CCC Artist Interview with Sue DeWulf

Sue DeWulf

 

“My ceramics illustrate my childhood fascination with toys and play. Creating scenarios for my dolls filled my summer days. I remember discovering my grandmother’s toy basket full of zoo animals and carefully lining them up along her porch while rearranging and juxtaposing them. So, in a sense, while I sculpt, I am a child lost in a fantasy world of play.“  states Sue De Wulf, this week’s CCC artist.

 

Each piece is a whimsical adventure, inspired by the way the toys can be balanced, and manipulated into an overall theme. De Wulf uses a variety of unique cast toys and molds using low fire earthenware slip and clay. She will spend a whole day casting 30-40 pieces, returning the next day to uncover the toy basket of clay pieces like a return to her grandmother’s porch and a basketful of toys, to begin the play of assemblage.  Many of her these are from childhood memories or the feeling of play and De Wulf enjoys watching and listening to viewers recall childhood memories from her imagery. 

 

De Wulf has been a middle school art teacher for over twenty years and returned to her ceramics three years ago. Balancing working full time and creating art is challenging. Often she needs to block off a weekend to just be in the studio as distractions of daily life can fill up a day. 

 

De Wulf has been participating in a few shows and will be showing in Made in California at the La Brea Gallery when it opens again. In the meantime, she misses her students. You can see  more of her work at: www.dewulfceramics.com  and on Instagram@dewulfceramics. 

CCC Interview with Tebby George

Tebby George

Intertwined with the figurative community of sculptors, models, students and instructors in the Bay Area, Tebby George, this week’s CCC artist, has shared the joy of working in clay for years as a Life Sculpture teacher at Fort Mason through City College of San Francisco.  Teaching has a reciprocal affect, interweaving her work life with her creative life. “Ideas born in my studio contribute to the classroom and ideas born in the classroom contribute to my art.” 

Tebby also keeps developing as a figurative artist by working weekly with a live model in a small group. (In fact, Tebby was my first life sculpture teacher and I have sculpted with her off and on for years.)

Using several types of clay, from smooth porcelain mixes to clays with heavy grog, Tebby likes mixing textures and clays, often combining terra sigillata on smooth clay and mason stains on rough clay in the same piece. For quick studies she enjoys the unpredictability of Raku. Her favorite part is seeing the subject emerge from the clay, sometimes with ease and sometimes after a struggle She works on several pieces at a time. Right now, she has a large portrait with a challenging pattern on a billowing scarf wrapping the neck and shoulders, and a figure of an angel going, plus, underglazing finishes on several fired pieces. 

“I am moved to express in clay, the absolute beauty I see in the diversity of the Bay Area—the deep rich colors and forms surrounding me in the people I encounter every day. Being present in the elegance and force of the natural work in this area, the ocean, the rolling hills, the tall trees--frees me from the demands of the mundane and enables a space for creativity.”

Showing around the Bay Area: Vallejo Art Windows Installation, From Many Shores, a solo show at Throckmorton Main Theater Gallery, Face Time:Portrait of Marin County at the Civic Center Galleris in Marin, and Ceramic Sensibilities, Artworks Downtown 1337 Gallery, in San Rafael are a few shows she has participated in. But since the pandemic, she has been doing an online Open Studio, connecting with people who collect her work.

“When life is especially rocky, I depend on the comfort of the clay and tend to spend more time than usual in my studio. This keeps me healthy and somewhat sane, along with walking in nature, swimming and a meditation practice. “

Make sure to check out Tebby’s beautiful work and Open Studio at: www.tebbygeorge.com and on Facebook/tebbygeorge. 

CCC Interview with Bill Heiderich

Bill Heiderich

Bill Heiderich, our CCC artist this week, is a veteran to this competition. His animated forms challenge the boundaries of function and utility and tend to be formal design studies “I attempt to capture a nostalgic feel.”

Heiderich is a builder who has built his last two homes, made furniture, cast bronze and fabricated steel. He has always been fascinated by creating objects. His initial interest in clay started in an eighth-grade summer school class and was supported later in high school by a fantastic teacher Phil Niederhoff. He continued his education at San Jose State University where he got a Bachelors in Art and an MFA in Plastic Arts. 

Most of his current work is focused on geometric constructions using low fire clay and glazes fired in an electric kiln.  “Almost all of my work is hand built. My favorite part is fabricating elements for a piece. The worst part is when the piece fails and I cannot save it.” Heiderich generally works in a series and has several pieces going at one time. 

Heiderich taught ceramics, 3-D design and sculpture for 40 years and developed his work out of the interaction with students. Now that he’s retired he finds it much easier to find the time to play with clay. He has an extensive exhibition record and tries to elevate his good work to very good work. His website is down right now, so enjoy these fabulous works here!

CCC Interview with Amanda Thomas

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. 

 Amanda Thomas

Amidst the backdrop of Covid-19 and BLM protests, this week the California Clay Competition artist is Amanda Thomas. Historically a painter, Amanda’s job as an Instructional Support Specialist in Fine Arts at College of the Siskious affords her access to the ceramic’s studio. Over the past few years, she has fallen in love with clay. 

Amanda is a multidisciplinary artist who is moving out of a body of work examining her place as a woman and a mother to questioning humanity’s role on Earth. “Our primary mythologies point toward the end of the world, asserting that early life is a transitory stepping stone to the eternity of heaven or damnation, and that the balance of good and evil will come to a head in some apocalyptic scenario requiring a holy savior. Our economic systems disregard the inherent value of life. How do these ideologies and our tenets of dominance and superiority contribute to our destructiveness and disregard for our fellow species and each other?  How will we step forth into the future? It feels like a critical time. Is our destruction inevitable?...These questions are in the back of my mind as I write lyrics for songs, take photographs and sculpt.” 

Currently working on a life-sized human figure where not all of the concept details are hammered out, Amanda trusts the concept will solidify as she builds. Amanda uses recycled B-mix with a combination of underglazes, terra sigillata and copper oxide washes. Small pieces can take two weeks, where a large life-sized work can take up to a year. Amanda builds in spurts. As a solo parent, balancing in the studio time with life is a huge challenge. “I had to abandon housework in favor of art of I’d hardly have a creative life.”

Amanda has received the Jurors Award at Arc Gallery and has had a sculpture featured in a gallery performance at Z Space,  both in San Francisco. Her works will also be showing at the Siskiyou Arts Museum show “Great Expectations” in Dunsmuir, CA. Amanda has been accepted at UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis art programs and will be going back to school next year. “I am proud of my ability to maintain a consistent practice and continue to grow as an artist despite life circumstances that could easily stand in my way”

See more work by Amanda Thomas at: www.instagram.com/amandathomasart 

CCC interview with Isaiah Phillips

CCC Artist Isaiah Phillips

First time California Clay Competition artist Isaiah Phillips was honored to be selected for this show. He is presently attending San Francisco State University and was scheduled to graduate in spring with a BA in Studio Art. Due to Covid-19, he will have to push that back no next Fall. Phillips is a winner of the Martin Wong Scholarship for ceramics. 

About the piece chosen for the show: “The Exteanguisher is one of my favorite pieces and I’m definitely very proud of it. It is a teapot shaped like a fire extinguisher with an infuser in the lid….There’s also a set of eight cups that match and the teapot fills all of them. This was a project for Jeff Downing’s throwing class at San Francisco State and I was struggling to come up with an idea.The idea came to me when I saw the fire extinguisher on the wall. I saw it as a challenge to replicate that form and also make it functional.  

Aside from the process of creating and the joy of inspiration, this piece is a common relatable object. It makes me think about fire season in California…and the virus simultaneously. Prevent fires, breath, drink tea and be healthy.” 

Phillips style is heavily textured using a loop tool to scallop the surface. This process can take up to 40 hours to carve and glaze. Lately he has been leaning towards lichen glazes. 

Phillips is inspired like Christmas every time the kiln opens, loves the good people in his art classes, learning and experimenting with glaze chemistry and enjoys having a comfortable place to work. His hopes are to get into graduate school next year for his MFA. 

You can find more work by Isaiah Phillips at: iphillipsceramics.myportfolio.com/

Or on Instagram: @imp_clay