become harder to come by and I know the search they ask the residency programs, “What can you offer me?” disadvantages of interrupting your usual routine. I try to go to ones It is commonly said that an artist residency gives the artist “the that offer several things I am looking for. I also do much more pregift of time and space”—virtually undistracted time to focus on planning and have very specific goals for my time away. studio practice, and space and facilities to execute new ideas. UtiResidencies have had lasting influences on my art and career. lizing this gift can be a life-changing experience for an artist. In My participation in the John Michael Kohler Arts Industry Program exchange for this gift, residency programs have a variety of expecled to my commission for the public restroom at the Kohler Arts tations. Some ask for nothing, and even sponsor an artist through Center. This commission later inspired me to create the Exquisite free housing, meals, studios, or cash fellowships. Many programs Corpse series. I had enjoyed the element of chance that occurred ask for “volunteer work hours” as trade, or require the artist to pay with the figurative tiles for the washroom. I had made ten figures studio and/or housing rental fees, whose tops, middles and bottoms In my experience, while the hosting insti. . . residents act as ambassadors for . . . their host incould be interchanged to make a tution usually gives this gift selflessly, the parnew figure. Variations of thirty stitution, as well as for the field of ceramics, helping to ties have dual responsibilities. Residents and elements are numerous enough move contemporary ceramics forward. - Jill Oberman residency program hosts need each other. They to create an element of the unshare the responsibility to educate the public on known. I wanted to have that element of randomness with threethe value of contemporary ceramics. This is no small goal. Together, dimensional pieces. residents and their residency programs make a positive difference OCAC gave me larger workspace and kilns to create bigger through consistently presenting quality ceramics in our galleries; by ofsculptures and develop my Make Believe installation. Three of the fering interesting classes taught by eager, prepared, and knowledgeable pieces were done in Oregon. I added more for my first NY show resident artists; and by sharing the value of creative thinking with our at John Elder gallery, which led to my creating a larger installacommunities. In exchange for “the gift,” residents act as ambassadors tion with the work at the Decordova Museum and Sculpture Park for both their host institution as well as for the field of ceramics, helping in Lincoln, MA. I also continue to work on a series of work from to move contemporary ceramics forward. the Romanian Symposium. I would never have developed this work I asked several residency program directors to characterize a sucexcept for the time restraints of the symposium. cessful residency experience. Of those I talked with, most conveyed The friendships I made in all these programs have continued expectations for their residents to maintain a focused studio practice. to impact my life. Ceramic sculptors are far away and few in my However, residents who spend all of their time making the same work neck of the woods. Keeping in touch with colleagues in the US and over and over again are missing out on a huge part of their residency abroad has made all the difference to my art and life. experience. Other residency expectations included working hard, trying new things, taking risks with the work, having a willingness to fail, and staying engaged with their community. While immediate growth may Cynthia Consentino received be visible, all agreed that true success is not fully realized until five, ten, her MFA from University of Massaor even twenty years have passed, and is measured through a sustained chusetts, Amherst, and her BFA from studio practice and continued development and contribution to our field. The Cooper Union College of Arts Residency programs are having a positive impact on contempoand Sciences. She is a studio artist in rary ceramics. Artists all over the world are spending focused time Holyoke, Massachusetts, where she in their residency studios, pushing their own work, contributing to also teaches at the community college. their local communities, and adding to the powerful momentum that A recipient of the Massachusetts Culis moving contemporary ceramics forward. There is a shared ownertural Council, American Craft Counship over this process, and the more we all give in to it, the stronger cil, The Society of Arts and Crafts, the field of ceramics will grow. Residency programs will continue to and The Blanche E. Colman Artist give the gift of time and space, and residents will spend their careers Awards, Consentino has exhibited paying back that gift, to the ultimate benefit of their host institutions, widely. She has also been a resident contemporary ceramics, their local communities, and themselves. artist at the John Michael Kohler Arts/ Factory Floor, Ceramics Building, Kohler. Working on The Women’s Room, a pubIndustry Program, Oregon College of lic restroom project for the John Jill Oberman is currently the Executive Director of the Clay Arts and Crafts; La Napoule Founda- Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2004. Studio of Missoula in Missoula, Montana. She previously worked tion, France; and Shigaraki Ceramic as the Director of Programs and Administration at the Archie Bray Cultural Park, Japan. In 2005 Cynthia completed a tile commission Foundation, and the studio manager of the ceramics program at for the John M. Kohler Art Center in Wisconsin. Her artist-designed Anderson Ranch. She has been a resident artist at numerous art washroom has over 2000 relief and hand painted tiles. institutions, notably the Anderson Ranch, the Archie Bray Foundation, and Arrowmont School for Arts and Crafts.

nceca 66 Journal 2012 • Panels

panel: life on the edge - Mashiko rebuilds

Lynn Zetzman, Moderator • Valerie Zimany, John Baymore & Ayumi Horie, Panelists Life On The Edge for a Third Responder by Lynn Zetzman, Moderator

Being on the edge of a fault can be devastating. In March 2011, a massive earthquake hit Japan. Mashiko, the village Shoji Hamada chose as his own, and from where he and others influenced generations of ceramists, suffered greatly. The outpouring of concern by the international ceramics community was grassroots, spontaneous and generous. Considering the influence this small village of Japanese potters has had on the contemporary ceramics field, some may not have found this surprising. It was heartwarming. As a high school art teacher who teaches ceramics to American youth and who wants to model 21st century skills including being connected globally, I reflected on what I could do. I had taught in secondary schools in Japan in 2002 and 2004/2005 with the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Master Teacher Program. I had visited and patronized Mashiko artists during my stints in Japan. I Skyped with Master Teacher Program administrator friends living in Tokyo and emailed back and forth with a good teacher friend in Tsuchiura who knew of my personal interest in Japanese ceramics. These friends asked if I would commit to being a “third responder” for the Mashiko community. It was explained to me that in disaster situations, “first responders” save lives, while “second responders” provide temporary shelter, provide medical, clothing, food, and other basic necessities. “Third responders” invest in a long term-relationship, providing support and friendship with one’s available resources. As a resident in the Midwest region I have enjoyed the Minnesota Pottery Tour for years. I communicated with Linda Christianson, a host potter, who had already initiated a fundraiser for Mashiko as part of their 2011 tour, and asked if I could videotape the tour artists giving words of encouragement to Mashiko potters. I was given the go-ahead and put together a team to make both English language and Japanese language versions of a YouTube video titled Face to Face Messages for Mashiko. I believed putting a human face on some of the American outreach activity was something doable for me. I also thought keeping information about Mashiko in the minds and hearts of American ceramic artists was important. Organizing the Life on the Edge: Mashiko Rebuilds panel for the 2012 NCECA conference was a piece of my third responder activity. My Japanese friends asked potters they knew in Mashiko to provide names of American potters who had ties to the community and John Baymore’s name and contact information was given to me. John has been to Mashiko twice since the earthquake. I was a Facebook friend of Ayumi Horie’s and obtained a Kirt Mangus jar via her Handmade for Japan fundraiser. Ayumi was perfect for speaking about being a grassroots internet fundraising potter/activist who responded immediately to the crisis caused by the earthquake. I was hungry for more information about the situation and was grateful for her on-site postings from Mashiko last spring. Of the three panelists I approached, Valerie Zimany was the only artist I knew personally at the panel inception. Knowing Valerie was going to be in Japan on a Fulbright Hays for an extended period before NCECA, I phoned to ask for her involvement. Valerie visited Mashiko twice

this past fall helping a young potter rebuild his kiln. The focus of Life on the Edge: Mashiko Rebuilds is to reflect on events a year after the earthquake, relaying individual’s knowledge of current conditions, and examine appropriate ways to continue assistance and support. Lynn Zetzman has twenty-six years’ experience teaching art from kindergarten through university level students. She currently teaches Art Methods for Lawrence University and is the Fine Arts Chair at Xavier High School. Lynn had three stints teaching cross curricular art/science projects to secondary students in Japan. Lynn is a producing artist currently showing in the Aylward Gallery at the University of Wisconsin Fox Valley (March-May 2011). As a successful grant writer Lynn brought Haruki Takahashi from Kanazawa, Japan, for an exhibition in Wisconsin in 2009. He is a sculptor currently working with Kutani enamels on porcelain. Haruki Takahashi exhibited a ceramic installation piece as part of the Setouchi International Art Festival in 2010. Lynn is an avid collector of ceramic objects and Japanese prints.

Coming Back from the Edge: The Young Potters of Mashiko Regroup & Rebuild by Valerie Zimany, Panelist Occasionally, the most terrible things in life become the best opportunities for professional growth. The world witnessed the devastation of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in the northeast region of Japan, and the shocking images of its aftermath became regrettably familiar to many of us. Those with interest in Japanese art became increasingly concerned by subsequent news that traditional ceramics towns like Mashiko (Tochigi), Kasama (Ibaraki), and Soma (Fukushima), also suffered profound and irreparable damage. The artists in these areas, in some cases, lost everything. Immediately, numerous groups formed in support, accepting donations, such as the Potter’s Council fund, or holding benefit auctions, like Handmade for Japan. Many of the established artists in Mashiko were buoyed by these gestures, and we watched as rebuilding efforts progressed quickly enough to allow some to be firing again before summer’s end. In this portion of the panel, however, I will track one young artist, Shikamaru Takeshita, and his slightly longer path. As an artist who spent many years living and working on the west side of Japan, I, like many, wished to contribute in a meaningful way. Through this impulse I contacted Ayumi Horie, and donated to her project Handmade for Japan. At the same time, I was preparing to depart on research leave to Kanazawa College of Art in May 2011, and I connected with the Mashiko Volunteer Center, a network of gallery owners and public officials. With ninety anagama and noborigama kilns suffering severe to total damage, the Volunteer Center opened its doors just two weeks after the earthquake, and over three months, 600 volunteers assisted artists at twenty different studios.1

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Immediately after landing in Tokyo, my time to understand the full extent of those in husband, Daniel Bare, and I spent the weektrouble, and to reach the artists whose contact end in Mashiko. One of the artists we were information was unknown. assigned to help was Shikamaru Takeshita, When the Volunteer Center began operwith whom we made an easy connection ations, Shikamaru invited assistance to clear through our similarity in age, and his dithe rubble and clean bricks. Immediately, he rect manner. The brick and rubble of his 36had up to six people at a time working, and foot hybrid anagama-noborigama had been later a handful coming on any given weekcleared, and he was hurriedly rebuilding the end. One of the other volunteers on our first roof to cover his kiln site before the rainy weekend was a returnee—an office worker season. During tea breaks, we became more from Utsunomiya. He said he felt great satisdeeply interested in his situation. Nearly two faction helping others in his home prefecture months post-quake, the numbers of volunin such a tangible way. As we worked with teers were declining and the Volunteer CenShikamaru, we were concerned about how ter would soon cease operations. The strughe would manage once the Volunteer Center gle Shikamaru faced was shared by a number ended. Working alone, he would certainly of his young potter peers: though assistance struggle to finish rebuilding in time for his money was eventually expected, how it first solo exhibition since the disaster, schedwould be disbursed remained unclear, and in uled for October 2011 in Tokyo. His goal was order to receive funds, all kiln-building ma- Above: Shikamaru Takeshita’s Kiln, post-earthquake, March to have his kiln complete by mid-August, 2011. Image courtesy of Shikamaru Takeshita terials needed to be purchased upfront by the focus on making work for a month, fire, and artist within the year. Without the apprentic- Below: Shikamaru Takeshita, Vase, 2010, woodfired stone- immediately mount his exhibition, which es or contracted help that larger studios could ware, 16” x 10” x 10”. Image courtesy of Shikamaru Takeshita seemed ambitious if not nearly impossible. afford, this was a daunting challenge, in both We discussed coming back on an individual time and money. basis, hopefully with reinforcements. Shikamaru Takeshita was born in MaArriving in Kanazawa, fellow ceramic shiko, Japan in 1978, the son of potter Takaya artists and students were very concerned to Takeshita. As a child he fired the aburi or hear about the situation in Mashiko. One inwarming stage of his father’s noborigama, dividual in particular was motivated to join located on the site that Shikamaru uses tous, Reiko Shiraiwa, who was my fellow ceday. He does not consider himself a succesramics residents at the Utatsuyama Craft sor to his father’s work, however, preferring Workshop. Born in Fukushima Prefecture, to find his own way of making. After high she was actually in her hometown during the school, Shikamaru attended the local Cedisaster. Following the earthquake and tsuramic Research Center, but left after a year nami she returned to Kanazawa for work, but to establish his own studio in 2000. Only felt a lingering sadness about the ceramics thirty-three years old, he has been supportcenter of Soma in her home prefecture. Somaing himself and his family through his work yaki was produced only a short distance from for eleven years. the Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant and due to On the day of the earthquake, Shikathe dangerous aftermath, the mostly elderly maru was out on errands, but two entire solo Soma-yaki potters were scattered all over exhibitions worth of green-ware work were the prefecture. It remained uncertain when, in his studio. The force of the earthquake or if, rebuilding would be possible. Unable not only irreparably caved in the top of his to assist her hometown’s local Soma potters, kiln, but also toppled large steel shelves in Reiko was anxious to help in Mashiko. his studio, destroying all his work and forcing him to cancel his Dan, Reiko and I spent three days at Shikamaru’s in July. He exhibitions scheduled for April. Despite the loss, Shikamaru feels was making slow progress on the kiln, yet confident that things were fortunate, saying “Had I been in my studio at the time, I would have on track. We dug out and reset the foundation and helped design the surely been badly injured, if not killed by the weight of the shelves arch layout. I returned again in September and recorded an interand the large, heavy plaster molds that were stored on them.2” view with him about his experience and the state of his rebuilding Following the earthquake, Shikamaru states he was disheartprocess. He had not made much progress on the kiln since our last ened and unsure if he had the energy to rebuild. Through another visit, and was putting off completing construction until after his solo young potter, he learned of the Volunteer Center. However, there exhibition at Savoir Vivre in Tokyo the following month. Another were a number of challenges as it got underway. Potters whose young potter offered him studio space and the use of his gas kiln. homes and studios were in disarray battled embarrassment at invitIt had been months since Shikamaru had touched clay, and though ing a succession of strangers in to help. Furthermore, unlike the Six his kiln was delayed, he was excited to work. He said of his show, “I Ancient Kilns pottery towns, Mashiko’s growth began only in the didn’t have room to try new things, but this is a first step to return1850s, picking up after 1930 with the arrival of Shoji Hamada. Since ing to my work.”3 Despite such a caveat, the pieces exhibited were then, Mashiko became home to many independent newcomers, and fresh, and combined elements of his more familiar wood-fired surprior to the earthquake, a complete directory of all the local ceramic face with deep, rich Oribe green glazes. The show was well received artists did not even exist. Thus, although help was to be had, it took and Shikamaru is on target to complete his kiln by year’s end.

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Although much work remains before Shikamaru fully recovers, he says one of the most exciting outcomes for himself and other young potters of Mashiko has been in the intense networking born out of many discussions, sharing of materials, projects, and exhibitions. Shikamaru has been active with fellow young Mashiko potters such as Masakatsu Kuriya and Akihiro Nikaido. Along with other members, they have founded and activated such groups as Rebuild Mashiko (Tabi Suru Kakera – “Travelling Shards”) and Toism “Ceramicisim” (Utsuwa no Chikara, the “Power of Pots” project) using blogs and social networking to propel and promote their ventures, and to help keep a lasting eye on the needs of Mashiko potters and others in the afflicted region. 1 Mashiko Volunteer Center website: http://mashikopf.exblog.jp/. 2 Interview with Shikamaru Takeshita by author. 3 Quote by Shikamaru Takeshita on Savoir Vivre website, http:// www.savoir-vivre.co.jp/archives_exhibition/000967.htm. Valerie Zimany, Assistant Professor of Art, Ceramics, at Clemson University, completed her MFA in Crafts/Ceramics from Kanazawa College of Art as a Japanese Government (Monbusho) Scholar in 2002. Following her degree, she spent three years as a resident artist at the Utatsuyama Craft Workshop in Kanazawa studying Kutani overglaze and Japanese crafts. Featured in the World Ceramic Biennale Korea and the International Ceramics Competition Mino, Valerie has exhibited her work nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions. She is a two-time Fulbright grantee (1996 Fulbright Fellow & 2011 Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad), as well as the recipient of awards by Ceramics Monthly and the American Craft Council. Her work is featured in the Lark Book 500 Ceramic Sculptures, and is the subject of “Valerie Zimany: Recasting The Japanese Tradition,” a full feature article in Ceramics Monthly. Recently she has acted as curator for concurrent independent exhibitions during NCECA conferences, and is producing a new survey exhibition of contemporary Japanese overglaze, scheduled for Summer 2012 in Kanazawa, Japan.

Three months after the March 11th earthquake, Hamada Tomoo-san stands in front of his grandfather Hamada Shoji’s severely damaged and as yet totally unrepaired noborigama (climbing kiln) at the Mashiko Sankokan (Reference Collection Museum). Image: John Baymore.

In the ‘60s and ‘70s, Living National Treasure Hamada Shoji and then-contemporary artist-potter Kamoda Shoji put Mashiko firmly on the 20th century Japanese ceramics map. Former Hamada apprentice and Living National Treasure Shimaoka Tatsuzo continued this tradition of excellence into the ‘90s. Customers flocked to Mashiko to buy pots and soak up a little of the old Japan still somewhat embodied there. Unlike many other pottery villages, Mashiko quickly became an open community, and ceramists from Japan and other countries traveled there to study and work. By the ‘90s it had become an internationally celebrated multi-cultural ceramics center. I had the pleasure of experiencing Mashiko at about the peak of CERAMICS MONTHLY 2012_NCECA 2/10/12 3:15 PM Page 1 its contemporary fame. In 1996 I was honored to win a major award

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by John Baymore, Panelist To student potters of my generation, the very name of “Mashiko” seemed to have magical power. Mashiko appeared to be the Mecca of pottery, brought to our attention by the vagaries of history and the chance meeting of a Japanese and an Englishman. Tales of Mashiko were accessible in English and were a powerful inspiration. The evangelical style of spreading information performed by Hamada Shoji and Bernard Leach brought the name Mashiko to the lips of potters all over the world. In many ways, a huge proportion of those attending this 46th NCECA conference are involved in ceramics through direct or indirect connections tracing back to the village of Mashiko and the two men who made it famous. If you were not directly touched in some way by Mashiko yourself, it is likely that your teacher or your teacher’s teacher was. A latecomer into the traditional world of Japanese ceramics in 1853, Mashiko had a heritage connected to the long-established potters of Shigaraki. However Mashiko held a strategic advantage when it came to developing its fame: it was an easily accessible pottery production center close to the burgeoning late Edo Period population that was then and now is, Tokyo.

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nceca 69 Journal 2012 • Panels

Daisei-gama, formerly the largest active noborigama (climbing kiln) in Mashiko, is shown here being rebuilt in late September 2011 with fewer chambers and the chamber width reduced by one third to reflect reduced expectations for future pottery sales. Image: John Baymore.

in the Mashiko Ceramics Competition, and was hosted by the government to attend the awards. I experienced a vibrant community, a place whose whole economy was driven by the making and sale of pottery. Ryokan (traditional inns) and restaurants were full of guests enjoying the Mashiko countryside’s hospitality and shopping. Japan’s Emperor even came to the Ceramics Competition, and people lined the streets waving Japanese flags. Galleries were packed with both pots and customers. Pieces were flying off the shelves, packed into busses, trains, and cars, and headed off to Tokyo. Since that time I have returned to Mashiko on many occasions to study and to visit my friends. Over those many visits, I noticed the town slowly changing. Mashiko was facing challenges due to the Japanese “Lost Decades” economics of 1990-2010. By the time I was visiting in 2009, it was clear that even the usually prestigious art form of ceramics was being seriously affected. The physical damage from the March 11th earthquake combined with the public’s perception of potential radiation danger in a place somewhat close to the Fukushima nuclear plant were the “kirioroshi” (samurai’s downward killing sword-blow) to Mashiko’s economy. I was in Mashiko again in both May and September of 2011. Huge amounts of progress on the physical damage have already been made, and at a recovery level that is pretty astounding to western eyes. However, much still remains to be done, and decisions are being made based on a new reality. The huge Daisei-gama noborigama is being rebuilt, but significantly reduced in size to reflect the coming economic realities. Hamada Tomoo’s salt kiln was rebuilt with earthquake-proofing metal reinforcements. Museum buildings and historic kilns at the Sankokan have to wait, as attention and funding is first put on rebuilding working kilns and getting potteries functioning again. Potters are discussing approaches such as whether they should be working on bringing people to Mashiko or outreaching Mashiko to the people. Unfortunately, when it comes to customers, Mashiko is a ghost town when compared to my journeys there in the early 2000s. Many potteries and shops are simply closed. It is pretty safe to stand on the yellow line in the middle of the main street on many days. Remaining galleries have open doors, lots of stock, but few customers. Sales staff in some shops are sometimes hard to even find. It can be eerie. Lasting solutions to the issues Mashiko faces will not be easy and it will take a lot of time and money to put things back on a firm path to prosperity. In the early part of the last century Hamada Shoji himself helped to bring prosperity back to a struggling Ma-

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shiko that was affected by changes in Japanese society. The current group of ceramists there, young and old, is now working very hard to accomplish a similar task. Knowing Japanese perseverance, I have faith that they will succeed. From afar, we can do our part by a combination of sharing ideas, donating funds, hosting Mashiko ceramists to do workshops, and buying Mashiko’s pottery. If you can, do yourself an educational favor and visit the town itself, soak up a little of the “Mashiko Magic” ceramic culture, and let your yen spent there help contribute to the town’s overall economy. Rebuilding the economy is what will have a lasting impact on this town, which clearly is an important ceramic cultural heritage site to the world. In March of 2011, just before taking office as the President of the Potters Council of the American Ceramics Society, I became aware of the serious damage in Mashiko from my numerous friends there. While I had other personal efforts underway to help with the general relief efforts up in Tohoku, I wanted to do something that was highly “potter specific.” With the generous help of the Potters Council Board of Directors and the staff at ACerS, we were able to set up the tax-deductible Potters Council Japan Potter’s Relief Fund, with the town of Mashiko as a prime target of that aid: https://www.pubservice.com/Submiscrcpt.aspx?PC=PQ&PK=S103DON John Baymore is adjunct professor of ceramics at New Hampshire Institute of Art and noborigama firing studio ceramist. John has taught at Massachusetts College of Art, Boston University’s Program in Artisanry, and the Danforth Museum School. He is President of the Potters Council of the American Ceramic Society, and former member of the Leadership Advisory Team for the N.H. Department of Education. John served on NHIA’s Curriculum Committee, NASAD Accreditation Committee, and chaired the Health and Safety Committee. In April 2012 John’s chawan are in an invitational teabowl exhibition at Yusay Gallery in Nara, Japan. In 2011 John had a solo exhibition at Gallery Wando in Goshogawara-shi, Japan, and was participant/presenter at the International Society for Ceramic Art Education and Exchange Symposium held in Tokyo. He has been guest lecturer at Tokyo National University of Fine Art in 2004 and 2008. John was the wood kiln building workshop leader at the Kanayama, Japan International Woodfire Festival in 2009, and artist-in-residence at the same program in 2004, 2006, and 2008. He was invited presenter in the Aomori, Japan International Woodfire Festival in 2002. His work is in numerous public collections in Japan. John presented at NCECA in 2006, 1999, and 1984.

Mashiko and Handmade For Japan by Ayumi Horie, Panelist

The morning after the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan on March 11, 2011, I co-founded Handmade For Japan with the help of two friends, Ai Kanazawa and Kathryn Manzella. Our focus was to raise funds quickly for general humanitarian relief for victims of the disaster, and in this, Mashiko played an important role in the visibility of our online art auction and its success. While my experience with Mashiko is limited, my visit there a month after the earthquake was striking from my point of view as a potter and hopefully continued to shine attention on Mashiko’s needs through my Facebook posts. Because of its proximity to the epicenter, Mashiko and its pottery industry were particularly hard hit, with nearly all kilns dam-

threatened future kilns. Although I couldn’t help in physically clearing debris, Handmade For Japan had an active 5,000 Facebook following eager to know more about what was happening in Japan. I shared links to various projects including the Mashiko Pottery Fund, and diligently posted pictures of the damage. It was just one small way to help Mashiko potters rebuild and keep interest high at a time when Japan was already fading from the headlines.

Hamada Shoji kiln damaged in the Tohoku earthquake, April 2011. Image: Ayumi Horie.

aged or destroyed. In the first few days as we were compiling our roster of artists for the auction, very little was known about the extent of damage in Mashiko. Knowing of Mashiko’s proximity to the epicenter, we wanted to include Mashiko artists but contacting them at that time felt insensitive and inappropriate since they were recovering from the immediate effects of the quake. Handmade For Japan’s primary platform was Facebook, and through its network we sought news from individuals. We were quickly led to Mashiko potter Matsuzaki Ken’s immediate activism online. His agreement to be part of the auction gave us an endorsement that led to greater credibility for our efforts. Beatrice Chang of Dai Ichi Arts shortly afterward donated the heart of the auction, a Hamada Shoji vase. This historical piece was hugely significant not only because of its value but because Hamada’s Mashiko estate put the town on the map for the West, and because Hamada is known worldwide as one of the founders of the modern studio pottery movement. It was only later that we became poignantly aware that 40% of his collection had been damaged or broken in the earthquake. Hamada’s vase became the centerpiece for later press, broadening our audience dramatically. We credit these two Mashiko luminaries with helping boost the visibility and success of the auction, which at the time raised more than $75,000 for disaster relief. In April 2011, I went on an already scheduled family trip to Japan and made a point to visit Mashiko with Naomi Tsukamoto, who helped translate and was gathering information for an article for Ceramics Monthly. Normally during cherry blossom season Japan is overflowing with tourists, yet in many places we were the first foreigners that shopkeepers had seen since the disaster. Mashiko’s proximity to Fukushima and the unstable nuclear situation brought even more uncertainty as they planned their annual spring sale. We toured the beautiful historic estate of Hamada, seeing several of the kilns that had been severely damaged and the collections building, which had severe cracks at the corners. His grandson, Tomō, spoke of how to approach repairs on the broken pottery and whether to show the damage or not. Whether Mingei pots are anyone’s cup of tea or not, the historic loss was palpable as I looked at the disarray in display cabinets. My visit happened to fall midcleanup when the evidence was still fresh, yet what struck me most was the industriousness of Mashiko potters. By the time I arrived a month after the earthquake, many of the kilns had been cleared and bricks were being cleaned for rebuilding with help from organized volunteers. My host, Matsuzaki Ken, had cleared his kiln pad and was already planning his next kiln, even with daily aftershocks that

Ayumi Horie is a studio potter in the Hudson Valley of New York who has developed a distinctive online community utilizing social networks to support her studio practice. She was recently named Ceramic Monthly’s first recipient of the “Ceramic Artist of the Year” award. Horie makes work in earthenware and porcelain that draw inspiration from folk traditions and comics in the U.S. and Japan. In 2008, she organized Obamaware for Obama’s bid for presidency, the first online ceramic fundraiser of its kind. In March of 2011, she co-founded Handmade For Japan, which has raised over $100,000 through art for disaster relief and rebuilding for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan. Horie received her MFA from the University of Washington, her BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, and her BA from Mount Holyoke College. She is on the board of directors of the Archie Bray Foundation and the curatorial board of Access Ceramics. Horie has taught many workshops on functional ceramics and the Internet across the U.S. and internationally. Her work is in many private collections including the Museum of Art and Design in New York.

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panel • distillations & eruptions: installation today Priscilla Hollingsworth, Moderator Jen Mills, Beth Sellars & Christian Bernard Singer, Panelists Introduction to Distillations & Eruptions by Priscilla Hollingsworth, Moderator

The purpose of this panel discussion is to talk about the exhibition entitled Distillations & Eruptions, and to discuss some of the issues surrounding it. Installation has become increasingly popular within the ceramics field, while it has assumed the status of a standard genre within the art world in general. Several lines of thinking have developed among installation artists, and the entire field is far too broad to summarize in this short space. However, several historical mileposts stand out, and have some special relevance to the thinking behind the works in Distillations & Eruptions. Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917) established the concept that the Priscilla Hollingsworth, installation in process, terra cotta (still in bisque state), paintings on paper thought can have primacy over the object in itself as a display of skill and effort; the work left itself open to shifting installations of Catherine Paleczny and Patsy Cox are entirely ceour interest to viewers’ varying interpretations and away from the ramic-based. Paleczny’s concept exploits the hard, bonelike forms artist’s own intention as the “right answer” to the meaning of the possible with highfired clay, while Cox’s forms benefit from the orwork. In the 1920s, Kurt Schwitters began to collage and rebuild ganic-looking plasticity of wet clay forming methods. On the other part of the space of his family’s house in the work he called the end, Jen Mills’s installation uses the associations that ceramics has Merzbau, forming a fantastic and distorted-looking physical space with vulnerability, using ceramic tradition and well-known technithat provided a precedent for the kind of installation that forms a cal processes within the field. Several of the artists use additional surrounding sculptural environment for the viewer. media as an integral part of their installations, such as drawing and In 1974, Joseph Beuys did an influential performance in New painting (Priscilla Hollingsworth) and digital (Tina Aufiero). York called I Like America and America Likes Me; this would sure“Distillations” in the exhibition title refers to the artists’ interly be called an installation today. Beuys’s use of fat and felt, as well est in conceptualizing, in the sense of drilling through or honing as his emphasis on a mysterious style of presentation that defies down many physical parts to a basic idea. The process of distillalogic and point-by-point explication, reflect the interest in basic, tion helps us make sense of the chaos that surrounds us. “Eruporganic, malleable material and the sense of mystery that are both tions” refers to the unruliness of things or experiences that fight influential threads for some of the work in the current exhibition. back, that resist attempts to corral them into neat formulae. DisOther important threads from the 1970s could be represented by the tillation can provide scientific-type theories that are comfortingly work of Eva Hesse and Walter de Maria’s New York Earth Room. simple and complete; eruptions happen when theories have failed Hesse made various forms in latex that seem related to forms that to account for all of the facts—or perhaps the ground has shifted can be made from clay, while the arrangements and multiples that in the meantime. Regardless of what you choose to call it (Postshe used are direct precursors of some of the work in the exhibition. Modernism, Post-post-_____?), we have surely entered a cultural De Maria’s Earth Room is a simple idea of staggering proportions; era in which some of our collective assumptions have fallen short. what separates it from the mostly masculine Earth Art movement The natural world viewed through a quasi-scientific lens is a is that it is a transformation of an indoor environment. major aspect of several artists’ work. Cox explores “mutations, hyAs an influence on the work in Distillation & Eruptions, it is brids, growth, and cross-pollination” in aggregations of many hunalso worth mentioning the work of Ann Hamilton. A good example dreds of yeastlike or molecular forms that are rigidly color-coded is her 1991 installation Malediction, in which the claylike material in red, yellow, or blue. Paleczny works with theories of ecology, bread dough undergoes a transformation through the artist’s own referring to “relationships among communities of organisms such body. This richly evocative work references deep layers of culture, as swarms, flocks and gatherings.” Mills draws upon the landscape religious ritual, issues of making and craft, and ideas about “womof her youth, the Rocky Mountains, where the confluence of cataen’s work” in a surrounding physical space that defies easy and clysmic geological forces are apparent both as a formal tool and as unified interpretation. metaphor in her work. The germinating concept for the exhibition is to have a groupAll of the artists strongly temper their enthusiasm for nature ing of installations that comes from within ceramics practice, while and its attractive forms by focusing on the artificiality of theory at the same time demonstrating the use of ceramic materials or and the fact that nothing can be fully known; we filter everything techniques as an artistic choice rather than a given. To that end, the we perceive through our individual, human thought processes and

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have qualities that many clay artists can admire. Christian Bernard Singer is the curator of the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo, Ontario, which is dedicated to showcasing contemporary “silica-based” art. Many of the works they are now showing are installation-based, and as Singer explains, they select by artist and idea rather than by object or medium. In addition, Singer is also an accomplished installation artist in his own right. He is a professionally trained ceramics artist who uses clay in expansive ways in his work; he has also incorporated dance and video in his installations.

Catherine Paleczny, Fin, porcelain

life experience. Hollingsworth’s forms can in some ways be explained as biological concepts worked by a human, imperfect hand. Aufiero’s artistic study of the swan ranges all the way from myth to fitting actual wild swans with cameras as a biologist might do. Why use clay at all in an installation? It’s a question we would like to consider during the panel. Aside from the fact that this is a ceramics conference, and we’re all clayheads, the general answer that I’d like to propose is that an artist should use it when its qualities are desired by the artist, but not when not. Wouldn’t it make most sense to introduce other materials and media if one’s ideas can communicate better without clay? Clay can also be used as a kind of reference without using the materials at all. An artist could refer to the history and traditions of making clay objects such as pottery, or the processes and techniques (i.e. moldmaking) or jump a step sideways to related materials (i.e. salt or sand or rocks of various sorts). And artists who don’t have specific clay skills or knowledge (or not much) might choose to use clay in an installation—even successfully. As an example of a recent installation that includes clay as an integral element, but which denies (or perhaps defies) the use of skill with the medium, we might consider the 2005 work Sculptomatic 1 by the collaborative duo Dunhill and O’Brien (Tamiko O’Brien and Mark Dunhill, who live in the U.K.). As their statement says, their work “is clearly concerned with questions of authorship, veracity, ‘craftsmanship’ and the status of sculpture but it also reflects upon the nature of human endeavor, aspiration and futility.” In Sculptomatic 1, the artists selected twenty participants to make copies of 500 art historical sculptures that contained holes. The participants worked from photos that gave no sense of scale or context. Each person was to make five replicas per hour; these were then moved on a kind of inclined conveyor belt to be dropped from a height of five meters onto a pile. The pile of squashed wet clay forms is contained by a vitrine-style display case. Clearly some of the participants had little to no clay experience. I would argue that this is an example of an installation using clay in a central way that is aesthetically effective even while it questions notions of craftsmanship, labor, and skill. To help us consider this question of using clay or not in an exhibition, and how and why, I would like to introduce two curators who are probably new to most American artists who work in clay and installation. Beth Sellars is the curator of Suyama Space, a site-specific installation space she co-founded with George Suyama in Seattle in 1998. The exhibition program at the Suyama Space requires invited artists to respond to the architectural setting and make a specific, tailored proposal before building the work. The roster of invitees has consistently emphasized artists who have a strong sense of material. Although only one artist (Claudia Fitch) chose clay as her primary medium, the rest of the installations at the Suyama Space tend to

Priscilla Hollingsworth is an artist whose work includes sculptural installations as well as other kinds of sculpture, especially in clay, and work in other media. Her work appeared on the cover of 500 Vases (Lark Books, 2010). She has recently completed residencies at the Santa Fe Art Institute and the Vermont Studio Center. She lives in Augusta, GA.

Material, Space and Meaning: Ceramics and Installation Art by Jen Mills, Panelist

As artists, we are in constant dialog with the present and the past as we make work that hopefully speaks to the future. As an artist at the beginning of her career who uses the language of ceramics and installation, I stand on the shoulders of those who came before me while simultaneously distancing myself to find my own voice. In this article I will explore how I view the worlds of ceramics, installation, and the larger art world, and how my choice to use clay interacts with this landscape. My approach to ceramic installation is a dialogue, and sometimes a tension, between these two words. I am part of a generation of artists who have been influenced by the Minimalists in that we incorporate both space and the viewer in our work: the idea or meaning doesn’t solely lie inside the work itself, but includes both the space and the viewer. I remember reading Michael Fried’s famous 1967 Artforum article, “Art and Objecthood,” defining Minimalist art’s deficiencies as needing the viewer to complete it. When he wrote that “the experience of literalist [Minimalist] art is of an object in a situation—one that, virtually by definition, includes the beholder…including…the beholder’s body,” I knew that was what I wanted to achieve. I want my installations to leave an impression that stays with the viewer, thereby transforming them. I want my work not only to be interesting in itself, but also to create a space where the viewer is welcome, where they can have a dialogue with the work as an active participant, not a passive witness. So how can ceramics add to this experience? Ceramics has the amazing ability to embody opposites simultaneously: brittle and soft; strong and fragile; heavy and light. Its connection to function and daily life are important to me, and are major jumping off points for my work. While I incorporate other media into my installations, ceramic history and conceptual ideas are extremely important. I return to ceramics over and over again because of its ability to convey these associations with daily life and ritual. I believe that the dialog that ceramics can have with such diverse mediums as video, sound and light, make for a unique and powerful conversation. The installation In the Wake is an example of this exchange. In this work, I use the functional form of a vase and its associations in an installation with 106 ceramic vessels covering the floor of a gallery space. The multiple vases create an undulating wave with a curving path in the lull in between. Viewers are invited to walk

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around and through the arrangement of forms, to experience the sensations of being surrounded by mass and volume, as well as fragility and vulnerability. One could make the argument that these forms could have been made out of many other materials, but the knowledge that these forms are ceramic provides a universal entry point. We have all seen a ceramic cup or vase holding something, and have memories associated with the form. Vases are capable of holding and capturing. The ceramic forms surrounding the viewer introduce a fear of breaking them as they move throughout the space. I draw on the viewers’ knowledge the vessel and its friability to strengthen their experience of the work. These pieces aren’t glazed in the traditional sense; instead I redefine the concept of glazing by projecting video that provides a moving glazed surface across the forms. Figures and landscapes drift from one vessel to the next, producing a tension between the images and the static ceramic forms. Each vessel captures only part of the whole image, creating the feeling of an echo of something that has already passed by. While navigating through the space, the viewer becomes a part of the wake, as well as a witness. You Only Have What You Remember is another installation that uses multiple forms, this time to create a landscape exploring the topography of memory. Composed of over a hundred salt bowls, each bowl, empty and waiting, sits on a pedestal that varies in height, forming the personal topography of a bed or a table. There is an indentation in the middle, a reference to a presence long gone. The installation is a place where safety and vulnerability meet in quiet meditation. In this work, multiple bowls stand in for an action that is repeated over and over again. Our lives are built from these repetitive gestures, with which we form memories. The jump from clay to salt is a small one, as the associations with the body are in both, and my connection to ceramics completely informs this piece, as the imagery is again a functional vessel. Made from a press-mold, each bowl is simple, open and giving. In this way In the Wake and You Only Have What You Remember are two related landscapes. In the installation Condensation currently in the NCECA exhibition Distillations and Eruptions, I am playing on ceramic’s fragility yet again, overwhelming the viewer with multiple forms made from paper-thin ceramic. Our minds need to find pattern, symmetry and the familiar, and I instead attempt to throw off the viewer by arranging multiples in such a way as to introduce discord. The dialogue in this piece is with the fragility of the material and the arrangement of the forms. In this way I increase the viewer’s awareness of his or her own body. As they move throughout the space, their relationship to the objects changes with each step, yet they are never able to find the solution, the balance. Ceramics is an essential component in my work whether it is through form (a vessel), the material itself (fragility) or arrangement of multiples (ritual and pattern). I see my work as part of a trend of ceramic installation artists attempting to break out of the boxes of function, figure, and industry. To think that these are the only paths that ceramics is capable of is unfair, limiting, and disingenuous to this versatile material. Ceramic installations can never completely escape the context and history of the material, and while some may see this as a liability, I take the exact opposite view: these associations have extreme value. The real challenge for the ceramic installation artist is to change the conversation away from how ceramics can elevate itself into the realm of art and break from its past, and instead towards exploring how many ways we can acknowledge its history while at the same gaining from the dialogue of contemporary art. This

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intersection is a fertile and exciting place to be. Jen Mills is an emerging artist who uses both ceramic’s material associations and history to inform her work. Mills has an MFA in Ceramics from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, and a BA in Religion from the University of Puget Sound. She is a recipient of an Artist Support Grant from Jack Straw Productions, and has been a visiting artist and lecturer at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI and Wichita State University. She currently lives in Seattle, WA.

Site-Specific Installation: Suyama Space by Beth Sellars

Suyama Space, an exhibition venue located in downtown Seattle, serves as a site-specific installation space that requires invited artists to respond directly to the gallery’s distinctive architectural characteristics rather than introduce independently created artwork. Initially established in 1998, the non-profit gallery has featured three major sited installations per year for the last fourteen years. During that time, established artists of regional, national and international reputation have approached the physical architecture through countless interpretations, using a wide variety of medium, structure and theme. Acting as a catalyst for innovative, experimental ideas and significantly sited projects, Suyama Space presents related public programs intended to encourage public discourse in addressing the role of architecture and its impact upon the creative process. Programming consists of a month-long residency in which the artist constructs his/her installation and is free to interact with gallery visitors. At the opening of the exhibition, the artist is feted with an artist reception followed by a public lecture in the gallery the next day. The entire project is photo-documented for inclusion in an accompanying interpretive publication that includes images of the artist’s previous work, artist information, and an essay by an art scholar or critic that addresses the artist’s project. The completed publications are distributed nationally to museums, galleries, libraries, et al. Invited artists must initially spend time in the space before developing an installation proposal. It is imperative that the artist becomes familiar with the 30’ x 50’ x 23’ space before making a proposal, because the building is overbearing and demanding of whatever is introduced. Built originally as a livery stable in the 1880s, the building became an automobile repair shop in 1920. Architect George Suyama bought the building in the mid-1990s and remodeled it for his architectural office. But he chose not to alter the main interior space (except to introduce narrow skylights along the east and west sides of the roof) because the space was too remarkable to change. But its unusual characteristics also make the space challenging. It demands that the artists’ temporary installations compete equally with strength and resolve; otherwise the work is visually consumed. The most successful installations have been those that acknowledged major defining elements in the space, such as the natural light that sweeps across the gallery through the skylights; or the dark, natural materials of wood planking, concrete walls, and historic patina of the open-truss ceiling; or the sheer volume punctuated by large openings. The primary exhibition mandate therefore focuses singularly upon a direct response to the gallery’s architecture. Other than this consideration, our programming is open to all approaches, including choice of fabrication materials. In 2010, Seattle artist Claudia Fitch fabricated her installation, Floating Mechanism (nightshade) entirely from cast pods of clay that were installed in a gridded pattern throughout the gallery. This installation was curiously the only one we have

featured that has used a ceramic component. As such, the types of work exhibited have Materials employed by artists over the expanded greatly to include installation, years have included soap; hair; hot glue; kinetic, video, performance, ephemeral and wind; sound; baby nipples; milk-carton paenvironmental works—all of which emper; bees wax; hand-formed seed pods; steel body contemporary silica practice. spikes; thinly sliced trees; charcoaled wood; Our curatorial paradigm primarily layers of painted acetate; 100 miles of indusinvolves curating by artists rather than by trial woven lines; 1 ton rocks; steel blades object or medium specificity. This allows of grass; 2000 fine gauge wires stretched freedom from the limitations imposed by across the floor; translucent cast fiberglass the fine art/fine craft rhetoric/dialectic and membrane walls; spiraled timber; inflating/ opens up our curatorial programming in an deflating clear vinyl bungalow; pipe cleanexpansive, vibrant and contemporary way. ers, fabric, and plastic; giant wooden thorn We aim to challenge conventional preconvines and airplane; a mixture of cast paper ceptions of what silica art is by supporting pulp, glassine, and cellulose; cables, ropes, artists who have an experimental approach pulleys, sound, and video; thousands of to using silica media within their practice, hand-formed sheetrock bricks; suspended welcoming those who have led the way in polycarbonate panels; tissue; implied flight creating new schools and new ways of unof birds; electroluminescent steel strapping derstanding, and championing artists who suspended above a room-sized reflection are using clay and glass to create vital and pool; branched, inflatable plastic hanging compelling contemporary art. Exhibiting artists range from pre-emiorb; and balloon foil. Fitch, Floating Mechanism (nightshade), An appropriate example of visual and Claudia nent makers whose work has gained world2010, clay, wood, paint. conceptual approach using mixed materials wide respect and attention, such as Shary is the installation scheduled during the NCECA conference. Entitled Boyle, Joan Brigham, Judy Chicago, Aganetha Dyck, Alfred EngerUPRISING: Installation by Rick Araluce and Steve Peters, the instaler, André Fournelle, Sin-ying Ho, Sadashi Inuzuka, Lou Lynn, Julie lation presents an elaborate network of pipes that appear to emerge Oakes, Ann Roberts, Jack Sures, Paul Stankard, Ione Thorkelsson, from the floor, walls and ceiling of the gallery. The “historic” pipes, and Tim Whiten. We continue to support the vision and initiatives of made from wood, plastic, and paint, suggest that the building’s intertalented young and mid-career artists such as Jennifer Bueno, Launal infrastructure has broken from its long-hidden recesses to assert rent Craste, Susan Collett, Amanda Dumas-Hernandez, Jim Hake, itself, claiming a balance between formalism and something more Jeremy Hatch, Benjamin Kikkert, Catherine Paleczny, Cristian unruly and chaotic, perhaps even a bit menacing. Small microphones Raduta (Romania), and Linda Sormin. contained within the complex of open-ended pipes acoustically filter The Gallery is housed in a stunning, purpose-built building live and recorded ambient sounds from the building through small designed by Patkau Architects of Vancouver, and which received speakers hidden in the trompe l’oeil pipe network. the 1993 Canadian Architect Magazine Award of Excellence and The programming and existing space allow featured artists the the Governor General’s Award for Architecture in 1997. In addifreedom to investigate materials they’ve not used before, as well as tion to the Gallery’s reputation for excellence, the building itself atpursue new directions in concept and fabrication. Our primary protracts artist projects that directly respond to the building’s architecgramming concern is the honest visual and conceptual approach to tonic features. As an eco-installation artist myself, and long before the actual space. All else is open for consideration. taking on the artistic direction of the Gallery, I was fortunate to be given the opportunity of a solo exhibition entitled Tessellated AnBeth Sellars is the curator of Suyama Space, a site-specific amnesis: Patterns for Unforgetting, for which I created two epheminstallation space she co-founded with George Suyama in Seattle eral site-specific works in direct response to two of the building’s in 1998. As a longtime curator, she has worked for several Northspaces. One of the works was installed in the Bierstock Circular west museums and galleries since 1975, as well as for the City of Gallery, a round and intimate room with walls constructed of grey Seattle. She has served on numerous regional and national jury concrete blocks. The room is considered by many artists as a sort panels, museum and art organization boards and committees, and of sanctuary or even sacred space just waiting to be activated by has lectured internationally. an artwork. Enclosure III was a round, self-contained landscape of mosses and cast glass body parts. A second disk above contained a single light and the whole was encased with a clear film, that when viewed at certain angles revealed a secondary hovering—almost by Christian Bernard Singer holographic—landscape. This mirage effect of a sort of ‘Constable-esque’ landscape was due to the light source and mirroring of The Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery occupies a unique posithe film. The second work, a living installation of mosses and untion within the Canadian museum/gallery environment that is exfired clay entitled Chaconne de Phaeton, was created for the large pansive, allowing ongoing evolution and diversity in its approach ballroom-like space of the Keith and Winifred Shantz Gallery. The to exhibitions and collections. When the Gallery was first estabwork recreated the Baroque notations of a French court dance by lished in 1993 in order to exhibit silica-based art objects—essenGuillaume-Louis Pécour (1653-1729) as it might have been danced tially glass, ceramic or enamel works—the original understandin real space. Projected onto the wall about twenty feet above the ing of this dictate was to show primarily functional or traditional floor was a decelerated video of Daniel Gariepy dancing the exact sculptural artworks. However, the crucial aspect to Gallery’s mannotations on the floor below. As gallery volunteers lovingly wadate has always been to show contemporary work in these media.

Working With Space

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tered the work over the course of the exhibition, the mosses gave way to all manner of new plant life. As an installation artist, I am constantly investigating new ways to express my ideas and find that this passion translates well into my curatorial work. I encourage and challenge artists who have not previously identified or worked with clay or glass to do so, insuring fresh visions and expressions within the field. I am also very interested in profiling artists and exhibitions that merge or incorporate different artistic disciplines and traditions, thereby creating an opportunity for a meaningful discourse and examination of the relevancy of historic or traditional convention within present-day practices. The exhibition by Julie Oakes entitled Swounds serves as a particularly wonderful example. Known primarily as a master painter who uses spiritual narratives derived from Eastern iconography, Oakes created a highly ambitious, poignant, and dynamic exhibition in porcelain and glass that garnered an incredibly positive response from critics and the public. Swounds consisted of seven installations in porcelain and glass that addressed notions of fragility, individuality, and irreplaceability of each life. At the heart of the exhibition was Sparrow Swounds, a flock of over 120 suspended glass sparrows flying through the gallery. The simple hymn, “God Sees the Little Sparrows Fall,” would come on the sound system followed by a cataclysmic shock as one of the beautiful birds fell and shattered on the floor below. It took over three years of working with the artist and various partners until a suitable and affordable solution for the flock was found. In the end, two sets of birds were created. The foreground flock was individually hand-blown and assembled by technicians at Berengo Studios in Murano, Italy, but the cost of sacrificing one of those birds was simply too great and so Toronto artist Alfred Engerer created a background flock of hot-glass cast birds. Each one was pressed into a mould, heated back up in the glory hole, and then individually manipulated. No two birds were alike, and when viewed from below both flocks were practically indistinguishable from each other. Since the point of departure for the bird that fell was not evident to the spectator, the beauty of the foreground birds set the stage for the anxiety of the pending “deaths.” Another defining element to this exhibition was Ark, which gave a decidedly feminist/humanist slant on the traditional patriarchal story. On a shaped painting (7 x 20 feet) of an immense ship, animals were painted onto lines that followed the ship’s wooden architecture, with stronger animals at the bottom supporting the lighter. From an oval portal around which a snake was coiled, an inclined lavender plane descended as a graceful arc to the floor, on which were placed thirty pairs of hand-painted clay feet depicting many species. A small female human black foot paired with a larger male white foot formed the transition from ark to plane and the animals proceeded on a ramp to arrive on the gallery floor. Yet another work, entitled Unlucky Bunny and installed in the Bierstock Circular Gallery, evoked images taken from Dutch bounty-of-the-hunt still life paintings where rabbits were often depicted as hanging downwards—pathetic creatures with their feet trussed and lifeless eyes open, glistening wet as if they have wept for their own demise, like Shakespeare’s Ophelia. Oakes interpreted these images in a larger-than-life porcelain sculpture of a female rabbit, with hauntingly human physical attributes and suspended by a red silk cord. From its mouth, a trickle of ruby blood (glass) dripped to echo in a glass red puddle on the floor below. Over the years, we have featured numerous artists and exhibitions directly responding to the Gallery’s various spaces. For instance, in the exhibition Reflective Natures / Transparent Landscapes, which explored humankind’s relationship and effect on a fragile landscape, André Fournelle installed Spirale in the Bier-

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Julie Oakes, Sparrow Swounds, 2011, blown and cast glass, wire, sound.

stock Circular Gallery. The work consisted of two parallel green and white neon spirals resting on a bed of coarse salt that lit up, alternately fading in and out and then turning off periodically until a circle of fire would be magically activated. Making the connection between water and life on the planet was Sadashi Inuzuka’s work Dubium, which featured a large disk with varying thicknesses of kiln shelf slip that dried and cracked into uneven patterns while a video projection of blood-like liquid was poured onto it and then receded away, exposing the barrenness of parched earth. For Catherine Paleczny’s work, Wei Shing, a purpose-built permanent wall was erected to take full advantage of one of the Gallery’s massive cement block walls. This porcelain, wall-mounted installation consisted of some 200 fish fin forms created in both China and Canada. Paleczny’s organic yet highly organized installation resembled a kind of strange cartography of an avian migration, resonated with viewers on many levels. After the “wow” factor subsided, viewers felt compelled to interact more closely with the fins, where they were surprised to observe small imprinted images of various scenes and elements of a small Chinese fishing village. When artists create works that are conceptually compelling as well as materially seductive, the viewing experience can take on a sort of transcendent quality for viewers because any single work might offer multiple avenues of engagement. While the ceramic and glass artists exhibiting at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery bring their own visual languages to explore their concerns, they all share a mastery of the medium, the ability to allow intuitive knowledge to flow, and the curiosity to playfully explore its extraordinary potential. Christian Bernard Singer is the Curator of the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo, Ontario. Prior to this, he was Curator and Associate Director of Lehmann Leskiw Fine Art until he co-founded Rouge Contemporary Projects, which opened with Judy Chicago’s first Canadian survey exhibition containing over 100 works that spanned forty years of her career. Singer is also a practicing installation artist who has exhibited at museums and commercial galleries across Canada.

panel • substance: three artists’ passions Richard Notkin, Moderator • Tip Toland & Patti Warashina, Panelists The Art of Substance

by Richard Notkin, Moderator Substance is a word with numerous meanings and connotations. The basic definition of substance is that of which a thing consists; matter or material. When applying more conceptual nuances, additional definitions include the subject matter of thought, discourse, study, etc. and the meaning or gist, as of speech or writing. But, for this discussion, the definition I wish to focus on is the essential part, or essence, of a thing. Pertaining to art, substance is the essence, the soul, in all of art’s myriad forms and media. But how do we determine substance in an individual work of art? What is it that we seek in granting the esteemed title, “Art,” to an object? Whether creating or viewing a work of art, the experience is personal and subjective. We are unique individuals, composed of a wide range of differing A passion for protest: Yixing inspired trompe l’oeil meets 21st Century political commentary in Richard Notkin’s Teaset: Iraq 2007, porcelain, glaze. Collection of Midge and Jerry Golner. backgrounds, environments, motivations and aesa work of art? Many of us are fascinated by the concepts underlythetic tastes. In addition, how we view or evaluate our own art is ing the physicality of the work, the work’s conceptual substance. I very different than how we judge art made by others. Yet there are would also argue that of equal importance is the sheer skill of the some universals that I believe can be used to measure the qualities work, demonstrated by the artist’s choice of materials, techniques, that make certain works of art truly substantial, even masterpiecand other devices, weaving these various conceptual and technies. While I cannot entirely escape my own subjective reasoning cal aspects into an aesthetically powerful whole. In other words, process, the following thoughts are indicative of how I determine neither concept nor skill/technique should dominate in an evaluasubstance in art. tion of a work of art, as each should be appropriately and intrinsiArt that is truly substantial would be art that continues to cally matched to the other. The late, great Peter Voulkos once said, draw its audience back, time and again, art that cannot be di“Technique is nothing if you have nothing to say.” I agree, but I minished even after repeat experiences. A classic movie, such as would also posit the corollary: What you have to say is nothing if Casablanca, would qualify for capital A “Art” status, as would you don’t possess the techniques with which to say it. symphonic work by Mozart. Currently, there is much dialogue within our field regarding Both have the power to enchant an audience through the sheer the establishment of a system, a structure, and/or a specific vocabstrength of their vision and execution. Several books have beckulary to evaluate works of ceramic art. Often organized into “critioned me for a rereading, notably Kurt Vonnegut’s masterpiece, cal ceramics” symposia, panels at various conferences and articles Slaughterhouse Five, and Catch 22, by Joseph Heller. While it is in art magazines, these efforts can, at worse, result in didactic sysobvious why I am drawn to such works, given the subject mattems of semantics and/or the advancement of personal agendas. ter in my art, the vast popular appeal of these books take them Consensus in the arts comes with a terrible downside: when we beyond my own preferences. And there are my favorite paintings are all thinking alike, nobody is really thinking. For centuries, the and sculptures that I seek to view each and every time I visit art most innovative artists have always been the ones who have chalmuseums worldwide. Everyone interested in the arts could easily lenged the status quo of current aesthetic theory. There is a bit of compose their own must-see, must-hear, must-experience list. The the rebel in all artists, fueled by a yearning of the creative spirit to passage of time, the ultimate critical arbitrator and editor of art explore new territory unencumbered by the dictates of the past. In with substance, is certainly part of this critical process. art, as in politics, the revolution of one generation often becomes Another element that I see as imperative in determining suba straightjacket to the next. Perhaps the worst thing we could do is stance in a particular work of art involves its power to deliver an to establish a standardized vocabulary or set of dictums by which impact, to affect one’s thoughts and emotions in profound ways. to determine the aesthetic value of individual works. In my mind, We have all experienced the typical stroll through an art museum such a cookie-cutter approach to art has about as much credibility or gallery, spending, on average, five to ten seconds with each artas the failed standardized testing approach of the Bush-era “No work, then moving on to the next piece. What is it that occasionChild Left Behind” educational program. One size never fits all, ally captures our attention for longer spans of time, causing us to especially in education or the arts. pause, focus and contemplate more deeply the various nuances of

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We should also avoid the over-persuasion of self-appointed experts who often advance their own agendas for questionable or specious purposes. Whether an artwork is presented in the form of a functional clay vessel or oil paint on canvass, sits on a pedestal or consists of a room-filled-with-stuff-Sculpture-Magazinestyle installation, is an innovative twist on an ancient tradition or employs the latest digital technology, the true measure of which of these disparate approaches is truly substantial is irrelevant to their descriptive categories. The standards of quality—of substance—transcend media/material prejudices and the tired art vs. craft dialogue. Simply put, a great bowl is art (and the passage of time will make it more so), while a bad painting is not art, nor will it ever be. There is ample territory in all media and forms of art to discover new methods of expression and innovative approaches to substantial content. There are numerous examples in history in which evolution and advancement of thought and knowledge have been stifled by dogma enforced by ruling authorities, whether they are religious, political or academic. Art should transcend these human foibles and express our greater potential as creators. To do so involves an unquenchable passion nurtured by our species innate spirit of creativity. The ups and downs of life on our planet, buffeted by forces both natural and human-made—and usually quite beyond our control—provide strenuous challenges that can erode the creative spirit of an individual artist. To sustain both the joys and difficulties of creating art over a lifetime requires each artist to work from a uniquely deep place, a spiritual well of concepts, beliefs and, above all else, passions. The artist must recognize and cultivate his or her unique feelings and motivations, develop a nearly infallible set of techniques and approaches to express these innermost passions, and understand that this Richard Notkin at work. process takes years, even a lifetime. The art finally comes when we place ourselves at the mercy of inspiration. What then is most valuable in the life of an artist, or, for that matter, any human being on the planet? What single element is essential to help each individual achieve the fulfillment of his or her passions, dreams, and most noble goals? I have come to the conclusion that our most valuable asset in life is, quite simply, time. The finite time we are allotted while we experience the inexplicable miracle of our lives is all that we truly possess. Time is our great gift. We can use time as a tool to create the life—and the art—we are passionate about pursuing. Time, like our clay, is another of the materials we utilize in accomplishing the work we are passionate about. All art begins from a conceptual base, and an ideal vision of a work of art begins to form in the artist’s mind. To actually achieve this idealized vision, an artist must develop a reliable set of techniques, and assemble all of the materials and tools necessary. But, to bring that artwork to fruition requires a given span of time. Anything less than 100% accomplishment of the artist’s original intention is inadequate, and often artists settle for less, to the detriment of their work, because they don’t want to spend the full amount of time it would require. I was fortunate to realize this early in my life as an artist, and have come to the conclusion that artists invest time in their work, that time spent on creating art is never a waste. (If an artist is bored during the time it takes to make their art, they are making

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the wrong art.) I guess you could say that time is truly “of the essence.” For an artist, time in the studio is the most valuable asset, for it takes time to think, to study, to experiment, and, finally, to create meaningful works of art. We need to learn to manage our time wisely, to use it to pursue what is truly important in our lives. To do anything else is to waste the precious gift of time, and, consequently, to waste our lives. Looking back at four decades of creating, I would observe that the lure of conventionally defined success is not enough. Fame and fortune have their merits; recognition and accolades may provide momentary satisfaction and incentive, and money does provide the means to continue to create. I will knock neither as irrelevant. But the pursuit of fame and fortune alone may eventually lead an artist astray, perhaps causing abandonment of his or her innermost passions to follow the latest rage or conceptual style in a constantly changing art market. Substantial art, hopefully, eventually transcends today’s fleeting, often shallow fashions promoted by popular musings and the politics of the contemporary art world. No human organization or discipline is void of these factors. In advancing this perspective, I realize that I open myself to criticisms of being overly simplistic. But it is often said that out of the mouths of babies come unvarnished truths. On the other hand, it takes a lifetime to acquire the convoluted logic and emotions to insist on seeing the emperor’s new clothes. Such traditional fables are repeatedly stated in new forms, but, like the lessons of the 20th century, they are too often observed, too little heeded. It has often been stated that art has the power to impact, in truly significant ways, the lives of others. A world without art would be a world void of the creative human spirit, and what would that leave us with? Formless shades of gray with no Benny Goodman or William Shakespeare? With absolutely no art to nourish and replenish our collective spirit, would the human species have even survived in such a creative vacuum? I doubt it. We also live in physically precarious times, and there are many in the scientific community who have begun to speculate that we may have already passed the limits of our ability to sustain human existence on this planet. As such, I am increasingly for an art that can touch an ever wider audience of people on our planet, reaching beyond the narrow parameters of the tiny minority which constitutes the art world and its followers. My recurring passion, newly reinvigorated by the births of two granddaughters over the past two years, is to continue to use my art to speak of my concerns, and to vent my anger in a positive fashion. While I don’t expect to see the triumph of reason and universal good will prevail over our darker follies within my lifetime (eliminating nuclear weapons or establishing a system of true democracy in the United States would be a good start), I am passionate about our collective creative potential. It is a passion that continually finds new sources of nourishment and inspiration, a passion that underlies the creation of my art, and the essence and substance of that art. Ken Ferguson, my early ceramics teacher at the Kansas City Art Institute, used to say, “everyone has to be someplace.” It is essential that each person, whether an artist or not, establishes where that unique place is that provides meaning and substance in their

life. For an artist, the essential question is, “Why do I make this particular art?” The answers are as unique as the artist asking this question. Our passions and motivations are the true substance, the essence, that fuels our creative pursuits and the development of our art. The lifelong challenge is to develop the means, both technical and aesthetic, in which to express our unique visions. Substance may surely follow. A studio artist who lives in Helena, Montana, Richard Notkin’s teapots and ceramic sculptures have been exhibited internationally and are in numerous public and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan. Among his awards are three artist fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. In 2008, Notkin was elected a Fellow of the American Craft Council, and also awarded the Hoi Fellowship by the United States Artists Foundation.

SUBSTANCE …. The 64,000 dollar question by Tip Toland, Panelist

First a disclaimer: I feel in no way qualified to talk about this matter in terms of anyone else’s work. I do know when I am experiencing work that I feel has thought, soul and heart inherent in it and the difference between that and the experience of feeling a vapid disconnection that results in walking away shrugging. It needs to be noted that PLENTY of substance-rich work goes right on by me because it’s over my head or for any number of thousands of reasons, I just don’t connect with it. I can say that when I have had the experience of wondering what or if there is anything behind a piece of work, the disappointment felt like a betrayal. From this I have come to know the depth of my own hope and hunger for art that changes my life. I come to art secretly longing for that. I think artists look to art as food, a vital and restorative source that satisfies something inexplicable in our souls. On this subject of art and what I endeavor to do, I can relay some of my own experience as I’ve grappled with this nebulous territory. I like to start with the end, imagining myself at the pearly gate, being asked to come to terms with just what I thought I have been doing my whole life, making things?? I swalTip Toland in her studio. low hard … and begin to perspire. To begin with, I have thought a long time and continue to wonder about the purpose of being sequestered down in my studio for weeks, months, decades making ANYTHING, rather than going out into the world and making myself useful. It always seemed self indulgent, ending with a big, when it came down to it, SO WHAT? This question has wheedled through my brain continuously for the past twenty years. Even though a big part of me was identified with being a maker of things and very immersed in the art world with some successes, the battle internally raged on up

until five years ago when I couldn’t take it any more. I decided, come what may, I had to hear it from Amma herself. I went to my spiritual teacher and resolved to ask her point blank. I was prepared to let go of all notions of art making and be pointed in another direction entirely. I surrendered. I was at a retreat and after three days of foiled attempts to put my question in front of her, at about 3:00 AM on the final night, the scrap of paper with my question came before her and was read to her by her swami. She answered without so much as a glance my way. It was “OK to be an artist, OK to teach and to be a brush in Gods hand.” So now the 64,000 dollar question, HOW do I do that? HOW am I supposed to know if I’m on track? Now that I know it’s ok to do this, WHAT do I make? Here are a few notes of how I have come to hone in. I am a person who daydreams. I am given to imagine scenarios just springing out of nowhere, as in a musical, where people just burst into song and break out into complex choreographed dance moves. Last summer I was so lucky to have gotten to go to Tuscany to teach. While we were there, there was a big European street theater festival which took place in old Certaldo, the medieval part of the city, high on the hill. Also it was a full moon. I felt as if I had reunited with my people. Street musicians, an organ grinder whose hat had a secret compartment that opened up so that a toy monkey could rise up and take the bow. A very small couple dressed for their wedding from the ‘30s went through the large crowd shaking everyone’s hand. Monks and friars, women on tall stilts, a levitating Buddhist monk. It was Fellini and Bosch and the surrealists whirling around in this ancient city on the hill. So why, I asked myself, didn’t I run off to join the circus a long time ago? Why aren’t I continuing Calder’s circus constructions? Or blowing them up like Red Grooms’s subway or joining the Bread and Puppet Theater? Or film? I have always secretly wanted to be a filmmaker… to make installations using honey and naked dancers, to make very large snow drawings, to build and live in a fantastic tree fort, to combine fringe /shingled clothing with hairstyles to match, to make a very large character hugging a building, or play the piano and practice my yodeling. So much to do, so little time! Many of the things I imagine doing could make a very happy life. So why don’t I pursue these? I was about six when I discovered clay while our family was having a picnic on the Chesapeake Bay. I was wading through the water and it was very oozy underfoot. I discovered clay, it soon became a whole body experience. It agreed with me at a cellular level and could do almost anything I thought up. However life continued and I forgot about it until I was twenty, when I took a ceramic class in college. I had always been drawing primarily and thought I‘d be an illustrator, and then I took a clay class in college. I thought in two dimensions then, so when I found clay again I used it two-dimensionally. For eighteen years since graduate school I did low relief carved wall pieces. What compelled the imagery was mostly my inner angst. I found metaphors to describe my predicaments and this way of working helped

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me work out many issues. This was the substance that needed to be reckoned with at the time. Now, I really have no idea of what will come out in my sketch book when I sit down. I never censor. All kinds of images come forth; the ridiculous, the corny, the comic, the cosmic, death and destruction, anything. I wait to look back into the sketch book for sometimes months, even years, later. Anything that seems interesting to me when I take a second look requires investigation. So I draw it again with multiple variations until something either gels or goes back on hold for another look later on. At this point I don’t have to understand WHY an idea has energy and calls to me or what it means. It is enough that it holds energy and I pay attention only to that. Actually, if I understand the idea, I seem to lose interest in it. I like not knowing fully why an idea grabs me. For me, the closest I feel I can get to “being a brush in Gods hand” is to be very quiet with the ideas that come out into my sketch book. I try to be as honest with myself as I can and understand the difference between ideas that come from parts of me that are sensationbased and ones that seem to come from a deeper place. Usually the ideas that come from a more private place are the scariest for me. I am usually scared that they are corny or too blatant, or I just feel too exposed. Now, those are the ideas I pay attention to. It’s generally a good sign when I’m scared to death to begin a piece. On the other hand, I have come to know I am in dangerous water when an idea seems clever or “contemporary” or coming from outside my sensibility. I also try to be careful not to TRY and make art. If I get on that slippery slope, invariably there’s been a disconnect from the heart of an idea. One element that has been true for me throughout my life is I have always loved the figure. Even as a kid, I only wanted to draw faces. I‘d see faces in clouds, tree bark, peeling wallpaper. I was compelled by the human face. Now it’s more the gesture that carries the day. I create clay figures to describe myself. In this way even though the figures stand as their own persons, they are inherently autobiographical. There are formal considerations that go into the creation of a piece, but mostly those decisions are in service to the character and who I imagine that character is and what I imagine they’d do. I have accepted my own sensibilities: I crave smooth, clean surfaces, lean towards the narrative and the psychological to reveal embarrassingly human traits, and hope the work is layered and contemplative. It is a precedent that I love the characters I make and stay interested in looking at them and thinking about them throughout the process. To carry me through the whole process of making a piece (two months at least), I need a lot of conviction and interest in the character. If I lose interest and become disconnected with the piece, I know it will somehow become evident and compromise the strength of the work, so I wait until I can revive the energy before continuing. Lastly, I want to craft the work as well and with as much skill as I can, so the viewer goes directly into the experience of being in relationship with the work and isn’t distracted by anything. In the process of making the figures, I grow to have enormous empathy for them and the role they play. This is a roundabout way of coming to know, accept and be kinder to myself. The coaxing out of this inner cast of characters is what compels me and seems to trump all other ideas at least for now. Although other ideas are always dancing around in my head, it’s as if these individuals, who come into being as quick thumbnail sketches initially, seem to ask to be made. Scared as I may be, as long as they ask, my answer will be yes. This seems like the most honest work I can do. So I think when I am standing at the pearly gates and god gives me that look … I pray and hope that I will stand there, offer these images to her and she will be glad that I got this out of my system.

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Tip Toland was born outside of Philadelphia and now lives in Vaughn, Washington. She received her MFA from Montana State University in 1981. In 1986 she received a visual arts Fellowship grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She was awarded first place in 2005 for the Virginia Groot Foundation grant. Tip is a full-time studio artist and a part-time instructor in the Seattle area. In addition, she conducts workshops across the United States and in Europe. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally. She is currently represented through Barry Friedman Gallery LTD. Her work is represented in both private and public collections, including the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian, Kohler Art Center, The Museum of Art and Design and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Substance of My Passion by Patti Warashina, Panelist

I often think that my childhood environment is the basis of my imagination. Spokane was my hometown where I was raised after the “War.” At that time it was a conservative, safe, and “not-much-to-do” kind of railroad hub for the “Inland Empire” of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. It was close to the mines and timber industries of Idaho, as well as the wheat farms in the surrounding area. Summers were hot and dry, and winters were extremely cold and snowy. There was a small local museum that housed artifacts, such as arrow heads, native headdresses, maps, etc. in dusty glass cases. I don’t recall any paintings or sculpture exhibits at that museum. I think back to those hot, boring summer days that stimulated my childish imagination. Puffy clouds against a blue background led to a lot of imaginative friends. I had never seen an ocean, and I tried to imagine what it might be like to see, feel, and sit on a sandy ocean beach with bucket in hand and touch a real star fish, as I filled in those images in my coloring book. Even the wood pile became a source for my brother and I to build imaginative play environments from pieces of wood. My Mother also had a love and an eye for Japanese antiques and beautiful objects, and the few she could afford were placed carefully and lovingly around her nicely kept “nest.” Although untrained in the arts, she had a discriminate eye. My Father also had an admiration for his high school art teacher in Japan, and cherished the few calligraphic paintings of his that he brought with him to the United States. This was the setting for my introduction to art, and was a way for a young child to dream about what it was like to be in a far away exotic world. After high school I moved to Seattle on the Puget Sound, to attend college. Although my original intention was to pursue a career in the sciences, I was introduced to the studio arts my freshman year and my lifelong passion to create art began. As a student, I recall sitting at a studio table, working on a ceramic project thinking, “What am I doing with this lump of soft, worthless clay when I could be doing something worthy with my life”. I felt rather ridiculous. Then I began to realize that I was actually intrigued with watching this inert material emerge and then rise, like a resurrection, bit by bit, into a standing figure, guessing all the time the identify of the figure that would finally emerge. I was hooked. After graduate school I taught art for thirty years. Presenting visual problems to my students stimulated visual questions that required them to resolve in fresh, compelling, and subjective ways, which is the way I approach my own studio work. As their instructor, I wanted to make them comfortable enough to expose

their own personal feelings in a visual, aesthetic way, hoping to draw out their inner emotions, and my role was to facilitate this. Training of the eye after years of looking at art gives an artist a clue as to what that “feeling” is, which I will call “substance.” I have always felt that my blood pressure rises when I view art that excites me and has what I call “substance.” It could be a simple pot or a complex Hin- Patti Warashina du Shiva sculpture. I almost feel as though I would like to possess it. I’ve tried to understand why I feel that way about certain art, but I realize it is beyond technique, tradition, time, and especially style. The “substance” in a piece of art is intangible, but it has a universal “soul” or feeling. Which brings me to the reason for being a working artist. I think of my studio work as endless problem solving, like somebody working out a puzzle, hoping to create something of substance. But I don’t think that you can intentionally achieve substance in your work, nor do I think that I have achieved it in my own work. It is something that can’t be planned or forced. I often ask myself why I make art. I can’t say that the reason is for anything that is particularly honorable, but I can say it is rather a selfish and indulgent act. As I was raising my wonderful daughters, I spent many hours in my studio, that other mothers spent tending to their children. Surprisingly they seem well adjusted despite my neglect. I can say that it has kept me out of trouble during most of my life, so that is good. But I am aware that when I was introduced to my first drawing class in college, a rather obsessive feeling overcame me, which I had never felt before. I had the same identical feeling when I first touched clay, and I suppose “it” continues to this day. I find that the urge to see an idea through to fruition is compelling. I have never been bored with this medium, and its physicality continues to challenge me and feed my curiosity as I work on the next sculpture. Clay also seems to be the best medium to describe the objects that I feel compelled to portray. Clay is like a chameleon, and can be made to look like liquid, dust, or a solid, smooth or textured. I know that if I ever tire of the material, I can easily walk away. As my life becomes more finite, though, I must admit that art is also a language, a visual one, with which I have been training most of my lifetime as my way to communicate. My fascination with the human body as an archetype over time has allowed me to express a personal biographical vision of scenarios and narratives that occur between the figures and my mind’s eye. I find it difficult not to impose an “event” that may help to identify the soul that occupies my figures. Manipulating these actors allows for a stage-set in which emotional content and storyline are frozen in motion, and the viewer carries the ending forward. I find that the idea of a new work is the hardest part of starting the piece, but many times the idea is deliberately taken from what is happening around me, or sometimes subconsciously from inconsequential events. As the figure comes forth, solving its identity is one of the reasons that compels me to bring a piece to completion. This act of discovery is a rush when challenged with the outcome, and it is a similar feeling that I experience when opening the contents of a warm kiln…intrigue with the unknown. At times I am surprised by the outcome of the work, and I seem to humor and entertain myself when absurdity becomes apparent. As in real life, every day is a new day in the studio, and new ideas and events seem to emerge

and evolve over time. Then there is the challenge to see if I can construct what I see to my aesthetic satisfaction. Over the years, building with clay was a compelling challenge, but it is only one half of the problem, since the completion of the surface is of equal difficulty. Yes, more problem solving. For a long time, I denied being an artist even after receiving a MFA. I didn’t quite understand what an “artist” was, until I realized that I had come to a point in my life where it became a necessity to go to the studio. Over time, I find making art is a need that must be fulfilled on a regular basis. There is an unsatisfying feeling that comes when being in the studio is withheld. It is hard to explain, but it is a primal need much like eating and sleeping. It is a place when using your hands and mind become one, and the world is locked out. It is probably a selfish endeavor, but it is sustenance for an artist, I suppose much like…working out your madness. I should feel fortunate to find this compulsion during my life, but for some, it might also be considered a curse! Patti Warashina was born in 1940 in Spokane, Washington. She earned both her BFA and MFA from the University of Washington in Seattle (1962 and 1964). After thirty years of teaching art in the Midwest and Seattle, she retired as a Professor Emeritus from the University of Washington where she taught for twentyfive years. She has received numerous awards and honors for her work, and her work is in international and national collections.

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panel: studio practice / entrepreneurial Attitude Peter Beasecker, Moderator • Andy Brayman, Ayumi Horie & Alleghany Meadows, Panelists Introduction

by Peter Beasecker, Moderator There has always been a relationship between studio artists as a private entity and their public. Models have varied from highly formal and contractual commissions to the informal basket or “till” left unattended in the open studio/showroom of the rural potter. Not only did the work and nature of production dictate these relationships, so did the artist’s personality, temperament, and public persona. While these models and their antecedents survive today, there has been a sea change within the paradigm of the exchange between artist and consumer. The speed, tenor, and complexity of this exchange have grown exponentially with technology, both because of what it does and what it is. And that “is” is a creative tool for artists not only in the obvious ways in which it has become imbedded in the making within the studio, but also in the way it has become a force in redefining previously held notions of boundaries and limits regarding the marketplace. Relationships that were once conceived as solids are now strangely liquid. The artists on this panel—Andy Brayman, Ayumi Horie, and Alleghany Meadows—have all extended their talents and particular genius of risk-taking to multiple areas of their artistic lives. In doing so, they have blurred the lines between making, as in studio practice, and the once-removed entrepreneurial spirit. Collectively and individually, they have all found broader and more conceptual ways in which to engage their public.

Entrepreneurial Attitude is a Matter of Factory by Andy Brayman, Panelist

My studio practice is my passion. I allow myself to experiment with and explore ideas and processes that are new to me. This research, risk, and hopefully innovation drive my studio practice. I have worked hard to protect this situation where I can be independent and nimble. This struggle to keep my practice vibrant and exciting for myself is an ongoing goal in my life. The two businesses that I operate are Easy Ceramic Decals, LLC, and The Matter Factory. In 2005 I started both businesses with the idea that the decal service would be the consistent income earner for me while The Matter Factory could be for projects of my own design as well as collaborations with other artists. This scenario worked well until I realized that I was not getting enough time for what really excited me in the studio. So I switched my focus and I have spent the last two years developing The Matter Factory with Easy Ceramic Decals playing a minor role on the side. This switch has reinvigorated my own work, but it has taken away much of the economic stability of the previous years. Economic demands have been the most obvious threat to the particular characteristics of my studio practice, but early on in my career I realized that the business of making and selling objects could be folded into the creative pursuit of the studio. This epiphany happened in large part because of Alleghany Meadows. It was not long after being out of graduate school that I heard about some of

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Andy Brayman, Plate with CNC decoration, 2011. Porcelain, 11x11x11”.

Brayman, White vase, 2011. Porcelain, 25x11x8”.

the interesting ways that Alleghany was selling his work. I remember specifically a “trunk show” that Alleghany and Sam Clarkson set up in a domestic space on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I was struck by how fun and successful the event was—economically, conceptually and socially. I love the notion that as potters we can expand what we make. We can make cups and bowl and plates and we can create stores and galleries and websites (Ayumi!). I think interesting things happen when the playfulness and risk taking of the studio are extended into the retail space. Over the years since then, Alleghany and I have become close friends and collaborators. He is often the person that I run ideas by and complain to about the hardships of making a living through my art. Like most working artists, I have a lot to complain and worry about when it comes to the business side of my studio. My current challenge has been to swing back into a more economically stable area while retaining my excitement. The route to this end is clarified by knowing that the business itself will need to be part of the creative output. Andy Brayman holds a BA in sociology and a BFA in ceramics from the University of Kansas (1996) and an MFA in ceramics from Alfred University (1998). His work is a combination of traditional craft, industrial processes, and contemporary art strategies. At their best, his pots demonstrate an object’s potential to be both beautiful and cerebral. In 2005, Andy founded The Matter Factory in Kansas City. It is part artist studio, part laboratory, and part factory. In addition to producing objects of his design, the company contains a collaborative element. Guest designers and artists are invited to develop objects for production, which might otherwise have trouble finding an eager manufacturer.

Throwing on the Computer by Ayumi Horie, Panelist

Over the past dozen years, the Internet has radically changed the way we do business and how we as makers spend our time and think about our work. The ideas I had as a student have shifted dramatically to the reality of selling the majority of my work online. While not all of us have the desire to sell online, having a website has become a requirement in the professional art world.

Because of this and social media, we’re regularly asked to examine and update our identities to present a carefully crafted version of ourselves to the world. Being both a maker and an entrepreneur means we have control over the entire process, from the bag of clay to our customers sipping their tea. This kind of control stretches our ideas about how far we extend our creative parameters. Just as I can’t help but consider the cover of a book, so too, I can’t help but judge (in part) an artist by their website. Entrepreneurs and makers are again one and the same be-

its taxing moments, but, all in all, the journey is enjoyable and my work is better when I can see it through to that first sip of tea. Ayumi Horie is a studio potter in the Hudson Valley of New York who has developed a distinctive online community utilizing social networks to support her studio practice. She was recently named Ceramic Monthly’s first recipient of the “Ceramic Artist of the Year” award. In 2008, she organized Obamaware for Obama’s bid for presidency, the first online ceramic fundraiser of its kind. In March of 2011, she co-founded Handmade For Japan, which has raised over $100,000 through art for disaster relief and rebuilding for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan. Horie received her MFA from the University of Washington, her BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, and her BA from Mount Holyoke College. She is on the board of directors of the Archie Bray Foundation and the curatorial board of Access Ceramics. Horie makes work in earthenware and porcelain that draw inspiration from folk traditions and comics in the U.S. and Japan. Her work is in many private collections including the Museum of Art and Design in New York.

Entrepreneurial Attitude of the Tribe Working on the computer, drinking out of my cup. Photo by Ayumi Horie.

cause the Internet has allowed us to become so, asking us to think beyond the one medium we were trained for. Having a knowledge of digital photography and Photoshop are prerequisites for any artist because of the expectations of the field and because maintaining a website has suddenly become necessary. Having a website forces individuals to consider how their aesthetic in clay might be applied to a digital medium and beyond that to other mediums. There’s a certain expansiveness to thinking creatively about where pots may go next and how they’ll get there. Integral to the process of marketing and selling is the idea of branding, which is, of course, the next step in the question of identity. Branding may be an uncomfortable word in the supposedly authentic and moral world of Leach, but it can be done with integrity, grace and humility. Potters have long used their “romantic” lifestyles to promote their businesses, so taking the leap online to bring their lifestyle to life is simply the next step. Besides, who doesn’t love to see hands working skillfully or gain insight into how an interesting solution was reached? Because working with one’s hands is an anomaly in the workplace today, and because many people derive a satisfaction from it, authenticity is built into our practice as ceramic artists. I’ve found online that the Facebook posts that spark the most interest are the how-tos or insights into studio practice, which further interlock making with marketing. A pitch to sell alone rarely generates interest, but if it’s a beautiful image or if something clever is shared, people seem to respond naturally because the content is substantive. The Internet has helped tighten an already existing loop between maker and user by making it possible to interact directly with users and for users to have their own voice. I make things for people to use and they in turn give back, whether it’s through a passing thought, a comment, an email or an image. I then take that information and wedge it into the next batch of pots. I admit that being involved in all stages of the process has

by Alleghany Meadows, Panelist

Combining studio practice and entrepreneurial attitude is indicative of the field of ceramics. Our field has always explored materials, responded to culture and influences, made work for ourselves and for our audiences. And, we have all had to make a living. We are a profession or “tribe” who thrives on figuring things out.

Studio Practice My studio practice is a personal time to explore, an alonewith-myself time to pose and solve questions. The process of creativity is: exploring my aesthetic language, source, touch, rhythm; exploring tools and materials; understanding reasons why and how my work has evolved over many years. Through its physical and mental rhythms and challenges, it is a productive and incredibly satisfying process. I love to make, and strive to make beauty. When the rhythm in the studio is at a slow boil, my practice is most fruitful. When a deadline is on the horizon, but not so close as to squelch creativity and risk, it flows well; ideas are actively distilled and filtered. I love this process, the challenges, risks, rewards, and everything in between: taking ideas from inception to the next possibility and learning to see and feel my best work. I watch—my practice is a moving target that continues to reveal. To make the work I want and to live the lifestyle I want is a balance. After graduate school, we chose a location/community that is supportive of art, with a revolving clientele, many of whom have disposable income, and an environment and culture we could thrive in, that supports the arts and is not exclusive. Carbondale, Colorado, is expensive compared to other places, but the ability to market my work directly, without travelling hundreds or thousands of miles, is worth the financial challenge. The balance between creativity and making a living is not a line, but rather an intersection of spheres where the center of each sphere remains autonomous, and the edges overlap.

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have the pots be at accessible prices to my culture/community. Presently, the balance between I make a lot of work for direct sales to inthese things seems healthy. The Gallery does dividuals, mostly at the Aspen Farmers’ Martake much time and effort, but being able to sleep ket, which runs every Saturday from mid June in my own bed rather than travelling makes it rethrough mid October. I have done this for twelve ally worthwhile. years. The venue allows for a weekly “studio While intellectually there are connections sale” type of atmosphere, where new ideas can within the activities employed by my creative intermix with a more expected stable of forms, making process and the creative gallery probut there is always room for interpretation in that cess, the physical and emotional differences stable. Many of my clients return annually. Often, are significant. The gallery is about education, they will think about something for a long time. relationships, aesthetics, risk, timing, luck, theFor example, last summer, someone who had puratre, business, promotion, marketing and comchased cups for five years finally admitted that munity. And, getting the right work, the work what they really wanted was full dish service for Alleghany Meadows, Vase on Tray, 2011, earthen- we believe in, in front of the right people. It is ware, slips, glazes, salt fired cone 1, 12x12” twelve. So we pulled samples from the most curabout making connections. The risks are real. rent work/ideas, looking at forms, sizes, textures, surfaces, glazes, The pleasures of success are rewarding. and eventually settled on a range for the place settings. I took that The creative process with Artstream is quite expansive and information, and a deadline, to the studio. inclusive. Because of the amount of physical effort involved in Deadlines are really what keep my studio rolling. With three the project, it requires multiple people and collaboration. There children, the “pride” of home ownership upkeep, multiple busiis no ending, just more questions and possibilities. The fun facnesses, and a dedicated spouse, if it weren’t for deadlines my ideas tor is really high. The brainstorming conversations are some of in clay would not come to fruition as readily. Commissions are a the most rewarding parts of the process. Many ideas begin with significant aspect of my annual practice. By the end of summer I a need. Like last year in Tampa, we spent lots of time searching typically have three months of commissions, which fill kilns, pay for coffee or waiting in line for it, which is not usually a waste bills, and allow for new ideas to fit in as well. Artstream tour each of time because it is often with a friend. The need for caffeine, year is another significant deadline. Gallery exhibitions and group and the thought of Seattle=Coffee combined with our entrepreshows round out the yearly cycles. neurial tendencies, spawned the idea to have our own barista on I have structured my economic livelihood to depend on my site—collaborating the art of the coffee with the art of the potter. studio, not completely, but around 60% of it. This forces a solid The Next Vision: making, completing and selling cycle. A vision emerged of a long “hallway” of cups, thousands of Harvey/Meadows Gallery, Artstream Nomadic Gallery: cups, like the bookshelves in Strand that are loaded with ideas, drawThe purely entrepreneurial aspects of my life involve diing people in with enough room to dwell but also confined/focused, rect public interactions: Harvey/Meadows Gallery exhibitions, like being inside an extended Artstream. The walls fill your peripheral vision with cups. The barista is set up twenty feet away, at the end of the hallway, and a line of people wait, smelling, hearing, talking—not at Starbucks, but rather in the midst of the pots by twentyfive incredible artists. A photo will be taken of each person holding a warm beverage and simultaneously shared on Facebook, brewing a larger audience, spreading the experience virtually. This is a connection to “pots in action,” Ayumi’s project on her website, bringing people’s involvement in the pieces they use back to the maker, and connecting the community of fellow users. It’s a rich social fabric, where the experience of drinking a cup of coffee can make connections. People will be enriched by the experience, and take home pots. This is how an idea can evolve, and through just a few conversations. The collaborative work continues with the implementation and completion of the idea. How will the coffee smell, sound, feel? What will the quality of light be like if the sun is shining or it is Artstream on location, 2006, NYC overcast and raining? How do we build the displays—engineer off site and ship in the parts, lighting, etc.? It is theatre, performance Artstream tours, Studio for Arts and Works (SAW), etc. While art, installation, and fun. Similar to studio practice, ideas are acfulfilling and creative, these business endeavors seem more inteltively filtered and distilled. The risks and rewards are palpable. . . . lectual to me, at arm’s length in a way—and this is good in the way that it remains distinct from the studio. Alleghany Meadows, MFA (‘99), Alfred University, is a At present, the Harvey/Meadows gallery, Artstream Nomadic studio potter in Carbondale, Colorado. He is the owner/founder Gallery, and workshops/visiting artist gigs bring in the other 40% of the Artstream Nomadic Gallery, co-owner of Harvey/Meadof my income. It is a conscious choice not to have 100% of my ows Gallery in Aspen, and co-founder of Studio for Arts and income needs be the responsibility my studio practice. This would Works (SAW), Cabondale, CO. He is widely collected, exhibited be too much pressure on my creativity, growth and time. It allows and published. me to continue to make the work that most interests me, and to

Sales, Deadlines and Commissions

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panel: teaching 3d art on a virtual plane Jennifer Frahm, Moderator • Sin-Ying Ho, Sonya M. Pakune & Shana Salaff, Panelists Overview

by Jennifer Frahm, Moderator As the moderator of this panel I intend to discuss the best practices for online course design, focusing on the application of best teaching methods for a blended online/face-to-face 3D Studio Art class. The benefits of using technology and leveraging the internet will be highlighted and described. Essential elements for successful learning will be demonstrated in the panelists’ courses and teaching methods including the development of projects and lectures, substantive discussions, and interactive online critiques. The cognitive advantages of providing supplemental tutoring objects will also be discussed. The challenges of teaching a visual arts class online will be considered and addressed with creative solutions. Topics include faculty to student interaction and instructional designer to faculty interaction.

Issues, Obstacles, and Possibilities by Sin-Ying Ho, Panelist

Online learning has become an alternative and experimental way of teaching ceramic in colleges and universities. The following questions inspired me when I first became interested in designing a hybrid 3D ceramic studio art course: Can ceramic teaching be completely online? What are the advantages and challenges for the hybrid of online and face-to-face teaching? What kinds of online platform, social media and technical supports are appropriate for teaching ceramic online? What are the copyright issues? What levels of ceramic studio courses are appropriate for online teaching? What factors discourage online teaching ceramic courses? What school policies need to implement to protect and ensure instructors’ teaching load and contact hours among students? As the world moves towards to a cyber-communication environment, online learning has become widely accepted because of its potential for providing more flexible access to content and instruction at any time, from any place. According to “An Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies” by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development Policy and Program Studies Service (revised September 2010), online learning entails increasing the availability of learning experiences for learners who cannot or choose not to attend traditional face-to-face offerings; assembling and disseminating instructional content more cost efficiently; and enabling instructors to handle more students while maintaining learning outcome quality that is equivalent to that of comparable face-to-face instruction. The question is, can it be applied to ceramic online teaching? This article focuses on exploring the issues, obstacles, and possibilities of introducing and designing a hybrid 3D ceramic studio art course. Ceramic studio art course requires hands-on and laboratory components. This is a fundamental difference from teaching liberal art academic courses such as sociology and history. I did a survey in my first-level ceramic class. Students were not enthusiastic about having an online course. They indicated that they needed support and lab hours to be in the studio to complete their

assignment. To rely solely on watching online demonstration is not enough to inform their tactile experience in building vessels or sculpture in clay. For my advanced-level ceramic class, students expressed that a video-recorded demonstration would help them to reinforce the understanding and help them to revisit the demonstration in their own time. In regards to online critique and discussion, blogging encouraged first-level students to express their point of views and critical thinking in writing instead of orally. The advanced students welcomed the freedom of expressing freely. The process required a high discipline of monitoring, stimulating the interactive discussion between instructor and students. This survey provided me an entry point for combining the online and faceto-face traditional teaching in ceramic studio art course. Ceramic is a medium that requires practical practice in the studio as well as hands-on instruction during the lab hours, especially for the beginning classes. Students obtain visual instruction through video recording; however, the tactile experience cannot be replaced by on line instruction. The face-to-face learning environment provides opportunities for instructors to observe students and give guidance on the variety of techniques to manipulate clay. Demonstrations are a big part of the course content in ceramic studio arts. Delivering lectures and holding meetings with groups of student, we can use synchronous technologies such as webcasting, chat rooms, desktop audio technology. However, video recording and editing of a demonstration become a big part of preparation for the course. A video camera and knowledge of video editing is needed for this process. Different technology applications are used to support the various models of online learning. For the component of ceramic studio online learning, I choose to use models of asynchronous communication tools such as email, threaded discussion boards, newsgroups, etc. to allow students to contribute at their convenience. There are plenty of free online tools to help achieve different types of goals. For instance, Prezi is a free online presentation tool. Author Stream is an online Power Point presentation and slide show sharing. Googledocs allows users to create various types of documents and has real-time collaboration. U Stream is for live webcasts. Blogging has become a popular way to engage students in course work, including having students respond to course readings or discussions, or by having them reflect on practical experiences where students are required to link/apply theory to practice. By using this method, students are writing for an audience that can either be limited by the instructor and entire class or open to the general public. Social media are widely used, such as Facebook and Twitter. In terms of electronic devices, iPhones and laptops have become a common hardware. In my college, Blackboard is a licensed software widely used among students and instructors. Although Facebook is a social media widely used in our society, from the academic point of view, copyright and privacy are a concern. Using licensed software that is entitled by the college feels safe. In terms of technical support, the college provides updated tech support information packages. For example, by using Blackboard we can embed video from other sites like YouTube. Launching an online and face-to-face hybrid 3D ceramic studio art course relies on a well-prepared, detailed weekly syllabus to

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ensure a successful learning outcome and satisfy the teaching and learning experience. For college and university instructors the teaching load is regulated by the contact hours between instructor and students. As enrollment increases, a higher limit for students should be stated. Online interactive discussion is an organic development as it engages students to the course material. Instructors spend extra hours to respond to students’ needs and discussion. A policy is needed to regulate the contact hours and discussions outside of class time. A hybrid of an online and face-toface teaching environment enhances the teaching outcome, extends content, delivers hands-on demonstrations, and supports lectures for a four-hour weekly meeting class. Students can review material and engage in discussion anytime and anywhere. I firmly believe that a hybrid of online and face-to-face ceramic studio art courses can succeed and are a potential solution as an alternative teaching mode.

One response Aims made to the budget situation was to instigate a “hard close” on weekends and evenings for all studio art labs. This practice limits the number of open ceramics lab times, where a huge portion of student learning takes place. With high enrollment, we had barely enough lab hours to accommodate the number of courses offered. We needed to find a way to add a class or two without stressing the studio and allow maximum lab times for the students. For Aims, the Ceramic Studio Hybrid seemed the perfect solution. It allows additional classes without impacting the open labs by reducing the number of scheduled class hours and leaving more time for group lab time. Unlike many other institutions, Aims provides resources to support the virtual learning environment. We have an amazing instructional designer on staff to help us develop excellent 100% online courses as well as hybrid courses. This staff person has proven to be a vital resource to me in my quest to design dynamic courses that reflect A promo piece for a hybrid art class as Aims Community College. Sin-ying Ho received a diploma my teaching methods and capture my with honors from Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario, a BFA from instructional personality in virtual space. Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and an MFA from Louisiana Since 2002, I’ve been teaching an Art Appreciation (ART110) State University in 2001. Currently Ho is associate professor at Queens class online. In the beginning the class didn’t reflect my personality College, City University of New York, teaching ceramics art. Ho has at all. In fact it was probably a very boring class. As time went by and been a Visiting Artist for the Office of the Arts at Harvard University, with every semester, I added new features and eventually created an the Hong Kong Art School. She has taught ceramics art at Southeastenjoyable learning-centered online class. My goal was to have the ern Louisiana University, Hammond, Emily Carr Institute of Art and same rigor, intensity, personality and clarity of concept as the traDesign, Vancouver, Alberta College of Art & Design, Calgary and ditional brick-and-mortar class I’d been teaching for several years. Concordia University, Montreal. She is internationally exhibited and After evaluating the successes from the ART110 class, I decollected. She has received numerous awards including a San Angelo cided to include many of these features in the new class. I used the National Ceramic Competition Merit Award, Canada Council of the discussion boards to post a series of questions meant to challenge Art Research and Development Fund, PSC-CUNY research grant and the student to go outside of the course text and come up with indeQueens Community Arts Fund / New York State Council on the Arts pendent answers. I designed quizzes to reinforce the text informaDecentralization Program Award. Ho was nominated for a Biennial tion and Camtasia lectures. And lastly, I photographed their comAward from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation 2011. pleted art projects and posted the images in the discussion area for a dialog based critique. These online projects enhanced my students’ knowledge and ability to clearly understand the concepts of that class as well as the one illustrated below. by Sonya M. PauKune, Panelist This spring semester we are piloting our first studio hybrid courses: one in clay and another in drawing. The clay class is called My focus will be on answering the following three questions: Art 175 Pottery of the Southwest. In this class, two-thirds of the Why teach an online ceramic studio class? What resources are time (46 hours) is a traditional class/studio where students work on available to teach a successful hybrid art studio course? How do I application and process using demonstrations, technical assistance select the tools that best represent my pedagogical style and meet and the mid-term critique. The other one-third (30 hours) is online the needs of the new technological savvy student? I also look at and will focus more on the history and culture of the region, inthe actual tools and methods I used for a hybrid studio course I’m corporating interactive lectures, quizzes, discussions and the final teaching this semester at Aims Community College. critique. The final days of the class will be spent onsite at Mesa We can answer the first question by looking at the ever-shrinkVerde (16 hours) where students will experience the knowledge and ing state education budgets. In the past five years, we have seen a ingenuity of the peoples in the Southwestern United States, the rebudget that has stayed flat or decreased while enrollments increase. gion we will have studied for nine weeks prior to seeing the actual All evidence shows that these trends will continue in the near fusetting in which these original pieces were made. The clay class ture, especially in community colleges across the United States, will use the online content area as an information source to access and particularly at Aims Community College in Greeley, Colorado.

Virtually, Teaching Ceramics Online

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the interactive Camtasia lectures, with links to outside sources, and quizzes based on the textbook as well as the online lectures. The summation of the course takes place with the online final critique. This style of critique provides a sense of honest anonymity that can be repressed during actual in-person full class critiques. Both methods are used in ART175 to provide the students an opportunity to have a powerful discourse on complex concepts in different styles. During this part of my presentation we will take a moment to look at examples of the tools being used, how they work in the Aims Online course management system and how I use them for effective teaching in the above-mentioned class. I hope the information from the presentation will assist professors and instructors alike in developing dynamic learning-centered approaches to a 3D art studio hybrid-class in order to teach 3D in a Virtual Plane. Sonya M. PauKune was born in Colorado, but spent the first twenty-five years of her life traveling and living around the globe, from Germany to Morocco. She received her BA in Ceramics at the University of Northern Colorado and her MFA in Ceramics from Kansas State University. While at K-State she was elected to the NCECA board as the Student Director-at-large, happily serving for two years. After graduate school, Sonya and her husband Chris Wanner, a ceramic sculptor, were awarded a nine month artists-inresidence at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Maine. In 1998, they moved back to Colorado where they currently live with their two sons, Blake and Sabin, teaching and making art. They own an Artists Rental Residency in Colorado called Art Haus, which has helped several young artists make and display their work. PauKune is an Associate Professor of Art and Design at Aims Community College and the Gallery Director/Curator of the Ed Beatty Campus Gallery.

Making the Case for Adding Online Ceramics by Shana Salaff, Panelist

In my portion of the panel, I will discuss my recent experiences with using online content in studio-based ceramics classes, and hopefully make a case for others to do so as well. Online learning tools create new opportunities for teaching and communicating with students. I believe that students can benefit from those increased opportunities when online content is added. My presentation will cover types of online content that can be used as adjuncts to traditional ceramics classes, and discuss strategies for integrating this content with traditional in-class teaching. I will also present results from my research project created to assess the impact on student work of including online ceramic history lectures into my beginning ceramics classes. Although, technically, adding online content makes a class a “hybrid” (vs. traditional brick-and-mortar classes), the type of online content that I am discussing is used to supplement in-class content, rather than to replace it. Basic online tools, available on most educational platforms, provide references and communication tools to support class content. These give students added support for their progress throughout the semester. Online formats can also deliver content outside of scheduled class times to increase the total amount of content delivered. Content can be created specifically for online access, thus stretching the amount of teaching hours available during the week as well as encouraging reflective and critical thinking. Finally, online content can be used to prime students for in-class demonstrations and discussion. Online elements such as video-recorded demonstrations can be used as pre-learning tools to prime students for in-class demonstrations and to maximize their

ability to retain new skills. As a way to assess the effectiveness of using online-only components to deliver content to students, I created a research project in 2010 that compared student work from beginning ceramics classes either with or without specific online content. This online content was in the form of four visual lectures (no audio) on four main topics in ceramic history. The control group was also shown these images, but in the traditional in-class slide lecture format. Students in the research group were also required to write short response papers to each online lecture, which were due at set times throughout the semester. I asked students to summarize the lecture content, as well as answer a set group of questions that encouraged them to engage personally to the images shown. At the end of the project, I gauged students’ reactions through the response papers, an anonymous questionnaire, and comparing student work in both groups. On the whole, positive and thoughtful student responses were strong indicators of the success of the project. Comparison of student work showed a much more direct influence from the lectures with student work in the study group versus the control group. My conclusions are that students shown the online version of the content (along with the accompanying response-papers) related to the images and were able to articulate their own responses. This allowed students to deliberately incorporate elements from the lectures into their work. As one student wrote, “The images provided a basic and sometimes complex starting point . . . overall it made me think out what I was making before starting.” I propose that basic online tools are useful to provide students with added support for their progress through the curriculum. Content can also be created specifically for online access, thus stretching the amount of teaching hours available during the week, and encouraging reflective and critical thinking. Online elements can also be used as pre-learning tools to prime students for in-class demonstrations and to maximize their ability to retain new skills. A certain amount of organization and planning is required to ensure the success of these online components, however, as it is important to well integrate online content within the course curriculum. Anchoring content by linking to studio projects, presenting online content at an appropriate pace within the semester, and reinforcing online content by referencing and discussing it directly with students are key ways to do so. When done well, online learning offers the opportunity to increase the amount and quality of content delivered to ceramics students. In this era of shrinking budgets that often lead to decreased out-of-class studio access, having online learning tools available to students available at any time throughout the semester can help focus precious class time on hands-on studio work. Shana Salaff resides in Fort Collins, Colorado, where she teaches at both Front Range Community College in Fort Collins, Colorado, and Aims Community College in Greeley, CO. Originally from Toronto, she received a diploma in Ceramics from the School of Craft and Design at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario, and a Bachelor of Fine Art (1998) from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She became a studio potter for seven years, running Wareshana Pottery in Halifax. Nova Scotia. Returning to academia in 2005, she received an MFA in Ceramics from California State University, Fullerton. After graduation, she was artist-in-resident at Art 342 in Fort Collins, where she fell in love with the area. After a second residency, at the PauKune Wanner Art Haus in Severance, she moved into Fort Collins. Future plans include an eight-week residency at Gaya Ceramic and Design in Bali, Indonesia in the summer of 2012.

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panel: ceramics at the edge of form Amy Gogarty, Moderator • Daniel Bare, Susannah Biondo-Gemmell & Linda Swanson, Panelists Introduction

by Amy Gogarty, Moderator The vessel continues to occupy preeminent status in contemporary studio ceramics, providing a conceptual framework that encompasses functional and non-functional wares, traditional and postmodern objects and installations, one-of-a-kind artworks and industrial multiples. While this heterogeneity makes subsuming them all under a single rubric problematic, each of these examples works towards the creation of material ceramic objects. Our panel aspires to turn this model of object-making on its head, admitting forces of disruption, disaggregation and disorder as productive catalysts in ceramics practice. Each of our panelists engages ceramics at the level of constituent elements and processes of what one might call the “ceramic narrative.” In so doing, they create works “at the edge of form,” artefacts resulting from performance or time-based installations in which ceramic processes unfold “on their own.” Their work foregrounds the transformative and experiential nature of the ceramic process. They focus on rendering visible actions ordinarily hidden from human perception or forces to which we have become socially blind, such as the imperatives of mass production, consumption and disposition. Incorporating destruction into production is not new in ceramics, and there are a number of contemporary practitioners who use destruction—breaking the fired ceramic—in interesting and productive ways. Canadian Richard Milette breaks and reassembles vessels in order to introduce complex semantic issues into his provocatively classic forms. The Dutch design partnership Tjep (Janneke Hooymans and Frank Tjepkema) produces “pre-shattered” vases,” mixing components “to emphasise transience, fragility and rebirth.”1 Starting with the premise that eventually every porcelain vessel will break, the team coats vase interiors with a polyurethane rubber material, which remains watertight even after the porcelain surround is broken. They drop vases off buildings, throw them out of moving cars and even shoot them with bullets, believing that the resulting fractures are not only unique, they also enhance the visual appearance of the resulting object.2 Designer Fernando Brizio introduces a destructive force into the shaping process, allowing for the intervention of chance and accident.3 He places freshly thrown porcelain forms in the back of his jeep and then drives along bumpy roads. The forms slump and deform according to the morphology of the road. None of these artists engages in destruction for its own sake but out of a belief that circumventing preconceived notions and accepting damage and decay as natural components of life generate meaning and beauty. The resulting forms are beautiful if mournful reminders of the inevitability of destruction and death. The British installation artist Clare Twomey consistently incorporates destructive processes at the point of installation rather than production. She focuses the viewer’s attention on the reception of the work, transforming a static viewer into an active participant.4 For example, in Consciousness/conscience (2001-2004), she laid 3000 units of specially manufactured porcelain tile to construct a temporary floor within the gallery. Viewers entering the work crush

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the tile underfoot. Twomey exalts in the fragile nature of her material and likens the experience to that of “walking over virgin snow.”5 With this simple act, the artist shifts focus from the object to the experience of the participant/viewer and posits the act of destruction as a device to heighten consciousness. Monument (2009) consists of an enormous mound of scarred and broken commercial ceramics. It speaks to waste and consumerism, and yet also to regeneration, as the factory grinds these same shards and adds them to new batches of ceramic paste. Works such as Monument explore “the emotional power of the unfinished, the broken and the abject.”6 A number of Japanese artists engage with clay as a material to be explored on its own terms. Satoru Hoshino embraces the material’s chaotic tendencies in order to exploit its unruly, even destructive energy. In 1986, his studio near Kyoto was destroyed by a landslide. While this might crush a lesser artist, for Hoshino, the event was a revelation of the power of the earth. He writes in a description of his work Beginning Form--Spiral: When hands struggle against clay, there is a disorderliness, an untidiness which a systematic ceramic art usually tries to eliminate, or bury as much as possible. But in the search for a new ceramic art, disorder itself can provide the means with which to recover form. In chaos there is energy; rather than view this energy as disruptive, even destructive, one can seek the liberating, generative aspect of it, use it to translate the active disorder into form.7 In a more recent series, Spring Snow (2008), Hoshino uses the image of late-season snow melting to reference soft ceramic clay and glaze melting and transforming into the hard material of ceramic. He treats glaze as a “basic substance, a material that is allowed to go its own way, to reveal its inherent qualities.”8 In the United States, conceptual artist Jim Melchert explored qualities of clay that have little to do with making objects. His 1972 performance Changes, in which he dunked his head in a pail of slip and recorded his observations as it slowly dried, has proved pivotal for two of the artists on this panel, Susannah Biondo-Gemmell and Linda Swanson. Both of these artists investigate the unique characteristics of ceramic materials, and both set up specific parameters for activating and observing changes that take place over time. Susannah Biondo-Gemmell focuses on ceramic phenomenology and material experimentation, mining these for metaphors of geological and personal forces. For Biondo-Gemmell, time-based events in which actions transpire in the presence of an audience offer ideal opportunities to observe mysterious transformations as they take place. At times incorporating electricity, “fire made contemporary,” her sculptures make “visible the metaphysical nature of energy exchange.” She identifies material qualities that are unique to ceramics, namely, the capacity to transform from a pliable to a permanent, hardened state; refractoriness and non-conductivity. Setting up a “series of circumstances,” situations in which these properties contribute to “larger narratives, metaphors and relationships that resonate beyond the field of Ceramic Art,” she exhibits the results of these events as artefacts. Linda Swanson combines elemental materials such as ceramic salts, bentonite clay and water, allowing them to mutate through dif-

ferent states at ambient temperature. Using water rather than fire as the transformative agent, she creates mysterious grottos, observing changes that occur over time. Dissolution and decay are acknowledged features of matter seeking its own way, a phenomenon she finds both creative and compelling. As with Hoshino’s glaze works in which material is “permitted to go its own way,” Swanson sets up “conditions under which material could behave according to its own nature and could take form indirectly from its own processes.” To those more attuned to thinking of ceramics in terms of actively constructing finished forms, this relinquishing of control cedes ground to forces of disorder and decay. However, as Hoshino suggests, “disorder…can provide the means with which to recover form.” Norwegian curator Jorunn Veiteberg has identified “upcycling,” a process in which everyday items including post-consumer waste serve as raw material for artistic production, thus raising their value and status from discard to aesthetic object.9 The ceramic world is adrift in discard, the product of capitalist overproduction and changing fashions. Daniel Bare witnessed this first hand in Yixing, China, where he observed not only neatly stacked evidence of human industry, but also voluminous waste: plates stacked in back yards because “it is too expensive to move them to a landfill.” His work makes use of ceramic detritus to “transform the idle state of use, propelling the objects’ lifecycle toward a socially charged commentary about culture through the actions of decomposition, deformation and collapse.” The work of this panel serves to open a dialogue about the received ceramic narrative, which privileges the crafted transformation of raw clay into finished products, primarily vessels. In general, when this narrative is intersected, it is to introduce yet another method to construct, alter, decorate, glaze or otherwise modify the basic intentional form. Without objecting to this process, the artists on this panel find it overly determined and restrictive. They focus instead on the ontological and the epistemological—the experiential capacity of ceramic processes to generate insight into the nature of Being and to produce both new knowledge and a deeper understanding of what we know and how we know it. By slowing down and intersecting the transformation of raw materials to fired ceramic, they make visible relationships and interactions that govern the natural world, and, by extension, the human world, reminding us, as Linda Swanson writes, “that the world is an amazing place, a source of wonder.” With its foundation in natural processes and materials, ceramics makes a unique contribution to our understanding of these relationships, as we are counselled by Susannah Biondo-Gemmell, whose installations and events reveal these very relationships. Focusing on industrial production and regarding the ceramic object not as an end, but, rather, one step along the way of an ongoing cycle of production, distribution, consumption and waste, Daniel Bare introduces a critical social perspective of great importance to anyone working in the ceramic arts. These three artists embrace forces of disruption, disaggregation and disorder as a means to expand and enrich the ceramic narrative. Note: All quotes attributed to panel artists come from their written submission. 1 Robert Klanten, Suen Ehmann and Sabrina Grill, eds., Fragiles: Porcelain, Glass and Ceramics (Berlin: Gestalten, 2008), 66. 2 Tjep, “Studio/Works/Products/Do Break,” www.tjep.com/works/products do-break (2000), accessed December 8, 2011. 3 Klanten, Ehmann and Grill, Fragiles, 95. 4 Mark Currah, “Consciousness/Conscience” (2003), www.claretwomey.com consciousness_conscience_-info.html, accessed December 8, 2011. 5 Ibid. 6 Telerie Lloyd-Jones, “Not Just Creating but Exploring,” (review of exhibition Possibilities and Losses) Crafts (July/August 2009): 72.

7 Bethyn V. Merrick Nguyen, ed., “Hoshino Satoru: Ceramicist,” Out sider Japan (2010), http://outsiderjapan.pbworks.com/w/page/29464125 Hoshino%Satoru%3A%20Ceramicist, accessed December 8, 2011. 8 Carine Verleye, “Satoru Hoshino: A Life Within,” Ceramics: Art and Perception 80 (2010): 21. 9 Jorunn Veiteberg, “Found Objects and Readymades: Upcycling as an Artistic Strategy,” in Jorunn Veiteberg, ed., Thing Tang Trash: Upcycling in Contemporary Ceramics (Bergen: Bergen National Academy of the Arts and Art Museums Bergen, 2011): 27.

Amy Gogarty was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and immigrated to Canada in 1972. She attended Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts and studied painting at the Alberta College of Art and the University of Calgary, earning her MFA in Painting in 1989. She taught visual art history, theory and ceramics history at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary from 1990 to 2006 prior to relocating to Vancouver, where she works as an independent researcher and artist. She has participated in numerous national and international academic panels and published or presented over 90 reviews, catalogue and critical essays. She co-edited two craft anthologies: Utopic Impulses: Contemporary Ceramics Practice, with Ruth Chambers and Mireille Perron, and Craft Perception and Practice vol. 3, with Paula Gustafson and Nïsse Gustafson, both published in 2007 by Ronsdale Press. In 2009, she was the invited artist/writer at the Medalta International Artist-in-Residence ceramics program in Medicine Hat, Alberta. She is currently curating Greg Payce: Illusions at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto in 2012, and she serves on the boards of the North-West Ceramics Foundation and Potters Guild of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Tempting Verge

by Daniel Bare, Panelist In my work, I examine the impact of overproduction, consumption and disposal of resources to show how these actions affect ecological balance. I feel an overpowering sense of gluttony and greed when I see the plethora of disregarded products that are briefly used and disposed of casually. This cycle is indicative of a human view of resources and the world as endless and miraculously self-renewing material. Curiously, one could see beauty and power in the vastness of multiples and the sheer numbers of objects that are crafted every day without notice. During my residency at the Pottery Workshop in Shanghai,

Daniel Bare, Re/Claim (Cascade), 2010. Post-consumer found objects, porcelain, glaze, 18” h x 16” w x 15” d.

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China, these feelings about consumption were drawn into sharp perspective through my looking into a new culture. For instance, in Yixing, a small town in China, I was moved by the tremendous volumes of pots lining the streets, which were neatly stacked taller than most semi-trucks. They were powerful symbols of human industriousness and the will to transform raw material into value and structure. Conversely, I also saw massive amounts of ceramic waste that was discharged by the factories. Plates were hopelessly stacked in backyards because there is no end user for pieces that are not perfect, and it is too expensive to move them to a landfill. Upon my return, I became hyper-aware of the full circle of creation to consumption, and of the disregarded. In my work, I interrupt this process before the final disposal to inject new meaning, to breathe life into these objects and to help them speak again. As an artist, I work to reveal overlooked perceptions of everyday experiences as a way to reflect contemporary concerns and environmental change. My inspiration comes from multiple sites of static inaction such as thrift stores, landfills, recycling bins and abandoned kiln sites. By reorganizing ubiquitous items such as office mugs, figurines and other ceramic detritus into stacked masses, my sculptures transform the idle state of use, propelling the objects’ lifecycle toward a socially charged commentary about culture through the actions of decomposition, deformation and collapse. I am also interested in the idea of the anonymous, quiet, discarded object, which is symptomatic of problems in humanity. Through using the post-consumed products as material, I am able to speak about systems to liberate the produced object from the site of social intention, and to re-invent the role of the maker, both as skilled producer and as the creator of new potentialities for meaning. With this panel, “Ceramics on the Edge of Form,” I am interested in discussing such questions about ceramics as: • What is Ceramic? • What is raw material? • When is transformation complete? Is it ever complete? • How can I transform an everyday object into an object that has another meaning beyond its intended use? • How do I use materials in a personal and innovative way? • How do I interrupt conventional ways of production? • How does gravity affect the choices I make when I think about the ceramic process? • How does content enter through the process? I look forward to discussing these and other related topics with the panel and the audience. Daniel Bare is a ceramic artist and educator. Originally from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he earned his BFA from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and his MFA from Alfred University, Alfred, New York. His studio practice explores a range of ceramic-related processes including thrown-and-altered functional wares, experimental post-consumer fused ceramic sculptures and large-scale wet-slip clay collaborative installations. Daniel’s sculptural and installation works examine the impact of overproduction, consumption and disposal of resources to show how these actions affect ecological balance. Daniel has been a resident artist at the Pottery Workshop Shanghai, Shanghai, China; Yueji Kiln International Contemporary Ceramic Art Center, DeHua, China; the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helena, Montana; and Green Arts in Kanazawa, Japan. Currently a Lecturer in Ceramics at Clemson University, Clemson, South

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Carolina, Daniel has also taught at Grand Valley State University and Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. His works are published in Ceramics Monthly, Ceramics: Art and Perception and 500 Ceramic Sculptures by Lark Books. He has publicly lectured about his work at Beijing Fine Art Academy and DeHua College for Ceramics in China, the Michigan Ceramic Art Association, and many universities and art centers in the United States.

Event-as-Art versus Object-as-Art within Contemporary Ceramic Art

by Susannah Biondo-Gemmell, Panelist Historically, the Ceramic Arts have regarded the vitrified object as its primary art product. Clay artists have produced illustrations of ceramic processes, i.e., vitrified forms providing us with historical evidence of throwing, assembling, altering, and firing. The field has centered on the “object-as-art.” The work of the legendary Peter Voulkos exhibits the processes of forming, ripping, punching, and charring, yet a viewer experiences these actions second-hand. The objects are raw, but frozen in time. One is left with a residue, an illustration, of Voulkos’ actions—the very goal of the Abstract Expressionists. Though the process for the artist was quite physical and emotional, the viewer is left intellectualizing on a moment past. So, what of these events surrounding the cultivation of ceramic materials? How does a real-time engagement with these actions alter our experience of Ceramic Art? I would propose that a time-based art event is not only a valid, but an exemplary, format in which to demonstrate versus illustrate the unique characteristics of ceramic materials. The experience of the viewer is shifted from passive onlooker reconstructing a moment past to active participant experiencing a happening. The work engages us intuitively and emotionally. These events then act as investigations for larger narratives, metaphors and relationships that resonate beyond of the field of Ceramic Art. Within Ceramic Art, our discipline is defined by our materials—ceramic materials. The characteristics of ceramics are unique and associated with very few other art materials being used today. These unique qualities are: 1. Transformative properties: the ability of ceramic materials to change from pliable, readily available clay to hardened, permanent ceramic. 2. Refractoriness: ceramic materials are resistant to heat, and 3. Non-conductivity: ceramic materials do not provide a path for the movement of live electricity. The time-based art event has offered a format for contemporary ceramic artists to highlight and exemplify these uniquely ceramic properties. Walter McConnell’s unfired clay installations allow the material to disintegrate from modeled worlds of flora and figurines to piles of unrecognizable earth. McConnell exploits the transformative properties of clay, decomposing from meticulously formed representational imagery in real-time in order to present a larger metaphor about man’s estranged relationship with nature. John Roloff’s furnace projects pushed the boundaries of Ceramic Art of the late 1970s and early 1980s by presenting the firing process as art. Roloff’s knowledge of ceramic, i.e., geologic, materials allowed him to push the refractory limits of the work, presenting the firing process, which has historically remained out of sight, as the work itself.

Keith Harrison uses industrial elecitself. Any remaining object, if there is trical heating elements embedded in raw one, is residue, acting as a clue to past or clay and glazes as a means to create exfuture happenings. perimental narratives with a dangerous Early in my art career, I created edge. Though his works are very much a series of kiln sculptures that fired about the relationship of electricity and on-site as performance pieces. Earth ceramics, the meaning goes beyond a Form (2003) was a distilled version of technical exploration. The work is about these works built from ceramic castable transformation, site and the visual expesculpted over a steel and wire structure. rience. These pieces were often site-specific and For each of these artists, the use fired publicly so that viewers would exof ceramic materials supports a postperience the firing process. As this work modern investigation rooted in a deeper fired, small cracks developed, creating search for meaning beyond the art obline drawings of light that emerged durject. By allowing these characteristics ing the event. After the firing perforto unfold in real time, these artists use mance, the residue of that art event was unique ceramic qualities to call attention left on-site to weather away. If Earth Form is categorized as to the “ceramicness” of the work—reafBroadway-style in theatricality, then my firming the evolving face and credibility Toys for Prometheus series (2006) is a of specifically Ceramic Art. black box theatre version. The expandThroughout art history, fine artists have produced art events which Susannah Biondo-Gemmell, Toys for Prometheus II (Detail), able glaze acts functionally as a refrac2006. Installation. tory insulator and sculpturally as a referhybridize performance and ceramic art, ence to geological sites where such events might occur. Electricity including Kazuo Shiraga’s Challenging Mud work of 1955 and is my animating principle and remains present in the “machine Andy Goldsworthy’s clay walls beginning in 1996. However, objects” I create. I retain “fire” through the form of electricity, these artists were not specifically trained in or aligned with the specifically kanthal wire, as a means to demonstrate energy exCeramic Arts. Jim Melchert represented a shift as a conceptual change. Controlled electricity is “fire” made contemporary. These artist with deep educational roots in Ceramics. In his 1972 per“machine objects” are an antithesis to the outdoor firing pieces; formance Changes, the artist allowed the drying of ceramic slip to amplify the visceral experience of being human. Melchert’s acceptance into the field represents an opening up of the ceramics community to time-based media as a manifestation of specifiClatsop Community College cally ceramic art. It is imperative that each of the aforementioned artists, McConnell, Roloff and Harrison, was trained in ceramic materials Emergence From Place—Neo–Traditional Indigenous Art and processes. John Roloff describes his chosen materials as April 5th to May 11th, 2012 “dolomite, kaolin, feldspar, etc., existing as powders in the glaze 1 room made up rock formations I had studied in nature.” With ARTISTS Reception: April 5th at 6:00pm this knowledge, he said, “I set up numerous structures designed Chuck Souza Native Hawaiian to collapse during the firing, clays near their fusing point, burning Colleen Ulrich out of organic structural materials, etc.”2 Te Popoto o Ngapuhi ki Kaipara Keith Harrison said of his process, “I am interested in the Gabrielle Belz opportunities that clay offers in its different states; as a liquid, Ngapuhi Gail Tremblay plastic and solid and, ultimately, the potential to transform the Mi’ kmaq, Onondaga material directly using electrical systems both domestic and inGreg Robinson 3 dustrial.” For each of these artists, the deep understanding of Chinook Indian Nation and, therefore, the ability to dramatically manifest these unique Lillian Pitt Warm Springs, Wasco & Yakama ceramic properties—transformation, refractoriness, and nonMaile Andrade conductivity—in real-time, allows for a deepened sophistication, Native Hawaiian Public Lecture & Slide Show both technically and conceptually, of the demonstrative quality of Manos Nathan Friday, April 6th, 7:00pm the work, striking the viewer in a significantly visceral way. Te Roroa, Ngatiwhatua, Ngapuhi Performing Arts Center In my own work, I maintain a personal obligation to ceramic 16th and Franklin Avenue. Student & Professional Artist Workshop materials, yet I am interested in the liminal space between perforSaturday, April 7th, 9:00am-4:00pm mance events and ceramics. I set up a “series of circumstances” CCC Art Studio with the intention that they will evolve and produce a demonstra$25/CCC Students - $40/Public tion of the “ceramic narrative.” These time-based events then act Richard Rowland as metaphors for greater narratives. In some of my works, the (503)325-2449 process takes precedence, and they become quite theatrical. In rrowland@clatsopcc.edu http://tinyurl.com/pacific-rim-art-exhibit other works, the larger metaphor is the core of my exploration, and viewing the incurring storyline is a quiet, subtle experience. CCC Art Gallery • 1651 Lexington Avenue • Astoria, Oregon 97103 Clatsop Community College is an affirmative action, equal opportunity institution, ADA accessible In all of my work, the event is the climax of the process—the art

THE PACIFIC RIM EXHIBIT

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they are intimate, quiet, and demanding of a viewer’s readiness to suspend his/her disbelief. Most recently, I worked on a collaborative, time-based installation, Momento (2011), with Jen Rogers, a ceramic artist based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In this piece, unfired ceramic bird forms are continually recycled through a repetitive process within a hybrid domestic-studio setting. This action occurs within view of onlookers. This work is about cycles in life: birth and death, leaving and returning, daily repetitive processes. Within my work, each of these unique ceramic characteristics, i.e., transformative properties, refractoriness, and non-conductivity, is explored through the format of the time-based event in order to present larger concepts through the lens of the ceramic narrative. The look of Ceramic Arts is changing. This shift is obvious and exciting to those of us working in the field. The “event-as-art” within Ceramic Arts allows ceramic artists to present the defining qualities of our material as an experiential aspect of the work. We are able to elevate the importance of these qualities by using them as a vehicle to express larger ideas, therefore intensifying our significance in the larger art field. The art is no longer a static artifact but a breathing, changing form. Ceramic events provide viewers with a complex experience, but one still rooted in the “ceramicness” of the material. We are a discipline with a history focused on permanence, but, in order to secure our permanence as a field moving forward, we must embrace the exploration of our medium through impermanent means. 1 John Roloff, “Kiln Projects: Material and Process Experiments in/of the Landscape,” (quoting John Roloff, Kiln Projects, Artery, William Paterson College, February/March 1983), www.johnro off.com/kiln.proj_text04b.html (2004). Accessed 02 December 2011. 2 Ibid. 3 David Trigg, “Q & A: Keith Harrison,” Jerwood Visual Arts Blog, http://blog.jerwoodvisualarts.org/?p=690 (6 August 2011). Accessed 02 December 2011.

Susannah Biondo-Gemmell received her BFA in Ceramics from Washington University in St. Louis in 2002 and her MFA in Ceramic Art from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2006. She currently holds the position of Assistant Professor of Art at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa. She teaches courses in 3-D Studio Basics, Ceramics, Sculpture, Casting, Installation and Drawing. Biondo-Gemmell’s studio interests include ceramic material experimentation and the investigation of the ceramic firing process. Recent exhibitions include shows at the Sinclair Galleries, Coe College, Iowa; Buchanan Center for the Arts, Illinois; Eastern Washington University, Washington; the Archie Bray Foundation, Montana; and the San Diego Museum of the Living Artist, California. She has published work in 500 Ceramic Sculptures (Lark Books), and her work is included in the collections of the Spencer Museum of Art, Kansas; The Shein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art, New York; New York Mills Sculpture Park, Minnesota; and Tyson Research Center, Missouri.

Material Time

by Linda Swanson, Panelist We usually experience ceramics in a finished and permanent state. I am interested in exploring the temporal and transformative nature of ceramic materials, which we usually don’t get to see. I first became interested in this way of working when I mixed

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a casting slip that was too thick to pour into a mold. I noticed how it flowed extremely slowly and was captivated by how “slow” it made me feel. My own sense of time had shifted to that of the material in some way. I had a similar experience out in the landscape in Iceland, when my sense of the present was altered while looking at lava fields and ice deposits that resulted from geologic processes. This chance encounter with thick slip in the studio opened up a new way for me to think about the potential of making work with ceramic materials, letting them “work” in their various states of wetness and dryness while incorporating our experience of them over time. My working process changed from directly manipulating material to a process of setting up conditions under which material could behave according to its own nature and could take form indirectly from its own processes. I wanted to explore how material could become more than just of what the work was made and how the specific conditions, qualities, and transformative potential of material could become the basis for the ideas of the work. Water is a ceramic material. Its role is essential at every stage in the ceramic process; it makes ceramics possible. We only fire it out when we don’t need it anymore, and its final removal in the kiln renders forms of clay and glaze permanent. In a reversal of the typical order in ceramic process, I began looking at how ceramic materials changed by adding water instead of removing it. By using water instead of fire as a transformative agent, the metamorphic nature of ceramics could be experienced as the changes occurred. I observed how water interacted with each ceramic material in the glaze lab through absorption, expansion, desiccation, precipitation and evaporation. The way these transformations could happen became more important in this work than achieving a final form. The resultant physical formations of the clay and glaze materials have come to serve as a means by which the transformational process itself is made visible. The focus of my work is on giving presence and duration to these material processes. How does the slowness of a thick slip become tangible and meaningful? This involves experimentation with both the materials and framework within which material changes and transformations can happen. The movement of water as it seeps, drips, flows and pools is negotiated through porous synthetic membranes and impermeable vessels of glass and metal. I want to slow down and extend our experience of these material changes as they move through stages of evaporation, dissolution, precipitation and expansion. Tensions in how the process unfolds between fast and slow, near and far, up and down, inside and outside, light and shadow, sound and silence create a beauty that draws us into the work to respond to the materials empathetically. I tend to use a regular, almost “objective,” geometry for the installation framework, in contrast to the irregular, more natural geometry of the expanding, shrinking, solidifying and dissolving materials. This disjunction forces us to pause and reconcile our perceptions and understandings of these natural processes in a wholly artificial situation. The grotto traditionally offered a format where issues of the man-made and the natural could be explored simultaneously. I became aware of grottos through the work of the sixteenth-century French ceramicist Bernard Palissy, although his were either never completed, or they have not survived.1 Seen in light of his natural philosophy and his theory of an essential congelative water that gave structure and character to all things, his grottos revealed a relationship between material, life and transformation through the ceramic processes of

glaze and life-casting. In these Linda Swanson studied grottos, living material such as ceramics at Tekisui Museum in plants, animals, and even huJapan. She earned a BA in Art man flesh were understood as History from University of Calihaving been transmuted into fornia, Santa Barbara; a BFA in stone. Teeming with cast ceceramics from California State ramic forms, his grottos signiUniversity, Long Beach; and fied change and its meaning as an MFA from New York State more important than the forms College of Ceramics at Alfred of the sculptures themselves. University (2005). She taught at Ideas and forms from both art Alfred University, the Kansas and nature collide and interCity Art Institute, and currently mingle in the grotto. Does art teaches at Concordia University merely imitate nature, or does in Montreal, Canada. Her interit give us a way of understandests are grounded in the metaing something about it? In my morphic nature of ceramic maexploration of the grotto, I am terials and processes. Her work Swanson, Grotto 1, 2009. Salt, water, bentonite clay, metal, plastic, interested in revealing an am- Linda engages enigmatic properties of 4’ h x 20’ l x 14’ w. biguous dimension of artifice matter at an elemental level and that allows us to think about nature and our relationship to it. the capacity of wonder to question how and what we know. Her There are several contemporary artists who use the transraw and kiln-fired ceramic works have been exhibited in Canada, formative properties of ceramic materials at ambient temperaFrance and the United States, receiving awards from the Delatures in provocative ways. In his performance Changes (1972), ware Center for Contemporary Art, the Cattaraugus Arts Council Jim Melchert simultaneously intensified and denied his senses and NCECA. She exhibited solo shows this year at the McClure by dunking his head in a bucket of slip.2 Initially, the cold slip Gallery in Montreal, the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, the Luce coated his head, limiting his perception of the room to a heat Gallery at Cornell College in Iowa, and a public art installation source at one end and ice at the other. He described the experiat the Parcs Canada Lachine Canal Historic Site in Montreal. She ence as redirecting his focus towards his interior, his heartbeat, has received grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, breath, and nervous system. As the slip slowly dried and shrank the Saltonstall Foundation and Concordia University. in response to the atmosphere, his eyes were able to open, returning his attention outward. Clay served as a primordial second skin in Satoru Hoshino’s performance Circuit between Fire and Emotion (1987). He and his wife bathed their bodies in wet slip that dried and cracked as they traveled past a wall of fire; the material of clay acted as a metaphor for the passage of life through time. In Walter McConnell’s wet clay enclosures, risa ceramic exhibition curated ing humidity causes condensation inside the walls to slowly obby A nne H irondelle scure our view in such a way that the interior sculpted paradise becomes almost apparition-like, and we become even more curious about it. These artists set up material conditions in their with Lisa Conway, work in ways that processes inherent in the material create new Jim Kraft, Jen Mills, relationships between material, time, body and experience. In spite of our ability to explain the natural world, there is Peter Olsen, Sylwia Tur still a certain mystery to how matter changes form, seeming at and Lilly Zuckerman first to be one thing, then becoming another. Light things become through dark, soft things become hard, solid things begin to flow. Seeing such simple transformations of matter through this work reminds Upstairs Galleries: us that the world is an amazing place, a source of wonder. Such Middle Room: transformations open onto questions of our own being and becoming, and how we find ourselves in a world in flux. Anne Hirondelle

A BSTRACT A FFINITIES

March 9

April 1

West Room: 1 For more information on Bernard Palissy, please see: Leonard N. Amico, Bernard Palissy: In Search of Earthly Paradise (New York: Flammarion, 1996) and William R. Newman, Promethean Ambitions: Alchemy and the Quest to Perfect Nature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005). 2 “A Secret History of Clay from Gauguin to Gormley” Section 4, www.tate. org.uk/Liverpool/exhibitions/historyofclay/section4.htm. Accessed 08 December 2011.

David Kuraoka

F RANCINE S EDERS G ALLERY 6701 Greenwood Ave N, Seattle WA 98103 206-782-0355 * www.sedersgallery.com

Hours: Tues-Sat 11-5 * Sunday 1-5 nceca 93 Journal 2012 • Lectures

Distinguished Co-lecture: curaTORIAL PERSPECTIVES Stefano Catalani & Gwen F. Chanzit

BAM Biennial 2010: Clay Throwdown! by Stefano Catalani First and foremost to the critical thinking behind the launch of the BAM Biennial was the desire to honor the extraordinary work of contemporary artists and craftsmen living and working in the Northwest, which our exhibition regarded as a geographic as well as cultural area comprised of Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. Another crucial element was our aspiration to recognize the continued and unremitting role of craft in shaping the aesthetic landscape of the region as well as the opportunity for Bellevue Arts Museum to fill a niche in the Northwest with such a dedicated event. With its celebration of hand, material, skill and content, the BAM Biennial fosters—and maybe confounds, but only with good intentions—the conversation, sometimes heated, sometimes dismissive, around the vast topic of craft, especially in relation to art and design. Craft is a word that, despite its semantic indeterminacy (it is a noun and it is a verb), we prefer to imagine and use as all inclusive. The BAM Biennial celebrates and hopefully promotes dialogue around the very nature of craft in the moment in which craft is enjoying a cultural renaissance within the artistic mainstream. We chose a simple format. For each edition of the Biennial, Bellevue Arts Museum will designate a new focus, exploring a specific medium, technique, or theme rather than sending out a call-toartists that would extend to all craft media. We like to imagine that every two years the BAM Biennial will succeed in capturing the pulse of what is happening in the Northwest and become a reliable document of the developments in the specifically defined fields of the craft and design realm at that time. The rationale behind the decision of a biennial exhibition, rather than an annual, is that I could not imagine going through all this every year! And we also know that the “time of craft” is slow. It is slow because it entails learning through making, and thinking through making; it all goes back to the hand and its sensual relationship with the material. It requires skill, and skill requires time. A BAM Biennial that called for applications from every corner of the vast world of craft and design could become more interested in novelty and the “next thing,” risking the divorce of craft from its content, which is skill, along with a certain fetishistic relationship of the hand with the material, and of course a good idea. It was important for us to encourage artists to apply with proposals for new work, and pursue the inclusion as a challenge and an opportunity to work with and within the grand architecture of the museum’s galleries to explore aspects of their art that this physical and mental space can stimulate and accommodate. Clay was chosen as the focus for the inaugural edition. BAM Biennial 2010: Clay Throwdown! celebrates the rich tradition of clay permeating the Northwest. More than 170 proposals were submitted over a three-month period ending on December 31, 2009. Over thirty artists were selected to participate in the exhibition.

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Submissions were reviewed on January 7, 2010 by a select panel of four jurors comprised of Bif Brigman, collector (Seattle, WA); Stefano Catalani, Director of Curatorial Affairs, Bellevue Arts Museum (Bellevue, WA); Akio Takamori, artist (Seattle, WA); and Namita Gupta Wiggers, Curator, Museum of Contemporary Craft (Portland, OR). The following artists were selected: Chris Antemann (OR), Nicholas Bivins (MT), Nathan Craven (MT), Daniel Duford (OR), Sean Erwin (MT), Robert Fornell (WA), Carol Gouthro (WA), Damian Grava (WA), Heidi Preuss Grew (OR), Charles Krafft (WA), Cynthia Lahti (OR), Kate MacDowell (OR), Paul Mathieu (BC), Sequoia Miller (WA), Saya Moriyasu (WA), Yuki Nakamura (WA), Richard Notkin (MT), Nicholas Nyland (WA), Arun Sharma (WA), Ken Shores (OR), Mike Simi (WA), Kevin Snipes (MT), Dirk Staschke (BC), Brendan Tang (BC), Timea Tihanyi (WA), Tip Toland (WA), Kathy Venter (BC), Jamie Walker (WA), Jason Walker (WA), Patti Warashina (WA), Ben Waterman (WA), Gwendolyn Yoppolo (MT). The call for proposals was a challenge for the jurors at the time of the selection and later became a challenge for myself and the curatorial staff; we basically bought a product trusting the description on the box. Talk about faith… The nine months that followed were filled with follow-ups with the artists, sometimes studio visits, sometimes emails. It was exciting and frightening to see the artists struggle with their original idea and with their creativity. What is the result? Clay Throwdown! offers a sweeping view of the lively state of ceramic art in the Northwest with a fresh glimpse into the many directions in which this dynamic medium is moving, featuring a select blend of both emerging and established artists with an emphasis on new and site-specific works. The result is a complex, skillful, sensual, and mental engagement of each artist with the medium and its expressive potential. Coiled, thrown, extruded, hand-built, slip cast, glazed, or painted…in the galleries the medium was conjugated in all possible functional and sculptural forms, and combined—with carefree and non-hierarchical confidence—with etching, video, photography, comics, architecture, and design. From intimate and poetic gestures to cultural commentary on the nature of craft, Clay Throwdown! assembled a wide range of voices unique to the Pacific Northwest and our time. The operative decision of working with artists rather than art has informed the outcome of the exhibition. It translated both into the response of the artists to the grand architecture of the Museum’s third-floor galleries. Dynamic and open to multiple paths with ceilings ranging from 15 to 25 feet high, long curve walls, and an overall sense of baroque surprise—for the space does not give itself away in a linear, one-room-after-another-sort-of-way—the galleries gave the viewer the chance to explore and create his or her own sequence. It also translated into a conversation between the artist and the curator; conversations in which I made sure the artists would feel enfranchised to explore aspects of their creativity and their art that they would not otherwise pursue on a commercial gallery scale.

How has this decision impacted the outcome of the BAM Biennial 2010: Clay Throwdown!? In my opinion it spearheaded two processes: it encouraged the artists to move toward installations rather than a display of single objects, and it also inspired many of them to take on the challenge of larger works. Stefano Catalani joined Bellevue Arts Museum in 2005 as Curator and was appointed Director of Curatorial Affairs/Artistic Director in February of 2010. He has conceived and organized twenty acclaimed exhibitions exploring the dynamic fields of art, craft and design. Major exhibitions include BAM Biennial 2010: Clay Throwdown!, ÜberPortrait, The Mysterious Content of Softness, among others. Paying special tribute to Northwest artists, Catalani has showcased the work of some of the most promising talents of this region, including Mandy Greer, John Grade, Etsuko Ichikawa and Tip Toland. Six exhibitions curated by Catalani have gone on nationwide tours to other museum venues, introducing onthe-rise craft artists to new audiences across the continent.

Overthrown: Clay Without Limits Gwen F. Chanzit At this time last year, the Denver Art Museum was preparing a museum-wide initiative that would showcase the medium of clay throughout our two-building complex.1 Overthrown: Clay Without Limits was the most ambitious of the installations—with twenty five contemporary artists taking over our largest temporary exhibition gallery of 11,000 square feet. Putting this exhibition together was a great adventure for me, a modern and contemporary curator, who faced a steep learning curve with only about fifteen months lead time. My intention was to identify a group of extraordinary ceramic artists to install the angular, soaring spaces of the Anschutz Gallery inside our Daniel Libeskind-designed Frederic C. Hamilton Building. I even dared to seek an artist whose work would bridge our two buildings (by Libeskind and Gio Ponti) and lead visitors through the entire complex. The artists of Overthrown exceeded my initial aspirations! In the end, several artists’ projects spilled out from that gallery and visitors were treated to unexpected delights throughout the complex. The first task, of course, would be to identify artists and tender invitations. Initially working from around 100 compiled artist folders, I pared the list and made studio visits to almost all twenty five participants. Two symposia in the year before the exhibition, NCECA’s “Critical Santa Fe” and the Victoria and Albert’s “Exhibiting Ceramics,” helped me engage with the dialogue of contemporary ceramics. As the project evolved, I asked each invited artist to propose his or her most ambitious project ever. Site-specificity was important. With few exceptions, artists developed new works for particular locations.2 A year’s notice—the most any had to develop this project—was not much time, given the technological challenges most undertook. It clearly was a leap of faith on the artists’ part, and also on ours, since the works did not exist before the exhibition.3 So what does it mean—to Overthrow? Some people think of regime change, others to go beyond the mark. The meaning “to conquer and topple” includes going beyond established boundaries, which these artists did, in myriad ways. Each set a personal mark and, together, they showed ceramic art to be among the most versatile, diverse, and

inventive of any art today. I think these artists did overthrow some previous notions of what ceramics can be, and surprised even viewers who make regular rounds of ceramics exhibitions. These twenty-five artists worked in all scales, from architecturally expansive to almost impossibly small. They used twentyfirst-century technology hand in hand with standard modeling and molding techniques to push beyond what some might assume to be the limitations of the medium. Much of the work in the exhibition moved beyond pedestal, to wall, floor, and even ceiling; some incorporated a kind of integrated platform or enclosure that placed the work in its own self-contained context. Many exploited the interplay between the work and its site. Some used not only clay, but also found objects—metal, plastic, abandoned industrial materials, pottery shards, and other debris. Because the history of modern sculpture, from Rodin to the constructivists and beyond, has long embraced the release of sculpture from the pedestal to integrate viewer, object, and space, I have wondered why this move from the pedestal seems so daring in ceramic art. In fact, one of the most noted aspects of Overthrown was its lack of pedestals. Many of the works engaged physical or thematic relationships. Del Harrow responded to the geometric shapes of the Libeskind architecture. John Roloff’s digital photographs and clay samples from the Colorado Front Range spoke to geologic and ecologic considerations of place. Linda Sormin’s installation referenced mining, a longtime activity of the locale. Clare Twomey’s luscious drifts of red clay dust derived from the red clay color that gives our state

Above: installing Overthrown. Below: Linda Sormin, Mine (i hear him unclip me), 2011. Glazed ceramic, souvenir kitsch, and studio remnants from Tim Berg, Gerit Grimm, Nathan Craven, Robyn Gray, and Ted Yoon, dimensions variable. Photo courtesy Denver Art Museum.

nceca 95 Journal 2012 • Distinguished Lecture

tionship of these anomalous objects to interior space, fundamental. For this installation, the floor and walls of one entire gallery bay were tiled with the artist’s tiles. That alteration of space made the individual parts and their relationships unique to this presentation. Quinn also took on a portion of the gallery’s interior space, creating what she considered to be a total work of art—a Gesamtkunstwerk. For many, this chandelier construction called up notions of palatial opulence, but it also referenced the natural world, with oppositional layering of interior and exterior, domestic and landscape spaces. References were historical, cultural, and sometimes nostalgic, as in Kristen Morgin’s re-creation of books, board games, and characters from vintage cartoons and popular television. Loss is a part of this memento mori, with entropy ever present. Dickey cited a specific medieval tapestry in her ceramic wall. Walter McConnell’s allusions have run from Asian temples to well known paintings. The poses of Tsehai Johnson, To Dust She Returns, 2011. Porcelain, feathers, paint, and hardware, dimensions variable. Courtesy Plus Gallery, Denver. Photo courtesy Denver Art Museum. his male and female figures in this installation came from Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Wedding Portrait. Brendan Tang’s its name: Colorado.4 These clay dust deposits spanned the museum works refer as much to Asian blue and white ware as to Japanese complex, inciting awareness of time, space, behavior, and narramanga and anime. tive.5 The turquoise color in Harrow’s tile glaze came from copLike Roloff, whose interest in geology and ecology propels his per oxide, a substance found in the Rockies. Martha Russo, Katie work, both Mia Mulvey and Neil Forrest find inspiration in science. Caron, and Sormin incorporated found materials from the area. Mulvey refers to scientific display and wonder, with both the real It should be no surprise that architecture and the poetic existing side by side. Forrest’s informed many of the works; ceramics have underpinnings range from the relationship been an integral component of architectural between micro-and macro-structures to inprograms since ancient times. Much as in the sect activity and habitat and skeletal struclanguage of world architecture, Kim Dickey’s tures; he investigates the intersection of the surface decoration united diminutive modular organic, the technological, and the architecelements across a whole. Roloff’s “windows” tural. were sited not only within the gallery, but also Today, we know that ceramic practices around the museum—some in relationship to are as likely to rely on the computer as on the the museum’s own fenestration. Tsehai Johnwheel. For this project, Roloff’s tools includson’s installation related to architectural form ed a digital camera and computer. Mulvey and space, and to literary precedents, social used a laser cutter to make her thin porcelain values, and behavior within an architectural forms. Several of the artists, including Forcontext. Julian Stair’s work also spoke to sorest, Harrow, McConnell, and Quinn, utilized cial, as well as spatial, implications of archi3D modeling software. McConnell used a tecture. Stair’s beautifully crafted objects sat 3D printer to make prototype models (posiupon clay “grands”6 that emphasized the retives) from which plaster molds (negatives) lationship of object to object, object to room, were made for some of his wet clay figures. and pots to ground and architectural space. Others, like Forrest, went directly from conNathan Craven built his largest work to date, Kristen Morgin, In The Conservatory, With Mr. Bill, On cept drawings for computer-designed obA Silent Night, 2011. Unfired clay, wood, wire, and paint, a ceramic pathway on which to walk into the dimensions variable. Courtesy of Marc Selwyn Fine Art, jects to computer-controlled mills that made gallery. Caron and Russo utilized one large Los Angeles. Photo courtesy Denver Art Museum. the mold. Yet these artists also use low-tech sloping wall and bridged across to another. methods when appropriate. McConnell someThe placement of Dickey’s freestanding wall, relative to the galtimes uses molds from the hobby industry. Harrow has used an inlery wall, was a critical part of its reading. Sormin incorporated ner tube, as well as foam-board and tape, to make forms. Annabeth her dynamic installation onto the atrium’s twenty-foot-high sloped Rosen’s constructed and baled works rely on disparate parts—some wall—visible from many vantage points, including above and beformed, some found, some taken from broken shards. low. Both Stair and Marie Hermann arranged objects against a wall, Many pushed technologies—like Forrest, whose investigations but accomplished vastly different effects. Stair’s configuration was about the interaction between ceramics and architecture prompted orderly and precise; Hermann’s poetic arrangement relied on a him to utilize new technologies in kiln systems and clay fabricasubtle, nonconforming relationship of tactile elements that derived tion. Before he could even get started he had to build a new kiln more from the human and the experiential than from the systematic. that would accommodate his huge elements. Andrew Martin exCollected objects in Caron and Russo’s construction were periments with remarkable glazing techniques. John Gill, Heather emancipated from former rational contexts, much as in works by Mae Erickson, and Tang push the forms of functional objects. Cherearly twentieth-century master Kurt Schwitters. Anders Ruhwald’s yl Ann Thomas exploits the kiln incidents she predicts will occur ceramic objects also were decidedly nonfunctional, and the relawhen her large, coiled forms succumb to gravity, weight, and heat.

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Ben DeMott works such fragile filaments of porcelain extrusions that he executes his sculptures under magnification with tweezers, always aware that the life of each work is subject to uncertainty. Without exhibition mounts, works by Paul Sacaridiz, Rosen, Morgin, and McConnell became autonomous. Rosen’s freestanding sculptures mounted on casters appeared as anthropomorphized bundles that related spatially to each other and to us. Sacaridiz’s constructions, inspired by utopian ideals of architecture and city planning, remained self-reliant; correlations and allusions operated within the structure itself. The physical installation of this extraordinary set of artworks brought exciting challenges and opportunities, all of which contributed to the final exhibition. It’s been said that ceramic artists have always used new technologies. These artists continued to push forward, taking risks that entailed material chemistry, maverick kiln techniques, digital photography, and computer-aided technology. The artists, their assistants, and the museum staff brought not only expertise, but also a spirited collaborative energy to this complicated and rich project. The range of practicalities addressed by artists back in their studios, to solve technical hurdles, build special kilns, and work out innovative production methods, was extraordinary. Once the projects came to Denver, the artists and museum team addressed additional complexities, not the least of which included the physical installation of some works that had already pushed limits. For example, though many artists prepare detailed drawings and specific plans for construction, Sormin’s site process is about creating as she installs. And because her work was in the central space of the atrium, we could use our huge lifts only after public hours. McConnell’s on-site creative method required 5500 pounds of wet clay be delivered to the second-floor gallery. One of our biggest installation challenges came with Forrest’s group of heavy ceramic elements that were suspended from above—the largest of which weighed around 300 pounds. The team had to remove the high gallery ceiling and figure out how to fasten the parts to the actual structure of the building. This kind of collaborative problem solving made the exhibition possible. When this project began, I kept thinking of the well-known slogan used by a certain company: “No Limits.” These artists went to extremes. They broke boundaries that were physical, technological, conceptual, and spatial. It was a remarkable journey—as they challenged themselves and us. I think they really did overthrow expectations of what ceramic art looks like—its size, its context, its methods, and meaning.7

people had stuck their hands in them. And as one might imagine—the artist had to convince museum personnel that she could position these in places without air vents blowing the dust through our HVAC system. 6 “Grand” is Stair’s own term for these platforms. 7 The Denver Art Museum hosted a symposium near the end of the exhibition run, with several of the exhibition artists participating in pales moderated by Paul Greenhalgh, Namita Wiggers, and Ezra Shales. Peter Schjeldahl, delivered the keynote address.

Gwen F. Chanzit is curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Denver Art Museum where she has presented many exhibitions, from those on individual artists Herbert Bayer, Matisse, and Bonnard, to group exhibitions, including Color as Field. In 2011 she organized the DAM ceramics exhibitions, Focus: Earth and Fire and Overthrown: Clay without Limits. An expert on Bauhaus artist Herbert Bayer (1900-1985), Chanzit published The Herbert Bayer Collection and Archive at the Denver Art Museum, Herbert Bayer and Modernist Design in America, and a revised edition of the latter, From Bauhaus to Aspen: Herbert Bayer and Modernist Design in America. For a 2009 Austrian exhibition catalogue on Bayer, Ahoi, Herbert: Bayer und die moderne. she wrote “ein visuelles alphabet: die entschlϋsselung von bayers ‘anthologien,’” (“A Visual Alphabet: Deciphering Bayer’s Anthology Paintings”). She authored the forty artists’ essays in the Denver Art Museum catalogue, Radar: Selections from the Collection of Vicki and Kent Logan, and was editor and essayist for DAM catalogues, Embrace! and Overthrown: Clay Without Limits. Chanzit holds a Ph.D. in art history and contributes to future generations of museum professionals as director of museum studies for the University of Denver’s graduate program in art history.

1 Even the Photography department contributed to “Marvelous Mud,” with an exhibition entitled Dirty Pictures. There was also a full program of demonstrations and hands-on activities for people of all ages—from the first floor “Mud Studio” to the outdoor adobe collaborative project led by Athena and Bill Steen. I also reinstalled one floor of our Modern and Contemporary galleries with Earth and Fire—an installation of works in all media that engaged the theme. Naturally, ceramics was the highlight. Among the many works by modern ceramics masters, were those of Robert Arneson, Betty Woodman, Martha Daniels, Toshiko Takaezu and Charles Simonds.

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2 Because of the way the works were integrated into the space, many no longer exist after the exhibition; in some cases only parts were recovered.

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3 Even shipping proved to be a challenge. Because the works were conceived and made for this show, some of the initial planning had to be flexible in order to allow the artists full freedom to develop projects.

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4 “Colored red.” 5 As people wandered through the complex—they discovered the piles of red clay dust in unexpected locations throughout the two buildings—as if the wind had blown them in. They emphasized the architecture itself, and led to discovery. These works needed to be out of reach, because it would have been a mess if

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2/15/12 8:19 PM nceca 97 Journal 2012 • Distinguished Lecture

NCECAJOURNAL.indd 1

Co-lecture: New directions in China Painting Paul Lewing & Marci Blattenberger Paul Lewing:

We don’t know exactly where the idea of firing a lower-temperature glaze onto an already-fired glaze came from, but we do know why it became necessary. About 1000 years ago, potters in northern China discovered how to build a kiln up the side of a hill to get enough draft to achieve stoneware temperature. But this meant that the low-fire red, yellow and green lead glazes they’d been using on earthenware no longer worked. They were left with only one color, blue, and only one way to get it: as an underglaze. If the Chinese potters didn’t think of overglazes on their own, the idea certainly came from west of them. Perhaps it came from Persian overglazed earthenware such as Mina’i ware. Or perhaps they got the idea from Egyptian glass painting, or from Middle Eastern metal enamelware. Their cobalt came from Afghanistan, and decorators came along with it to work in Chinese factories. Soon after Northern Sung potters invented stoneware, they were forced to flee to southern China by the Mongols. There they discovered kaolin at Jingdezhen and began making porcelain. These potters perfected a style known as ducai, or “joined” ware, or sometimes “five-color ware”—so named because it was a fusion of the white clay body with blue underglaze and red, yellow and green overglazes. Originally they used a group of transparent colors called famille verte, based on copper. By 1720, a more opaque color system known as famille rose came to predominate, based on gold as a colorant and primarily invented by European alchemists. By this time, porcelain was big business in the world economy, second only to gold in value. All over Europe and Asia, it was being collected and traded, and people were trying to figure out how to make it. The Koreans and Vietnamese learned to make porcelain, but never overglazes. In the late 16th century Japan launched the so-called Pottery Wars, kidnapping Korean potters to teach Japanese potters how to make porcelain. One of these found kaolin in Arita Province in 1616, and the Japanese porcelain industry was born. Soon after, the secret of overglazing came to Japan through an act of industrial espionage. Several factories and workshops sprung up, notably Imari, Kutani, Kakiemon and my personal favorite, Nabeshima, each known for its distinctive compositional styles and overglaze colors. When the Chinese Ming Dynasty fell in 1644 and China closed itself off from the rest of the world for fourteen years, the Japanese were ready to step in and meet the world demand. About this time, Ninsei Nonomura, the first individual potter anywhere whose name we know, was producing Nomura ware. It wasn’t until 1708, at least 700 years after porcelain was invented in China, that the first European porcelain was made. Johann Friedrich Böttger, an itinerant alchemist, was forced by Augustus the Strong, the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, to make porcelain from kaolin found near Meissen, Germany. In 1709, the Meissen factory opened, and the race was on for other European kingdoms to discover the secret. Within fifty years, almost every kingdom from Madrid to St. Petersburg had its own porcelain factory, and new techniques and colors proliferated. The most successful of these was the Sèvres factory outside Paris, which was particularly known for dry grounding, a very difficult and exacting

nceca 98 Journal 2012 • Lectures

technique in which powdered color is evenly applied to a sticky surface to get a deep solid color in one firing. Eventually three versions of porcelain were developed: hardpaste, soft-paste and bone china, all extensively decorated with china paints in the 18th and 19th centuries. Bone china was, and still is, produced mainly in Great Britain. While Continental porcelain factories churned out elaborate productions, both functional and sculptural, for royal courts, British potters focused more on the growing middle class. England was also the scene of the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. As in all other industries, handwork was replaced by mechanized methods. In the potteries, this meant printing rather than hand painting of imagery. First came transfer prints from wood blocks, then from engravings, and then direct printing of decals. Sometimes only an outline was printed, then to be hand-colored; more often the entire design was printed. As often happens when technology moves on, factory methods became hobbies and art forms. This happened to china painting in the late 19th and early 20th century, just as it’s happening to film photography today. Paris-based Lacroix first began marketing china paints to individuals in small quantities in 1882, and by 1899 Keramic Studio magazine advertised ten brands. China painting became one of the most popular recreational activities in the world, particularly in the United States, and especially in the Midwest. New small cast iron kilns fueled by kerosene, natural gas or coal gas appeared, as did dealers of blank china. The most influential painters of the period were all immigrants. The most famous was Franz Bischoff, the “King of Roses.” Franz Bertram Aulich, George Leykauf, D. M. Campana and Paul de Longpré were also influential in developing what came to be known as the “American Style,” characterized by soft colors, naturalistic drawing, wiped out highlights, gradated backgrounds, and no outlines. This is still the prevalent style among American china painters today. One American factory from this era that is still in business is Pickard China, noted for its bright colors and extensive use of Roman gold. In 1913 Dorothea Warren O’Hara developed what came to be known by china painters as “enamel” or “raised enamel,” an overglaze product similar to china paint but with some dimension to it. The term “china paint” came into widespread use at this time to distinguish it from raised enamel. Two wars and a depression almost killed the art of china painting, but women revived the art in the 1950s, when they left the factories and returned to larger homes with enough electricity to power the newly invented octagonal top-loading electric kiln. A few of the first generation of their students are still with us, although most are no longer painting. Some, such as Ann Cline, Sonie Ames and Jayne Houston, have left us with supply companies named after them. China painting seemingly would have been a natural fit with the Funk Art movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, but very few of these artists embraced the medium. A few, such as Richard Shaw and Ron Nagle, used china paints as accents. Only Ralph Bacerra used china paints and lusters throughout his career as his main decorating medium. Howard Kottler employed china paints

in the form of commercial decals and adopted the china painters’ practice of working on commercially manufactured ware. Voulkos, Autio, Leach, Hamada, Soldner, Reitz and other charismatic artists were very influential in the history of china painting, in that they drove an entire generation to the “Real Men Fire To Cone 10” mystique. Of those, only Hamada used overglazes, going every summer to Okinawa to make pots specifically for them. Many contemporary china painters have continued in the American Style, such as Gisela Bylund, and Mary Ashcroft Seehagen. Others have chosen to use the traditional imagery of plants, animals, and landscapes and treat them in a slightly more imaginative way, as in the works by Marcia Stivelman, Felipe Pereira, Andreas Knobl, Celeste McCall, and Karla Pendleton. Some, like Jane Bowen, have used very traditional painting technique to render an unusual subject matter. The human figure has always been a favorite subject of china painters. China paint easily lends itself to very subtle blending of colors, enabling portraits of greater depth and luminosity than any other medium. San Do is the best known American painter of faces, although he is incredibly skilled at other imagery as well. Jane Marcks has been well known as a portraitist for a long time. Mariela Villasmil-Kaminski uses a much more painterly style and teaches a fantastic portrait workshop. (China painting seminars tend to be listed according to subject matter taught rather than technique, as in the clay world.) Becky Syroka is emerging as one of the premier china painting portraitists today. Another well-known portrait painter is our own Marci Blattenberger. As with the plant imagery, some work in a looser style, like Donna Guy. Although china paint is usually applied with brushes, it can be made to do anything that any form of paint or ink will do. One technique that a lot of traditional china painters use is pen work, in which liquid paint of a very particular consistency is applied with an old fashioned steel lettering pen (Alice Wofford, Ruby Tobey, Joyce Sandberg). Because of its consistent color and its ability to adapt itself to any application technique, china paint is quickly gaining acceptance among a new generation of clay artists. It is finally taking its rightful place in the arsenal of decorating techniques alongside underglazes, glazes, lusters, atmospheric firings and so on. Often a clay artist will begin using china paints by incorporating a small amount to get specific colors. Others incorporate china paints into such a complex scheme that it’s sometimes hard to tell what’s china paint and what’s not. One recent convert to china painting is Jason Walker, whose work has been exclusively black and white for the last few years. We see increasing use of china paint also in the form of full color decals, both custom-made and off-the-rack. Single-color, sepiatone laser decals are often colored with china paints. Rimas VisGirda uses contemporary and antique decals alongside his own hand-printed decals, to very good effect. Andre Van de Putte also prints his own decals. While decals represent an important new direction in the use of china paint, they’re not really about china painting. You can use china paints on any fired ceramic surface, as seen in Kevin Myers’s use of it on raku (he has to resmoke between china paint firings). Julia Whitney gets an amazing “ghost” image by painting on her wood-fired work, wiping it off and firing to cone 018, where the image reappears. Charlie Krafft’s Disaster-Ware series is done on used and scorched china. Julie Green also employs used china in her Last Supper series depicting the last meals of Death Row inmates. I also decorate some of what I call Rescued Pots with rubber and foam stamps, decal fragments, pens, dispersion techniques, masking, wipeouts, and anything else I can come up with. The most exciting new direction in china painting is the use

of china paints as the exclusive source of color on forms designed specifically to be painted. China paint’s controllability and range of effects make it ideal for representational art. The best known clay artist working in this vein is Kurt Weiser, who’s been doing this amazing work for many years now. Two artists who use china paints on more or less functional ware are Russell Coates, an Englishman trained in Japan who makes his own paints, and John W. Hopkins. While china paint is not for food-contact surfaces, it can be used on the outsides of functional pieces and on ware not intended for food use. Darien Johnson, one of Kurt’s students, airbrushes most of his china paint. Jeremy Jernigan mixes his paint with gum and dries it with a heat gun to get a peeled-paint look. Cindy Kolodziejski sometimes combines her painted sculptures with other materials. Irina Zaytceva employs lots of burnished gold with her china paint. My favorite among the new generation of china painters, who I think most embodies what china paint can do, is another of Kurt Weiser’s students, Bridget Cherie Harper. Her imagery is fascinating, her brushwork is varied and controlled, and her union of form and imagery is masterful. This, as I see it, is the new direction for china painting.

Marci Blattenberger: Creative curiosity drives many of us to work in more than one artistic discipline. For those who are painters as well as potters, working with china paints and other overglaze processes might just be the perfect means of expression. Overglaze is a medium that will never yellow, never fade even in bright sunlight, and will last forever, provided you keep it from an untimely meeting with a concrete floor. I come to overglaze as a painter for whom the surface is the thing. We china painters think of ourselves primarily as painters, where the glaze becomes the support for our brushstrokes. Traditionally, many of us have fallen in love with fairly realistically rendered florals, scenes and such, and so a lot of the work created by many china painters tends toward realism. But, as my friend Paul Lewing is fond of saying, “It’s just paint! It doesn’t get to decide.” So, even if your artistic vision is more Duchamp than Degas, more Matisse than Monet, (who, by the way, was a china painter) china paints will still get you to where you want to go. Overglaze also provides the opportunity to work with other interesting effects such as lusters and gold. Following is a brief overview of some of the many overglaze options available: CHINA PAINT: China paint is mineral based pigment with a flux that melts at a very low temperature. It is basically a very, very low-fired glaze. China paints are sold in powdered form and can be mixed with any binder, which serves to keep the pigment on the piece until it can be fired, but some mediums will allow you to do things that others won’t, so your choice will depend on how your planned application. China paint is a very versatile medium. It can be applied as sheerly as watercolor with subsequent layers affected by the initial layers of color, yet it can be opaque. It is generally brushed on like any other art medium, but it can also be thinned enough to use with a pen or sprayed through an airbrush. It can be sponged, stamped, silk screened, printed, or decaled. The low fire (in the 018 to 015 range) allows for an unlimited palette of color. The color is largely WYSIWYG, so it is very much like working in any other painting medium. Traditional china painters work in a similar fashion to watercolor artists. We use the white of the clay instead white pigment,

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and we paint in very sheer layers, firing in between each layer. This makes the paint very translucent after firing and reveals the layers of paint underneath, allowing for some beautiful color-on-color effects and for beautiful, glowing skin tones on portraits. China paints can be applied fairly heavily but smoothly, usually by sponging on a thin layer of a very tacky drying oil like fat oil (made by evaporating turpentine) and then dusting a layer of dry paint into the nearly dry oil. They can also be mixed with a matting agent like zinc oxide, which renders the paint opaque and gives a nice, velvety matte contrast to a shiny glazed surface or a continuation of the soft sheen of porcelain unglazed bisque. There are many pigments available, but I will start with gold. GOLD: We are all familiar with gold on clay, generally on the little rims of fine china, but there are several different types of gold, each with their own look. The most commonly available is called Liquid Bright Gold. It has a fairly low actual gold content and is actually considered a luster. It tends to be very shiny and brassy looking when fired over a gloss surface, but will fire to a more satin sheen over a matte glaze or porcelain bisque. It is a brown liquid and needs a smooth application. Too thin an application will leave you with purple smudges; too thick and it will blister. It can provide some spectacular effects when used as a base coat for lusters. The rich gold that is seen on most antique pieces is called Roman Gold or Paste Gold. It is actual gold powder that is pre-mixed with a binder and sold in small jars or smeared onto a small square of glass. The price reflects the high gold content. It is sold in both a fluxed and unfluxed form. Unfluxed gold is used over an already fluxed and fired surface, such as raised paste (see below) or fired china paint. Fluxed gold is used over a glazed or bisque surface that doesn’t yet have a fluxed product. Using fluxed gold over an already fluxed surface can cause the gold to sink into the surface, making it dull and unable to be burnished. After firing, Roman gold must not be touched until it is burnished. It was traditionally polished with a glass burnishing brush, which is a bundle of fiberglass threads, but most painters now prefer to use either a very fine burnishing sand or baking soda on a damp cloth. Roman Gold can also be carefully rubbed with a tool called an agate etcher, which will allow for a very highly polished surface. LIQUID BURNISH GOLD: Liquid Burnish is a hybrid of Roman Gold and Liquid Bright. It is sold as a liquid but has a higher gold content than Bright Bold, although not as rich as Roman Gold. WHITE GOLD, PLATINUM, SILVER: These are all available in liquid form and fire silver. They do not require burnishing. However, the liquid silver will tarnish just like sterling silver and repeated polishing will eventually abrade it, so I recommend using the white gold or platinum, which will not tarnish. POWDERED GOLD: You can obtain gold in actual powder form. Because of the expense, it is usually dusted onto a coating of either liquid bright gold or burnish gold and is a very, very rich effect. GOLD LEAF: Many potters use gold leaf as a cold effect, but gold leaf can also be kiln fired if applied over a fluxed surface. You can use clear flux or apply the leaf over a coat of china paint. The china paint can be mixed with a tacky oil, like fat oil, and when it’s nearly dry, you apply the leaf as you would if you were using a gold leaf sizing. It does not require burnishing. METALLICS: In addition to regular china paints, there are other paints available for overglaze work. They are coated mica pigments, similar to the Pearl-Ex hobby pigments available for scrapbooking and polymer clay, but with color that will withstand

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the kiln’s heat. They are available in gold, silver and a limited range of other colors, tending toward pastel colors; some are available with sparkle. They are best grounded on because the weight of the mica makes it difficult to keep the paint mixed in a medium. INTERFERENCE COLORS: There is also a range of micabased colors called interference colors. On a white surface they appear like nacre on a pearl, with an iridescent surface that shimmers in light. When applied over a black or dark surface, the result is a strong metallic iridescence, similar to the effect of sunlight reflecting on a Mallard duck. COLOR SHIFTING MICA: A new, exciting pigment is a color shifting mica, currently available in turquoise blue shifting to magenta, or red to gold, or green to gold. It is similar to the interference colors and is very sensitive to thickness of application. Too much results in a white surface, so it works best silkscreened into a waterslide decal. RAISED TEXTURE PASTES: China paints need to be applied fairly thinly to prevent them from chipping off, especially on high-fired glazes (cone 10 and up) so impasto techniques using just china paint are difficult. But there are things available to create very strong textured surfaces. All of the texture pastes available begin with a clay base to which fluxes are added, followed by additional ingredients that affect the “flavor” of the fired paste. ENAMEL: To potters, enamel is synonymous with china paint. To china painters, enamel is a very specific thing that contains a lot of glass former, which creates a very shiny surface. It can be raised or can be applied more thinly but fires with more of a sheen than china paints. It is also very prone to popping off of hard glazes and will not withstand multiple fires well. RAISED PASTE: Raised paste is the effect most commonly seen on heavily decorated antique ware from Sèvres, Royal Vienna and KPM. The paste is yellow in color, fires somewhat matte, and can only be covered with Roman gold. Other golds will fire black. STRUCTURE PASTES: There are various versions available, each with its own proprietary formula, but they are basically one part each kaolin (probably calcined), zinc oxide, and lowfire frit. They all fire white and opaque, which allows them to be used as is for effect, or to be tinted with china paints, or overpainted with china paints, lusters or gold. Some fire shiny, some fire matte, some fire as applied, some break up into little nuggety textures. Most will allow you to also fuse bits of glass to the surface. I like to use dichroic glass but stained glass will also work well—and you can also recombine broken pieces sculpturally for a different type of effect. NON PING™: This structure paste fires translucent, almost transparent when thin and like milk glass where thick. It can be applied very heavily and can even be applied very impasto with a palette knife. The translucence allows you to create a faux patesur-pate effect on a dark surface, giving you the ability to create very sheer effects. It can also be tinted with china paint, used to hold pieces of glass, or overpainted. FIBERGLASS: Fiberglass can also be fired onto a surface, leaving an interesting texture that can then be covered with china paint, gold or lusters. LUSTERS: Resinate lusters create a beautiful surface that resembles colored cellophane and/or the iridescence of a soap bubble. The resin, which is mixed with metallic salts, burns in the kiln, creating a localized reduction. Most lusters are brown or orange

in the bottle, so working with them is a blind process. They can be applied with a brush, but are often applied by floating small amounts on the surface of warm water and dipping the piece, or applying random patches and flowing them with a dispersing fluid or turpentine. Lusters can combine to produce unexpected colors, and lusters applied over a fired coat of liquid bright gold, platinum or copper luster can produce some very spectacular effects. A traditional mother of pearl luster fired over a white surface will show its usual soap bubble iridescence, yet swirled over a fired coat of liquid bright gold, it produces a myriad of strong, metallic colors. CRYSTAL MAGIC: This is one of my special effects and came from tossing some ideas around with a chemist friend of mine about how to create a faux crystalline effect. It is a lacquerbased product that will harden onto a glazed surface and so can be used for cold effects, the most spectacular of which is over fired liquid bright gold. A coat of resinate luster can also be rubbed into the surface of the product after it has formed the patterns and fired, which leaves the luster in the crystalline pattern. It can also be underpainted with china paint or luster (or underglaze) and then fired with a darker luster for additional effects. CHIP OFF POWDER: Chip off is mixed with water or milk and then applied either thinly or liberally over a glazed surface. It fires into an ugly, gray, glassy mass that deliberately sets up a stress in the glaze that pops off, taking away the underlying glaze and also some of the clay layer. The resulting texture can be very fine and delicate if the powder is applied thinly and evenly or very rough if applied heavily. The surface can then be covered with liquid bright gold. There are also very fine glass beads available for a similar process that leave a very delicate etch.

KOBO Gallery (at Higo) In Historic Japantown at 6th and Jackson. 10 minutes away from the Convention Center on a free Metro bus. Take the Bus Tunnel and tell the driver you want to go to the “International District/Chinatown”.

“Ocean in a Cup”Opening - 3/29, 6-8pm

Sake vessels and cups by Japanese and American artists, curated by John Dix.

“What’s the use”Opening - 3/29, 4-6pm University of Montana Showcase

www.KOBOseattle.com 604 South Jackson Street (206) 381-3000

ACID ETCH AND FAUX ETCHING: Since china painters work on already glazed surfaces, we do not have the luxury of carving our clay surfaces and so must abrade the surface in other ways. Some contemporary china painters, like Mary Gosden and Cheri Holder, sand blast their surfaces, but most create a multilevel surface by etching. The traditional method is to use a strong acid to eat away the glazed surface. First a mask of asphaltum varnish is applied to the surfaces that are to remain glazed (including the back). The piece is then carefully dipped in an acid solution and neutralized. The asphaltum is removed with kerosene, the piece is fired to burn off any excess residue, and gold is applied and fired. The result is a shinier gold where the glaze remains and a more matt gold where the glaze has been eaten away. Needless to say, it’s a dangerous process that requires full protective gear. The alternative, which produces an acceptable substitute, is gold underlay. GOLD UNDERLAY: Underlay is a matte paint that is mixed with a tinting agent that fires away, leaving a white, matte surface with some yellow underlays. It can be sponged on over a resist that is peeled off before firing or it can be mixed with a water-based drying medium and applied evenly with a sponge, dried thoroughly, and then, using a sgraffito technique, the design can be scratched into the powder. It is then fired and gold is applied and fired again. The result is a shiny gold where the design has been scratched into the powder, revealing the glaze underneath and a matte gold where the gold is fired over the powder. A delicate, alternate white-on-white effect can be achieved by firing Mother of Pearl over the fired and scratched powder. I hope you‘ll decide to jump into the wide world of overglaze. It ain’t your grandma’s china painting anymore!

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lecture: sawdust injection burner W. Lowell Baker We learned in high school chemally. At the same time, I was making a istry that if you can suspend flammable personal transition from being a studio particles in the air within an appropripotter to my current life in academia. ate distance of the adjacent particle, and In the ‘80s and ‘90s there was a if you applied the appropriate heat, you growing interest in wood firing. This was could cause a significant dust explosion. probably due to aesthetic rather than ecoThis principle was driven home when I nomic reasons. I was in the midst of the worked during my summers in college use of forest fuels to fire my kilns but was for Pillsbury flour mills in Enid, Oklahopronounced, by some, “not to be a real ma, and while roaming the back spaces wood firer” when I used sawdust rather of Stratford Feed and Seed in Garber, than doing it the old fashioned way. Seduction of the fire: Lowell Baker monitoring a wood kiln. Oklahoma, as a kid. Those dust exploIn 1991 I began working with Potsion experiments as well as the images ters for Peace in Nicaragua. That relationon the news of grain elevator explosions Below: The new Potters for Peace burner design. ship eventually brought me to designing captured my imagination. I somehow the PFP Alternative Fuel Burner and to knew I would one day use the power of my presentation of this newest design at burning dust to do something other than NCECA. Potters for Peace refers to my pop the lid off an old coffee can. burner as an alternative fuel burner (AFB) I have been experimenting with because their source of fuel is often rice practical ways to burn particulate fuel, hulls and coffee hulls as well as sawdust. sawdust, since 1971. In 1974 when my In 1999 I moved out of departmenstudio propane prices went from 7 cents tal administration and back into the cea gallon to 14 cents a gallon, I was conramics classroom. That move allowed vinced that my livelihood as a studio potme time to reconsider my designs for the ter was coming to an end. How could I Baker Sawdust Injection Burner. Since possible afford to burn propane at 14 2000 I have designed and tested at least cents per gallon and sell my work during four different design configurations. The the recession of the early ‘70s? I had done most successful burner is the one I am some experimenting with wood firing and currently using at The University of Alakiln designs but I was looking for a more automated and less physibama. I have built a number of these burners around the country cally taxing system to introduce fuel into the firebox. I revisited the and they have all functioned very well. volatile power of burning dust from my work in grain elevators in In the fall of 2010 I traveled to Germany for the First EuroOklahoma. I had a free source of sawdust that I felt might be a good pean Wood Fire Conference. I began my work in Saal in Northern fuel. I only needed to find a way to mix it with the proper amount of Germany, where I met Reinhart and Charis Lober. I spent six days air and get it to the kiln. In the beginning I had no real idea of the with the extraordinary Lober family in their home and their potheat value of sawdust but I thought it should be significant. tery shop. Reinhart explained his specific needs for a burner and By 1976 I had the physical requirements of a functional sawwe began working on a number of designs. The burner we finally dust burner figured out. My first small burner was based on a Kirby demonstrated at the First European Wood Fire Conference was a Vacuum cleaner blower, some plastic pipe, a few pipe fittings, a length result of much arguing over design details and Reinhart’s wonderof automobile exhaust pipe and a lot of duct tape. I presented my most ful collection of discarded German kitchen appliances. That demrudimentary burner design at my first national sawdust burner workonstration burner achieved an astounding 1410 degrees Centigrade shop in San Antonio, Texas in the spring of that year. Paul Soldner was or a little over 2500 degrees Fahrenheit. in attendance at that workshop. We spent a lot of time talking about The burner we designed in Germany is the basis for the the burner system during that conference. Months later, I found Paul Alternative Fuel Burner design I offered to Potters for Peace. I was promoting my burner as he taught workshops around the country. have pressed Potters for Peace to build a single design that can I will always be indebted to Paul for his generous support. be shipped to any site. My experience building kilns and burners In 1976 I demonstrated the burner at Oklahoma State Univerin the third world has shown that it is impossible to find specific sity and at the Memphis College of Art. In 1977 I taught at Rhode parts. Therefore, each burner is individually designed and modiIsland College and the University of Arkansas. That same year fied based on the availability of local parts and mechanical experI gave my first presentation of the burner at NCECA in Greeley, tise. I have always contended that it would be to everyone’s benefit Colorado. Later that year, I was interviewed by Noah Adams on and most likely cheaper, to have a burner delivered to a site, ready National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. In 1977, because to go. Huge amounts of time are wasted in the field trying to find of rising fuel prices, there was a great deal on interest alternative parts and then trying to explain how the parts should go together, energy and therefore in alternative fuel burners. By the early ‘80s and then tweaking it to function on a specific kiln. The new burner I had presented the burner system both nationally and internationis compact for easy shipping. The entire system will fit into a rect-

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angular box that measures 24 inches on each side. The system can be assembled and running in less than an hour. It attaches to a sawdust storage box or can be loaded from a freestanding sawdust pile. In May 2011, my old friend Manny Hernandez and I built the prototype of this burner at Creative Designs in Tucson, Arizona. In November 2011 we tested the burner for the first time at Pit Fire at Cochise Community College in Douglas, Arizona. We found the auger feed motor was not sufficiently powerful to deliver fuel from a deep storage bin. With that minor design change, the burner was a success. I have given the rights to this design to Potters for Peace for their international projects. It is my hope that they will begin manufacturing the burner to supply it to ceramic water filter manufacturers around the world. There are many ways to burn sawdust, including a cascade burner and a fluid bed burner. The most efficient way to burn a particulate fuel while achieving the highest heat output is to blow a measured amount of fuel and air into a hot firebox. It is important to note that all of my functional designs have been based on sucking the air fuel mixture through a high-speed radial blower and blowing it into the kiln. I have tried other designs with limited success. In 1991 I designed a burner system in Nicaragua that blew air from a squirrel cage fan across an adjustable and somewhat complex Bernoulli tube. This design functioned but required a significant amount of attention to maintain a fuel flow. The fuel in this particular case was coffee hulls, which have a somewhat different aerodynamic profile, and the hulls were therefore easily sucked into the air stream. In order to explain the commonality of all of the burners I have designed, I will list some of the basic requirements for a particulate fuel injection burner. The design can be quite simple or very complex depending on resources and the amount of tending of the burner that will be needed during the course of the firing. The only real requirements in the most basic of burners are dry fuel, tubing to convey the fuel to the kiln, and a high-speed radial or centrifugal blower. All of the other features of my burners are simply designed to meter the air fuel ratio and get the fuel to a place where the burner can pick it up. A person firing the simplest burner can simply hand feed fuel into the intake port of the blower and observe the fire to determine if more or less fuel is required. All of my recent burner designs have incorporated a mechanical feed system that is built into a storage bin, a gravity sorting system that allows heavy chunks to fall out of the air stream and multiple air controls to help adjust the air fuel mixture and assure there is enough air to transport the fuel into the firebox. The most significant problems with any particulate fuel system can be traced to two issues: the shape, consistency and moisture content of the fuel; and to the fact that the system is difficult to control at low temperatures. I control the fuel consistency by carefully selecting my fuel. Some fuel may require sifting to remove fibrous materials. I have developed as part of my burner design a way to reliably remove metals, stones and large chunks of wood that will damage the blower blades. Temperature control is a more serious issue. I normally preheat my kilns with wood or gas to a temperature where the particulate fuel will combust. This allows the ware to heat to a point where the extreme heat shock of starting the burner will not crack the ware. I have also found that I can restrict heat gain, to some extent, by reducing the burner output-tubing diameter. Reducing the diameter of the tubing requires that the fuel be of a standard size and shape to prevent clogging as I am reducing the output to a smaller diameter tube. The heat output of a sawdust burner is significant. Even a small burner will produce between 500,000 and 1,000,000 BTU

An 8-foot tall piece of sculpture fired in Arizona, November 2011; the kiln had just been removed from the piece.

per hour. The burner behaves much like an oil burner in that it is either on or off. In addition to the rapid heat gain from this burner system it is also possible to reach extreme temperatures. In test firings I have achieved maximum temperatures in the 3000 degree Fahrenheit range. The burner is an excellent source of heat but it does not significantly contribute to a deposition of wood ash on the surface of the ware. Natural wood ash is limited because of the relatively small amount of fuel that is burned to achieve temperature. I consider, as a rule of thumb, that you will need twice the interior volume of the kiln, in fuel, to raise the temperature from low red heat to cone 10. I have added dry washed ash to the sawdust to increase the amount of fly ash on the ware. If I am salting the kiln I typically add salt through the burner system. I have found that adding soda ash through the sawdust burner is not an effective way to introduce soda into a kiln because the firebox is too cool at the point the fuel air mixture enters the firebox to volatize the soda ash. Much of the soda ash introduced through the burner forms a semi-molten mass at the end of the burner nozzle. As with all kiln and burner designs, there are limitations. My burner systems allow for significant heat gain in a ceramic kiln. This can cause some problems in the lower temperatures of a firing. It can be fired to temperatures that are somewhat prohibitive with conventional firing systems. It can be used to reduce overall fuel costs for very high temperature firing. There is some ash deposition, which can be either aesthetically beneficial or detrimental. Acquiring and storing fuel is somewhat labor intensive but certainly not as intensive as traditional wood firing. The sawdust burner requires more attention than an electric kiln or a gas fired kiln, but certainly less than a traditional wood fired kiln. There is some spark emission from the flue when larger shavings are used as fuel. The burner system is an excellent teaching tool because the kiln reacts immediately to any changes to the adjustments in the system. Most importantly, it is just fun to watch a controlled dust explosion. W. Lowell Baker is Professor of Ceramics at The University of Alabama where he has taught since 1991. Baker has taught workshops and exhibited his work both nationally and internationally. He has participated in the Alabama Cuba program for seven years and has published articles on Cuban ceramics as well as numerous ceramic related publications since 1975. Baker began designing particulate fuel burners in the early â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;70s and has continued developing and refining these burners for his personal use, teaching and ceramic water filter projects.

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co-lecture • IN CONTEXT: anne hirondelle ceramics Jo Lauria & Jake Seniuk rule-breakers. Hirondelle enthusiastically joined their ranks when she built a raku kiln and decided by Jo Lauria to “let go of the whole notion of function.” Freed from the tyranny of utility, Hirondelle started making vessels with extruded additions built at larger Choosing the path of the studio artist later in scale (beyond functional size), and she decorated life, Anne Hirondelle developed a diverse, inspired them with one of the four unique raku glazes she approach to the medium of ceramics that resulted had developed. These custom glazes were formuin forthright and exuberant vessels and sculptures lated to achieve the result Hirondelle was seeking: of compelling interest and elegance. An overview a non-glossy, rough and matt surface. The producof twenty-five years reveals the artist’s constant dition potter had suddenly gone rogue. alogue with material and form, and her ongoing reThe raku forms evolved from 1981 through lationship with visual concerns driven by rigorous 1985 and become increasingly more constructed formal logic: the tactile love of materials and emand architectural. After these four years of working phasis on surface, always persistent; the frequent Anne Hirondelle with raku, Hirondelle started to question its duratrading of symmetry for the asymmetrical to play bility and permanence and decided it was time for balance against tension; the sensually organic co- Below: Anne Hirondelle, Druid Vessel, a change. As the smoke cleared, the artist considexistent with the boldly geometric; and the crisp 1984, Raku. ered her development. Raku glazes and the smoklines and glow of white, unglazed clay objects ing technique of raku-firing had yielded a desirable bridging to the vibrant, color-infused biomorphic matt and charred surface that captured and held her sculptures, each distinctive grouping at opposite interest; raku’s surface qualities seemed endlessly ends of the optical scale, yet of equal beauty. This variable and mysterious. Equal parts artist, chemprogression can be traced through successive seist and scientist, Hirondelle set out to formulate ries of works and reprisals of primary forms. a new stoneware clay body and complementary The major movements in Hirondelle’s work glazes that would simulate the textures, colors, and chart points and counter-points: she moved away mottled effects of raku while providing the strength from the functional toward the non functional, and intransience of high-fired stoneware. After infrom the volumetric vessel toward the vessel denumerable tests, Hirondelle devised a single base flated and deconstructed, and from the monochroglaze that she could vary by using four different matic toward the prismatic. The dynamism Hironoxide combinations. Each of these four variants delle consistently established in her work between produced unique colors—“patinas”—and surface spaces—positive and negative, interior and exteritextures, depending on the thickness of their apor; and between the predictable and the unexpectplication and the firing atmosphere in the kiln. Aled—keeps the viewer alert. Every new work feels though unpredictable, these glazes offered a rich palette of colorwarmly alive and every new series seems animated by fresh ideas. ations and dynamic surface effects that were original and exciting. Upon leaving the ceramics lab at the University of Washington Hirondelle created a new body of work to showcase the new(where she had studied with renowned teacher Robert Sperry from ly formulated glazes. This series was based on functional vessels 1974-1976), Hirondelle and her husband Bob designed and built a built at more or less functional scale. The artist’s past experience small studio next to the house. The artist’s first inclination immediworking with raku had a direct influence, evidenced in the coarse ately after leaving the safety net of the university ceramic program surfaces, exaggerated scale, and more sculptural character of was to further develop her skills and become a production potter. The these new stoneware forms. Hirondelle began to document this years 1977 to 1979 were a concentrated period of production. The work through working drawings executed on graph paper. These artist refers to this time as finding her way “through thrown forms.” “blueprints” mapped the creative process from initial sketch to the She rigorously investigated the requirements of form and function by final drawing of the design as it was actualized in clay. Hirondelle shaping utilitarian stoneware pieces on the potter’s wheel. Functional discovered that the working drawings began to inform the work, vessels based on cylinders comprised her standard line of serving serving both as points of reference and archival record. ware and baskets, a design direction that continued for several years. Hirondelle exhibited this new work at the North West Craft By 1981 Hirondelle had exhausted the repertoire of functional Center and Gallery in Seattle in 1985. Seeing the vessels in a difforms and was searching for a new challenge, one that would lead ferent context, i.e. gallery verses studio space, provoked a revelaher to a more authentic expression in clay. Above the whirl of the tion for the artist: for the first time she recognized the sculptural potter’s wheel, the artist kept hearing the words of her teacher, Bob potential of her work in clay. This was the critical moment of luSperry, resounding: “If you want to do anything that is distinctly cidity when Hirondelle affirmed that her pieces could be simple, your own you’re going to have to break the rules.” During this destrong, and architectural, yet remain connected to the history of cade, potters who worked with raku were considered risk-takers and

Giving Voice to Imagination

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classically inspired vessels of restrained grace. It also proved to be a break-out moment when the artist felt confident making a vanguard leap: the glaze surface was unlike any past or present in ceramics, and the formal presentation of the vessels on ceramic bases introduced a new idea. In the succession of series that followed through 2000, Hirondelle narrowed her focus to vessels that referred to function, endowing them with greater scale, sculptural presence, and amplified visual stature. Along the points of this course, certain themes were introduced, developed, and refined. For example, handles become important structural elements that defined form by their positive-negative space relationship to the body of the vessel. Also, the “space between” began to emerge as a potent sculptural concept. This was most evident in the Diptychs, Triptychs, Multiples, and Dwellings: the arrangement of the composition became the primary focus to exploit the negative spaces between the multiple pieces of a grouping. These “in-between” empty spaces were deployed as a strategy to move the eye around and through the compositional elements. Further, the crafted ceramic bases now became acquired lacquered wood trays; it was no longer Hirondelle’s intention to simply elevate these pieces but rather to frame them as an edged composition. Aesthetically, this compositional direction echoed the still life paintings of Italian artist Giorgio Morandi in its formal presentation, stillness and serenity.

had hoped for with this transitional work had not materialized. Although she had subverted the perfect roundness of the bowl shapes through the subtraction and addition of clay—variously cutting away and coil-building extensions—she felt the forms were somehow unresolved. Further, she determined they were too comfortable in their skin, sporting the same glazes as used on earlier bodies of work, and these glazes now seemed ineffectual. Jo Lauria is an independent curator and author specializing in decorative arts, design, and craft. She has organized several national touring exhibitions and worked on multi-media presentations and documentaries focused on artists and topics relevant to her field. Her primary publications include Color and Fire: Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics, 1950-2000; Ruth Duckworth: Modernist Sculptor; California Design: The Legacy of West Coast Craft and Style; and most recently, Craft in America: Celebrating Two Centuries of Artists and Objects. Of note is the 2010-2011 exhibition she organized, Golden State of Craft: California 1960-1985, hosted by the Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum, which is part of the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time initiative. Lauria holds a BA degree in art history from Yale University, an MA in communication arts from Loyola Marymount University, and an MFA degree in studio art from Otis College of Art and Design.

The Space Within, The Space Without by Jake Seniuk

Anne Hirondelle: Turnpool II (drawing), 2202, Graphite on layered tracing paper.

Ultimately, Hirondelle’s fifteen-year engagement with the permutations of vessel-bound forms and the concept of arranged compositions came to its logical end. Casting about for a new direction, the artist developed a series of Echos and Turnpools in 2001 that she exhibited at the Foster White Gallery in Seattle. These forms were comprised of two conjoined bowls, the bottom bowl inverted to serve as the base to hold the bowl stacked on top. The difference between the forms was that Echos were wall mounted and Turnpools were positioned on pedestals. The similarity was in their surface treatments: still committed to the pottery tradition of glazing, the Echos and Turnpools were both decorated on the interior and exterior with the artist’s custom glazes. After the 2001 show, Hirondelle brought these pieces back to her studio and pondered. The “leap into the unknown” that she

Anne Hirondelle opened another solo show at Seattle’s venerable Foster White Gallery on the first Thursday in September 2001. The classically inspired forms of her stoneware vessels infused the room with an air of antiquity while her reductivist tendencies spoke modernism at the same time. With their mottled ash glazes glimmering with an oxidized metallic sheen reminiscent of ancient patinas, they might at first be taken for stately vessels unearthed from the ruins of the Bronze Age. A spirit of endurance permeates the work from Anne Hirondelle’s classic period. The archetypal clarity of her forms conjures the genteel rituals of the tea ceremony as well as the whispered legacy of the crematorium. But as she left her opening that night, Hirondelle felt the plate tectonics of her clay world begin to shift. She wondered if this might be her last show of classical vessels. She felt ready to trade symmetry for syncopation, earthen shades for acid colors. A zeitgeist was shifting in her work--and in her history. 9-11 would change the world the very next Tuesday. Hirondelle is petite and reserved, with a temperament of calm deliberation in voice and movement. With her chiseled mane (she styles the hair of artist friends as an avocation) and in her clay-streaked uniform of denim and t-shirt, one senses the aura of some muse-driven artistic yoga at work, ready to plumb the essence of shaping clay. Holding on, letting go… Those four words, which like a zen koan speak truth through contradiction, have become Hirondelle’s mantra as she walks the paths of her days in her Port Townsend studio and garden retreat. Anne met the twenty-first century head on by first abandoning, then eventually exploding the vessel form she had so revered and fastidiously explored. Not long after her Foster White show in 2001, she premiered her series Outurns, which sprang from the pedestal to the wall and, as promised in the title, began a topological quest to turn the urn inside out. There is a hint of Mobius about this work, like a partially reversed stocking en route to the wash. Whereas her

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Anne Hirondelle, Tumble (yellow/red/blue), 2007, stoneware, paint, 9.5” x 9.25” x 8.25”.

an endless matrix, and the mind extrapolates their atomic pointillism. The bowl is the primary clay object, the original hemispheric form from which all ceramics multiply. In her later work, Hirondelle cut the bowl apart and deconstructed the vessel to its essentials. The Re:Form series and Extrapolation series present cutaway views through the orb, stripping the bowl of its solidity and power to contain while retaining strategic arcs and vectors that speak to alternate stages of evolution. With the Remember series, Hirondelle slices the sloping walls into a shipwreck of jagged shards then reassembles them into études of disintegration. Mounted as a grid of variations, each becomes a fixed point in the crash, like a Muybridge stopaction frame showing the successive positions of a trotting horse. With the Re:Coil series, she antedates the potter’s wheel and uses only hand-extruded coils, long snakes of rolled clay that twist and turn, rise and genuflect to form an airy mass that can be both free standing or wall hung. The seemingly endless coils writhe like vapor trails or root and burrow like a tunnel of worm castings. In her earlier earth tone vessels, Hirondelle had perused Adam’s clay like a collector of myths and tales. Now, her polymerskinned improvisations on underlying form feel closer to physics than to mythology. To fully embrace the enigmas of time, one must find a spot from which to observe the struggle between the past and the future while staying fully engaged in the present. In her life’s corpus of clay and in her person, Anne Hirondelle has achieved a fine-tuned balance of soul and mind that is evident in every work that leaves her hands.

earlier vessels had sought metaphors within past traditions, these mutating containers are improvisational—unglazed and unabashedly organic—erupting from the wall like hungry gastropods. At the same time they seemed inhabited by consciousness, recalling the spirit masks of Papuan mud men, each given personality by the distinct expresJake Seniuk, B.A. in Fine Arts, Harsion of a central maw-like vacuole. vard University, MFA in Photography, UniHaving abandoned her soda-ash glazes versity of Washington, has been director and in the Outurns to focus firmly on form, she curator at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center was now ready to bring color back into play. in Washington state since 1989. The Center is Using a buttery mixture of artist’s acrylic the westernmost venue for contemporary art in pigments and latex house paint, she slathered the contiguous United States and serves as the the chalky clay with juicy coats of cadmium art museum for the isolated Olympic Peninred and orange, lapis blue, Wasabi green, and sula. He has curated more than 100 exhibitions chrome yellow. In her Go series of 2005, by contemporary Northwest masters includHirondelle sliced the urn apart into tubular ing Leo Kenney, Charles Stokes, Dale Chicross sections, great filo rounds of smooth huly, Phillip McCracken, William Morris, Ann slab clay that fold back onto themselves. Morris Dennis Evans and Trimpin, as well as When these works were grouped into by emerging artists from the Peninsula and concentric nested families, she called them the greater Pacific Northwest. He is founder Tumbles, and indeed they share a wind-blown and resident curator for Webster’s Woods, the rhythm with the western tumbleweed. Against magical five-acre art park that has graced the this randomness of motion she assigns each former Webster estate since 2000 and is noted ring one of a suite of stabilizing colors, creatfor the fluid and often whimsical integration of ing intervals of chromatic harmony that are art into the natural landscape. the eye’s equivalent of musical chords. As an artist Seniuk has created introHirondelle has always been acutely conspective works that combine photography, scious of negative space, using line and con- Anne Hirondelle, Go Pillows, 2007, stoneware, paint. text and sculptural elements. His works have tour, and now color, to frame what isn’t there been widely exhibited at museums and public venues including and thus activate what is. The matched silhouettes and contained the National Gallery of American Art (Washington, D.C.), the volumes of her classic vessels have been often described as arSeattle Art Museum, the Yale University Museum, the Princeton chitectural. Now her work began to engage real architecture—the University Art Museum, the International Center for Photography space in which the art is seen—in a more expansive way. (New York City), the Henry Art Gallery (Seattle), the Long Beach Three dozen of her Go Pillows hang on the wall in a grid, like the Museum of Art, the Center for Contemporary Art, Seattle, and the enlarged pebbles of the Chinese board game Go. The hidden backside Bellevue Art Museum. He is past recipient of a National Endowof each work has been painted so that color reflects mutedly onto the ment for the Arts Fellowship in Photography, an Artist Trust Viwall behind, a low-wattage glow casting a feathery pillow for each sual Artists Fellowship, and the Logan Prize for Critical Writing alabaster sphere to nest upon. They might be spores or seedpods, in Photography. He has taught photography at Cornish College for simple shells that divide what’s within from what’s without, what is the Arts and the University of Washington. from what is possible. The nearly identical rows and columns imply

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Lectures

Co-lecture: soda kiln doctors Gail Nichols and Matt Long Adding 200 grams of borax to this recipe produces a mix that can be introduced at cone 6. This initiates glaze by Gail Nichols formation at an earlier stage, making I have been working full-time with clay surfaces more receptive to soda soda glazing for twenty-three years, inonce higher temperatures are reached. cluding five years of intensive postgradI don’t recommend using borax beyond uate research. In Australia, I’ve built cone 6, as it will cause silicon carbide and fired soda kilns in my back yard in shelves to drip excessively at higher Sydney, at Monash University in Victotemperatures. But I would encourage ria, and at my current residence on a ruanyone interested in working with midral property near Canberra. In addition, range soda firings to try this method my career has taken me to various parts with borax addition. of the world and given me opportunities My soda introduction technique is to fire soda kilns in Canada, Denmark, technically simple and requires miniGermany, Italy, and many locations mal equipment. It has proven effective in the U.S. What I’m about to share is for achieving generous glaze build-up based on these experiences. Gail Nichols, Storm on the Mountain (shouldered jar), 2011, 35 x 43 x 43 on the ware, with less of the introduced Following my student work with cm. Soda vapour glaze stoneware. soda material escaping immediately up salt glazing in Sydney during the early the chimney. After the firing, the fused 1980s, I moved on to experiment with soda glazing. I built my first lime in the firebox softens into powder and is easily removed soda kiln at my inner-Sydney studio in 1989. What distinguished (wearing dust mask and rubber gloves). The softening process can my work from others at an early stage was my soda introduction be hastened by pouring water into the fireboxes after the kiln is technique. I aimed to reproduce the magic of the salt glaze process unloaded. The residual lime protects the fireboxes. There is no I had loved, in which the soda material is introduced to the kiln glassy build-up in these areas of my kiln. as a solid, vaporises in the heat of the burners, and is distributed Early on, I noticed that clays I had used successfully in salt through the chamber by draught and flame movement. I wanted glazing tend to glass up very quickly in the soda kiln, producing my work to show evidence of this movement. After two years of excessive colourless glaze and little flashing. To counteract this, I experimentation, during which we moved and I built a second began applying slips that were higher in alumina. Eventually I dekiln, I developed the soda introduction technique that I have used veloped a range of high alumina clay bodies, which now enable me ever since, and have described in my book.1 to work directly with form and fire. Exterior surfaces of my work I prepare a mixture of baking soda, light soda ash and whitare not slipped or glazed prior to firing. I use the kiln to create an ing (calcium carbonate); add water; and stir as the mixture warms atmosphere that will change exposed clay body into glaze. and sets like plaster. I break up the plaster-like substance into My decorating process begins with design of forms and consmall pieces, then load them onto a length of steel angle and intinues through making, loading, firing, and post-firing treatment. troduce them into the kiln’s fireboxes, through ports over the gas I anticipate placement in the kiln according to how the forms will burners. These charges occur over two hours, between cones 9 and interact with flame and vapour movement. Placement and treat10. As the plaster substance breaks down in the fireboxes, soda ment of wad marks are also conscious decorating decisions. I and water vapour is given off. The water assists to distribute the choose a schedule of atmospheric conditions during firing and soda through the chamber. This reaction continues over time, with cooling, depending on my intended colour range. At all stages of glaze building up most thickly during the two-hour soak period making and firing, I am mindful of allowing the kiln to have a say. that follows the soda introduction, to cone 11. Choice of kiln atmosphere is crucial to my work. An oxidisA word of warning: this technique involves handling caustic ing atmosphere encourages vapour glaze formation, so I generally materials. Wear a good dust mask and rubber gloves. If any caustic avoid reduction during the soda introduction and glaze forming material contacts the skin, neutralise with vinegar. stages. Most colour effects on my work come from control of atmosphere during cooling. Reduction cooling is particularly effecThe recipe for my soda mix is: tive when water vapour is present, capable of producing rich deep 1 kg light soda ash reds and lustrous yellows. How to introduce water to a hot kiln? 1 kg baking soda The answer dawned on me one day: an insulating brick will absorb 1.5 kg whiting water like a sponge. Remove a soda port bung or other removable 2 litres water kiln brick and replace it with a wet insulator. Water will evaporate off the hot end of the brick into the chamber. The outer end of the In my 40-cubic-foot kiln, firing high alumina clay bodies, I brick can be rewetted to continue the process. Or drill a hole into use 10 to 12 kg of this mix, involving 6 to 8 kg of soda. For firthe outer end of the brick, fit it with a funnel, and feed a steady ing higher silica bodies, considerably less soda would be required.

Trading Secrets

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supply of water.2 The “wet brick method” is firings in separate kilns. Comparing the lina very simple, quiet and effective means of ing surfaces of well-used salt and soda kilns introducing water for atmospheric effects. highlights the differences between these two I’ve found that a downdraught kiln is sources of vapour glaze. Runny salt-glaze most effective in creating good soda distribrowns will tend to dominate in a salt kiln. bution. Multiple burners, each with a soda Soda produces lighter, cleaner colours and port above it, will minimise the distance soda more atmospheric flashing. These features vapour needs to travel to reach the ware. A will be overrun if there is residual salt glaze cross draught kiln where soda is introduced in the kiln. only on one side of the kiln will generally Temperature variations in a kiln are a give disappointing results. Gail Nichols introduces her plaster-like soda mix phenomenon to be celebrated and exploited, a Make your kiln as comfortable as possible through a soda port above a propane burner, when the means of achieving a variety of atmospheric chamber is at cone 9-10. for loading and unloading. Avoid tall stacks of effects in one firing. The upper sections of ware that require excessive bending and lifting my kiln normally fire to cone 11. The bottom to place heavy shelves. shelf is generally around cone 9-10. Below that, on the kiln floor, It is important to make your kiln as fuel efficient as possible. I can count on reaching cone 6. I design, pack and fire my work A gas flame will take a very long time, and a lot of fuel, to heat a accordingly. A move from Sydney to a rural property in 2001 gave dense brick kiln. High alumina dense firebricks make long lasting, me the opportunity to design and build my current soda kiln. soda-resistant surfaces and are useful in areas like the kiln floor, I’m pleased to report it is the most successful soda kiln I have fireboxes and hot face of lower walls. However, they are very poor worked with. It is a downdraught kiln with six propane burninsulators. Use lightweight insulating bricks wherever possible to ers, three on each side, each with a soda port above it. Shelves minimise fuel consumption. K28 insulating bricks are resistant are arranged in a hopscotch pattern around the six fireboxes, to soda and are easily cut and shaped, making them particularly similar to a sidestoke arrangement in a wood kiln. This allows useful in the arch and door. For the arch, I recommend a hot face close proximity to a vapour source from any point in the chamof K28 insulators backed with ceramic fibre. If you feel you must ber. There is more room for large works and more potential for coat your K28 insulators to protect them, use a mixture of kaolin creative packing than would be possible with a single tall cenand fine high fired grog, applied thinly. You will need to scrape off tral stack of shelves. I have plenty of room to work inside durloose bits and touch up prior to each firing. With communal kilns ing loading and unloading, and setting of large shelves is easily that receive little or irregular maintenance, I recommend that K28 achieved. This kiln is built directly on compressed clay ground, insulating surfaces be left uncoated. which means that ground water can seep naturally through the Soda kilns tend to be less fuel-efficient than most contempofloor. Prior to firing, I note the recent rainfall and I adjust my rary gas kilns. However, I consider a measure of efficiency to be atmospheric expectations accordingly. I once-fire all my work. the number of outstanding pots I can produce from a given amount I’ve added a small wood firebox at the front of the kiln, which of fuel. Producing kiln loads of mediocre pots is, to me, a waste I use during the early bisque stage up to just beyond red heat of fuel. By designing my kiln using lightweight refractories wherto heat the dense brick floor, minimising the time and fuel this ever possible, and then focusing on the quality of work, I feel I am would take to achieve with gas. making efficient use of the fuel I’m burning. Woodfire and soda can go together very well, producing efThese are just some of the things I’ve learned from many fects that are often similar to woodfired salt glaze. A fastfire wood years of experience with soda glazing. The most exciting aspect kiln design, with soda introduced at the point where the flame of my work has been the continual process of exploration and disbends upward into the kiln chamber, works well with my soda covery. Years later, I am still learning and there is no end in sight. introduction technique. Alternatively, soda can be loaded onto pieces of wood and introduced during stoking. However, soda that 1 Gail Nichols, Soda, Clay and Fire (American Ceramic Society, 2006). falls through a grate into embers below will be rendered ineffective, so a spray method of soda introduction may be more appro2 An adaptation credited to Damien Grava, first used during a Gail Nichols workshop at Pottery Northwest, Seattle in 2005. priate in many wood kilns. Personally, I prefer to fire with gas, as it brings out particular qualities that are unique to soda. The “soda ice glaze” that forms Dr. Gail Nichols is an Australian ceramic artist who lives on my high alumina bodies is a high-alumina, low-iron, calciumand works near Braidwood, New South Wales. She is recognised free glaze. It will not form if clay surfaces are bombarded with internationally for her innovative work with soda vapour glazing. wood ash rich in silica, calcium and iron. The cyclic pattern of Her book Soda, Clay and Fire has been heralded as a leading text oxidation and reduction that occurs when stoking a wood kiln will in the field. Born in the U.S.A. in 1953, she received a B.S. in Mealso interfere with its formation. chanical Engineering from Michigan State University, worked for To work effectively with an atmospheric firing process, it is two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malaysia, and migrated important to learn about fire. Consider the kiln chamber as a large to Australia in 1978. Her formal ceramic studies began in Sydney saggar. Play with it. Experiment to see how your work responds in 1982. She later pursued postgraduate study at Monash Univerto various firing conditions. Learn from other atmospheric firers. sity, and received a PhD in 2002. Gail Nichols has taught at the Even though I fire mostly with gas, I have benefited considerNational Art School in Sydney and Australian National University ably from working and studying with woodfirers, most especially in Canberra. She exhibits regularly in Australia and overseas, and Owen Rye. has led many international workshops. Whichever fuel you use, I recommend doing soda and salt

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Caught-up in the Atmosphere by Matt Long My approach to this year’s NCECA lecture was designed around the many questions I receive from people all over the country about soda firing. I also wanted to foster a better understanding of the effect that color, surface and kiln design possibilities can have on your work, based on the experiences of five Matt Long, Platter nationally recognized potters that soda fire: Tom Coleman, Doug Casebeer, Julia Galloway, Sam Chung and Lorna Meaden. My love for atmospheric process and their results started early. At fifteen I was firing down-draft salt kilns and a 7-chamber Naboragama wood kiln with my high school teacher, Dick Hotchkiss. These early experiences embedded in me a love for kilns, firing, and the uncontrollable beauty that can only be found in atmospheric firing. My research in soda firing really began as I attended Ohio University as a graduate student in 1995. With the help of Brad Schwieger, Chuck McWeeny and Joe Bova, I began to experiment with every aspect of the process, from kiln design to material, to sources of soda and ways to introduce soda, to the process of firing the kiln. The following things have helped to produce the greatest results for my work. Kiln Design: I fire in a 26 cu/ft. cross draft, forced air, natural gas, hard brick kiln. Cross draft allows me to control where the soda hits the work, allowing for a great deal of drama from one side of the pot to the other. Forced air allows me to move the soda around the kiln with greater force, volatilizing more efficiently the amount of soda present in the kiln. Not only is the size of the kiln effective for better distribution of soda, but I can make enough work in two weeks to fill the kiln, allowing for more results, more often. Lastly, the hard brick, while not incredibly efficient, does allow for a much longer cooling cycle at the high end of the temperature range, producing great crystal growth and a greater depth in the glazed surface. Firing Process: My process for firing is very similar to the way Pete Pinnell taught me as an undergraduate student at the Kansas City Art Institute, in effect, firing the kiln as if it were a shino type reduction firing, and then putting in soda. I begin body reduction at cone 012 and reduce for either 2 hours, or until cone 04 is soft. I then maintain a light reduction atmosphere to help increase the rate of climb until I get to cone 10 soft. At this point I begin to put in soda, first introducing chalupas (sawdust soaked in a portion of the soda solution, then rolled into newspaper) into the firebox. Generally 6-8 chalupas go into the kiln, one at a time, which takes about ten minutes. Once they have burned away I spray in my remaining soda solution through a pump-up garden sprayer. As I introduce the soda solution through the soda ports, I put the kiln back into a body reduction-type atmosphere. This is how I get the carbon trapping in my surfaces. This works because when the soda is introduced into the kiln at such a high temperature, it volatilizes into a gas and becomes susceptible to the atmosphere in the kiln, essentially mixing the soda gas with the present carbon. As the soda and carbon move through the kiln and touch the surface of the work, the soda instantly becomes a glass, trapping the carbon with it on the surface of your glaze.

Once all the soda is in the kiln, I put the kiln back into a light reduction and wait for cone 11 to go down. This usually takes between 2-3 hours. My typical timetable is that from cone 012 to cone 11 takes between 10-16 hours. Soda Mixture: I use 6 lbs of soda every time I fire. I mix 2½ gallons of water to 2 lbs. of baking soda, and 4 lbs. of soda ash, mix very well with a blunger, and spray through a garden sprayer directly into the firebox of the kiln. I will also take some of that mixture and soak some sawdust in it, then roll into a chalupas to throw into the firebox .

Techniques of Other Soda-Fire Experts: Tom Coleman: “My soda-fired pieces are fired in a 24 cubic foot, cross draft, soft brick kiln to cone 11 in a reduction atmosphere. The kiln is reduced slightly at cone 06 and is kept in light reduction until the first soda is introduced at cone 9. My soda mixture is 80% soda ash and 20% baking soda with water added to taste. I spray the soda with a weed sprayer. The soda is introduced into the firebox and various ports in the kiln. After the soda is sprayed, the damper is closed to

Tom Coleman, Tea Bowls

approximately two inches open and the gas is turned down. This causes heavy reduction and creates carbon trap on the wet soda. “After a half-hour in reduction I open the damper to its original position and turn the gas back up so the kiln once again gains temperature. I soda once more when cone 11 is halfway down. After this, the kiln is allowed to soak for one hour and then turned off. My pieces are primarily made of porcelain and brushed with a thick coat of porcelain slip when they are leather hard. After bisque firing I spray them with a flashing slip and various oxide washes. On some of the pieces I use a slip that contains a coarse frit to create crystal like spots.”

Lorna Meaden: “Firing my work combines the method of soda firing that I originally learned from Brad Schwieger at Ohio University in graduate school, and the kiln design of Doug Casebeer that I learned to appreciate while a resident at Anderson Ranch Arts Center. “My recently built (January 2011) kiln is based on one that Doug Casebeer built at Anderson Ranch, known as the ‘Little Vic.’ It is a 45-cubic-foot, bourry box style wood kiln with forced air/natural gas burners, in addition to an oil burner that I sometimes use with vegetable oil.

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“I fire to cone 10/11, in a heavily reducing atmosphere. I candle the kiln overnight, and fire with the burners until I’m through body reduction. Then I start stoking with wood. I fire with gas, wood and sometimes oil until cone 10 is down. I close the damper two inches and continuously stoke wood while spraying 3 pounds of soda ash mixed with 2½ gallons of water into the kiln all at once. Stoking with the kiln dampered down produces unused fuel in the atmosphere, trapping carbon on the surface of the pots. The finishing step is creating an oxidizing atmosphere to brighten the color of the glazes. I open the damper and turn the air up on the burners for fifteen minutes. I let the kiln cool for 36 hours before unloading.”

Doug Casebeer: “I fire in reduction all the way, with a normal body reduction for about an hour at cone 08. I use 2 lbs. of soda ash to 1 gallon of water. The spray system uses compressed air and a wet/ dry speedaire sandblast gun. I set the air pressure at 30 psi. The soda spraying takes about 10 to 15 minutes and is sprayed in all at once using 4 separate ports on both sides of the kiln. (We do not spray into the burner ports). The speedaire spray gun I use is metal with a ceramic tip, so the spray guns last for years. I wait until the temperature is reached and the cones are down before I spray in the soda, again all at once in four ports. During the soda spraying I put several pieces of wood in the firebox to create a rich, smoky atmosphere. I feel the thick wood flame creates reduction greys and acts as a vehicle to distribute the soda throughout the kiln. When the firing is complete, I usually continue firing for about 15 to 30 minutes to allow for the soda to flux. If I want more dry surfaces I shut the kiln off immediately after soda spraying. If I want more wet surfaces I fire up to 30 minutes after soda spraying.”

Sam Chung: “I fire my work in a 20-cubic-foot updraft soda-kiln with four burners entering from the sides of the kiln. Over the years, I have preferred the effects of soda firing on my satin glazes and have developed a palette that responds well with a small addition of soda ash. I usually use around 1 to 1½ lbs. of Soda Ash per firing. I mix the Soda Ash into hot water until it dissolves and then sieve the mixture as I put it into the plastic pressurized container. The amount of water I use is generally based on a ratio of 1 gallon of water per 2 lbs. of Soda Ash, but I usually add a little more water in the ratio. “I had a pump-style sprayer fabricated so an air compressor hose can be connected directly to the container. This eliminates the need to pump the sprayer by hand. The Soda Ash solution is filled in the container and the container is pressurized with the compressor. I usually wait until I get a soft cone 10 knowing that my glazes will mature at that temperature, and then I begin spraying the Soda into the kiln. “The kiln has four spray ports—two in the front and two on the backside of the kiln. The ports are directly above the firebox and about a half-foot higher than the burner ports. I spray in each port for two 10-second counts until the solution is gone. I make my rounds to each port and repeat as needed without pausing in between ports. I spray with the tip of the wand directly outside of the spray port so I do not destroy the nozzle. I also try not to spray directly onto the pots as I find this to create too much orange peel on my glazes. This also gives me better and subtler coloration from my glazes. “The work is glazed with a satin glaze containing copper, titanium, or yellow ochre. I spray the glaze to achieve a lighter and slightly more varied application. With the copper glaze, I fire with more reduction when I want more of a pink color, and I fire more neu-

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tral to oxidized when I want a lighter green color. I usually brush dots on top of the sating glaze using a transparent green glaze to achieve a subtle pattern in the overall form. The dots also produce halos, which create a richer, more complex range of surface and color.”

Julia Galloway “I fire to cone six, in as clean an atmosphere as possible, but always get just a little reduction anyway. I skip body reduction, as it’s not that important to me. I fire in a kiln that is two shelves deep (12x24x2) and the kiln is 18 - 20 cubic feet. The kiln is made out of old boiler brick so it heats up and cools down REALLY slow, painfully in fact, so as soon as cone 5 is soft, I put the soda in. It takes me about 20 minutes to put the soda in and by then cone 6 is soft and that’s enough. I mix 3-5 pounds of soda with 2-4 gallons of hot water. If the kiln is really tight I will put in more soda, and more water so it’s ‘less concentrated.’ I want more of the weaker vapor to pass through the tight kiln for longer. If the kiln is looser, or has a lot of big work or a lot of decoration, I will put in a more concentrated mixture so it’s a blast of soda, and things don’t get too saturated and messy. “I spray soda water in instead of burritos because I think I get better coverage that way. I also pretty much just spray in the burner ports and some low peeps that open onto the pit from the front. If I spray directly on the work, the soda effects are a little too heavyhanded. Picking up the flame path via the burner pots works well. “I use the soda like another layer of glaze. I like it when my kiln is a little uneven, or some kind of hiccup occurs so I am more surprised by the results. Basically, I am a little too uptight about my pots, and the soda kiln brings in just enough chance, that I can learn back from the work. “I fire at cone six as I want the strength and density of high fire and the color from low fire. It also is not as hard on the kiln and the equipment. I started firing at six because it seemed rebellious, everyone that I knew fired at c04 and c10. That reason has worn off, and now it’s a temperature where I find great versatility. I don’t put whiting or anything in with the soda ash to help it melt earlier, and the results seem okay to me. I prefer soda to salt and it is softer and less predictable.”

Conclusion: As you can see, soda firing can be done in many ways to accomplish many different and beautiful results. I believe that the hardest question is not how, it’s what do you want, and how does that fit the body of work you are interested in making? I hope that this information is helpful to you as you make work, fire kilns and infinitely adjust your process to ultimately find that beautiful soda surface you’ve been looking for. I would like to thank Doug, Tom, Sam, Julia and Lorna for sharing their knowledge of soda firing with us all. Matt Long received his MFA in Ceramics from Ohio University in 1997, and his BFA in Ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1995. He joined joining the art faculty at The University of Mississippi in 2005, where he is currently an Associate Professor of Art, and the Graduate Coordinator for the Department of Art. He is a well-known workshop presenter, teaching workshops and lectures at over forty universities, colleges and art centers. He was the recipient of the NCECA emerging artist award in 2000. Long is widely collected and exhibited, nationally and internationally, and he has been featured in many publications, including Studio Potter, Art and Perception, Clay Times, and on the cover of Ceramics Monthly in 2004. He is primarily represented by Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge, Montana.

co-lecture • How to Practically Apply digital techniques to Ceramics Greg Pugh & Mark Hall Digital tools can be used to enhance ceramic traditions. They allow artists to work out new ideas and see things that would otherwise not be seen. Manipulating scale, duplicating, and being able to undo and redo are the basic functions of the computer and can give an edge to new forms. These functions allow for new parts of an artist’s imagination to come alive. Technology does not have to dominate art making. Software applications function as tools in a tool box that help the artist perform the desired task. With slide correction, image resizing, drawing, 3D modeling, 3D printing, and 3D scanning, artists can approach making in a new aesthetic way. Digital tools come in all shapes and sizes. A state-of-the-art 3D printer is not required to benefit from technology. Smartphones, tablets and other mobile technologies are evolving into powerful tools that can handle the most basic needs of an artist. Digital devices are being built around “apps,” which are programs. Mobile apps are often mini programs that are simplified versions of bulky, computer-based programs. Image correction apps have become a helpful tool in correcting slides. Mobile versions can be very powerful. They can handle spot healing, color adjustments, and shadow corrections. There is no need to deal with a large photo manipulation program just to fix a small smudge on slide paper. 3D modeling mobile apps are simplified versions of computer 3D modeling programs, and several are great for 3D modeling. Each application has its own aesthetic. Some offer hard-edged engineered surfaces, while others offer more organic, natural surfaces. Mobile 3D modeling programs are often much simpler and friendlier to new users than computer 3D modeling programs. They can export models from the app, which can either be imported into a larger computer program for further manipulation or sent directly to a 3D printer. If you want to 3D print a model directly, look for common 3D file types, like; .obj, .stl, or .3dm, as these can be printed directly converted to an acceptable file type. Drawing apps can help artists sketch in new ways. Lines that would take time to produce on paper are produced rapidly in mobile apps. These ideas can be taken back to the studio for inspiration or further manipulated in other programs. A stylus can be a useful tool for more detailed drawing and can be incorporated on almost all tablets and touch-based mobile media. Computer-based programs can handle larger problems and powerful apps exist for the computer as well. Image resizing for applying to shows or making a website can be a pain using large photo manipulation programs. Using an image resizing app allows one to reduce batches of images to a specific size in a snap. Drag the photo folder into the program, select the size of photo you want, hit go, and bing!—fifty images are resized in seconds. Where do you get apps, or find out about them? You can download apps from app markets built into the computer’s preinstalled operating system. Currently there are limited markets for apps, but app databases are becoming more prevalent. Finding out about apps can be tricky, but one way is to do an internet search for the type of app you’re looking for—“when in doubt, google it”—then go to the

app store and do a search for the specific app. There are browsing functions built into app stores as well, and some stores recommend apps for you based on previous apps purchased. 3D modeling on the computer can get pretty tricky and is hard to start. It is like throwing on a potter’s wheel: if you do not know what you’re doing, you can only get so far. The more powerful programs are generally higher in price. Google Sketch Up is a great intro to computer 3D modeling. It is a free download and an inexpensive upgrade to Google’s pro version, Google Sketch Up Pro, makes for a great 3D modeling program. YouTube can be a great tool for learning how to work with digital mediums. You can find videos on YouTube that give you step-by-step instructions on how to 3D model, as well as various other instructional videos. Why might you want to start using a computer 3D modeling program instead of a mobile app? If you have something very specific that you want to accomplish (i.e. engineer a moving part, repeating a form over and over again, manipulating scale, 3D text, image displacement, or importing 3D scans), a computer modeling program might be helpful. 3D modeling tools can easily do calculated functions that take great time to produce by hand. For example, repetition, undo/redo, revolve, and lofting can allow an artist to visualize forms faster and more efficiently than hand-building. An artist can see hundreds of forms at once utilizing 3D modeling tools. Tools like revolve and loft are much like hand-building ceramic processes. Revolve will take a single profile line and revolve it around a center axis forming a wall, much like throwing a pot on the potter’s wheel. Lofting is similar to coil building. Lines are stacked on top of one another to form a vessel. Single lines can be connected with a surface to make a form. Copy and paste can help make multiple forms, allowing you to see what forms look like next to each other with ease, or what they look like in large groups. Copy and paste can also help with making detailed patterns. Best of all, copy and paste are incorporated into the operating system of the computer, so variations of the same file can be duplicated with ease. Undo and redo are some of the most powerful tools for artists. Being able to undo and redo allows for artists to go back and forth in time. The artist never has to rely on happy accidents with these

The Ceramic Shop Will Feature Demonstrations by

Sandi Pierantozzi Booth #’s 225, 227, 229

Sandi will demonstrate forms using her CircleMatic Form Finder Templates

www.circlematic.com

Demos Every Day: 10:00 to 10:30 12:00 to 12:30 2:00 to 2:30

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built. The other type resembles a 2D printer, and prints on powdered sheets of clay that stack on top of each other. Binder is like the 3D Modeling from specific PC, Mac beta Rhino x 5 ink, and is printed in between the powdered lines. Engineered parts. 3D version. sheets of clay. This process repeats thouText sands of times to form a 3D object. When the Instant poly shapes, Maya x PC and Mac 5 binder and powder are dry, they form a solid animate forms, bend, twist computers object. Where there is no binder, the loose powder supports the model as it is being Starts with a ball that can Apple and Android Idough x 2 be pushed in and pulled, made. 3D printing is not an instant process. mobile devices much like clay It takes time to build up the layers--several hours to build only several inches. The layImage XY x Resize batch images Found in Mac 1 ers are thousandths of an inch thick, which computer APP allows for incredible detail. store By utilizing digital tools to explore new Trimensional x 3D like scanner. Takes Iphone and 1 forms in 3D printing, uncharted territory highlights & shadows Android app store in form and function can be explored. 3D from an image to form printing allows for inconceivable details to a 3D relief image be produced in record time. Complex forms Harmonious x Drawing program Apple and Android 1 that could never be made in a mold before are produces detailed lines mobile devices now possible with 3D printing. As of now, rapidly most ceramic building laws apply to ceramic 3D printed material. Ceramics is strong unIphoto x Corrects Images, Mac computers 3 der compression, not tension. smudges, color, only shadows & highlights 3D scanning technologies offer a wide white balance range of capturing 3D manipulative data. 3D scanners can be found in mobile devices as Photogene x Basic photo correction Apple mobile 2 well as high-end machines. Mobile apps ofincluding spot healing, media fer a crude version of 3D scanning. The apps filters, image are great tools to get a new look at the same adjustments for color form. Apps can take an image and render it in 3D relief based on the highlights and shadTable 1: Helpful apps for the artistic process ows in the image. The image can be further tools. You can make marks and take liberties that might be to risky manipulated in 3D modeling programs or used to gain inspiration. otherwise. Keyboard shortcuts can be your best friend when doing High-end 3D scanners can offer amazing details and accua project on the computer. Command Z (Mac) or Ctrl Z (PC) is a rate scans. 3D scanning technologies are much like making molds. keyboard shortcut that allows to undo. These scanners do not read undercuts well, and are subject to what Several programs offer ways to sculpt like clay, allowing the the laser can read. They also do not capture water tight objects, as artist to push and pull at the surface to make a form. Digitals tools they often have holes in the model that must be filled in order to have been made to simulate carving clay as well. There are even make them printable. This is often a roadblock for most 3D scanhaptic devices that connect to the computer to give you a feeling of ning, as it can be very time consuming to manually fill the holes. physical resistance, like when you physically handle clay. It is often Often very expensive 3D modeling equipment is needed, but newer a goal of complex computer programs to simulate the characteristechnology is making this much more cost effective and easier. tics of clay. Digital tools can take up as much or as little of the artistic Digitally made form-making exists in many different ways. process as the artist wants. It does not have to be the end-all-be-all There are reductive processes and additive processes. CNC millof the work, but these powerful tools can enhance your process, ing is an example of a reductive process. The most common aphelp you save time, physical energy, and give a new view to your proach to CNC milling is to take a solid block of a material and use current work. a computer-controlled arm with a milling bit to carve away at a solid block. Complex plaster molds can be used this way as well. Vitrified Greg Pugh is a Research Technician at Bowling Green State ceramic can be carved using water jets and lasers. University, where he works with John Balistreri on ceramic 3D 3D printing is an additive way of making computer general printing. Pugh has been working on the project for five years. He forms. Objects are built layer by layer, much like how coil pots are earned a BFA from Bowling Green focusing on ceramic art. made. 3D printers build forms by taking digital files and slicing Mark Hall is an MFA student at Bowling Green State Unithem into thousands of layers, an additive process from the ground versity, focusing on ceramic 3D printing. He was brought onto the up. 3D printing services are becoming more accessible. If you do project by John Balistreri. Hall earned a BFA from Columbus Colnot have a 3D printer, you can send your model to a service comlege of Art and Design with a focus in Industrial Design. pany for printing. Ceramics is mainly printed on two different types of 3D Pugh and Hall work together to further advance the capabiliprinters. Coil building is similar to coils being extruded through ties of ceramic 3D printing. a nozzle. Coils are laid down on top of one another until a form is Program

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nceca 112 Journal 2012 â&#x20AC;˘ Lectures

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co-lecture: The land within the sea ii John Roloff & John Grade Critical Seattle – NCECA Conference 2012 by John Roloff Introduction: Land/Sea – Ceramics as Landscape/Seascape Ceramics seen through a material/geologic lens can be thought of as a function of an inter-related system of land and sea. In geologic time the land and sea are mutable and interdependent and may be construed as forms of each other. The processes of erosion and deposition are cyclical inversions of each other, a continuum of land and sea interaction through which new land is being formed as we read. Depositional systems within oceans, rivers and lakes around us are fed by the denudation or alteration of landscape where clays, silts and sands are suspended, transported, sorted and deposited in aquatic conditions, only to become new landforms Roloff, Seventh Climate (Paradise Reconsidered), 2006, mixed media, for future change. In this fundamental way, land/seascapes John 50 ft. x 70 ft. x 60 ft., I-5 Colonnade Park, Seattle, WA. are constructed of previous land/seascapes each carrying the blueprint of their ancestor. Further analogies of land and sea may dent, The Land within the Sea in general has become a primary be seen in the hydrologic dynamics of aquifers, the tectonic rafting referent to concepts and works in ceramics. The poetics of an entire and obduction of micro-continents, slow-moving distortions of deep landscape of current-driven particles suspended and in-transit withmetamorphic processes, terrestrial and submarine lava flows, karst in the sea forming sedimentary structures of the seafloor, as well and reef cycles, as well as eolian transport of materials in subaerial as transient forms of tubidity, occulsion, solubility and subsidence, environments. As these processes may occur simultaneously, as a have been inspirational for much of the sea/land relationships in my gradient in time or space or distinctly, the influence of any single work. This set of relationships has evolved through many investigaor confluence of these dynamics upon a given environment may be tions and projects where looking at the geologic, paleo-geographic readily apparent, deeply embedded or some combination. These histories and site dynamics has unearthed new images, analogies, constructs of interaction and change are intrinsic to the mystery of connections and questions. land and sea and are generative to both artist and scientist alike, who Selected artwork documentation and project proposals from are inspired by these enigmas. Of equal value, indigenous, poetic or the past 30 years of work will be shown in the context of Critical metaphysical interpretations of land and sea systems create a valuSeattle to elaborate on how this approach has evolved and is maniable open space where these forms and processes may be understood fest in my work. These projects or works, among others, include: as animate and in their own terms. Putah Creek Piece, circa 1969; selected objects from the late 1960s The terrain of Seattle of the Pacific Northwest presents a unique to early 1970s; Land Sea, Land Ship and Black Ship, 1980; Night and special history of interaction and analogy of land and sea. Of Ship/Frozen Sea series, mid-1980s; Seventh Climate (Paradise Reabsolute fascination is the deeper structure of this area, created by considered), 2006; Felsic/Mafic/Carbonate Facies, 2006-2012; and the accretion and alteration of a series of Mesozoic and Cenozoic The Sea Within the Land/Laramide, 2011. allochthonous terranes onto the earlier continental substructure. SubThe project Putah Creek Piece, circa 1969, is a sculptural sequent episodes of lava eruptions built the coastal Cascade Range installation documented by black and white film. It is one of the whose concurrent interaction with incursions of Pleistocene glacial earliest site-based examples of an imbedded environment within an ice sheets were instrumental in shaping this land/sea environment. environment (sea/sea, or sea/land) concept. Conceived of as both The current active subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate off shore enan ecological and formal work, a temporary floating “sea” of clear hances the dynamic character of the contemporary Seattle land/seawater is immersed in the algae and sediment-laden surface water of scape. Of particular interest in the understanding of the active Pacific Putah Creek on the UC Davis campus, Davis, CA. Northwest plate systems is the Interactive Oceans and Regional Scale Selected objects from the late 1960s and early 1970s relating Nodes program of ocean observatories and real-time data transmisto the Land/Sea theme include Diminishing Wave and Shrouded sion from the Juan de Fuca ridge, which is organized by a consortium Wave, both circa 1969, and Evaporite Ship, 1974. These works were of institutions headed by the University of Washington. early image-based narratives examining metaphors of sea, land and transformation. Evaporite Ship is exemplary of many smaller Selected Works of Land/Sea Inspiration works that studied relationships of material and image narrative: the ship engaged with mineral solubility, evaporation and ground A quadratic system of analogy and visualization: Sea within water leaching processes which altered or infused the form by natuthe Sea, Sea within the Land, Land within the Land and Sea within ral processes. the Sea has been conceptually at the core of my work since the late Following or concurrent with larger-scale works such as 1960s. Although the whole system is interrelated and interdepen-

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John Roloff, Night Ship/Frozen Sea series, 1983-1990, size variable, ceramic, wood, mixed media.

Shoreline Piece, 1979, and kiln projects such as Prairie Starfish/ Glacial Epoch, 1980, Land Sea, Land Ship and Black Ship, all 1980, expanded the incursion into large-scale environmental projects and conceptually evolved the Land/Sea ideas into the context of land art. These projects are extrapolations of ideas explored in the late 1960s and 1970s of metaphors of sea, land and ships traversing and interacting with each medium. Works of this time period often intermingled landscapes and seascapes as if the materials of those domains were fluid and interchangeable. Perceptions of geologic time, process and scale enabled the mutation and cross-articulation of these realms. Land Sea represents an indeterminate area of landscape sculpted and planted to simulate open ocean with a moderate wind driving the waves in a particular direction, an early depiction of a “Sea within the Land.” Similarly, Land Ship, reminiscent of many ship sculptures made of earth materials, is shown operating at full scale and simulated motion on an expanse of land. Black Ship, is another form of the “Sea within the Land” as well as the “Sea within a Ship,” incorporating the movement of water within a ship immersed in the land, inverting and conceptually extending the interaction of ship, sea and land. Night Ship/Frozen Sea series, mid-1980s, is the apogee of an investigation of objects where the ship was a function of the land/seascape in numerous ways. Seminal images and processes relating to geology, 19th century painting, the psychological sublime and earlier works are extrapolated by this series. The superstructure of each ship incorporated a nocturnal frozen landscape created by fossilizationlike processes while the dark hull evokes immersion in the land as if it were the sea, which in geologic time are often one and the same. Wrangellia I and II, 1999, commissioned by the Washington State Art Commission, are proposals for kiln and landscape projects for the Seattle area. They were developed based on research on the accreted terranes of the Pacific Northwest. Devonian Shale: Aquifer I, 2001, is a model for a theoretical aquifer system made of processed, extruded and fired shale from the Devonian geologic era deposited in what is now western New York state, coated for each exhibition with unfired local sediment, then re-fired to accumulate and lithify the coating between each exhibition. This work can be constructed in a variety of configurations representing different flow patterns by using other central cross units that influence the orientation and placement of the appendage structures, studied in drawings shown with the work. Sited under the I-5 freeway in Seattle, WA as part of the I-5 Col-

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onnade Park, Seventh Climate (Paradise Reconsidered) emerges from the interaction of six elements, each representing a different climate, memory and/or ecology: four species of trees, each from a distinct biome/terrains planted to form one organism; a simulation by lighting and artificial rain of the 1960 Seattle; pre-freeway precipitation, sunlight and moonlight cycles; and the current ambient weather of Seattle. Filling and framing the space underneath one main segment of the central of three freeways that pass overhead, Seventh Climate (Paradise Reconsidered) creates a meta-system that brings together the interaction of global representatives in the form of selected tree species and a symbolic dissolution of a section of the I-5 freeway through a simulation/mimicry of the external Seattle, pre-freeway climate of 1960, to create an alternative, symbiotic ecology and environment, and becomes a biological/climatic variant of the sea/land thematic. Felsic/Mafic/Carbonate Facies, 2006-2012, is a constantly evolving assemblage of conceptual studies and transformations for new projects as well as meditations on existing works. This series is characterized by strategies employing inversions, intrusions, displacements, assemblages and extended analogies/metaphors, often in geologic parlance, of existing and often predictable ecological beliefs and systems in order to disrupt, re-cast and extrapolate their epistemological, ontological and associative potential. A prime emphasis in this and related studies is the identification of the Anthropocence, the current geologic time period of human agency and natural force, as ultimately indistinguishable from any other natural phenomena. As an example, architecture and the built environment is seen in this context as a phenomenological, geomorphic and lithologic variant of geologic structures and processes. Pier 15-17 Complex is an ongoing project initiated as a main element of a research fellowship with the Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA, funded by the Bernard Osher Foundation and other granting agencies. The research is primarily of Piers 15-17 along the San Francisco Bay waterfront as geologic structures. The pier’s complex geologic and industrial history suggests numerous iterations of sea/ land transformation: placing the piers as land/seascapes made of other lands/seascapes within cycles of denudation, deposition and alteration both natural and anthropocentric. Proposals for environmental projects are currently being developed. The Sea Within the Land/Laramide, commissioned by the Denver Art Museum for Overthrown: Clay Without Limits, 2011, examines the interchangeable and analogous nature of sea and land as a

John Grade, 2 Collector Below: John Grade, 17

John Grade, 1 Collector

poetic/scientific theme by focusing on paleo-dynamic and anthropogenic relationships within the central Colorado landscape. Two image systems are employed: the ship as a land-and-sea metaphor and conceptual land/seascape meta-windows. The ship as depositional reservoir in the form of a mold and its cast form of geo-chronological layering of sediment become a sea/land analog to the epi-continental sea that covered much of the late Cretaceous Colorado landscape and subsequent deposition of sediments that now make up much of the region’s terrain. Paired, architecturally sited photographic images of the Pacific Ocean and in-situ exposures of the ship’s sediments as part of the larger Landscape Projection (for an Unknown Window) series evoke a theoretical dimension and sea/land dialectic, further echoing the Cretaceous inland sea and the influence of the Mesozoic/ Cenozoic West Coast Farallon oceanic-plate subduction episode on the Laramide Orogeny and uplift of the Rocky Mountains. John Roloff is a visual artist who works conceptually with site, process and natural systems. He is known primarily for his outdoor kiln/furnace projects done from the late 1970s to the early 1990s as well as other large-scale environmental and gallery installations investigating geologic and natural phenomena. Based on a background in science, his work engages poetic and site-specific relationships between material, concept and performance in the domains of geology, ecology, architecture, ceramics, industry and mining, metabolic systems and history. He studied geology at UC Davis, Davis, CA with Professor Eldridge Moores and others during the formative days of plate tectonics in the mid-1960s. Subsequently, he studied art with Bob Arneson and William T. Wiley also at UC Davis in the late 1960s. In addition to numerous environmental, site-specific installations in the US, Canada and Europe, his work has been included in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, UC Berkeley Museum, San

Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian Institution, Photoscene Cologne and the Venice Architectural and Art Biennales and most recently The Snow Show in Kemi, Finland. He has received three artist’s visual arts fellowships from the NEA, a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, a California Arts Council grant for visual artists and a Bernard Osher Fellowship at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, CA. He is represented by Gallery Paule Anglim in San Francisco. He is currently Chair of the Sculpture/Ceramics Department the San Francisco Art Institute. More information is available at www.johnroloff.com. John Grade is the recipient of the 2010 biennial Willard Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York. He has also been awarded the 2011 Schnitzer Prize from the Portland Art Museum, an Andy Warhol Foundation Award (NY), two Pollock Krasner Foundation Awards (NY), and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (NY). Grade recently exhibited at Galerie Ateliers L’H Du Siege in France, Fabrica in the UK, and Cynthia Reeves Gallery in New York. Grade has been a fellow at the Djerassi Foundation (CA), the MacDowell Colony (NH), and the Ballinglen Foundation in County Mayo, Ireland. His work has been featured and reviewed in Art in America, Sculpture, Artweek, American Craft, ARTUS, the Boston Globe, The Huffington Post, Conde de Nast Traveller, Italian and Russian Domus and on NPR’s All Things Considered and Studio 360. Two monographs of the artist’s work have been published coinciding with major museum surveys of his work. “Grade’s outdoor works can be seen as variants of performance art, rather than as environmental or land art, to which they’re often compared. Instead of enlisting his own body as performer, he recruits his crafted surrogates to be ravaged by nature, and then presents the aftermath for public display.” Suzanne Ramljak, editor, American Craft, 2010. “John Grade achieves an extraordinary balance: physical immediacy against vulnerability. Grade considers a project a success when there is a compelling balance between what he anticipates and the effects that chance works on a sculpture.” Janet Koplos, editor, Sculpture, 2010.

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lecture: from the melting pot into the fire: Contemporary Ceramics in Israel Yael Novak The vibrancy of contemporary Israeli ceramic art is evident in this latest show to arrive at the Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA. The variety of innovative work from both studio ceramics and industrial design ceramics demonstrates the strength and diversity of artistic expression in Israel in this field. From the Melting Pot into the Fire: Contemporary Ceramics in Israel is a selection of contemporary Israeli studio ceramics on view concurrently with the NCECA 2012 conference. The exhibition includes a broad range of works by Israeli artists of different backgrounds, who address the controversial issues of land and identity from diverse perspectives. It provides new insights into contemporary life and art in Israel, unrepresented by the daily dose of news from the Middle East.

Martha Rieger, My Melting Pot, 2006, wheel-thrown white clay, paper stickers, terra sigilatta, raku, 40cm high.

Dori Zanger Schechtel, Hand Warmers, 2006, press molded earthenware, wooden base, slabs, glazing, 120cm diameter.

In this exhibition the thirty-seven artists aim, through their work, to address personal and communal concerns focusing on the daily reality of cultural and territorial conflicts combined with stressful political and economic conditions. In this way, they reveal how complicated and often intensely personal the issues of identity, land and home are in contemporary Israel. Most of the artwork on display—distinctive, profound and often humorous, stimulating and thought provoking—demonstrates the diversity that can be achieved through expression with clay. Many of the pieces offer a unique perspective on matters that shape both individual and collective identity. Any such identity is a reaction and reflection on the history, geography, political climate and cultural heritage of its country of origin. In an attempt to find uniformity in diversity, immigrant societies have opted to adopt the “melting pot” concept where diverse ethnic migrations merge to forge a unified cultural landscape in some cases and a colorful mosaic in others. In Israel’s historical quest for a unified national identity, the melting pot concept was a necessary measure in the young state’s founding years. It has since been abandoned in favor of cultural pluralism. A discussion of the reasons for this exceeds

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the context of this presentation and will be left to comprehensive sociological, ethnographic and political research into the rapidly changing global cultural map. Israeli society has undergone and is still undergoing significant changes. It is gradually moving from an identity based on nationalistic values of heroism, struggle, survival and Jewish continuity, to a society reexamining its identity and its quest for well-being and prosperity. Israelis have become significant players on issues of global concern. With international involvement in the worlds of arts, science and technology, Israel has become cosmopolitan, sophisticated and accessible. Geographically and culturally the country is a historical crossroads where east meets west, where ancient sites are juxtaposed with new ones built by a sophisticated high-tech society, where western modes of expression meet traditional Middle Eastern ethnicity and aesthetics. One cannot but be impressed by Israel’s unique, colorful cultural mosaic. This multicultural aspect of Israeli society is evident in the diversity of approaches and themes explored in this exhibition. Martha Rieger’s My Melting Pot provides an intensely personal response to the complex issues addressed. In a series of three smoke-fired bottles, the artist explicitly illustrates her own melting pot experience as an immigrant and the product of two faiths. Leah Sheves in Essence of an Ornament contextualizes this concept through a series of objects inspired by both western and eastern aesthetics. Austere Bauhaus architecture, oriental ornamental designs and the Middle Eastern “mashrabya” architectural element are integrated into the forms, creating a new visual vocabulary. Mashrabya is a traditional Middle Eastern architectural feature used to create privacy and climate control. With time and cross-cultural influences, it was adopted and integrated into Jewish life as an essential religious and architectural feature in synagogue design—“the mehizha”—a partition allowing women to see but not to be seen. Michal Alon’s Screen echoes the mashrabya concept. Inspired by

“Bread as a memory, place local landscapes and hues the clay discs form Brown bread, white bread a space divider, “an ethereal barrier allowing Dry bread, fragile bread the flow of air, light and energy.” Thrilling bread, inedible bread Urban Tiles critically comments on the Thin bread, tired bread consequences of unplanned urban growth. Inviting bread, demanding bread” Photographs of typical drab and unattractive residential buildings are rendered beautiful The piled high, thin, dry, pita bread through computer manipulation. The images reduced to mere crusts call to mind human are printed onto tiles to form a decorative skulls, alluding to Holocaust images. This kaleidoscope of patterns echoing traditional controversial statement by the artist comIznik tiles used extensively in Middle Eastments on the trials and tribulations that have ern architecture—an implicit connection to faced the Palestinian nation. our locality. Both pita bread and the prickly pear Efrat Eyal’s Model Home hangs vertically cactus have iconic symbolism and meaning to form a repetitive geometric decorative patfor several cultures in the Middle East as tern that bears a resemblance to oriental caran integral part of their identities. Nativepets. A closer look reveals a series of several born Israelis liken themselves to the fruit of small molds of building types which together the prickly pear—“sabra” in colloquial Heform a miniature housing project. It comments brew—tough and thorny on the outside, but with a critical eye on the fine line we walk bepromising a juicy sweetness within. With imtween individuality and conformity. Geva, Sabras in a Tin Can, 2006, porcelain, A sense of place strongly emanates from Zipi plicit humor, the sabra is tinned for posterity stoneware, hand-built, wheel-thrown, glazing, 46x46cm. Yael Novak’s In Between the Pots. Moving in Sabras in a Tin Can. back and forth from the visual and the tactile to the imaginative and Bread and water are life sustaining necessities for survival. illusionary, the negative spaces between a series of repetitive, stark Ronit Zor’s Moat explores the theme in a series of stoneware objects earthenware vessels create a familiar landscape. Pottery and archifilled with water and shaped like ancient aqueducts. Providing both tecture are placed side by side, the boundaries of the one discipline water and a means of defense, they are a constant reminder of our forming the outline of the other. The essence of cultural diversity fragile existence in the region. Impermanence resonates strongly and complexity is captured in the outlined icons of local identity: from the changing topography over time in Lie of the Land, a colthe kibbutz water tower next to the mosque’s minaret or the indiglaborative effort between ceramics and video art. The concept of enous Cyprus tree; domed Arabic houses adjacent to a postmodern time is introduced in the form of an hourglass—the transitory elurban skyline. Coexistence—a reality or an illusion? ement embedded in a rapidly changing landscape created by the Ruth Schreiber’s Two Swings speaks of frustration, dream and flowing sand. disillusionment. Two inaccessible and fragile stoneware swings Fragility, impermanence and insecurity are subtle subtexts suspended unevenly by thick chains hang in front of Fragonard’s identifiable in several of the pieces. Uncovering the many layers painting of a lady on a swing. Freedom of movement is juxtaposed of meaning is a fascinating experience for both viewer and artist. with the incapacitated and inaccessible, a painful observation and The majority of the works in this exhibition were created by female a strong statement on the reality of life in the region. Barriers and artists who are not afraid to either talk or deal with issues of vulnerboundaries delineate, outline and mark a space in time and place, ability. This approach is enlightening, refreshing and educational. It not only in the physical sense but also in our collective conscience illustrates a different and less well known view of Israelis, breaking and memory. away, as it does, from the stereotypical military macho image porNot Now by artist Simone Solomon and Free Space, a poignant trayed so frequently in the media. work by Anna Kirzner, are both personal and poetic reflections on With the tension between fragility and durability, ceramics the concept of boundaries, physical and imaginary. They call for the provide a good metaphor, resonating at a metaphysical level with need to break away from confinement within self-inflicted borders, the uncertainty in the everyday life of Israelis. The innate fragility frames and conventions. of ceramics highlights the precariousness of life itself—a concept Collective memories carve a space in time and place dedicated at the core of several of the pieces. Pots morph into cascades of to remembrance. Monuments and memorials have become an undefragile swirling blossoms, images of collapsing vessels in Forms, niable part of our collective identity. cardboard houses in Urban Cubism, houses on wheels and floating First and foremost, collective identity is forged by a common houses in Return to Sender. They all relate subtly to one’s endless language. The Building Blocks of Memory / Monument for the Hequest for a secure sense of place in an uncertain world. brew Language celebrates the revival of the Hebrew language in a In Locked Up by Ruth Barkai, ceramic objects in the shape of series of totemic columns bearing ancient and modern representalocks question the sense of security within the protective space of tions of Hebrew letters, liturgical motifs and images of significant our home, as does Ethel Pisareff’s protected space. Orit Bar Dov’s historical personalities. Tribal Fire and Dori Zanger’s Hand-Warmers reflect upon the traTel Giborim – Heroes’ Knoll is where private and collective ditional tribal fire as the center of social life within the commumemories meet and Har Hamenuhot provides an image of the Jerunity. The sense of belonging to a group sharing the same values, salem cemetery where stone, marble and concrete create an eternal traditions and norms serves as a comfort blanket. The individual connection between man and place. Mirvat Issa eloquently expresshome, the neighborhood and community all play an important role es the idea of memory in Our Daily Bread:

MELTING POT INTO THE FIRE continues on Page 122 nceca 117 Journal 2012 • Lectures

lecture: the old, weird claymerica:

Performance and Transgression in 1970s Clay Garth Johnson There are deeply rooted strains of nonconformity that run through the history of ceramics in the United States. Performity and transgression are two emerging trends in contemporary craft practice that have precedent in both heritage crafts and the studio craft movement. Although the late 1960s and early 1970s were relatively recent, innovations in the field of craft in general and ceramics in particular owe much to boundaries that were stretched during that period by artists like James Melchert, Clayton Bailey, David Gilhooly and Rimas VisGirda. Melchert’s 1972 “happening” Changes, which involved ten individuals dunking their head in clay slip and contemplating the drying process for an hour, has become widely enshrined as touchstone of “performance craft” (J. Schwartz 122). The work of other artists during this period, including Bailey and VisGirda, is less widely discussed, and deserves to be included in any conversation about performative and transgressive impulses that have come to shape the field of modern craft. In his book Brothers in Clay: The Story of Georgia Folk Pottery, author John Burrison cites two behavioral traits that were shared by stoneware potters in Georgia: a fondness for drink and an independent nature. In the pre-Tupperware era, itinerant “tramp potters” were so in demand that they were able to drift from job to job, finding easy employment that would allow them to set their own working hours to facilitate their lifestyle choices (Burrison 12). Independence and extravagance of character is especially evident in the life and work of George E. Ohr, popularly known as the “Mad Potter of Biloxi.” Ohr is now known for his artistic vision, which paved the way for the 20th century studio pottery movement. Ohr’s persona was inextricable from his artistic vision—from his outsized handlebar mustache to the five-story pagoda tower that capped off his workshop. Never one for false modesty, Ohr showed his work at World’s Fairs and other international expositions, always accompanied by placards proclaiming him as the “GREATEST POTTER ON EARTH—‘YOU’ PROVE THE CONTRARY.” His over-the-top persona attracted attention to his work, leading him to confide that “it paid me to act this way” (Hecht 21). The physicality and mythos of the “rugged individualist” in Abstract Expressionism factored greatly in the critical evaluation of ceramic sculpture of the 1950s and ‘60s (Buszek 4). In her seminal Craft Horizons article “The New Ceramic Presence,” Rose Slivka wrote of an American climate that “not only has been infused with the dynamics of machine technology, but with the action of men—ruggedly individual and vernacular men (the pioneer, the cowboy) with a genius for improvisation” (Adamson 526). When Slivka wrote about Voulkos, her prose was perhaps overly concerned with his physical attributes, writing about her impression of him as “giantlike,” “hulking” and possessing “superhuman strength” while studying clay as its “lover, as its scholar, as its very medium” (Voulkos). Slivka’s fixation, while making the reader slightly uncomfortable, is entirely the point. At the Oakland Museum of California Art, an entire gallery is devoted to art made by California artists. A signature Voulkos stack at the very center of the section

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devoted to ceramics., and next to it is a video screen that shows Voulkos modifying a large, thrown piece by alternately tearing, hacking and beating it with a large piece of wood. In showing video alongside an actual Voulkos object, the museum’s curators have cannily acknowledged that the performance and object are virtually inseparable. Additionally, Voulkos enjoyed collaborating with others in a workshop-like setting to construct his large-scale works. This twist on the ceramic workshop became both participatory theater and theater of the spectacle (Oliver 15). As Voulkos was wrestling with clay, the art world was discovering new ways of deprivileging the object through “happenings” and other performance art. Alan Kaprow coined the term “happening” while he was a student of John Cage in 1958 as a way to describe a performance in which a number of events take place together in space and time, never to be repeated in exactly the same manner (Meyer-Hermann 2). The early, anarchic events staged by Kaprow led to a staggering array of performative explorations in the 1960s that ranged from Claes Oldenberg’s Proto-Pop exhibition The Store in 1961 to Carolee Schneeman’s 1964 feminist performance Meat Joy, which involved Schneeman and her friends wrestling with raw fish, sausages, wet paint and other materials. By the late 1960s, the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York City responded to this energy by hosting a remarkable series of exhibitions that redefined the boundaries between art, craft and performance. Alongside adventurous (but object-based) exhibitions by up-and-coming artists like Erik Gronborg and David Gilhooly, the museum launched an all-out sensory assault from 1969-1971. In January 1969, the museum mounted an exhibition entitled Feel It by Swedish architects Gustaf Clason and Eric Sörling that turned spectators into participants in a “multi-sensory environment” that included a springy jute carpet, a forest of dangling plastic strips that “embrace (participants) like wet macaroni,” a huge walk-through globe that sensed viewers’ motions and delivered bits of electronic music accordingly, and a column that gave a congratulatory vibrating massage when hugged (Glueck). Craft Horizons dispatched playwright Israel Horovitz to the exhibition, where he reported that the exhibition “had its viewers staggering out the emergency exits gasping crisp, winter, polluted West Fifty-third Street air, then plunging back into the exhibition as mad British weekenders after an almost forgotten bird” (Horovitz 15). In 1971, the museum mounted a series of three exhibitions called Acts. The first show, by Swiss artists Heidi and Carl Bucher, featured outrageous sculptures that were designed to be worn, including balloon-like phosphorescent inflatables that are only complete when donned by a museum-goer (Museum of Contemporary Crafts). The second “act,” entitled CitySenses, was perhaps the most “far-out” exhibition ever mounted by a crafts-based museum. Upon arrival at the museum, guides greeted the guests and explained the intent of the exhibition, which encouraged participation above all else. Visitors were directed to a wall containing some instructions and ten different mimeographed “scores” that directed them to go back outside and perform actions like “choose a place for fantasy. Assume a role …and devise a task… to do in this role in this place.”

1971 discovery of the “kaolithic” fossil of an eight-foot humanoid in Another score encouraged viewers to help build a “continuing Cityhis Port Costa, California backyard was explained thusly: senses exhibit by the people of New York” out of discarded objects from the street (B. Schwartz 30). The third and final show was CosIt is well known that fossils are created in nature when tume Statements, a group exhibition of experimental fashion that minerals gradually replace the buried remains of a creature with “considered clothing as an extension of the body and the body as a deposit of stone. This process often takes millions of years to complete. The kaolithic process is much faster. Kaolithic fossils an instrument for movement and expression” that also marked the are formed when the buried remains are replaced by ceramic commuseum debut of noted performance artist Pat Oleszko. (ibid.) pounds which have been shaped through impaction by unnatural This free-wheeling atmosphere of experimentation resonated forces. When they are exposed to high temperatures in a kiln, within the clay world. The Funk movement was in full bloom, and cemetamorphosis occurs and the kaolithic fossilization is complete. ramic artists were rebelling in every conceivable way. Although West The entire process can happen within a few days. (Bailey ) Coast ceramic artists get much of the credit for pushing boundaries in the ‘60s and ‘70s, one of the most groundbreaking (pun intended) exhiBailey’s exhibitions were almost always accompanied by perbitions in the history of American craft was a national open invitationformances. The opening of his Wonders of the World Museum in al unfired clay exhibition that occurred at the farm of Southern Illinois 1976 featured the artist and his friends performing as “Dr. Snootfull’s University professor Nicholas Vergette in 1970. The show was curated Medicine Show,” a “cascading avalanche of hard hitting, down-home by conceptual artist Lowell Darling, who was a graduate student in MUSIC, incredible SLEIGHT-OF-HAND, outrageous scientific Carbondale at the time, but later made a name for himself running for GYMNASTICS, verbal PYROTECHNICS, outright CHICANERY governor of California in and just plain BOM1978 and 2010. BAST!!!: (ibid.). Nearly One by one, a machine filled with loose wires and blinking The one-day exhia century later, Clayton bition included sixty-two Bailey was picking up lights called the “aesthetron” placed compression on the pots entries by different artwhere George Ohr had until they were crushed. The test was followed by a steady ists, including a piece left off. by James Melchert that Bailey’s presenstream of outraged letters to the editors of Ceramics Monthly consisted of a clay slab tations at conferences and the NCECA board from people who failed to see how draped over the crest of a like NCECA and Susmall hill (subsequently per Mud have become firmly Bailey’s tongue was lodged in his cheek. decorated by a passing the stuff of legend. At dog’s feet). There was the 1975 Super Mud also a Robert Arneson piece entitled Earth Link that was a six-foot conference, Bailey demonstrated his “psychic ceramic” skills, section of chain carved directly into the earth. David Gilhooly sent whereby the artist, seated at a potter’s wheel explained that createlaborate drawings for an entire unfired “frog world,” which was then ing pottery was a matter of “mind over matter.” He put a special pared down to a request that dozens of his unfired clay frog figures “Electro Encephalo Strap” over his head to channel his psychic be dropped onto the site from an airline. After that idea was nixed by energy to a rotating mound of clay. The wheel stopped, and a large the FAA because of safety concerns, the attendees settled on flinging ceramic bottle quickly emerged out of the formless mound of clay the frog figures onto the frozen pond using slingshots (Darling). No on the wheel. Bailey was of course, aided by a large spring inside pieces were returned to their creators, none were sold or insured, and of a latex mold of a bottle, and was rewarded by a pie in the face all were to remain at the site and become part of it (Johnson 38). dispensed by a disgruntled audience member (Irving). As a member of the Bay Area Funk movement, Clayton Bailey At the 1978 NCECA conference in Champaign, Illinois, possessed a suspicion (perhaps even hostility) to everything the ceBailey and collaborator Jack Dollhausen tested the compression ramics world held dear. In the early 1960s, as a ceramics instructor at strength of a variety of ceramic vessels, ranging from a “rare Ming the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Bailey encouraged his stuvase” to works by colleagues such as James Melchert and Richard dents to look beyond beauty. He noted “that ‘beauty’ is an attribute of Shaw. One by one, a machine filled with loose wires and blinkthe familiar and the comfortable. The artist should seek to discover ing lights called the “aesthetron” placed compression on the pots the new and unusual, and should not strive for beauty.” One of Baiuntil they were crushed. The test was followed by a steady stream ley’s students took his words to heart and scrawled “think ugly” in of outraged letters to the editors of Ceramics Monthly and the large letters on the studio wall (claytonbailey.com). Bailey’s artwork NCECA board from people who failed to see how firmly Bailey’s reflected this dictum. His ceramic output throughout the ‘60s and tongue was lodged in his cheek (NCECA 10). ‘70s was inspired by “lowbrow” comic artists like Basil Wolverton One of Bailey’s frequent collaborators in these demonstrations and Ed “Big Daddy” Roth and was made of materials like whiteware and lectures was ceramic artist Victor Spinski. Spinski’s major conclay, hobby glazes and lusters. Bailey tried his best to put in “only as tribution to the genre of ceramic performance came in the form of a much craftsmanship as each piece demanded” (Bailey). trompe l’oeil ceramic garbage can that he had sold to a collector who Bailey’s actual ceramic works were only the tip of the iceberg. requested he make a few changes to the piece. After picking up the As a noted figure in the ceramic world, he constantly received requests piece, Spinski began to chafe at the request, and decided to have some for demonstrations and lectures. The only problem was that Bailey fun with it instead. That night, he put the ceramic garbage can out found them insufferably boring. His solution was to turn the lecture with the real garbage cans and waited behind a bush for the garbage on its head: he saw each gallery talk or workshop as an opportunity truck. When a sanitation worker finally arrived, Spinski managed to to unleash his personal brand of Dadaist mayhem on a (mostly) unphotograph him struggling with the (glazed on) lid of the ceramic suspecting audience. To this end, Bailey was aided and abetted by his garbage can, and finally captured a photo of him smashing the can to alter ego, Dr. Gladstone, a lab-coated talking head that lent a veneer bits on the side of the truck (Spinski). of pedantic respectability to Bailey’s ceramic “experiments.” Bailey’s Many West Coast artists including Robert Arneson and David

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Gilhooly consciously used materials and rhetoric borrowed from the world of “hobby” ceramics. Arneson’s work self-mockingly refers to the art world’s view of ceramics as “the world’s most fascinating hobby.” Gilhooly followed the lead of pop artists like Claes Oldenberg and introduced a layer of consumer critique into his work, creating ceramic food to symbolize his own struggles with weight. He then created a mobile donut cart where he sold his ceramic work alongside more typical art fair booths in downtown Toronto (Gilhooly 54). A more trenchant examination of the role of commerce in ceramics is Rimas VisGirda’s Captain Ceramics project. The project was devised as a satire of the hobby ceramics industry, which was exploding in the late 1970s. Then as now, the back of magazines like Ceramics Monthly were filled with pictures of burly men proudly posing at a potter’s wheel that is clearly powerful enough to handle the hundreds of pounds of clay it takes to throw a phallic six-foot pot. The September 1979 issue of Ceramics Monthly contained twenty different advertisements for kilns, each containing different testimonials and claims. Captain Ceramics was a conceptual project that perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the era. VisGirda created a range of products that were intentionally outrageous, but they were perfectly packaged in vernacular language and imagery of the projects they satirized. Items like bats containing pre-centered lumps of clay have become the stuff of ceramic urban legend, but they were one of Captain Ceramics’ real offerings. The crown jewel of the Captain Ceramics product line was the X-1, rightly advertised as “the world’s most powerful potter’s wheel.” The X-1 was powered by a 300 horsepower V-8 engine from a 1965 Oldsmobile (Minnesota Energy). VisGirda completed the X-1 just in time to exhibit it during the pre-conference at the 1976 NCECA in Baton Rouge, where they happened to be placed next to a booth that was conducting a seminar on “sensitivity training.” According to VisGirda, they were “sitting cross-legged and communing with nature while ten feet away, we had this V-8 with no muffler” (VisGirda). Captain Ceramics also offered the world’s “least powerful wheel,” a “home hobby economy wheel” that consisted of a dowel and wheel head powered by a pull string that could be attached to any table. VisGirda also offered up a reversible splash guard made out of a 50-gallon drum that was suitable for extra-messy (or well-dressed) potters in addition to other “convenience products” like pre-packaged kiln gods, glaze dippers and pre-started clay cylinders. Collateral advertising material was also important to the project. From 1976 through 1980, VisGirda produced a steady stream of promotional calendars, postcards and even an “under-the-counter” Captain Ceramics-themed “Tijuana Bible” for his “best customers” (VisGirda). In her review of the October 1971 exhibition Clayworks: 20 Americans at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York that featured Melchert, Bailey, Arneson and Gilhooly, Rose Slivka pondered the sheer variety of humor that was employed, ranging from “scourging wit to sad clowning to intelligent and elegant wryness.” Slivka chalked this sudden influx of humor and linguistic exploration up to the ceramics world’s need to invent a “protective patois, a dialect, in-talk and double-talk not understandable by the aficionados and the entrepreneurs.” She wondered whether or not the artists in the exhibition, who were university educated and “degree-laden” had “outwitted the art world… and by so doing, outwitted themselves?” (Slivka 63). It would appear that time, for the most part, has borne Slivka’s prediction out. While Arneson’s work is often shown in museums alongside the work of other modern masters, the work of other artists working conceptually with humor and clay in the 1970s has been

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largely forgotten, even by the field of ceramics. When questioned about Funk, contemporary viewers are often ill-at-ease with the hallmarks of the work—its use of chalky whiteware clay, hobby glazes and groanworthy wordplay. Nevertheless, these artists have blazed a trail for artists like Grayson Perry, who, like George Ohr and Clayton Bailey, is inseparable from his performative persona. As contemporary practitioners in the field of ceramics continue to explore video, performance, and processes that don’t necessarily result in ceramic objects, it is imperative that the work of their forbears is preserved and celebrated. Works Cited: Bailey, Clayton G. “A Short Chronology of the Artist’s Life.” The Ceramic Sculpture and Metal Sculpture of Clayton Bailey. Web. January 5, 2012. Baker, Kenneth. David Gilhooly. Davis, CA (140 F St., Davis, CA 95616): John Natsoulas, 1992. Print. Burrison, John A. Brothers in Clay: The Story of Georgia Folk Pottery. Athens: University of Georgia, 1995. Print. Buszek, Maria Elena. Extra/ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2011. Clark, Garth, Robert Ellison, Eugene Hecht, and John White. “The Life and Times of G.E. Ohr.” The Mad Potter of Biloxi. New York: Abbeville, 2002. Print. Gladstone, George. “Compression Tests Shatter Esthetic Beliefs.” NCECA Newsletter 2 (Jan. 1979): 2. Print. Glueck, Grace. “Making the Spectator the Participant; Feel It Environment at Crafts Museum.” The New York Times, February 1, 1969: 25. The New York Times. Web. January 3, 2011. Horovitz, Israel. “Feel It: Museum of Contemporary Crafts Exhibition Explores Anti-visual Experience.” Craft Horizons (Mar.-Apr. 1969): 15+. Print. Interview with Clayton Bailey. Personal interview, May 23, 2011. Interview with Rimas VisGirda. Telephone interview, December 19, 2011. Interview with Victor Spinski. Telephone interview, January 4, 2012. Irving, Rebecca. “Sculptor Gets ‘pied’ during Pottery Test.” Niagra Gazette [Niagra Falls, NY] October 25, 1975. Print. Johnson, Evert. “Two Happenings at Southern Illinois University: 1/ Clay Unfired.” Craft Horizons (Oct. 1970): 36-39. Print. Marcus, Greil. Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes. New York: H. Holt &, 1997. Print. Meyer-Hermann, Eva, Andrew Perchuk, and Stephanie Rosenthal. Allan Kaprow - Art as Life. London: Thames & Hudson, 2008. Print. Minnesota Energy: An Artist-curated Exhibition. Duluth, MN: University of MinnesotaDuluth, 1980. The Museum of Contemporary Crafts. “Public to ‘Get Into the Act” at new Exhibition/Event Series.” New York: Museum of Contemporary Crafts, 1971. “The New Ceramic Presence.” In The Craft Reader, ed. Glenn Adamson, 525-33. Oxford: Berg, 2010. Oliver, Valerie Cassel. “Craft Out of Action.” Hand+Made: The Performative Impulse in Art and Craft. Houston, TX: Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, 2010. Schwartz, Barbara. “The Self in City Space and in Clothed Space.” Craft Horizons (Aug. 1971): 30-35. Schwartz, Judith S. Confrontational Ceramics. London: A&C Black, 2008. Slivka, Rose. “Laugh-In in Clay.” Craft Horizons (Oct. 1971): 39+. Voulkos, Peter, Rose Slivka, and Karen Tsujimoto. “Introduction: The Dynamics of Duende.” The Art of Peter Voulkos. Tokyo: Kodansha International in Collaboration with the Oakland Museum, 1995.

Garth Johnson is a writer, artist and educator who lives and works in Eureka, California. He is an assistant professor of art at College of the Redwoods. Garth has written for magazines like CRAFT, Readymade, FiberArts, American Craft and Hand/Eye. His first book, 1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse was published by Quarry in November, 2009. He has also contributed to books like Handmade Nation, Craftivity, Craft Corps and World of Geekcraft. His work has been exhibited internationally, as well as featured in magazines such as The Observer, Ceramics Monthly, American Craft, Metropolis and The Artist’s Magazine. Garth is also a curator, with two recent exhibitions under his belt. His first exhibition, Renewal Notice, was curated for the 2010 American Conservation Film Festival in Shepherdstown, WV. His second exhibition, Era Messages was curated from the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, Oregon, and was on display at the museum from January-June 2011. Currently, Garth is serving as the guest editor for an upcoming issue of Studio Potter.

Co-lecture: electric kiln doctors Saadi Shapiro & Mike Swauger Introduction

by Mike Swauger Being the Kiln Doctor was not by first profession. In 1976 I began working as a cartographer/researcher for a national map publisher for 21 years. I married a potter and started repairing her equipment and soon her friends’ equipment. This led me to taking courses for electrical, and talking to manufacturers, as well as taking old equipment apart and repairing them; thus a new career was started. In 1989 I began advertising and offering my services to NCECA local area Journal potters in2010 the Washington, D.C., metro area on a part-time basis, until 1997. Over the years I expanded to include schools, colleges, businesses and art centers. In 2008 I opened The Kiln Doctor, a retail full-service supply store. I strive to keep up with the manufacturers and technology changes. NCECA has helped achieve this by bringing manufacturers and exhibitors together in one place, and having attended over six conferences I am able to stay current with the technology.

Thinking about a New Electric Kiln? by Saadi Shapiro

There are many considerations when purchasing an electric kiln. Do you have the space? Do you have the electrical supplies? What will you be firing? These are some of the questions that should be asked when you are in the market for a kiln. We will discuss these considerations in addition to offering advice on how to maintain your kiln and how to perform simple repairs. In looking to purchase a kiln, size matters. How much room do you have in your work area? You should have 18” of clearance around the sides of the kiln and 3 feet of clearance above, to allow you to lift the lid of the kiln and to avoid a fire hazard. What are the sizes of the pieces you intend to fire? If you tend to work tall, you will want a deep kiln, but if you fire plates or flat pieces, you should consider a wide kiln. It is extremely important to make sure that where you plan to install the kiln has adequate power. You should determine your voltage (240VAC vs 208VAC), whether you have single or three phase power and how many amps you have available, prior to selecting a kiln. Upgrading your electrical service can be quite expensive. Once you have decided on the features of your desired kiln you will need to choose between a new or used kiln. New kilns offer you more choices: you can get a digital or manual controlled kiln and match the electrical supply that you have. Looking for a used kiln that will suit your needs may take longer than you wish to find one. I always recommend that if you are purchasing a new kiln that you use the services of a local distributor, that way you will have some support if you need it. Normally, a store is able to deliver and set up your kiln, as opposed to a trucking company leaving your new kiln out at the curb. If you decide on a used kiln, it is recommended that you contact the manufacturer to get the specifications for the kiln you have found. They can help you with the resistance of the heating elements, to judge how much life you have left in them. It is a good idea to borrow or buy a decent multi-meter to check the function of the

switches, the relays, the life of the heating elements, the kiln sitter on a manual kiln and the circuit board on a digital kiln. This tool would also be useful with the maintenance and repair of your kiln. In addition, a visual inspection is very important. Look for broken bricks, a cracked floor and/or lid, and tight metal bands with minimal rust. If the metal bands are not tight and a little rusted, it will be difficult to tighten the bands, and this is what holds the kiln to together. Look at the heating elements to make sure they are secure in the brick grooves and that the coil spacing is uniform and not laying flat or bunched (this would indicate the elements will need replacing). In order to safely transport your newly purchased electric kiln, keep it upright; never put it on its side. If your kiln comes in rings, it is better to disassemble it and to reassemble it in place. This is fairly easy to do and easier on your back (or your friend’s back). It is important to have an electrician install the proper size copper wire for the electrical requirements of the kiln, remembering to increase the wire one size for every 50 feet from your breaker box to your receptacle. A new receptacle should be installed with the ground oriented at the top, close to the kiln (do not use an extension cord). Once the kiln is in place, make sure it is level. It may be necessary to use metal shims to level the kiln and to keep it from rocking. You will need to keep the power cord from touching the side of the kiln. Before you fire the kiln, you should vacuum the interior and

“Paragon is by far the most solid-built kiln made” —David Snyder David Snyder began repairing kilns at age 15 in his parents’ ceramic shop. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina and services kilns in an eight-state area. “Paragon is by far the most ment. One production potter I solid-built, virtually repair-free know does literally day in, day kiln made,” said David. “I can out cone 6 firings in his Paragon honestly say it’s the best kiln Viking-28. He had his kiln for right at three years before needmade in North America. “As a professional repair per- ing new elements. The element son, I prefer selling a top quality replacement in that kiln could kiln and then never having to not have been simpler.” Call or email for a colorful worry about a warranty issue rather than selling a kiln of lesser free catalog or to find a dealer quality and having to worry that near you. I will have to make a trip for warranty service repair. “Elements are pre stretched with pre-bent corners, so there’s no 2011 South Town East Blvd., worry about the eleMesquite, Texas 75149-1122 ment fitting or not. 800-876-4328 / 972-288-7557 New element connecBetter Toll Free Fax 888-222-6450 tors come with every eleDesigned www.paragonweb.com Kilns info@paragonweb.com

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thoroughly read the operating manual. It is a good idea to start a kiln log to record your firings. You will want to record how full the kiln is loaded, what temperature you are firing to, how long you are candling and the total length of the firing. This will supply you with information on how your kiln is firing and alert you when there is a potential problem with the kiln. To extend the life of the kiln, there are preventive maintenance procedures to follow. Never place things on top of the lid. Keep the lid closed except when loading or unloading your pieces. Periodically vacuum the interior of the kiln, especially if pieces have exploded. Check the metal bands on regular basis to make sure they are tight. Make sure the power cord cannot be easily un-plugged. If it is loose, the receptacle should be replaced. Make sure all the electrical connections are tight (with the kiln unplugged from the receptacle, of course). For digital kilns, check the thermocouple for cracks or bends. On a manual kiln check the kiln sitter for proper adjustment and make sure the sensing rod moves freely. There are many minor repairs that are easy to do yourself. It is extremely important that you unplug the kiln before attempting repairs. It is not difficult to replace a switch or a relay, if you remove the wire from the old part and connect it to the replacement part, one wire at a time. It is important that the connector is clean with no rust

and fits tightly on the new part. Replacing heating elements involves removal of the existing element, cleaning the groove, installing the new element into the bottom of the groove, pinning it in place and tightly reconnecting the element to the harness wires. Replacing a thermocouple is a simple matter. Remove the old one and insert the new one being careful to maintain the proper polarity (the red wire is negative on a thermocouple). To replace the plug, it is very helpful if you follow the plug manufacturer diagrams for stripping the insulation. It is often a good idea to replace the receptacle at the same time. Saadi Shapiro, B.A. in History, University of California, Berkeley, has been repairing ceramics equipment for over twenty years throughout Northern California. He has been the service manager at ClayPeople for the last fourteen years. He has been a Ceramics Instructor at Richmond Art Center (Richmond, CA), Piedmont Adult School (Piedmont, CA) and Studio One (Oakland), as well as Visiting Artist at Bentley School (Lafayette, CA) and Art Department Technician, Merritt College (Oakland, CA). Shapiro has shown frequently, including at the Richmond Art Center, Merritt College and the California Conference for the Advancement of Ceramic Art.

MELTING POT INTO THE FIRE continued from Page 117 in providing sense of security and multitude of local and international protection. Anat Bar’el develops an influences and trends, Israeli ceramintimate relationship with her Jeruic artists have the freedom to explore salem based neighborhood. I’ve been experiment and make choices of around the Block records her daily ideas, materials, techniques, workwalks in familiar surroundings. ing methods and content. The ex“Memories of the past, events hibition illustrates this diversity of of the present and hopes for the fuapproaches, ranging from the purely ture” create man’s cultural imprint decorative to the sculptural, expreson the landscape. Recorded by hissive and conceptual. While some of tory, investigated by archeology and the work is intended as social and built in a variety of architectural political commentary, the majority styles and traditions, it is a source of of the pieces are inspired by formal, information and inspiration for many symbolic and conceptual concerns of the artists. The Road is Open reand a desire to explore the full mafers visually to the past whilst lookterial potential of ceramic art. The ing at the present. In Six Oy, shards intimate and personal nature of the of industrially produced pots make show provides visitors with an indiup the contents of an imaginary fuvidual perspective of the issues that ture archaeological site. In Out of have and will continue to shape life a Wall a Stone Will Cry, significant in contemporary Israel. milestones in local architecture poetically inform a series of wall tiles. Yael Novak is a graduate of Other works directly refer to archithe Hebrew University, Jerusalem. tecture. Structures renders an urban A studio potter since 1990, her work environment with seven geometric can be found in international priblock forms. City Container capvate and corporate collections. Yael tures a reflection and an outline of an has taught, curated and exhibited urban skyline, while On a Journey Laurie Goldstein, On a Journey Towards Remembrance, 2006, slab-built throughout the world and particistoneware, porcelain, glazing, glaze wash, 80x110x70cm. Towards Remembrance the spectator pated in several workshops, profesis cajoled into mysterious, narrow and twisted alleys to join the artist sional conferences and symposia. She is a council member of the on a mysterious inner journey of discovery. Ceramic Artists Association of Israel in charge of Foreign Affairs. The absence of centuries-old ceramic practice, which has alOver the past several years she has been initiating global connecways traditionally been in the hands of Palestinian village potters, tions for the CAAI in an effort to establish Israeli ceramic art as part has sent Israeli ceramic art on a journey of self-discovery. Discoverof the international clay community and to contribute to its profesing its own voice—that of diversity and strength—derived from a sional dialogue with the world.

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co-lecture • room of a thousand porcelains Julie Emerson & Mimi Gates by Julie Emerson Through the years, selections from the Seattle Art Museum’s premier collection of eighteenthcentury European porcelain have been exhibited in discrete settings—on a tea table, in a period cabinet, and in a museum case. Because recent generations have come to know porcelain mainly in the form of relatively inexpensive dinnerware and cheap knickknacks, it is difficult to convey to contemporary visitors a sense of the exalted position that early porcelain held and the intriguing stories surrounding it. In tribute to porcelain’s beauty and honored tradition, the Seattle Art Museum has created its Porcelain Room. The Porcelain Room, opened May, 2007, Seattle Art Museum. This integrated architectural and decorative scheme displays European and Asian porcelain that room at his palace, Monplaisir, in St. Petersburg, became a symbol evokes a time when porcelain was highly treasured art and a valuof power, prestige, and pure pleasure. able trade commodity. The Dutch Princess of Orange, Louise Henriette, took her ChiTeeming with more than one thousand pieces, the Porcelain nese porcelain with her when she departed The Hague to marry Room, which opened in May 2007, was conceived to blend visual Frederick Wilhelm, the Elector of Brandenburg-Prussia in 1646. The excitement and a sense of wonder with an historical concept. It is the first porcelain room at Oranienburg, their palace near Berlin, was latest endeavor in a long tradition of displaying useful ceramics on dismantled—by 1690 it was known as “die alte Porcellain Cammer” the exterior and interior walls of buildings. Middle Eastern tin-glazed (The old Porcelain Room). We do not know how it looked, but from and luster wares were embedded into the exterior of medieval Euroan engraving we see her collection of blue-and-white porcelain as pean churches at the time of construction. Known in the West by the it was installed in an elaborate baroque creation by her son in 1695. Italian name, bacini, they were votive offerings brought by merchants This room also no longer exists, but in addition to the engraving and returning crusaders. Early in the seventeenth century, the Music there is a detailed description of the room which notes that it was 30 Room in the Ali Qapu Palace in Isfahan, Persia, featured hundreds of x 40 feet and contained seven pyramids for porcelain consisting of niches in the stucco walls for the display of the blue-and-white porgilded-wood and mirrored shelves, in front of mirrored walls. celain collected by Shah Abbas I. This room was not singular—other Through his engravings, the French Huguenot Daniel Marot Persian porcelain rooms are described from this period. played a leading architectural role in disseminating the fashion for On his first voyage to India, the Portuguese explorer Vasco de displaying porcelain in richly decorated rooms. Marot, who was Gama returned in 1499 with Chinese porcelain for King Manuel I of forced to flee Paris around 1684 when French Protestants were Portugal that inspired further orders of the magical wares. The Chidenied their religious freedom, first settled in the Hague where he nese maintained a lucrative trading post on India’s west coast. In the worked for William III and his circle. After William and his wife royal Santos palace in Lisbon, the pyramid-shaped ceiling is covMary were crowned King and Queen of England in 1688, Marot ered in Chinese blue-and-white plates that date from King Manuel’s followed them to England. Queen Mary made porcelain rooms fashtime of the early sixteenth to the early seventeenth century. Prior to ionable in England the seventeenth century, porcelain was a rare trade commodity in One of the most famous of the grand Porcelain Rooms is in Europe, housed in cabinets of curiosities and royal treasuries. Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin. Built around 1710 by the Elector The story of European rooms filled, floor to ceiling, with Asian of Brandenburg-Prussia Frederick III for his wife Sophie Charlotte, porcelain begins in the seventeenth century when control of the this baroque extravaganza has been wonderfully restored with the East–West maritime trade shifted from the Portuguese and Spanish aid of historical documents. Colorfully decorated Japanese porceto the Dutch. An abundance of porcelain flowed into the Netherlain arriving in Europe after the mid 1660s helped to further ignite lands and was dispersed throughout Europe. Integrating porcelain the fervor for porcelain and added a vibrant dimension to Porcelain into interior design in palaces and great houses from Queen Mary’s Room decor. The porcelain room at Charlottenburg combines Chigallery at Kensington Palace to Czar Peter the Great’s porcelain nese blue-and-white, and white porcelain in an orchestrated array

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at Schönbrunn, circa 1760, porcelain is an accent to Japanese and Chinese lacquered wood paneling, rather than the main attraction. As trade increased and porcelain became more available, the passion and prestige for filling rooms with porcelain drew to a close. The modern-day porcelain room in Seattle references but does not copy the baroque-styled porcelain rooms of the past. The shallow niches, twelve inches deep, and the use of Amiran® anti-reflective glass accommodate the concept of a room with walls covered with porcelain, almost like wallpaper, rather than standard museum casework filled with porcelain. Like the Porcelain Room at Charlottenburg, our room features niches alternating with mirrors as well as a frieze, but the general design of the room and the gilded but simple brackets on which the porcelain is displayed are meant to be harmonious with a contemporary, rectilinear building. We designed the layout of the porcelain on a computer in Adobe® Photoshop® which provided great flexibility and reduced the need for excessive handling of the fragile objects. The actual installations are remarkably close to our computer-generated designs. Life-sized versions of the computer designs served as templates for the two art handlers who installed the porcelain. Because it was impossible to put labels for the porcelain on the walls of the room, the versatile computer images then transitioned into the printed guidebook to the pieces on display. (The Porcelain Room Guide is available in the room for visitors, for sale in our museum shop, and online at SeattleArtMuseum.org, Online Publications.) The lion’s share of porcelain on display is eighteenth-century European, combined with eightyseven Chinese porcelains and thirty-nine of Japanese origin. Forgoing the standard museum installation arranged by nationality, manufactory, and date, our porcelain is grouped by color and theme. One niche Porcelain Room, ca.1710, Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin. Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg/Jörg P. Anders. near an entrance to the room is didactic, offering visitors an introduction to the history of porcelain. The Porcelain with Japanese porcelain decorated with beautiful enamel colors— Room Guide begins with this niche and the earliest porcelain, a Chiall in a richly gilded and mirrored interior. Porcelain rooms on this nese kendi, a water vessel, which dates from the seventh-century scale seem to have been primarily a Germanic enterprise. Tang dynasty. The Chinese held a monopoly on porcelain producThe culmination of the great, palatial European porcelain rooms tion for a millennium. The next great porcelain tradition develops of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was to have been when porcelain is produced in Japan in the early seventeenth cena Porcelain Palace, called the Japanese Palace, an installation contury, and is represented in the niche by an early eighteenth-century ceived by Augustus the Strong, the Elector of Saxony and King of Posaucer with a depiction of a yellow tiger with bamboo and prunus land. Augustus was a major collector of Chinese and Japanese porcedecoration. lain. Augustus acquired a Dresden Palace to house his porcelain and As vast sums were drained from European royal coffers to had it remodeled to look vaguely Asian with pagoda-like additions. buy Asian porcelain, aristocratic patrons all over Europe funded reUnfortunately, plans for more than thirty rooms and viewing gallersearch projects to reproduce the elusive porcelain formula. Augusies to exhibit the King’s 20,000 piece collection of Asian porcelain tus the Strong of Saxony finally claimed the honor, and the Royal together with porcelain from his porcelain manufactory at Meissen Porcelain Manufactory was established at Meissen, near Dresden in were left unfinished following the King’s death in 1733. 1710. Its porcelain was popularly known as “white gold.” Meissen As the eighteenth century progressed, the style for displaying high-fire stoneware and porcelain tea canisters, in addition to a cofmassive quantities of porcelain in grandiose baroque interiors shifted fee, tea, and chocolate service, tell the story of Europe’s first porto lighter, airier arrangements in the rococo style. In the Mirror Cabicelain to compete with Asian wares. Europe’s Age of Porcelain in net of Schloss Weissenstein in Pommersfelden, Bavaria, dating from the eighteenth century was underway as kings, electors, and princes 1719, porcelain plays a secondary role to large mirrors, exceptional eyed the porcelain production at Meissen and demanded their own inlayed woodwork of the floor, and gilded molded decoration on the porcelain manufactories. Examples of porcelain from Austria, Italy, walls. In the China Cabinet of the Habsburg Empress, Maria Theresa,

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France, and England continue the progression tive Arts Department in 1981, with an emphasis of porcelain production in Europe in this inon building the European and American Decotroductory niche. Museum docents often begin rative Arts collections. The Seattle Art Museum their tours of the Porcelain Room here. opened its newly expanded building in May of The long wall of the Porcelain Room fea2007, featuring decorative arts galleries curated tures wares by color. One pair of niches displays by Emerson that include a wood-paneled Italtraditional blue-and-white porcelain from China, ian Room dating from 1550-1580, in which the Japan, and Europe. A large dish with a dragon maiolica collection is showcased, and the Porcemotif represents Chinese export ware produced lain Room, brimming with one thousand magnifduring the Wanli period (1573-1619) that inicent European and Asian pieces. The Porcelain spired a tremendous European craze for porceRoom is the culmination of research that began lain. The Dutch called this ware kraakporselein, with a course on the history of porcelain, taught probably named for Portuguese carracks, large at the University of Washington by Emerson and sailing vessels that transported porcelain to co-instructor Mimi Gardner Gates, which led in Above: Large dish with dragon, ca.1610–20, Chinese, Europe. Kraak porcelain covered the walls of Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Jingdezhen, hard-paste 2000 to the most ambitious decorative arts exhiearly European porcelain rooms. Another pair porcelain, diam. 20¼ in. Seattle Art Museum, Bequest bition and book ever organized by the museum, of niches features the theme West meets East. of Joan Louise Applegate Dice, 91.40. Porcelain Stories: From China to Europe. Here we explore cross-cultural tastes as reflected Below: Square bottle, early 18th century, Japanese, Ariin the Western collecting of Asian porcelain and ta, hard-paste porcelain, Dutch decorated, c.1720–35, h. Why was porcelain so desirable? 10¼ in. Seattle Art Museum, Gift of Martha and Henry the international circulation of decorative motifs. Isaacson, 76.99 Why was porcelain technology first A square bottle dating from the early eighteenth century best illustrates this theme. It is Japanese invented in China? porcelain in the form of Dutch glass gin botWhat is porcelain’s association with the tles—square, so that they could be more easily Ming and Qing Imperial Palace? packed in wooden crates for long-distance trade. The porcelain bottle was sent to Holland, where by Mimi Gates it was painted by a Dutch artist, in a Japanese In Swan’s Way, Marcel Proust writes, “The decorative style derived from Chinese Ming and past is hidden somewhere outside the realm, Qing examples. The painting depicts a phoenix beyond the reach of the intellect, in some mateand hibiscus flower alternating with a crane in rial object (in the sensation which that object flight above chrysanthemums. will give us) which we do not suspect.” School groups have proven to be enthusiObject-based inquiry is a compelling way astic visitors to the Porcelain Room. A selection to explore ideas and porcelain is a superb ceof wares was purposefully placed at lower levramic that for more than a thousand years conels in the room so that young children seated on nected East and West, Asia and Europe. the floor can enjoy porcelain molded as a lion, The word “China” is synonymous with crayfish, or mythical phoenix. They can learn porcelain. Why were the Chinese the first to about carp, known in Japan as koi, or view a discover porcelain technology? In addition scene painted on English porcelain of a boy ridto porcelain, paper, printing, and gun powder ing a buffalo in China. Both the material and were all first invented in China, attesting to how advanced technoornamentation of porcelain bridges cultures and time for all visitors. logically the Chinese were, especially prior to the fifteenth century. The scene on a plate from the English Bow manufactory, dating midWhat is porcelain? There are multiple definitions. Chinese eighteenth century, depicts a Chinese scholar carrying a staff of ofdivide ceramics into two categories: low-fired ware and high-fired fice and accompanied by an attendant entrusted with his scrolls. The ware, which includes stoneware as well as porcelain. By contrast, pattern is listed in the Bow records as the Image or Bordered Image we in the West generally divide ceramics into three, not two, genpattern, but because this subject was unknown, it became popularly known in England as the “golfer and his caddy.” Europeans were fascinated with all things Asian—in this instance they were borrowing the style, not the content. We created the Porcelain Room to be a beautiful installation of Chain art. It also offers us the opportunity to exhibit a substantial quantity of Magnetic Chokers porcelain in a vibrant, historically based setting, and to tell the story Gemstones of a time when the art of making white, translucent porcelain was conJewelry Findings Everything you need sidered a magical process. For visiting connoisseurs, it serves as open Tools & Supplies to turn your storage. Few people pass this room without being instantly intrigued Kilns art into jewelry and then irresistibly captivated by the tempting splendor within. Portions of this article have been published previously in Porcelain Stories: From China to Europe, Seattle Art Museum, in association with the University of Washington Press, Seattle and London, 2000; and in the catalogue of The International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show, New York, 2009.

Julie Emerson established the Seattle Art Museum’s Decora-

1(800)366-2156 Quality Products with Quantity Pricing

www.rings-things.com nceca 125 Journal 2012 • Lectures

eral categories: 1.Earthenware (600 to 1000ºC), porous, permeable unless glazed. 2.Stoneware (fired in range 1100 to 1250ºC), hardness between earthenware and porcelain. 3.Porcelain, which, according to the Western definition, is a white, very high-fired ceramic made from china clay (also known as kaolin) that is rich in aluminum silicate and is often combined with porcelain stone.

The mixture of low iron clay and porcelain stone turns white when fired at extremely high kiln temperatures in the range of 1250ºC to 1400ºC. By vitrifying these raw materials the potter creates porcelain, a ceramic unequalled for its hardness, impermeability, whiteness and translucence. Why is porcelain so desirable? Is it the whiteness, the translucence, the extreme thinness or perhaps some other attribute? These provocative questions lack definitive answers. Porcelain’s hardness enhances its functionality. It is durable, superior to lower fired wares. Brilliant whiteness makes porcelain superior as dinner ware. A Chinese archaeologist contends that in ancient times the whiteness attested to the cleanliness of containers for food or wine. Unlike metals, porcelain does not impart a peculiar taste to food. In terms of visual appeal, porcelain’s translucence and reflective shine have a charm akin to metal, polished gold or silver. It is also the perfect ground for color. Its visual attractiveness, which ranges from pure white to rich decoration, is undeniable. Why was porcelain technology first invented in China? China’s supremacy in ceramic technology goes back to the beginnings of Chinese civilization. Porcelain evolved out of the stoneware tradition. In the Shang dynasty (c.1500-1050 B.C.), China was technologically far advanced in high-fired ceramic technology by comparison to other civilizations. For example, stoneware fired in range of 1200ºC to 1300ºC was produced in China by 14/13th c. BC. Recent excavations confirm that the Chinese had invented porcelain by the late 6th/early 7th century. Exactly where and when is an intriguing question that has no precise answers. Most likely what we call porcelain was first created at kilns in North China. Two conditions facilitated the invention of porcelain in China. One was the rich supply of raw materials: kaolin clay and porcelain stone. The second was the ability to fire a kiln to degrees of around 1300ºC. A third factor that accounts for China’s ability to produce vast quantities of porcelain is its early creation of methods of mass production, such as assembly lines, modular production, and the use of a highly specialized labor force. Located in south central China, in Jiangxi province, the city of Jingdezhen was the porcelain capital to the world. Jingdezhen was favorable to the development of a thriving porcelain industry because of the presence of abundant raw materi-

als, clay and stone, and the ease of transporting the porcelain by boat through a network of waterways to other areas of China and to the coast, to the great trade routes of the world. Jingdezhen is celebrated in Henry Longfellow’s poem Keramos, which reads, in part, as follows: O’er desert sands, o’er gulf and bay O’er Ganges and o’er Himalay Bird-like I fly, and flying sing To flowery kingdoms of Cathay, And bird-like poise on balanced wing Above the town of King-te-ching, A burning town, or seeming so, Three thousand furnaces that glow Incessantly and fill the air With smoke rising gyre on gyre And painted by the lurid glare, Of jets and flashes of red fire.

What is porcelain’s association with the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Imperial Palace? An important part of Jingdezhen porcelain was produced at the imperial kilns that were patronized by the emperor and his court. By the early Ming period, blue and white porcelain, first created in the early fourteenth century primarily for Middle Eastern markets, gained acceptance among the Chinese and underwent gradual sinicization. The stunning contrast of painting in deep cobalt blue on the white porcelain body had universal appeal. In the fifteenth century, overglaze enamels amplified the palette of colors and in some cases bright enamels were outlined in and combined with underglaze blue. The taste of the imperial court is brilliantly expressed in designs associated with the reign of each emperor. Those designs dictated by the court in Beijing were sent to the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen. Reign marks bearing the name of the emperor were painted on Ming and Qing dynasty porcelain, denoting the elevated status for these ceramics as they were made for imperial use. For example, a reign mark of the Chenghua emperor would read “made in the years of Cheng-hua of Great Ming, 1481-87.” Throughout the Ming and Qing periods, the kilns of Jingdezhen outfitted the Imperial palace with a vast array of elegant porcelain. In China, after the death of Emperor Qianlong in 1795, imperial patronage of Jingdezhen declined. Foreign incursions and domestic instability also took a toll. In 1856, during the Taiping rebellion, the Jingdezhen kilns were destroyed and never recovered their vigor and impetus. Today the great porcelain center of Jingdezhen seeks to revive traditional styles and recapture the artistic brilliance of earlier centuries. New directions are also being explored by Chinese artists working in porcelain as they use to advantage the celebrated qualities of this marvelous medium. Mimi Gardner Gates was director of the Seattle Art Museum for fifteen years and is now director emerita, overseeing the Gardner Center for Asian Art and Ideas. She has a BA from Stanford University in Chinese history and a PhD from Yale University in the history of Chinese Art. Previously she spent nineteen years at Yale University Art Gallery, the last seven-and-a-half of those years as director. She is a fellow of the Yale Corporation; a trustee of the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment; a manager of the Blakemore Foundation; and serves on the boards of the Yale University Art Gallery, the Northwest African American Museum, and Copper Canyon Press. Dr. Gates formerly chaired the National Indemnity Program at the National Endowment for the Arts and served on the Getty Leadership Institute Advisory Committee.

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lecture • on the edge: Boredom, Repetition and the Creative Act Janet DeBoos Over last summer our national public radio broadcaster replayed highlights from the year’s programs. One of these programs was about dirt. The following passage caught my attention: Imitation dirt is being used by some of the world’s most exalted chefs and restaurants. No one is actually eating soil but discerning cooks everywhere from Spain and England to here in Australia, are putting a little dirt, often imitation—from dried beets or mushrooms—on plates. . . . [not] as something to eat, but as an unexpected surprise, an elaborate garnish as a sort of substitute for old-fashioned parsley.1

The amuse-bouche—which started as a “taste preparation” for the mouth and then developed into a way of showcasing a chef’s particular style, appears to have degenerated into a desperate attempt at novelty, doomed to fail as its novelty is erased by the copyists that follow. It seemed yet another symptom of what Neil Postman in 1985 presciently described as “Amusing Ourselves to Death.”2 Apart from the unfair relegation of parsley to yesterday’s garnish, this story indicated that something had gone terribly awry in the world of dining—an act so basic to human pleasures that a problem here seemed possibly a symptom of a wider-spread malaise. It set me to wonder about the implications for our own field of ceramics in a world where we are now besieged—much as Postman wrote about—by entertainments and distractions everywhere. About thirty years ago we had just set up a production pottery at our home and I had started making pots for sale. We were visited by relations from the city who were curious about how the bohemian side of the family lived. I was making a line of thrown and dry-glazed decorative jars that I had put into production because, although they had lost potential for me as one-offs, I really enjoyed making them as multiples. The repeated action of their manufacture and my skill in making them allowed me to enjoy a state of mind and body that I more recently have learned could be described as “flow.” My aunt watched me for some time, and then shook her head and announced, “I don’t know how you can keep doing it, Janet. If it was me I would die of boredom. I would rather be doing something creative.” I was so involved in the act of making that I didn’t fully register the enormity of her comment at the time. But her words stayed with me for many years as I pondered the gap between my experience and hers. Initially the fact that I felt disconnected from the events around me when I was in full swing and throwing dominated my thinking. I thought that making as many pots as I did through production meant that I had become sufficiently skilled to be able to “let skill go.” I talked and wrote about the importance of skill, but rejected the ideal of mere technical virtuosity, as it was the psychological state induced that interested me:

more interesting the more the act was repeated. “If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.”5

It was probably the case that “boredom is just the reverse side of fascination: both depend on being outside rather than inside a situation, and one leads to the other.”6 Throughout the nineties, as art school ceramics courses grew shorter and pottery ceased to be taught as a separate subject in high schools, I watched students struggling with the acquisition of manual skills in a world increasingly filled with other distractions and entertainments. And more and more I heard the complaint “boring” applied to craft forms that demanded repetitive practice and skill development. In 1995 I participated in an exhibition that gave me the opportunity to talk about the process of making and the way in which repetitive acts seemed integral, in some almost mysterious way, to the development of ideas.7 Lars Svendsen addresses this in his splendid little volume A Philosophy of Boredom8 through canvassing the phenomenon of “existential boredom,” which in an extreme form can coincide with Heidegger’s “profound boredom.” Heidegger provides an existential significance for profound boredom that invites us not to escape from, but to give close attention to this all-consuming mood. In doing this we open ourselves up to the possibility of a radical change in our way of living, from inauthenticity to authenticity, and closer to the heart of what it means to be human. Since the concept was first introduced (boredom as opposed to “being boring”9) this fundamentally human mood has occupied much thinking and writing. As long ago as 1924, Siegfried Kracauer10 characterised modern life as a culture of distraction, and observed that “to be bored is not the outcome of banality, but the refusal to be engaged by it.” He proposed a “radical boredom” that would reunite head and heart, but that he believed was probably unattainable in the modern world. This seems to me to be the pivotal difference between the two responses to boredom: one is an engagement with banality and its entertainments and distractions; one is an act of resistance in the face of banality, an acceptance of “being-in-boredom.” I wondered if the act of repetitive throwing (or indeed any repetitive yet productive act that induces radical boredom), could be seen as a way to be creative.

“Skills close the gap between idea and object… they really exist outside the self…you bring that within. You make the skills part of yourself. Then you are the skills. You are the work.”3

The concept of boredom was less easily dealt with. I could also see how a repetitive act like production throwing could seem boring when looked at from the outside, but I found it enormously satisfying and was never “bored” whilst making pots. I thought of it almost as a pleasure that other people could vicariously experience through an imaginative act of use.4 The mental state that I entered when working on the wheel could be a kind of boredom, but it was never boring. In fact, as John Cage observed about boredom and repetition, it became

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Many artists with a high level of craft skill have talked about how a singular work will spring out of repetition of forms, and have expressed the deep pleasure, and the necessity, of boredom. After being awarded the Turner Prize in 2003, Grayson Perry gave a talk at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney and described the process by which his works came into being—the flow of ideas and subject matter from the street, newspaper headlines, and TV; the maelstrom of hectic and hyped image and idea. These he sketched quickly onto the slipped pot surfaces, and then . . . “[T]hen” he said, “…comes the really boring part…the slow and repetitive scratching away, the revealing of colours in the layers of slip, the removal of the surface, building and removing the images. Slowly, painstakingly…it’s the really boring part… that I love….”11 Basic to achieving this state of mind for Perry (radical boredom) is skill and repetition. And once achieved it allows the mind to be in a freewheeling state that is highly receptive to new connections and ideas, even if they do not surface immediately. Virginia Woolf found it in the capacity to be idle, a state analogous to profound boredom. “Yet it is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top.”12 This idleness, this boredom, this giving up of control is a risky business, not for the fainthearted. In a world where success is measured by how hard you work and how much money that generates, it is only recently that idleness/radical boredom/whatever-it-is-called is coming to be regarded as something not only in which we lose ourselves, but something that we are in danger of losing. So how can we increase the opportunities for that experience? Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience,13 observed that when people “undertake a task that requires complex skills, that leads to a challenging goal…the self is flooded with a sense of exhilaration.”14 Csikszentmihalyi introduces the idea of a goal, which seems antithetical to radical boredom. But on closer examination it is not, because the complex skills (embodied skills) that he refers to let the unconscious mind take over and allow us to “get lost” in the task. Everyone who has ever driven a car and daydreamed knows this, and I will wager that ceramic artists have had the same experience in their studios. Csikszentmihalyi’s eightpoint summation of the flow experience describes a very task-oriented phenomenon,15 but there are many parallels with notions of boredom. Of particular interest is his eighth point, that the experience becomes worth doing for its own sake. Here we come very close to Richard Sennett’s thesis in The Craftsman16 that doing something well for its own sake is at the core of craft practice. Although Csikszentmihalyi does allude to the positive contribution that optimizing the flow experience, neither writer dwells on what lies at the end of these processes of productive being: the satisfaction that an idea did develop, the excitement of discovery, the concrete evidence of your labors. We work and teach in an environment where the chance to be radically bored, to use one’s hands productively, to gain autonomous skills and experience flow is increasingly unavailable or even denied. We are denied the collaboration with chance that might demand all of our capacities. We now put plasma screen TVs in every room, we are constantly connected, we have allowed manual skills and technical learning to disappear from high schools, and when we say we are bored it is in no way a radical statement. We have the opportunity to do something about this in the way that we teach in those schools that still have functioning ceramics departments. We need to change the emphasis from the graduation show to now, here, in the studio. We need to offer the possibility of creative boredom without amusements or entertainments, and we need to show our students that they are more important as skilled artists than as the makers of commodities. Rebecca Solnit sums it

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up eloquently in her A Field Guide to Getting Lost when she says: Certainly for artists of all stripes, the unknown, the idea or the form, or the tale that has not yet arrived, is what must be found. It is the job of artists to open doors and invite in prophecies, the unknown, the unfamiliar; it’s where their work comes from although its arrival signals the beginning of the long and disciplined process of making it their own. Scientists too, as J. Robert Oppenheimer once remarked, “live always at the ‘edge of mystery’—the boundary of the unknown.” But they transform the unknown into the known, haul it in like fishermen: artists are the ones who get you out into that dark sea.17

1 Jill, Duchess of Hamilton in conversation with Robyn Williams, http://www. abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/ockham27s-razor-8-january-2012/3732572, accessed January 8, 2012. 2 Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, (Penguin: USA, 1985). 3 Janet DeBoos, Craft Australia Bulletin, 16 (April 1996): 5 (letter response to Beth Hatton’s “The Importance of Skill” in the same issue) 4 Janet DeBoos,”Vicarious Pleasures- domestic pottery revisited,” (breakout session speaker and discussion at NCECA, Columbus, Ohio, USA, 1999). 5 http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/cage-quotes.html, accessed December 19, 2011. 6 Susan Sontag, “America, Seen Through Photographs, Darkly,” in On Photography (1977). 7 Process & Obsession (1995), curated by Gillian McCracken at the Performance Space in Sydney. 8 Lars Svendsen, A Philosophy of Boredom, (English ed.) (London: Reaktion Books, 2005). 9 The first recorded use of the word “boredom” in literature was in Charles Dickens’ Bleak House (1852), although the concept had existed for much longer, as had the adjective “boring” and the noun “bore” (from mid 18th century). 10 Siegfried Kracauer, “Boredom” (1924), in The Everyday Life Reader, ed. Ben Highmore (London: Routledge, 2001): 301, reprinted from The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays, trans. Thomas Y. Levin (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995). 11 author’s undated notes from talk at Museum of Contemporary Art. Late 2003 or early 2004 12 http://www.finestquotes.com, Virginia Woolf accessed December 19, 2011. (Note: this is a much-used quote of Virginia Woolf’s for which I could find no literary origin.) 13 Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: Harper & Row, 1990). 14 Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, The Evolving Self: A Psychology for the Third Millenium (New York: Harper Collins, 1993): 175. 15 1. Clear goals and immediate feedback 2. skills are well suited to challenges 3. action and awareness merge 4. irrelevant stimuli disappear from consciousness 5. a sense of potential control 6. loss of self consciousness…a sense of growth 7. altered sense of time 8. the experience becomes autotelic; that is, it becomes worth doing for its own sake. 16 Richard Sennett, The Craftsman (Yale University Press: New Haven, 2007). 17 Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost (New York: Penguin, 2005): 5.

Head of the Ceramics Workshop at the Australian National University in Canberra, Janet DeBoos has a long standing interest in domestic pottery and its place in our lives. She is represented in many public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, The National Museum in Beijing, The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and the Musee Mariemont in Belgium. The nexus between industry and the handmade, perception, skill and craft practice underpins her research.

lecture: confessions of a HOBBY CRAFT CRIMINAL Charles Krafft It’s likely you’ve never heard of me, but people have been calling me a “famous artist” for most of my adult life. It’s a joke because no artist where I’m from has ever reached the pinnacle of fame achieved by the glass Artist’s Rifles Regiment AK47 artisan Dale Chihuly, who nobody in Detroit has ever really heard of either. Nevertheless, famous artists are usually linked to an art movement and I am identified with “Pop Surrealism.” It is also called “low brow” art, but some of the pioneer “low brow” artists in America didn’t like that name so they insisted that the first book about this genre be titled “Pop Surrealism.” I became a painter in the late ‘60s, but I didn’t receive any attention beyond the region until I started painting natural and socio-political catastrophes on plates and making porcelain weapons. My first show in New York was in l995. That was followed a couple of years later by a show at The Republic of Slovenia Ministry of Defense headquarters in Ljubljana. Unless you had a security pass you couldn’t go in and view that one. But the exhibit was reviewed favorably in a Slovenian Armed Forces magazine, and because that army is more avant-garde than your average army I became known in a few places outside of Seattle. Pictures on fine china are usually pleasant scenes of European aristocrats or peasants doing the things they did in the 18th and l9th centuries. I wanted to update these scenes by depicting the world we inhabit in the 21st century. It’s a world full of violence and tumult. The zeitgeist is very dark these days. You see it in the iconography of ur- Rifle Grenade ban graffiti and in the fashions of punks, goths and various other youth subcultures. You can hear it in the music and watch it on TV and in movies. I am from the ‘60s generation, but I wasn’t a radical. I didn’t listen to Cradle of Filth in those days, I listened to Donovan. The only people who dressed in black back then were Marxists, or nuns and priests. Now you go to a music club and everyone there looks like a demon from the 5th ring of Hell. I chose the Delft tradition to do update fine china because I had a friend who called himself “Von Dutch” and I wanted to make a tile in the Dutch style for him as a token of respect. People think Von Dutch is just a brand of American clothing. They should know there was an actual person named “Von Dutch” who wasn’t a clothes designer. He made cars, motorcycles, guns and knives. He was “The King of the Pinstripers” from Southern California whose real name was Kenneth Howard. He made a big impression on me as a kid and I tracked him down half a lifetime later to let him know it. If I announced that my art was anything other than a satire of politics and culture I could be charged with a hate crime in France under the Gayssot law, or some other Draconian anti-hate legislation in Europe. In Germany it’s forbidden to display a swastika so it’s best not to say too much about that, other than I was born with a perverse sense of humor that was a gift of my mother. I went to Sarajevo during the war in Yugoslavia with the rock band Laibach, a component of the NSK (Neue Slowenische Kunst) collective. I was an apolitical American. I didn’t know where Slovenia was or anything about that country. CEC Artslink: International Partners sent me there on a

residency program. Somehow I ended up in bombed-out Sarajevo and that experience changed my art and my naive belief in the goodness of globalism. Since then NSK has become more metaphysical while I have become more cynical and suspicious. Especially of American democracy. A Slovenian friend loaned me an antique machine gun. I took it to a man who restores church ornaments and he made a beautiful mold like I had never seen before. It was a work of art itself. I needed more guns to cast so my friend went to some Albanians and got me two Beretta pistols. These were too small to turn into porcelain because porcelain shrinks 20% in the kiln so I sent them back. My friend returned and said, “The Albanians are in the gun business, they are not in the art business. If you want bigger guns you must buy them.” I had no money to buy real guns so I went to Venice and bought toy guns. These looked just like real ones, but were much cheaper and legal. If you accidentally ruin a toy gun no Albanians will come and break your legs. Someone once told me that George Orwell’s book l984 was originally going to be titled l948. They said his publishers wanted to put the story in the future because it would have been too controversial to call it 1948 so soon after the war. This turned out not to be true, but by the time he died Orwell believed communism and fascism were mid-century dead ends, no longer capable of capturing the imagination. He believed in the triumph of a more shocking totalitarianism based on the humanistic pretensions of socialism. I’m with Orwell on this. Just look at all the surveillance technology everywhere. One New York critic wrote that my art is “predictable.” This comment was far more devastating to me than anything ever written about its perceived political incorrectness. Some people who knew me when I was a hippy don’t get the Nazi tropes I’m using now and have assumed the worst. They will be the first ones I’ll have shot when I take over the world. Charles Krafft’s reputation and body of work has existed on the periphery of the academic dialogue on contemporary American fine art and crafts for some time. But this is changing, as ceramics is being discovered and embraced by new generations of multimedia artists who have stumbled on his work in pop-up art galleries, or in lifestyle magazines that cater to the intemperately pierced and tattooed set. He has captured their attention by taking the prosaic Dutch delft tradition of blue-and-white low-fired earthenware and turning into a vehicle for biting sarcasm about war, street violence and the egregious manipulation of news and history. A self-taught painter in the tradition of the auto-didactic masters of the “Northwest School,“ Krafft hitched his wagon in mid-career to the pop culture legacy of the crackerjack American hot rod hero Von Dutch (Kenneth Howard) and the dense postmodern “retro-avantgardism” of Slovenia’s NSK collective. This odd mix of influences has propelled him beyond regional respectability into international visibility.

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lecture: The ceramics phd - Rethinking Creative Pedagogy Dr. Andrew Livingstone Practice-led PhDs in arts and design have been developing within the last twenty-five years in the UK, with a particular surge within the last eight years. Within the crafts, and more specifically ceramics, practice-based doctoral research is much newer with considerable growth in the last ten years. Within the Ceramics and Glass department at the University of Sunderland there are currently twelve PhD students undertaking doctoral research in ceramics, all but one are engaged with practice-based research. The ceramics researchers work alongside eighteen doctoral candidates in glass, thus creating a large and dynamic research environment, the largest in the UK and perhaps further afield, and one that is particularly significant in terms of its discipline specificity. The first practice-based PhD in arts and design at the University of Sunderland, and only the second to be awarded in the UK, was completed in 1992, and over the last twenty years a culture of practice-based research has been developed within the faculty. This has been crucial in terms of developing a research framework and environment for practice-based research together with critical evaluation drawn from completed research over the period. Crucially, this has fed into research training and development for both students and supervisors. So what constitutes a PhD in practice-based research? It offers training in research methods and methodologies that is developed through a program of practice-based inquiry supported by a written thesis of usually 40,000 words. To complete the award, the research must contribute to new knowledge. There are many reasons for development of the PhD and its considerable growth in recent times, not least the fact that it is almost essential criteria for any academic post in the UK and I suspect many other parts of the world. With this in mind, it has no doubt had an impact on academic structures and post-graduate pedagogy. Examples of practice-based research being undertaken by ceramics researchers in the department demonstrate how this is reshaping ceramics practice and theory within an academic environment, and elucidate how relevant this is to re-thinking creative pedagogy in the age of the practice-based PhD. To begin to examine the nature of doctoral study, it is useful to make transparent the definitions of the degree as stated by the UK quality assurance agency for higher education, where the award of a PhD will be given to students who have demonstrated: • The creation and interpretation of new knowledge, through original research or other advanced scholarship, of a quality to satisfy peer review, extend the forefront of the discipline, and merit publication. • A systematic acquisition and understanding of a substantial body of knowledge that is at the forefront of an academic discipline or area of professional practice. • The general ability to conceptualize, design and implement a project for the generation of new knowledge, applications or understanding at the forefront of the discipline, and to adjust the project design in the light of unforeseen problems. • A detailed understanding of applicable techniques for research and advanced academic enquiry.1

The critical element that is crucial to confirmation of the award

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is the generation of new knowledge. A PhD candidate should also be able to express an understanding and application of the techniques for research and advanced academic enquiry. This element is significant particularly in approaches to practice. An examination of the research of current PhD candidates from CARCuos, the Ceramic Arts Research Centre at the University of Sunderland, allows further exploration. David Cushway has just completed the first year of a full-time, three-year programme of study. The title of his research programme and thesis is “Body and Artefact: Clay, performance and new media towards an expanded field.” The aims of his research are to develop and expand the discourse of ceramic/clay practice by the use of new media and alternative methods of work such as installation, performance and film, whilst examining the fundamental relationship between the body and clay. This relationship will be examined through the investigation of material, concept, process and techniques, developing an alternative aesthetic that is not reliant on traditional formats and theories of practice. His research questions are: • How can performance and the use of new media be employed and critiqued within the parameters of ceramics practice? • How does the employment of alternative sites for practice, such as residencies and non-studio based work, affect the reading and perception of ceramics and its ability to cross into other fields? • Can the “lack of” the crafted ceramic object/artefact ergo process, the use of unfired clay and the temporal existence of installation be considered as part of the ceramic discipline, and if so what position does this occupy within the field? • If we consider all of the above can a new methodology of practice and theory be developed to support this expansion of the field?

A recent element of Cushway’s practical research was presented in an exhibition at Gallery 39 in Liepzig, Germany, and at the British Ceramics Biennial, in Stoke-on-Trent, UK, October 2011. The artwork Plate Spinner references the familiar “variety show” performance where plates are spun upon thin rods; this format is transposed to an exhibition location where Cushway spins custom-made plates within the gallery space. In reference to the notion of practice-based research, we can observe the creative elements within this work have become specific to exploring the questions of his research, where performance, alternative sites, and temporal installation are investigated through practical application. Through this practical research Cushway has identified three phases of engagement in relation to audience aligned to his research questions: 1.The audience witnesses an empty space and then engages with me as a performer as the “site” or “place” develops before them, the work takes form, there develops a point between them and the work, a barrier is produced. 2.The plates are spinning, the work has moved from a static empty space to a fluid and moving one, or one that is alive with movement. 3.The plates are spinning and breaking, audience become emotionally engaged with the piece, they gasp as things break. Is this because they may think they are valuable, because they are works of art in a gallery, or is this because they have the knowledge of what is going to happen when the plates hit the floor, the breaking of

something (ceramic) is somehow taboo and that they as an audience are complicit in this? Or is this because of the intimacy of ceramic to ourselves as human beings?

teristics and manifestations of the development?

These observations develop a further three phases of engagement:

• Are there clear artistic/political/philosophical antecedents for the development which help to contextualize and explain its emergence and current relevance?

1. Witnesses that are available for the performance have a real experience of the event/happening/performance/spectacle. 2. Witnesses that receive the work after the performance are witnessing a residue of that action, happening or event. The narrative can be drawn and the story told and imagined as it were from the remnants. 3. An audience that receives and watches the filmed documentation have a removed experience that is largely unemotional, and unreal.

Through reflection upon practice, Cushway is able to summarize the following from the practical investigation:

• What impact might such a development have on contemporary artists working in ceramics, including my own artistic practice?

• What might be the future for impermanence as a significant artistic statement, particularly in relation to contemporary ceramic art?

Sarah expands further on her methodological approaches to research: Given the practice-based character of this research, a reflective practitioner approach (Schön5), is appropriate, modelled on Kolb’s work on learning styles.6 An adaptation of Kolb’s model which is proving useful consists of a cycle:

1.Performance—happening, in the moment.

• Experience (practical activity)

2.Residue—happened, in the past.

• Gathering and absorption (of data from artists, curators, conservators, archivists and theoreticians)

3.Film—will happen, in the future.

“The third point raises an important question, about the validity and type of experience of an audience that is removed from the real, relying on my edited anecdotal evidence viewing the event through the interface of digital media.”2 As is evident, the practical investigation has developed further questioning in relation to the audience reception of the work, and fundamentally its re-presentation through digital media—elements that are central to this research project. So how has Cushway arrived at this analysis from the artwork? All research degree projects will have a question(s), aims/objectives and employ methodologies to answer said question(s). Conventional scientific research methodologies can be too rigid in relation to art practice and numerous crucial texts have been published in the last six years, based upon research into arts practice as research. In one such text Graeme Sullivan suggests a framework for arts practice as research: “I argue that the experience of the artist is the core element in the creation of new knowledge, and the potential for new understanding is further enhanced through research projects that may take varied forms such as exhibitions, performances, documentation and publication.3 He also comments upon research methods, and in particular a reflection practitioner approach to methodology as developed by Schön that is more conducive to art research: Schön’s ideas about how to reconceptualize organizational theory and learning theory are based on his observations of what professional practitioners do, which gave rise to constructivist thesis of “knowing-in-action,” “reflection-in-action” and “reflection-on-art practice,” which firmly centers the inquiry process within the practice of designing. What Schön means is that effective practitioners have the capacity to bring implicit and tacit understandings to a problem at hand and these intuitive capacities interact with existing systems of knowledge to yield critical new insights.4

Many PhD researchers and especially those who are undertaking research in art and design have adopted the theories developed by Schön. This includes current part-time University of Sunderland PhD candidate Sarah Gee. Her research title, “A Place for Impermanence in Contemporary Ceramic Art Practice,” examines the emergence and application of impermanent ceramic art with a view to presenting a cogent hypothesis for its development. Sarah’s research questions are as follows: • Might contemporary artists whose work in ceramics is impermanent share an aesthetic or a philosophy? If so, what are key charac-

• Reflection (consideration of the aspects of research-based experiment alongside external data) • Theorising (conceptualising) • experimentation and testing7 From Sarah’s model we are able to see the various approaches to her research. Similar to Cushway’s investigation, practical methodologies are made transparent, which by its very nature has implications for creative pedagogy. This indicates a different approach to practice, one that is contingent on research methods,8 as is expected of a research degree. In relation to creative pedagogical development, practice-led research or research-led practice has created a different approach to teaching and learning that has developed within an institutional framework.9 With this in mind, PhDs in art and design are still relatively new and continuous discussion advocates an expanded model that moves beyond the inherited historical format. 1 “The UK doctorate: a guide for current and prospective doctoral candidates,” The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, ISBN 978 1 84979 373 5 (2011), p. 3. 2 Taken from D. Cushway, annual PhD report, July 2011. 3 G. Sullivan, Art Practice as Research; Inquiry in Visual Arts (Sage Publications Ltd, 2010), p. 192. 4 G. Sullivan, p. 67. 5 D.A. Schön, The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think In Action (New York: Basic Books, 1984). 6 D.A. Kolb, Experiential Learning, Englewood Cliffs (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1984). For diagram of pertinent cycle, see M.K. Smith (1996). David A. Kolb on experiential learning, www.infed.org. 7 Taken from S. Gee, annual PhD report, July 2011. 8 See T. E. Jones, “Research Degrees in Art and Design,” in Artist with PhDs, ed. J. Elkins (New Academia Publishing, 2009) (“The PhD provides a training in research methods and methodology that is achieved through a program of inquiry, a project, that leads to new knowledge or understanding.”), p. 38. 9 H. Smith and R. T. Dean, eds., Practice-led Research, Research-led Practice in the Creative Arts (Edinburgh University Press, 2010).

Dr Andrew Livingstone CARCuos Ceramic Arts Research Centre National Glass Centre University of Sunderland

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lecture: go figure! The Contemporary Figurine

Paul Mathieu

cally distinct and autonomous at the conceptual and experiential levels. It is this radical autonomy of ceramics that I investigate here, using the figurine as example. The figurine has always been the subject of a rather intense love/ hate relationship, adored by some while despised by others. This extreme relation is symptomatic of its great power to seduce and to repel, as it leaves no one indifferent. The great classicist J.J. Winkelmann (17171769), who lived at the height of the golden age of the figurine, said of these very popular objects: “Porcelain is almost always made into idiotic puppets.” Authorities commonly become dismissive when confronted with a phenomenon beyond their understanding. This makes them feel powerful and even more authoritative. Like photography, figurines nonetheless provide for the efficient capture and release of a moment in time, even if often tainted with nostalgia and sentimental overtones.

Justin Novak, Disfigurine.

If we are to discuss the rather surprising resurgence of the figurine in contemporary ceramics, it may be necessary to define distinctions between various genres, notably the differences between a figure and a figurine, but also between sculptural ceramics and ceramic sculpture; between figurative ceramics and figurative sculpture. I will argue here, as illustrated by the example of the figurine, that ceramics is an independent, specific and autonomous art form. Ceramics, in whatever form it takes—a pot, a vessel, a building, a figure or a figurine—operates around shared and specific conceptual premises, like any other art.

Figurative Ceramics A figurative ceramic object is totally different, conceptually, from a figurative sculpture in another material. Figurative art of any kind may share materials, processes, stylistic similarities, and possibly similar contents and intents beyond a shared subject matter (figuration), but there are essential and different concepts at work whether we are experiencing a painting, a photograph, a sculpture and, yes, a figure in ceramics. To confuse figurative ceramics and figurative sculptures as similar, or even worse as identical, is to misunderstand both. Whether they are making figures or vessels, people working in ceramics are thinking differently than sculptors and other artists. No sculptor thinks like an artist working in ceramics (like a potter, for example), a maker of hollow forms with a distinct surface, the basic conceptual premises for ceramics. The main concepts at work in ceramics are function and decoration, function being generally given by volumetric form and decoration by surface (another layer of information, another description of space), which remains conceptually distinct from the form. Some sculpture may be made with clay, some sculpture may be volumetric, but, basically if not universally, no sculpture is ever made (conceptualized) as a volumetric form with a distinct surface. When that happens in a work made with fired clay, the artwork is ceramics, altogether part of another conceptual category. This difference between ceramics and sculpture is very radical at the conceptual level and that is especially true with sculptural and/or figurative ceramics. Of course, this difference is not absolute and both share common conceptual ground (as well as materials and techniques, themes and even styles), but ceramics and sculpture nonetheless remain radi-

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L. L. Foulem, TeHua Colonel and the Blue Boy

Conceptualization: Making and Experience When a tri-dimensional representation is volumetric as tends to be the case in ceramics, the plastic, formal identity of the object is provided by its hollow interior. Its physical presence is not so much communicated by the impress of external forces as by internal ones (Rawson). These forms produced by the implied pressure of inner volumes are articulated further by external modeling or painting that completes the necessary descriptive detail, while acting as a counter pressure to reestablish balance and equilibrium between interior and exterior forces. In figurative ceramics, the sculptural form is obviously expanded from the inside out, like a pot would be, in a process that is specific to ceramics and uses a plastic material ideally suited for this kind of making, for forms and objects that are metaphorically full, or pregnant even.

Only modeled clay has the capacity to flow and bend, to move and freeze simultaneously, to capture volume and mass so convincingly. Any other material—wood, marble, even bronze—that could have been used by creating molds from the original modeled figures and then casting them would not provide the same direct, spontaneous experience that permits and offers instant identification. Clay, even when fired, retains a visual memory of its former softness and malleability and so is perfect to represent bodies and flesh, following the example set in the Garden of Eden and in so many other creation myths, where the first humans were fashioned from plastic, responsive, malleable, living clay.

Viola Frey or Akio Takamori. The void inside the cast bronze by Rodin is not significant in itself and its patinated surface is not distinct but remains perceptively and conceptually within the form itself. On the other hand, the space inside a Viola Frey or other figurative and sculptural ceramics similarly made is pregnant and conceptually relevant since it is that void that articulates the form. It is not empty but full and meaningful; similarly, its animated surface could be peeled from the form and it would retain enough information to have independent meaning.

The Figurine: It seems important here to question and define the differences between a figure and a figurine, since both play such an important and seminal role in defining an essential aspect of the contributions of ceramics as a radically autonomous, specific and independent art form. In fact, there are three aspects that distinguish the figurine from the figure: The first aspect is scale, the figurine is usually smaller. Yet I would argue that the life-size self-portraits, grandmothers, and even larger businessmen of Viola Frey belong more specifically to the category of the figurine than any other, while also contesting such a category, expectedly. Viola Frey’s sculptural and figurative ceramics are aesthetically, stylistically and thematically related to the figurine and they often directly make references to the format of the figurine. Despite their at times extreme size, they demand to be understood and analyzed as both figurines and sculptural ceramics. It may appear strange if not altogether inappropriate to some who are familiar with her work that I would single out Viola Frey as a figurine artist, since her work is emblematic of over life-size, large scale, ambitious and impressive figurative works. Yet it is important to remember that small scale is not an essential or even important aspect of the figurine as a specifically ceramics genre. What is characteristic of the figurine as an art form and which constitutes its specificity is its relation to context, as well as the fact that form generated by volume receives a surface that remains distinct from the form, all aspects obviously present in the work of Viola Frey. The second aspect is surface as structure, since the figurine as a specific ceramics genre, is usually glazed, with a polychrome, naturalistic, descriptive surface, something in itself rather rare for figurative sculpture, especially when materials other than clay are used. Polychromy of surface is one of the distinctive formal aspects of ceramics in relation to sculpture, along with volumetric form, of course. When the figurine is all white (the most common monochrome surface by far), the absence of color is nonetheless symptomatic of a difference between surface and form. We are still made aware of the specificity of the surface, despite its descriptive absence. The use of patterns and colors on figurines is not exclusively descriptive as well, as tends to be the case with painted figurative sculpture. The all-over decorative surfaces of the figurine imply an absence of central focus and carry the eye all over the form, and is as much a structural aspect of the work as the form itself. The third aspect is that the figurine is volumetric, that it is hollow. The process of its making (casting, molding, coiling, etc.) implies the formation of a hollow shell and it is this empty interior that defines the formal qualities of the work. One can tell or feel that the form is hollow. Within figurative sculpture, the form reads as mass and the directional pressure is from the exterior toward the core, whether it is made with a reductive process (say, carved from marble) or an additive process (say, modeled in clay), while the reverse is true for hollow forms. A lot of Modernist sculpture is more informed by plane than by mass. Sculpture is rarely volumetric, and when it is the surface remains integral to the form and not distinct from it, unlike ceramics. Solid, massive forms are imploding in their making, while hollow forms are exploding, figuratively speaking, and their directional energy is in direct opposition to sculpture made and experienced as mass or as plane. A Rodin bronze, for example, may also be hollow, but its form, even if modeled in clay originally, has been generated by mass, by piling up material on top of material, in a very different additive process than the coiled figures of

This is even true when the figurine is not actually hollow but instead modeled solid, as often happens for objects of such small scale. To reiterate a crucial point, ceramics has the particular property to often retain after firing the pneumatic, plastic and malleable aspect of the original material, clay. When this material is used to represent figures or bodies made of flesh, this effect is even more noticeable and efficient. This is not the case when clay is used to create forms to be cast in another material and the pneumatic sensation is lost in the material transfer.

The experience of a work of art is also in direct opposition to its making. If the work is made from the outside in (paintings, sculptures), it is then experienced from the inside out. It projects itself into the world. Pottery, ceramics (and volumetric, expansive forms) are all made from the inside out, so they are by necessity experienced from the outside in. This reversal between directional making and directional experience is crucial. Contrary to images (2D or 3D), which project themselves, objects suck the world in and concentrate our experience of space, like a vortex or a black hole would do. They do not reach out like images do; instead, they absorb and condense. That is where their power and efficiency resides. As such, they operate directionally in opposition to images (2D or 3D), whose power into the ambient world is more readily perceptible as it engages with its surroundings, and with us, more dramatically.

The Role of Context The figure, within sculpture and other forms of image-making (to make a broad yet workable generalization), is basically independent of its surrounding context. It creates, embodies and contains its own context in a conceptual fashion, intrinsically. It has what art historians call “independent life.” Another physical, external context is not necessary for meaning to operate fully. Even outside a church or religion, a crucifix remains a crucifix, for example. This historical aspect of sculpture has been, of course, greatly challenged and contested by much contemporary art. Today, much art is not only totally dependent on context but basically doesn’t exist outside that (institutional) context.

nceca 133 Journal 2012 • Lectures

On the other hand, the figurine is always in direct relation to an actual, physical context and operates effectively only within that context. It doesn’t remain independent of its environment but becomes permeable. It operates more like an object does, than exclusively as an image. For example, the base of a sculpture, a figure, a statue, is there basically for structural reasons and if it carries information about the nature of the space occupied by the figure, the base remains nonetheless independent from the surrounding space, like the ground on which I stand is independent from myself. The base or the plinth on which a figure stands is like a frame for an image, a picture. It creates a distinct border between two separate, irreconcilable entities, the world of the image and the real world, each operating in a completely different manner. With the figurine, on the other hand, the base operates in a completely different way. Even without such a distinction, the sculptural figure, the statue, remains framed by its external context. For the figure, the base (or support or even plinth), all act as framing devices that are independent to the work and it is this division that makes it possible for the sculpture to relate to the larger world, with little to no transition. Likewise, in their making, the energy of sculpture is directed from the outside toward the core (the operative nature of mass), while the energy of the figurine (and the volume) is directed from its center to the exterior, to the larger world, yet stops at the exterior limit of the form. The figure is separate from the world, independent from it, and it emerges into reality as “a proclamation of what was previously undefined” (Rawson). The figurine (like the pot) is integral to the world, and in continuity with it. The base for the figurine is like “a condensation of the ground to which it connects,” Rawson says. The figurine operates in a fluid, permeable environment that embraces its surroundings, while remaining mysterious, as a reductive image. The figurine is also generally positioned in a vertical axis in relation to the ground, like bodies standing in space. The base of the figurine is not only there to support the image, it also provides a context, an environment that is integral to the esthetic experience as well as the meaning of the work. This is particularly true for the Rococo figurine of the 18th Century (the golden age of the genre) in Europe. The figurine is also greatly modified by the environment in which it operates. Moving from the showcase to the table to the museum, in each context the object acquires a new function and a new identity. In fact, for this reason alone, it works much more like an object does, acquiring a new meaning depending on context while retaining the same identity. A figurine, while being clearly a representation, is nonetheless more an object, conceptually and phenomenologically (how it is experienced) and epistemologically (how it is understood), than it is an image. This is what makes the figurine a ceramic trope instead of a specifically sculptural one. A cup is always a cup independent of where it finds itself but its meaning (and value) changes depending on context. Images (sculptures, etc.) reverse that proposition by operating exclusively and retaining their intent and meaning only within a specific context, basically institutional today. Outside such a context for art, especially contemporary art, meaning is lost or greatly diminished. The figurine is one of ceramics’ great contributions to art history and culture, along with the pot and the brick. It doesn’t do so in such a practical, functional way, like the other two, but as a poetic, metaphori-

nceca 134 Journal 2012 • Lectures

cal reflection of society, in its hybrid nature between image and object. In ceramics, the form defines the object, while the surface defines the image. Ceramics implies a symbiosis of form and surface, and object and image, not found to that degree of complexity anywhere else in art. Figurines are materialized similarly to other ceramic objects, and both are basically similar if not identical, conceptually. Thus a ceramic figure is much closer to pottery, conceptually, than it is to sculpture. No sculptor would conceptualize a figure and even less a figurine, the way a ceramist would. This is even true whether the work is representational or abstract. A potter thinks differently than a sculptor, the way a painter thinks differently than a photographer, for example. This has less to do with differences of materials or even processes, than with radically different ways to conceptualize space(s). The figurine remains a ceramic trope in the materialization of a volumetric space, in the representation of human and animal bodies (themselves volumetric containers), in its use of clay as a transformable, plastic, pneumatic material and in its use of molds (themselves hollow, volumetric containers used to make other hollow, volumetric forms). And the surface of the figurine is generally painted, decorated with colors, patterns and images that may describe and reference the form, yet remain independent from it, procedurally, visually and conceptually. This surface is another layer of information added to the form. The allover decoration of the figurine implies a lack of central focus and the animated, excessive surface carries the eye, almost indiscriminately, all over the form. This renders the decoration itself structural, and as a structural element of the work, it is as important, possibly more than the structural aspects of the form. The surface of the painted sculpture, on the other hand, remains purely descriptive and implies a clear focus, a hierarchical system for the eye to experience and appreciate the work. The complexity of the figurine resides in the fact that it is experienced simultaneously somewhat like an object (at the level of form) and somewhat like an image (at the level of surface). This is also an essential characteristic of ceramics itself, in all its varied manifestations.

The base and the plinth: The Rococo swirls and curlicues of the base, which seem to gather the ground around the figure in the conceptualization of context and physical space, permit a psychological and physical transition between the represented scene and the world. They provide in their continuous, connected curves a sinuous, uninterrupted flow between the two, in a combination of line and surface that reaffirms and bridges the seeming contradiction, between continuity and disruption. As such, they offer us an ideal, valid space for contemplation and rêverie (Rawson). The object then belongs to an un-determinate, all-embracing and fluid environment and the figures realistically appear as if transforming the vague, ambiguous and formless nature of the decorative space. The base, however stylized and abstracted, is never a frame, another separate element. It never operates a break, like a frame or a plinth would, but a transition instead, like the lip on a bowl. The complexity of these seemingly light, fanciful, frivolous, superficial and dismissible objects is far greater than usually realized. Indeed, they constellate early childhood psychologist Donald Winnicott’s “transitional space,” the liminal realm between this and that, a space that collapses and dissolves the dichotomy between continuity and disruption, between internal and external, on both a psychological and physical level. Like other objects, this engages us in “transitional” phenomena not unlike the event horizon of theoretical physics, when the laws of physics are changed at the periphery of black holes and inside them.

The contemporary ceramics figure Working today and following in the footsteps of Viola Frey, Akio Takamori re-imagines the figurative potential of ceramics in his seminal vessels and more recently, in his more simplified, abstracted forms that are then more descriptively painted, in dripped, calligraphic brushstrokes, to define the features, the dress, the details of the overall figures. These are constructed from memories of his childhood in Japan or

re-workings of figures found in representational art, notably paintings by the European masters. Their presence in space, despite their often diminutive size, is as potent as living figures. In contrast to Takamori, whose surfaces are descriptive and to a degree illustrative, as they provide information directly related to the figure itself, Philip Eglin’s surfaces on his figurative works (totally and absolutely sculptural ceramics), are contesting and challenging the supremacy of form over surface, in a fight between the two that greatly adds to the dynamism and power of his work. In a very bold and gutsy mixture of the two, Eglin takes significant risks. These “messy” and disruptive surfaces could easily destroy the work and a less brave maker would not dare to add such layers of information to these elegant and deftly made figures. Yet, without their bold and exciting surfaces, Philip Eglin’s figures would lose their main operative and singular aspect and their significance and contribution, to art and to ceramics, would be greatly diminished. These elaborate and layered surfaces are emblematic of the structural nature on certain surfaces, a specific aspect of ceramics independence as an art. In the work of these artists, the audacity consists in articulating so convincingly the tensions and at times even the contradictions and structural differences between form/surface, that are so essential to potent ceramic works.

L. L. Foulem, TeHua Colonel, Santa and Two Blue Boys

The contemporary figurine A few examples, among thousands: If figurative ceramics is its own particular genre within ceramics, in my opinion the most interesting contemporary work is nonetheless done within the category of the figurine, which has seen a revival of importance lately, all over the world. Much figurative ceramics seems invested in a stylistic approach to form where personal expression and sensibility is still central, at a time when all visual arts are moving away from such focus on individuality (so endemic within Modernism). If there is a return to skill in art, and to technique in making, it remains nonetheless subservient to a deeper connection to the realities of contemporary life, to the world beyond the limited viewpoint of the individual. It is in the contemporary figurine in ceramics that can be found works that investigate this connection with the realities of contemporary life, with the most efficiency. Among hundred of practitioners worldwide right now, something in itself remarkable, since no one would have wanted to be associated with the genre as early as twenty years ago or so, I will single out a few. Ann Agee is one of the earliest maker to have explored the potential of the figurine to illustrate and comment on various aspects of contemporary society and its morality (or lack of) with seriousness and intent. Russel Biles surveys, if differently, a similar territory, also commenting on popular culture and current events.

Justin Novak with his Disfigurines is another re-explorer of the history of the figurine, with direct, if stylized references to the rococo formal vocabulary. Here again, a reexamination of the psychological mood of contemporary culture is at work, with his nude figures engaging in various forms of self or communal torture and violence. Shari Boyle, from Toronto, Canada, has achieved notoriety in the art world with her surreal and fantastic re-workings and re-quoting of historical precedents, both stylistically and formally. Stephen Bird, like many others similarly, also investigated the historical genre through references to the formal vocabulary of the figurine. Since he was born and raised in Staffordshire, England, his attraction and predilection for the genre may be partly explained. Barnaby Barford follows similar references and conventions, which produces an effect of seduction and attraction, possibly even of initial dismissiveness. They quickly take us further into a less pleasant and innocent world where nothing is quite as our first impression may have implied. His work presents yet another subtly effective critique of various contemporary phenomena and unexpected situations. In China, artist Liu Jianhua makes highly decorated and decorative large porcelain plates, holding in their visually functional space images of women, in various states of dress and undress, new types of Goddesses, with deliberately missing body parts, like broken Antique marbles. In Liu’s work, while being realistic and believable reproductions of actual dinner plates, their extreme size reinforces their effectiveness as images, and the plate here is an image of a plate the way the figure is the image of a female body. A first, superficial reading could imply a rather sexist viewpoint on the representation and objectification of female bodies, but the intent of these critical choices is actually political and social commentary. The absence of arms and heads is not just a metaphor for passivity and powerlessness but acts also as a strategy to de-personalize the figure, to deliberately efface the self. In contemporary Cuba, artist Esterio Segura uses the naked, sexualized female figure as a substitute for his own beleaguered and repeatedly vanquished country. His figurine groups are modeled in white earthenware, a more readily available material in Cuba that is less prized and more proletarian than porcelain. In the 1980s, Jeff Koons commissioned large, figurative porcelain sculptures (at Capodimonte, in Italy) that were made by expert modelers in the factory, under his guidance and his precise specifications and exacting standards. These large-scale figurines (for their referent and their aesthetic is clearly that of the figurine) often include reference to nakedness and sexual situations and fetishes, but never as blatantly graphic as his other work in glass and photography The figurine is alive and well and will continue to operate its insidious effect. Due to the resilience and permanency of ceramics, it will continue to pass on the information, humorous or serious (or even often both simultaneously), it so naively and unpretentiously contains, down history and into the future. In many instances and due to the archival nature of ceramics, figurines may remain as the only manifestation of a sensibility, a state of mind, as the memory of various events even, and their puzzling expression may be all that is left one day of the times we now live in…. Going beyond this superficial impression of funniness and lightness, the figurine demonstrates a critical intelligence and reveals a subversive vision of contemporary culture second to none. Novelist Milan Kundera wrote, I paraphrase, that lightness in art is misunderstood and non-appreciated, that the joining together of important subject matter to a light form (be it a novel, a figurine or any ceramic object) makes manifest the drama of our existence in all its terrible insignificance. Paul Mathieu is a potter who teaches ceramics at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada. He is the author of Sexpots: Eroticism in Ceramics. His most recent book on the History and Theory of Ceramics, The Art of the Future, is available for free online, text and images at www.paulmathieu.ca/theartofthefuture

nceca 135 Journal 2012 • Lectures

FELLOWSHIPS & RESIDENCIES continued from Page 39 cate subject, inspiring thought about how wild animals will fit into our suburban homes and human obstructions. Research Photos and process of making the show are documented at conversationsinclay.wordpress.com.

Lindsay Rogers 2011 NCECA Graduate Student Fellowship On Pots and Food

On May 27th I boarded a plane headed west and flew into the beautiful Bay Area of California to begin my research trip. In prepaDandee Pattee ration for this day I read books, visited websites and had extensive 2011 NCECA Graduate Student Fellowship conversations with several friends who were well acquainted with the Bay Area food and ceramic art scene. This research culminated I worked as an intern for Ceramics Art & Perception from in a map of 40 sites that I hoped to visit while I was in the region; early May until the end of June 2011. The momentum for the ranging from museums and pottery studios to culinary “institutions” internship began at Critical Santa Fe where I heard Ceramic Art that were frontrunners in promoting the organic farming movement & Perception’s editor, Elaine Henry addressing the audience. in this country. I made it to thirty-six, spanning the region from San At the closing of her address, Henry made a public commitment Francisco and points west, all the way up to Napa Valley and wine to the audience to publish criticism ethically. In that moment, I country. I visited numerous studio potters, pottery collectives, a facbelieved that I held the same values. I contacted her via email tory pottery, three museums, a small ceramics gallery, several interiand proposed an internship, and she enthusiastically agreed. In or design shops, six gourmet kitchen supply and grocery stores, two the duration of the internship I gained an incredible amount of organic farms, an amazing farmknowledge about the publishing process. ers market, two small creameries, When I arrived, Elaine had arranged her several bakeries and a myriad of office so that I had a desk directly across from incredible restaurants. hers. Working in this intimate environment One of the goals of this trip exposed me to the entire process of publishwas to better understand the reing for the magazine. With Elaine’s guidance lationship between the local food I learned how to edit articles, using the Oxmovement and handmade pottery in ford Style Manual, and use In Design to layout a region steeped in culinary history. articles. I learned what to look for in order to I wanted to enter into this dialogue strengthen the article, how to omit words or alwith not only potters, but restaurant ter them slightly to make the writing concise. owners, food lovers and the genWe discussed the different types of editing eral public. From the very first day styles, and Elaine gave me many resources to From the very first day it was apparent that the connection it was apparent that the connection draw from. These useful tips will stay with me Rogers: between local potters and restaurants serving up locally produced between local potters and restauas I continue to write in our field. I was taught fare was already being made. rants serving up locally produced about the timeline for article publication, and fare was already being made. In the first two restaurants I visited, how the layout of each magazine is dependent upon what was pubhandmade pots showed up on the periphery of the meals, which was lished before and what future issues will contain. Elaine introduced very encouraging. The most exciting conversations I had were in resme to several international publications, she also suggested authors taurants; I sat in a location where engaging others in conversation to follow. We had frank discussions about “Ceramics Criticism” was easier. I spoke with wait staff, employees, chefs who were plating and where she sees the field going; criticism being the reason I food, and one particularly enthusiastic San Francisco local who got so requested the position as her intern. I witnessed useful interactions excited by the idea of plating food on handmade pots he was coming between Elaine and the writers for the magazine. up with ways to make it happen in all his favorite eateries. While working with the magazine, I was given the opportunity By only visiting restaurants that focused on locally produced to write a DVD review for the upcoming issue #85. I was asked to reand organic ingredients I was able to experience how food is treated view A Year in the Life, a documentary about Clary Illian. I was also in a place that, much like the mindset of many potters, cares extenasked to write an exhibition review for a group of Toshiko Takaeazu’s sively about the creation and presentation of its end product. These work at the Harn Museum of Art in Gainesville, Florida. This review visits completely transformed my understanding of food design and will be published in the near future. These opportunities were a fanits intimate relationship to the vessel it is served on. Although handtastic opportunity for me, and have helped formulate my perception made vessels are currently not the dominant serving convention in of myself as a writer. the restaurants, they are certainly being considered in the Bay Area. During my second week at the magazine, I went with Elaine to . . and in some places enthusiastically embraced. Canada to view a solo exhibition of Canadian artist Les Manning’s Since my return from California I have spent time reviewing work. Elaine was writing a catalogue essay about the exhibition. my journal of notes and images from the trip. I have been putting Elaine shared with me the process, from her initial encounter with some of these thoughts onto my blog, yummazing.com, which was Manning’s new work, to the final edits made to the essay. This was a inspired by the act of writing the application for this fellowship. In valuable experience for me. addition, directly after my trip, I gave a slide presentation about this My internship at Ceramics Art & Perception was a fulfilling project at the Penland School of Crafts, from which I received some experience that balanced the serious business of publishing with fun. very generous feedback. This trip has already helped me so much in I will continue to stay interested in what I learned, and provide a positive influence on my peers by encouraging them to write and publish.

FELLOWSHIPS & RESIDENCIES continues on Page 141

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NCECA_0216127_NCECA_122305 2/23/12 9:30 AM Page 1

Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Fair April 20-23, 2012 Park Avenue Armory

Shozo Michikawa, Erskine, Hall & Coe

Opening Night Preview, Thursday, April 19

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nceca 137 Journal 2012 â&#x20AC;˘ Lectures

CLOSING CO-LECTURE • in’t(y)oo-it Robert Brady & Sandy Simon KOKO (Keep on Keepin’ On) by Robert Brady A life-changing moment occurred after I substituted a crafts class for algebra during my senior year in high school. The class was already in session when I arrived, and the teacher, Thomas Tucker, steered me to the ceramic area, handed me a bag of clay and a rolling pin, and told me to make a slab-built pitcher before leaving to assist other students elsewhere in the room. In the remaining forty minutes of class I completed the building of a pitcher/coffee pot with handle, lid and spout, echoing an overall cohesive design. This initial experience of making and viewing it completed had a profound effect on me. During cleanup, I looked for a place where I could store my prized creation and chose to set it up high on top of a cabinet, covering it with plastic. I visited the pot many times that day between classes and after school to admire it and bask in the wonderment of having made it. More important than the pot itself was the experience, which carried tremendous power for me. Every decision, and every movement needed to create the piece, came from me. They were mine and belonged only to me. I was wholly responsible, resulting in a strong sense of empowerment. It was also apparent that the skills necessary to the creation came relatively easily, as if I had done it before, which added to the seduction. It would prove to be a galvanizing moment for me. From that time forward, I became helplessly addicted to the process of making and creating objects. Fundamentally, my inspiration starts and ends there; however, it must be said that art, both historical and contemporary, has served to teach and inspire me. From these earliest days I sought information, visual and otherwise, to Robert Brady created this design - KOKO - for NCECA’s 2012 Conference T-Shirt learn and be exposed to as much as possible about contemporary ceramic art. The work of Voulkos and his students established and supported a position of “anything is possible,” leaving behind the From the beginning I have been motivated to accomplish all typical craft trappings and restrictions. With these and other influthat I can relating to a heightened awareness and discovery in my art ences, I approached my newfound passion with a forms and inquiry. My history as an artist reveals balanced approach of intuition and studiousness. continual change and search. Believing in a well of With the relatively new emphasis on conceptuallyuntapped resources, I am continually excited to peel driven art, the notion of intuition has been relegated away another layer, leading to potential discovery. to a non-thinking, demeaned position. Intuition is It is my fuel. The process must be fun, entertaining seen as an easy way out, avoiding theory and rigorand exciting, but not at the expense of discipline. ous intellectual thought and oftentimes supporting Solid accomplishment comes from dedication and self-indulgence and self-satisfaction. For me, intuhard work. Each of us accomplishes as much as we ition is the primary force and proves to be a more want to accomplish. Balancing art practice with honest indication of my true sensibility. For me, an family and jobs is part of the challenge. Ultimately, overemphasis on thinking leads to contrivance. there is time for everything. It is a matter of making Regardless of the approach, a trust and belief choices and sacrifices. in oneself and one’s ideas is of great importance. Assuming such a position often requires a rejection Robert Brady, MFA, University of Califorof prevailing attitudes adopted or passed to us by nia, Davis, has taught at Sacramento State Uniartists we admire most. This trust and honoring will versity since 1975. Internationally collected and usually lead to a more individual from of expresexhibited, his work is in numerous collections, sion. With it comes risk: the risk of revealing who including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art we are, in terms of both strengths and weaknesses. Robert Brady, Two Figures and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

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in’t(y)oo-it by Sandy Simon “Fires can’t be made with dead embers, nor can enthusiasm be stirred by spiritless men. Enthusiasm in our daily work lightens effort and turns even labor into pleasant tasks.” - James Baldwin Looking back, tracing what I have learned through my life with clay, the most important thing has been becoming aware of energy and how it moves. When I was a student at the University of Minnesota living in an upstairs apartment, we were victims of a home invasion robbery. Awaking one night with a gun to my head was terrifying. I’ve come to realize that it’s possible that I brought this event on myself, through my fears, by giving weight to this thought throughout my life until it was manifested. Is this how energy moves? Not just bad energy, but good energy too? In my gallery, TRAX, I watch how customers will come in, handle a pot, and admire it and put it back on the shelf. The next person who comes into the gallery goes right to the same pot and often buys it. So what are we imprinting where we leave our energy? How does our thinking create our world? I have a bumper sticker that reads, “The best way to predict the future, is to help create it.” How do we do this? Turn off the TV, quit reading the newspaper and refrain from engaging in thoughts of negativity? It is a start, no doubt. Living in California the past thirty years has brought many things into my life. I’ve met people in California, clairvoyants, who have helped me to trust my intuition. This is how they guide people. In art school, we’re trained to ignore intuition and use only intellect as a means to evaluate what we make, what other people make. Yet, when we view a piece of art the first thing that comes to us is “feeling.” Feelings come from the thoughts we have chosen to endorse. But thoughts, in and of themselves, are just that, thoughts. They can become patterns as we continue to embrace them. But if we choose not to engage those thoughts, we can change those patterns. Functional pots, because they are made on a wheel, represent a skill rather than a thought process. Something like learning to ride a bike. Fun, but some say invalid as an art form. It is my belief that the challenge lies with the potter who not only has chosen to make pots for use but also has to make pots look good, feel right, delight the heart and represent the maker’s sensibilities. A good pot has this matrix to satisfy; the maker has much to consider to bring it all to fruition. The best art is art that takes you to another place, be it functional, or two- or three-dimensional; it serves as the conduit to another feeling or another experience, real or imagined. Intriguing art captures you in an unpredictable yet stimulating way. Good art “leads” you without a literal translation. Yet, pots are literal in that they are intended for use, but with a good pot, there are still discoveries to be made. Jim Melchert once described using a tea bowl of Randy Johnston’s in this way, “[I]t was like being in the open on a clear night when the stars overwhelm you. All the particulars of your life are suspended and you seem always to have been.” Jim is not a potter, yet he was able to have this experience with a pot made by someone he didn’t know because he was open to it. Without judgment he “experienced” a tea bowl, he transcended its purpose while a guest at someone’s house. He states, “[T]he feeling was short lived but potent, and I have thought about it often since. In another society and perhaps in another age, we would be having him (Randy Johnston) make ceremonial vessels for us, objects we associate with deep vision.” Often, for all of us, our judgment gets in the way of our experience. We give credence to our

Sandy Simon, Cup and Saucer

thoughts as though they are absolute. But we shouldn’t, as thoughts are merely that: thoughts. It is our choice to act on them or not, or to believe them or not. How many times have you held a thought, then turned it around and said to yourself, but I could look at it this way. For example, I over heard a woman say to a friend that her daughter had a very difficult time finding a boyfriend. So and so tried to fix her up but the first thing her date said to her was, “I don’t usually go out with women who wear nail polish.” The daughter was immediately offended but said nothing and decided she could never like this man. Both the mother and her friend agreed that the daughter had a right to be offended as the guy was a putz. But wasn’t there another way to

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nceca 139 Journal 2012 • Closing Lecture

Sandy Simon, Five Covered Cups on Serving Tray

interpret his comment? What would have happened had the woman’s daughter responded that she loved looking at her clean, colorful nails, looking at them made her feel dressed up and pert. Had she come back with something that took the edge off his statement, she could move away from her initial reaction. No doubt her date would have realized the inappropriateness of his comment. Perhaps he was just observing. This is what we constantly work out in relationships and if you are quick to judge you miss the opportunity to learn or to respond differently. The same is true in viewing art. The artists represented at TRAX are usually chosen by a very simple question I ask myself, “Do I like this work well enough to own it and live with it?” In the early days of owning Trax I was determined to buy work outright and if no one else wanted to buy it, I would be content to keep it. That quickly became cost prohibitive. But the question remains and I use it to this day. I invite potters whose work I personally respect and could live with—with few exceptions due to politics or friends. I find that rigidity in regard to taste is limiting. Long ago when I left the comfort of my life in Georgia to teach at the Chicago Art Institute, I had a dream that I was about to ride a very big and wild horse. I was scared to death, but my guide brought forth a pair of shoes with very high heels. He said, “Put these on and you can’t fall off, no matter how wild the ride.” I thanked him and got on, putting these strange shoes securely in the stirrups. My belief was then, and now, that we are here on this earth to learn to get along, realize our shortcomings and to grow spiritually. I don’t have a religious practice but I do meditate and I do know there is a world much bigger than ours out there. Obstacles in life are like an onion with each layer a peeling, which we can welcome as discovery or can drop us flat like a tire. This is the ride on the wild horse. There is no greater feeling than to make something that is satisfying, gratifying too, if what we have made offers something

nceca 140 Journal 2012 • Closing Lecture

of value and appreciated by others. Through TRAX, I have had the pleasure of knowing a young architect who stopped into the gallery one day. He was so taken with Warren MacKenzie’s pots that he purchased 12 of them—not because Warren MacKenzie made them but because he was getting something from them; he caressed and observed details of each pot. He was smitten. He has since come into the gallery about three times a week in the past six months. To meet his needs, I have begun to trade pots with him for his help. I often wonder what is it exactly that spoke to this young man? Why was he smacked right in the heart when others barely take a second look? Even many potters do not stop to look. He looks and looks and has now accumulated quite a collection of different works. He brings his friends in and through his enthusiasm, he has shared his joy. I wonder is it because he came in without a thought or judgment about what he was about to see? He lives hand to mouth teaching adjunct at UC Berkeley yet he will spend three hundred dollars on a tea bowl. This is the part of owning a gallery that is so much fun for me. Sharing energy and enthusiasm through my work and my gallery is the joy of making. Seeing beauty in everything has such a profound power, and delight, it is the connecting thread to the heart, and it is the spark that ignites us as a species, seeing beauty in opposites is what fuels our vitality and stamina. I am grateful for my life as an artist and grateful too to be a part of our community of clay and friends. Sandy Simon has been the owner of TRAX Gallery in Berkeley, California, since 1994. Born in Minneapolis, MN, Simon attended the University of Minnesota, and has taught extensively in California and elsewhere. She has worked as a studio potter since 1970.

FELLOWSHIPS & RESIDENCIES continued from Page 136 reaching new conclusions about why and how I make my pottery. I know I will be drawing on this experience for years to come.

Marc Leuthold NCECA International Residency Making Art at Medalta A brief, easy application to Medalta last year landed me a funded residency at this prized artists’ colony in western Canada. For four intensive weeks I worked at Medalta to create a body of artwork for an exhibit at the Priebe Gallery of the University of WisconMark Leuthold, Medalta Pagoda, porcelain, 8” wide. sin at Oshkosh. While at Medalta, on an impromptu basis, I also created a site-specific installation with Calgary artist Stephanie Murray. This installation, titled Incubator, was located in a huge old cylindrical-shaped slip tank just beneath the Medalta art gallery space. The installation was visible through the glass floor of the gallery. First, Stephanie and I arranged found objects in the tank. Then Stephanie suspended wire, plastic, paper and other materials in the space. Afterwards, I trimmed ribbons of clay off of a huge piece of clay on a potter’s wheel. While spinning the wheel at high speeds, I aimed these leather-hard ribbons of clay into the installation through an opening in the floor of my studio. Stephanie’s hanging installations were designed to catch these trimming and to allow the clay to remain hanging from the wire and plastic in the air space. With a board held in her hands, Stephanie also helped direct the flying clay—almost like a tennis racket. Suspended in the slip tank, some of these clay ribbons were 6 feet long and perhaps 2 mm in diameter. Afterwards, we lit the space and created an announcement card for the installation. The installation was up for four days. The installation was an unexpected but important complement to the body of artwork I made for the Oshkosh, Wisconsin, exhibit. After a whirlwind month of making and firing art in soda, gas, wood, salt, and electric kilns, I drove to Wisconsin and presented the artwork to Allen Priebe Gallery Director, Andrew Reddington. Most of the work was figural, a departure for me. They are not beautiful pieces and the handling is somewhat reminiscent of Medardo Rosso or Rodin. It was disconcerting to make these pieces, especially in public. Still, the subject matter—twelve iconic women, ranging from Diana Ross to Lady Diane—has remained an important source of interest and admiration for me. All of these women led fascinating lives and had prized and enduring characteristics that transcended their appearance. The title of the show, Icon/Muse, reflects my relationship to these people. I selected a text from Plato’s Last Days of Socrates to accompany the sculptures. Socrates courageously accepts his death sentence, and in the selected text he “proves” the existence of an afterlife to his skeptical followers. My message to Priebe Gallery viewers was as follows: Plato’s text touches on issues of immortality and life choices. A life well lived, is the primary consideration, something we all

are thinking about. Would that we could all use our time as well as Socrates, Plato, and many of the women who are my icons and muses. The future awaits; you will do something magnificent with it. If you work hard and wisely, you can. No part of this experience of making and exhibiting art in Canada and Wisconsin would have been possible without the support of the excellent people at NCECA, the University of Wisconsin, and Medalta.

Ray Chen NCECA International Residency Australia National University, Canberra, Ceramics Workshop I would like to express my appreciation to NCECA for support my participation in the International Residency Program at the National Australian University in Canberra, Australia. Because of it, I had the opportunity to share my professional and artistic experience at the National Australian University and to help the young generations to grow in the clay art field. The residency provided a rich life experience and has prepared me to continue and develop my artistic experience and creativity in art as an artist. I developed my artistic work during the residency period, and tried different ways of making, thinking, construction and finishing for my work Mother and Child. I finished a new body of work at the residency, included seven sets of the Mother and Child and one grouping pieces called In Between at the Foyer Art Gallery at the University. Using different raw and glaze materials to complete this body of work helped me to think differently and more openly. All of the work was completed on time and the exhibition opened on August 16th. The feedback on the exhibition was very positive and was a part of the symposium called Material Matters. The entire work has been donated to the National Australian National University for their collection and other venues in Australia as well. As part of the symposium, I gave a slide lecture titled “Contemporary Ceramics - Mother and Child” for the Art Form program for the School of Art, as well as another lecture, titled “Cultural Influence - From Traditional Expression to Modern Context.” In addition, I worked with the undergraduate and graduate students in the ceramics workshop and gave my professional opinions and suggestions about their work. The symposium was a month-long program that included lectures, workshops, exhibitions and wood fire kiln site visit. During the symposium, I also conducted a one day workshop called “Process and Material - Abstraction in Sculpture” about the construction and the ways of thinking and making of abstract art forms/ sculpture. I also visited the National Art School and lectured at The College of the Arts - The University of Sydney about my work and shared my professional artistic experience with their faculty and students. I have also been invited to be a reviewer for the graduate and undergraduate students at the National Art School. Working with the Chair of the Ceramics Workshop, Janet DeBoos, at the National Australian University, Canberra was my great honor. We have forged a great professional connection and I learned a great deal from her that not only made the residency richer and fuller, but also was a part of my growing process as an artist.

nceca 141 Journal 2012 • Fellowships & Residencies

IN MEMORIAM: Past Masters Emmanuel Cooper, continued pg. 14 gage in efforts that ultimately resulted in the creation of the Craft Potters Association. Subsequently he served as a council member, chair, and eventually a fellow. A co-founder in 1970 with Eileen Lewenstein of Ceramic Review, the two partnered as co-editors and publishers until 1997, after which he served as sole editor until a couple of years before his death. He helped build this publication from a potters association newsletter into a wideranging ceramics journal, internationally recognized and fiscally successful. Cooper became involved in the gay rights movement in the early 1970s as a founding member of the Gay Left Collective, which published a journal of sexual politics. He formed a gay artists group and a gay history group and contributed articles to the gay press on the arts and cultural issues. As the author of A Handbook of Pottery (1970), A History of Pottery (1972) and Ten Thousand Years of Pottery (2000), he provided access to vast and vital information, updated in revised, expanded editions. Additionally, Cooper published several short studies of fellow potters, and wrote the biographies Bernard Leach: Life & Work (2003) and Lucie Rie: Modernist Potter, both of whom influenced his work. Of Cooper, Edmun DeWaal wrote, “He was a true democrat. He simply refused to see hierarchies that others thought were significant, bringing a motorbike into conjunction with a bowl by Lucie Rie as his examples of good craftsmanship….” Cooper’s research in the 1980s on gay art resulted in widely read studies: The Sexual Perspective (1986), on homosexuality and art; and Fully Exposed: The Male Nude in Photography (1990). In the later ‘80s he began working on an exploration of working-class art from the 1760s. This work was ultimately published as People’s Art in 1994 and provided the basis for his PhD from Middlesex University, awarded in 1996. In 2011, he was recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Ceramics Festival in Aberystwyth. About his work he wrote, “My work is influenced by the urban city envi-

ronment, by such things as hard, textured surfaces, by street lighting, traffic lights, endless movement and sense of urgency. Colours are those of roads, pavements and building, textures those we encounter in the metropolis.”

Ian Currie 1941-2011 On May 6, 2011, surrounded by his family in Brisbane, Australia, Ian Currie passed away following a courageous battle with cancer. Currie worked with clay and glazes for over 30 years. In 1971-72 he spent over a year in Japan studying many aspects of Japanese ceramics, including their approach to glazes. Upon his return to Australia, he made a living producing functional handmade stoneware and porcelain. His interest in glazes eventually led to lecturing in the subject throughout Australia. In 1980 he founded a correspondence course in Stoneware Glazes for the Australian Flying Arts School (now Flying Arts Inc.) and taught this course for several years. He was also a flying pottery lecturer with AFAS during this period. Currie is known for the method he developed for studying glazes - a systematic technique outlined in his books, Understanding Stoneware Glazes: A Systematic Approach and Revealing Glazes. Later in life Currie extended his glaze systems to a recipe-based approach in an effort to make his methods more accessible to potters less comfortable with chemistry and calculations. Also it now covers a full range of firing temperatures. Currie was invited to speak at 1998 NCECA Conferences in Fort Worth, TX, and in 2001 in Charlotte, NC. His regular workshop tours of the US were enthusiastically received. Currie generously shared his incredible understanding of glazes with potters around the world through workshops and his books. All that he did in life was infused with his generosity of spirit and the importance of connection, respect and tolerance.

nceca 142 Journal Journal 2012 2012 •• In In Memoriam Memorium nceca

Bacia Stepner Edelman 1925-2009 Potter-sculptor, mother, grandmother and friend, died at age 84 on Saturday September 19, 2009, at the Hospice Care facility in Madison, Wisconsin. Bacia’s greatest joy was her work, which is lovingly displayed by her friend Russell Fouts on his website devoted to her, at http://users.skynet.be/russel. fouts/bacia.htm. Bacia frequently “played with clay” before she was in kindergarten, encouraged by her devoted aunt Sybil Righter, who worked at the Paul Revere Pottery in Boston. On Saturday nights all the single female employees (the Saturday Evening Girls) were invited to bring their nieces and nephews and Bacia, the youngest attendee, fell in love with pottery, a passion that stayed with her until her very last days, when Andree helped her finish her very last piece, a joint work from the two of them. Sybil ensured that Bacia took art classes at the Boston Museum during her childhood. She then studied on scholarship with Josef Albers at Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina, in the summer of 1946, completed her Bachelors of Fine Arts at Rhode Island School of Design in 1947, completed her Masters of Fine Arts at New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University, in 1950, and studied in Vienna at the Akademie Für Angwandte Kunst. Bacia attended and taught countless workshops and classes throughout the years, and the highlight of every year was the NCECA annual conference. Bacia’s art, notably her teapots and her signature lichen glaze, was widely exhibited in juried and invitational shows and is in permanent collections in the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Everson Museum, Northern Arizona Art Museum, Charles A. Wustum Museum, and numerous corporate and private collections. In the last month of her life, she was notified that one of her pieces was selected for the permanent collection of the Asheville Art Museum in North Carolina - Black Mountain College, bringing her

IN MEMORIAM: Past Masters career full circle. Bacia’s work was also featured in numerous publications including 500 Teapots; 500 Bowls; Ceramics Monthly; Ceramics, Art and Perception; and Clay Times.

Gerry Eskin 1934-2011 Businessman turned artist, Gerald Eskin, passed away in summer 2011. After retiring in 1995 from Information Resources Inc., a company he co-founded in the 1970s, he turned his energies to ceramics and sculpture working with Chuck Hindes at the University of Iowa. Beginning with plates and cups, his work ultimately evolved into largescale pieces inspired by sarcophagus-like burial containers or ossuaries. For a time, Eskin served as a Chairman of NCECA’s advisory board. Hindes, said of his friend, “His real strength was in sculpture.” In addition to designing and developing the University of Iowa Art Museum’s ceramics collection, Eskin recently presented exhibitions at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa, and SOFA Chicago at Navy Pier. In the catalog for Eskin’s 2010 exhibition at the Figge Art Museum, his close friend Jun Kaneko wrote, “In all the things that Gerry Eskin creates, there is a basic sense of humanity,” Eskin’s work is held in major collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He is survived by his wife, Sandie ‘Zoe’ Eskin, younger brother, two sons, a daughter and seven grandchildren.

Ray Finch 1914-2012 Ray passed away on January 18, 2012, the age of 97 having worked at Winchcombe Pottery in Gloucestershire since 1936. Initially when Finch, a young chemist, visited Michael Cardew at the pottery in 1935, he was sent away to gain some pottery experience. Finch returned in 1936, aged 22, and was able to convince Cardew that he now knew

enough to join the team. When Cardew left Winchcombe to establish a new pottery he turned Winchcombe Pottery operations over to Finch. When in 1943, Finch was called up to military service, the Winchcombe Pottery closed until he returned. Finch purchased the pottery from Cardew in 1946 and continued to work in various forms, from slipware to the more robust stoneware, crafting water jugs, teapots and bowls for everyday use. By 1960 Finch was acknowledged among the most distinguished of studio potters in the UK with his work included in important exhibitions in London. His son Mike who assumed day-to-day management of the pottery in 1979, remembers his father as a “quiet, modest man” who taught him everything he knows in pottery. “Everybody respected him and liked him,” he said. Ray Finch was still making pots until last year. In 1980, he was made Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to the arts and, in 1999 he received a lifetime achievement award from the International Ceramics Festival in Aberystwyth.

Ray Grimm 1924-2012 A longtime professor at Portland State University, died on Sunday, January 22, 2012, at the age of 87. Grimm was born in 1924 and served in the Navy during World War II. He studied art at Washington University in St. Louis after the war, where he met his wife, artist Jere Grimm. On their honeymoon, they heard about a workshop in Carbondale, Illinois, that ceramic artist F.Carlton Ball was leading, and the fiveweek course led the newlyweds into lifelong careers in ceramics. In 1956, Grimm completed his Master’s degree in pottery at Southern Illinois University, and he was hired by Portland State University, where he taught pottery, jewelry-making and art education, until retiring in 1988. Grimm was a central player in the beginning of the Portland’s modern craft

movement, playing an important role at the old Contemporary Crafts Gallery and Museum. His initial interest was in ceramics—he mastered Chinese glazing techniques, for example—but he also was an early proponent of glass art, taking glass-blowing workshops at the Toledo Art Museum, including one led by Harvey Littleton, the father of the modern glass art movement, in 1968, and started the Glass Shack workshop in Portland for glass artists. Grimm’s work is in the permanent collection of the Oregon Museum of Contemporary Crafts and many other collections, and he won many public art commissions during his career.

Bill Shinn 1932-2011 A potter and college teacher, Bill Shinn passed away following a battle with cancer on April 25, 2011. William Curtis Shinn was born November 17, 1932, Garden Grove, California. Bill began teaching while serving in Europe as a single- and multiengine pilot with the Air Force. After he finished service in the Air Force, he studied at the Sorbonne and Academic Julian in Paris. Shinn received his Bachelors of Arts degree in painting from UCLA in 1962, and a Masters in Ceramic design from UCLA in 1967. He began his teaching career at Placer High School in Auburn, California, where he taught art, and was ceramics instructor at Allan Hancock College from 1967 through 1987. After retiring from teaching, he conducted workshops in the U.S., Canada, and South America. Shinn’s work with and experimentation with the ceramic extruder earned him international and national followings. He shared his knowledge and ideas creating works in the commercial exhibitor area of NCECA conferences and traveled widely to deliver workshops and jury exhibitions. Shinn’s work received two awards from the first World Ceramic Exposition in Seoul, Korea. As a teacher, Bill wanted to instill the spirit of adventure, experimentation and innovation in other potters, and would say, “Take chances, try different things, and expand your horizons.”

nceca nceca 143 Journal Journal 2012 2012 •• In In Memoriam Memorium

PROJECTS SPACE

BRICK FACTORY: Nicole Burisch, Tom Myers, Erik Scollon, and Summer Zickefoose; CLOUD PATTERNS / CLOUD COLLECTING: Jessica Knapp; REPETITIVE PLAY: Broc Toft, Merrick Anderson, Colin Klimesh

BRICK FACTORY: Nicole Burisch, Tom Myers, Erik Scollon, and Summer Zickefoose

CLOUD PATTERNS / CLOUD COLLECTING:

The Brick Factory will present an interactive performance art lab in the project space. Over three days, this ceramics-based performance collective will stage their own original works live at posted times. In the interim periods, the collective will assist others to stage or create performances of their own. The Brick Factory is a performance art collective consisting of four artists, Nicole Burisch, Tom Myers, Erik Scollon, and Summer Zickefoose, who collaborate to create original performances and reenactments of well-known or historical performance art works, utilizing clay as a primary material and/ or theme.

Clouds collect and disperse and are both ephemeral and physical. They are ever present in the Pacific Northwest, and have a large impact on climate and culture. Cloud Patterns takes this intermediary form and transforms it into a steel structure with porcelain cladding. Though not essential, like water, both of these materials are highly valued by and useful to advanced society and they are on the leading edge of design, architecture, and technology. The function of a cloud is re-imagined; rather than being part of the water cycle, it is part of the culture cycle collecting and dispersing trailing threads that support porcelain flowers. The hanging flowers are arranged into four different patterns that relate to and honor the cultures that have been and still are important to Seattle’s development and cultural character. These patterns shift over the course of the installation, with one of the four patterns gradually changing each day. The seven patterns that will be seen through the course of the installation come from Native American, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Scandinavian, Italian, African American and Jewish cultures, all of whom are part of the city’s history, development and contemporary culture.

REPETITIVE PLAY: Broc Toft, Merrick Anderson, Colin Klimesh Repetitive Play is a collaborative installation that is comprised of the combined efforts of Merrick Anderson, Broc Toft, and Colin Klimesh. We’ve combined our mutual interest in form, line, geometry, technique, and the ceramic process in an attempt to activate the space and engage the viewer.

Jessica Knapp

AND FINALLY, WE GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGE... During 2011-12 NCECA was supported in part by generous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency and the Windgate Charitable Foundation. NCECA thanks the following individuals for generous contributions made in 2011-12: Linda Arbuckle Wally Bivins Robert and Debbie Burger Lee Burningham Abbey Chase and Manny Palgen Sam Chung Patsy Cox Toni Crouch David Cuzick Patrick Doust

Jan Dreskin-Haig Leslie Ferrin Jeffrey Forster Linda Ganstrom Chanda Glendinning Joshua Green and Denise Suska Green Jean Marie and Jane Greiner Roberta Griffith Candice Groot Catherine Grundy

Steve Hilton Angela Howell Myra Block Kaiser Sonny and Gloria Kamm Brian James Kohl Ruth Kohler Marc Leuthold Marjorie Levy Sara Lieberman Linda Lighton Suzanne Lussier Warren Mackenzie

Ande Maricich Minerva Navarette Juliann Rohn Louise Rosenfield Juliet Schwalbach Barbara Schwartz Sam Scott Mel and Gae Shulman Leonard and Alison Shurz Jeffrey Spahn John Stephenson

nceca 144 Journal 2012 2012 •• Projects In Memorium 144 Journal nceca Space / Acknowledgements

Cindy Bracker Sturm Glenda Taylor Tennessee Tech University, Appalachian Center For Craft Rhonda Willers Tietz Wanda Turk James Alan Turnbull Susan Ward Keith J. Williams

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e a : Dylan Beck

EMERGING ARTISTS

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Microwave Safe, 2011, porcelain, underglaze, paint, steel, rubber, plastic

“I often see beauty in the mundane and sometimes in the very things that embody poor planning and environmental degradation. That is why my work neither condemns nor celebrates the built environment. Rather, it is designed to encourage a more critical discussion of the issues that we currently face due to the encroachment of the built environment upon that of the natural world. Therefore, I try to situate my work between criticism and veneration.”

Deep Cut, 2009, terra-cotta, bisque porcelain

Normal-Field Instability, 2011, porcelain, underglaze, resin

Laminate Filigree, 2010, porcelain, carpet padding, plywood

Domestic Conglomerations (detail), 2011, bisque porcelain

National Monument, 2010, colored porcelain, Astro turf, carpet padding, plywood

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Yesterday’s Tomorrow, 2011, terracotta, grout, wood shims, plastic, air filter

The Air Must Be Thick With Words, 2008, porcelain, terra cotta, paint, steel, rubber

3/7/12 2:08 PM

Nicholas Bivins :

e a:

EMERGING ARTISTS

“The act of use is then enriched by objects that require the viewers’ attention while at the same time allowing them to enjoy the experience of replenishment. This perpetual shifting in focus shows that through function, the object holds power in its passive waiting for an active participant.”

nceca

Steins (4), 2012, Pots: porcelain, glaze, decals; Tray: MDF, automotive paint, rubber

Saturday Morning, 2012, Pots: porcelain, glaze, decals; Tray: MDF, automotive paint, rubber

Pints + Sidecars, 2012, Pots: porcelain, glaze, decals; Tray: MDF, automotive paint, rubber

Coffee (2), 2012, Pots: porcelain, glaze, decals; Tray: MDF, automotive paint, rubber

Flask + Cup, 2012, Pots: porcelain, glaze, decals; Tray: MDF, automotive paint, rubber

Toasting Cups (8), 2012, Cups: porcelain, glaze, decals; Tray: MDF, automotive paint, rubber Brew, 2012, porcelain, glaze, decals

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e a : Chandra DeBuse

EMERGING ARTISTS

“A handmade vessel infused with bouncing lines, candy colors, low relief and hand drawn elements provides the user with time to explore playful messages while cultivating a sense of discovery. Because play is an experience, my vessels serve as a conduit to a playful mindset, poising the user to engage in their own state of play, resulting in an enriched life.”

ceca

Swimming Pool S&P, 2010, white stoneware, cone 6 electric, underglaze, glaze, luster

Nut Stash Jar, 2011, white stoneware, cone 7 electric, underglaze inlay, sgraffito, soda ash wash

Shoot the Duck, Bunny, 2011, white stoneware, cone 7 electric, underglaze inlay, brushwork

Candy Dish With Golden Spoon, 2010, white stoneware, cone 6 electric, underglaze inlay, gold luster

Thunder Thighs Tumbler, 2010, porcelaneous stoneware, cone 6 electric

Reach Teapot, 2011, white stoneware, cone 7 electric, underglaze inlay, sgraffito

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Treat Server, 2010, white stoneware, cone 7 electric, underglaze inlay

Grouping Of Character Cups (detail), 2011, white stoneware, cone 7 electric, Underglaze inlay, brushwork

3/7/12 2:08 PM

Darien Johnson :

e a:

EMERGING ARTISTS

nceca

Partial Transfer, 2010, porcelain, china paint, string, acrylic, plexiglass

Untitled, 2011, porcelain, china paint, thread, acrylic Five Prong, 2010, porcelain, china paint, thread acrylic, plexiglass

“How does absorbing information through digital media define a person’s notion of reality? ...My work represents the current entanglement of human cognition and digital processing...This conceptual framework is directly tied to my studio practice.”

RGB, 2011, porcelain, china paint, thread acrylic, plexiglass, MDF Layered, 2011, porcelain, china paint, thread acrylic, plexiglass

G.Arch, 2009, porcelain, china paint, thread acrylic

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e a : Peter Christian Johnson

EMERGING ARTISTS

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Turbine #2 from the Construction series, 2010, terracotta and steel

Rotary Engine: from the Construction series (detail), 2011, white earthenware, linseed oil, latex paint

Black Turbine: from the Construction series, 2011, white earthenware, stains, linseed oil

“The themes of artifact and invention have been a consistent exploration of my artwork over the last ten years...

Yellow Turbine: from the Construction series, 2011, white earthenware, stains, linseed oil, tractor paint

Red Turbine: from the Construction series, 2011, white earthenware, stains, linseed oil, tractor paint

Turbine #3, from the Construction series, 2011, white earthenware Arc #2 from the Construction series (detail), 2010-2011, white earthenware

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...I am intrigued by the historical prevalence of clay, a material so strongly linked to our cultural formation. The material seems imbued with a sense of time, carrying with it references to the many clay objects created by past civilizations.”

Journal 2012 • GALLERY

Turbine #1 from the Construction series, 2010, white earthenware

Blue Turbine: from the Construction series, 2011, white earthenware, stains, linseed oil, tractor paint

3/7/12 2:09 PM

Matthew MCConnell :

e a:

EMERGING ARTISTS

“Rule No. 4: Add, adjust, arrange and discard objects at will in an attempt to fulfill imaginary parameters required for a complete composition. These parameters will vary from day to day.”

nceca

Many Things New and More of the Same (detail), 2010, raku-fired earthenware, india ink on plywood

Sleights of Hand, 2010, earthenware with acrylic paint, veneer over MDF

Many Things New and More of the Same (detail), 2010, raku-fired earthenware

Closings: March 19-27, 2011 (New York, Berlin, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Munich, Paris, Madrid), 2011, plasticine, mixed media

Between One and The Same - Part 4 (detail), 2011, raku-fired earthenware, mixed media

Many Things New and More of the Same (detail), 2010, raku-fired earthenware, india ink on plywood

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Between One and The Same - Part 1, 2011, raku-fired earthenware, mixed media

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Demonstrating ARTIST: Christa Assad Wood Burner Teapot, Donald, British Columbia, 2011, porcelain, oxides, glaze

Nesting Grenades (detail), 2011, porcelain, oxides, glaze

“The slow, personal process by which I make these icons - each is individually wheel-thrown and constructed - subverts our acceptance of the fast, impersonal, machine-made. The glorification of ordinary apparatuses is another result of this method of careful, deliberate fabrication.”

Anagama Iron Teapot, 2011, porcelain

Fire Hydrant & Pigeons, 2011, stoneware & porcelain

Wood Burner, Marysville, California, 2011,porcelain, glaze

Transformer Teapot, 2011, porcelain, oxides, glaze Wood Burners, 2011, porcelain, oxides, glaze

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Gold Spray Can & Bucket, 2011, porcelain, glaze

Journal 2012 • GALLERY

3/7/12 2:11 PM

Demonstrating ARTIST: Walter Keeler “The potter has the power to infiltrate, to sneak into the private intimacy of people’s daily life. By doing so can we satisfy some essential human tactile need, can we touch lives softly in ways that are enriching, compensating for unnoticed deficits in our technological world?” Three Teapots, earthenware, inkwash glaze

Wrong Half Dish No. 2, earthenware, inkwash glaze

Ionic Teapot, 2011, stoneware, salt glaze

Earthenware Vase With Branches, cream glaze, green detail

Spikey Vase, earthenware, inkwash glaze

Fruity Crabstock Teapot, earthenware Teapot, earthenware, inkwash glaze Spikey Dish, earthenware, inkwash glaze

Teapot On Legs, earthenware, inkwash glaze

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Demonstrating ARTIST: Tip Toland

Dive, 2007, stoneware, paint, chalk pastel

Monkey Mind (detail), 2010, stoneware, porcelain, paint, chalk pastel

Long Ago And Far Away, 2008, stoneware, paint, chalk pastel, wood

â&#x20AC;&#x153;There is usually a strong energy driving each piece to be made... The long process to make and complete each figure always results in my feeling very tender towards them. Like kids, they come from me, as stand-ins for some part of me, yet in the process they also become their own fully formed selves.â&#x20AC;?

The Whistlers, 2005, stoneware, paint, chalk pastel, synthetic hair

Avadhut, 2010, stoneware, gold leaf

Milk For The Butter Thief, 2008, stoneware, paint, chalk pastel, wool

Pretty Pretty Baby (detail), 2007, stoneware, paint, chalk pastel, wax

Eye View, 2008, aze, luster and concrete

Boxer, 2010, stoneware, paint, chalk pastel

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Letter To God, 2011, stoneware, paint, chalk pastel, hair, steel

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Demonstrating ARTIST: Jason Walker “Technology is both friend and foe. It can be disorienting. Like a moth to a flame or a light bulb, as a culture we are pursuing our technological aspirations with a sort of blind admiration. By communicating these ideas, my ceramic work is a form of social critique, but at the same time it is a form of selfexamination.”

City Animal: Bird’s Eye View, 2008, porcelain, underglaze, luster and concrete

City Animal: We Burn Things, That’s What We Do, 2008, porcelain, underglaze and luster

We Better Teach Our Children To Swim, 2010, porcelain, underglaze and nylon chord

Wild Savage, 2009, porcelain, underglaze and luster

A Hand In Two Worlds, 2009, porcelain, underglaze, luster and concrete

Stacking A Skyline, 2009, porcelain, underglaze and luster

Capsized, 2011, porcelain, china paints and overglaze enamel

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120 W. Main Urbana, IL 61801 217-367-3711 10a-5p Wed-Sat

Chris Berti

Harris Deller

Todd Frahm

Don Frith

Annelies Heijnen

Jacob Foran

Frank Gallo

Ron Kovatch Clara Hoag

Marlene Miller

Dwain Naragon

Mary Carolyn Obodzinski

Angela Rose

Rimas VisGirda

Laura O’Donnell

Billie Jean Thiede

Catherine Wiesener

w w w. c i n e m a g a l l e ry. c c

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New Works: Nick Kripal “I have placed sculptural installations within sacred spaces. I am interested in the history of the site, the religious rites that take place within the site, and the architectural iconography of the site. The last is of particular interest as it operates as a signifier for the other two.” Santo Spirito, 2000, cast concrete

W.S Variation #2 (detail), 2006, earthenware

Buddy & Rosena Burgess, 2009, earthenware and graphite

Confection, 2010, terra cotta

W.S. Variation #5, 2008, terra cotta

Swarm, Philadelphia International Airport, 2010, terra cotta and digital painting

W.S Variation #2, 2006, earthenware

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Contrivance Glazed, 2010, earthenware

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New Works: Matt Nolen

Root/Knot/Bramble, 2010, multiple fired stoneware Spill (garden seat), 2009, stoneware

Oil Lamp, 2010, multiple fired stoneware

Rose And Thorn, 2010, multiple fired porcelain Grotesque Garden (installation view), Jane Hartsook Gallery, NYC, October-November 2010

“As a painter, architect, and storyteller, clay provides the means by which I can marry my loves: the painted surface, threedimensional form and narrative content. Ceramics gives me the language to communicate my stories to a worldwide audience a language the entire world has used for centuries.”

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New Works: Jae Won Lee

Prologue: In Search Of Streams And Mountains (detail), 2011, porcelain, decals, wood, metal rod

Mongyudowondo (Sleepwalking Around The Peach Garden), 2009, installation, recycled paper, thread, Oakland University Art Gallery, Rochester, MI

Of A Garden Path, 2011, doily parts, thread, fabric Traces: In Search Of Streams And Mountains, 2010, paper, foam tape

Seize The Flower In The Mirror (detail), 2011, colored porcelain, fabric

“Noticing things is crucial to making art: things about ourselves, problems, and challenges. Making art allows us to declare who we are. The Zen proverb tells us that for the beginner there are many paths, but for the advanced, only a few.”

Table setting view from Blue Mountains & Blue Mountains: Chinese Character Study, 2010, porcelain, colored porcelain, mono filament, beads Blue Mountains: Cup & Saucer Dish Set, 2010, porcelain, wooden shelves

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g n i K r n e i t r e P ia Ma XinANNOUNCING 1st Ever Advanced Architectural Ceramics Workshop. April 23-28, 2012 Pensacola, Florida or 5-Day Intensive Nevada City, California June 18-22, 2012 visit Studio540.net

For details visit our website: PeterKingCeramics.com Or call: (850)725-5996

Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re Invited

Special Art Show & Kiln Opening April 29 1 p.m. - until. Celebrating and introducing:

Stonehaus

The Next Generation Featuring: Peter King Xinia Marin Zach DePolo Jayne Richards Mike Baillie Lindy Verdin

www.peterkingceramics.com www.xiniamarin.com or friend us on Facebook

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International Ceramic Research Center

Artist In Residence

"This place is so well equipped that I can get anything I want. This leaves a lot of possibilities for experimenting." - Hikaru Nakada (JP) “The beautiful countryside environment has given me time to concentrate and focus fully on my work.” - Gustaf Nordenskiöld (SE)

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2012 NCECA Invitational Exhibition: Push Play Megumi Naitoh

Judy Fox

Christina West

Diego Romero

Ryder Richards Sam Scott Steven Olszewski

Rebekah Bogard

Cristina Cordova

Kelly Connole

Caroline Cheng

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Margaret Keelan

Brian Bolden

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2012 NCECA Invitational Exhibition: Push Play

Ray Gonzalez

Mark Chatterley

Jessica Orlowski

Yoko Sekino-Bove

Tara Polansky

Mika Negishi Laidlaw

Diego Romero

Derek Reeverts

Adrian Arleo

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Beth Cavener Stichter

Anne Drew Potter

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Judy Fox

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Gage Teaching Artist, Bill Evans

Classical Training for Contemporary Artists

www.GageAcademy.org

1501 Tenth Avenue East Seattle WA 98102

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2012 National Student Juried Exhibition

Duncan Tweed

Jamie Bates

Andres Payan

Norleen Nosri

Joel Weissman

Rhonda Chan Jason Kiley

Steve Belz

Evan Pomerantz

Luke Severson

Bill Wilkey

Seungwon Lee

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Paige Wright

3/7/12 2:13 PM

2012 National Student Juried Exhibition James Kennington

Armando Minjarez

Cara Long

Bonilyn Parker

Rachel Ballard

Phillip Finder Pei-Hsua Wang

Katie Brown Chandra Droske

Heather Davis

Dandee Pattee

Katherine Walton

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Kelly Brenner

Matt Conlon

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FRANK BOYDEN & TOM COLEMAN Collaborations: Works in Clay March 2-31, 2012

313 Occidental Ave S • Seattle, WA 98104 Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 10 am-5:30 pm 206-624-7684 • www.davidsongalleries.com

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15th annual national k-12 ceramic exhibition Asher Abrahms, 10

Victoria Montes, 12

Sean Horan, 12

Ryan Villacorta, 8

Tatiana Cumming, 11

Vanassa Smalley, 10

Mallory Martin, 12

Dalton Schulenberg, 12

Currin Wallis, 12

Rachelle McKellop, 8

Abby Adams, 12 Kiana Bowen, 12

Ryan Wheeler, 12

Maximillian Gonzales, 12

Oliver de la Croix-Vaubois, 11

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Lorena Fuentes, 10

Journal 2012 â&#x20AC;˘ GALLERY

* Number after name indicates the grade level of artist

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15th annual national k-12 ceramic exhibition

Branden Jenkins, 11

Jasmin Arevalo, 12

Joshua Keeny, 12

Samantha Mauer, 12 Katie Fitzgerald, 12

Dibenhi TrevinoMolina, 12

Kate Breffeihl, 11

Forrest Delorie, 12 Nick Purpura, 12

Madeline Ming, 12 Grace Hilscher, 4

RON MEYERS NCECA Gallery Expo 2012 Nicholas Espinosa, 10

Kalon Morgan, 12

WASHINGTON STATE CONVENTION CENTER Ballroom 6F Also presenting the work of Tom Hoffman, Jacob Foran, and others. YamaProject Gallery www.YamaProject.com

* Number after name indicates the grade level of artist

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Artist Residencies

Stipend Semi-Private Sudio Spaces Teaching & Exhibition Opportunities

Master Artist Workshops

Matt Long PorceLain Available exclusively at

Trinity Ceramic Supply.

3 Galleries & Sculpture Garden Art School

Lauren Clay

armoryart.org

photo credit Steve Paszt

West Palm Beach, FL

Find out more about Matt Long @ www.FullVictory.com

www.TrinityCeramic.com Chris Riccardo

Untitled-1 1

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(214)631-0540

2/16/2012 11:09:40 AM

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