Artmaking

Are You Experienced? 10 Ceramic Skills Extenders

 

are you experiencedOnce I made a cup set in response to a Beginning Hand-building class assignment. The cups were rudimentary root vegetable shapes with wings for handles and I was inordinately proud of my conceit and execution of it. None of them stood up, having those pointy little root ends and all, and – being a clay newbie – when they were bone dry, I bobbled the long skinny carrot cup and broke off a wing. The kiln tech at that time was a most helpful resource for me who has since gone on to be a teacher himself and I naturally went to him to get ideas about re-attaching the wing.Read More >

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Spicing It Up: Hot Out of the Kiln for November, 2014

 

spicetinsclassshot

 

A few years ago, I tried my hand at a handful of ceramic spice tins.

It was a premature and unfocussed effort.  While those sweet works eventually found homes, in my artist’s heart they were close but not fully realized. They were something I needed to circle round to again.

I could be more patient. I could be more handy with my materials. I could be more.

Happily, just in time for the season of flavors and family, of memories and good smells, may I present my more?Read More >

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Still Life with Chainsaw OR …Cans Have Meanings: Hot Out of the Kiln for October 2014

Still Life with Chainsaw

As a maker of ceramic cans, I have to admit the idea for a Can o’ WhupAss has crossed my mind more than once over the past several years. But, I hesitated. Would it be Too Obvious? Too Crass? Merely Clever?

So, I never went there.

Then, almost inevitably,  a canny collector (pun intended) casually asked me if I had ever done that.  I admitted to having always wanted to, so she spurred it on, asking me to make not one, but TWO Cans o’ WhupAss for her, my design.Read More >

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Second Annual Tales of the Festival

 

ACGAPAClayandGlass2014Booth23

What follows are my lovingly-curated observations from Booth 23 at this year’s annual Association of Clay and Glass Artists Palo Alto Clay and Glass Festival.

Making my best artwork and supporting it with improved booth infrastructure, perfect prices and personal stamina is always a challenge.  And this year I almost did not make it at all as younger son Max fractured his pelvis and needed surgery to place pins in it only a week before. But he quickly got better, it worked out and make it I did.  It was a rewarding weekend in so many ways beyond the satisfying sales figures.  I enjoy collecting the stories to share with you, so, as I did last year,  here are the Tales of the Festival II.Read More >

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“OUT OF THE WOODS”: Hot Out of the Kiln for July, 2014

Here’s something wondrously new for me: my first three-artist invitational exhibit. I’m sharing the photos and this post the day it opened.

Out of the Woods 5-72dpi

You’re seeing work from the three of us. The provocative paintings of Courtney Johnson, the charming ceramic and bronze animals of Paula Wenzl Bellacera and, from me, the Amador County Series beer cans and some great new TeaCans.

All will be at the Fine Eye Gallery (in Sutter Creek, CA) “Out of the Woods”  Fine Art Series from July 1, 2014 to August 31, 2014.

You are invited to take yourself out to the charming Mother Lode for a visit. I will be going later this month to see it for myself. (Maybe even drop off replacement work!)Read More >

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TYPORAMICS: Hot Out of the Kiln for April, 2014

Handwavium Canister, 2014, Liz Crain
Handwavium Canister, 2014, Liz Crain

This is to introduce you to a concept and a word I wish I had invented. But no, that honor and distinction goes to Academy of Art University in San Francisco Graphic Design MFA candidate Flora Cruells Benzal.

She defines Typoramics as the place “where ceramic art and typography meet.” And is creating her thesis-including-book around the artists who practice it.

A woman after my own heart in SO many ways: ceramics! graphic design! education! synthesis! word coinage!

I will let Flora’s description on her Typoramics Facebook page do the rest of the honors:Read More >

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A Burning Question: Hot Out of the Kiln for March, 2014

500TeapotsBooks

 

What is a teapot?

(That’s the Warm Up Question, not the Burning One.)

I know this much: In the world of contemporary ceramics there are both functional and sculptural teapots.  The sculptural versions – which still reference all the right parts: body, spout, lid, handle – you might not perceive as teapots for all the imagery masking them. If you have never paged through the two Lark Books, 500 Teapots and 500 Teapots, Vol 2 – pictured up top – well, you will find it all there, straight-forward and not-so.

To be completely honest, throughout my ceramics classes and workshops I balked at teapot projects of any sort. Not interested. (Actually exasperated!) To fulfill the assignments, I made desultory objects that I did not enjoy or respect. Precisely NONE of which I kept.Read More >

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