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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