CCC Interview with Maryann Steinert-Foley

Since The California Clay Competition at The Artery in Davis was cancelled, I have offered to interview and highlight some of the artists here. I decided to volunteer to do this because I thought the competition had some great work this year and it would be interesting to hear some different perspectives on what is being done with clay.  Plus, most of the fun around this show comes from meeting the artists attending the Ceramic Sculpture Conference CCACA. 

Maryann Steinert-Foley

This weeks California Clay Conference is Maryann Steinert-Foley, a graduate of UC Davis ceramic arts program who came to clay in the 1980’s through the inspiration of Cuban sculptor and instructor Rosa Estabanez, and later Manuel Neri and Nathan Olivera. At Davis, Maryann was influence by Annabeth Rosen, who taught a low fire process which she continues to use today. She also has studied how to work large-scale with Wanxin Zhang and has taken workshops with Christina Cordova.  

Maryann’s work mostly focuses on figure and horse sculptures with luscious textures and glazes. She starts with low-fire clay from East Bay Clay using Lisa 20 for a red clay, or SW20 for a white clay. Both are high in grog content. She uses commercial low-fire glazes with a few mixed from her TB-9 days at Davis. She tries to keep it spontaneous, never constrained by her first thought on how to proceed. The horses and small pieces take four to six weeks, the larger figures take eight to ten weeks, for sculpting, drying, bisque firing, glazing and re-glazing. “Though for me, the viewer finishes the work narrative. It always pleases me when the viewer sees something in my work that I didn’t."

MaryAnn has had work at the Crocker Museum Big Auction in 2020 and B. Sakata Garo Gallery in Sacramento and is represented by Jen Tough Gallery in Santa Fe. She showed at Crocker Kingsley, and was included in Kurt Fishback’s 71 Portraits of Women Artists. Currently she is working on a new series of horses that will show at B. Sakata Garo in 2021. 

“Studio time is a priority every day, but never to the point of complete isolation. I think you can stay healthy by doing what your love, eating well and exercising.”  You can see more of her work at: www.maryann-sf.com, or www.facebook.com/Maryannsteinertfoley.

CCC Interview with Evan Hobart.

Evan Hobart is California Clay Competition’s artist of the week. Hobart is an accomplished ceramicist who has been working in clay since the sixth grade. He has shown at the NCECA and had a few solo shows and feels good about selling some major works. He has built kilns including a wood fire train kiln. Hobart is also responsible for building the program up at the Mendocino Art Center. 

Hobarts artwork is informed by ecology, archeology and paleontology exploring a wide range of topics about humans influence on the natural world. Mostly, he is a maker and loves to create using his hands and loves the materiality of clay.  

Currently working on a series of Dragon head mugs, oil can cups and whimsical dragon and fish sculptures, Hobart uses B-mix and porcelain. Depending on the size of the sculpture, he can spend anywhere from a few days to a few months to finish a piece. Since the work is mixed media and takes glass components, it can take quite a while to get a piece from start to finish. His favorite finishing techniques are soda and wood fire but since he doesn’t have access to woodfire, he has been exploring using very little glaze and letting the porcelain clay shine on its own. 

Since the arrival of Covid -19, Hobart not only had The Artery show cancelled, but also a show in John Natsoulas Gallery, and a solo show in Mendocino that never opened to the public and has since been taken down. You can get a virtual tour on YouTube by following the link:    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4VnD1oyx-e8

He is also waiting to see if upcoming Creep Show, in New Orleans will happen as planned in September.  

Feeling out of balance, Hobart resorts to the studio as an addiction, “but I could use a little exercise! I think under the current circumstances…all I can do is make art, it helps me forget about the difficult times we are now living in.” 

You can see more video and learn more Evan Hobarts at: www.evenhobart.com,

 Instagram:  @hobarts

CALIFORNIA CLAY COMPETITION

 Since The California Clay Competition at The Artery in Davis was cancelled, I have offered to interview and highlight some of the artists here. I decided to volunteer to do this because I thought the competition had some great work this year and it would be interesting to hear some different perspectives on what is being done with clay.  Plus, most of the fun around this show comes from meeting the artists attending the Ceramic Sculpture Conference CCACA. 

JULIE CLEMENTS 

I have enjoyed the charming animals of Julie Clements and am delighted to share her work with you as the first of the CA Clay Competition artist interviews. 

Julie Clements of Clay Pigeon Ceramics, came to clay at Emory University when her twin encouraged her to take a sculpture class on a whim with Linda Arbuckle. Subsequently she worked with Diane Solomon Kempler and Glenn Dair, whose encouragement opened her to the possibilities of art as a way forward. 

Clements inspiration comes from nature and specifically animals. Working as a veterinary technician she has had experiences with sled dogs in Alaska to lions at the San Francisco Zoo. Clements uses her knowledge to create playful animals with lots of personality interacting with objects she grew up with in the 70’s and 80’s. Most recently her works include old wind-up toys, polaroid cameras and polaroid “selfies”, lunch boxes and matches. 

Clements hand-builds and slip casts using a fine low-fire sculpture clay with little grog so she can get fine details without having to deal with porcelain. She spends anywhere from two weeks to a couple of months on a piece and enjoys the obsessive surface finishing details using a variety of underglazes, china paint, luster, slip, terra-sigilata, decals and gloss finishes.

Starting a piece is difficult and Clements has been struggling to get back into the rhythm during quarantine. “It’s hard right now to settle my mind enough to generate ideas. I had been working toward a show at the Roscoe Ceramics Gallery in April. I poured everything into it and then it was cancelled. It was a huge blow to my impetus to make work.” 

But recently she has been able to process the past two months and has started a piece of a semi realistic squirrel, with a wind-up key, clinging to a pile of acorns called “Mobius Strip” which was inspired by watching backyard wildlife.

Look for Julie Clements work coming to the Pence Gallery, Davis, Ca in mid-May, and at Arthouse in Sacramento, CA this August.  You can also find her at: www.claypigeonceramics.com,  Instagram: clements.julie and Facebook: Clay Pigeon Ceramics.

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