notes from an artist-in-residence

Fire and Smoke

2009-06-07T12:37:00.000-07:00

Sumi von D. loading pots into the pit, nestling each into sawdust...

Workshop participants loading kindling into the pit..

Fire in the hole!
This burned for several hours yesterday and cooled overnight.

Unloading the pots from the pit this morning.

Smoke and fire was the painter on our pots.

Lady Godiva After the Ride

after she was painted by the fire and the smoke in the pit...

And now here in the mountains, as I tap these keys, we are having an actual snow squal!

and I wonder how this will affect the visitors to the town today, and to my studio...?

A Visit from the Travel Channel Crew

2009-06-06T07:46:00.000-07:00

The Travel Channel was in town shooting for an October show called 'Destination Breckenridge'.
They shot a bit of footage in my studio while I worked on the new Bottomless Vessel to Hold Big Change. Kirsten Gum, The Treasure Hunter, was an energetic, enthusiastic interviewer. Again I am amazed at the answers that come to my mind for hours AFTER the interview is over...

The questions of the interviewers and the visitors have encouraged me to think more about my inspirations, more about my environment, and even more about the cyclic/spiral nature of my artistic development. I feel buoyed up by the enthusiasm of the visitors to my studio. I look forward to this weekend's visitors. But first, this morning, we will have a pit firing. The weather is sunny and skies are blue. So let's see what this glorious new day will bring...

Barrel Firing Workshop

2009-05-29T11:03:00.000-07:00

I love what can happen when there is a balance between teaching and having my own time in the studio. The energies seem to flow... And my muse seems to sing and dance...

Showing the ceramics students from Colorado Mountain College how to wrap bisqued pots with crepe paper streamers, corn husks, and string... in the Arts District's new Ceramic Studio space.

Student wraps his pot...

Loading the barrels with the pots and newspaper and wood chips.

Fire in the can...

Unloading the 'smoked' pots.

GOT FLOW !

2009-05-29T10:35:00.000-07:00

The sun is shining this morning, The sky is a brilliant cerulean blue. And for now my muse is alive and well and the studio work flows.

Perhaps teaching the workshops this week helped to get my own creativity flowing. I of course had to 'test' whatever techniques I planned to show students. I always want to give myself the chance to revisit the challenges and the excitement before I do a demo....

I miss teaching ceramics on a regular basis. If only I had known that my move to the UK was not going to be permanent; perhaps I'd still be teaching at City University in Brooklyn, and at the WestSide Y in Manhattan. Ah but how can one ever predict the whims of the fates? Maybe I can do more freelance workshops. Maybe I can add this 'Hand-made Barrel-fired Tile Intro' to the 'Black-figure Faux Greek Pots' workshop offered this winter at the Fuller Craft Museum and find teaching venues.

But for now my focus is on 'mudpies'...

'Goddess of New Beginnings'

'Guardian of the Dawn'

Beginning to Unfold

2009-05-28T14:29:00.000-07:00

It was a grey chilly, drizzly weekend, but it was still lovely to walk around town where tourists and locals smiled in friendly greeting, where there seemed to be more air and sky than in New York City.

The old buildings in the historic section of town capture my fantasies, and I feel like I have stepped into a time warp.

I am drawn to the layering of textures on the old buildings. Perhaps this will be inspiration for work in the studio?

It seems that, like the leaves on the trees around town, my work here is just beginning to unfold.

The local newspaper ran a story about my residency. Workshops are scheduled for this week: 'Barrel-Firing'; Handbuilding vessels for the upcoming Pit Fire Event; and tile-making....

The pinch pots are finished and drying.They will be fired and ready for me to use to show workshop students some ways to alter the outcomes of the barrel-firing scheduled for Wednesday.

Getting Started

2009-05-24T11:12:00.000-07:00

A visitor to the studio looks at 3 of the vessels that I made last year here at the Tin Shop. The two large 'Bottomless Vessels to Hold Big Change' await some experimentation for color or perhaps encaustic transfers. It is both exciting and daunting to not yet know how I will finish them.

The idea of getting started this year seemed quite daunting. The clay was piled up. I had to start something.. But what?

I think that it may have been Paulus Beherenson who once said that pinch pots were a good place to start...?

Indeed, it was comforting and centering to make the few pinch pots now on the window sill. I look forward to scraping and burnishing them later today in preparation for either the barrel firing or the pit firing.

Using a familiar process of wrapping clay around a cardboard tube, this lady emerged after the pinch pots. She will be completely unglazed. So I will refine her details later today.

So although I felt a bit of anxiety about getting started, yesterday was a great day in the studio. And I am looking forward to today's studio time. I hope to discover who this woman is and what story she might be about to reveal...

The Journey

2009-05-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

After a brief trip to Boston for the opeing of the SMALL TREASURES exhibit at Vessels Gallery, which included my 'Black Figure Little Pots of Gold',

I went back to South Station to return to NYC to finish sorting through my favorite tools and whatever else I wanted to bring to Colorado.

I went to the Watershed fundraiser in NYC and then finished packing..

After going to the wrong airport, racing in a cab over to Laguardia Airport, flying into windshears, I landed in Denver. The assistant to the Arts District co-ordinator met me there and we began the final leg of the journey.

I had forgotten how beautiful it is here. Such counterpoint to life in NYC.

The ride from the airport was 'muse food'.

The sky was more beautiful than my little camera could capture. The images are stored now for later use in the studio.

How amazing to be returning to a place where I already know that the people here are warm, welcoming, encouraging, and creative. Where I already know that the air will try to dry my clay too fast if my joints are not well protected. Where I already know that my muse will be inspired. Where I already know that I CAN work while people mill throughduring Open Studios.

I am very grateful to have this opportunity to be here as artist-in-residence at the Tin Shop. I embrace this time-out from the regukar stuff of my daily life in NYC.

I am soothed by the stillness of the mountains. The work of getting here is behind me now.

After a supply run yesterday, I am ready to begin the clay work.

The tiles for the Norwell, MA Science Center are ready for installation

2009-05-10T04:08:00.000-07:00

Step one of the installation is completed. The tiles have been laid out and are ready for gluing and grouting.

And I am starting to get ready for my month of making mudpies in the Rocky Mountains.

So many loose ends to tie up. Paperwork to tidy up. Favorite, 'must-have' tools to gather and pack.

And a short trip to Massachusetts to visit with friends and for the opening of a show at Vessels Gallery in Boston that includes my small works.

In the meantime, I am excited about my return to the Tin Shop, to once again be artist-in-residence in the Arts District of the town of Breckenridge.

I am COLORADO DREAMIN' on such a spring like day here in New York City...

EPILOGUE

2008-07-18T11:40:00.000-07:00

A student in one of the family workshops made this drawing of me

while waiting for the smoking barrel

to work its magic on our pots...

I have it here in New York City.

It hangs now in my kitchen, to remind me that I was there.

On Monday, UPS is due to deliver the works that I made at the Tin Shop studio.

Meanwhile I wrestle with the realities of being back in the city.

I am trying very hard to follow the wise words that urge me to

'be HERE now...'

I am trying to re-enter life in this place

where the pace is so different from that

when I was 'making mudpies in the Rocky Mountains'.

I am grateful for all that is part of my life here,

as well as for all that was part of this rich, joyous, creative adventure there.

I repeatedly told studio visitors that I came to Breckenridge to continue

the series of smoke fired 'Bottomless Vessels to Hold Change'

that I had started in my London studio.

I did also quote the Haystack 'welcome speech' several times: that

'no matter what you think you came for, be open to the something else that will unfold...'

and so now I am looking forward to being open

to whatever might continue to unfold....

Next month I have a residency at the Art Complex Museum

in Duxbury, MA.

If the technology there allows, I will do a blog from there.

Otherwise I sign off now from blogger-land

and thank you for being part of my Colorado residency...

The Final Days at the Tin Shop

2008-07-18T11:11:00.001-07:00

We had a clay community pit fire and...

one final barrel firing

as part of the Arts District Celebration.

We got everything loaded and set on fire just as the rains began...

and then, the following day

It was time to finish up

and clean up in the Tin Shop studio...

This place will forever be a joyous memory...

A place I am already longing to return to...

With fingers crossed that the two

'Bottomless Vessels to Hold BIG Change' will have by now had a safe firing...

Jenn looks confident as she readies this one

for the car journey to the kiln.

I snapped this photo before we closed the kiln lid.

Then I went back to the studio to finish cleaning up

and packing up for my return to the big apple city.

I DO Love a Parade

2008-07-06T08:54:00.000-07:00

Small Town Parades are a bit different from the big city style. Not wanting to miss the Friday celebration on Main Street, I left this second group of 'my girls' (and boys) on the worktable and headed out for some pre-parade mimosas and quiche..

Out-of-towners and local residents lined the streets and cheered each bit of the parade. Locals waved to their friends and photographers seemd to be having a field day.

It was indeed close to high noon when we had this special parade treat: the staged old western style gun fight between the good guys and the bad guys. After one good man was left standing, and the crowds roared, everyone who'd been 'shot' got up and the guys moved on down the street to do another fight after marching further toward the mountains.

After tastey treats from a local barbeque, I went back to continue painting and gilding, and enjoyed my parade of studio visitors. More than fifty people came inside to look and chat about my work and about their own experiences with clay.

It is fascinating to hear who 'my girls' seem to be in the eyes of their beholders. I love it when different people get the same sort of feeling from a piece. Their reactions to the concept of 'Bottomless Vessels to Hold Chnage' actually expand the essence of my original idea. And I love the names that visitors give to my'girls'...

Often I have titled a work using the suggestion of a studio visitor. Surely some of these works have not yet fully revealed their mystery to me... And the one below has been so changed by the barrel fire that she is not at all who she seemed to be in her beginnings...A petite woman with blue-grey hair came into the studio on Friday afternoon and looked carefully at every photo on the wall; inquired about my architectural ceramics; studied the finished works on the shelf in the cabinet; and then looked at this piece that was on the worktable -awaiting the final touches of white gold leaf in her hair. I had not told this visiting 'fairy-godmother-like' visitor that I am in search of names.

But she loooked me in the eye and whispered, 'That is Evangeline!'

When I responded with a puzzled look, she elaborated, '...from Longfellow's poem, EVANGELINE'

OK OK, so I have looked it up on the internet. This poem is a gazillion pages long. I promise to get a hard copy so that I can actually read the poem and decide if indeed this is who she is. But where are the Cliff Notes when you need them?

In the meantime, it is interesting to hear what other visitors who have actually read the poem feel about this name as an appropriate title. Most do seem to see a melancholy in her face. Some have suggested that she has risen from the ashes of some tradgedy, perhaps the loss of her one true love.... I wish I could know what you think...

Now on this nearly final day of this fabulous residency, I will head over to the parking lot where we will have a pit fire and a barrel fire today, as part of an Arts District celebration... And I hope that the weather holds and that it will not rain on our parade.

And even MORE !

2008-07-02T12:54:00.000-07:00

I had thought that I had come into this residency with the intention of continuing the London series of smoke fired 'Bottomless Vessels to Hold Change'.... And even though I have quoted in writing and to many visitors and students, the words of wisdom of Howard Evans, that "no matter you think that you came (here) for, that is not what you will get... So be open to what unfolds..."; I have to admit that now having the chance to work with a wood form similar to the one that I used at the International Ceramic Studio in Hungary is way beyond what I had hoped to be able to do.

This wood form was made by Piers Peterson, soon-to-be-husband of Iris Bedford, student and studio assistant for the use of this wood form.

Now drying in my studio: 'Bottomless Vessel to Hold BIG Change'

A second one...

Each of these is as tall as the kiln.. hopefully I have measured well! About 26 inches, after the shrinkage of drying.

And now it is time to stop making new works and focus on finishing works that are drying and that are ready to be painted, fired, smoked and gilded.

I am reminded by studio visitors that this is not the time to worry about how on earth I will get these 'babies' home to NYC...

Ok. OK. So now as I step into the studio, with 5 days and 5 nights remaining here as artist-in-residence, I wonder how I can best assist the unfolding of whatever else there is yet to be...

More of Something Else

2008-07-02T11:29:00.000-07:00

While these works sat on my worktable, awaiting my decision about their fates: (back into the kiln to und0 the effects of the barrel-fire smoke, or prepare them for their gold leafing), I had the chance to step outside of the studio to experience more of the 'something else'.

A glorious drive: the scenic Boreas Pass...

John Gill once told me and his other students at Haystack Mt School of Crafts, to 'pay attention to what you notice...' So my camera helps me to take another look...
Texture and edges..

Texture and shape and..

Surprises when I remember to stop and look closely...

Color surprises...

The surprise of snow in summer...

Surely taking in the beauty of the Colorado countryside is 'more of the something else' that I get from this Breckenridge Arts District residency. It is indeed a sharp contrast to the visual input that I get in my daily life in New York City.

And so it was with an uplifted spirit that I greeted the Sunday visitors to my Breckenridge studio. I was actually surprised that they responded so positively to the effects of the smoke... And my muse seemed to singing and dancing as I painted the underglazes and glazes on a second group of 'my girls'... Getting these 'Bottomless Vesssels to Hold Change' ready for the next step in their transformation...

Talking the Talk

2008-06-28T12:31:00.000-07:00

Why is it so easy to talk the talk? But then why is it such a challenge for me to listen to what I say to my students? I urge them to be open to the changes that the smoke and fire bring, and then I am shocked and not so ready to accept what unfolds...

My Angel of Peace seemed to me to be so sweet and gentle when she emerged from the clay; while I was painting her; and even after coming out of the glaze firing. I put her and some of the other 'Girls' into the barrel and started the fire... Hoping that the transformation would change her enough so that she might look like a woman with wisdom.Here she is rising up out of the ashes. But perhaps she may be a bit too much transformed by the fire.... It seems to be a bit of a challenge to accept the radical change in her appearance.

I know, I know, I keep saying that the magic of the art process, (at least this barrel-firing process), is that somehow the fire fates seem to create the works beyond the point that I might take them. That I should have no assumptions or expectations. That I should trust the process. That I should trust that it will work...

But it is not so easy to do this...

There may be a bit more cleaning up that I can do for her. I may decide to put her back into the electric kiln to erase all that the barrel smoking has done to her. But for now, I am reserving judgement and going down to the studio to paint, paint, paint...

The local newspaper came to the studio to film yesterday, and I am reminded again that no matter what I think I came here for, that this residency will bring 'something else'. That perhaps this is now the time of the 'something else'. And I do indeed want to be open to this.

Surely getting to hear Richie Havens perform here in Breckenridge last night is part of that 'something else'.

As the Sun Sets in the Western Skies

2008-06-27T10:58:00.000-07:00

So much has happened here since my last post on Monday. It has indeed been a busy week: many curious and encouraging visitors to the studio while I worked; a Gold-leaf-on-clay mini workshop; a making-clay-faces-demo at Colorado Mountain College; 3 barrel-firing workshops for community participants; my own first barrel-firing since my studio days (and late nights...) at Cockpit Arts, Deptford, London... Whew...

Workshop Participants write thank you notes and wishes to be burned inside of their magical pinch pots...

Pots are placed inside of barrel with paper and wood shavings...

Watching the smoking barrel..

Lifting pots out of the barrel with raku tongs.

Pots cooling on the ground...

Washing the pots..

Polishing with tile sealer...

One of the magical pinch pots with its maker...

Someone noticed the sky and we all went ouside to enjoy the sun setting in this magical place.

Perhaps good things do come to those who wait...

2008-06-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

The stream of studio visitors over this week-end seemed to be especially joyous. Almost everyone admired the student's pots awaiting the firing in the kiln. And now as I tap these keys the kiln is heating up to temperature with these pots inside.

Also now in the kiln are four of the smaller 'Bottomless Vessels to Hold Change' that I made while I was waiting for the larger ones to go through their firing cycle. Maybe these are for 'small change'? Whatever their purpose, they were a joy to create. While visitors came in to the studio with questions and comments, I felt like I was doing quick sketches in clay. I think that I was more playful, perhaps because these were the pieces that I was making 'while I was waiting...'

Also while conversing with a couple from Southern California, I started a 'wall work'. I got so caught up, the day flew by and I totally forgot that I'd been on pins and needles awaiting the opening of the kiln.

Someone visiting the studio suggested that the work is reminiscent of a Madonna figure. If so, then perhaps she could be called 'Madonna of the Rockies'.... For now, she is drying slowly, and she reminds me that sometimes good things do come to those who wait.

Now I am headed down to the studio...can you believe the commute is a simple stairway...it takes a nanno second, really.

All of 'the big girls' made it through the kiln firing. Now come the color choices. Painting and pouring undergalzes and glazes. Keeping in mind that no matter what I plan, the kiln and the smoking barrel can often seem to have their own ideas!

Into the Firing Chamber

2008-06-21T12:25:00.000-07:00

Transport to the CMC Ceramic Studio seems to have gone well. The new 'Bottomless Vessels to Hold Change' are now in the kiln for a slow bisque firing. They should be ready to emerge late Sunday night. Fingers are crossed...

I am always a bit on edge while my works are in the kiln. Wondering what to do while I await the verdict of the kiln gods. A good time to take a walk or watch a film...?

But open studio starts in a few minutes now; and I want to work on something new. But nothing that will take longer than today and tomorrow. Though I will not make any assumptions, I do want to trust that all will make it through the firing, and that I will be able to take each one through the painting and glazing steps and then through a second kiln firing.

The waiting is always a challenge.
Best to get into the studio, unwrap some clay, begin something new, and enjoy today's stream of visitors...

Meanwhile the sky is blue, the flowers here have unfolded, and the sun is brilliant.

While Angels Dry

2008-06-19T09:09:00.000-07:00

While Angels continued to dry slowly on studio shelves , the energies of workshop-participants filled the room with a creative buzz.

They pinched and shaped the clay...

Paddled ...

Scraped ...

Decorated...

Embellished...

And burnished their pots with my Grandmother's silver spoon and other handy tools.

Conversations ebbed and flowed as intentions and attentions were focused on the clay.

The excitement of the magical nature of the process filled the studio,
and now a few dozen 'magical pinch pots'are also drying

awaiting their firing in the electric kiln,

in preparation for next week's smoking in the barrels....

I hope that I gave them what they needed to make their works,
to follow their own muses,

and to experiment with their own solutions to technical challenges...

I trust that the makers of these pots enjoyed their process.
And that they will love the finished works - as a record of this magical process.

Going for the Gold

2008-06-17T10:10:00.000-07:00

This weekend brought many visitors to Breckenridge to pan for gold in the center of town, to dress up in old-time outfits, and to celebrate the history of this amazing town.

Many visitors stopped by the studio, and on Sunday evening the local TV aired a video shot in my studio.

But on camera, I was totally wrong about the history of pinch pots!

Given that I recently co-led the family program at the Metropolitan Museum, called 'Potsabilities', I ought to have remembered my facts. The pottery-making tradition is not really quite 35,00 years old! Perhaps that number represents the number of ceramic pieces in the museum's collection??

In truth, the oldest clay pots were made about 12,000 - 17,000 years ago: the Jomon pottery in Japan. And the earliest ceramic objects may be the Venus figures from about 31,000 years ago.

And so, for not-so-accurate numbers that I gave during my interview, I send apologies to my program director at the Met Museum, Dr. Mike Norris...

Perhaps it was the high altitude, or the excitement of being on-camera, that created the fuzzy memory for the facts??

In any case, the TV spot may have generated some more interest for the workshops this week. I think that these are now full. And I am looking forward to seeing what magical pinch pots and imaginery animals, these workshop participants will create..

Now, as I tap these keys, the barrels for the 'smokings' are on their way up from Denver in my brother's truck... So I think I had better get into the studio and make some more works to go into those barrels for next week's smoke-firings...

After the smoke-fires, applying the 23 k. gold leaf will be final step....

Sharing the Process with Studio Visitors

2008-06-15T20:41:00.000-07:00

What an excellent studio day.

Sometimes it can feel like a bit of a challenge to work while visitors are in the studio. I am not really very good at multi-tasking. I often find it hard to work and talk at the same time. Maybe it is a right brain/left brain thing?

But I do love sharing my process. And the visitors' questions and responses to the process are important to me. In fact, some of my most exciting creative break-throughs have actually come about during a public demonstration; or in response to a visitor's questioning….

I am pleased with the piece that evolved during today's open studio. Maybe it was so many children crossing their fingers for me as I added the strands of wavy hair. Or the encouragement of on-lookers as I worked with her face, trying to make it less 'severe' and more peaceful.

Perhaps a viewer will help to name her, either now or when she is finished. Maybe she is another 'Angel of Peace'? This one as a Bottomless Vessel to Hold Change?

Now my fingers are crossed, and the clay is under plastic wraps, with the hopes that she will dry without cracking, and make it through all of the kiln-firings, the barrel-smoking, and gilding…. to completion.

And I will hope to have more days like this one…

Embracing What Unfolds

2008-06-15T10:33:00.000-07:00

I am trying to keep an open mind.
Trying to keep in mind the welcoming speech to Haystack Mt School of Crafts, given by Howard Evans, back in the mid 1980s. 'No matter what it is that you think you came for, he advised us, 'that is not what you are going to get. So keep an open mind…' And he invited us to be aware of and to embrace what unfolds.

This one seems to be drying safely; but the wings of several of my 'angels' are cracking away from their clay bodies. The clay is drying too fast in this mountain air? My joining techniques are not strong enough? Maybe forms with such extensions are too delicate anyway to be transporting in a box on my lap, in a car to the kiln which is two blocks away…?
Maybe these 'Mountain Phoenixes' don't want to have their wings unfolded?

One visitor suggested that since the altitude is so high here, perhaps angels have a chance to rest their wings!
Another visitor thought that perhaps there are times when 'a cigar is just a cigar'; and there may be no hidden meaning to an angel losing her wings….
And when one visitor asked if the wings were an 'add-on' or part of the original piece of clay that is wrapped around my cardboard tube, it sparked the idea for an alternative construction technique.

So I am off to the clay bag, to try this… And wings unfurled may still be possible

Springtime in the Rockies

2008-06-13T09:47:00.000-07:00

This outside the front door of my studio just two mornings ago. Melted by the brilliant sunshine here within a few moments after I shot the picture.

There is so much beauty all around me. I trust that this is glorious 'food for my muse'.

And so to work... with my 'commute' from living space to studio workspace being less than a New York Minute. For now I am living right upstairs from my clay studio. This is heavenly.

Six Degrees of...

2008-06-13T06:14:00.000-07:00

No it's not about Kevin Bacon this time.

What happened here at my public reception on Wednesday could be called 'Six Degrees of Matt Nolen'….

Looking through my portfolio on a table in the Tin Shop studio, a visitor spotted Matt's work in a reprint of the Ceramics Monthly article about the show that I had helped to curate at the South Shore Art Center in Cohasset, MA.: 'Fragments and Elements: Art as Architectural Ornamentation'.

It turns out that this visitor from the Breckenridge area, had spent some time in NYC working for my former studio-mate, Matt Nolen! (At the time that Iris was there, I had recently left the Flatiron Clay Studio, and was doing my studio work in Hingham, MA, while doing all of my teaching in NYC.)

Matt's work was included in the Cohasset exhibition and also when the show travelled to the gallery at the Boston Architectural Center. His piece was one of those featured in the Ceramics monthly article. Of course, she recognized it. This led to several moments of singing Matt's praises. And laughing that perhaps in the ceramics world, there actually could be a game called 'Six Degrees of Matt Nolen'. Indeed, there would be many players…

And I am reminded that in spite of what seems to be an extreme contrast of the hustle-and-bustle of my New York City life compared to the idyllic nature of my time here as artist-in-residence, there is an 'interconnectedness'.

I am in Heaven!

2008-06-11T14:31:00.000-07:00

The photographer from the Summit Daily News came in during my first open studio day and shot several photos and this one was in last Friday's paper.

Indeed, I think that I am in heaven, having such an excellent studio space, in such a lovely town, and this morning we had some snow.

Imagine being artist-in-residence for the the Arts District in the town of Breckenridge, Colorado... making 'mudpies' for five weeks in the Rocky Mts.

This afternoon is a public reception... so as I tap these keys, some tasty treats are being set out on one of my worktables.

Musings and other updates coming soon....