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JANUARY, 2020 THE OFFICIAL CLAY ARTS GUILD NEWSLETTER
KILN’ TIMEThe 2020 CAG Ceramics
CONTESTIT’S ALL ABOUT COLOR
SATURDAY, MARCH 7 By Donna Cowan
How’s that entry coming for the annual CAG contest? The theme is “It’s All About Color”. We’ll be looking for pieces that show various ways that color contributes to the gestalt of the piece. If you’re thinking only of bright colors, remember that there are many color palettes. We welcome entries that are thrown, hand built or sculpted. Anything from creative use of color to a great glaze application highlighting a color to your vision of the ceramics/color synergy and beyond is welcome in this contest.
Our judge this year will be Catherine Hiersoux, a professional ce-ramic artist, teacher and lecturer, and owner of the Hiersoux Gallery in Berkeley. Catherine’s work is represented in many major collections and she has taught on both the east and west coasts.
There are six prize categories: • Best Wheel Thrown
• Best Hand built • Best Surface
• Most Imaginative • People’s Choice
• Judge’s Choice (Best in Show)
What a range of opportunities to show your special use of color!
Just a reminder: you must have taken at least one Center for Com-munity Arts clay class in the past year in order to enter the contest and you may enter up to two pieces. Contest entry forms will be available in mid-February.
BTW, Donna Cowan would love some help with this (such as hospi-tality, sign making, article writing, photographing) and it could count as your volunteer work for CAG.
WINTER SOCIAL
GATHERINGSUNDAY,
FEBRUARY 2, 7-9 PM
As we get back into the swing of clay-play, the Clay Arts Guild would like to invite our members to our quarterly social event on Sunday, February 2.
Our guest speaker will be one of our newer instructors, Darren Cockrell. Darren teaches Begin-ning and Intermediate Ceramics on Mondays and Wednesdays, and a new Beginning/Interme-diate Handbuilding class on Fridays. This will be a chance to hear a little of Darren’s history, view examples of his work, and hear about his current projects. He will bring some pieces to sell.
The social begins after open studio at 7 pm. and lasts until about 9. As usual, we will have pizza and light drinks to open the evening at 7.
Read his interview on page 5.
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Message from the CAG Prez ...
Kiln’ Time Newsletter
Published 5 or 6 times a year
Editor ~ Jane BurnsPlease submit all articles to Jane
Visit our website:www.wcclayartsguild.com
See the latest Kiln’ Times in full color!
MEMBERS of the BOARDPresident: Bette Sindzinski
[email protected] President: Pat Alger
[email protected]. Officer: Aletha Biederman-Wiens
[email protected]: Millie Robinson
[email protected]: Ann Henderson
[email protected]: Aletha Biederman-Wiens
[email protected] Media:Facebook & Instagram:
Nicole [email protected]
Hospitality: Betty [email protected]: Erika [email protected]
Newsletter Editor: Jane [email protected]
Layout Editor: Mary Leigh [email protected]
Curator: Florence [email protected]
Data Base Manager:Gary Guglielmino
[email protected] Master: Brad [email protected]
CAG Website: Colleen [email protected]
Educational/Social Event Coord:Donna Cowan
[email protected] Outreach:
Bette [email protected] Bowls: Mona [email protected]
Bette
STUDIO IS NOT MOVING FROM CIVIC PARKHello and welcome to 2020. Well, I always thought that when someone was talking about 2020 they were talking about vision, eyesight. BUT we are all here, no matter what our eyesight testing shows. This president’s message, however, is about our studio vision: What will happen to us?
As this new year starts, I want to address one of the major concerns that has been fretted about for so many years. The possibility of OUR studio MOVING to a new LOCATION. I have been to four city Parks and Recreation city planning meetings over the last seven months. The final proposal was discussed and passed December 10, 2019 in a City Council Meeting. The Clay studio is not moving.
There is acknowledgement that parking is of issue for our students and we are still pursuing those issues. Walnut Creek must get bonds to pass for various projects, and there were several large projects that came before even the idea of moving the Clay Studio. Those projects will take at least 10-12 years to get funded and completed. So, worry not. Please ask me if you have questions because I have represented the CAG at all the meetings. We are here to stay!!!!
Since most people are now sign-ing up for CAG membership on-line, you no longer have the op-portunity to sign up for volunteer work when you join. In in effort to fill all the volunteer positions, we will be sending out an email to request that you chose your preferred volunteer position. You will be asked to rank your choices 1st, 2nd, and 3rd preference to try to accommodate everyone. You will be notified of your volunteer assignment by a CAG Board member. A special thank you to all the CAG board mem-bers, committee chairs, and monitors since you are already volunteering. You are always welcome to participate in more than one volunteer area!
Below is a list of the volunteer opportunities so you can start thinking about it now.
• Hospitality (Provide food for MP workshops and other CAG events)
• Educational/Social events• Community Outreach/STEAM/
STEM/Family Art Day• Art After Dark Event• CAG Ceramic collection• Empty Bowls Project• Library collection• Write CAG newsletter articles• CAG member list maintenance
and revision• CAG volunteer tracking• CAG Pottery Sale Cashier and
Setup Manager
CAG Volunteers Needed!
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look at the other booths and do some shopping. Textiles, glass, jewelry, draw-ings, paintings, photographs, baskets, wood-work and lots of ceramic work were on display.
While packing up on Sunday evening, I felt lucky to be part of such a wonderful community of people: warm, friendly, encouraging, always ready with a joke and a help-ing hand. Like any good holiday party, a few rumors were circulating as I left the building: “someone” had been spotted wearing reindeer antlers and Santa had gone home with a cute brunette!
Three days filled with excitement, holiday spirit, artistic talent and lots of hard work!
As soon as I walked into the Shadelands building on Thursday evening to set up my booth, I noticed that busy elves had been hard at work decorat-ing and hanging holi-day lights. The layout of the auditorium had been modified to al-low for a more spa-cious and airy feel. Both the dance studio
and rehearsal room had better lighting and felt cozy and inviting. The halls were buzzing with activity.
All the vendors had found their tables and were set-ting up their booths, making last minute adjustments to their displays and tucking packing boxes under the tablecloths. We all left feeling nervous, excited and hopeful that the forecasted storm wouldn’t keep people away.
At 5 o’clock on Fri-day, the parking lot was packed, despite the drizzle. People flooded in, going from room to room, clutch-ing drinks and plates of snacks. I overheard lots of compliments for the overall quality and variety of mer-chandise, the level of talent, choices and price-points.
Saturday brought lots more shoppers who braved the intense afternoon downpour. As expected, Sunday was a little quieter, which allowed me to
DECEMBER SHADELANDS SALEBY Nicole Collins
Ann Kalinowski
Pat Alger
Donna Cowan
Betty Wang
Linda Goren
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Library Notes by Librarian, Aletha Wiens
Inside Japanese Ceramics, by Richard L. Wilson, 1995
Argent six pallets Gules a chief Azure is 13th century Anglo-French heraldic language for the shield on the seal of the President of the United States: it has a blue top; below it, seven verti-cal white stripes separated by six red stripes.
All sorts of specialized word sets exist, from Cockney rhyming slang to coding jargon. When you look around the studio, do you notice pottery language?
Wedging, engobe, throwing, grog, rib; all these have specialized pot-tery definitions. And what about the Japanese? Is that unfair cultural appropriation, or a comfortable borrowing of useful terms for objects shared by a willing teacher?
Wilson’s conclusion is that, “The West’s historic encounters with Japanese ceramics provide some lessons about the difficulty of an authentic artistic transmission between cultures. Borrowing from a foreign culture never takes place within a vacuum. Influence has at least two different dynamics: one culture gives, and another receives.
The Western reception of Japanese ceramics, then, has been fash-ioned by what the Japanese have made available and what the West has been willing or able to accommodate. This is further complicated by the fact that both techniques and aesthetics were transmitted, but in different ways and at different times.When these strands are untangled, however, they reveal how the West has variously learned, invented, or, for that matter, ignored aspects of Japanese ceramics.
“The Japanese legacy means more than using certain materials such as raw clay and wood ash,…It suggests, rather, …rededicating oneself to personal discipline and harmony with materials, processes and the user community. It implies thinking about the pots as part of an ongoing process, a relaxed conversation with the world, instead of as a kind of personal decree. And if, at this point, ‘Japan’ disappears, so will the unnecessary conceptual and expressive baggage of the artist-potter. Clay vessels will remain, ones that are not only pleasant to use but point quietly to a broader way of life.”
In November, we had an Empty Bowl making event. Throughout the year, our studio makes and donates bowls to the Contra Cos-ta/Solano County Food Bank. where they are given away at a fund raising event for the Food Bank each fall.
On the 18th, 26 members came together to throw and hand build bowls. The next day 17 folks came in to trim and finish the bowls. We completed 129 bowls, which is amazing! During the winter session, we’ll be getting those bowls glazed. There is still time to sign up to help with that.
These two events gave us a great head start on the donations for this year. We have committed to donating 215 bowls, and these will be picked up by the Food Bank in August. There is a bin in the library for donations, and signs around the studio.
Many thanks to all who contrib-uted their time and efforts, es-pecially treats supplied by Betty Medwedeff.
Empty Bowl Making Event
by Mona Moxley
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Darren’s experience working at Clay People and Diablo Valley College has also kept him active in the clay community, keeping him hands on, no pun intended. This is where his “education” in ceramics was really formulated in, as he says, “learning by doing.”
Darren states he is a vessel maker and primarily woodfires his work. His favorite works are his Gas Cans because they are simple to under-stand and functional as a tool for loading the wood kiln. And he has a personal connection to gas cans. In his youth Darren spent much time in his garage working on cars and motorcycles where the original gas can always sat holding diesel fuel as a parts cleaner.
Included on Darren’s bucket list: making a comfort-able living doing what he loves, (ceramics), learning to surf together with his daughter when she be-comes a teenager. And long motorcycle adventures.
When asked who does he find most interesting, Darren replied “Benjamin Franklin because Franklin was a universal man and one of our nation’s Found-ing Fathers.” Darren appreciates that Franklin was a creator, inventor, thinker, philosopher, discoverer and a generalist like he sees himself.
Darren graciously met with me for an informal interview Wednesday, Jan 15th prior to his 7pm class. Darren states he prefers a casual interview as he will not have to correct for typos or sentence struc-ture as he is dyslexic and he
adds a PROUD dyslexic ! He hails from northern Los Angeles area, lives in Oakland and considers himself wholly Californian. He likes architectural fabrication and hardscaping, and hands on/design work, at his home. And his two young children, Casey and Marvin, are his activity of leisure, plea-sure and hard work.
Darren has studied his ceramics “everywhere and nowhere,” stating that he is motivated by an innate desire to make. He actually studied Evolutionary Psychology, which influenced his understanding of what makes us human. Darren is ever evolv-ing in his ceramics: “I always made what I wanted to make, not trying to fit in a niche.” He sees his motivation and desire to “do and make” ceramics like his Evolutionary Psychology study in that he is creating, making and using tools no differently than humans always have.
Darren was invited to Denmark in 2014 for the International Woodfiring Conference and in 2016 he was the US Representative in Estonia for the International Woodfire Symposium.
MEET DARREN COCKRELLInterviewed by Michele Browne
Pouring Vessel WorkshopOur studio was busy during the first week of the new year! One of the workshops held was Ann Hen-derson’s two-day class teaching members how to make containers that poured. Everyone, as it turned out, chose to make teapots!
Read about two more workshops on the next page.
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(De)Constructed Pots Workshop
By Kit Niemeyer
The (De)Constructed Pots Workshop with Vince Mon-tague on January 3rd and 4th was a delight. I found his ap-proach to ceramics refreshing and mind-expanding.
His combination of starting on the wheel, then modifying afterwards, leads to endless creative permutations. As he said in his class descrip-tion, “There’s always pressure to throw ‘perfect’ pots, but in this workshop, students will look at ways to enhance the imperfec-tions, take some risks and make pots that are more personal and expressive.”
It’s the blending of the regimentation of wheel-throwing with the organic-quality of hand-building that makes it so special. And you can’t be too at-tached to the outcome – very Zen. And, since he fires everything he does in soda, he adds another not-to-be-controlled variable.
Vince says about himself: “I’m a writer and potter liv-ing in Northern California.” His blog, Throwing Pots, has photos taken by him as he walks, writes and throws pots. “Throwing Pots is also a notebook of ideas which inspire me, he says, as well as an archive of articles or images I’m currently track-ing – a spontaneous docu-ment of me and my interests in life.” You can find him at the Red Brick Studio in San Francisco.
What’s your favorite animal? Six people, including myself, needed to make that decision before embarking on a special workshop with Chris Fortin in early January. We all came armed with photographs and high expectations on January 2 for a three-day class held from 4 to 7 pm each day.
Chris spent a half hour or so at the beginning of each class sharing step by step, detailed instructions on how to create a life-sized, wall-mounted ani-mal head, starting with simple slab construction techniques. I was amazed with the end results that we all achieved (photo at bottom). Each head, of course, will take a bit more work before it’s complete and ready to be bisque-fired. Nine classroom hours, everyone de-cided, didn’t give us anywhere near enough time.
We learned how to shape the nose and eyes and how to get the ears attached at the cor-rect angle. Chris also introduced us to tools, such as wire brushes from the hardware store, to help achieve the look of real fur, as well as how to fash-ion a couple different methods to hang our “trophy heads” up when they’re all done.
Chris’s mountain lion mask
Animal Mask MakingBy Mary Leigh Miller
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The Manager’s OfficeC
LAY
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GUILD • WALNUT CREEK • CA
www.c layart sg i ld.co
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The Clay Arts Guild
The purpose of the Clay Arts Guild is to assist and encourage ceramics students to develop and improve their skills and understanding of the media and to contribute actively toward improving the program of the Civic Arts Ceramic studio through appropriate financial and operation aid. By-laws, October 25, 2005
Takemi
Important DatesGreetings All,
As we move into a new year and a new decade, I can’t help but think where we’ll be in another 10 years. Sometimes it scares me, but mostly it makes me grateful for the program we’re part of and the people who create it. Thank you all for making this community the special place it is.
We are blessed to welcome this new year with a new instructor to our family - Ann-Marie Hannawacker. Ann-Marie has a BFA and MFA in ceramics with years of teaching students of all ages. She’s been an active member of the guild for a few years and has an infectious spirit and true passion for clay. If you see her in the studio, please introduce yourself and welcome her with open arms. She is teaching the Friday evening class for beginners.
This last quarter, the Center for Community Arts received the approval for the new gas kiln accompanied with new renovations to our ventila-tion system in the kiln room. The expenses were much higher than originally projected, but the city agreed to the work – another testa-ment of their unwavering support for our program. It’s an honor for me to work for a group with this type of leadership and care. The work is projected to happen this next winter while the studio is on break.
This month we are excited to be organizing a curated ceramic stu-dent art show to be displayed at the Shadelands Campus in Febru-ary. The only restrictions are that the work was made at the studio within the last three years and is under 11”x11”. Submissions should include: Name, Title (if any), Size, Year made, and Images of the work. Phone pictures are fine, as long as artwork is clearly depicted. Submissions are to be emailed to [email protected] by Jan 27th – subject: artshow.
In conclusion, I’m looking forward to another great quarter here at Community Arts. As always, please be mindful and sensitive to oth-ers. In many ways, how we interact and communicate with each other determines the success of our studio. I have to look out for everyone’s best interest, guild-related or not. Again, thank you for all you do, and here’s to a great 2020!
1/21 – Holiday, No classes or Open Studio
1/27 – Deadline for art show submissions
2/17 – Holiday, No classes or Open Studio
2/19 – Spring registration begins
3/8 – Daylight Savings, Spring forward
3/15 – Volunteer studio clean up
3/20 – Arts After Dark3/22 – Spring classes be-
gin3/25-29 – NCECA,
Richmond, VA
Thought for the DayCreativity requires the courage to let go of certainties. Eric Fromm
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CLAYARTSGUILDCivic Arts Education of
Walnut Creek
PO Box 8039Walnut Creek, CA 94596
What’s Happening in the Clay World
To view the CAG Newsletter in full color, go to our website: www.wcclayartsguild.com
GALLERIESand EXHIBITIONS CONFERENCES
SEIZE the T-SHIRT!
Did you know t h e s a l e o f these cleverly des igned T-shirts by clay instructor, Ellen Sachtschale helps fund our CAG treasury?
Cost: $20 and $25 per shirt. Put your check, made out to CAG, in Locker #1.
The Poetry of Pottery reception with Aaron Becker, Wayne Bar-num, Robert Brady. Saturday, February 8 2020 Trax Gallery 5-7 pm 1812 5th St. Berkeley.
On and Off the Wheel. Two day workshop with Aaron Becker, February 8-9 2020, 10-4.30 pm at the Potters’ Studio 1221 8th St Berkeley
http://www.berkeleypottersstudio.com/workshops
NCECA 2020 March 25-28 at Richmond Convention Center, Richmond, Va
32nd Annual California Con-ference for the Advancement of Ceramic Arts: May 1-3. 2020 featuring Adrian Arteo, Wanxin Zheng, Arthur Gonzalez, Kathy Ruttenburg, Yana Oayusova, and Chris Ricardo.Contact info at John Natsoulas Center for the Arts, 521 First Street, Davis, CA. [email protected]