It was time to bring some new work in to Circle Craft Co-op on Granville Island, so on Thursday Alan and I braved the rain for, wow! a day in Vancouver! It’s been a long time (for Al).
After the mini-Raid recently with Monique and Renée, Eric Metcalfe took home and has finished painting two bisqued slab plates. I collected them from his home/studio at the Western Front and they’ll join my next firing of earthenware. The 2018 plate that he kindly donated to ‘That Pottery Thing’ auction realized a splendid price.
Next Tuesday I am invited to join a Zoom meeting when he will be interviewed by UVic alumnus (MA ’13) Curator Dorian Jesse Fraser as part of ‘Eric Metcalfe: Pop Anthropology’ in the Legacy Maltwood Art Gallery in Victoria. It celebrates Eric’s 60 years as a multi-media artist and his recent award of a UVic Honorary doctorate.
Changes are afoot at Circle Craft with Signatures having taken over the running of the shop and of the planned Christmas Market. It was cancelled last year so we have high hopes of a successful re-start of Vancouver’s most popular high-end Crafts market this year. Meanwhile we, the members, have been asked to freshen up our selection of work in the shop so I have removed the few pieces that date from before 2020 and left new work in their place. I know that staff will make a pleasing new display of my earthenware jugbirds and plates and soda tea-pot and vases. Sales have really picked up recently so the Shop Local idea is taking hold.
We lunched in the market with our son Mike (who starts a new job next week), and strolled around the island, checking other galleries, before the rain persuaded us to head back to the ‘burbs.
But one more errand.. multi-media artist Glenn Lewis had left behind the plate he ‘won’ in his surprise package at That Pottery Thing, and I had found it and promised to get it to him one day. It was a good excuse to see his studios in East Vancouver. Here is Glenn’s website where you can see photos from his many shows over the years:
His claim to fame in the ceramics world is the two years he spent apprenticed to Bernard Leach in St. Ives, Cornwall in 1961-63, after which he taught ceramics in the UBC Education department for several years, split with one year teaching at Alfred U in NY state. But his artistic persuits have ranged over many other media from a particular focus (hah!) on photography, to installation and performance art, to running a garden enterprise on the Sunshine Coast. Since 2006 he has returned to living and making art in Vancouver and currently has two studios in a building on Franklin street. He rents out some of his large space to other artists and a gallery so that there is a marvellous atmosphere of creativity generated. I miss that.
He met us at the front door and took us upstairs to the well-equipped ceramics area first and we met his studio colleague Emily Sheppard. He was, in fact, in the middle of giving a private pottery lesson. He, Emily and another potter share the teaching so that Monica was learning from 3 different people each week. I was impressed to see six wheels in the teaching area as well as personal studio spots for each resident artist.
Glenn’s pots are everywhere and he mentioned several projects which are under way. We gather that some Still Lives are planned and find that Emily has been tasked with fabricating various items, including realistic vegetables, for planned photographs.
We were led back downstairs to Glenn’s other studio which is kept much cleaner and where there is an impressive collection of his pots, and items that will be used for future shows. There was a replica of Cezanne’s table and a painting, some vases that resembled Morandi pieces, items from shows in Japan, photos galore and pots that were made in Jingdezhen and Bizen and in several of the famous Japanese ceramics sites. Most pots had been fired in anagama-type kilns, but some were plainly reminiscent of British country ware. My photos simply record Glenn’s enthusiasm for his trove of historic pots and plans for upcoming installations/shows/travels/photographs.
Returning the much-admired Sharon Reay plate to Glenn was a good idea. Now I have more questions about his career and future ideas and hope I can continue the conversation with Glenn and Emily one day soon. Thanks for the tour Glenn.
From Wikipedia, slightly out of date:
Lewis is a contemporary ceramicist, sculptor, potter, muralist, photographer, videographer, filmmaker, performance artist, and writer, as well as a teacher and administrator.[3][2][4][5]
After receiving a scholarship from the Royal Canadian Legion in Kelowna, British Columbia in 1954, Lewis spent the next ten years studying painting, drawing, and ceramics, and teaching.[6][7] In 1969, Lewis was commissioned by the Canadian government to create a work of art for Expo ’70 in Osaka, Japan. Artifact, a sculptural ceramic work, was ultimately not shown, because it was thought by the commissioner of the Canadian pavilion to be obscene.[8]
As a co-founding member of the New Era Social Club, Intermedia, and, in 1973, the Western Front, Lewis was one of an internationally recognised group of artists who established social practice as an artistic medium in Vancouver.[1]
In 2017, Lewis was named by the Canada Council for the Arts as one of eight recipients of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts, for which he received a $25,000 cash prize.[7]
Lewis lives and works in Roberts Creek, British Columbia.[9]
I liked your pottery blog visit very much. Thanks, Glenn