The Kellogg Art Gallery Presents
Printmaking Artists, Ceramic and Clay Sculptors
Fifty clay, porcelain and ceramics art works by 34 artists are displayed in the 39th annual Ink & Clay Exhibit.
Clay Art
Lillian Abel - Los Angeles, CA
Perpetual Cadence I
Ceramic
“Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed.” ~ Kahlil Gibran
These compositions suggest forms that are present and forms that are absent, layers that hide and reveal. Out of disorder comes order. Out of darkness comes light, out of time to present, and from ignorance to enlightenment.
My ceramic sculptures depict turmoil and peace, a contradiction created by the dark delicate forms. The destruction (by man and weather) of nature as well as its regeneration, always managing to recover, is what inspires me. There is in my current work a sense of calm along with chaos, a sense of hope as well as despair.
These three sculptures are from a series of wall hangings.
Lillian Abel - Los Angeles, CA
Perpetual Cadence II
Ceramic
“Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed.” ~ Kahlil Gibran
These compositions suggest forms that are present and forms that are absent, layers that hide and reveal. Out of disorder comes order. Out of darkness comes light, out of time to present, and from ignorance to enlightenment.
My ceramic sculptures depict turmoil and peace, a contradiction created by the dark delicate forms. The destruction (by man and weather) of nature as well as its regeneration, always managing to recover, is what inspires me. There is in my current work a sense of calm along with chaos, a sense of hope as well as despair.
These three sculptures are from a series of wall hangings.
Ginny Barrett - Long Beach, CA
I’m Not Like That Anymore
Ceramic
My last body of work focused on commemoration, acknowledgment, and human connection, with others and with myself. I love the idea of commemorating important events and milestones as many cultures do with cakes, trophies, and monuments, my personal take on it extending to the pivotal events that happen inside of us, such as insights that change perspective, important situations that foster change on an emotional or spiritual level. This next body of work is directly related to the internal changes I experienced through and since the illness and death of my mother earlier this year. The events and interactions surrounding what occurred have been rife with memories and insights that were unexpected, intense, and ultimately life-altering for me. I am still strongly driven to commemorate, which for me manifests as a more extreme and more formal form of acknowledgment, taking a moment to savor, devising an action or custom that is symbolic, or creating art that mindfully acknowledges important internal shifts such as a change in belief, change in choice of words used to describe, change of focus, change in behavior, making different than usual choices, or noticing patterns inside of us that color our responses. This type of awareness is personally empowering and fuels the quality of how we experience being alive.
2
Frank Barron - Los Angeles, CA
Untitled
Ceramic, Acrylic Paint, Polyurethane
I recently viewed a sculpture by a Napa CA artist; Richard Carter called “Troy Simon Burdine II”. It is a full body cast of his friend Troy after Troy’s death from AIDS. This piece in and of itself is very compelling. Learning the nature of the work greatly deepened my experience of the piece.
I also have made art that is dependent on text to complete the message, however the greater portion of my work, and what I prefer, is to leave the work entirely up to interpretation. I strongly believe that to always have text, even a title; can to heavily influence the experience someone might have when seeing one of my works.
Frank Barron - Los Angeles, CA
Untitled
Ceramic, Bondo, Pigmented & Polyester Resin
I recently viewed a sculpture by a Napa CA artist; Richard Carter called “Troy Simon Burdine II”. It is a full body cast of his friend Troy after Troy’s death from AIDS. This piece in and of itself is very compelling. Learning the nature of the work greatly deepened my experience of the piece.
I also have made art that is dependent on text to complete the message, however the greater portion of my work, and what I prefer, is to leave the work entirely up to interpretation. I strongly believe that to always have text, even a title; can to heavily influence the experience someone might have when seeing one of my works.
Nate Betschart - Los Angeles, CA
1904, 1912, 2012 Accordions
Porcelain
As an object travels through time, it gathers a story and soul. This can be seen in every nix, tear and worn surface. Much like the wrinkles of an old farmer’s face, objects are flawed by the trials of their life. Replacing the workable parts of the object is a necessary process in revealing each objects story. By replacing parts of the found object, I am simultaneously killing the original reason for creation, while immortalizing the life it has lived.
I believe that it’s the unknown, untold stories within each object that are important, if only to remember that they were once functional, useful and loved. My intention is to bring focus to the loss of these objects and all the stories they may carry.
Ann Bingham-Freeman - Yucaipa, CA
Finklesteins Bust
Clay, Paint, Steel
Material is integral to artists process. I have begun to address the material directly in my work. My recent work explores the visual aesthetics of removed linoleum which is collected in glass jars. I then create images based on the typically discarded material. This creates a self-perpetuating cycle in which the material being worked on becomes the subject matter for future prints. The endless nature of my work relies on the view of art as a constant process that never really stops. Time becomes a central aspect to the body of work and many of the individual pieces.
Caroline Blackburn - Glendale, CA
No. 259
High-Fire
Caroline Blackburn, based in Los Angeles creates vessels that explore her interest in abstract painting, architecture, fashion, and nature. Trained as a painter her work focuses on bringing a freshness and immediacy to each piece through color, form, surface, and texture. Every work is highly considered whether it is thrown on a wheel, hand built, or a combination of both techniques. Glazes perform at a level that engages the viewer in an abstract skin generated through the glazing process. She juxtaposes color, texture, and drawing using a variety of materials to accomplish a painterly surface including ceramic pencil, slip, oxide, or glaze creating a sublime effect, reflecting phenomenon found in nature. Color plays a significant role in the work. Caroline has developed glazes that are versatile whether used opaquely, transparently or ones that create cratering or pitting on the surface. When she glazes a work she approaches it as a canvas. She may first apply a slip, draw on the work with a ceramic pencil, and then hand-paint each piece with a variety of brushes to accomplish a painterly effect.
While investigating an interest in plasticity the work produces a continual shift between surface, texture, color, and object. Each vessel provides a contemporary sense of life that is very personal and universal at the same time.
Caroline received a MFA from Art Center College of Design and a BFA from Boston College.
Sabrina Bommarito - San Dimas, CA
Beauty Within
Porcelain, Aluminum Casting
Women are Beautiful and Strong. I am depicting this through the image of the Breast, which is the symbol of fertility, beauty and womanhood. My arrangement portrays breast of all sizes, shapes and colors, healthy and unhealthy. I chose these to portray the beauty of women on the outside but also the destruction of breast cancer within.
I want to enthrall the viewer with a twist of beauty and disgust by portraying the images of breasts, which are cancerous as well as healthy. Woman must have the courage and the strength to overcome the emotional and physical effects of breast cancer. Whether it may disturb you or bring you a peace of mind may it captivate you.
Derek Borges - Visalia, CA
God
Ceramic
Catharsis through externalization of both personal and social issues is the driving force behind my work. The focus is to take whatever particular issues that are currently causing angst or vexation and dealing with them in a constructive manner, a type of venting that attempts to communicate with the audience through visual means that which I would never divulge directly to a stranger through verbal means. Traditional ceramic methods are often combined with unconventional surface treatments and mixed media. I view the clay structure as somewhat of a three-dimensional canvas, incorporating whatever other media I feel are most appropriate for each specific piece.
Pierre Bounaud - San Diego, CA
Shell #1
Porcelain Saggar
At the base of anything I create is the pursuit of a strong shape or a focal point that makes the piece unique and appealing. To that effect, I love to explore new techniques, to develop new skills, to experiment with texture and glazes in order to achieve my vision. And while I am working towards that goal, new ideas continuously sprout from this fertile ground I laid down, and ideas turn into objects, gaining a life of their own. To me this is where the creative process truly starts, creation by experimentation.
In particular, I find the process of saggar firing truly fascinating. It is a low-fire technique that relies on raw chemicals, rather than formulated and tried glazes, to transfer coloration to a vessel. With this technique, the simple act of applying a mixture of chemicals to a ceramic vessel can turn the piece during firing into a fantastic display of colors that appear to grow organically with the specific form. The resulting smooth, satin finish complements the color variegations to give a distinguished look akin to a marble sculpture, yet at a much smaller and finer scale.
Natasha Dikareva - San Francisco, CA
Pilgrimage to the Unknown
Stoneware, Stains, Glazes
In my work, the inner and the outer worlds converge; surfaces reveal the personal narrative of each three-dimensional form, communicating that which is usually invisible. The detailed skins of my sculptures echo the relentless pursuit of meaning through mythologies and folk tales around the world. Their fresco-like shell surfaces are modern-day versions of the ruins of Pompeii, where a language of pictures communicated to people from all walks of life and many parts of the world.
Bridges, columns and highways coexist with organic elements to reflect the constantly shifting balance between humans and our environment. My influences range from ancient Greek mythology to Eastern philosophies of spiritual transformation. I am interested in depicting the human experience using charged symbolism through which anyone can immerse themselves into a myriad of metaphorical possibilities. Through the back door of the subconscious, I find escape routes from the mundane. I tap the origin of my dreams to extract the elixir of a new understanding and a bright future.
Natasha Dikareva - San Francisco, CA
Pilgrimage to the Unknown
Stoneware, Stains, Glazes
In my work, the inner and the outer worlds converge; surfaces reveal the personal narrative of each three-dimensional form, communicating that which is usually invisible. The detailed skins of my sculptures echo the relentless pursuit of meaning through mythologies and folk tales around the world. Their fresco-like shell surfaces are modern-day versions of the ruins of Pompeii, where a language of pictures communicated to people from all walks of life and many parts of the world.
Bridges, columns and highways coexist with organic elements to reflect the constantly shifting balance between humans and our environment. My influences range from ancient Greek mythology to Eastern philosophies of spiritual transformation. I am interested in depicting the human experience using charged symbolism through which anyone can immerse themselves into a myriad of metaphorical possibilities. Through the back door of the subconscious, I find escape routes from the mundane. I tap the origin of my dreams to extract the elixir of a new understanding and a bright future.
Doris Fischer-Colbrie - Palo Alto, CA
Winter Storm
Clay
My work is solidly founded in functional ware. My interest in mathematics draws me toward geometric considerations and my interest in nature draws me toward textural considerations, both of which I combine to develop objects that can render a service. I aim to bring the beauty in nature into the daily routine via functional objects. My current line of work is inspired by the movement of grasses and leaves in the wind. I first create platters by combining wheel throwing and hand building techniques. Using these platters as foundations, I vary applications of slips, oxides and glazes to capture the flow of plants in a winter snow setting.
Jon Gariepy - Petaluma, CA
Dirty Deal
Clay with Underglaze
I have spent many magical hours exploring harbors and quiet old boatyards and am especially moved by aged and battered vessels. There’s a kind of meditative energy emanating from them. I imagine that our human energy is absorbed by the objects we love and spend a lot of time with, and then as they decay these objects release that energy into the atmosphere — the joy of a fair wind and a sunny day, the love of sailing, the love of making a living on the water. And there’s the sadness at the end of a day for the mortality of all things. I’m currently absorbed with the preciousness and beauty of our moment to moment experience, and yet, given this, the human propensity for folly. While dealing with concept and personal truth, my aim is to make something unusual and interesting, using the most elementary tools and techniques.
Jon Gariepy - Petaluma, CA
Silence
Clay with Underglaze
I have spent many magical hours exploring harbors and quiet old boatyards and am especially moved by aged and battered vessels. There’s a kind of meditative energy emanating from them. I imagine that our human energy is absorbed by the objects we love and spend a lot of time with, and then as they decay these objects release that energy into the atmosphere — the joy of a fair wind and a sunny day, the love of sailing, the love of making a living on the water. And there’s the sadness at the end of a day for the mortality of all things. I’m currently absorbed with the preciousness and beauty of our moment to moment experience, and yet, given this, the human propensity for folly. While dealing with concept and personal truth, my aim is to make something unusual and interesting, using the most elementary tools and techniques.
Stephen Horn - Pasadena, CA
Square Meditation Pillow
Stoneware, Lithograph Transfer
Anyone who works in clay is confronted with a multitude of possibilities. Complexity and surprise are built into the medium, the process, the technology. Take one purposeful step down an artistic path, and you’re immediately face to face with a crossroads that wasn’t on your mental GPS. Should you keep going straight—or, what the hell, wouldn’t it be more fun to turn left or right and see what you run into? Exploring the unexpected side roads has always appealed to me. It’s like going on a walkabout. As a teacher I always say to students: “Try it and see what happens.” This is my own artistic mantra.
My aesthetic wanderings have been guided by the works of the ancient Minoans, Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans; by Japanese ceramic traditions—Jomon, Haniwa, Iga, Bizen, and Oribe; by artists like Gauguin, Miró, Picasso, Motherwell, Pollock, and George Ohr; and by the ideas of minimalism and other art movements. My modes of working in clay encompass drawing, painting, and printing as well as handbuilding, moldmaking, and throwing (if only, sometimes, to smash a pot on the wheel or to engineer its collapse).
What I hope unites my work is a sense of the excitement I experienced in going off road—and there’s still so much to explore out there.
Stephen Horn - Pasadena, CA
Meditation Pillow
Stoneware, Lithograph Transfer
Anyone who works in clay is confronted with a multitude of possibilities. Complexity and surprise are built into the medium, the process, the technology. Take one purposeful step down an artistic path, and you’re immediately face to face with a crossroads that wasn’t on your mental GPS. Should you keep going straight—or, what the hell, wouldn’t it be more fun to turn left or right and see what you run into? Exploring the unexpected side roads has always appealed to me. It’s like going on a walkabout. As a teacher I always say to students: “Try it and see what happens.” This is my own artistic mantra.
My aesthetic wanderings have been guided by the works of the ancient Minoans, Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans; by Japanese ceramic traditions—Jomon, Haniwa, Iga, Bizen, and Oribe; by artists like Gauguin, Miró, Picasso, Motherwell, Pollock, and George Ohr; and by the ideas of minimalism and other art movements. My modes of working in clay encompass drawing, painting, and printing as well as handbuilding, moldmaking, and throwing (if only, sometimes, to smash a pot on the wheel or to engineer its collapse).
What I hope unites my work is a sense of the excitement I experienced in going off road—and there’s still so much to explore out there.
Stephen Horn - Pasadena, CA
Talking Heads Vessel
Stoneware, Cone 6
Anyone who works in clay is confronted with a multitude of possibilities. Complexity and surprise are built into the medium, the process, the technology. Take one purposeful step down an artistic path, and you’re immediately face to face with a crossroads that wasn’t on your mental GPS. Should you keep going straight—or, what the hell, wouldn’t it be more fun to turn left or right and see what you run into? Exploring the unexpected side roads has always appealed to me. It’s like going on a walkabout. As a teacher I always say to students: “Try it and see what happens.” This is my own artistic mantra.
My aesthetic wanderings have been guided by the works of the ancient Minoans, Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans; by Japanese ceramic traditions—Jomon, Haniwa, Iga, Bizen, and Oribe; by artists like Gauguin, Miró, Picasso, Motherwell, Pollock, and George Ohr; and by the ideas of minimalism and other art movements. My modes of working in clay encompass drawing, painting, and printing as well as handbuilding, moldmaking, and throwing (if only, sometimes, to smash a pot on the wheel or to engineer its collapse).
What I hope unites my work is a sense of the excitement I experienced in going off road—and there’s still so much to explore out there.
Francisco “Pancho” Jimenez - Campbell, CA
Sentry
Ceramic
I am intrigued by the mystery of meaning that I find in ancient art, much of it in ruins, found in Mexico or other places in the world. In my art I attempt to capture that mystery, that “eternal presence” of ancient art forms, which elicit particular emotions in me that may be universal and timeless. My intention is to create art forms that bring the eternal presence of the past to the present, to inspire reflection on contemporary time and place.
My work is evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Although my work takes different forms (small table top constructions, tall columns, large wall hangings or oversized heads) my intentions remain a constant. The catalyst that propels my work to take numerous forms is my desire to explore my primary medium, clay, in varied and technically challenging formats. My use of organic and geometric motifs is rooted in my belief that these forms are a universal language that is timeless-- linking the past and the future and cutting across cultures.
Carol Ann Klimek - Altadena, CA
Meditator
Stoneware, Iron Chair
To meditate is to look outside of the self, to find within one’s head a connection to the whole, and to take a larger view of the individual’s place in the world. This piece is large, reflecting that larger view, celebrating the sense of universal “Allness” that meditation has given me over the years. The head is oversized, representing the intellectual rather than physical experience of meditation, and the hands are oversized as well, representing the individual responsibility of shaping with my own two hands a personal world of harmony, balance, and humble offering of my creative self. Inspired by large seated Buddha statues seen at monuments and shrines, I set out to express my own meditation experience embodied as a large-scale, grounded, still female figure. Each of the 23 individual ceramic sculptures that comprise the figure pushed me beyond my own limits working with clay. In creating “The Meditator” I took a personal journey for “enlightenment,” a journey on which I progress with each piece I create, each day I wake, each thought I consider. Meditation is larger than any one concept or idea, and “The Meditator” is my realization of that very concept.
Gina Lawson-Egan - Altadena, CA
Embrace
Clay, Cone 02
Long ago clay became my primary choice of medium because it is a material that I never tire from. I am a hand builder using the slow and steady process of coil and slab building. I work with the human head and female figure as subject matter because it best communicates the themes that I am interested in, love and companionship, growth and death, balance and the passage of time. Like a perfect cup of tea I mix these ideas together and add just a bit of humor to taste.
Through my work, I am interested in communicating age old topics that reflect many. The female figure is in a place of honor as she may represent mother, earth mother, sister or companion. Some of the heads and figures will have small birds either at rest or at the moment before flight. These additions give the piece a sense of time standing still. Life is full of these moments whether they are memorable or forgotten. My hope is that the viewers can reflect on their own personal journeys.
Gina Lawson-Egan - Altadena, CA
Embrace
Clay, Cone 02
Long ago clay became my primary choice of medium because it is a material that I never tire from. I am a hand builder using the slow and steady process of coil and slab building. I work with the human head and female figure as subject matter because it best communicates the themes that I am interested in, love and companionship, growth and death, balance and the passage of time. Like a perfect cup of tea I mix these ideas together and add just a bit of humor to taste.
Through my work, I am interested in communicating age old topics that reflect many. The female figure is in a place of honor as she may represent mother, earth mother, sister or companion. Some of the heads and figures will have small birds either at rest or at the moment before flight. These additions give the piece a sense of time standing still. Life is full of these moments whether they are memorable or forgotten. My hope is that the viewers can reflect on their own personal journeys.
Gina Lawson-Egan - Altadena, CA
Funnel Cloud
Clay, Cone 02
Long ago clay became my primary choice of medium because it is a material that I never tire from. I am a hand builder using the slow and steady process of coil and slab building. I work with the human head and female figure as subject matter because it best communicates the themes that I am interested in, love and companionship, growth and death, balance and the passage of time. Like a perfect cup of tea I mix these ideas together and add just a bit of humor to taste.
Through my work, I am interested in communicating age old topics that reflect many. The female figure is in a place of honor as she may represent mother, earth mother, sister or companion. Some of the heads and figures will have small birds either at rest or at the moment before flight. These additions give the piece a sense of time standing still. Life is full of these moments whether they are memorable or forgotten. My hope is that the viewers can reflect on their own personal journeys.
Gale McCall - Inglewood, CA
Life Saver
Clay
My work is grounded in the philosophy of language, informed by literature, and aims to question and explore the formal structure and function of words. By placing text in the framework of art, words begin to function both as units of language and objects. Text then becomes an unstable, transitional, and new form, morphing from something linear into something pluralistic, and inviting speculation about the relationships between object and language and the structure of both. The precise articulation and isolation of text from deliberately chosen books encourages contemplation and allows for their complexity of content and materiality to emerge.
Image oriented and abstracted forms to delight the eyes and the mind.
Movement with a language of familiar visuals. Symbols selected to convey a universal language.
history technology humor passion
My work reflects an intuitive commentary on orders and disorders in nature and the civilized world. It attempts to develop a narrative language that offers an alternative way of seeing what things are, were, or could be. These ideas are expressed through painting and sculpture with a dimensional interplay of layered materials. I work intuitively, changing, erasing and piecing together images as they emerge through ideas and materials. An activity of making; changing physical properties within a creative context.
optical - compositional - representational - decode the real
I research and work from written and visual sources that I collect for specific pieces and projects. I search for ways of integrating them in a fresh and coherent statement. Everyday imagery has always been a significant part of my work. These familiar images are powerful symbols. Symbols can be transformed and reinvigorated when used in different contexts. I remain open to new ways of making the art process a bridge between concept and finished product.
N A R R A T E N A V I G A T E N E G O T I A T E
Gale McCall - Inglewood, CA
Untitled
Clay
My work is grounded in the philosophy of language, informed by literature, and aims to question and explore the formal structure and function of words. By placing text in the framework of art, words begin to function both as units of language and objects. Text then becomes an unstable, transitional, and new form, morphing from something linear into something pluralistic, and inviting speculation about the relationships between object and language and the structure of both. The precise articulation and isolation of text from deliberately chosen books encourages contemplation and allows for their complexity of content and materiality to emerge.
Image oriented and abstracted forms to delight the eyes and the mind.
Movement with a language of familiar visuals. Symbols selected to convey a universal language.
history technology humor passion
My work reflects an intuitive commentary on orders and disorders in nature and the civilized world. It attempts to develop a narrative language that offers an alternative way of seeing what things are, were, or could be. These ideas are expressed through painting and sculpture with a dimensional interplay of layered materials. I work intuitively, changing, erasing and piecing together images as they emerge through ideas and materials. An activity of making; changing physical properties within a creative context.
optical - compositional - representational - decode the real
I research and work from written and visual sources that I collect for specific pieces and projects. I search for ways of integrating them in a fresh and coherent statement. Everyday imagery has always been a significant part of my work. These familiar images are powerful symbols. Symbols can be transformed and reinvigorated when used in different contexts. I remain open to new ways of making the art process a bridge between concept and finished product.
N A R R A T E N A V I G A T E N E G O T I A T E
Lee Middleman - Portola, CA
Sunflower - Winter Series
High-Fire Stoneware
I throw classic forms and use surface textures to give them energy and vitality, resulting in art that is both pleasing and alive. I seek to create patterns and textures that emphasize the organic interplay between order and randomness as found in Nature.
The tactile feel and visual look of surface textures are essential to my pieces. I create textures by deeply impressing patterns into thrown cylinders. Then, working from the inside only, I expand the cylinder to create the final form. This technique allows the pattern to evolve as the clay twists and expands. As the pattern adjusts to the shape and function of the vessel, it becomes reflective of Nature’s adaptation to form.
My glazing process enhances the natural aesthetic of the order and randomness. Thinly glazed surfaces highlight the macropatterns and reveal the stoneware clay’s micro-texture created during the expansion process. I often use multiple glazes to intensify the dynamic tension of the surface.
My goal is to pursue the interplay of shape, surface texture, ordered patterns, and random effects so that work is created that intrigues the eye and demands to be touched. Although my work is functional, it is often prized as decorative.
Lee Middleman - Portola, CA
Snowfall Globe
High-Fire Stoneware
I throw classic forms and use surface textures to give them energy and vitality, resulting in art that is both pleasing and alive. I seek to create patterns and textures that emphasize the organic interplay between order and randomness as found in Nature.
The tactile feel and visual look of surface textures are essential to my pieces. I create textures by deeply impressing patterns into thrown cylinders. Then, working from the inside only, I expand the cylinder to create the final form. This technique allows the pattern to evolve as the clay twists and expands. As the pattern adjusts to the shape and function of the vessel, it becomes reflective of Nature’s adaptation to form.
My glazing process enhances the natural aesthetic of the order and randomness. Thinly glazed surfaces highlight the macropatterns and reveal the stoneware clay’s micro-texture created during the expansion process. I often use multiple glazes to intensify the dynamic tension of the surface.
My goal is to pursue the interplay of shape, surface texture, ordered patterns, and random effects so that work is created that intrigues the eye and demands to be touched. Although my work is functional, it is often prized as decorative.
John Monsma Bradley - Camarillo, CA
Mason Jars
Clay, Glaze, PBO, Spray Paint
It’s true that standing before the immense “Red X” at LA Country Museum of Art I think about the weight of John Mason’s impact on ceramic art—freedom from the vessel form, insistence on abstraction, and pushing material limits. However, as a writer working in clay, I can’t resist possibilities for a visual/verbal pun, for a certain lightness. As pastiche more than parody, “Mason Jars” reanimates a conversation with the past by recalling the vessel, reducing the size, and having fun with one of the most iconic works in ceramic history. My future work in this vein may include pieces entitled “Priceless,” “Leaching,” “Rie-ified,” “Ohr-not,” “Wooden,” and “Saxe-iphone.”
Joy Nagy - New York, NY
Arthropod 3
Porcelain
My work has evolved over the last decade to focus on themes and shapes derived from the natural world. The imperfection and weathered aspects of the withered leaf and gnarled tree trunk that tenaciously push through cement and bricks, and roots of trees that grow over iron guardrails inspire me. As a native New Yorker, I am concerned when I notice brown leaves and dry roots: I scowl at construction site scaffolding that often inhibits a tree’s growth. I work in a number of mediums-ink, graphite, watercolor, cast metals, and most recently-in porcelain.
The ceramic studio provides me access to exploring a relatively new medium and allows me to create sculptural work. I am fascinated by the fragile and translucent quality of porcelain, selecting an ostrich egg as the base of this work seemed to provide a perfect ground to incorporate and enhance motifs that relate to my observations. Once fired each piece is left to stand on it’s own balanced on a unique porcelain shard.
Daniel Oliver- San Francisco, CA
Pot Belly Box Series
Raku Fired
I love working with my hands. When I touched clay for the first time I was hooked. Clay is a great medium to work with. It is therapeutic. The clay lets me do everything I ask of her or makes me believe it.
When I am building my shapes with a slab of clay I let my hands guide me. I want something pleasing to my eyes, something that will bring me a smile.
I use the Raku firing technique. It gives that earthy look that goes well with my work. During the firing, it is up to the kiln goddess.
I keep a playful mind in the studio and I think it gives a whimsical feel to my work
All of my pieces are one of a kind.
Daniel Oliver- San Francisco, CA
Pot Belly Box Series
Raku Fired
I love working with my hands. When I touched clay for the first time I was hooked. Clay is a great medium to work with. It is therapeutic. The clay lets me do everything I ask of her or makes me believe it.
When I am building my shapes with a slab of clay I let my hands guide me. I want something pleasing to my eyes, something that will bring me a smile.
I use the Raku firing technique. It gives that earthy look that goes well with my work. During the firing, it is up to the kiln goddess.
I keep a playful mind in the studio and I think it gives a whimsical feel to my work
All of my pieces are one of a kind.
Daniel Oliver- San Francisco, CA
Pot Belly Box Series
Raku Fired
I love working with my hands. When I touched clay for the first time I was hooked. Clay is a great medium to work with. It is therapeutic. The clay lets me do everything I ask of her or makes me believe it.
When I am building my shapes with a slab of clay I let my hands guide me. I want something pleasing to my eyes, something that will bring me a smile.
I use the Raku firing technique. It gives that earthy look that goes well with my work. During the firing, it is up to the kiln goddess.
I keep a playful mind in the studio and I think it gives a whimsical feel to my work
All of my pieces are one of a kind.
Monika Ozog - Boston, MA
Konrad
Stoneware, Photo Transfer
One’s past is constantly revisited and re-interpreted, with an ever-changing emphasis on one thing or another. There is a struggle with memory, a fight with its tendency to fade, go blurry and become unclear. I take photographs of my family members and transfer them onto ceramics to create a metaphor of the past or a moment. The transferred photographs are distorted, unclear, and sometimes barely there: the personality of memory in physical form. I create eerie, non-functional vessels that represent a struggle between control and the inability to control, between creating physically and creating metaphorically, between permanence and fragility.
Vince Palacios - Long Beach, CA
Alchemy Series: Preventive Measure, Pre-emptive Strike
Clay, Glaze, Slip, Decals
In this recent work I have been exploring different ways of drawing on ceramic forms. Instead of drawing with my own hand, I have been employing decal images of different line qualities from different time periods and different artists to compose and collage my drawings. In a way it is like drawing with someone else’s hands or like conducting a piece of music. In the same manner that musical artists are sampling sounds and music of other artists to reconstruct into their own compositions, I am sampling images to reconstruct into intense, layered, mythological narratives, which have a very different rhythm than flat drawings. Some of the themes that are emerging are Biblical, Mythological and Scientific in nature. I have been exploring the origins of our species, the moral dilemma of good and evil, the role of man in nature, and the interface of science, technology and mythology.
Vince Palacios - Long Beach, CA
Alchemy Series: Preventive Measure, Pre-emptive Strike
Clay, Glaze, Slip, Decals
In this recent work I have been exploring different ways of drawing on ceramic forms. Instead of drawing with my own hand, I have been employing decal images of different line qualities from different time periods and different artists to compose and collage my drawings. In a way it is like drawing with someone else’s hands or like conducting a piece of music. In the same manner that musical artists are sampling sounds and music of other artists to reconstruct into their own compositions, I am sampling images to reconstruct into intense, layered, mythological narratives, which have a very different rhythm than flat drawings. Some of the themes that are emerging are Biblical, Mythological and Scientific in nature. I have been exploring the origins of our species, the moral dilemma of good and evil, the role of man in nature, and the interface of science, technology and mythology.2
Vince Palacios - Long Beach, CA
Alchemy Series: Preventive Measure, Pre-emptive Strike
Clay, Glaze, Slip, Decals
In this recent work I have been exploring different ways of drawing on ceramic forms. Instead of drawing with my own hand, I have been employing decal images of different line qualities from different time periods and different artists to compose and collage my drawings. In a way it is like drawing with someone else’s hands or like conducting a piece of music. In the same manner that musical artists are sampling sounds and music of other artists to reconstruct into their own compositions, I am sampling images to reconstruct into intense, layered, mythological narratives, which have a very different rhythm than flat drawings. Some of the themes that are emerging are Biblical, Mythological and Scientific in nature. I have been exploring the origins of our species, the moral dilemma of good and evil, the role of man in nature, and the interface of science, technology and mythology.3
Vince Palacios - Long Beach, CA
Heraldry Series: The Final Trumpet
Clay, Glaze, Slip, Decals
In this recent work I have been exploring different ways of drawing on ceramic forms. Instead of drawing with my own hand, I have been employing decal images of different line qualities from different time periods and different artists to compose and collage my drawings. In a way it is like drawing with someone else’s hands or like conducting a piece of music. In the same manner that musical artists are sampling sounds and music of other artists to reconstruct into their own compositions, I am sampling images to reconstruct into intense, layered, mythological narratives, which have a very different rhythm than flat drawings. Some of the themes that are emerging are Biblical, Mythological and Scientific in nature. I have been exploring the origins of our species, the moral dilemma of good and evil, the role of man in nature, and the interface of science, technology and mythology.
Margaret Realica - Long Beach, CA
T with Gear
Mixed Media
Changing times of images, concepts and materials.
By combining the past with the present.
The traditional and contemporary. Organic with mechanical.
I have interwoven these opposing elements by playing with them through deconstruction and reconstruction.
In the process new boundaries have formed with lines crossing. Other concepts are introduced and different ideas expressed.
Recreating new scenarios.
The porcelain is wheel thrown and altered. High fired.
Acrylics used are for elevating the forms and wires for gestural imaging.
Margaret Realica - Long Beach, CA
T Series
Mixed Media
Changing times of images, concepts and materials.
By combining the past with the present.
The traditional and contemporary. Organic with mechanical.
I have interwoven these opposing elements by playing with them through deconstruction and reconstruction.
In the process new boundaries have formed with lines crossing. Other concepts are introduced and different ideas expressed.
Recreating new scenarios.
The porcelain is wheel thrown and altered. High fired.
Acrylics used are for elevating the forms and wires for gestural imaging.
Margaret Realica - Long Beach, CA
Winter Pod 3
Mixed Media
Changing times of images, concepts and materials.
By combining the past with the present.
The traditional and contemporary. Organic with mechanical.
I have interwoven these opposing elements by playing with them through deconstruction and reconstruction.
In the process new boundaries have formed with lines crossing. Other concepts are introduced and different ideas expressed.
Recreating new scenarios.
The porcelain is wheel thrown and altered. High fired.
Acrylics used are for elevating the forms and wires for gestural imaging.
Marilyn Richeda - South Salem, NY
Lifeboat
Clay
I rarely start to work with a clear visual image of what I will create. I do, however, have an idea of what I want to explore or a feeling I want to express and keep on working until I feel it's right.
The figures I create are not found on the street but more likely in one's imagination. They are other worldly. Some figures are robot-like, non-speaking, noiseless and still. Others stand confident perhaps hiding something. I use birds a lot; sometimes portraying them as enchanting but often showing a darker side such as feelings of loss, helplessness and being marooned. The combination of strangeness and familiarity reveal human concerns and behaviors as portrayed by the birds.
Color and surface treatment are of the utmost importance to me. I wish I could own every painting that I fall in love with. Color is what seduces me. That interest in color profoundly affects how I work in clay. Inspiration for color comes from looking at painted cars and trucks on the road, painters such as George Basselitz, Grau-Garriga and folk art. Most exciting to me is the casualness and color which comes from the art of children.
Heather Rosenman - Glendale, CA
Neon Vision
Stoneware
Wonder Portals
A New York native, graduated from The Cooper Union and received a postgraduate-level degree from the Basel School of Design in Switzerland. Designed and produced in her Los Angeles studio, this series explores the folly of scientific certainty.
Like Carroll’s ‘Rabbit Hole’, Wonder Portals entice the viewer to experience a transformative journey of wonder, unique to each person. This sculptural series uses divergent forms, textures and negative space to support Rosenman’s exploration of a Transformation theme.
Heather Rosenman - Glendale, CA
Transforma Morph
Stoneware
Wonder Portals
A New York native, graduated from The Cooper Union and received a postgraduate-level degree from the Basel School of Design in Switzerland. Designed and produced in her Los Angeles studio, this series explores the folly of scientific certainty.
Like Carroll’s ‘Rabbit Hole’, Wonder Portals entice the viewer to experience a transformative journey of wonder, unique to each person. This sculptural series uses divergent forms, textures and negative space to support Rosenman’s exploration of a Transformation theme.
Heather Rosenman - Glendale, CA
Magma Morph
Stoneware
Wonder Portals
A New York native, graduated from The Cooper Union and received a postgraduate-level degree from the Basel School of Design in Switzerland. Designed and produced in her Los Angeles studio, this series explores the folly of scientific certainty.
Like Carroll’s ‘Rabbit Hole’, Wonder Portals entice the viewer to experience a transformative journey of wonder, unique to each person. This sculptural series uses divergent forms, textures and negative space to support Rosenman’s exploration of a Transformation theme
Caitlin Ross - Friday Harbor, WA
Moon Over the Water Set
Hand-Thrown & Carved
Wonder Portals
My pieces are usually thrown and carved, or thrown and altered. The process begins with an obsession with a certain form, and I begin cranking out variations. The subtle differences curves of a shape’s profile can both fascinate and frustrate me. If the form calls for it, I begin searching for an appropriate surface design. My motifs are inspired by nature, or are at least organic, and the themes generally have some spiritual significance to me. I allow these themes to remain vague enough to communicate on an individual level, because what motivates me to create a piece is not necessarily what motivates the viewer to understand it. Often the patterns which are eventually applied to a piece of tableware have their origins in other mediums. The challenge then becomes converting it into relief carving or a three dimensional object. All carving is done by hand, however tedious, in order to achieve the precise texture that is sought after, and to allow each piece to maintain it’s own unique and subtle personality.
Jan Schachter & Peggy Forman - Portola Valley, CA
Old/New Direction
Porcelain
For more then 20 years Peggy Forman & Jan Schachter have been collaborating. Jan creates the forms: plates, vases, bowls or tiles out of porcelain and bisques them.
Peg takes them home and draws whatever the form inspires. Many of the drawings have evolved from a series of life drawings she has done using a live model. Her drawing techniques come from a long time love of watercolor painting started in college. However, drawing & painting on clay with slips, stains underglaze pencils and more is an exceptional challenge. Peggy occasionally uses monoprinting to create a particular effect or image. What you draw is not necessarily what you get after the piece is fired by Jan in her gas kiln to 2300 degrees F.
Jose Sierra - Tucson, AZ
Entre Tejidos Series
Stoneware
My past and present surroundings influence my work. The images and memories of coffee mills, intensely colored mountains, dramatic landscapes, pre-Colombian art and architecture of the Andean region of Venezuela all form an important part of my visual inspirations. These elements combine with contemporary design as well as the geometry of the Catalina Mountains to influence and inspire my work. The range of textures and colors of the Andes and Catalinas also inform my palette of glazes and engobes, which are achieved through high-firing in oxidation and reduction. By altering wheel-thrown porcelain and stoneware, my work fuses organic and geometrical forms, in which I express both the fluidity and abruptness of the shapes and lines in the landscapes and architecture that surrounds me.
Jose Sierra - Tucson, AZ
Entre Tejidos Series
Stoneware
My past and present surroundings influence my work. The images and memories of coffee mills, intensely colored mountains, dramatic landscapes, pre-Colombian art and architecture of the Andean region of Venezuela all form an important part of my visual inspirations. These elements combine with contemporary design as well as the geometry of the Catalina Mountains to influence and inspire my work. The range of textures and colors of the Andes and Catalinas also inform my palette of glazes and engobes, which are achieved through high-firing in oxidation and reduction. By altering wheel-thrown porcelain and stoneware, my work fuses organic and geometrical forms, in which I express both the fluidity and abruptness of the shapes and lines in the landscapes and architecture that surrounds me.
Jose Sierra - Tucson, AZ
Entre Tejidos Series
Stoneware
My past and present surroundings influence my work. The images and memories of coffee mills, intensely colored mountains, dramatic landscapes, pre-Colombian art and architecture of the Andean region of Venezuela all form an important part of my visual inspirations. These elements combine with contemporary design as well as the geometry of the Catalina Mountains to influence and inspire my work. The range of textures and colors of the Andes and Catalinas also inform my palette of glazes and engobes, which are achieved through high-firing in oxidation and reduction. By altering wheel-thrown porcelain and stoneware, my work fuses organic and geometrical forms, in which I express both the fluidity and abruptness of the shapes and lines in the landscapes and architecture that surrounds me.
Dino Sophia - Los Angeles, CA
Untitled
Earthware
I am obsessed with letters and numbers for their abstract qualities-- not necessarily spelling out anything. They are timeless suggesting a palimpsest, a prayer, a whisper, a mantra. My forms are simple and sculptural giving a nod to their utilitarian ancestors.
Dino Sophia - Los Angeles, CA
Untitled
Stoneware
I am obsessed with letters and numbers for their abstract qualities-- not necessarily spelling out anything. They are timeless suggesting a palimpsest, a prayer, a whisper, a mantra. My forms are simple and sculptural giving a nod to their utilitarian ancestors.
Judith Stewart - Oracle, AZ
Girl with Spiral Hair
High-Fire
There is in art no image more evocative than the human form. It is rich in associative powers in both personal and universal ways. When the human form is sculpture, a confrontation with substance, identity and the claiming of space begins. There also begins an essential probing into life-likeness, and the degree to which the artist wishes it to be there, or not there. No matter however, whether it is a lump of mud or welded angle iron, deliberately formed stone, wood or clay, we never fail to recognize our very selves, in other guise.
For me it is this identity, this recognition of another kind of human presence that I wish to convey in my sculpture.
Vinent Suez - Upland, CA
Just a Taste
Porcelain
IMy Work Has its Basis in Traditional Pottery
I consider myself an artist/potter. I draw and paint, using traditional ceramic processes to achieve particular affects on my ceramic work in order to exploit and develop form. My concern with nature is revealed through my use of animal and bird imagery. Marks of stamps, inscribed lines, and the touch of brush emulate this fantasy in nature. Included in this colorful landscape are dragonflies, a dash of gold a glimpse of purple and brilliant blues. Saying that, I am not particularly interested in a specific genus but rather in that fleeting moment that leap of faith if you will, when they are suspended in air for a brief moment, the quick yet magic moment when they seem oblivious to gravity, suspended, or “braking” as they gracefully,land on the most delicate of branches. The dragonfly’s rush and dip across the puddles leaving only a trace; included in this rapture is my use of creatures imbued with the human condition. The intimacies of these anthropomorphic lovers expose my wit and curiosity of the human condition. I sit and watch with delight as the birds and dragonflies dance and converse around the feeders. I am amazed because the birds always carry on the same prattle, yet it is always different. The drawn landscape dwells somewhere inside.
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