“THROWN”: Panel Discussion
From the BC Potters Guild newsletter, for FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 9th.
PANEL DISCUSSION: "THROWN", Vancouver
MARK YOUR CALENDARS! The North-West Ceramics Society is pleased to be sponsoring a special panel discussion on the exhibition and subsequent catalogue "Thrown: British Columbia's Apprentices of Bernard Leach and their Contemporaries" published by the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery of the University of British Columbia. "Thrown" was recently reviewed by long-time PGBC member Keith Rice-Jones in the August newsletter, and it is available for $60 in the Gallery of BC Ceramics. The panel will feature a slide presentation and discussion with Director/Curator of the Belkin and co-curator of Thrown, Scott Watson; Emily Carr University instructor and well-known ceramist Paul Mathieu and Tam Irving, one of the artists featured in the exhibition and the book. This is an excellent opportunity to learn more about the talented artists who contributed so significantly to the history of ceramics in our province. The panel will take place on Friday, September 9 at 7:30 p.m . in Room 245, North Building of Emily Carr University of Art + Design (1399 Johnston Street, Granville Island, Vancouver). All are welcome and encouraged to attend.
For more information, please see the website of the North-West Ceramics Foundation, www.nwcf.ca
This is a link to an interesting article on the subject by Adele Weder in 'The Tyee' entitled '"Thrown": Respect For The Ordinary Pot.' Who could resist an article with that title?
Greendale Country Sampler
On Saturday, our hottest day so far this year, Alan and I drove out to Greendale, a farming village in the Fraser Valley between Abbotsford and Chilliwack. 3 weeks ago our son and a friend cycled all around this area on a Slow Food Tour and it sounded like a great way to spend a day. Saturday's event was 'Greendale Country Sampler'. Farms, gardens, small home businesses and a Nature Reserve were open from 10am to 5pm for the one day.
www.greendalepotteryandcountryguesthouse.com
Holly McKeen is the energetic organizer of the event, and a potter, so I had received an invitation via the Fraser Valley Potters Guild. She was happy to point out also that I was her first female pottery instructor! Some ten years ago she used to drive an hour to Shadbolt Centre for wheelthrowing lessons with me! Since then she and her husband Ken have established their 'retirement' dream of a hobby farm with B & B, the pottery and its showroom and Ken's Black Angus herd of cattle. Holly produces several lines of functional ware with cone 6 B-mix clay but her passion is to throw elegant vases, lidded containers and platters to be finished with her signature crystalline glazes.
Even though she was very busy with customers she insisted on giving me and Al a tour of her studio, garden and inside their home where we saw pots she's collected. She throws at a window looking out over their acres to other farms and the Coast Mountains beyond. We came away with a freezer pack of naturally raised Black Angus beef and lots of photos, and impressed by Holly and Ken's busy lifestyle in a beautiful, quiet farm setting. I've been meaning to visit Holly's studio for some years and will now recommend friends make the effort to join either the bike tour or the more leisurely driving tour when they're offered next summer.
Besides the McKeen's enterprise we visited farms where we bought fresh brown eggs, 3 perennials, frozen pork smokies, tomatoes, garlic, cheese and an ice cream! We didn't have time to visit the honey farm, the flour mill, earthworms composting supplies, quilting fabrics, soaps, light sculptures or, no surprise, the corn maze. So there's plenty to do on a return trip. We ended our drive by finding the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve on the Vedder River and enjoyed a pleasant early evening stroll along trails by swamps, blackberries and birds. We actually only saw one heron. Our day ended with a pub supper at tour sponsor Duke's Pub at the Highway 1 exit to Greendale before the one-hour drive home to Port Moody.
BC-in-a-Box 3: The Edge of Here
Today we received notification that BC Potters Guild's new show, "BC-in-a-Box 3: Edge of Here" is on its way to Alberta. The show of 34 miniature pieces addressing the theme 'Edge of Here' will be shown in Red Deer and in Medicine Hat before returning here to be shown at the Gallery of BC Ceramics. Further details of dates for the show and to see a full catalogue of photos and statements go to this link on the guild's website.
http://www.bcpotters.com/Guild/bcinabox_catalogue.pdf
A companion show of miniature work by Alberta potters will be travelling here, first to Comox and then to our own Granville Island gallery, the Gallery of BC Ceramics. I'll post the dates later.
Summer in Port Moody
Summer finally arrived and lasted about a week! We enjoyed eating outside and smelling the phlox and lilies. I think perennials are wonderful for bothering to reappear year after year! My favourite piece from the Shadbolt firing, a large vase, has proved just the right shape to support leggy flowers.
One evening the light was perfect on these pink lilies.
A visitor to Vancouver from Waterloo, Ontario, emailed me after his return to ask if I had more salt-glazed jugbirds. He had found me through my website, thanks to Circle Craft staff and saw a blue jugbird on my blog. By then I had delivered it to Circle Craft so I put them in touch with each other and he is now the proud owner of said bird. It's so encouraging to have that happen!
I have been working on earthenware jugbirds again knowing that I can get those fired here. At some point I'll throw stoneware again so that I am ready if a salt firing opportunity presents itself.
Meanwhile Circle Craft has asked that we deliver professional-quality photos of each and every piece that we deliver to the gallery. So Alan and I have decided to try to build a proper light box similar to the excellent one we were able to use in the Medalta Museum. We can claim the expense as an income tax deduction. We've already bought white plumbing pipe and Ts and Ls to join them, foamcore to make a lamp support and white screening material to filter the light. I've ordered 'Background Paper Graduated', black to white, online. We still have to find the right lights and I'm waiting for Aaron Nelson at Medalta's Shaw Centre to recover from his holiday before I bother him with specific questions about construction details. I then plan to document what we've done so that others can use the information to build a light-box of their own.
We visited fellow TriCity potter Myrta Hayes and her husband Jim who've built a light-box similar to the plans I brought back from Medicine Hat so we got some good ideas on how to start. One thing is to decide how big to make it and another is what size of paper to order. I will keep track.
Vancouver Art Gallery, Georgia Hotel
On Saturday we took a long overdue visit to the Vancouver Art Gallery. This summer's big show is "The Colour of My Dreams: the Surrealist Revolution in Art" with some 300 works from museums and private collections featuring Surrealist work, with an emphasis on the influence of Pacific Northwest art within this vast movement. Lots to take in!
Another floor of the gallery houses large work by Ken Lum and the top floor deals with photographic work including Eadward Muybridge's distinctive work on movement. The third floor is taken up with "Unreal"; work from the permanent collection. Much of it we have seen before but there were some nice surprises. It's good to be reminded of our own art history. 
This little arrangement of pieces under plexiglass by Gathie Falk caught my attention. It dates from the seventies, she is still using the wheel and temmoku glaze. Knowing how different her work became it's fun to see this piece. Sadly I noted that it was donated to VAG by the estate of Letia Richardson. Letia was the editor of the BC Potters Guild newsletter for several years in the nineties and I had the privilege of acting as a proof reader for her. She died just last year and I miss her professional approach to editing and her knowledge of Vancouver's art world. She had a good collection of work by her favourite artists.
Just near this piece are some works by Leach apprentice and Vancouver artist, Glenn Lewis. And following the 'unreal' theme there is Eric Metcalfe's leopard-spotted wooden saxophone with its leopard-velvet-lined case.
In no time it was five o'clock and we emerged to an unusual Vancouver sunny day! Just across the public plaza in front of VAG is the new and beautifully restored Georgia Hotel so we popped in to see what all the buzz is about. The owners have spared no expense in their restoration, with elegant panelling and furnishings and lo and behold! Art! In the entrances are wall pieces by local sculptor David Robinson - my photos don't do them justice.
Inside we were delighted to see a 'painting' by British artist, Patrick Hughes. We've come across his work in the Winsor Gallery on South Granville. I do enjoy work that is a surprise and his is the use of a 3D trick, placing some parts of his image on protruding panels. My photos show two views so that you can perhaps get an idea of how the disturbing image happens. Perhaps it's Venice, perhaps its outside, or not.
