Saturday, November 16, 2013

November at Carol Robinson Gallery

...5 chawan arrangement...

With Thanksgiving just around the corner and the fall semester drawing to a close, I am both proud and relieved to have this show up at the Carol Robinson Gallery in New Orleans, LA.  Between finishing the work for this exhibition while simultaneously making work for a recent show at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, I've been somewhat of a studio recluse and it's time to ease back into society for a bit....

Here are a few images of highlights from this show that is up until November 31st.  It is a 2 person exhibition, with me and furniture artist David Goodman displaying work together.  In most cases, my porcelain and wood fired stoneware pots have been arranged on David's pieces, and I think the styles of work tend to compliment each other quite nicely...

...woodfired bowl on altar...

 David's craftsmanship is first-rate, and there's a beautiful sense of fluidity in his forms. I believe it's always helpful for the potential user/owner to be able to view pots in context, rather than on a white pedestal or wall shelf. Of course, many homes, including my own, are unlikely to be furnished with David Goodman tables (...someday, Dave, Someday!..) ...but, then again, few kitchen cupboards often house celadon teabowls, either.  Fortunately, in her thirty years as a gallery owner, Carol has managed to cultivate quite a remarkable list of clients who are willing and able to have both.

...ignore all those pesky lil' red dots....
The opening reception was well attended, and it's always a welcome experience to meet people who've been kind enough to support my work overt the past six years of showing here.

I am always a little wary of gallery openings, mostly because I never quite know what to do with my hands. Often, a glass of wine occupies (at least) one hand at all times, while the other takes turns shifting from behind my back to my pocket. It's true that I genuinely enjoy talking pots, regardless of whether or not I made them, but what I really love is meeting the person who is about to give one of my pieces a new home.  On this particular evening, I had the pleasure of being introduced to several people who will certainly make fine "parents" to a few bits of lucky porcelain....


This exhibition was of particular significance to me, as it represents the first time where some of the older, more voluptuous figurative vessels were displayed with my newer work.  Seeing them both in context, the new pots appear much less disparate than I first believed and, perhaps, I will continue to make the occasional large altered bowl that I had previously grown so tired of.

..one of a pair of large altered bottle vases.
.....soon, my little friend, you will be filled with fine brown liquor.
With the changing of the seasons (or, "season", as we really only go from hot-as-hell, to reasonably cool,  to hot again in New Orleans) and the conclusion of these two separate shows, I look forward to a little break from the studio routine to catch up with friends and family, as well as the occasional domestic duties of doing laundry and food shopping or, as they say around these parts, "makin' groceries"....

......then, maybe start some rough stoneware pieces for a winter wood firing :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!


Monday, October 21, 2013

Upcoming Workshop at Hartwick College.

For those of you in the greater Oneonta, New York area: I will be at Hartwick College this week on Wednesday the 23rd and Thursday the 24th for a Visiting Artist demo and lecture.  Actually, I'll be doing a sort of tag team demo and lecture with my friend and amazing potter Tyler Gulden....I'm not 100% sure of the exact times, but you can check the Hartwick.edu website for details.  I DO know that Wednesday's demo will begin in the Ceramics Studio around 10am......

Thanks to Prof. Stephanie Rozene for making this possible, in conjunction with the Investigating the Vessel exhibit that she recently curated.  (though I believe the show will be down before I arrive).

...Everything's free and open to the public!  C'mon by and introduce yourself, I'd love to meet you!

BUT, in case you can't make it, here are some new images of forms that I'll be focusing on:

...2 new chawan.

...brand new liquor bottle w/stand.

....new plate and bowl set.


Tuesday, October 8, 2013

"The Camera Has Been Drinking......not me"




Here's some images of new work on display through December at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, LA.....I'm probably the last person I know without a smartphone, so I enlisted some help in taking a couple of quick iPhotos.  A few are a bit out of focus, but I'm still grateful and will hopefully have more to post by the end of the month.

This is the second installment of their "Artist Spotlight" series.  The first one featured ceramist Mark Derby, who really set the bar high!  I am honored and humbled to be in such company, and I think this body of work provides a good counterpoint to Mark's green lichen- glazed, terracotta sculptural vessels.

All of the pots here represent the reason for me being somewhat of a  reclusive since August, as well as a glimpse of things to come for my show at the Carol Robinson Gallery next month.

In a classic display of bad form, I overbooked myself for 2 back-to-back shows (in the same city, no less).  Actually, that's not entirely true......we originally talked about doing this show at the Ogden last January but, at the time, I was waiting for a bunch of pots to be shipped back from Tennessee.... The new work's better, I think.

And I like to stay busy.  It keeps the mind and hands active.....'less susceptible to the distractions of New Orleans.  Or, at least, that's my mantra for the next 3 weeks.....



...classic celadon.

...this one's bigger, in person.

....larger versions of my covered jars w/ pierced knobs.


Wednesday, April 24, 2013

....Well, April is nearly over which means (for better or worse) so is my time teaching ceramics here in New Orleans at Loyola University, where I've had the good fortune to be part of the College of Visual and Performing Arts for the past 5 years.  After 32 years, Ceramics has been cut from the program entirely, due to budget constraints, curriculum revisions, and a few other speculative details that I do not feel the need to bore you with....Either way, the result is the same: another dirty, out of work potter, roaming the streets and riverbanks of southeastern Louisiana, desperately searching for a natural clay deposit :)

.....Of course, I'm kidding, ...but not by much....Especially when it comes to the clay- that gets expensive.  But, to be perfectly honest, after the past 6 weeks, I could really use a break.

Throughout the month of March, I flew on 12 different airplanes in a span of 16 days....Not bad if you enjoy that sort of thing but I do not, nor have I ever, really liked to fly.  It's not that I'm so terrified of flying (not nearly as much as I once was)..it's just that the experience is emotionally exhausting to me, much in the same way that I don't particularly like to be too close to snakes, big dogs, or children....I don't trust any of  them and feel I must remain on my guard at all times, never fully being able to  predict what the bastards might do.  Crowds of people all moving in different directions have a similar effect on me, and being forced into a small, pressurized tube a mile up in the air with them does nothing to improve the situation.

Vodka does.  However, since most of these trips involved job interviews, I felt it best to err on the side of Professionalism and play it straight.  Even on those little Express Jets that shake up and down and side to side (!), especially when banking into 35mph head winds over the Blue Ridge Mountains from Charlotte to Asheville, N.C.

The first of these trips involved a Visiting Artist gig at the University of North Carolina Asheville,  followed closely by subsequent on- campus interviews at 2 different Universities...and then the NCECA conference, which is for a whole other post, entirely...But, I digress....

The amazing students of the UNCA Art Front graciously invited me to be a guest juror for their student art show, in addition to giving a lecture and a demo.
here's the poster....
This proved to be a much harder job than I expected, but only because there was so much good work (really good work) that it made selecting the 40 or so pieces from over 100 entries a fun challenge.

I always enjoy doing these kind of things, and I truly couldn't have asked for a better group of people to take care of me while I was there.   So, to Mary Grace Wynn, Aaron Gibbons, Allison Fawcett, Kimber Lawson, Emily EllisonEmma Bussard, and everyone else to whom I apologize in advance for not remembering your name* (and, believe me, i tried to find you all on the UNCA website): 

                                     Thank You!  

* for this, i blame that late evening with y'all at the Bywater Bar.

Should any of you, while bored or something,  ever Google your own names  and this post comes up, I really want you to  know just how impressed I was by you and how much I enjoyed your company.

I wish you all the best, and hope our paths cross again later on down the road.........


Thursday, February 28, 2013

New and Work Lots of Running Around





Soooo......over the past few months, I've realized (2) very important things..(actually, I've realized several important things, but only two of them directly relate to this blog).

Thing 1:  I'm a terrible blogger.   If this blog was a small child, it would be taken away from me and put into protective custody due to neglect on my part.

Thing 2:  It's perfectly ok to just post a few small updates, with pictures, and save the manifestos for when you really have something to say ;)


In the spirit of Thing 2, here's some new work that I've been doing since December.  Most of these pieces are going to be at one of the concurrent exhibitions at this year's NCECA conference in Houston.  The show is title, Bodies, Bombs and Fragments, and it is a three person exhibition with fellow Louisiana artists, William DePauw and John Gargano.  The exact location and times are in the NCECA catalog and on their website, but hopefully I'll be able to post these in the next few weeks.

In the mean time, I've been so graciously invited by the University of North Carolina Asheville to be a Guest Juror for their 2013 Student Art Exhibit.  I'll be at UNCA from Wednesday, March 6th- Friday, March 8th, choosing the work, giving a lecture, and a visiting artist demo in the ceramics studio.
It's been a few years since I've been back to Asheville, and I look forward to hopefully getting to see some old friends there, along with a few pints at Jack of the Wood.

Here's the flyer:
It's open to the public so, if you're interested, come on by and introduce yourself!

But, for now, a few more pots.................





..This guy is headed to Montana soon for the Red Lodge Juried National 






...this liquor bottle shall be coming with me to Houston as part of
the Santa Fe Clay La Mesa Exhibit............







And these 3 will be featured in the 2013 Chawan Expo Invitational Exhibition in Taiwan this coming September.  I'd love to try and make it out there for the opening, so if anyone who's ever been to Taiwan and might want to give me some travel tips, please feel free to email me here :)




















See you all at NCECA in Houston!!!