Showing soon...

Coming soon to the Boxheart Gallery in Pittsburgh, Pa. ...Greener Pastures and Fallen Heroes...That's the title for the group of new work that I will be showing beginning the 29th and running through May 24th...I am in a 2 person show with local Pittsburgh painter Shawn Watrous. His pieces in this show are mainly large abstracted animals...Dropping off the work today gave me a little preview on how our pieces will look together in one space...and I was pleasantly surprised on how well our pieces worked . It is a funky and colorful mix that feels lively and will keep your eyes busy.


These are three pieces that I call Liminal Objects. They are all three in the show. Each is made of white stoneware glazed with my re-worked marshmallow glaze. The cake plate/stands are topped with an indoor/outdoor turf. The other strange material here is a yellow tool-dip that I used to cover the tree like appendages...Oh yeah, the foot of each is also dipped in that lovely black tool-dip.

These two are part of a group of 5 small pieces I call Non-Monumentals...Here you see Andre the Giant and Mr.T. immortalized in a surreal landscape on closed organic forms. These guys are only about 6-7 inches high, but they are meant to mimic large-scale sculpture. They are small-scale-large-scale objects on rubber coated wood pedestals with fake turf tops...of course.

The Mobile Landscape Device #7 is another brand spankin; new piece....it really fits my idea for this group of work... a collision of information encompassing the natural and the faux...absurd machines...and nostalgic, kitsch objects. I am not showing all the work that is in the show simply because number one, I'm lazy, and number two I don't have images of them all...so, if you're in the area..you're just going to have to check it out live and in person. However, I thought I would include in this post a couple mugs that were not going to the show...whatta ya' think? Cool graphics, a lot of color and plenty of bling!

FRankenFlOwer MuG LIVES!

This other mug is a spin-off of the set of Landscape Sketchbook Tumblers that are in the show...So, If you are reading this and are in or around the Pittsburgh area, you are invited to attend the public reception on May 3rd...6-9 pm. Boxheart Gallery, 4523 Liberty Avenue, Bloomfield area.

Niagara, Eh?

As falls Niagara Falls, so falls a whole lot of chunks o' ice...

Niagara Falls blew my mind...the roaring power of the falls was truly awesome. The above video is from the Canadian side, where my wife and daughter and I stayed. The high season had not really geared up yet and there was plenty of ice flowing down the river. To a Florida boy like me, the upper river looked like Antarctica as it was still congested with ice. We stood at the precipice of Horseshoe Falls and watched the mini-icebergs go falling over.

This was my first visit to the natural wonder and I couldn't help shooting a whole bunch of pictures...thought I would share a few with you, gentle reader. The below video is of the aptly titled Rainbow Falls on the American side...soundtrack provided by my daughter...enjoy!

Cups, Basket, and Bowl...

As I get the last bits of my new pieces ready for my upcoming show at Boxheart Gallery, I thought why not start shooting images of them and examine them further. When my new stuff starts sitting around my house in sort of a limbo, it detracts from my process in creating the work. I want to see the new work in the context that I made it for ...first. Then, I can live with the work around the house, or better yet, somebody else can live with the work around their home.

This is a set of 10 tumblers... not just mere cups! ha!...I had to really control myself to only post these 4 images...these are a 10 part multiple variable image that you and 9 of your friends can drink from. I have often wondered if I really am a painter trapped in a ceramist's body. It is sometimes more important for me to create an image rather than a form...these are an example. I worked long and hard on each, firing them all 3 times plus the bisque to complete a layered composition that floats and squiggles around each cup. I am pleased with the outcome as each has the motion that I was after as well as a sketchbook like quality to the surfaces. You can set these up in umpteen different ways and they still work...one line hopping from one cup to the other just to finish in a tangle behind the large floral decals. Gold lustre popping here and there...oh yeah...click on these to see bigger!

This next piece I am calling 'Red Poppy Basket'. She is 9 inches tall and like the tumblers, has been fired multiple times. I sprayed a chartreuse glaze lightly over my re-worked marshmallow glaze and fired it to cone five then fired my new decal images of squiggly lines, coffee rings and fragmented patterns to 04. The last firing was the commercial decals with all their rich color and gold bling to cone 018. I really like the chartreuse in the background...adds a little more depth.

Here is the other side and a shot of the mouth and inside...the interior is a bright waxy orange. It is sort of as if Las Vegas exploded in the year 1972 and the residuals drifted all the way to Japan... and I captured it all on a velvet painting framed in barn board. OK, if that makes sense to you...please talk to me! But, anyways, I am very happy with this piece...the imagery and vibrant colors work for me.

The last one for this post is 'Into the Sun' a 12" wide, low bowl. Fired like the others with the exception of the gold lustre brush work in place of the commercial decals. This is another piece that is about the imagery and the composition that includes the glaze as a vital part.

The birdies seem to come from a great distance deep within the robins' egg blue glaze of the bowl's interior. They wrap over the opposite lip and down the other side...I really liked using the gold lustre, for a person who works mainly from collage methods when putting together something 2-d, it felt good to get back to brush work. Hope you like my new pieces...

I will post again soon ...busy times ahead...show opens April 29, firing the wood kiln on the 30th, and then teaching at Touchstone Center for Crafts May 2-4...Graphic Ceramic baby, come get your decal on!

Greener Pastures and Fallen Heroes...

I'm doing something that I have never done before. I mean never. I am posting images, albeit snippets and 'in progress' images, of the new work that I'm finishing for my upcoming two-person show at Boxheart Gallery. Its sort of a little preview...the trailer...I thought, what the heck, I love using my new light kit set up...it is so great to just shoot sweet images whenever you want with NO hassle. So here ya' go...visual blurbs of a few pieces...

I am into the new pieces...they are very different in many ways to my wood fired pieces but there are similarities connected to the finishing of the surfaces with multiple firings and imagery layered over and over. I will admit, the color took a bit of 'dealing with' on my part. I am very into color, but just not all the time. The pieces for this show however, tend to be on the brighter side. They are about cozied -up modernity. How human sentiment and nostalgia collide with clean, organic voluminous form. Emotion reflected in the objects around us.

The show is titled Greener Pastures and Fallen Heroes...Boxheart Gallery, Pittsburgh, Pa. It is a two-person show with painter Shawn Watrous... April 29th-May twenty something...Opening Reception is Saturday, May 3rd 6-9 pm...please come.

Stoke Hole Pottery...

March was a pretty good month...I was in Florida for a week, had a great time at NCECA, and at its end here, I think I'm waving good bye to winter finally. So, I thought I would end this month by slamming out another big posting. This one is about my friends at Stoke Hole Pottery. I have been working out of their place since late January. I helped keep the studio warm during the weekdays and made some new sculptural pieces that I'm pretty pleased with right now. This has been a very enjoyable work place and I am stoked to feature this great working /teaching studio and gallery as well as the people who call it their home studio.

Stoke Hole Pottery was started by Birch Frew in 2002. Currently the picturesque property has a large studio space, an equally large gallery, salt/soda kiln and a Phoenix Fast Fire wood kiln...The studio gets great light due to the fact that one whole side is mostly all large windows. As you sit throwing you can look up across the field in front of the studio and at the hills in the distance. In February I watched a group of about 5-6 dear cross through the golden brown switch grass. That was a nice peaceful studio moment...ahhhhhh.

Let me introduce the crew...

Resident potter Cathy Bizousky has been with Birch from the beginning. They were then joined by the other resident potter Mr. Gary Stam. The three of them, along with the bunches of clay students that have come through in the many years, have been wood firing and soda firing their functional wares in one of several kiln incarnations since the pottery's inception. A recent addition was Debra English who became Debra Frew. Who, believe it or not gentle reader, was my first ceramic professor when I came to Pa. to attend graduate school. But the most very recent addition was Deb and Birch's sweet baby girl, Rayna.

The gallery sits just above the studio. The interior of the gallery is spacious, clean, and earthy. The back of the gallery has a handy-dandy pizza oven for those gallery events and the front sports a great deck to hang out on.

These three images are wood fired and soda fired pieces by Birch and Cathy...Cathy's pieces are the ones with flowers.

Also featured here are a set of Debra's cups with work from Gary Stam and vases and mug by Birch. You can also find Birch's work at Planet Art Gallery in the Mt. Lebanon area near Pittsburgh and the Commonplace Coffeehouse in my current hometown of Indiana, Pa. They can be found on the web at stokeholepottery.com and look for them to soon open an online store with Etsy.

I have enjoyed the warm studio and good company from all at Stoke Hole in the past couple months. I highly recommend this place to any and all in the area who are looking for a nice studio space, clay lessons...from throwing to hand building...all ages and abilities welcomed, or a nice gallery spot to buy beautiful local art. I leave you now with a serene view, or as John Stewart says ...your moment of zen...go ahead, sit cross-legged on the floor in front of the screen...feel the end of the winter...oooommmm.

NCECA 08 Blitzburgh!

NCECA...Pittsburgh, Pa....2008

Like the confluence of the three rivers that meet near by the sweeping tent like architecture of the convention center, thousands of people came together in similar fashion for this year's NCECA. For those of you who do not know, National Council for the Education of Ceramic Arts...AKA, NCECA.

I spent two days soaking in as much ceramic work and clay stuff that I could possibly hold in my little head. In brief here, I would like to highlight shows that I thought were very notable and also feature some of my favorite work. Speaking of favorites, my first stop was to one of my favorite spots, The Society for Contemporary Craft. This was mostly contemporary figurative clay sculpture. Great space, great shop area, and really interesting work. Below I put a few personal faves...work by Adelaid Paul, Sergi Isupov, and Jason Walker.

Next on my gallery hopping trip was Three Rivers Gallery...two separate floors of conceptual ceramic objects and small installations. I wanted to pull up a bean bag chair in the middle of all those ice cream cones, have a big mug full of hot coffee and watch the city go by under me!

Another really cool show that was recommended to me was 'Black Clay' at the August Wilson Center. I was so happy that I listened and went...great show...I was especially blown away by the large organic forms with the gorgeous surfaces in the back gallery space. I had recently seen an article on this person's work in a magazine, and I was thrilled to see the work in person. Another great piece in this show was the heavily decal-ed, commercially produced cups all arranged in architectural stacks and covered in images of pop icons and decal graffiti...so very Warhol...I'm a huge fan of the decal if you have not already figured that out.

Then it was a quick trip into one of the coolest ideas I have ever seen. The Art Stream...an airstream trailer that has been outfitted inside as a mobile gallery space. It usually sets up shop immediately outside the conference and people flock to see whats going on inside. Inside you will find all functional ceramic works by a lot of young potters, including that of Elizabeth Robinson, whose work I love.

Afterwards I walked over to the I.U.P. show, 'Stuck In The Mud'. I had two small sculptures and one larger table piece that consists of 40 smaller works displayed in an orgy of form and pattern in this show. My buddy JR Sherburne had several of his beautiful and wild lidded vessels in the exhibit as did other past graduates and alum professors like Don Hedman. Current ceramic professor Kevin Turner's work was also featured, as were several of his students.

The next day I spent most of my time in the convention center itself...I spent a great deal of time in the vendor/exhibitor section...every imaginable clay tool, book, glaze and clay related item all under one roof! Here I also met and spoke with one of my very favorite ceramist/clay sculptor, Virginia Scotchie and purchased a great big glaze recipe book that she put together.

Late Friday afternoon, me, Nancy and JR headed over to the multiple shows and after party at Standard Ceramics. Standard is our local ceramic supply. Also on the same property as Standard is Pittsburgh's oldest and coolest clay gallery, The Clay Place, owned and operated for 27 years by Elvira Peake .

We saw some nice installation work and alot of great pots and sculptural objects here. The Clay Place featured the work of Kirk Mangus, Eva Kwang, and Micheal Simon, along with Elvira's own work. The shows in Standard were set up everywhere! All through the warehouse and clay production areas, boxes had been stacked into pedestals and the artwork mingled with the heavy equipment...notable pieces for me were the Arthur Gonzales piece that I am posting below, and this amazing cup piece as well as most all the work from the Nordic Wood Fire mini-show.

WHEEE-HOOO! That was a big posting! But to share this experience with you gentle reader, its so worth it! NCECA is jam packed with things to see and do. My brain is on ceramic overload and I am juiced to get in the studio and finish up my new sculptural pieces as well as start working on a new batch of wood fired ware. If you have never been, put it on your list of things to do. I spent a very happy two days with friends, meeting new people, and seeing some great, great clay. Goin' dawhn-tawhn to see yinz guys in the burgh was well worth the trip.