Roadside Attractions by Northern Clay Center

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ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS NEXT 5 EXITS MARCH 10 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; APRIL 30, 2017

NORTHERN CLAY CENTER GALLERY M:

PATTIE CHALMERS JEREMY JR. KANE PETER MORGAN MARIKO PATERSON NATHAN PROUTY

ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS NEXT 5 EXITS MARCH 10 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; APRIL 30, 2017

CURATOR AND ESSAYIST: PATTIE CHALMERS EDITOR: ELIZABETH COLEMAN

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FOREWORD

SARAH MILLFELT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

© 2017 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. http://www.northernclaycenter.org Manufactured in the United States First edition, 2017 International Standard Book Number 978-1-932706-42-9 Unless otherwise noted, all dimensions: height precedes width precedes depth.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund, a grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation Minnesota, and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding for Roadside Attractions: Next 5 Exits comes from Continental Clay Company, Prospect Creek Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, and the Windgate Charitable Foundation.

Northern Clay Center’s programming as a whole is made possible because of the support of our strong clay community with such a diverse cast of students, teachers, board and staff, visiting and studio artists, teachers and guest artists, donors and collectors, etc. Each of these groups enables Northern Clay Center to do what it does best: advance the ceramic arts. Armed with the financial support and talents, expertise, and shared vision of our community, we continue to take steps in building our audience, enabling the iterative cycle of participation — with endless opportunities to see, learn, explore, be inspired, research, educate, support, and share. Collaboration with our community has stayed central to our efforts to advance the ceramic arts. So, it is no surprise that our exhibition program in 2017 was further enriched by a new collaboration, this time through the talents of an outside curator. Roadside Attractions: Next 5 Exits was designed and curated by the spirited Pattie Chalmers, a ceramic sculptor, potter, and Associate Professor at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Surrendering full control over the voice/scope/curation of a major exhibition at NCC was not supposed to be as easy as this was.

Perhaps because of her Canadian background and middle-child nature, Pattie was a gracious partner in this exhibition, able to hold herself accountable for her deliverables. Pattie’s company and efforts were greatly enjoyed. She was quick-witted, contemplative, and always objective. Her exhibition brought together a cadre of makers new to NCC, including Jeremy Jr. Kane, Peter Morgan, Mariko Paterson, and Nathan Prouty. In conjunction with this exhibition, Peter Morgan visited the Center for an intensive, weeklong residency, during which time he created new works and interacted with NCC’s student and artist communities. Morgan joined Chalmers for an evening of image talks prior to the opening reception. Additionally, Mariko Paterson visited the Center for a daylong presentation. Hundreds of members of our community had the opportunity to see the exhibition and enjoy the company of one of our visiting artists. Thousands more will enjoy images of the work online or through the pages of this catalogue. In addition to the generosity of the artists, Roadside Attractions: Next 5 Exits was made possible by many generous financial supporters, including Continental Clay Company, Prospect

Creek Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the Windgate Charitable Foundation. Continued and heartfelt thanks must also be shared with Northern Clay Center’s exhibitions committee — Heather Nameth Bren, Kelly Connole, Ursula Hargens, Mark Pharis, and Robert Silberman — thank you all for your continued hard work on behalf of the ceramic arts, and specifically, on behalf of Northern Clay Center. Thank you to our curator of Roadside Attractions, Pattie Chalmers, for the year plus of conversation, diligent research, and communication. Your energy and creative spirit are enviable and remarkable, and you were a total joy with which to work! Thank you as well to Michael Arnold, NCC’s thenexhibitions manager for installing your last official show during your tenure at NCC. Thank you to exhibitions assistant, Brady McLearen, for your dedication and tenacity through the transition period.

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Northern Clay Center Gallery M Installation view

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ESSAY

PATTIE CHALMERS

NEXT 5 EXITS

Mariko Paterson Wonder Woman Power Thermos, 2017 clay, glaze, china paint, decals, luster, mixed media 12.5” x 5.5” x 4.5”

In literature, music, and film, the road trip is a familiar motif. The hero/heroine embarks on a journey to complete a quest. The road is what gives them direction, and while on this path, they encounter experiences that result in an altered perspective. The allure of the road trip, spending many days on the road with all the unexpected possibilities and chances for wrong turns, is magnetic, a siren’s call. Memories flood back of packing up a camper van and following the road, travelling with little money — anything could happen and often did — that was the attraction. 66 — the long concrete path across the country, waving gently up and down on the map, from Mississippi to Bakersfield — over the red lands and the grey lands, twisting up into the mountains, crossing the Divide and down into the bright and terrible desert, and across the desert to the mountains again, and into the rich California valleys. — John Steinbeck 1 Although Route 66 does not technically exist anymore, the craving to search for this past America remains. The appeal of travelling back to an imagined era, when anything seemed possible, when taking to the open road was an adventure and the fun was in the getting there. What is discovered en route becomes sustaining stories during times of immobility. And so the trophy of the quest becomes a collection of experiences: a gathering of roadside souvenirs, amassing pictures of natural wonders, journaling moments from amazing to mundane, and assembling an image of an adventure. When ancient Greeks depicted Odysseus tied to the mast of his ship, the image and the epic journey were likewise bound to a terracotta vessel (for as long as it remained whole). The impulse to commemorate a journey with a memento is a long thread that connects the theme of Roadside Attractions to clay and to the souvenir of a journey. This exhibition of ceramic work is a portrayal of attractions from the roadside through the work of five artists: Pattie Chalmers, Jeremy Jr. Kane, Peter Morgan, Mariko Paterson, and Nate Prouty create ceramics that are depictions of emotional experiences, sentimental recollections, nostalgic memories, idealized moments, and odd collections.

1 John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (New York: Viking Press-James Lloyd, 1939), 108.

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To articulate what is past does not mean to recognize “how it really was.” It means to take control of a memory, as it flashes in a moment of danger. — Walter Benjamin 2

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/ benjamin/1940/history.htm. 3 Nathan Prouty, Artist Statement, 2017. 4 Robert Browning, “Confessions,” in Robert Browning’s Poetry: Authoritative Texts, Criticism, ed. James F. Loucks (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1979).

An Expression of Emotion The act of taking control of a memory, and its danger, commands individualized depictions of a place or experience. The convergence of the public with the personal, making possible the hybridization of kitschy plastic trophies, rocks collected from the roadside, and cheap jewelry into something of emotional value. The transformation of these objects into something new and cherished is especially the territory of Nathan Prouty, whose work lashes together the bundles of anxiety, joy, and remorse with elements from a gift shop. Prouty’s rendering of an emotional journey culminates in precious objects that carry some of the attributes of the kitschy souvenirs he references — small, shiny, glittery, colorful — his surfaces sensitively applied to vulnerable, off-kilter, fleshy forms, giving the impression of treasures collected on a journey in a Joan Miro landscape. I want my work to deliver a similar approximation to the experience of visiting a completely new and exciting place, with all the associated angst, thrill, intensity, and frustrations. Just like experiencing a vintage Tee-Pee Cabin novelty motel, I want the work to feel foreign, familiar, unsettling, exhilarating, fun, terrifying, challenging, poetic, and articulate. I want you to wake up in a foreign but familiar bed. — Nathan Prouty 3 In his work, Prouty ponders the artificiality that subverts the way these places are experienced; how a ball of twine is mundane but, with added scale, becomes a cartooned expression of the compulsion to ball-up twine. His impressions lead him to create objects that are re-contextualized or hybridized versions of the originals, layered into a wobbly expression of his dangerous adventures to make them at once uncomplicated, but also foreign and unsettling.

How sad and bad and mad it was — But then, how it was sweet. — Robert Browning 4 Sentimentality of Recollection Sentimentality is familiar to most; it comes naturally to amnesiacs and that is our tendency when it comes to the past. Fragments collected become exaggerated

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or diminished, tangled together in an order that corresponds with the flux of how things are remembered.

5 Roger Miller, “King of the Road” from King of the Road: The Genius of Roger Miller, box set, Mercury Nashville,

Trailers for sale or rent, rooms to let, fifty cents No phone, no pool, no pets, I ain’t got no cigarettes Ah, but, two hours of pushin’ broom Buys an eight by twelve four-bit room I’m a man of means by no means, king of the road.

ASIN: B000001EDZ, 1995, compact disc. 6 Mariko Paterson, Artist Statement, 2017.

— Roger Miller 5 Mariko Paterson maneuvers these lost highways of memory with finesse and humor, creating work that reveals a collision of ideas that seem at once well known, yet new. Her work shrinks the distance between fact and fiction — another perspective enriched by imagination revealed in the layers of decadently applied imagery to wildly abstracted Winnebagos. These are not your granddad’s mobile mattresses; Paterson’s land yachts portray a common frustration, yielding to something more like appreciation. There it is... Another highway dinosaur about to RUIN your travel plans.... praying for a passing lane that just...doesn’t...seem...to...ever...come..., the car-goers, in a last gasp of strangling exasperation, do what is only left to do....They look outside and give in to the scenery that was once a blur, but has now slowed down for more focused consideration. Zoom, zoom, zoom go the cars and the people and the churches and the steeples. Putt, putt, putt go the RVs on the plains and the campers out in Maine. Or however the rhymes really go…as the RVs that force us to slow down, or even stop to check out extra-large hockey sticks, animals, crosses etc. are really a blessing in disguise. They are not dotting the road to incite an internal riot, but rather they are there, to make us smell the roadside roses once again as we once did in old timey, travel timey days. — Mariko Paterson 6 A traveller’s flawed memory organizes experiences into a story that describes one perspective, while leaving much more unexplained. This, of course, is the way of memories, interlacing and complex like the lanes of a stack interchange. It is this layering of recollections that allows granddad’s RV, with a view out the window, and a song by Steppenwolf, or Roger Miller, or Jackson Brown, to merge into a story shaped like a kaleidoscope camper, that when glazed in a tribute to van art, becomes elevated from a gas guzzler into something to be appreciated.

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7 Carson McCullers, “Look Homeward, Americans,” Vogue 96 (December 1, 1940), 74 –75. 8 Smokey and the Bandit, directed by Hal Needham (1977; Los Angeles, CA: Universal Studios Home Entertainment, 2006), DVD. 9 Jeremy Jr. Kane, Artist Statement, 2017.

It is a curious emotion; this certain homesickness I have in mind. With Americans, it is a national trait, as native to us as the roller-coaster or the jukebox. It is no simple longing for the hometown or country of our birth. The emotion is Janus-faced: we are torn between a nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known. — Carson McCullers 7 Nostalgia for America The longing for a place that is familiar, yet new, describes the motivation of adventurers to search for an idealized place or experience. The Spanish conquistadors and Walter Raleigh were pulled to a bright new world by their belief in El Dorado, but the city of gold could only exist in a dream; Raleigh found no golden treasures to claim for his queen, but instead found a potato. The longing for an idealized America is also a quest for a gilded land. The dream of an idyllic America is chased on highways across the continent, like Smokey on the tail of the Bandit,8 only stopping to refuel on diner burgers and French fries (the fries foreshadowing the futility of the quest). But no potato will dim our enthusiasm for the expedition to find the dazzling utopia. The fever builds with glimpses of the idyll reflected in the polished chrome of a movie star’s Packard, discovered in a dusty auto museum, with the unchanging aroma of a Pancake House as you come in the door, and is bolstered by certainty that it lies around each corner of a South Dakota corn maze. Jeremy Kane has travelled these highways, mirroring his experience on the road in his functional ceramics. What he creates are his own souvenirs and icons of American culture. I use domestic ceramic forms as vehicles to share what drives me as an artist and as a musician. Highly crafted porcelain objects act as a canvas to facilitate my ideas about America. The art that I make is directly correlated to my lifestyle. I embrace the honest things in my life like coffee in the morning, bad restaurants, and long road trips. My artwork embodies these tendencies. — Jeremy Jr. Kane 9 With his finessed mugs and jars, Kane cleverly alludes to recognizable objects and images from the roadside: industrially produced dinerware, billboard ads, and kitschy souvenirs assert a sense of the familiar, even as what is recognized is distorted by the incongruent addition to his pots of the chrome and rubber of semi-

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trucks, and commercial decals applied as if stickers on a banjo case, or the bumper of a family station wagon. Kane is able to coax these fragments into an expression that transports us to a version of his imagined America.

10 Celeste Olalquiaga, “The Souvenir,” from The Artificial Kingdom: A Treasury of the Kitsch Experience, accessed 15 January 2017, http://www.celesteolalquiaga.com/souvenir. htm.

Consolidated unto a perfectly flawless version of itself, the censored event becomes a sort of “cultural fossil,” the static and idealized blueprint of an experience. — Celeste Olalquiaga 10

11 Angela Wampler, “‘Color Me Bad’ — Peter Morgan,” A! Magazine for the Arts, 29 February 2012, https://artsmagazine.info/articles. php?view=detail&id=2012022621063035196.

An Experience in an Object The creation of an immutable memory held in an object is the quest of many travelers. To find or create an item that contains a prompt to recall an event, or a person, or a place — this is the promise of the souvenir. Collectables are often connected to a story and tied tightly to an idealized version of the experience. However, because of the individual and imperfect character of memory, even cues intended to spark recall can be affected by an incomplete or skewed recollection. The oversized bird figurines of Peter Morgan are reflections of such an imaginative memory. He creates artifacts of often fleeting moments while birding — catching sight of a Kirtland’s Warbler in a Northern Michigan forest, or a Colima Warbler in Big Bend National Park, or an Eared Quetzal in the extreme southeast of Arizona, for example. Some of these birds are quite rare and their habitats become the destination of a journey. Morgan’s sculptures mark an event of discovery, inspire memories, and act as a trophy of achievement. I am interested in how the mind makes connections and fills gaps of information even though the vision may be absurd or fantastical. Through these explorations, I hope to come to a greater understanding of the world, how it is constructed, and why. — Peter Morgan 11 In National Lampoon’s Vacation 12, Clark Griswold is “on a pilgrimage to see a moose!” Not unlike him, Morgan is on a quest, carrying with him essential gear: binoculars and thick birding books. When his mission is successful, the memory of the journey becomes fixed to a bird. His ceramic birds function as idealized souvenirs of his adventure, with his playful archetypes delivering cues to the experience, simultaneously offering sensitive commemoratives and a view of the world through the lens of the absurd.

12 National Lampoon’s Vacation, directed by Harold Ramis (1983; Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2003), DVD.

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13 Agnes Chew, The Desire for Elsewhere (Singapore, Republic of Singapore: Math Paper Press, 2016). 14 Pattie Chalmers, Artist Statement, 2017. 15 Walter Benjamin, “Unpacking My Library: A Talk about Book Collecting,” in Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn, (New York: Schocken Books, 1968), 67.

I have a habit of being an archaeologist of my own past, a sentimental collector of personal artifacts, which may at first glance appear random, but each of which holds a unique significance. As the years pass me by, I find that the number of objects within my possession begins to accumulate. A torn map. A sealed letter. A boat full of paper animals. Each item encapsulates within itself a story, akin to an outward manifestation of my inner journey. — Agnes Chew 13

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portrayals of the roadside that become souvenirs. Each artist conveys events, with interpretations as contrasting as those of the Joad family’s pilgrimage out of the dust bowl in The Grapes of Wrath and the Griswolds’ journey to Wally World in National Lampoon’s Vacation. Despite contrasts, each gives a true account of their wanderings.

Collected Memories The collection and display of items from far-off places is a reminder of the tradition of wunderkammer or cabinets of curiosity. These exhibited objects are the artifacts of the curious — proof that a journey was made and a risk was taken. With the fervor of Nintendo players (collecting coins, mushrooms, and keys), travelers collect mementos that function to connect the experience to an object collected, then displayed. But even as the collector attempts to organize relics, there can remain the appearance of randomness, resulting in haphazard bonds that create a new fiction; an unexpected story emerges revealing something different. As both a curator and an artist, this development of an unanticipated story interests me: the shift in scale, disregard for hierarchy, and creation of something that is at once familiar and strange. I arrange a landscape of objects where uncommon things share space with more familiar inhabitants of a curio cabinet, in a tangle of narrative possibilities. — Pattie Chalmers 14 Fear of amnesia makes people kleptomaniacs for clues to the past. These reminders become mythological objects with the power of nostalgia and exaggeration, creating a route to relive adventures. But in condensing the experiences into one collection, mementos of countless journeys become bound together into a narrative, the story of a life. [O]wnership is the most intimate relationship one can have to objects. Not that they come alive in [the collector]; it is he who lives in them. — Walter Benjamin 15 The exhibition, Roadside Attractions: Next 5 Exits, reflects these glimpses of the roadside. Physical manifestations of travels across the continent are mapped in

Nathan Prouty Carlsgood, 2017 terracotta, underglaze, glaze, glitter, epoxy, mixed media 4” x 7.5” x 5”

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PATTIE CHALMERS

received her MFA from the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities and her BFA from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg. Her sculptural narrative forms have been exhibited both nationally and internationally, including Pattie Chalmers, Gallery 13, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Shirts and Skins, Baltimore Clayworks, Baltimore, Maryland; The Intimate Object VII, Charlie Cummings Gallery, Online; Figurine, Santa Fe Clay, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Expat Report, Ontario Craft Council Gallery, Toronto, Ontario; and The Girls For the Well and Other Distractions, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Chalmers’ sculptural figures and settings depict stories — narratives are created through her arrangement of the pieces and their proximity to one another. Through the cultural or personal meaning of each piece, still lifes of “believable, but fake collectables” create a juxtaposition between fact and fiction, reminding viewers to continue to question the situation.

1992 Road Trip Collection, 2017 earthenware, underglaze, glass 26” x 74” x 10”

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JEREMY JR. KANE

, associate professor of ceramics at the University of Alaska Southeast, received his MFA from Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, and then became a resident at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana, where he received the Taunt Fellowship. He has most recently exhibited in Decalomaniacs, Red Lodge Clay Center, Red Lodge, Montana; La Mesa, Santa Fe Clay, NCECA Kansas City, Missouri; and Graphic Clay, Baltimore Clayworks, Baltimore, Maryland. He states that his pieces “contain bright colors and narratives about specifically American attributes. They embody everyday common images… Semi-trucks, flames, American flags, mudflap ladies, and humorous phrases are appropriated on the forms.”

Diner Mugs, 2017 porcelain, glaze, decals, luster each 3.5” x 4.5” x 3.5”

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PETER MORGAN received his MFA from

the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, New York, and a BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California. He has received numerous awards and, in 2016, was distinguished with the NCECA Emerging Artist Award. His work can be found in the collections of the Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, Montana; and the Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art, Alfred, New York. Recent exhibitions include The Avian Flew, the Musselman Library, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and Follow Through, Cohen Gallery, Alfred University, Alfred, New York. He states “viewing the world through the lens of the absurd, I seek to challenge our cognitive processes, by creating connections between often seemingly disparate topics.”

Eduardo the Elegant Trogon: Trogon elegans, 2017 white earthenware, glaze 25” x 20” x 10”

Tommy and Pamela the Rosey-Faced Lovebirds: Agapornis roseicollis, 2017 white earthenware, glaze 24.5” x 18.5” x 15”

Lupé the Island Scrub-Jay: Aphelocoma insularis, 2017 white earthenware, glaze 23” x 24” x 19”

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MARIKO PATERSON currently lives

in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she runs Forage Studios. She received an MFA from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, and diploma of fine art from Alberta College of Art and Design, Calgary, Alberta. Paterson exhibits across the United States and Canada, recently showing in Make and Do, Void Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; The Intimate Object XII, Charlie Cummings Gallery, Apex, North Carolina; and Stories on Clay, Morean Center for Clay, St. Petersburg, Florida. Forage Studios “presents a ceramic style not intended for the faint of heart. Historical interests mingle and meld with handbuilding techniques when it comes to satisfying Mariko’s sculptural wants.”

The Wishing Bus, 2017 clay, glaze, china paints, decals, luster, mixed media 13” x 15” x 5”

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NATHAN PROUTY

received a BFA in ceramics and printmaking from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, New York, and an MFA in ceramics from Ohio University, Athens, Ohio. He has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States, most recently in Fabricated Fictions, The Sculpture Center, Cleveland, Ohio; Small Treasures, Santa Fe Clay, Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Deuces + Dunces, Lacoste Gallery, Concord, Massachusetts. He writes “Packaged in slick, colorful, concentrated bundles, which nod to the knick-knack and the souvenir, I attempt to both mask and reveal my unease with the world and culture around me from behind a disarming disguise of foolishness.”

Anadobiespire, 2017 terracotta, underglaze, glaze, glitter, epoxy, mixed media 6.5” x 5.5” x 3.5”

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Northern Clay Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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 the publicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s appreciation and understanding of the ceramic arts.

Staff Sarah Millfelt, Executive Director Michael Arnold, Exhibitions Manager Brady McLearen, Exhibitions Assistant Board of Directors Lynne Alpert Bryan Anderson Nan Arundel Mary K. Baumann Craig Bishop, Chair Heather Nameth Bren Lann Briel Robert Briscoe Phil Burke Linda Coffey Nancy Hanily-Dolan Bonita Hill Sally Wheaton Hushcha Christopher Jozwiak Patrick Kennedy Mark Lellman Brad Meier Alan Naylor Rick Scott T Cody Turnquist Ellen Watters

Honorary Directors Kay Erickson Warren MacKenzie Legacy Directors Andy Boss Joan Mondale

Director Emerita Emily Galusha

Unless otherwise noted, all photographs are by Peter Lee. Design by Joseph D.R. OLeary, VetoDesign.com.

2424 Franklin Avenue East Minneapolis, Minnesota 55406 612.339.8007 www.northernclaycenter.org