Visions in Clay

Visions in Clay

Interview with L.H. Horton Gallery Director Jan Marlese

     Every year I look forward to the Visions In Clay show held at the LH Horton Jr Gallery on the campus of San Joaquin Delta College. This show was founded by the San Joaquin Potters Guild in 2002-2007, who turned it over to the Horton Gallery with the request to continue presenting an annual ceramics based exhibition which Jan Marlese, Gallery Director, has continued and more. Now Visions In Clay is the largest exhibition of ceramic work in the San Joaquin area presenting 55-65 works per show. In addition, the show has garnered regional and national attention and has been featured several times in Ceramics Monthly, a renowned national ceramics magazine. Visions In Clay is an exceptional show of technical ability with diversity in style, process and content.

     “With over 20 years experience in the arts when I started at Delta College, it was quite easy to pick up the program and shape it into what it is today,”states Jan Marlese, who has worked for the Minneapolis Arts Commission, Zeum Studio for Technology and the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens, and as Director of the Napa County Arts Council. She came to San Joaquin Delta College as Gallery Director/ Program Coordinator in May 2007.

     “Since 2010, I’ve seen what seems to be quite an increase in ceramic art shows. I think the broad reach of ceramic arts, from sculptural to decorative / functional, and the wide range in formal qualities is what the public is responding to. I recall being in sensory overload with the first Visions In Clay show (and every show thereafter), as I am awed at the range in surface quality and form. The curated shows and Visions In Clay are the most well attended exhibitions.” 

              

Also, Visions In Clay supports the popular ceramic and sculpture courses taught by Professors Shenny Cruces and Gary Carlos who work to advance students to a high level of proficiency. The exhibition creates a great opportunity for students to see fantastic ceramic works created by the best of the best artists, and broadens their understanding of what is possible to do with the clay medium. Students also have the opportunity to participate in John Natsoulas Gallery’s Ceramics Conferenced for the Advancement of Ceramic Arts, which is an incredible educational opportunity for showing their work. 

     When Jan first arrived at the Horton Gallery, there were six quality shows a year, primarily individual and small group shows, processed through the Gallery Committee from a broad call for entries process. Finding something lacking, she produced more specific calls, and curated shows by invitation, which changed the gallery programming. Adding 2-3 fee based calls also generated income, enabling more exhibiting artists, art lectures, demonstrations, student workshops as well as thematically-tied performing arts events. “The great thing about being a not-for-profit gallery is our ability to spend all of our income on artists.” 

In 2012, the killing of Trayvon Martin inspired Jan to curate identity art exhibitions which have now become a major mission in the gallery to recruit BIPOC artists for shows overall. “Themes of Black Identity in America,” the first of these exhibitions, included Amy Sherald, who later became the portrait painter for Michelle Obama. 

                                                   Jennifer Holt

     Covid-19 has brought a huge challenge to all of the art classes. However, the ceramics and sculpture departments have risen to the occasion. New ideas and materials are taught and some materials are distributed for at home building. Professor Cruces continues to fire using social distancing appointments to the ceramics department during the Covid-19 campus closure. 

     You can check out the LH Horton Jr Gallery on Facebook, or on Instagram @hortongallery_deltacollege, or find all the shows since 2000, including 10 years of Visions In Clay on their website: http://gallery.deltacollege.edu 

CCC Artist David Tholfson

 David Tholfson

 

CCC artist David Tholfson says “ceramics saved my life in high school where I was lucky to have the East Coast funk ceramicist Toby Bonagurio as my teacher.” Since then he  continued to refine his ideas as a sculpture/ceramics major, but never really grasped the technical side of clay, relying on the clay to impose its will on what to do.

 

Focusing on his music and performance work after college, he returned to clay when he was offered a small kiln to take home and got excited about raku firing. “It’s a great way to ensure the surface was part of the form” 

 

Now he relies on hump and slump molds for structure, makes his own stencils using the SolidWorks modeling program and a 2-D cutter. He fills the stencils that press onto slabs with local dry clay dust. “I’m really fascinated with the idea of many things inhabiting the same space so textures swell over patterns. Someday, maybe I’ll figure out how to actuate the insides of the vessels."

 

Please check out David Tholfsons new Instagram account: www.instagram.com/placebo_ceramics

CCC Artist Natalie Black

 Natalie Black 

Until 2019, CCC Artist, Natalie Black lived her whole life in Tennessee and was first exposed to the thrill of creating with her own two hands by her Grandmother who taught her to sew and knit as a girl. One can see an influence of this in her ceramic work which translates techniques and aesthetics of material fiber that is soft and flexible into a ceramic material that is hard and rigid. Her work is a reconsideration of “women’s work” and fiber traditions. 

 

Natalie uses various sculpture clay bodies and has recently started experimenting with paper clay. The textures she applies to surfaces are very time intensive and she develops a small section at a time, until it feels finished.  Natalie started experimenting with slip dipping knitted squares when quarantine started. It has been difficult to fire her work since the studios have shut down, so she has revisited a 2-D process employing a graphite rubbing technique to collect textures and reconfigure into a larger composition combining sewn sheets and ceramic wall pieces. 

 

Natalie’s deep inspiration comes from poetry and fiction, as well as visual artists such as Linda Lopez, Francesca DiMattio, Rebeca Hutchinson and Ruth Asawa.

With her confirmed commitment to her art, Natalie must balance in her full-time job as a custom framer, and keeps in shape by running, cycling and playing soccer. Though now in quarantine, the soccer league and Artist as Quiltmaker XIX, at the FAVA Gallery have been canceled.

 

Please check out Natalie’s website:   https://ntblack.wixsite.com/natblackstudio.

CCC Artist Darren Cockrell

 Darren Cockrell

“My father taught me how to work with my hands and problem solve,” says Darren Cockrell, this week’s CCC Artist. He got sucked into ceramics more and more after taking a class from a good friend while pursuing a degree in anthropology. 

 

Darren focuses on woodfired stoneware and porcelain. All his pieces interact with the group process involved in a long wood firing. Natural ash glaze is used for an ideally firing goal of deep, rich, matte surfaces. “It is really about the firing process for me.” He spends a long time on each piece: firing, and post firing sanding. While firing he can stoke the kiln for 8 days and grind, at least an hour, on a simple bud vase or cup and 10-30 hours on a sculptural vessel. At present he is working on sculptural vessels with the shape of tilted hourglasses. This work is more refined and geometric that his previous work. It is his innate desire to make and the prospect of the next wood firing that keeps him inspired. 

 

Darren has to balance his artwork into his life with two young children so he  works in manic bursts. He was able to attend the Kohila Woodfire Symposium in Estonia as a US representative in 2016. Check out his work at: www.darrencockrell.com

CCC Artist Naomi Stein Cooper

Naomi Stein Cooper

“I see beauty everywhere,” states Naomi Stein Cooper from her new studio in a 1972 Airstream Land Yacht. This is her first time in the California Clay Competition and simultaneously juried into Focus on Ceramics 2020 at the Davis Art Center ACGA Show. 

 

Currently, Naomi is developing a series of sculptural shamans, incorporating human, animal and plant imagery, referring to the idea that humans have innate connections and communication with spirits, animals, the dead, God, the future and past. These connections can be used to heal, and lift up others. Similar to the ideas revealed to artists communicating with their Muse. This series is the first time she is sculpting the human face as a means to connect more with her audience. 

Naomi uses several different types of Cone 5-6 clay bodies employing hand building, slab and coil building techniques. Texture is especially important and she experiments with multiple finishes including underglaze, commercial glazes and multiple firings to get the effects she wants. “The bolder I am, the more I learn about how far I can push the material, every time gaining more techniques to get more variegated, visually interesting pieces.” 

 

Naomi is on a roller derby team called the Carquinez Quad Squad and has kids in elementary school. Since the pandemic quarantine, her balance has been thrown off. Kids are at home and her exercise practice has been reduced. As for the artwork, there is less time. “But one thing I love about clay is how it needs attention, how the timing is important, which demands that I return to the studio to finish what I started.” 

 

Unfortunately, Naomi had a solo show at the McCune Rare Book and Art Collection in Vallejo which opened on March 13 and closed on March 16 due to Covid-19. So to see more of her work check out her website: www.naomisteincooper.com, www.instagram.com/naomisteincooper/ and www.facebook.com/naomisteincooperartwork

CCC Artist Kathy Pallie

Kathy Pallie

 

After a career in commercial art, Kathy Pallie, this week’s CCC artist, rediscovered the tactile allure of clay. “I need to have my hands manipulating clay”. The tactile sense is always in play, whether she is creating a realistic trompe l’oeil effect or zeroing in on one of the many nuances of tree bark through a macro lens. 

 

Nature is Kathy’s biggest inspiration with its vast palette of colors, textures and patterns. She uses tools like pieces of bark, tree nuts, springs, and twigs. With the idea of the way nature grows vertically from the earth, reaching for the sun, so working in clay brings to life Kathy’s passion to communicate her ideas in clay from the ground up.  Observing the detail of nature opens a world of exciting abstract graphic designs and forms. 

 

Kathy uses a variety of clay bodies in slabs, coils and extruded shapes. She doesn’t use the clay as a canvas to paint or glaze but loves to work the surface and allow a 3-dimensional form to take form. The scope of her work ranges from small 3” diameter coil baskets to architectural installations such as Out of the Woods created for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Lake Tahoe. From her home studio, Kathy works around family needs, and keeping active: hiking, skiing, swimming and staying shape.

 

“I’m always inspired by what is going on around me, nature, political situations and emotions. I start with a concept and figure out how to execute it. It’s always a journey and that’s exciting.”

 

Since the Covid-19 crisis Kathy has had 3 shows cancelled or postponed. California

Clay Competition at the Artery Gallery in Davis where my piece “Ebony Landscape Trio”can be

viewed on the website https://theartery.net/ccc2020; Art Works Downtown gallery in San

Rafael, CA, in the “100 Years of Freedom” exhibition, my two pieces “Tied Up in Knots - Fake

News” - no clay involved, and “ Dialogue Dispels Differences “ with is fiber and clay tiles

imprinted with lace; and Epperson Gallery in Crockett, CA, a 4-person show “Into the

Woods” (postponed, no new date) where I will be showing a body of 17 pieces of clay work, all

nature and tree related.

 

You can see more of Kathy Pallie’s work here: www.kathypallieart.com or on Facebook KathyPallieArt. 

CCC Artist Linda Litteral

Linda Litteral

 

“Art has been the avenue for healing for me, from the beginning.” states Linda Litteral, this week’s CCC artist. Linda took her first art class in clay when she was 33 and graduated with an MFA from San Diego State University when she was 49. “Art is a powerful medium for saying things that cannot be said verbally. It takes the trauma out of your body and lessens the power it has over you.” 

 

When Linda moved to Charleston, SC with her husband in 1988, she was working in manufacturing as a tooling and product designer. She was told, ”We do not hire women here” time and again. So she began taking classes at Duke’s School of Clay and Fine Art and fell in love with the medium. 

 

Passionate about women’s issues and specifically sexual abuse, Linda uses her art to make political commentary. She also teaches, using art as a healing modality at Donovan State Prison and at Las Colinas Detention Facility for women, where 80% of the population has been sexually abused at some time in their lives. “I find it inspiring to help others, and expose inequities in a world that seems to be warring against women.”

 

Currently Linda is working on a series of carvings around a spiral design. A repeated motif found in Linda’s work, the spiral, represents her path to recovery from childhood sexual abuse. Carving porcelain comes naturally and with flow,  and it is where she works out her ideas for sculpture. The meditative process gives her mind space.  She also throws and carves bowls, labeling them “possibility bowls” where your hopes and dreams can be held in a safe place. She likes the surprise’s in soda firings for glazes. For larger sculpture she uses coils and can work on a single piece for a couple weeks or more depending on complexity. Linda enjoys technical challenges and different media. Ultimately, the work is more about the idea than the material. 

 

Linda is the Co-director of the Feminists Image Group(FIG) a professional women’s artist group that shows together. She has curated a show at City College in San Diego called “Don’t Shut Up” which is her mantra around sexual abuse. She also has had a residency at Centre Pompadour, A laboratory for Neo-Feminism in France and two shows in Sweden, Feminism Now, at Grafiska Sallskapet Gallery, and Betrayed at  Krogen  Amerika Gallery. She is currently showing Linda Litteral: A Solo Show, at Sparks Gallery in San Diego and Flourish, at Klamath Art Gallery in Klamath Falls, Oregon. 

To see more of Linda’s work find her at www.lindalitteral.com or www.healingartprocess.com, on Facebook: Linda Literal Artist and on Instagram @lindalitteralartist

CCC Artist Interview with Emil Yanos.

Emil Yanos

 

This week’s CCC Artist, Emil Yanos is a professionally trained floral and graphic designer who has been working in clay since 1993. His ceramic work weaves together the best aspects of both disciplines. Nature has been the main inspiration and Yanos loves plants, seeds, pods, shells and geology for his artform.

Yanos uses some sketching to work out proportion but then allows for an organic growth when starting to build. Using Sculpture Mix 412, he builds with slabs rolled and rested for a day. A lot of times the condition of the clay, (wet or dry) will dictate the form. Once the work is at a certain firmness, he adds texture. Yanos prefers engobes and underglazes because of the dry matte finish. “This, for me, is the most time-consuming part because of the multiple layers of color.”

 

Yanos came to clay by accident, after being laid off during the recession in the 90’s. He was looking for work and trying to start his own business and came across Ruby’s Clay Studio while walking around his neighborhood. He has been there ever since. However, with the pandemic, the studio is closed. With only a few totems he had taken home to repair, he has started watching painting videos and has turned to trying out some acrylic painting. 

 

Yanos has had some interesting commissions, has been featured on the cover of American Artwork and in 2014 was a Wildcard Finalist for the Martha Stuart American Made Award in craft, ceramics, potter and glass category. 

 

You can see more of Emil Yanos’s work at www.emilyanosdesign.com and on Instagram/Facebook @emilyanosdesign.

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

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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