Simple activity...

We have had a few warmer days in a row up here in western Pa...hell, it sure feels like the coming of spring maybe...but maybe not. One thing I have learned up here, is that winter lasts a long time. But it has been these few nice days that have gotten me into the studio and talking with Nancy about firing another cone 6 salt and heck, even talking about firing the train kiln in May!
Like me, the garden seems eager for a change of weather too...the dewdrops and crocus were popping their little heads up through the mulch. I shot some images of the little feller's early last week and by now, those and plenty more are all open, but its been the grey overcast sky and steady rain that has kept me from shooting them the last couple days. Instead I got a chance to get back in the studio...10 big mugs from my rich chocolate brown clay. I think I am changing my name to "Big Mugs Magee".These and some other pieces I am throwing from the two new cone 6 salt bodies that Nancy mixed up, will be going into the next cone 6 salt firing on April 1.

I wish all I had to do was to get some nice mugs made and watch the new season begin to unfold, but unfortunately I have a busy couple of months ahead of me.

With this post, I am making a point to remind myself how simple yet satisfying these two activities are for me..."get out and look at whats growing and get back into the studio and start growing my own work"...words I will try and live by...at least for a while anyways.

Enjoy gentle reader...enjoy, whatever you can.

Good to the last bowl...

The Empty Bowls event was a big success and so well attended...I was happy to be able to make a meager donation to the cause. In between student teacher observations Tuesday, I was able to eek out 30 minutes to come and plop down ten bucks and eat some yummy gumbo. The place was packed and every potter and artist who lives in the region was there either eating or lending a hand. In the image above, the artist Kamal Youssef finished off the last of his soup from one of my bowls!



Betty Hedman got this ball rolling and did a great job getting all involved...this is Betty eating soup from one of Nancy Smeltzer's bowls...serving up the chicken noodle is Don Hedman, retired IUP ceramics professor and master potter.







Local potter Gary Stam relaxes after hot soup on this cold, cold PA day... the bowl with the greenish stripes is my treasure from the event...one by Betty Hedman. The next image is of Cindy Rogers dishing out some of her husbands fantastic gumbo...in the background is Nancy who also volunteered her time to serve up the soup.

A wonderful cause with all the money going to the Indiana County Food Bank and hopefully an event that will happen on an annual basis here in the greater metropolitan area of Indiana, PA. This 3 hour event raised over 2,200 dollars.

...and that's the news ...now its time to get in the studio...later.

Not so empty, empty bowls...

This past week, Nancy and I did our first cone 6 salt firing...new glazes for the firing...new clay bodies, and not necessarily the best clay body for the salt firing...needless to say it was an experimental firing . We took a chance and glazed up a bunch of pots and Nancy fired the gas kiln through the frigid night.

We had a good reason to experiment like we did...like I blogged about in my last post, there is an Empty Bowls event that will be taking place this Tuesday the 24th. This fact forced us into the studio to throw..and throw we did...bowls,bowls,bowls and of course some mugs to fill the spaces.

With new processes and the new elements in the mix, I'm never automatically sure if it is working...this takes time. I have been photographing and handling the new pieces so much that I think I can say that I am pretty happy with the results...The surfaces are rich and complex...click on the smaller images to see them up close and more personal. The mugs will be getting new decal images and the bowls...well, for ten bucks, some generous soul will be eating soup from them and then hopefully enjoying more yummies in them for some time to come.

Empty Bowls will be held at The Common Place Coffee House and Roastery...Tuesday 24th...begins at 11:00 am. All the money goes to the Indiana County Food bank.

Enjoy the images...come for the soup!

Paintings, pots, and porcelain...

You know, that commercial that says..."life comes at you fast", I completely understand. Not only does life come at you fast but many times life comes at you all at once ...bum rushing you . That's where I am right now...bobbing and weaving and swinging back trying to deliver that crushing blow or just trying to land one on life's chin in order to buy me some time to catch my breath.

I recently opened a really wonderful exhibition in the gallery...Kipp Gallery, the gallery that I am the director of at IUP...Supernovaasteroidcometsun and Other Natural Wonders : Recent Paintings by Clayton Merrell. I was very pleased to host this show and felt great to have been the one who also brought the show into the gallery. I met Clayton this past summer at the Chautauqua Institution where I will be again this summer. I encountered his work in a contemporary landscape show. That is what he considers himself...a landscape painter...its just that his are based in the idea of fictionalized spaces...abstraction from memories of places and how the mind embellishes these places...human perception of the rounded world...maps and how they flatten space. This and other shows can be seen on the Kipp Gallery facebook page until we get our big boy website up and running. Just search out Kipp Gallery and be a fan!

Speaking of the gallery I am currently working on the following exhibition that will open March 10th...Lee Renninger...Contemporary installation based porcelain! I have seen her work in other galleries and also in magazines. Her work will be fantastic to have in the space. Check out her site...

As I am dealing with these two shows in the gallery I am preparing for another undergraduate show in April, teaching 69 students 3 times a week in a lecture class, supervising 6 student teachers in their placement schools in 5 different counties, trying to keep up with my Dad and Hubby duties, and actually sneaking in a little studio time...which leads me to another important event happening here in the greater metropolitan area of Indiana, Pa..."Empty Bowls".

Local potter Betty Hedman organized an Empty Bowls event that will take place at The Commonplace Coffee House and Roastery on Feb. 24th. For those of you that do not know, this is an event where local or groups of potters donate their ceramic bowls to be sold along with some yummy soup. The buyer will pay 10.00 and not only get something warm to eat but also a wonderful handmade bowl to keep. All the money raised from this event goes back to the Indiana County Food Bank, helping to feed those in need. I am donating a dozen bowls that I will be firing with Nancy Smeltzer in a cone 6 soda firing.

Its nice to finally get back in the studio and start throwing forms and thinking about my upcoming projects that have been cooking on the back burner of my brain...

I will be blogging about the Empty Bowls event in the next post ...complete with pictures of all involved and some of the fancy bowls too! Until then gentle reader...adios.

Frozen Flamingos...

You can take the boy out of Florida, but its sure another thing to take Florida out of the boy... I spent most my life in the sun drenched state of Florida soaking up the heat and hanging out on the beach. Inundated with tourist kitsch at every turn, I absorbed and incorporated these cheap mementos into my repertoire of kitsch appreciation. Knick-knacks in every shape and form inhabit our daily lives so thoroughly that they seep into important and/or personally, valuable places inside our heads and hearts. Upon great research, I have found it is difficult to ignore the fact that kitsch is a gold mine of reference... personal and shared memory...human sentiment...nostalgia theories...how and why value is placed.
So,being a connoisseur of kitsch I decided to photographically visit my collection of plastic pink flamingos that populate my deck, potted plants and flower beds around my yard. Also, being it is the dead of winter here in PA, I thought it would be fun to see how they were weathering the bitter cold and snow....

Enjoy this homage to Florida and better weather...a parade of pink, plastic, frozen, flamingos patiently waiting for the thaw.

PS...GO STEELERS!

Got Keramiekon...

I got some good news the other day that I would like to blab about...my piece, Got Milk Rock Machine got into an international exhibition in Croatia called "Ceramica Multiplex" or "Keramiekon" or...
"THE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF POSTMODERN CERAMICS 2009 - "The exhibition CERAMICA MULTIPLEX"...with a possible subtitle, "Nature as Adventure"...ok, its something like that...I think I am missing something in translation but anyways there are a bunch of countries participating in this event..."The greatest and most important ceramic manifestation in Croatia will take place from April 18 till May 17 2009 in the City Museum of Varazdin and other places in the town.It will be held under the patronage of the Croatian Ministry of Culture and the Varazdin City Council"...uh huh, uh huh...straight from their website...anyways I am one of 14 Americans involved, maybe only 15 applied to be in, I don't know...Funny thing is that a colleague, the ceramics professor, Kevin Turner, here at IUP also got two of his pieces juried into the show...go figure, 14 people out of this entire country and one works with me.

I am happy this piece is getting some love. I made this piece a year or so back and it did not fit into the body of work I was producing at the time, but I still liked it and felt it had some strange merit to it...it fits into my current obsession of nature/synthetic...of man's manipulation of the landscape and its replacement with objects from our interior life. How realities are formed around kitsch objects as well as an exploration of materials and surfaces.

So here are 2 more shots of Got Milk Rock Machine...this piece is comprised of two parts, both are mid range stoneware...hand built and thrown parts...translucent green glaze, gumball like surface-opaque white, commercial decals and black,rubbery tool dip... about 12"x10"x8".

Toot Toot...

Landscape #1: Tubors and Corms...

Yes. Thank You.
January 9, 2009 - February 6, 2009
Opening Reception
January 16, 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
The Brew House Space 101 Gallery is located
at the corner of 21st and Mary Street,
South Side, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15203.

An affirmation in a time of crisis.
Free market economics has triggered the onset of The Great Depression 2.0. The planet is getting so hot you could light a cigarette just by holding it outside your car window. The Large Hadron Collideris on the verge of creating a Black Hole that could swallow up the Earth. As we dive headlong into the Apocalypse, let's take a moment to breathe, relax and engage in contemporary Art!

...and that gentle readers is the curator's statement for this show...I am happy to be included in this very promising exhibition of wildly diverse and edgy art works. I feel like I am in good company here...colleagues and others whom I think highly of are included in this show. Pittsburgh based artist, Tom Estlack, put the whole thing together and has been great about communicating all the details via emails. The space is very Pittsburgh, it is an actual old brewery that has been reborn into gallery space, theatre space, and artist co-op studios up above. Heck, Estlack is even putting out a small catalog that will accompany the show.

I am happy to be showing brand spankin' new work...what I feel is the beginning of a series of "paintings". The "paintings" are all ceramic forms combined with materials like astro turf and flocking. The series is based on the concept of a landscape but swerves deeply into the realm of fictionalized space...space that is populated by elements related to the idea of a garden, all the while entangled in memory, both shared and personal...grandma's kitschy ceramics grow roots and take over the world.

I have posted a few crappy images I shot quickly after installing today...I promise I will have better images of this work next time...hey, if you are in the Pittsburgh area stop by and check out the show for yourself.

Gallery Hours
Wed, Thurs 6-9pm Saturdays 12-6pm By Appointment
Phone: 412-381-7767
http://imail.iup.edu/Redirect/www.brew-house.org/http://imail.iup.edu/Redirect/www.myspace.com/the_brew_housefindout@brew-house.orgNeed directions? Click for Google Map