The Final Finish of this Summers "Hands in Clay" Exhibition

What a great ending to this month's roster of SJPotter's Guild events! Bruno Kark and Tom Collins gave a top notch day long workshop in Joe Mariscal's ceramics room at Delta Community College.

What a fantastic day! Everyone had a blast to watching both of these amazing artists sharing many of their insights on throwing large. Admittedly though... I'm still finding a guilty pleasure in a long day spent listening to older more experienced studio artist's retelling their personal stories from the past 30 years of first hand art history. Oral history has always been a very decadent pleasure for me, but I'm beginning to see it as an "US Magazine" kind of thing. (I'm a total sucker for the old Volkus stories). There is so much West Coast history that you just can't find between the covers of Ceramics Monthly

I really would like to take this opportunity to thank the other principal organizers for this event... Gary Carlos, Joe Mariscal, Jeri Ross, Don Hall, Kathy White, John Nagle, but most importantly… I really want to thank Bruce Cadman for all of his help in keeping me motivated in getting this event off the ground!

Hey… the next event will be even better!

PS... Bruno, I'm telling you... the next big thing is going to be on-line nude ikebana vase throwing... I think you could really set the pace on this one... get in on it now and you'll define the whole movement!

Getting It Done

I am so jazzed!

It's been a very busy 2 weeks since the last post and lots of stuff has come and gone since the last post... I had work accepted into PBS's local on air Art auction (it's the big faceted canister that took out 2 kiln shelves in the process 4 weeks ago). This show was a big tado this year... the event organizers turned away lots of great artists this year so I'm feeling pretty good.

I made a huge mess in the studio over the past 2 weeks cutting a dozen billetts of stencils for 25 plus large and medium canisters for my local markets and a good number went twords creating yunomi for FetishGhost's BoneOrchard collection this fall too. This is going tobe the best load yet! (my wife just reminded me that I say that every single kiln load... yeah well.. but it is true!) Over 40 peices are being set aside the soda kiln (BIG, big mojo!) and another 30 are going to be glazed with this springs experimental cone 6 slips and glazes.

NEXT was the juring of art work for the local "Hands in Clay" exhibit. That was this Sunday and I am SO happy to have this behind me! Nearly everyone involved in this project has been really great to work with, but there have been a very small handful of people who seem to feel that this needed to be more difficult than it was. (I think it's a chemical thing...) Needless to say, it has been a learning experiace and I can't wait to do it again, (with out all of the speedbumps).

The show's jurors, Tom Collins and Bruno Kark, seemed to have alot of fun selecting the awards for the show. ( They were great sports and insparational optimists! THANKS GUYS!!! I can't wait for the workshop August 1st!)

My submission for the show, an urn titled "Winds of Icarus", took 3rd in the functional catagory. (that scores another Happy Dance). We even got the entire show installed before the end of the day. Still have to take down and move the art work on the walls, but hey. DONE IS DONE!

For a quick hoot, check out the time laps video of us setting up the show.

Hands in Clay Exhibition

When times look blue what do you do?

Throw a party!

That’s exactly what the local San Joaquin Potter’s is doing this summer at the TideWater Art Gallery in Stockton California. During the month of July, they will be hosting a juried regional exhibition of Northern California ceramic artists. This is from the same group that created the wildly successful “Visions in Clay” exhibitions so it’s looking to be another fantastic show. This time around, the guild has voted to go back to the basics and accept only hand delivered submissions for this exhibition. Works need to be delivered Friday June 26th from 5pm to 9 pm or Saturday June 27th from 10am to 5pm. The entry fee is $18 per entry for non guild members and $15 per entry for members. All entrants are invited to join. The submissions will then be juried Sunday by guest artists Bruno Kark and Tom Collins. These two amazing talents will return on August 1st for the closing of the exhibition party and to host a daylong 2 man workshop. This will feature demonstrations of some of their studio techniques and promises to be a fun addition the festivities. Cash awards will be presented at the closing.

To read the show prospectus and get more information, go to SJPottersGuild.org