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Drawn to Clay – N.H. Potter’s Guild Biennial Exhibition

By naomilin on June 23, 2013 in

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When:

July 5, 2013 @ 9:00 pm – July 27, 2013 @ 9:00 pm

2013-07-05T21:00:00+00:00

2013-07-27T21:00:00+00:00

Where:

Sharon Arts Center
457 Route 123
Sharon, NH 03458
USA

Cost:

free

Contact:

Camellia Sousa, Gallery and Store Director

(603) 924-6795

I am one of fifty members of the NH Potter’s Guild to show work in the biennial exhibition at the Sharon Arts Center in Sharon, NH. There is an opening reception on July 5th from 5 – 7 pm. Karen Karnes and Mark Shapiro will be selecting works for awards. My nesting pinch bowls shown in the announcement below will my contribution. Each member has written a statement to go with their work expressing why we are drawn to clay.

Here is my statement:

I am especially drawn to working with colored clay because of the nature-inspired and rhythmic imagery that appears through the methods that I use. I experience visual wonder and discovery when carving into layered colored clay. Rings of color reminiscent of ripples of water, wood grain or rock striations are revealed. It is magical to me that this way of working with the clay results in a richness of color, flow and a multi-dimensional quality in my work. I enjoy making items that can be used in one’s daily life that are visually and tactilely pleasing.

League of N.H. Craftsmen’s Fair

Brattleboro-West Arts Open Studio Tour

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EVENTS

Artist Statement

I grew up with my mother's loom in our family's living room. Not many years later I ended up with clay carving tools and a rolling pin in my own ceramics studio. The pairings of work in this show exemplify the influences of my mother's work on me and have served as an opportunity to both grow creatively and to honor my mother and her life's work.

Lore Kadden Lindenfeld (1921 - 2010) emigrated from Germany to the U.S. in the late 1930s. She attended Black Mountain College in North Carolina in the 1940s and was a student of both Josef and Anni Albers. Inspired by the Alberses and the Bauhaus school tradition, she worked as a textile designer for the New York fashion industry followed by a career as a weaver, fiber collage artist and as a weaving and art history teacher on the college level.

I grew up hearing riveting stories of Black Mountain College, its avant-garde, experimental environment and brilliant, unique personalities. As well, I was exposed to many artists and craftspeople during my childhood and took my first pottery class with a friend of my mother's. I responded to the immediacy of clay more than what appeared to be the tedium of threading warps on a loom.

While working on a degree in ceramics from Boston University's Program in Artisanry, I discovered the Japanese technique, Nerikomi, of layering colored clays to create patterns. I have been captivated by exploring many ways of working with colored clay ever since. I have also come to realize that my method of working with clay - the sense of movement, abstract graphic quality, nature-themed imagery and vivid color - echoes my mother's textiles. In designing work for this show, I was first more drawn to my mother's fiber collage work than her weavings, as a closer match for my own techniques and sensibilities. I later saw that the way I carve into the layers in two directions appear as woven fabric.

It was both fascinating and challenging to interpret a two-dimensional medium within a three-dimensional realm; to not just reproduce my mother's ideas and imagery but to draw inspiration and design the pieces as my own. My hope is that my ceramics, while paying homage to my mother, stand on their own just as her fiber works do.