Monica Leap

'tis the season

2011-11-15T22:47:00.000-05:00

40 pounds of clay in 24 hours isn't so bad after not throwing for a few months! Between recovering from wedding planning and getting things in order for Studio 550, my family's community art center in downtown Manchester, NH, life has been full!

But no more excuses. I'm making new work to show at the Downtown Manchester's first ever Holiday Market at 1000 Elm Street on Dec 1, 8, 15, & 22 from 10-5pm. There was such a strong demand for this that there is a wait list! The quality of artisans, bakers, and craftspeople will be stunning.

I will share booth #23 with Studio 550. There will be a raffle for a free Studio 550 membership, Studio 550 gift cards, ceramic art, and who knows what else!

Come visit!

Brilliant!

2011-11-07T08:43:00.000-05:00

Here is my most recent submission from Jo Shields, a NH resident who makes stunning handmade jewelery! Jo, Esina Navarro and I just recently did a demo/craft show together at the Artstream Gallery in Rochester, NH. Esina makes hand carved and decorated walking sticks and crocheted pieces for your winter warmth. My favorite is her ingenious sushi scarves!

Much to my delight, Jo bought this little dish at the end of the day and put it right to use holding her business cards! I love it when my pots get used!

Check our their websites: www.jo-shields.com and www.WyvernStudio.etsy.com

Root Beer Float Ghosts come back to haunt me...

2011-10-14T01:35:00.000-04:00

THIS IS ONE OF THE VERY FIRST ROOT BEER FLOAT MUGS I MADE!

The first time was my senior year in college when I decided my senior show was way too serious in content (all emotional, narrative, and black and white and dark brown - see below) so I decided I needed another element of fun and I made all these functional things last minute that were all dessert related (ice cream bowls shallow enough so you could lick the bottom clean, dessert dishes with luscious edges, and root beet float mugs) and had them all out there for sale - And then I fully stocked the tables with root beet, ice cream, cupcakes in ice cream cones, cookies, brownies, and I don't even know what else! We all walked away fatter that night.

A good friend of mine who I fought practically every week in class (karate class, that is) in undergrad sent this one over - Chris S. You taught me a lot while we were beating each other up. Thanks for bringin back the memories! It looks like it fits so well in the palm of your hand! I'm glad you got this one!

If you don't know, I'm asking people to share pictures of their pots of mine, and in return I'm going to have a drawing at the end of the year for a free Monica pot - so if you have pictures, please share!

The Dripps and their Drugs...

2011-10-05T00:23:00.000-04:00

Does this make me a drug pusher? Hey, if it makes kids take their vitamins, I'm all for it! Thanks to Dripps family for sending this picture along! You, too, might be the happy winner of a Monica pot this December. The next drawing (with a whole new batch of pictures and entries) will be pulled on March 15, 2012, my birthday.

These little dishes were part of the take-away party favors from Alex and my wedding this past weekend. Oh, yes, that's why I haven't been producing like a mad woman in the studio and why I haven't been posting as much! I was busy with life!

The party favors can be seen in the pictures below. They were these little sake dishes, some of which were part of the sake dish tapestry I made at Watershed, with a little organza bag laid on top that had little nuggets of clay in them. The clay nuggets (often called seed bombs) had basil, tomato, and sugar snap peas wedged into them with a little note telling a story about the cycle of clay and the cycle of life... ah yes. So cute. Thanks for the photo below, Whitney Tranchemontage:

But hey, no worries, the wedding is over and life moves on!

The development for Studio 550 is back in motion and I'll be putting out a call for entries soon for our January/February show. Stay posted!

Strictly Functional Pottery National 2012 and Open Doors Nashua

2011-09-23T14:45:00.000-04:00

Look for this piece of mine this weekend (and online) at the Strictly Functional Pottery National show in Pennsylvania! Possibly the most coveted show to become accepted into as a vessel maker and one that I've wanted to be part of for a while. If you're in PA it's a fantastic collection of functional pottery and worth a visit.

http://www.strictlyfunctionalpottery.net/

Also, New Hampshire folks Open Doors in Nashua is November 5-6 from 12-4 in the Picker building. If you are in the area, please come! We'll be doing studio tours, free wheel lessons, and tons of other fun stuff all weekend. There is lots of other cool stuff going on around town too.

http://www.nhopendoors.com/

Sorry for no new updates and the last minute show notices. It's wedding weekend!

Crepes! What else would put on a plate?

2011-08-19T18:17:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Jim, the owner of the Pipeline Pottery, for sending in these two! The grand kids are thoroughly enjoying their crepes on some freshly made brushwork plates!

Inspiration is everywhere

2011-08-12T07:18:00.000-04:00

I just recently returned from a weekend in North Carolina. There for a wedding and surrounded by great people and friends, here are a few things I saw that just about blew my mind!

I woke up in a tent drowning in a sea of tall grasses. Between the tent wall and the rain flap was the silhouette of some grasses and other weeds. I missed the chance to photograph it as I saw it, but here is a quick recreation (thanks to Alex, who is holding the bag)

RDU Airport. Public art is awesome!

I really enjoy running my hands along this wall. There is so much texture. Like nature, you can experience it one way from a distance, but you can experience it on a whole other level when you get up close to it.

Who knew nature had more than just blades of grass? Haha, silly me for getting stuck in a way of working. The next plates and mugs just might have more going on than clumps of grass.

Life is so simple if we let it be.

Let the sharing begin!

2011-08-09T14:24:00.000-04:00

As you may or may not know, I'm running a little competition this year. People send me pictures of themselves using my pottery, or of just my pottery in use, and one of those lucky ducks gets a free piece of my pottery at the end of the year! Next year it will be on my birthday, because I'd rather give stuff away than get it. Everyone likes free, right?

At any rate, here are some of the submissions I have so far. If you have a piece of mine, send over a picture! I can't wait to see them! If you don't already own one, what are you waiting for?

One of my favorite people from SU: Sarah enjoying her apple sauce!

Two espresso mugs from my fellow Aikido buddies in Montreal: John and Marilene

A present from a father to his daughter: Joanna's Seder dish

Salad Days, Salad Days!

2011-07-07T15:26:00.000-04:00

The Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts is a wonderful place for clay artists and all sorts of other people in mid-coast Maine. The 9th of July (this Saturday) is their annual Salad Days fundraising event. A $30 donation gets you a handmade limited edition salad plate made by Gratia Brown, a grand buffet of salads made by Watershed's very own summer chefs. To add to the event, there is live music, a wood kiln unloading, and an invitational sale of work from past Watershed clay artists.

If you are in the area, please come! It is always a lively and fun event for the whole family, and you are supporting a great place.

I've been busting it in the studios to make fresh work for the sale. The kiln is cooling as I write these words - hopefully it'll be cool enough by tonight for me to unload and pack up again to bring to Watershed tomorrow!

A preview of the work pre-glazing:

There is also some new work on the Etsy shop. Plenty more will be going up there after this kiln opens: Shop on Etsy!

Studio practice - go.

2011-06-24T01:06:00.001-04:00

I've recently begun a new method of working, and I'm sticking to it.

Between 7 and 9AM: Wake up, tend the garden, work in the studio until lunch. Regardless of when I start working, I give myself an uninterrupted 3-4 hours. I don't check email, I try not to answer my phone, I don't walk to the kitchen to snack. I work in my living room studio.

From 12 and 2PM on: Lunch, computer for email, marketing, photographing work, taking care of Studio 550 business, etc. Studio 550 is the art center my family and I are starting up in Manchester, NH. If you know of any aspiring artists who are looking for a studio to work in as a resident artist for a year, send them my way.

And the rest of the day I mind the pots I made in the morning, probably do some intermittent studio work at night, and reserve time for fun/reading/relaxation. The result has been a better structured and more productive day. Here are some of the fruits of that labor:

Bowls and pie plates

A recreated French butter dish for my Aikido Sensei

Bourbon cups and tumblers

Plates with brushwork

A close up of those plates with brushwork

Pots that make you smile

2011-05-31T23:18:00.001-04:00

Still playing with the bike idea, but making mugs and bowls. Also, I'm breaking into some more nature inspired brushwork pieces! I'm focusing next on larger pieces - serving bowls, serving dishes, and vases.

Etsy happened to me.

2011-04-29T14:22:00.001-04:00

It's a good thing for both you and me, but after years of putting it off, here it is!

Monica Leap Ceramics on Etsy

NCECA - Watershed Greens & Grog show

2011-03-29T15:14:00.001-04:00

Here is a sneak peak at what will be for sale at the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts Greens & Grog show at NCECA in Tampa, FL. It all just came out of the kiln just this weekend! Get it while it's hot (and it will be hot in Tampa)!

Bourbon glasses, with brushwork on the bottoms - $20 each

Bike cup, sliptrailed and stamped - $26

Green salad plates with brushwork and slip - $35 each

Bike cup, sliptrailed and stamped - $26

Bike cup, Detail of bottom, sliptrailed and stamped - $26

Bike tumblers, sliptrailed and stamped - $28 each

Bourbon cups, with brushwork - $20 each

Bike bourbon cup, sliptrailed and stamped - $20

Bike cup, sliptrailed and stamped - $26

and much more!

Cups! Cups! Cups!

2011-03-25T00:53:00.000-04:00

All on display at the Artstream Gallery in Rochester, NH:

Pie! Pie! Pie!

2011-03-25T00:49:00.002-04:00

Pie plates galore - dishwasher, microwave, oven safe. I use two in my kitchen regularly! $48 each

Confessions of a snowed in potter

2011-02-01T03:14:00.003-05:00

When the weather report is calling for 25 inches for your region and the rest of the country looks like this for the next two days:

What can you really do?

Perhaps I got this habit from a winter of being snowed in and stuck in the studios of the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts. You can read about it in this article, but the kitchen became a place where Daniel Teran, Misty Gamble, Krisaya Luenganantakul, Elisavet Papatheodorou and Adero Willard and I all gathered when it snow stormed. So many deliciously memorable times happened there.

So now, whenever it snows, my first instinct is to bake and to make pots in the studio. And that is exactly what I'm going to do tomorrow. Apple Crisp, salad plates, bike bowls, and bike pie plates are on the agenda.

Instead of driving from my car-centric neighborhood to the wonderful Pipeline Pottery in the Picker Building in downtown Nashua, I converted my brother's living room into a temporary studio! Where will the mysterious pot-spinning magic happen? Behold:

In addition to that sort of shenanaginery, this is how I have been shooting slides of my work recently:

Yup, you got it. That is our bathroom.

So there! I spilled the beans and now you know my secrets! That's okay. We're still friends.

Stay posted - new pie plates (with a twist) will be posted soon, along with new tandem tumblers (also with a twist)! Stay warm!

Something fresh from the oven

2011-01-07T22:24:00.006-05:00

Hot... steamy... delicious... pots.

Yup, this is it. I have found my new muse, at least for now. Bakeware! Pie plates big and small, bread pans, garlic olive oil infusers, bird bakers, pizza stones? Who knows!? I don't even know, and that's why I'm so excited about it.

Here are the two first pie plates I made in late December:

They've each only held sweet potato pie and apple pie made from scratch, but they will see many pounds of butter pass over them before their days are done.

In other news, the bike tumblers and the root beer float mugs had babies! Here is one from that set:

And the tandem tumblers got new wheels (they are bigger in these ones):

The items shown are all spoken for, but I am always making more, so just drop me a line!

Live Free and Ride Bikes: New glazed work

2010-12-08T02:05:00.007-05:00

Mugs and Tumblers-$24, Short cups with no handles-$18.

No worries if something is sold, because I am a creature of the studio, and am surely making more. Just talk to me.

Some of the recent bike tumblers:

SOLD (above)

SOLD (above)

Some of the root beer float mugs:
SOLD
SOLD
SOLD
SOLD

Some of the mugs:

Some of the cups:

Buy Local this Holiday Season

2010-12-03T09:47:00.003-05:00

With Etsy, craft and art shows, and plenty of talented folks all over the place, there is more than enough opportunity to buy something locally made or to buy something handmade for your friends and family this Holiday Season. You don't have to worry about traffic or parking at the mall, your loved one will get something purely unique, and you use your money to strengthen your community instead of shipping it off to Asia or South America.

One good place to browse for your locally-made unique gifts of awesomeness is coming up this weekend, December 4th. It's the Husdon Junior Women's Holiday Craft Fair in Hudson, NH. There will be over 100 local artisans selling their work. It is reputed to be a quality and well attended show. I will be right inside the front entrance, around the corner.

I'll have some of the new series of bike tumblers, new mugs, and root beer float mugs, as well as the salt fired classics. Also, I am taking commissions and you can always email me at monicaleap@gmail.com to send a request for a certain piece. Check my website to see what is available. Hope to see you all there!

Name: GFWC Hudson Junior Women's Club Craft Fair
Date: 12/04/2010
Time: 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Day: Sat
Venue: Hudson Memorial School
Address:1 Memorial Drive (off Central St.) Hudson, NH

Family Quasi-vacation

2010-11-26T15:56:00.003-05:00

There hasn´t been any new news in the personal studio front for the past month because I just have not been in the studio. What could possibly be a good excuse for not going to the studio? Well, simply because I´ve been in Scandinavia and Europe since the end of October.

Still, it hasn´t been all fun and games! Conversations with the architect and the builder have been ongoing in regards to the community art center (meaning community art classes, a residency program, a gallery and much more) we´re building in Manchester, NH. We´ve had regular meetings to discuss our plans for it.

Look for a website this winter and an art center this summer! You´ll be the first to know more about it.

Fresh bisqued work and new glazed work

2010-10-22T01:26:00.004-04:00

And so the drive to make a better mug handle continues. My very first were too small to fit even the average pinky finger, my next weak and timid on the bottom, the next were plagued with cracks when layered with terra sig, and after a brief stint working with Kristen Kieffer's two-piece handles, these are so much better.

They are pulled from a lump of clay attached to the cup (soon to be a mug). I wet my hand, form it into a mold for the clay to move through, and I shape it into a handle. My friend told me once that holding a well made handle is like holding the hand of the person who made it. To a point I believe it. Every potter I know has their own unique handle, from each of their unique two hands. Still, if you don't want to imagine holding someone's hand you're not intimately involved with the entire time you're sipping your coffee, I'd understand that, too. Just remember it's a handmade object that another human being put time, thought, and character into. It's a beautiful thing.

Cups with Kristen Kieffer glazes pirated from our summer Penland workshop together. She is awesome.

Root Beer Float mugs with shop glazes. They are tall enough to account for the delectable dessert spoon you will be enjoying your root beet float with, or for your jumbo straw. They would certainly work for bubble tea or shakes, too! Anything you want a massive serving of.

My brother taught me that the way you remember to spell "dessert" with two "s"s is because it's so good you want two servings of it. So true...

Root Beer Float Mugs 2.0

2010-10-06T23:12:00.004-04:00

They're back! By popular demand (and because I like them so much), I am making a second series of Root Beer Float Mugs. They have my trademark bellybutton and waist, with a variation on Kristen Kieffer's two-piece handle. The original series was for my senior show at Syracuse where I had root beer, vanilla ice cream, and desserts galore for visitors to gorge themselves on. The best variation I've ever had on a Root Beer Float is green tea ice cream and ginger ale (thanks for the idea, Alex)!

The longest tandem ever (goes around the whole cup):

And of course, we have bicycle tumblers and playful cups. They were all glazed this afternoon and should be done by next week. Stay tuned for the results of the first glaze firing of my work in the new studio!

Fall Sales and Shows

2010-09-23T11:11:00.006-04:00

Just a heads up, you can find my work not only by contacting me, but also at the following venues:

The Artstream gallery in Rochester, NH. I'm being featured as a new artist in their collection. My fat belly teapots will be there, as well as some functional works - cups, bowls, and the like.
Show dates: October 1st to November 30th
Reception date: October 1st from 5-7 pm

The Concord Arts Market in New Hampshire: Eagle Square on Saturdays from 9-3pm. There is a great collection of NH artists - from blown glass to slumped glass, crocheted couture, paintings and plenty of jewelery - plus pottery. Great ideas for housewarming, wedding, or Christmas gifts. It was featured on Concord's "Art in Focus" episode 6.
I will be there: September 25 (tomorrow) and October 9.

I also just started working in the Pipeline Pottery in downtown Nashua. You can find my work there anytime, or come visit during the open studio tour on October 2nd & 3rd in the afternoons. The address is 99 Factory Street Extension.

Coming soon - Etsy, a new website, and an art center. Stay tuned!

Studio Upgrade

2010-09-23T10:51:00.004-04:00

It has a great view of the Nashua River and Downtown

Trimming in the new studio

Hello again!

As of last week I started working in the Pipeline Pottery in the Picker Building. Located in Nashua's downtown Millyard, the address is 99 Factory St. Ext. and it is found behind all the millyard apartment buildings and close to the entrance to Mines Falls. It's at the end of the hall on the second floor.

The Picker Building and a number of other galleries downtown are having an Art Walk on October 2 and 3 next month. Come and visit and see what Nashua has to offer! You could start here and within walking distance are so many delicious downtown restaurants on all sorts of price points. The Nashua Garden, The City Room Cafe, and the Mexican Bakery are some favorites.

The wheel/studio portion of the studio. There is also an electric kiln, slab roller, kitchenette, glaze mixing materials, and gallery space up front.

Put Something In: Shel Silverstein

2010-09-11T22:20:00.006-04:00

Draw a crazy picture,
Write a nutty poem,
Sing a mumble-grumble song,
Whistle through your comb.
Do a loony-goony dance
'Cross the kitchen floor,
Put something silly in the world
That ain't been there before.
-- Shel Silverstein

This is a poem a good friend re-introduced me to in college. I love it. It was on my studio wall all through undergrad, and it's found it's way to my current studio. You can see it in the middle of the postcards and pictures on the back wall.

Though it is not as glamorous as I thought my first studio would be, it's great to have one again. It is tucked away in a corner of the basement in the house I grew up in. I'm working on the kiln and glazes part of the equation, but that will come in time.

In the meantime, I am soon to be found selling work at the Concord Arts Market. The dates I'll be there are September 18 & 25 and October 9 & 23. See you there in the brisk fall air! The work will be new works from this summer supplemented with work you can get a preview of in the "New Works" section of my website. Enjoy!

Manchester, NH's newest art center

2010-08-24T01:09:00.003-04:00

The mission: To enrich the lives of diverse communities through increased access to the arts

The core values: Community engagement, sustainability, and social consciousness

The Services: Gallery space, rentable studio space, longer term residency program, mubmobile, community youth classes, evening adult classes, empty bowls, public art projects (murals on the building, bus shelters, etc.), a performance/movement/rentable open space with mirrors, kitchenette and changing rooms (maybe an Aikido dojo later?) and a greenhouse on the roof.

The name: Unknown

Want to join me in this awesome endeavor? I'm just getting starting, but I'll be needing help all along the way. Web design, marketing, students, teachers, painters, thinkers, dreamers, dancers, laughers, bakers, every skill is a valuable skill.... Let's talk!

Coming home

2010-08-24T00:39:00.009-04:00

All in the last week of June I was offered two amazing opportunities - both childhood dreams, both once in a lifetime. On Monday my dad offered to help build up a community art center in the old Manchester, NH store space. The rest of the building is being renovated into residential units and instead of renting the space out to someone else, he figured it would be a perfect space for my art center. The first floor and the basement are "mine". The building is in downtown Manchester, right across from the Verizon arena and on Main St. It probably is the perfect place.

The building was built in 1890. The photo (1972) shows the building at the tip of the arrow. (Photo compliments of the Manchester Historic Association.

Then, on Friday morning, I received a phone call from the US Fulbright office in DC saying they had money available to offer me a grant. The project was to live and work for ten months in Cambodia under doing community development/resource and capacity building with resettlement communities outside of Phnom Penh. He wanted a yes or no by Monday morning.

Well, I'm in New Hampshire again, so you know I've turned down the Fulbright Grant and decided to move forward with the art center. It will be great. More soon.

In addition to all that I'm setting up a personal home studio in Nashua to prep for the Christmas season. More on that soon, too!

Penland 2010: Kristen Kieffer - Altered, Ornamented, and Electric

2010-07-08T11:47:00.009-04:00

The first night in the studio - I starting giggling right when I started to wedge again

A view of the knoll on my way to the kitchens around 6 am

After pleading my sad story of being studio-less for the past two years to the Penland School of Crafts (which was sweetened by some great letters of recommendation - Thanks Reeder and John), they gave me a scholarship work study position to attend a summer workshop with Kristen Kieffer. While the work study position in the kitchen for AM prep cook (6am-10am) did take me away from the studio a bit, the kitchen staff is so much fun and the job is fairly easy. I cut more melons and veggies those two weeks than I think I have my entire life.

The class was great. It was such a laid back environment - very nurturing and open. Kristen showed us some of her novel decoration techniques and we tried them out.

Not knowing what I would make, I'm really surprised and excited about what did come out of me. Bicycle inspired motifs made by a bicycle wheel stamp and slip trailing in various colors. Another bike bowl was purchased by the director of the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art in Atlanta, GA at the auction. Unfortunately, I don't have an image of that piece. No doubt, the bicycle is something that is part of my lifestyle right now, and it will continue to surface in my work!

Barbara - a fellow bike enthusiast who purchased my first and (currently) only bike vase in a vicious auction bidding!

A collection of demitasse cups (with Kristen's trademark two-piece handle

A bike mug that was purchased at the show and tell by Boyd Sugiki and Lisa Zerkowitz (fabulous glass artists)

A view of the sunset hillside on summer solstice - 8:35pm

A view of the knoll from my window in the Craft House

View of the clay studio at sunset

Penland is Beautiful. It also is full of beautiful people.

Fresh new wheels for a fresh new studio

2010-05-06T11:07:00.004-04:00

Thank you, Raleigh craigslist.

I am now the proud owner of two wheels - one a treadle wheel (powered by my foot) and the other an electric. Both a little used, but both equally functional and equally awesome. The treadle wheel is the same as one that I used to trim on when I was learning how to throw in high school. It's wonderfully nostalgic!

Pictured is my friend John from my department who helped me pick them up in his well-abused truck. he helped me with well wishes because he could tell how momentous this act was in setting me up for this next phase of my life and love. I could not have done this without him!

Beginning again

2010-04-17T15:16:00.005-04:00

It was the title of one of my pieces from four or so years ago, but it has a whole new meaning this time around. Back then, it was very emo. This time around, it is very real. In a matter of days I will be a graduate of a Master's in City and Regional Planning program. Where I go from here on out is still fairly open to serendipity. However, what I do know is that I'm excited to get back into a studio/pottery producing rhythm.

Below we have my first attempt to make plaster bats from old donated and waterlogged plaster. Eh, didn't work so well, so I'm attempting try #2 today.

Still, I've got donated reclaim clay, I'm soon to have a plaster bat to dry it out on, I've got some interest from local galleries, I'm heading to Penland in mid-June and I'm soon to have the time resources to put all these other pieces together. Yes, it is an exciting time. If you know anyone who is selling a wheel, please send them my way.

The end of the SEASSI summer

2010-01-16T21:40:00.007-05:00

Always a graceful goodbye

It was eight weeks of intense language learning in Madison, WI. The teachers were phenomenal. It ended August 7th, 2009, and I am just getting to write about it. A summary in ten points...

1) I learned to sail a tech dingy and a sloop on Lake Mendota in my spare time.
2) I lost my prescription glasses in the lake during a pirate water battle.
3) I made my first Khmer friends!

The Cambodian SEASSI kids (clockwise from me, Vichet, Mary, Gina, Richard, Niroth)

4) By the end of the summer course we finished reading a famous Khmer novel, Sophat, and then created and acted a small skit based on it.
5) I learned an amazing amount about my language and my culture. However, nothing compared to what I would experience in December of 2009 when I traveled to Cambodia with my family.
6) Volunteered with the Bike Federation of Wisconsin.
7) Hung out with people in the park at sunset who hula hooped & spun poi.
8) Got walking pneumonia, which may now be dormant in my body and recur if I don't take care of myself.
9) I went on a two week family bike ride with Alex's family, who just happened to be planning the annual family bike ride in Central Wisconsin.
10) Returned home to North Carolina to begin a new semester.

The very beginning of the ride - Onalaska, WI, August 9th

SEASSI: Week Two

2009-06-28T12:33:00.008-04:00

When I go to Cambodia, I will find this book.

It has been an extremely exciting week, because we are now able to put together words and sentences in Khmer, read some, and we are starting to work on our independent study projects. Whenever I slowly work my way through words I get a thrill of excitement (maybe this is what I felt like in kindergarten when I was learning how to read and write English). Each collection of symbols and characters are a little puzzle I get to decipher. Sometimes when I figure it out it's a word I already know and it's a wonderfully comfortable feeling. Sometimes it's a word I don't know, and I learn. Sometimes, I'm completely off in what I figure out, and I learn even more.

When we first started, the Director of the SEASSI program said it would be an emotional experience. The first chapter of our textbook said this would be an emotional experience. It said Heritage students are carrying "emotional baggage" that non-native speakers are not. I didn't quite believe it then, but perhaps it's true. We watched a movie about the Buddhist Peace March in Cambodia, and seeing the aftermath of the war was hard to handle. I noticed the only people with tears in their eyes were the Khmers or the Khmer-Americans in the room.

We also watched New Year Baby, a documentary about a Khmer-American woman's rediscovery and reconciliation with her family and her family's past. (Once again, probably to be expected, the ones most affected by the movie were the Khmer-Americans in the room.) There were several very awkward moments... points where I would not have wanted to video tape my parents or points that seemed contrived or over-directed. There is critique of how the movie was directed (click on the "aman_1117.pdf" link), suggesting that when Socheata was caught in between being a daughter and being a director, she directed more than she let things unravel as they would naturally unravel. More important than the objectivity of the piece, however (which you could say is arguable in any documentary - especially one where the director is one of the main characters) I think it tells a very important story. It ends with a message of healing, heroism and love, rather than suffering, silence and anger.

The director has a very interesting project in progress right now, similar to StoryCorps, but called Khmer Legacies. Its mission is to begin the difficult dialogue between Khmer-American children and their parents and to document those stories. It is something I've wanted to do with my parents for years. Since I was a child my dad always told me, "One day, you are going to tell my story, but only when you're older."

I feel like that day is coming soon.

Cambodian Dinner and Dance Party at sunset.

SEASSI: Week One

2009-06-20T21:30:00.005-04:00

My Teachers, Nek Kruu, Lok Kruu Frank, Lok Kruu Kheang

The first week is done. The Khmer group is divided into sections, Beginning (those with no or very little background in Khmer), Intermediate Upper Level (those with knowledge of written language, but need practice in speaking), Intermediate Accelerated (namely Heritage Khmer-Americans like me who speak, but have little to no experience in reading or writing Khmer), and Advanced (there is only one student in this section). The teachers rotate to each group, so we all get exposure to different teaching styles and voices.

The four of us Heritage students, practicing the alphabet during break.

I had no knowledge of the Khmer alphabet before starting, but after four and a half days of study and exercise, I am familiar with all the consonants and vowels, but have yet to learn the sounds of the second series vowels and all the grammar and diacritics that go along with written Khmer. I am also quite bad at transcribing spoken Khmer. When I first looked at them all, they looked like pieces of toast and spaghetti. Here is a taste:

Khmer Consonants

As I grew up in New Hampshire, I didn't get the benefit of a strong Khmer culture. Some other students in this program are focusing in Southeast Asian studies, there are white people who speak better than me, and there are other Khmer-Americans who are the presidents of their Khmer-Culture clubs at school, have learned traditional dance since childhood, and have even organized and directed Cambodian plays. Sometimes it feels like I am more American-Khmer than Khmer-American, and in terms of personal culture and heritage, it makes me feel a little embarassed. Then, I remind myself, I am here to learn all this - and so I do.

Learning the stretches for Khmer dance at our Welcome SEASSI 2009 Reception

Lok Kruu Kheang and Gina demonstrating a dance for Culture Hour.
We all danced afterward.

We have two hours of "Culture" where we will learn about music, dance, food, lifestyle, religion, etc. A lot of Cambodian pop songs are about guys trying to pick up girls and failing. I could not find a youtube example for the one we listened to in class, but there is a popular group now called Dengue Fever. We watched "Sleepwalking through the Mekong" - a documentary of their first tour playing in Cambodia. They are a West Coast group, representing a fusion between surfer-rock and older Khmer songs. The singer is Khmer, only having lived in the states for 5 years or so.

Summer Studies: Madison at a Glance

2009-06-12T23:12:00.009-04:00

After 20 hours in an Amtrak train and 3 hours on a bus, I arrived in Madison, Wisconsin, Wednesday the 10th. With no commitments until Sunday the 14th, every moment has been non-stop adventuring to better know this city I've never been to before. With every new discovery, I realize how amazing the place is.

Within the first mile I walked from campus to home I came across a man commuting on a unicycle and people in the James Madison Park doing Pilobus-style partner-yoga-balancing moves and people walking a tightrope between two trees. Over the next few days I spent an evening with a group of people who spin poi and hula hoops (who taught me some cool tricks), met a guy who used to spin poi and breathe fire at (strip) club, and met a father-son pair who walk on stilts of assorted styles for a living and collects vintage/art bicycles. Also, the father does the German Wheel and the son went to Circus camp (so he juggles, stilt walks, etc. etc.). I know I am in the right place.

Madison looks like a barbell of land (a.k.a. an isthmus) in between two lakes. It's the capital of Wisconsin, and you can get almost anywhere you need to go and beyond via Madison's network of bike lanes and bike paths. There is an incredible bike culture here, racers, recreational riders, hip riders, family riders, commuters, etc. etc. My apartment is across the street from a park that overlooks Lake Mendota, and it's especially stunning at sunset. There are many parks, many rail-trails, and it's very bike/walk friendly. The downtown State St. is reserved for pedestrians, bikes and buses, and there are impressive sight lines to the State Capitol Building.

Bike Paths in Madison: All the green lines are Bike-only, or at least Bike-priority, lanes

Thanks to the U.S. Department of Education and UNC-CH, I'll be studing Cambodian this summer (FLAS Grant). It's the equivalent of one year of study in eight weeks, so it promises to be very intense. The Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute (SEASSI) is one of the only places in the US that teaches Cambodian, and they also teach Hmong, Thai, Vietnamese, Lao, Burmese, Indonesian, Filipino, and Javanese. It's important for my heritage, and it will be important in the future work I do.

NCECA 2009: Unwrap/Wrap

2009-05-10T15:11:00.008-04:00

Smoked Apricot Teapot and Cups

Watershed 6: Unwrap/Wrap
Hyatt Regency Gallery, Curtis Room B
National Council for the Education of the Ceramic Arts (NCECA)
Show Dates: 8 - 11 April 2009
Description of show: Unwrap/Wrap is an exhibition of the six emerging artists from the 2007 - 2008 Watershed Residency year.Each artist’s work explores their individual interpretations of identity, through sculpture, installation, and utilitarian forms.

My individual interpretation of "Unwrap/Wrap"? Honest naked pots. Some Terra Sig, some blushing from salt and fire, and you've got some warm, silky smooth cups to cradle in your hands. Without a slide booth to shoot proper images of these pots, some others ones that were of the same body of work will have to suffice.

Ivy Tumblers

Overall it was a very good show! Maybe not the most ideal setting - with beige-gold walls, gaudy green and gold carpet and oversized pictures of Indians in the wild West bolted to the walls, but the work was good. We were so caught up in the action that we didn't take good pictures of the whole show set up or at the opening.

Still, here are some quick shots (compliments of Krisaya):

Sitting at the table

Some of my work (unorganized)

Close up of Elisavet's work

Adero Williard's Pillows

Misty Gamble

Krisaya's Happy Homes

A Memoir from the Watershed Year: CriticalCeramics.org

2009-05-10T14:41:00.005-04:00

Earlier this year I wrote an article that was posted on the CriticalCeramics.org website. It was, honestly, rather difficult to write. I really think the Watershed experience, likely similar to any other residency program, is a direct result of the people who are there. How could I describe the experiences of six people living and working together for eight months in 1500 words or less and do it justice? I tried. The only thing I can say is that Watershed is an amazing place - it is an experience beyond words.

If the link ceases to work, the article is as follows:

Watershed: Eight Months, Six Lives, One Shared Experience

Monica Leap

Tucked away down a dirt road in Mid-Coast Maine, the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts is a place that "provides time and space for serious artists to work." Leaving out the distractions of public classes, work study, bureaucracy of operations, and the pace of city life, Watershed does exactly what it proposes. Artists are given cabins to live in, facilities and kilns, a personal studio space, and lots of snow; there is not much else. Home to six ceramic artists for eight months (September - May), the challenges and the outcomes of each residency cycle is determined by those selected.

Tyler Gulden, Programs Director and Interim Executive Director, said that the 2007 - 2008 collection of six resident artists was the most diverse group he has seen during his tenure. Our group ranged in age from twenty-two to forty, three with MFA's and three with BFA's. In addition, we had strong roots spread from California to Texas, the East Coast, Greece, Ecuador, Thailand, Cambodia, and Africa. The 2007-2008 residents included:

* Misty Gamble, daughter of a puppeteer, created life-sized figurative sculptures; she explored ideas of normalcy in society and womanhood.
* Monica Leap, a potter at heart, played with the simplicity of the calligraphic line to convey growth, strength, and movement on her thrown forms.
* Krisaya Luenganantakul, hailing from Thailand and inspired by her mother, illustrated the beauty of the woman's body and the role of the woman in the home.
* Elisavet Papatheodorou, intrigued by the process bees use to create homes of honeycomb, entertained the ability of a seemingly ordinary form, multiplied hundreds of times over, to become something greater.
* Daniel Teran, a mold maker and thinker, combined issues of social conscience and self-reflection into his process.
* Adero Willard, a potter, investigated the complexity of an individual's identity through layered and juxtaposed colors, shapes, and forms.

"The Watershed winter residency is really about reflection. We are isolated, and more often than not, snowed in. There is not much sound, the snow muffles most things. That leaves you a lot of time to work and a lot of time to think." says Elisavet Papatheodorou. In a rural setting with an often snowy and icy hill for a driveway, the world became very small. Days would pass where residents would only walk the triangle from the cabins, to the studio, to the kilns, to the studio, and back; that limited environment was a constant reminder that residents were there to make work. As there was little structure, besides the occasional meeting with the office staff and one's self imposed work schedule, residents used their own discretion allocating time. Salad Days Artist Adero Willard described Watershed as a place "designed specifically for artists to make work. Unlike other centers that have a class structure with workshops, events, and lots of people moving through, Watershed is very much about solitude and freedom. From your schedule, to studio, to food, you are on your own."

Due to its open structure and seasonal seclusion, visitors have often found the charm of Watershed to be in its seemingly timeless nature. However, winter residents quickly learned that time still passed, and passed fast. Howard Kottler Funded Resident Misty Gamble said, "If I were to do it again, I would have the clay delivered the day I got here and the research done 3 months prior." Once we were established in the studios, we had to prepare for a Worcester, Massachusetts show, and once the Worcester show was up, we had to prepare for a Port Chester, New York show. When that went up, the Worcester show came down, and when we returned from NCECA in the spring, we had to de-install Port Chester. One month after that it was time to pack and say goodbye.

Although all we did last winter was work in the studios, the residency period was still not enough to realize all of our grand ideas. For each of us, there is a sketchbook full of ideas left to be investigated. Even though we walked in with an "all clay, all the time" mentality, we learned how much is possible in eight months. Essentially, there were two different approaches to our studio work ethic. Elisavet and the MFA students, Misty, Krisaya, and Adero, took one approach. Each had a clear idea of what they would make, figured out how much time it would take to make, and then planned each month out around shows and other obligations. Daniel and I took a more exploratory attitude by allowing the discoveries found through making educate the next study or series. In either case, each of us developed a daily rhythm - some people became nocturnal, some worked sixteen hour days, while others worked steady eight to ten hour days all the way through.

Choreographing how to live, work, eat and travel together took a collective effort. In addition to writing and submitting show proposals, we installed and de-installed group shows, and prepped and fired a wood kiln. Also, we taught on-site for a mentorship program, and off-site for the Mudmobile Program, which required tactful task delegation and follow through. An even greater testament to our collaborative skills is the fact that Watershed only has one hookup for electric firings in the winter. Come crunch time at the end of the residency, developing a firing schedule took planning, negotiation, and compromise.

A large part of our success was a result of how well we got to know each other. Misty Gamble entered the residency, "expecting more solitude" but instead, "made more friends." We were fortunate in the sense that we bonded like sisters and brothers. We cooked and baked together, ate and exercised together, shared movies, shared stories, and essentially, our lives. A daily battle of 'time to work' vs. 'time to bond' perpetuated in the communal kitchen, and, thus, the kitchen became grounds for a phenomenon whereby a critical mass of three or more people caused all concerned to remain for another two hours. We often found ourselves talking all evening. Conversations generally divided themselves into two categories - 3% art and 97% life.

These times in the kitchen served as the setting for the start of many of the inside jokes and stories we'll remember from Watershed. Saturday Night Dinners gained new meaning once the winter took hold of Maine; each Saturday we would create a meal with a theme, multiple courses and an assortment of desserts. Cooking from scratch, we shared the responsibility of planning, buying, making, cleaning, and, of course, eating. These dinners revealed some of our skills outside studio; Elli sang with a voice that gave reason for us take a moment's respite from our busy schedules, Adero baked Anadama bread that welcomed us to the kitchen, Misty concocted the best salads - Fake-O's and all, Krisaya prepared amazing Thai cuisine, and I made desserts galore. With so many great cooks in the house, Daniel ate the most. All these sounds, scents, flavors and memories made Watershed home.

During our time at Watershed, we never scheduled a critique. Instead, they came naturally at times after a firing, before or during a show, or late at night in the studios. As we lived and worked together, dialogue about work came without effort and without reservations. The feedback flowed spontaneously, simply, and informally. There were few boundaries because we developed mutual respect and honesty. Under those circumstances, critiques were not challenges of personality, but rather educated discussion of meaningful issues.

This isn't to say that there were not conflicts or differing opinions. Seen with positive eyes, Paptheodorou observed that "one of the most valuable things about being here is that when you are working through a problem, you have five different perspectives and potential solutions that would never have occurred to you." Each person had a unique background of experiences and education that had shaped their character and their work. As such, each person brought completely different perspectives and feedback throughout the winter remained insightful and encouraging.

Sharing work space with such motivated individuals served as incentive to keep pushing as hard or harder than everyone else. It was an unspoken influence, a kind of casual competition. Each person understood the importance and the limitations of time, and worked diligently. Because we worked so differently from one another, our competition hardly took on negative aspects in the studio. The same went for our post-Watershed plans; we all took very different paths.

In the end, we came to understand more of what we value about our lives as artists. In many ways, what one person said about their own experience applied to each of us, as we shared many similar reasons in pursuing art. Adero mentioned the freedom of flexibility in schedule, and cited the ability to go to the grocery store when everyone else is at work as a simple, but meaningful, pleasure. Daniel said of his purpose, "I want to share what I see as beautiful with other people. I really like making poetry in clay, and if I could communicate solely through objects, I think things would make more sense to me." For Elisavet, being an artist provided order to an otherwise "dreamy and disorganized" life. She said being an artist allowed the expression of "things deep in your psyche that don't usually come out. For some it is sadness, aggression, or sexuality. For me, it is order." For me, it was the people. The ceramics community enticed me my first year at Syracuse, and the community continues to be one of the most exciting things about being a part of the field. It was as if my full time job was to meet people, with the benefit that the people I met were amazing individuals, interesting, intelligent, and very human. Misty goes further to say, "Everyone is different and everyone is a mirror. If you take the time to get to know people, you can learn more about yourself."

Even though Watershed was almost everything the six of us were looking for in a residency, it is not for everyone. Our creative and personal lives were intertwined, though not the same. The Watershed Residency left us tired yet excited, in solitude yet with community, obligated yet free. Selected to live and work together, nolens volens, we learned about ourselves, we learned about others, and we learned about art.

Information

The Watershed Center for Ceramic Art
19 Brick Hill Road
Newcastle, Maine 04553
www.watershedceramics.org

Monica Leap
monicaleap@gmail.com
www.monicaleap.com

Elisavet Papatheodorou
elisavet.papatheodorou@yahoo.com

Daniel Ricardo Teran
danielricardoteran@gmail.com

Misty Gamble
mistygamble@yahoo.com
www.mistygamble.com

Adero Willard
aderokai@gmail.com

Krisaya Luenganantakul
krisaya@gmail.com

Taking Down the Ivy Wall

2009-01-19T16:04:00.010-05:00

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Sad but, it's life. To those who never got to see it, it was a hanging tapestry of about 365 sake dishes that was about 11 feet tall and each was decorated with black and white brushwork with warm bare clay included as part of the design. It made its debut in Worcester, MA, traveled to Boston, MA and then one June morning in 2008 was found in a pile on the floor.

It was born of the self reflection inspired from Maine's deepest winter months. It was a time of realization of and reflection on a good number of my faults, and it was a time of getting over those things. There is a teacher told me about how classic architects used to tell their students to plant ivy at the base of their first buildings so that when they grew older and more experienced designers the ivy would grow to cover up their old mistakes. The sake dish installation became a sort of self portrait of my change during that time. The designs painted on all the dishes were reminiscent of ivy on a wall, covering up the old faults. In spending the hours making, painting, firing and them weaving them all together I had time to meditate on what all that meant to me at the time.

Before I went to Watershed I made narrative pottery about the things I couldn't put to words, but when I got to Watershed I found I couldn't draw them anymore. I started making straight functional pottery, and after a little foray here and there I started throwing 75-100 a day, and ended up with about 1,000. (I actually have a few hundred of them finished and not in my closet here in Carrboro.) The remaining hundreds were going to be a part of another project. I was a bit shocked and disappointed when I first heard they had fallen (poor design on my part) and I didn't have a chance to see to them or think about them until going back to NH January 2009.

In sorting through them all, I strongly believe that it served its purpose (and my dad corrected me when I told him this, saying that it served many purposes, and he'd really right). When I was sorting out the unscathed, the slightly chipped, and the pieces into their respective piles, I thought about what they meant. As a whole, they told a story and they made a statement - and I suppose that was probably different for each person who saw it. Now that story is finished (and it's true, that piece represented a certain period of my life - a self portrait - and the getting over the flaws of the past self. Kind of a statement and reminder to constantly growing and not dwelling in looking back). You could see each dish as a word, or a letter, and now they can be reorganized to tell a different story... the story of who I am now. I suppose it's really only fitting that it fell - a true casting away of the past.

The final count is 138 solid dishes, 80 slightly chipped, and the rest - well, don't worry about those. I've actually taken a liking to the pieces that were broken. There are sections of the tapestry that, even though the dishes in the section broke, are held together by the weaving of the fishing line and can be fitted together to form the dish again. Through all the mess - there are still survivors.

Following Intuition: An explaination of my disappearance

2009-01-19T15:13:00.005-05:00

You may have noticed I have not been posting regularly and have not been as active in the studios with new work. Rest assured, I am in no means "giving up" or "selling out" or anything superficial like that. To give a long overdue explanation and to let you know the extent of this pause in activity, let me tell you a story.

Short story: I am currently in a graduate program for City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. As a full time graduate student I honestly cannot allot a respectable amount of time to ceramics and still get my school work done and on top of that sleep enough to remain healthy. As such, I came into this program knowing it would be at least a two year pause from studio work. In fact, it is the first extended period of time since starting to work in clay six or seven years ago I have NOT had a studio at my fingertips.

It's strange, not having that outlet. I've found that I replaced my ceramic studio with a kitchen studio. I bake desserts and I bake bread and I cook as often as my schedule will let me. The discipline I had in the studio has been translated into my "things that keep me sane during the semester" schedule (namely running and Aikido). There were definite creativity dry points when I felt as if I had no outlet and felt out of place, but I am starting to realize how these parts fit together. I'm also comforted by what a farm hand in Roxbury, NY said, "We are fooled into thinking that everything we do needs to be obviously connected." And it's true these things I'm doing aren't obviously connected, but that connection is there, and it's found somewhere deeper than the surface. I'm slowly starting to figure those things out.

Long Story:
Let's go back to my childhood. Here is something I have written that I feel explains my development pretty well, "Raised as a first generation American, I have grown up wanting to better educate myself so that I could assist in making communities such that people didn’t feel the need to leave. My parents came to the U.S. in 1981 from a war-stricken communist Cambodia. They started their life over, with no money, no language comprehension, and my older brother not even a year old, just so he and I could live a better life. They stressed their desire for us to be successful in achieving more than they could, due to their circumstances. As a result, among other values, they have instilled in me a work ethic, a self confidence, and an understanding that this is my one life to live. One of the most influential teachings my father has passed on is that time is my most important asset."

Now, let's go back to Freshman year at Syracuse. Eighteen years old, working in clay for a year, naive to the existence of Sorority girls, and floating on a cloud of optimism about the world and how I was going to change things as a teacher of the Visual Arts. I quickly fell in love with Ceramics and the Ceramics community, and became a ceramics major. However, with every semester that came to pass, I spent the first two weeks looking into other programs, either because I felt there was something missing or because I felt I was at a University with all sorts of things to learn that I wasn't taking advantage of. I have been told I have a fatal flaw of finding nearly everything facinating- to the point of being debiliatated by all the amazing things in the world because I can't focus on one. "Jack of all trades, master of none."

I looked into Psychology, International Development and Social Change, Business, Landscape Architecture, Architecture, and so on. I felt Ceramics was, personally, at times a very self-serving discipline, and I felt my purpose in life (remember this was a younger me talking) must have something more to do with actively working with the community and effecting change. Throughout the years, the things keeping in the Ceramics field was thinking, "It's not what you study, but what you do with what you study that matters." What kept me going was a vision, of sorts.

The intent was to use those skills to transform old warehouses into some form of aesthetic community city space, with bustling artist studios, creative community classrooms, and progressive local businesses. The ultimate goal of this building rehabilitation project was to create settings that fostered community by making visible the relationships between the people, the businesses, and their surrounding environment. While the core intention of creating a greater understanding of an individual’s place in a local and global community still drives me, the more I learn the more I realize how much I do not know and how much more is possible.

Here I am, listening to my intuition for once. I've gotten better at in over the past year. I am learning, expanding my world, and trusting that the clay and the hands and the years of muscle memory will still be there when I find myself with a studio again. No worries. These are all chapters of the same book, and the story is a beautiful one.

OBAMAWARE: Potters speaking out & helping out

2008-10-25T15:59:00.009-04:00

Click on any image for a 360 view and detail shot.
Pictured: Obamaware by Beth Lo, Janice Jakielski, Julia Galloway, Jason Walker, Ayumi Horie, Garth Johnson, Shoko Teruyama, Michael Kline and Andy Brayman.

A direct quote from Kristen Kieffer's website on the subject:

"Pots That Can Take the Heat: Obamaware! Ayumi Horie invited 27 great ceramic artists from around the country to make work for an online exhibition and fundraiser featuring Obama-Biden specific pots in limited editions. In just seventy-two hours (10/19-22, 2008), the sale and auction of these highly thoughtful, collectible and poignant Obamaware pieces raised $10,000 in donations for the Obama/Biden campaign.

“Potters often talk about the intersection of art and everyday life and functional ceramic’s power to impact people on a daily, intimate basis. Through Obamaware 2008, we [expanded] this dialogue by generating a timely conversation and by supporting a candidate who is brave enough to promote a hopeful, humanistic paradigm.” –A.H."

An interesting article by Sarah Archer about pottery’s history in politics and action: Kitchen Table Politics: ‘Obamaware’ Campaigns for Change, One Mug at a Time

Bike Culture in Carrboro

2008-10-16T12:15:00.004-04:00

Back Alley Bikes: Best Bike Shop. They sell only used bikes, with no ridiculous Lexus-Bike showroom, they've got affordable repairs, awesome music choice and a gnarly old couch to lounge upon. The shop is manned by Jason (in the top picture), Rob, and Ben (in the second picture). With honest opinions, friendly faces, bikes with character, militant bike stickers, and down-to-earth people, the place feels like a bike shop should.

Then there is the Recyclery. It only took me so long to put this post up because I kept forgetting to take pictures of this place. I would go each week and get caught up with the bikes and forget to shoot. Every Sunday from noon to five, as long as it's not raining and it's above 55 degrees, the barn (shown in the last image) opens up. Inside and out is some sort of bike graveyard, full of bikes and bike parts waiting for the right owner to come by and bring them back to life. A lot of community children come by, volunteer 10 hours (or are supposed to), we help them repair or pull a bike together, and they take a bike home in exchange. Other people can do that, too.
Inside the barn are all the tools you'll really need to work on a bike, and between all the people there is all the knowledge and experience you'll need to work on a bike. From what I can tell, there are two "head guys", but the whole thing is free form, who organize it, Rich and Chris, whose last names I don't know. Chris's mom works the sign in desk when you walk in (shown above).

If you've the inclination, you can work on your own bike project, the Blue Urban Bikes Project, help a kid fix up their new bike, or you can do general volunteer work. The first time I went I took apart supposedly recalled bikes with frames sawed in half, but all new components. Strange, but it was great. I wasn't attached to the bikes, so I could just focus on taking things apart! Take it apart and you'll learn how it works.We've got wide bike lanes! (It's Carrboro!)

Oh the things you learn...

2008-10-12T09:39:00.002-04:00

Surgeon General's latest finding, though it's been tracked through the years, the real effects of it haven't fully been grasped until this past decade. Here is a time based model of it's progression:
Wal-Mart's Disease

This is where I live!

2008-09-05T11:11:00.001-04:00

It's Carrboro!

The "Live Free or Die" Never Dies

2008-08-28T23:51:00.004-04:00

I am a full fledged North Carolina Resident.

My health and auto insurance is here, I have a residence here, I belong to the local Co-op, I will vote in the NC elections this November, I will file the 2010 US decennial census at my NC address, and, the most defining factor of my residency, is that my car (after much unrest) now has a "First in Flight", red, white, and blue North Carolina license plate (NC only has one plate per car, not two).

After an incredible summer at the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, I left on the morning of August 11th. By Wednesday the 13th, I had arrived at 203 Blueridge Rd, Carrboro, NC - my new home. It's taken a week, but it's finally home!

Long story short, I am here as a master's candidate in the Department of City and Regional Planning. Classes started on the 19th of August, and it's been non-stop since then. The people are amazing. I haven't even begun to scratch to surface of who all these people are. Still, DCRP has a reputation for being one of the most social masters programs on campus, so I'm sure I'll get to know them all.

Still, more stories and more pictures to come. Live Free or Die is still my motto, and the Old Man is still alive and well.

Until I can show you all my new living situation, here are some images from the Watershed archives.

The End of an Era

2008-05-10T22:59:00.002-04:00

My apologies for not posting in such a long time. Originally I wanted to write once a week, but I seem to have a hard time writing once a month.

Much has happened since the last time I wrote, as is expected. However, as a summary I'll say the Green Art Show made it's debut, I taught clay lessons to other 600 students grades k-5 with my fellow resident Daniel, I was juried into the Infusion 10 x 10 teapot show with Fong Choo in St. Louis, decided to go to grad school for City Planning in Chapel Hill, North Carolina come August, signed a contract to be a studio manager at Watershed for the Sumer Visiting Artist Residencies, and a dear friend has moved away from Maine.

As we are nearing mid=May, the residency is coming to a close. We are cleaning up our studios (or moving them down to the factory where the summer studios are) and the people that we've lived with for eight months are all leaving to do exciting and indubitably amazing things. One is getting married, another is going to get more famous than she already is, and another is going back to a teaching position in Thailand.

Though it's sad to see everyone go, we are still enjoying our days together over great food (as always), and as it was Dan's Birthday today, good margaritas, too.

Recent work: Teapots and Belly Pots with Character

2008-03-24T22:14:00.007-04:00

March 1st: The Clay Art Center

2008-03-13T23:03:00.011-04:00

Here is a much belated update on the opening on March 1st at Port Chester.

The show can be viewed at the Clay Art Center's Online Gallery.

Many Thanks to Leigh Mickelson, who is in charge of the gallery at the Clay Art Center. She has been a blessing. She was great when we were setting up the show, providing tools and materials, advice, and even assistance. In facilitating the sale of work, she has been on top of the game, and in organizing the de-installation of the show, she's been flexible and courteous. It's been amazing - really everything a gallery should handle for the exhibitors, Leigh and the staff at the Clay Art Center have done and more. Needless to say, I was impressed. Also, my friends Jacqui and Jon, from Syracuse and Ben, from Junior High, who are all living in NYC these days came out for the evening.

The following day, Aran, Krisaya, and I arrived at Worcester, where I parked my car for the weekend, to see this:

When I left Worcester for North Carolina, it looked like this:

My mom gave me compact snow shovel years ago for my car. Somehow moms always seem to know what you're going to need well before you think you'll ever need it. It's one of those phenomenons of life.

I like Fat Pots

2008-02-28T15:36:00.001-05:00

Tea for Worcester

2008-02-21T16:03:00.004-05:00

A selection of teapots from the Worcester Show. Many more were on display...

The Worcester Krikorian Gallery

2008-02-13T04:02:00.008-05:00

I'd like to thank all the people who came out to see the show despite the snowy weather, Ben and Jen, Timothy Ballan, Joanna, Phil, Erica, Jared (who I met there but grew up right next to Watershed and now lives with my friend Erica), Zohar, Whitney, and Kelsy. All the residents of the Worcester Center for Craft (who are all very sweet, interesting, and talented people), the staff, some board members and family members also showed up.

The Worcester Show was very handsome. In fact, so awesome that the Watershed Website should read, "The Mission of Watershed is to provide Bad Asses and Rock Stars time and space to work." With just a day or two of set up and a day of light arranging, the show fell together beautifully. The Worcester space is a nice open one with wood floors and an ample supply of spot and flood lighting. We residents gave an artist talk prior to the scheduled opening to introduce ourselves and the the stories behind the work.

I was showing a collection of Cone 6 salt-fired porcelain Teapots and cups with forms referencing full bellies, hips and shoulders; figuratively decorated functional work; and an installation of sake dishes that took the most time of anything else of mine in the show. In short, it is 360 2inch sake dishes arranged in an 11.5' x 2.5' tapestry, sewn together, and hung from the ceiling and off of the wall.

To explain in depth, my work prior to Watershed was about self narrative, and stories that were reactionary to things going on outside myself. It was very emotional. When I arrived at Watershed, I just wanted to work. Falling back on what I was comfortable with, I tried making things like my past work, and that just didn't happen. The pots felt contrived, and thus dishonest, and thus ugly. I want to make neither dishonest nor ugly things. They felt hollow, with no substance to back them. Still filled with the desire to create, yet no emotional flood to draw from, I ended up working more abstract. I wanted to step away from the emo stuff anyway.

What started as a little project with designs on sake dishes ended up exploding into something of a whole other scale. It spread from the designs to a study in scrolls and clay as tapestry. I soon realized that really wasn't what the piece was about, but knew I had to finish making the piece first, and would analyze it later. Upon its completion, I found it was a self-portrait. There is a quote that architects reference, "When architects of old left their schools to begin building the things they designed, they planted ivy along the base of their building, in hopes that as they grew older and hopefully became more skilled artisans, the ivy would grow to cover up their old mistakes." The piece has become about the realization of old mistakes and personal flaws and covering them up. Taking the metaphor of the ivy another step, if it it's allowed to grow and cover the building unchecked, it weakens the structure and it falls apart. Thus, the idea of covering up the mistakes of the self is a self defeating one. One must first realize the act of covering up before one can uncover and fix the mistakes underneath.

After four months of working in rural Maine with five other people, you kind of get inside your own head. I have realized certain things about myself since being here that I am growing from. The piece served almost as a mandala in the sense of small things making a larger whole, the time element the the construction of the piece, and meditation on the self and the relationship of the self to the world surrounding. It also left the surprising and delightful shadows on the wall, the tinkling noise when tapped, and the appearance of a simple and meditative piece, regardless of what it has come to mean to me. As Lorna Meaden once said, "No surprise for the maker leaves no surprise for the viewer." This piece was filled with little surprises for me.

I am by no means suggesting I am a flawless person. I am not.

All in all there has not even been a moment to breathe between Worcester, the return home and the preparations for the Port Chester show. It was exciting to return home to empty shelves and wet clay. With other things coming up, I've a week to work wet, three days to fire, glaze, and then fire again, and then the pots are off to Port Chester.

Hoping to see many more of you at the Port Chester Opening March 1st... Peace.

Sake For Everyone. Forever.

2008-01-17T23:40:00.000-05:00

It starts with a night on the wheel in a new place where I didn't feel at home, and thus didn't know what to make. I throw four little sake dishes out of a local Watershed clay, decide I don't want to make anything else until the residency starts, and they sit for a month unfinished. Eventually, they get fired in a salt kiln and I end up making over 800 of them. I actually have no good estimate on how many there actually are, but that I will figure out before the show in Februray.

There are two ways I'm thinking of organizing the hundreds of dishes, and the image above is just one of those ways. In that one, I'm playing with pattern, textiles, and functional clay, all rolled into one. The dishes are going to be sewn together to that they can hang freely in space, so that both "top" and "bottom" of the dishes are visible. Though they'll be hanging, they will be tight enough to still translate the pattern and direction of the design as one cohesive unit. In the other one, I'm playing with the idea of the mandala as a representation of time, meditation, the microcosms and the macrocosms of the universe through the arrangement of a multitude of smaller pieces. Read up on mandalas, they're beautiful things.

These two will be at the Worcester, MA show in February!

2007-12-29T21:34:00.001-05:00

It snows here.

A new beginning

2007-12-29T21:11:00.000-05:00

"Old lovers have to say goodbye As nightfall darkens in the sky The tears we cry can't keep the world from spinning But morning always comes again As it will for you and I my friend This is not the end it's only a new beginning."
-Mark Erelli

Here we are at the end of yet another year. I must admit, while I did feel a bit silly making a blog, because I had spent years laughing at people who had them, I'm really glad I gave in. In all the hustle to create the elements for the website and for other applications, I've had to do a whole lot of figuring and questioning about who I actually am. What do you say about yourself when all you've got is a paragraph or a page to say it? I've found that having to write out my thoughts and convictions in a way that others would understand them leads me to better understand what those thoughts and convictions really are.

My life has been moving dizzyingly fast in some aspects, and in others, it's really slowed down. As I get to this point in the year, I look back to where I was a year ago, and to who I was a year ago. It feels like that person is a whole different person. For that matter, I feel completely different from who I was two weeks ago. I find I'm very much more in the present and much more at peace with where I stand.

All in all, welcome to the website and blog! As "blog" reminds be of boogers, or borgs, or bogs and logs, I think I would rather call it my "pillow book", to borrow the name from history. It'll be a place to collect and present my investigations and discoveries as I work through them.

To everyone, happy new year! I hope to see more of you all this time around.