Northern Clay Center: Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed

XQUISITE POTS II: REDHANDED

Jason Bige Burnett Marc Digeros Ursula Hargens Lisa Orr Joseph Pintz Liz Quackenbush Peter Scherzer Holly Walker

XQUISITE POTS II: REDHANDED

September 27 – ­ November 3, 2013 Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis, MN Curated by NCC’s Exhibitions Committee Essay by Mark Pharis Edited by Elizabeth Coleman

Jason Bige Burnett Marc Digeros Ursula Hargens Lisa Orr Joseph Pintz Liz Quackenbush Peter Scherzer Holly Walker

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Sarah Millfelt, Executive Director

© 2013 Northern Clay Center.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, write to Northern Clay Center, 2424 Franklin Avenue East, Minneapolis, MN 55406. www.northernclaycenter.org Manufactured in the United States First edition, 2013 International Standard Book Number 978-1-932706-29-1 Unless otherwise noted, all dimensions: height precedes width precedes depth.

With Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed, Northern Clay Center continues its history of producing dynamic exhibitions that provide a point of departure for a greater conversation about clay. This time, the conversation is not just among the viewers and appreciators of the exhibition, but also among the makers themselves.

The exhibition is based, in part, on its predecessor, Exquisite Pots: 6 Degrees of Collaboration, which was produced by NCC in 2008 and explored collaborations in porcelain. The concept was derived from the 1920s Surrealist game, “Exquisite Corpse,” where each successive collaborator built upon the preceding work of another without fully knowing what had come before.

Reimagined, Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed stepped outside the parameters of the first exhibition and explored collaborations in earthenware. The participating artists had the opportunity to communicate, alter, and redefine the signature forms of their peers through every stage of the making process. For a period of over eight months, eight artists took part in this bisque (and in some instances leatherhard) exchange. The participants in the exhibition are: Jason Bige Burnett (Bakersville, NC), Marc Digeros (North Hills, CA), Ursula Hargens (Minneapolis, MN), Lisa Orr (Austin, TX), Joseph Pintz (Roswell, NM), Liz Quackenbush (State College, PA), Peter Scherzer (Aiea, HI), and Holly Walker (Randolph, VT). Four of these artists (Bige Burnett, Hargens, Orr, and Pintz) took their collaborative efforts to the next step — they worked alongside each other, at NCC, over a two-week period of intensive making, swapping, decorating, swapping again, and redecorating.

Throughout the entire process, the artists attempted to translate their own processes and palettes into the language of their collaborators. As can be imagined, this translation was not always easy — or even possible. Some of the pots included in the exhibition, and seen in the pages that follow, can be considered successful, if we define success through the traditional lens. If we remind ourselves of the inherent technical challenges in the making process, the risks associated with shipping bisqued work, and the sheer pressure of putting your mark onto the pot of another potter, we start to have a new respect for all of the work.

To say that the residency was an interesting addition to the process is an understatement. It was fascinating to the NCC staff and the occasional visitor to the studios; it was challenging and exciting to the artists themselves. While the anticipated outcomes of this process were met — wet, leatherhard, and bisqueware were swapped among artists, new friends

were made and new processes discovered, work for the exhibition was completed — it was the artists themselves that expressed their surprise at the myriad of unanticipated outcomes. Some good; some not so good.

Having absolute freedom to decorate another artist’s work from beginning to end, led to the production of some really fun pots. Spending intensive time with each other, allowed for a greater understanding of another’s approach to form, and, thus, a more thoughtful approach to the surface. Sharing a small space with three other professional makers, each with a very distinct personality and studio habits, at times felt more like a social experiment than a residency. Resisting the urge to play it safe was an ongoing challenge.

In two short weeks, four artists collaboratively made dozens of pieces, used three-dozen slips & glazes and four varieties of clays, and fired 15 kilns. Each expressed a bit of sadness to leave NCC and their newfound friends and collaborators. Each described the experience as an opportunity of a lifetime. While their four other Red-Handed counterparts were unable to collaborate in the very same fashion, we know they experienced many of the same pleasures and challenges throughout the process. This is certainly made evident in the work you see in this catalogue.

Northern Clay Center thanks the artists for their willingness to take time out of their very busy schedules as makers and educators to participate in this exhibition. We thank the donors whose support has enabled us to produce really interesting shows and the numerous educational activities that accompany them.

Specifically, thank you to the Windgate Charitable Foundation, Continental Clay Company, and George and Frances Reid for support of Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed. Additional support was provided by the arts and cultural heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the Legacy Amendment vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.

A special thanks to Ursula Hargens, participating artist and onsite liaison for the resident artists, whose patience and willingness to serve as camp counselor was crucial to the success of the residency. Thank you to Mark Pharis and NCC’s other amazing exhibitions committee members. Thanks also to Michael Arnold, NCC’s exhibitions manager, for exceptional administrative prowess and vision. Thank you to Jamie Lang, who worked in collaboration with Michael on this extraordinary exhibition.

Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed

Foreword

Once upon a time, at the beginning of the vast history of clay work, the first pot was made. There is no record of this event and it will no doubt remain undocumented, but it most certainly happened.

Who made it, where was the clay found, was it coarse or fine, what was the pot’s function, was it fired to permanence or just temporarily hardened by the sun?

Each is a question that remains open to speculation.

It’s a guessing game of infinite possibilities, informed by the experience of every child who ever played in the rain, stepped on slippery earth, and accidentally made a depression holding water from which a dog drinks.

In this scenario, pottery begins as child’s play, most certainly with earthenware. From here, the vast history of cups and bowls of all manner can be imagined, albeit on the very distant horizon. The evolutionary distance from the crafting of the first pot, whatever it was, until now is enormous and much technically and culturally needed to develop before our accidental dog bowl could become anything like the albarellos from Spain, Delft tiles from the Netherlands, English Slipware, the Turkish tiles from İznik, Italian Maiolica, or the diverse earthenware collaborations we experience by the artists whose work we see in the exhibit Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed.

The use of iron rich earthenware has a continuous history beginning in the Neolithic period. Clay objects document this history — visual, physical, and tactile, whole and fragmented. Each piece is a part of the material world and represents the values of a particular time and culture. Whatever their purpose — be it a bowl, spoon, fetish or fertility figure — these historical pieces continue to contribute to our understanding of the social and cultural narrative that is our inheritance.

From these early clay artifacts, we begin to understand much about the people that made them: where they lived; what their society valued; what they ate; what their rituals and belief systems may have been. In sum, they embody how humanity and culture developed.

The earliest forms of pottery and sculpture were made from unglazed clays, frequently red in color, easily found on, or just below, topsoil. By today’s standards, early firings were simple affairs — no kilns, no glaze, no electricity. The clay was fired to relatively low temperatures, 2000°F or less, in pits or open bonfires fueled with brush and dung. At the time, the results must have been mysterious and magical — the chemical change of fire transforming the fragile earth into hard, durable objects.

Earthenware is as ubiquitous as it is common. As Holly Walker describes it, “the history of my material,

earthenware clay, is a story as long as the earth and my method of working with coils as old as the people who populate it.”1 Earthenware in some form can still be found nearly everywhere in deposits that lie on or near the earth’s surface. In addition to utilitarian pottery, earthenware is formed into brick, adobe, floor tile, and the unglazed roof tiles that shelter millions, from the humble barrios of Caracas to the roof of the Vatican’s revered Sistine Chapel.

Numerous efforts were made over time to upgrade the profile of this familiar material, often by persuading earthenware surfaces to take on the appearance of something more valuable. Ursula Hargens notes, “My work plays upon earthenware’s association with nostalgia and tradition, but also acknowledges the material’s rich history imitating more valued materials such as porcelain and bronze. I consciously use materials and processes that move between categories of value.”2 Throughout the Middle East and then Europe, the practice of coating red earthenware with a white slip, opaque white glaze, or both, created a ground for decoration and embellishment of all kinds. The technique also imitated the whiteness of porcelain — that beautiful, rare, and very expensive clay that was first imported to Europe from China. There are, of course, endless design combinations and permutations for clay, slip, terra sigillata, glaze, and luster. Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed demonstrates the broad chromatic and tactile range, and the emotional potential, of this venerable material.

The collaborations in Red-Handed are undoubtedly contemporary. Indirectly and at a distance, the collaborative works in Red-Handed are informed by centuries of artistic production that precede it — the cultural collaborations and the crosspollination facilitated by trade routes and other forms of trade and exchange — including accidental and intentional interactions; the outright theft of ideas and techniques; and the appropriation and dissemination of aesthetic, technical, and geological information. It is a complex soup and one that’s at the heart of ceramic practice today. Red-Handed is also a product of a fast-paced, contemporary world, where objects can be physically shipped overnight, and where images, ideas, and information traverse the globe over the Internet in seconds. The movement of cultural information and material objects is elastic and immediate.

The eight artists participating in Red-Handed each see earthenware — its history and its emerging potential — from different perspectives. In their individual practice, each artist has established a deep,

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Mark Pharis

Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed

Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed

| 06 | 07 | Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed Figure 1. Ursula Hargens form glazed by Joe Pintz, Footed Bowl, 7.5 x7.5 x 7.5”.

Figure 2. Joe Pintz form glazed by Ursula Hargens, Oblong Dish, 2 x 12 x 9”.

Figure 3. Pete Scherzer form glazed by Joe Pintz, Platter, 3 x 16 x 9.5”.

Figure 3. Pete Scherzer form glazed by Pete Scherzer and Jason Bige Burnett, Platter, 2.5 x 12.5 x 10”.

aesthetic relationship with the materials and firing temperature known as earthenware. And each has developed a unique vision that has expanded the ongoing dialogue around contemporary ceramics. Most artists maintain individual studios and work alone to develop a personal direction and aesthetic voice over years and decades. All of the Red-Handed artists have established a marriage in their individual work between form and surface.

Joining the Red-Handed collaboration meant that these artists were open to developing new partnerships between another’s unfamiliar form and one’s own surface vocabulary. All the participants address function — our collective need to embrace use in objects — as both idea and fact. However, not all the of their works are functional. The participants agreed to an exchange of work and ideas as part of an exercise in seeing that goes well beyond their personal experience. This exchange is a practice that takes practice. The sequence of making the pieces you see in this exhibit begins with creating form and applying slip, or not, followed by the initial firing — the bisque firing. Physically, but not necessarily conceptually, the glazing process comes after the form has been bisqued.

Because of this, glazing follows making and is often in response to physical form. The exchange of partiallyfired, unglazed forms among the participating artists was central to the exchange and development of the collaboration.

How and where do the efforts of these artists intersect conceptually? And, how will the underlying forms and surfaces resulting from such a diverse

exchange create new meaning and perhaps new beginnings for the participants and those of us passionate about earthenware?

It depends. It’s an open question and the value of the Red-Handed experience will unfold differently for each collaborative exchange. For example, Joe Pintz’s handbuilt forms are intentionally simple, sturdy, and unadorned, and require a physical engagement that is unnecessary and perhaps unwanted in, say, Ursula Hargens’ work. Hargens’ throwing employs a clear sense of edge and line, in form, volume, and surface. Her forms suggest a delicacy and weight that is removed from Pintz’s intent. Hargens’ historic influences are frequently European, while Pintz has a deep connection to America’s rural life and farm tools from the thirties and forties. There is a curious exchange of energy between Hargens and Pintz. His beautiful, monochromatic surfaces engage her forms much differently than they do his own. The detail and subtly of her forms, and the painted line that often restates Hargens’ form, is absent and leaves these pieces surprisingly cool (Figure 1). Conversely, Hargens’ painting on Pintz’s pieces transfers easily (Figure 2). For her and almost everyone else, Pintz’s bold, unadorned forms provide plenty of neutral space and surface on which to explore. In the shadow of this exchange, how will the permutations of Pintz/Hargens, Hargens/Pintz, and the others in turn, respond to the surface traffic provided by their co-collaborators? Again, it depends.

The opportunity to participate in this collaboration privileges engagement, knowledge, and experience over outcome.

Figure 3. Pete Scherzer form glazed by Liz Quackenbush, Platter, 2.5 x 12.5 x 10”.

Figure 3. Pete Scherzer form glazed by Holly Walker, Platter, 2 x 14 x 11”.

Holly Walker’s beginnings as painter are evident in her approach to surface; layers of richly contrasting slip and glaze are simply arranged into soft-edged, but decidedly geometric fields of color. Imagine unwrapping Walker’s painting from its underlying form — her painting and design would work equally well as twodimensional works. Her geometric surfaces locate themselves easily on Digeros, Pintz, Burnett, and other simpler forms.

In the case of Liz Quackenbush’s painting, gold luster plays a crucial role in her brightly-detailed abstractions. Gold, as color and material, provides an evocative charge implying wealth, elegance, and its hierarchy in the material world. However, her playful

imagery tempers its seriousness. Quackenbush and several others have been moved to redraw the lively, geometric edges of Pete Scherzer’s platters (Figure 3).

His sharply-modeled edges attract a lot of decorative attention from Quackenbush, Walker, and Bige Burnett. In contrast, Pintz’s monochromatic approach provides unanticipated definition and warmth to one of Scherzer’s signature forms.

In his own practice, Jason Bige Burnett has developed a vocabulary of patterns and images that conspire to form loose narratives reflecting on his experiences as an adolescent. His use of self-made and commercial decals and transfers is woven into these stories. In this exhibit, Burnett demonstrates a

| 08 | 09 | Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed Figure 4. Ursula Hargens form glazed and altered by Jason Bige Burnett, Trophy,

10.5 x 8 x 4.5”.

Figure 5. Pete Scherzer form glazed by Pete Scherzer and Jason Bige Burnett,

Platter, 2.5 x 12.5 x 10”.

Figure 8. Lisa Orr form glazed by Pete Scherzer, Luncheon Plate, 1.5x 10 x 10”.

Figure 9. Lisa Orr form glazed by Lisa Orr and Jason Bige Burnett, Luncheon Plate,

1.5 x 10 x 10”.

Figure 6. Holly Walker form glazed by Holly Walker and Jason Bige Burnett,

Palette, 3 x 15 x 9”.

Figure 7. Lisa Orr form glazed by Lisa Orr, Wine Cup, 3.5 x 3.5 x 3.5”.

Figure 10. Joe Pintz form glazed by Marc Digeros, Small Dish, 1.5 x 8.5 x 7”.

Figure 11. Pete Scherzer form glazed by Marc Digeros, Bowl, 3.5 x 7 x 7.5”.

broad and sensitive response to forms that appear to lie outside of his own interest. His interaction with the forms of Hargens (Figure 4), Scherzer (Figure 5), and Walker (Figure 6) are thoughtful and sympathetic responses to the underlying forms, from simple to complex. Burnett’s forms are clean and simply made and, like Pintz’s, leave much room for improvisation.

In Lisa Orr’s pots, form and surface are addressed with great enthusiasm. The physicality and energy of her throwing and manipulation is evident everywhere — in the plasticity of her forms, the application of slip, and in her transparent glaze work. Orr’s glazes are liquid, bright, and sensuous. She is a charter member of the more is more school and too much is never

enough (Figure 7). Her lush, exuberant glaze work can, at times, overwhelm subtler forms and her textured slip surfaces present challenges for those with a lighter touch. Pete Scherzer approaches Orr’s work by drying out surfaces that would normally be wet and applying structure over Orr’s typically abstract slip application (Figure 8). It’s a novel way to approach Orr’s work and one that is successful. The Burnett on Orr strawberry collaborations also reveal an exciting balance and exchange between two very different palettes and approaches (Figure 9).

Marc Digeros’ forms frequently begin with molded bases and multipart slab constructions. His pieces play with the historically familiar functions of ewers,

teapots, and vases and his constructions reference architecture. Patience is evident in his slab work; it lacks the surface energy, speed of process, and the immediate decision making that we typically associate with throwing. Like Burnett, Pintz, Quackenbush, and Walker, Digeros’ handbuilt forms have relatively clean surfaces, leaving room for improvisation, design, and surface embellishment. Digeros’ patterns, maskings, and matte glazes provide texture and depth (Figure 10) to several works (Figure 11).

There is a lot to consider and absorb in Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed. It may be helpful to look at pieces of the individual artists —Walker on Walker, Burnett on Burnett, Orr on Orr, etc.— before digesting the

many collaborative efforts. The sheer number of artists’ perspectives and permutations on forms, glazes, and techniques in Red-Handed are extraordinary. Exquisite Pots II: Red Handed has been forum, a place, and an opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences. There are many strong, exciting, and surprising works on view in this exhibit. For the eight artists who made the work and participated in the exchange — the experience continues.

1. Holly Walker, Artist Statement, 2012.

2. Ursula Hargens, Artist Statement, http://www.ursulahargens.com /statement.php

“My work forces me to work slowly because of the decoration process that primarily happens at leatherhard and my attention draws primarily to the surface treatments.

Now, I’m starting to think more about form and creating vessels that push these surfaces and the techniques.”

Jason Bige Burnett form glazed by Jason Bige Burnett, Mixing Bowl, 5 x 11.5 x 11.5”.

| 10 | 11 | Jason Bige Burnett graduated from Western Kentucky University with a BFA in ceramics and BAs in both printmaking and graphic design. After college, Bige Burnett continued his education at Penland School of Crafts in western North Carolina as a Core Fellowship student. Since then, he has been featured in the publications Ceramics Monthly and Pottery Making Illustrated, and was an Artist-in-Residence at Arrowmont School of Crafts. He exhibits nationally, most recently with Santa Fe Clay: La Mesa, at the NCECA conference in Houston, Texas; and at Red Lodge Clay Center, Red Lodge, Montana as a Featured Artist. Bige Burnett was chosen as a Ceramics Monthly 2013 Emerging Artist.

Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed

Jason Bige Burnett

Holly Walker form glazed by Holly Walker and Jason Bige Burnett, Rectangular Plate, 2 x 11.5 x 7“.

Joe Pintz form glazed by Joe Pintz and Jason Bige Burnett, Pitcher, 9.5 x 9 x 4.5”.

Liz Quackenbush form glazed by Jason Bige Burnett, Porcupine, 6 x 8 x 5.5”.

Ursula Hargens form glazed and altered by Jason Bige Burnett, Platter, 3 x 12.5 x 12.5”.

Joe Pintz form glazed and altered by Jason Bige Burnett, Oblong Dish, 2 x 12 x 9”.

“I often found myself considering what each person must be like as I was considering and completing their works[:] strong, whimsical, delicate, serious, funny, demure, determined, patient...”

| 12 | 13 | Marc Digeros grew up in Fridley, Minnesota, a northern suburb of Minneapolis, and received his BFA from the University of Minnesota in 1995. Digeros received his MFA from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1998, after which he moved to Helena, Montana, to work as a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation. During his two-year residency, Digeros received the first ever Taunt Fellowship. In 2000, he moved to Los Angeles where he still resides. Since 2001, Digeros has worked for the architect Frank Gehry as Model Shop Manager, an integral position that makes the everyday production of architectural models possible. Though his job is full-time, he spends time in his studio creating as much ceramic artwork as he can. He has also taught at schools in the Los Angeles area including California State University (CSU)–Northridge, CSU–Long Beach, as well as the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Marc Digeros form glazed by Marc Digeros, Vase, 11.5 x 5.5 x 4.5”.

Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed

Marc Digeros

Holly Walker form glazed by Marc Digeros, Spouted Shoe Bowl, 5 x 11 x 5”.

Jason Bige Burnett form glazed by Marc Digeros, Salad Plate, 1.5 x 9.5 x 9.5”.

Lisa Orr form glazed by Marc Digeros, Wine Cup, 3.5 x 3.5 x 3.5”.

Liz Quackenbush form glazed by Marc Digeros, Double Spouted Vase, 6 x 7.5 x 3.5”.

Ursula Hargens form glazed by Marc Digeros, Cup, 3.5 x 5 x 3.5”.

“As a thrower, I really enjoyed the challenge of working on non-symmetrical forms. The different orientation allowed for new compositions and combinations of motifs.”

| 14 | 15 | Ursula Hargens received an MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and an MA in Art & Art Education from Columbia University, Teachers College. Hargens also studied ceramics at Nova Scotia College of Art & Design. In addition to working as a studio artist, she has taught extensively throughout the Twin Cities at universities, community colleges, and with NCC’s adult and ClayToGo programs.

Hargens is a two-time McKnight Ceramic Artist Fellowship recipient and has received additional grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation, and the McKnight Foundation.

Ursula Hargens form glazed by Ursula Hargens, Pitcher, 13 x 7 x 6”.

Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed

Ursula Hargens

Pete Scherzer form glazed by Ursula Hargens, Platter, 2.5 x 13 x 7”.

Liz Quackenbush form glazed by Ursula Hargens, Bowl, 3 x 8.5 x 8.5”.

Jason Bige Burnett form glazed by Ursula Hargens, Cup, 4 x 3.5 x 3.5”.

Joe Pintz form glazed by Ursula Hargens, Cup, 3.5 x 5 x 3”.

Jason Bige Burnett form glazed by Ursula Hargens, Salad Plate, 1.5 x 9.5 x 9.5”.

“Being a resident at NCC was ideal for me, because adding decoration to a freshly made pot is an important part of my process and because I was able to better address glazing questions.”

Lisa Orr form glazed by Lisa Orr, Butter Dish, 4 x 9 x 5”.

| 16 | 17 | Lisa Orr has been a professional potter and student of ceramics for thirty years. She completed an MFA at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 1992 and later received grants including a Fulbright and a Mid-America Arts Alliance/National Endowment for the Arts grant. Her work is in numerous public and private collections including the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, and the permanent collection of WOCEF in Korea. She currently lives in Austin, Texas, where she teaches, lectures, and maintains a studio. Orr exhibits her work nationally and internationally.

Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed

Lisa Orr

Holly Walker form glazed by Lisa Orr, Heads and Tails Bowl, 5.5 x 10.5 x 6.5”.

Marc Digeros form glazed by Lisa Orr, Vase, 11.5 x 5.5 x 4.5”.

Ursula Hargens form glazed and altered by Lisa Orr, Pitcher, 13 x 7 x 6”.

Joe Pintz form glazed and altered by Lisa Orr, Pitcher, 9.5 x 9 x 4.5”.

Jason Bige Burnett form glazed by Lisa Orr, Cup, 4 x 3.5 x 3.5”.

“The experience of having my simple dish ‘colonized’ by Jason’s strong imagery prompted some great discussion between the artists in residence. What was the ideal balance between form and surface? …Would the collaboration be a 50/50, 60/40 or even a 70/30 split? …

Throughout this process, we have tried to be respectful of the work that was being exchanged.”

Joe Pintz form glazed by Joe Pintz, Pitcher, 9.5 x 9 x 4.5”.

| 18 | 19 | Joseph Pintz earned his BA in anthropology and urban studies at Northwestern University. He received his MFA in ceramics from the University of Nebraska­– Lincoln. He also was a resident artist and Lincoln Fellow at the Archie Bray Foundation. In 2009, he received an Emerging Artist award from the National Council in Education for the Ceramic Arts. Pintz was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for 2011. An Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Missouri–Coluumbia, his work has been shown internationally. Currently, he is a one year resident at the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program in New Mexico.

Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed

Joseph Pintz

Pete Scherzer form glazed by Joe Pintz, Platter, 3 x 16 x 9.5”.

Marc Digeros form glazed by Joe Pintz, Lowball Cup, 3.5 x 3.5 x 3.5”.

Marc Digeros form glazed by Joe Pintz, Vase, 11.5 x 5.5 x 4.5”.

Liz Quackenbush form glazed by Joe Pintz, Flat Flower Bouquet, 7.5 x 7.5 x 3”.

Pete Scherzer form glazed by Joe Pintz, Ewer, 14.5 x 5.5 x 5.5”.

“When applying the majolica glaze I normally use, it took much longer because I found I really had to think through these unfamiliar forms and ask what each demanded. The familiarity I have with my own work was gone and this unfamiliar work presented unfamiliar challenges.”

Liz Quackenbush form glazed by Liz Quackenbush, Flower Bouquet, 7.5 x 7.5 x 6”.

| 20 | 21 | Liz Quackenbush received a BFA from University of Colorado and a MFA from Rochester Institute for Technology’s School for American Craftsmen.

She continued to pursue her artistic goals through residencies at the Archie Bray Foundation, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, and the Aberystwyth Arts Center at the University of Wales, developing her skills as a majolica glaze painter and scholar. Quackenbush continues to make art, while also teaching Ceramics at Pennsylvania State University in State College, PA. Her work is in many public and private collections including the George R. Gardener Museum, Toronto; Arizona State University, Tempe; the NCECA Permanent Collection, Denver, CO; and the Aberystwyth Arts Center, Wales. This past summer she traveled to Morocco and Italy where she found great inspiration.

Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed

Liz Quackenbush

Lisa Orr form glazed by Liz Quackenbush, Luncheon Plate, 1.5 x 9.5 x 9.5”.

Pete Scherzer form glazed by Liz Quackenbush, Ewer, 13.5 x 6.5 x 6.5”.

Marc Digeros form glazed by Liz Quackenbush, Vase, 11.5 x 5.5 x 4.5”.

Joe Pintz form glazed by Liz Quackenbush, Small Round Bowl, 3 x 6.5 x 6.5”.

Holly Walker form glazed by Liz Quackenbush, Jar, 11 x 9.5 x 6.5”.

“I make my work with specific glazes in mind. The shapes, edges, and textures on a piece all change the way a glaze behaves.

The challenge with this work is to finish it successfully without being involved in the process up until now.”

Pete Scherzer form glazed by Pete Scherzer, Platter, 2.5 x 12.5 x 10”.

| 22 | 23 | Peter Scherzer was NCC’s long time studio manager until he recently transplanted himself to Aiea, Hawaii, where he has established a studio. He received his BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art, and his MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, New York. After graduation, he was a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana, for two years. He has been a visiting artist at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and Kent State University, in Ohio. Scherzer exhibits at Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis; the Schaller Gallery in Michigan; and The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA.

Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed

Peter Scherzer

Holly Walker form glazed by Pete Scherzer, Bunny Tail Bowl, 3.5 x 10.5 x 10.5”.

Holly Walker form glazed by Pete Scherzer, Petal Plate, 1.5 x 8 x 8”.

Jason Bige Burnett form glazed by Pete Scherzer, Salad Plate, 1.5 x 9.5 x 9.5”.

Marc Digeros form glazed by Pete Scherzer, Vase, 11.5 x 5.5 x 4.5”.

Liz Quackenbush form glazed by Pete Scherzer, Flat Flower Bouquet, 7.5 x 6 x 3”.

“The thought I have kept in my head while working on the Red-Handed project is, ‘How can this be more than branding — my brand on your brand?’”

Holly Walker form glazed by Holly Walker, Rectangular Plate, 2 x 11.5 x 7”.

| 24 | 25 | Holly Walker received her MFA in ceramics from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and a BFA in painting from Ohio University, Athens, Ohio. Her experiences in ceramics have led her all over the country as an educator and studio potter. From 1990–1995 she was the executive director of Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Edgecomb, Maine, and she has taught at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine, and at Penland School of Crafts in Penland, North Carolina. Since 1996, Walker has lived in Vermont; in 2010, she was a Vermont Arts Council Artist Development Grant recipient. Her work has been shown widely across the United States, most recently at the 2013 NCECA exhibition Dwelling on the Gulf: Ceramic Artists Respond to the Architecture of Galveston.

Walker’s work is in the permanent collection of the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, Texas.

Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed

Holly Walker

Lisa Orr form glazed by Holly Walker, Large Round Bowl, 4 x 14.5 x 14.5”.

Ursula Hargens form glazed by Holly Walker, Cup, 3.5 x 5 x 3.5”

Marc Digeros form glazed by Holly Walker, Vase, 11.5 x 5.5 x 4.5”.

Jason Bige Burnett form glazed by Holly Walker, Salad Plate, 1.5 x 9.5 x 9.5”.

Liz Quackenbush form glazed by Holly Walker, Double Spouted Vase, 5.5 x 8 x 4”.

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Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Saturday, July 20, 2013

softened the imagery. Later, glaze and washes will further soften the image. — Joe Pintz

For those of you who are not familiar with my surface decoration process, most everything I do happens at the leatherhard stage. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work well when some work is very ornate and/or would be shipped in freezing climates. Traveling far distances from Hawaii and California wasn’t helpful either. So what to do!?

I considered each person’s pots and surfaces as an opportunity for creative challenges. The first question was “How the hell am I going to decorate work when I can’t decorate it at leatherhard?” Fortunately, my process also includes decals and luster. So instead of decorating everyone’s work from the wet or bisque state, it worked out to respond to the glazed pot and still create a unique and cohesive voice from both myself and the other artist.

— Jason Bige Burnett

Friday, July 19th was filled with discussion among the three artists here.

One big topic was how much work really changes under someone else’s surface decorations. Typically Joe has no decoration and just a simple glaze on his work.

Pictured below are Joe’s server, mug and bowl with Jason’s whimsical surfaces. — Jason Bige Burnett

Friday, September 6, 2013

Creative Challenges

Meanwhile, at NCC…

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Red-Handed Ponderings

I have felt completely at home with Joe’s forms — strong, simply articulated, a sense of massiveness despite their actual size and weight. They are the entry point into this new territory of glazing other’s pots as they feel like kin. Then there is what I am calling Pete’s bobble tray. It immediately called out for some chartreuse as I unwrapped it…. Did I mention how hard this is? Maybe my next adventure will be with just black and white glazes. — Holly Walker

Dots, Stripes, Squiggles, and Checkerboards

I’m lucky because when it came to decorating the work for Red-Handed, I generally decorate in a way that almost goes against the form. I try to draw the viewer’s eye around the piece using asymmetry. It was OK if my decoration didn’t really follow the lines of the piece because that’s kind of what I go for in the first place.

That doesn’t mean finishing the work for Exquisite Pots was easy. It was challenging in a way I had not experienced before. Picking up where the other artists left off had me procrastinating for a long time.

When I finally started, it was works by Pete and Ursula that proved to be somewhat effortless. Their surfaces seemed familiar to me even though the shapes were obviously different than mine. One interesting thing that occurred to me is that Pete and Ursula are the only artists that I have met in person. I don’t know if this contributed to the familiarity. —Marc Digeros

Joe’s server, mug, and bowl with Jason’s whimsical surfaces.

Photo by Jason Bige Burnett.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

The Calm After the Storm….

Pete Scherzer form, work in progress. Photo by Holly Walker.

Jason Bige Burnett form, work in progress. Photo by Holly Walker.

I thought I would share some reflections on my recent whirlwind residency at NCC. Over the course of my five days, I was able to work closely with Ursula and Jason in a variety of ways. As Jason has already documented, he and I decided to step outside the standard format and create a series of five dishes that will be displayed on the wall as one piece. He screen-printed his imagery onto wet clay slabs that I then draped over my bisque molds to create the form.

When I pulled the first piece off the mold, I was surprised by the extent to which his vibrant imagery had dominated my simple form. Although I knew this was likely going to happen, I would be lying if I didn’t admit that there was an initial shock to my minimalist sensibility ( Jason being a “more is more” kind of guy and me being a “less is more” kind of guy). But, his surface began to grow on me as I further refined the form and distressed the edges. It also helped when Jason went back into the form with stamps and line work that further

been staring at everyone’s bisqueware wondering what to do. Double-checking how my glazes turn out on everyone’s test tiles is the first step. This part of it has been collaborating from a distance. I am very much looking forward to the face-to-face collaboration that will happen in July at Northern Clay Center. Personally, I will have a much easier time reacting to wet clay, while having the other artists there in the studio alongside me.

Stay tuned.

Pete Scherzer: I’ve never intentionally collaborated with other artists, but ceramics has a collaborative element.

Wood kilns can’t, or at least shouldn’t, be fired by one person. Studios are almost always shared, and large projects are often executed with assistants or employees.

This project is interesting because it’s so clearly defined.

In some ways, it feels like a solo project; I have to figure out how to glaze specific pieces provided by other artists.

Holly Walker: My collaborative experiences in the past have mostly happened in shared time with wet work — my collaborators and I have been working in the same room, having conversations as we respond to what has just been built and handed over for exploration.

Responding to a bisqued surprise form, which I had no input on, is a totally different challenge. As I have gathered the arriving work, I’ve been surprised with the delicacy and weightlessness of many of the pots.

I’m so accustomed to the solidity and weight of my own pinched-coil work. I wonder — are everyone else’s fingers thinner, more tapered, less muscular than mine?

In two days, I will set all the work before me and try to envision each piece.

Early in the course of Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed, we asked the potters a couple of questions about their expectations of the collaborative experience. The following are some of their responses to the questions: If you’ve had other collaborative experiences, how does this experience differ so far? If not, what were some preconceptions you had, and how have they held up?

Jason Bige Burnett: I collaborated with the illustrator/ printmaker Eleanor Annand, back in 2011, while we were Core Fellowship students at Penland School of Crafts. It was helpful that we lived together and worked in such close proximity. We shared interests in nautical themes and played off of that…. Collaborating with the artists of Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed, I’m very intimidated on so many levels (however very excited).

These are artists I used to write papers on while I was an undergraduate student. It’s surreal. This experience has been enriching on many levels. First, making the work, without decorating it, has allowed me to focus more on form and understand the construction process more.

Joe Pintz: I have not done anything remotely like this before. In fact, this whole project scares the heck out of me… that’s why I signed up to do it! I, too, have

Please visit the Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed blog at: nccexquisitepots.blogspot.com for additional commentary by the participating artists.

Red-Handed pieces in progress: Marc Digeros glazing. Photo by Marc Digeros.

Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed— Questions and Answers

Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed

The Process / The Blog

Northern Clay Center Northern Clay Center’s mission is the advancement of the ceramic arts. Its goals are to promote excellence in the work of clay artists, to provide educational opportunities for artists and the community, and to encourage and expand the public’s appreciation and understanding of the ceramic arts.

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