As I started my interview series I’ve found many amazing artists, but this time one found me.  Patricia Griffin found me!  Then I fell in love; with her scraffito work!! Her imagery is very frisky and cheerful.  I imagine her frolicking in her garden.  I am so grateful that I get to meet other ceramic artists through the internet, and I always hope to meet them in person. With that said…Let me introduce Patricia Griffin Scraffito artist extraordinaire! If you would like more information on Patricia please hop on over to her blog, and like her on Facebook! When and how did you discover the passion for ceramics? It was about 16 years ago. I was running a very busy marketing and design firm and was up to my eyeballs in stress. A counselor suggested that I pursue a creative outlet that was not a part of problem-solving for a client. That eventually led to clay classes at the community college. In between client meetings, I would rush to the college, run into the school restroom to change  out of my business suit and into clay clothes, fly into the ceramics studio, find a vacant wheel, and then try to mellow out enough to throw a pot… At the end of class, I’d do the whole thing in reverse. I can’t tell you how many times I’d be at a client meeting and see that I still had clay stuck to my forearms! After a couple of years of that chaos, I set up a home studio. I spent the next seven years or so spending as much time as possible in the studio and going to workshops for additional instruction and inspiration. Seven years ago, I opened a studio and gallery in a converted one-room schoolhouse in Cambria. It’s a little artist colony on the central coast of California. There is a remarkable touch of sensibility in your decorations. Tell us more about how you decorate and where do you get inspiration from. On my (almost) daily walk, I follow a bluff trail overlooking the central coast of California where I live. What I experience here shows up in woodcut-style imagery on my forms — the rhythm of the sea and patterns of pines needles, rocky coastline and grassy meadows. I etch plants, insects and animals, line and pattern — creating images that resemble woodcuts and scrimshaw on my pieces. Please tell us about how you started working with Mishima and what do you love most about this process.  I have been combining mishima (etching a line design and later inlaying color) and scraffito (applying color and carving out designs). I really enjoy using both techniques to create a layered collage of imagery. But it’s sooooo time-consuming! How has your work developed throughout the years? I love so much about clay, and it’s been my greatest challenge to narrow down and hone in on what makes my work “my work.”  I’ve had years exploring form, several years with earthenware and majolica, then left that for a year or so to do larger sculptural pieces that looked like the heads of cartoon animals. When I moved to the coast seven years ago, I started working in the style I’m still pursuing. It’s held my interest. I feel like the pieces and decoration are more resolved and integrated. I like what comes out of the kiln and it inspires me to see how I can advance it further. What techniques do you usually work with and what is your favorite tool? In terms of form, I work with the wheel primarily. But I’m increasingly mixing it up with the slab roller and extruder, adding hand-built elements and combining forms. I do most of my decoration at the cheese-hard stage, and each piece takes a considerable amount of time to decorate. So, there is a lot of plastic covering pieces in my studio so they stay at the cheese-hard stage until I can get to them. My favorite tool: My favorite tool is a ball stylus that I use when I initiate the woodcut-style scraffito work on my pieces. It has a .030” on one side and a .045” on the other. I have other favorites too, but I go crazy if I can’t find this little guy when I’m ready to start working on a new piece. How would you explain your attraction for functional ceramics?  I love the idea that people take my pieces into their own homes and use them on a daily basis. Do you have any favorite blogs you read? Yes, I have a long list of blogs on my reader. Top on my list are those who share their own work and inspirations, as well as news and interviews about others in the field. Here are a few: Conne Norman: I was thrilled to find your blog and read the interviews! (aaw shucks!  Thank you for saying that!) Carol Epp: Musings about Mud – Emerging artists, inspiring work, clay exhibits and competitions Ben Carter: Tales of a Red Clay Rambler – Also subscribe to the podcast. Great stuff! Whitney Smith: Practical and very forthright advice. This girl pulls no punches, so it’s always an interesting read. I’ve learned so much. (Unfortunately, she’s on a blogging hiatus right now.) What other clay artist influenced you if any and why? So many! Gary David Wright, who led the first workshop I attended at Sierra Nevada College, got me thinking beyond the basics. Lana Wilson and Nick Joerling team-taught at Arrowmont and my mind exploded with more possibilities. I returned a couple of years later for an intermediate workshop with Suze Lindsay and Peter Beasecker. They started out the workshop with some creativity/design exercises that I still use today. More recently, I have been looking at the decoration/imagery on the work of artists like Jenny Mendes, Diana Fayt and Kip O’Krongly. And I love the way you turn words into patterns, imprinting the letters into the clay and making the meanings even more profound. Another one is Chandra Debuse whose work is pure fun and inspiration. The common denominator with all of this work is the layering of pattern, images and mark-making that interest me. Please tell us about your creative dreams for 2013 and beyond. What are some of the future projects would you love to work on? In the studio, I am interested in further developing my forms, staying within the functional arena but adding sculptural elements that integrate with the decoration. At the same time, I have an almost dynamically opposed dream of creating a line of handmade pieces that can be produced more cost-effectively and be accessible to a larger market. I’ve been mulling that over, and watching the progress of wonderful artists like Molly Hatch and Rae Dunn who have put their creativity and business savvy to work.   Tell us about your studio?  And what do you love most about your studio?  My studio and gallery are in a converted one-room schoolhouse on Main Street in Cambria, a small tourist town on the central coast of California. It’s a beautiful area, along the Pacific Coast Highway south of Hearst Castle and Big Sur. I rent the 100-year-old schoolhouse from the Lions Club of Cambria. It still has a bell tower and people can come inside and pull on the rope to ring the bell. Because of the historic nature of the building, it feels like I’m part of the community. I love the light that pours into the building from these beautiful old windows. And the double-door on the front entrance is adorable. I also love having Mae and Champ with me (two very large standard poodles), and listening to my music playlist on shuffle all day.   Thanks for stopping by my blog, comments are continually appreciated, and it is always great to hear from everyone.  I'm sure Patricia will love to read your comments too.

Last month my family and I went to Las Vegas Nevada, for a short family vacation and so I could teach a workshop at Clay Arts Vegas right before my show went up.  Since my son is five we had to stay at Excalibur, it wasn’t my first choice, but when you have a son that dresses up as a knight several times a week you have to stay in a castle if you have the opportunity.  Well, it was a bigger hit than we ever thought my Van never wanted to leave, and when we did he was always begging to go back to the castle.  We also took him to see the Tournament of Kings, Van had a great time, not even eating one bite of his Cornish hen, and he was so engrossed watching the knights battle each other.

I really enjoyed my workshop at Clay Arts Vegas!  Thom Bumblauskas one of the founders of CAV was a spectacular host.  I see great things in the future for Clay Arts Vegas! One of the things CAV did that was different than any show I’ve ever been in.  They had Checko Salgado come and take black and white images of my work blow them up to 24” x 36” photographs to hang during the show.   Because of the cost of shipping, I only sent smaller pieces to Clay Art Vegas, so it was especially fun to see these giant images of my small vases and salt and pepper shakers blown up to such big proportions.

       

Checko also took great pictures during the workshop.  Usually my workshop pics are just quick shots from my phone and are nothing special.  These photographs are amazing.  I love how he captured everyone working so hard.

Thank you Clay Arts Vegas especially Thom Bumblauskas  and Peter Jakubowski and Thank you Checko Salgado!  I had an amazing time.  If you are ever in Vegas make sure you stop at Clay Arts Vegas. As usual I am about a month late in my blog posting.  The show is down and CAV has moved on to their next show.  It was a grand time!  I hope everyone in the workshop enjoyed it as much as I did. Thanks for stopping by my blog, comments are continually appreciated, and it is always great to hear from everyone.

Thanks for stopping by the ol' blog!  I always appreciate it when people tell me that they have read or seen something interesting on my blog.  This time I really feel like I'm sharing two really captivating pieces.   When you get to the end tell me what you think of the Michael's and Janice's work and our show if you're so incline.

Constructing Solitude by Janice Jakielski

These two images of Janice Jakielski's  work were the pieces that I was most intrigued with, I love interacting with the binoculars, and the feeling of spying I had when looking at the fields of growing plants, wondering what I would see if I stayed there long enough.

I played with these pieces for a long time; I took tons of pictures through the eye holes of each of the ceramic vegetation.  I went from side to side, looking at every angle, I was the person who really was lingering too long. 

Misfit Cup Liberation Project by Michael Strand

The other piece that fascinated me was the Misfit Cup Liberation Project by Michael Strand. Michael asks people to bring in their cups that have been pushed to the back of the cabinet and has not been used for years in exchange for his beautiful handmade cup.  In exchange you are asked to write how you acquired it and why you are giving up your neglected cup.  I read many of the stories and I kept wondering what is Michael Strand going to do with all these cups?  Why would a maker of handmade cups be willing to trade them for these unwanted cups?  As fate would have it, I got to dine with Michael Strand and asking all my burning questions.  He said his Misfit Cup project will exchange with 10 cities and several countries, India being one and in the end he will have collected 1000 cups.  Michael said, "It will be a cultural anthropological study of what is at the back our collective closet."

If you take the time to watch the video you will learn more about the "EX-Con" cup and about the project in Michael's own words. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H87X-ElYSg Here are images of our show Western Table Manners at NCECA in Houston.  Mike Olson, Ryan Olsen and Yourell drove our show from Wyoming to Houston!  It sounds like they had a great road trip.  They arrived a few days early and installed the show at Houston Community College SE and enjoyed Texas in the spring time.  I flew in at the start of NCECA all ready to take in a ton of clay!!! Our show was behind glass making it difficult to photograph it, but here it is!

Top left: Danny Brown, Lynn Munns, my work, and Ted Vogel.

Top left: Mike Olson, Lisa Pedolsky, Yoko Sekino-Bove, Elaine DeBehr, and Kurt Anderson.

Top: Rod Dugal, Ryan Olsen.

Everything packed up and ready to go home!

   

Lisa Pedolsky's handbuilt functional forms  go beyond strict utility. They are also vessels that hold personal references where a myriad of experiences and ideas reside, establishing context and giving meaning to the work. Package design and dressmaking come to mind as the piece is brought to life by cutting, folding, darting and connecting. Visual and tactile depth is developed through the application of multiple layers of clay, slips, stains and glazes, and by scraping, incising and carving into the surface. This working process is slow and methodical. - Jonathan Kaplan, Plinth Gallery Lisa is teaching a workshop at Plinth Gallery -April 6-7, 2013 “Design, Decoration and the Handbuilt Pot” Using techniques similar to package design and dressmaking, we will  explore a multi-layered approach to slab constructed functional  ceramics.  Participants will be guided through the process from initial  drawings, to pattern design using paper and roofing felt, to assembling  components. Surface treatment will include the use of slip, sgraffito,  stencils, and unconventional tools to achieve visual and tactile depth.   Technical and aesthetic aspects will be considered while exploring  closed and open forms including boxes, bowls, platters and cups.  Participants will leave the workshop feeling competent in a number of  forming methods. •All levels of experience are welcome. •Cost for 2 days, includes all materials and catered lunch  $250 Check out Lisa’s web site, Two Fish Studio. Lisa’s work can be seen at Plinth Gallery.

What are you showing at Plinth Gallery this month? The show is titled, Connecting the Dot’s: Design, Decoration and the Hand built Pot. There is a play on words here, since there will be literally thousands of dots on the work in the show. Beyond that, I’ve created an array of forms, all connected by design elements and relationship such as groupings and sets. More specifically, one will find boxes (among my favorites to build),vases, platters, teapots, bowls, plates and cups .

Let‘s go back to the very beginning how did you become a ceramicist? There are a number of “beginnings” in this becoming. Without wanting to sound overly sentimental, I must acknowledge my very first awareness of clay. This was when I was just five years old and my mother was taking a ceramic s class. I truly do remember my moment of awareness and I was awed. My art path was evident over the course of my childhood years and throughout there was an interest in clay, supported by a strong arts program in my high school. I went on to California College of the Arts (then, California College of Arts and Crafts) and U.C. Berkeley, where I studied under such notables as Viola Frey (CCAC) and Peter Voulkos (U.C.B.). For many post-graduation years I worked in a variety of other media and in 1999 made the decision to dedicate myself to work in clay.  So, the short answer is that after many years in the arts, a career focused in ceramics began in earnest fourteen years ago.

  You create mostly functional work. How would you explain your attraction for functional ceramics? I have an interest in innovative design and impeccable craftsmanship that can be traced back to the mid-century modern furniture and household objects that surrounded me during my youth. As a young artist I also became interested in traditional Japanese craft and traditional textiles and functional objects coming out of Africa. These are all deep-seated influences that continue to inform my work. Often, I am awed by the artistry that can be found in even the most humble objects intended for everyday use. I’m excited by the challenges inherent in creating functional forms that that are also compelling in design.

There is a visible preoccupation with pattern in your work; how do you do it and how important is pattern and surface for the message you want to send? Pattern and surface are integral to my work; The forms I create would be otherwise incomplete. When I conceptualize a piece, pattern and surface are among the many considerations from the start. Over the years I’ve developed an extensive “visual vocabulary.”  Part of this developed out of necessity. Because I use electric kilns, visual and tactile depth will not be provided by the firing process; it’s up to me to work surfaces to achieve those results. However, be yond t ha t is the story in the work. I may give a nod to a spectacular textile I’ve seen, appreciating the nuances that can only result from a work made by hand. The beauty found in calligraphy - Kanji and Arabic, for example - moved me to create my own characters that are often used repetitively on the surface of a piece. These are but two examples. In all cases I’m interested in personalizing influences so that the marks I make are truly my own.  I employ numerous methods t o achieve my results. Often I’ll distress the clay surface, scraping and poking with a variety of tools; white or colored slip is applied, sometimes over stencils or resist, leaving some of the red clay exposed. Sgraffito, stamping, staining and applying layers of underglazes and glazes all contribute to building up the surface and to patterning.

What techniques do you usually work with and what is your favorite tool? All of my forms are slab constructed. Each piece begins as thumbnail sketch followed by a scale drawing. (I never thought I’d appreciate any of the math and geometry I was taught in public school, but I do! I’ve dredged up long forgotten lessons and have refreshed my memory online.  Numbers and proportions are essential to my design process.) I then create pattern pieces - working much like a dressmaker or package designer - that are attached to the clay slab. From there I cut out and assemble the components, and follow with surface texturing and glaze processes. All work is twice fired and I take the glaze fire to cone 03.  It’s difficult to pick one favorite tool. I use many that have served me well for years. I’ll pick one tool made specifically for clay and one that has been repurposed. At the commercial end, my Mud Tool steel scraper is indispensable; I use it for both scoring and texturing and there isn’t a piece that this tool doesn’t touch. My repurposed tool is a plastic cap that came off a hair spray bottle. I’ve been stamping and incising with this tool for ten or more years, and have a bright yellow tape running around the middle of it so I can easily identify it from among the many other handy objects in my collection. I could write pages about my tools!  Tell us what you do for fun when you’re out of the studio. For one thing, I’m a foodie, interested in cooking and also culinary experiences. If I’ve been unable to produce work in the studio for more than a day or two I invariably find myself creating in the kitchen. Baking is a strong interest of mine; some aspects are much like working with clay so it seems there’s no escaping it! In my mountain town hiking opportunities abound and my bicycle is important to me in all but the coldest months of the year. I’m a long time Yoga practitioner (and Yoga certainly contributes to keeping me balanced and well, given the rigors of my creative process). Travel and the urban experience are high on the fun list, too.

In October I taught a Master Teacher’s workshop at the Colorado Art Educator’s Conference in Breckenridge, Colorado.   The one thing that made this workshop different from all the workshops I’ve taught is I tried to cut off the top of my thumb right before the workshop started.  As usual, I was a little nervous before the workshop started, running around the last 30 minutes before the workshop trying to get all the odds and ends done before the class started, as I was cutting contact paper for everyone to use to ran the Xacto knife over my thumb and it cut right through my nail and down the corner of my thumb, not a pretty site.  Blood was gushing from my thumb and I was terrified to look at it.  I had a trail of blood from the classroom to the bathroom.  Luckily my teacher friends from Denver and Loveland were there to help me out and clean up the room and finish cutting the contact paper.  The security guard was called, I don’t know why!  And he was very freaked out about the whole ordeal, and saying I needed to go to the hospital, but he would not take me, which was fine, I had friends there, but I kept repeating how he would not take me.  I think he was more freaked out about it than I was. My friends got some gauze bandages, and wrapped my thumb, by this time everyone taking the workshop was there.  I felt like I shouldn’t leave so I taught the workshop.  Let me tell you, my thumb was killing me.  I got through the three hour workshop and my friends insisted I go to the emergency room.  I agreed, but that was a challeng, Breckenridge in October is the off season, nothing was open, and not even the hospital.  Everyone told us everything shuts down until ski season.  Finally we found an emergency room in Frisco, about 15 miles away.  And the doctor was kind enough to give me five stitches, and tell me that my injury was considered an amputation!!!  

That night was the big Saturday Night Bash and the theme was The Rocky Horror Show, but I didn’t bring anything to dress up, so my friends wouldn’t let me go without a costume, so my thumb became Senor Amputee!

Well, this was my last workshop that I taught; I’m starting to get ready for the next workshop that I’m teaching in Las Vegas at Clay Arts Vegas.  And this nightmare has been on my mind, because in two weeks I will be teaching another workshop.  Hopefully I will not repeat the same show as in Breckenridge!

NCECA is coming up FAST!  I’m having a really hard time keeping up!  Mike Olson and I coordinated a group show for NCECA of mostly western ceramic artists.  Our show is called Western Table Manners, and it’s all over the table in what will be in the show.

Houston Community College – South East

6815 Rustic

Houston, Texas

 I will post pictures when I get to NCECA, but for now, here is the PR that the HCC put out for all the shows that are going on at the college.

Here is a list of who’s in our show. 

Kurt Anderson

Elaine DeBuhr

Danny Brown

Rod Dugal

Lynn Munns

Connie Norman

Ryan Olsen

Mike Olson

Lisa Pedolsky

Yoko Sekino-Bove

Ted Vogel

Below you can see a list of all the shows at Houston Community College - Southeast

 The Letter of The Day: G

Back with the ABC’s of Ceramics.  Today we have the letter G, with Gillian Parke, Gail Kendall

and Jim Gottuso. 

(This is my one of my New Year's resolutions; to finish this series - The ABC's of ceramics!)

G is for Gillian Parke!

My husband bought me Gillian Parke’s vessel for Christmas few years ago and then her work landed on the cover of Ceramics Monthly.  When he saw her pot on the cover he was so proud of himself!  Todd gets me nice pots for gifts, but he was vey happy with this one.   I do I love her work.  Her pots remind me of lot of the pots I saw in Japan, with the feldspar inclusions. My son and I went out on a cold and windy day to find a place to photograph the G entry, Vander has gone with me on most of these adventures.  We tried several spots before we found the right photograph that was going to work for her beautiful pot.

G is for Gail Kendall.

I got these  two of Gail Kendall’s pieces when years ago, I took a workshop with her at Anderson Ranch Arts Center.  I love the fact that she is a complete hand builder! I was trying to figure out what would be a great shot for Gail’s olive dish and it dawned on me it looked like a submarine,  then I had to convince Vander to stay still for the shot, always a hard feat.

G is for Jim Gottuso.

Jim Gottuso’s tumbler I bought for my husband because he always complains that cups and mugs are not made for his hands.  He always looks for the biggest handle, even if it out of proportion and looks a bit odd.  When I saw this tumbler I thought finally a cup that Todd can use that will fit his hand!

Check out Jim’s interview, he was one of the first artist’s interviews on my blog.

Check out his interview here!

If you’re interested here are the other posts from The ABC’s of Ceramics. 

A – B - C – D – E –E - F! 

Or just click on the link on the right hand side under categories.

Today’s interview is with Forrest Lesch-Middleton.  He is in the second week of his Kickstarter to expand his studio, for his newest chapter in his life to make handmade tiles for a company called Clé Tile.  I believe in Forrest and wanted to support him, plus I just love his work!   Hope on over to Kickstarter and check out his project watch the video and learn more about what his is doing.  You are just getting a taste of his project and ideas here.  Good Luck Forrest I wish you the best! Tell us a little about yourself! I am and have always been a potter! I began in the studio Freshman year of high school and it just stuck! My brother is an amazing 2-D artist and I had to do my best to avoid any classes he was in or I would end up being hazed! So, it was clay, and I loved it! At that point I was convinced I was going to be an auto mechanic, the fast cars went with my mullet. Now, exactly 25 years later and I have discovered the world through clay. I had a teacher in high school tell me that it was in every culture and on every continent; I would always find common ground wherever go. And I have! She was also the fist person who told me I could go to college for pottery. I thought she was joking! But alas with her prodding me along, and after two years in between high school and college, I finally ended up at Alfred, eventually graduating with a BFA in 1998. After a year in Maine, at Watershed; two years in Mendocino, California at the art center, and 3 years owning a gallery in Berkeley, I figured Grad school was a good choice. Utah State was the best decision I could have ever made personally, and of course for my work. I was ready to go, I went with the intention of injecting my work with a heavy dose of surface and history, and I think it worked out quite well. I will never be able to credit John Neely and Dan Murphy enough. They create an atmosphere that is ideal for developing a respect for the material and education while also honoring the social aspects that the material can demand of someone. Now, Finally here I am six-and-a-half years later, (five of which were spent developing a program at a local Arts center) and I have committed the next chapter to tile! When and how did you discover the passion for ceramics? My passion for clay came to fruition on the many trips I would take to potters studios around New England after dropping my mother off at the airport, (she travels doing community intervention for indegenous communities that struggle with the trauma of government and racial oppression (that’s a mouthful!), and I often refer to her as my hero). I fell in love with the day-to-day studio ethic of a production potter, which I recently realized I have rarely glimpsed in my career. Instead I have gone in the direction of a potter/educator/tile maker/adminstrator as a way to make a living in clay in a very affluent part of the country. Making pots full time in the San Francisco Bay Area is very tough, so I have been happy to create my career as someone who has truly embraced and fallen in love with every aspect of the medium.

What other clay artist influenced you if any and why? I think that this changes almost daily. History is the best teacher because it forces me to think critically as the artist, the historian, and the student. But unlike most good teachers, history never seems to return any of my emails! That said, contemporary artist are tricky; right now: Howard Kottler, Ursula Hargens, David Linger. I honestly don’t look at too much contemporary clay these days, so much of it is so good that when I do I often find myself thinking “Now why didn’t I think of that. Instead I am trying to shift my focus to the periphery of what I am enjoying these days; global events, science and the universe; the latter is a bit too big to ignore. Has a significant personal experience shaped your work? Yes, the bombings of Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, Israel, Somalia, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Haiti, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos. And the entire political tension that has overshadowed the people of the Middle East since long before world war two.

What techniques do you usually work with and what is your favorite tool? I have been working primarily on the wheel since having started in clay, but now, architectural tile and monolithic tile is very appealing to me. My Favorite tool is my ridiculous looking heat gun and my hole poker for teapot spouts. I also like my little tile press!

http://youtu.be/mDzaBwxeuhg

Here is Forrest's video of his Volumetric Image Transfer if you haven't seen it's amazing to watch!

There is a remarkable touch of sensibility in your decorations. Tell us more about how you decorate and where do you get inspiration from. My decorations are not my own. I use historic pattern right out of the books and images I find that illustrate the places that I draw the most inspiration from; primarily the middle east and the asian countries that have influenced middle eastern pattern over the last thousand years. So I have to give credit where credit is due. My surfaces however are really what I am trying to use to give a deeper meaning to those patterns. When a piece has turned out well in my eyes it is a mostly a comnbination of the consisitency of the slip, transfer medium and clay coupled with the speed at which I remove the transfer from the clay. This all underlies what the atmosphere in a reduction cooled firing does to the object to give it a patina that I am happy with. You work with great delicacy when using patterns and symbols of ancient cultures on your work. How do you choose these patterns? The patterns I choose to use are indicative of the story that has been told throughout history of how commerce and trade have effected cultures with the end result usually being a war or conflict that is played out in the middle of the lives of the everyday person, effecting them in horrific ways. Pattern is as old as time, and indeed MUCH older than humanity. Complex geometric patterning is not simply a mark of humanity. When people refer to sacred geometry they are referring to the crossroads of science and mysticism,. Right now, I am completely engrossed in the very complex patterns of sound and its effect on the physical realm. What advice can you give aspiring artists struggling to find their own voice and look? I used to work as a corporate communication consultant. It was fun work that allowed me to ask very hard questions of people in very high paying jobs. I was taught a number of great exercises by many masterful people. The exercise that I use most frequently in teaching students that are stuck is called the five whys, and it very simply goes like this: What is important to you? Why is that important? Why is that important? Why is that important? Why is that important? Once you have gotten to the fifth why (and don’t avoid the hard stuff) make artwork from that place. And if you get stuck from there, look back in history at least 100 years or more.     You have recently launched a Kickstarter for your Origins Tiles; please tell us about your project. A friend from the United Arab Emerates introduced me to Kickstarter when I was exploring a body of work that I imagine will come to fruition through my endeavors in tile. She basically opened up the dome of crowdfunding and the light poured in! Simply, I have been making tile that speaks the same language as my pots, it was picked up by a very thoughtful and artistically minded tile company who just so happens to do FANTASTIC marketing, and now I have to make more tile; MUCH MORE TILE! Kickstarter will not only help me fund this project, but it will give me honest feedback, though dollars and cents, as to the validity of my forray into tile (Disclaimer: never let money make your artistic decisions for you; unless of course you live in the real world and have children, car payments, grocery bills etc. then just do what you love well and do it just differently enough that it brings in a little income) Through Kickstarter you’re hoping to raise $20,000 how will this help your tile production? The $20,000 will be for a Tile Press, pug mill, and kiln. If I don’t make the goal, I get none of the money. If I make more than the $20,000 goal, I will put it toward a silkscreenexposure unit for the tile, and another top secret project that I hope to implement that could really change the way some people do some things with clay and glaze! – To be continued. I hope!

 

For more information please visit Forrest's site here.

Here is the link to his Kickstarter.

Follow Forrest on Facebook too!

Thanks for visiting the blog and taking time to read all about Forrest.  I hope you take a minute to comment to let Forrest and myself you’ve stopped by.

 

Back with Artist Interviews again! Jonathan Kaplan has his second interview on my blog, (read the first interview here.)  Jonathan is the owner and curator of Plinth Gallery in Denver, Colorado.

"Divertimento" opens at Plinth Gallery on First Friday, March 1, with an artist reception from 6-9pm.

The exhibition runs through March 30th. 

Building on the 2011 exhibition, “Prelude” at Plinth and most recently, “Ceramic Forms” at Laramie County Community College, Kaplan continues to explore the textured slab and his signature use of industrial parts and fittings in this new body of work. The pieces in “Divertimento” reflect his interpretation of the theme of parts and wholes, or what Kaplan refers to as “the combination of singular objects combined to make complex forms.” Incorporating wheel thrown, hand-built, and press-molded ceramic parts, Kaplan builds both sculptural and functional vessels including large basins, condiment sets, serving pieces and teapots. His deft use of industrial parts such as phenolic ball knobs, metal handles, shaft collars, and coated cable provides both a visual and structural counterpoint to the ceramic form and surface. In addition, his bird and fish forms appear, as seen previously in his “Nouveau Moche” series as well as his “Plinthed Vessel Series”. -Plinth Gallery For more information on Jonathan and Plinth Gallery make the jump here.

You have a solo show coming up at Plinth Gallery; I hear that you have chosen musical titles for this exhibition and at Plinth in 2011.  How did you come up with the title of “Divertimento” for your show? Classical music has very interesting structures and can take many forms. Having been a student of both classical piano and flamenco guitar in my past, I understand some of how music can be put together. There are small parts, sections, or elements that are combined to present a larger part. For instance, in music dynamics,  the opening of a the first movement in a piano concerto might be played forte or loudly, and then it transitions decrescendo, decreasing in volume and tempo soon thereafter. The analogy for the work in this exhibition the “parts and wholes”, how it is constructed from smaller parts that comprise and whole, of completed piece. The first exhibition “Prelude” ( a movement or section of a work that comes before another movement or section of a work, although the word also has been used for short independent pieces that may stand alone), was the beginning of this theme “Divertimento” (an composition usually in a number of movements)  is the next step in moving this body of work forward. Can you tell us what you are making? I have included new large basin constructions and an entirely new grouping of handbuilt teapots. The fish and bird elements have again surfaced and have now become fully integrated into some of these pieces.

 

When and how did you discover the passion for ceramics? While I was intrigred with how ceramic objects were made when my first instructor, Rebecca Willis at Oakwood School, made a piece on the wheel. I think my passion for ceramics began when I saw Edward   Kidder’s book  “Jomon Ceramics” and learned that the history or ceramics paralled, or even charted the evolution of cultures and of human beings.

I’ve been a fan of your work for a long time now, and I notice that you approach to clay is to incorporate industrial components together to make your work.  Would you elaborate where that idea came from? I had a ceramic  manufacturing business for many years and there was enough forming and finishing equipment to whet the appetite of any potter.  It was important to have spare parts on hand and I was already a customer of Grainger’s, McMaster-Carr supply, MSC, and a host of other industrial suppliers.  Browsing these incredible compendiums of “more stuff then you could possibly imagine”, I wondered what I might do with some of these parts.  Over time, I have learned that more is less, and I now have good selection of industrial fitting, fasteners, components, cable, rubber hose, etc. that I incorporate in the design of the work.  I am also enamored with how clay is the antitheses of all these parts.

  Over the last few years I have had the pleasure of seeing the bodies of work you produce, with every body of work you have a new series, and how do you come up with each series?   I spend a good deal of time thinking about what I might make and how it will take shape. I struggled for a while with the idea of what constitutes a “ signature body of work”. After much anxiety, fear, and being told that I overly think stuff way too much, I realized that what I needed to do was to determine what my strengths were as a ceramic artist. For me, one of my strengths was form and design. So I then began to approach what I could make from a design point of view. Process then just became a means to an end. I just don’t get all that caught up in ways of working or of ascribing judgment or dogma to any particular way of working with clay. Time is just too short for such mental machinations.

 

Has a significant personal experience shaped your work? I worked as a professional mold and model maker for 16 years and it provided with an entirely new context about looking at ceramics. And how important it was for potters and ceramic artists to look at how ceramics are made industrially.  We need to look at the ceramics industry really as an ally rather than a foe. There is an incredible amount of information that can be of significant benefit to our studio practice if we would only take off the blinders and open our eyes. Well, we need to ask the right questions first…..

In you last interview you talked about working in your studio 5 or 6 hours a day.  How do you maintain a rigorous and consistent studio practice? I have found that if I have a goal to work towards, it is a bit easier to maintain a rigorous or perhaps better put, a consistent studio practice. I am very easily distracted and am learning how to deal with this. Sometimes I think I am a slow learner. Ideas keep me motivated, but sometimes it is difficult to get started. Like most of us, there are so many other things that are necessary to get done during the course of a day! I know, all our plates are overflowing……. What techniques do you usually work with and what is your favorite tool?   I don’t have a particular technique that I usually work with. It all depends on what the idea is, then I can decided what I need to use or work with. If I think a particular item or part needs to be press molded or slip cast, then that is the technique I will employ. For instance, when designing the teapots in this exhibition, I had a particular curved spout in mind and, the obvious way to make this was in a press mold. I carved a plaster model and then made a simple 2 part press mold to make the spout. However, I have a growing list of favorite tools: I use two Slabmats and  a Yixing mallet to beat out my slabs. I then use a rolling pin and two equally sized wooden strips to make a slab of a particular thickness. I do have a very nice selection of Bison tools. A substantial mechanical pencil with an assortment of leads, a Foray brand rolling ball .5mm(fine) or .7mm(medium) pen, and my sketchbook are favorites. I am starting to draw on my iPad using Paper53 or Noteshelf  (both apps). These are all very cool tools. If you could do one thing much better, what might it be? I can’t isolate just one thing, however……. My time management skills need to be improved for sure. I do not draw very well freehand, but I can get the idea across. I would like to be a better draftsman. My typing skills are absolutely horrendous. They need work as I devote too much time to making corrections.

As someone who has been involved with ceramics for al long time, is there one important thing you might share? Sure.  For me it is important to give back in some substantial way and to pay it forward. Currently, in am on the board of the Studio Potter journal. The journal is the documentation of how we work within the context of being part of a larger society. It is the chronicle of experience as potters and ceramic artists, a compendium of ideas. It is an important part of our ceramic culture and has been so for the past 40 years. We need your help to continue for the next  40 years.  So if you would like to join and receive this quality publication twice a year, please email me. (jonathan@plinthgallery.com) [caption id="attachment_5946" align="aligncenter" width="290"] Jonathan and Dorothy @ Plinth Gallery[/caption] Tell us what you do for fun when you’re out of the studio. I wish I could spend more time outside of the studio! Gallery work keeps me quite busy, and I certainly would not have any studio practice whatsoever if it were not for the hard work of my wife Dorothy.  She runs the back end, so to speak, of the gallery. Her hard work and involvement with Plinth Gallery are truly responsible for its success. Thanks sweetie!   I have never thought of myself as an athlete or particularly athletic. Nonetheless, I am an avid bicyclist and aside from being great exercise, any riding I do helps relieve stress for me. I have skied since my dad taught me at age 5, so I get out twice a week during ski season on my alpine or telemark boards. Thanks for visiting the blog and taking time to read all about Jonathan.  I hope you take a minute to comment to let Jonathan and myself you’ve stopped by.