Kwai Sang Wong
On Thursday evening June MacDonald and I drove over to Place des Arts in Coquitlam for the opening of Fraser Valley potter Kwai Sang Wong's show: 'When Imagination Meets Clay'.
Winnie started pottery lessons with June at Place des Arts several years ago so was pleased to have the show of her recent work on display there. Her main interest is to explore the idea of the teapot.
She shows a variety of teapot forms, some with loopy handles and many colours of glaze, and most non-functional especially in the case of the raku-fired pieces which have decorative holes as part of the design.
I liked her miniature teapots which showed a bigger variety of lid treatments and were functional. Other teapots were halved and displayed on the wall. The glaze effects on those were forms referring to her experience of immigration.
The show continues until Jan 28th. 2012. Click this link to check times the galleries are open and information on the other two concurrent shows. I enjoyed the work of book artist Rachael Ashe in the Mezzanine Gallery.
NCECA in Seattle March 28-31
Now that the Christmas season is over and other people are back at work or school I'm quite content to be back in the studio. I've read the same sentiment from several artist friends on facebook. We look forward to family and celebrating time but actually enjoy solo time doing our chosen passion just as much. 
My one photo was taken on Granville Island on New Year's Eve. Alan and I were there to take in a matinee of the show 'Blood Brothers' at the Arts Club. Did not join in the standing ovation.. Afterwards we enjoyed dinner with family at 'Whet'. Good food.
I am happy to have an ipad now and will have to spend some days getting up to speed on its capabilities. Probably typing on my MacBook is preferable but when we're travelling I shall be able to email and use the internet. I downloaded 'DerManDar' and shall enjoy taking panoramic images. And 'Draw Free' has already proven addictive. I see that David Hockney's upcoming show at the Royal Academy is to include some ipad drawings!
NCECA, this year in Seattle, is causing much excitement locally. I've already registered. This will be the nearest we've ever had the ceramic conference. I was able to attend it when it was in Las Vegas (cheap flights from here) and more recently in Portland. Now I'm happy to know that my Medalta friend Brenda Sullivan plans to fly out from Ontario to travel down to Seattle for the conference with me. Alan can't resist the chance to spend 3 days in Seattle too. He'll enjoy the museums, galleries and meet up with archaeological friends.
Meanwhile I've been able to unwrap several half-made jugbirds and a bird teapot and get spouts/bills and handles on them and start the painting of them. Poor Soly at YVR Crafthouse is fairly patient but I now have a deadline... asap!
Days will get longer now!
As we prepare for Christmas I have failed to complete the jugbirds I started for YVR Crafthouse. Unrealistically I said I could get them done in 3 weeks, ie about now. They are thrown and have their beaks inserted. I have also designed and made a bird teapot ordered a while ago to match a jugbird and sugarpot. Photos of the process will be posted when it's fired.
Today is more normal West Coast above freezing weather - grey and damp. Perfect for doing chores here.
Merry Christmas to all my pottery friends.
Eric enjoys his new plates
Yesterday I opened my latest firing. Along with my usual jugbirds I fired 3 oval plates and a larger platter for Vancouver artist Eric Metcalfe. He enjoys the change from his usual practice of 2D paintings with gouache. On bone-dry slab plates that I make for him he first draws with pencil and then applies 3 coats of two or three carefully chosen underglazes.
I bisque fire them and then apply clear glaze and fire them to cone 04 along with my own pieces.
Mine are all painted with coloured slips and I only use underglaze when I want red or a real orange.
This morning Eric persuaded his friend David Barnhill to drive him out to Port Moody to collect his latest plates and to have coffee with Alan and me. He's very happy with the way the plates have emerged - bright, with a buttery finish. David decided to buy a chickadee jugbird as a wedding present and one of my older 'Bloomsbury' dishes for a friend.
Another visitor came yesterday. He'd found me on the web and realizing I'd just opened the kiln came right over from Burnaby. He selected a larger Flicker Jugbird with a matching sugarpot. Only after he'd left did I realize that he had pieces I'd made for another customer! Stupid mistake to make. Now I really do have to make some more and get them fired asap!
Salmon, a Woodpecker and old wallpaper
It's so good to be able to take a walk at the end of Burrard Inlet. Alan and I watched the last of the salmon drifting in Noon's Creek, having completed their epic journey. The creek was roaring down from the mountain after serious rain the day before.
I thought I'd just get another kiln load made and fired before Christmas. There are 18 new pieces plus 4 plates that Eric has painted so I'm loading the kiln this afternoon while it is not raining. But, oh no! here's an email from the airport Crafthouse wanting 8 more now. Only 5 that I have ready to fire are the size they like. Back to the wheel..
We thought we'd get a new tub and sink in our main bathroom and that we'd have tiles installed around the tub. I did that job 30 years ago and feel that someone else, younger and more agile can do it for me this time. But who knew it would take 3 weeks?
It's amazing how hard it is to concentrate on studio work when there's work being done in the house, over one's head, or no-one has shown up today! When the old tub surround was removed we found the original wall-paper from 1914!
A beautiful Pileated Woodpecker showed up at the suet feeder yesterday. 
He is the inspiration for my Woodpecker jugbird. For the firing I plan for the next few days I made some of those and another of the other ones I make, the Red-Breasted Sapsucker. The red is so intense and I do enjoy making the swooping lines on the body. Whether or not it is recognizable as that particular bird doesn't really matter. The original RB Sapsucker from my 'Ornithikos' show at Gallery of BC Ceramics in 2003 now lives in Portland, Oregon. It's fun to imagine where all the birds have flown to.
I'll post photos next week of the new jugbirds. There is a large Western Bluebird.
ECUAD’S Julie York spoke to TriCity Potters
Julie York was our presenter at last Wednesday's TriCity Potters meeting. On a horrid rainy night, when there was almost no parking near the High School due to a concert at the same time there, Julie found her way out from Vancouver. She explained her beginnings in clay as a student of David Lloyd's at Kwantlen College in her home town of Surrey. Another instructor there, our board member Kay Bonathan, taught Julie in a Design class. They recognized each other on Wednesday and Julie kindly said her design sense stems from Kay's instruction. Julie then went on to Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design for her Ceramics BFA. More details are in Myrta's notes on TriCity Potters website - link below.
We gained an understanding of Julie's non-functional ceramic work from her photos of the process and the progression of the work over several years. Galleries Perimeter and Pentimenti carry her work. She says it's difficult to make a new series at present with the full-time teaching load at ECUAD, but that her new studio in South Surrey will be her retreat in the summer. She's also looking into which galleries in BC might show her work. It'll be interesting to see if any take on ceramics, even if it's non-functional. Her work is not 'Installation Art' because it's not activating the space, she makes objects to be displayed. I found that a useful distinction.
Thank you Julie for a thought and question-provoking evening.
The link will take you to Myrta Hayes' piece about the talk and some more photos, on the TriCity Potters website. http://www.tricitypotters.ca/hot2.html
Wide Open contd.
Here are some more pots from the 'Wide Open' Alberta Potters' show, on view at the Gallery of BC Ceramics. These first are titled 'Inhale' and 'Exhale'.
Wide Open
Monday was my day to deliver new work to Circle Craft shop and the Gallery of BC Ceramics. At the latter I was pleased to find the Alberta Potters' show 'Wide Open'.
While this show of small work travels to several locations in BC our 'BC in a Box' show is being shown in Red Deer and Medicine Hat, Alberta. I think their potters may have had a slightly larger box that the work had to fit in than we did - or is that an illusion?
The theme 'Wide Open' can convey the openness of prairie landscape, but also it may simply have meant that artists had a 'wide open' theme to work on.Certainly there is a large variety of methods, firings and ideas to be seen. I photographed the pieces that for one reason or another appealed to me. In some cases I was lucky enough to have met the artists in Medicine Hat last year and others I like because they celebrate Alberta and some just because they're unusual and they work. Sorry I couldn't document all the pieces. To avoid labels wandering too far from their image I'll put the rest on the next blog.
Crackerjack weekend
I enjoyed the chance to chat with fellow potters at Crackerjack. Celia Pickles had organized two floors of crafts displays and her husband manned the central check-out. The little gallery is in a delightful location on the beach at Ambleside. I want to live where I can see and hear waves lapping the shore and watch passing ships and seals.
Some participants stayed for the 3 days of the event, taking care of their own table-sized display but I opted to have my jugbirds sit amongst other items on a good central platform upstairs. Our commission was based on whether we wanted to help or not. I was happy to have my work sell itself and take the time to visit Circle Craft on the Friday, attend an opening at Coastal Peoples Gallery in Gastown on Saturday and then just be there for a while on Sunday afternoon prior to packing up. Some of my birds found homes, presumably in West Vancouver, and the rest joined others in a delivery to Circle Craft shop and Gallery of BC Ceramics yesterday. 
My next blog will include photos of 'Wide Open', the reciprocal 'in a little box' show from Alberta, at the Gallery of BC Ceramics.
Circle Craft Christmas Market
On Friday I dropped some jugbirds off at the Music Box gallery in West Van for 'Crackerjack'. 
Then I decided to go to see the big Circle Craft Christmas Market at the new Convention Centre. Not wanting to park downtown, or take the seabus on a nasty windy day I chose to take the Blue West Van bus from Ambleside, over Lion's Gate bridge and along Georgia. A 20 minute ride for $1.75 and no parking.
As I walked the half a dozen blocks down towards the water the heavens opened, thunder cracked, wind howled all around the high-rises, leaves swirled and fellow pedestrians and I laughed at our blown sopping selves!
I was pleased to come across Vancouver Art Gallery 'Offsite' on Georgia. Here are two photos of Elspeth Pratt's vast installation. Beside Coal Harbour I spotted a rainbow over Stanley Park, next to a fun Orca sculpture. The green-roofed Convention Centre features walls of wooden blocks and these egg-shaped forms below the ceiling. Conventioneers have a fantastic view of our city, the ocean and the North Shore mountains.
For about 4 hours I browsed all through the Circle Craft displays, enjoying the very best of Crafts from across Canada and I noticed one artisan from Washington State.
I'll bore blog readers with my photos of the clay vendors I appreciate. I respect their displays, huge amount of work and the energy to work in their booths for 5 straight days!
My modest purchases did not include any pots - I really have lots! 
With performances, food and craft demonstrations there was much to entertain visitors and the jolly-vested volunteers were everywhere and most helpful. I have since heard the complaint that there is now too much emphasis on food and food-related products at a craft show but I don't mind it. A multi-sense shopping experience is more like an old-fashioned outdoor Christmas market with food, music and bright lights. Well done Circle Craft and all the amazing craftspeople.
As I ascended the escalator to go back out to rainy Burrard Street I spotted the world above my head, with the Olympic Cauldron beyond. The bus arrived quickly and in no time I was back at Crackerjack for 7pm.
