Tim Ayers Pottery

Ok, so its not really a Christmas present, but I was notified late last week that I am being awarded a Regional Artist Project Grant from the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County.

From a pool of 36 artists residing in Wake, Johnston, Franklin and Warren counties, 15 were selected to receive funding. Grant amounts range from $1000 to $1,500, and artistic fields represented include drama, literature, film/video, and both 2- and 3-dimensional visual art. The grant funds will be used for professional development initiatives in the 2010 calendar year.

I am being awarded the maximum amount to cover material and travel costs associated with my eight week stay at Penland this spring. Hopefully, I’ll be able to use this grant towards a summer workshop at Haystack or Penland as well. I should be able to stretch the awarded amount since my room, board, and tuition are already covered as a studio assistant for Tom Spleth’s concentration. Either way, its going to be a big help, especially considering I probably will have to resign my position at the NC Museum of History in March. So far the Department of Cultural Resources has denied my request for a two month leave of absence. Perhaps they will have a change of heart, but I’m more than willing to move along otherwise. I don’t know whether moving along means plugging along here in Raleigh or moving to an area more abundant in ceramics. Time will tell. Happy Holidays!

A lot has happened since my last entry. I had my first experience with swine flu over Thanksgiving. I also was not chosen for the core fellowship at Penland. Bad news aside, I did have work at four galleries for December first friday: DesignBox, Rebus Works, Raleigh City Museum, and the Gregg Museum. I meant to put that info up here on the blog prior to first friday, but my blogging time was devoured by New Raleigh. Even though I usually write the First Friday Agenda, there are always last minute releases and revisions.
Before Thanksgiving, I was able to help organize and promote the first Triangle Arts Mixer through CAM/now. We had a great turn out and I was really impressed with venue, The Cotton Room at Golden belt in Durham.
The word is David Stuempfle’s new kiln is moving along but we are planning to fire the big old kiln before the new one is completed. It sounds like we’ll be able to squeeze in a fire just before I head up to Penland for spring concentration with Tom Spleth.
Otherwise, I have a busy week at work plus evening meetings for CAM/now and New Raleigh. I’m photographing a woodworking exhibition catalog for the Gregg Museum over the coming weekend and then the holidays will be upon us again, but with a kiln firing in the works I’ll find more time to keep my hands in the mud soon.

A month away is an eternity in the blog-o-sphere and for that I apologize. I wish I could say I have been too busy with ceramics to blog, but that would be a bold-faced lie. Other than turning some cups, which I have been promptly scrapping, I’ve not been making much. I have made a lot of clay in my lull though, so when I’m ready to buckle down everything will be ready.

In other pottery news, I sold my tried and true kick wheel. I was sad to see it go but it helps knowing that the new owner will be “sticking it to the man” when he gets away from his corporate job. While the seat was never very comfortable, my vintage Thomas Stuart served me well for nine years. I have a tiny studio and want to winterize it, meaning I need to get my big ass wedging table in from the open garage.
A few other factors have contributed to my lull. Since the last big fire with David Stuempfle, I’ve been in the midst of a room mate shuffle. Also, David is building a new kiln so I don’t have a clear deadline or destination for what I make right now. Most of all, my head just isn’t into throwing right now. Most of my ideas have revolved around slip cast lately as I anticipate spring concentration at Penland. Needless to say, I’m really excited about being Tom Spleth’s studio assistant for eight weeks.

This past weekend I went east to Bertie County and stayed on my friend’s old plantation. I packed a Holga and took some photographs so I can submit to the upcoming Plastic CameraWorks2 show at Rebus Works. I took a lot of multiple exposures and had my friends Chad and Kristen wear old clothes and model for what I hope is a rather haunting series. I also took some landscapes at Merchants Mill Pond while we paddled the swamp. I’m anxious to get these developed. Its been too long since I shot film and even longer since I ventured out of my comfort zone doing studio photography and photojournalism, but I feel it could be an important direction to pursue. I’ve always been interested in doing photo transfers, so perhaps I’ll give it a shot once I start slip casting.
Oh, one more thing. Check out the new New Raleigh. David Millsaps redesigned the site and I gotta say, its way sexier.

Seasonal view from Penland.

Cristina Cordova is amazing. I didn’t meet her but I slipped into the studio since the door was left cracked.

View from pedestrian bridge in Spruce Pine

John Geci and Courtney Martin have a gorgeous garden and view of Celo and Mt. Mitchell from their house.

John & Courtney’s forest platform helped keep us very dry. You could hear church bells on the hour too, which sounded incredible mixed with forest noises. It was unseasonably warm we showed up last Friday and I was a little disappointed in the lack of autumn color. By Saturday, it had cooled off and rained and the yellows were golden. By Sunday the red leaves were popping. It was nice to be sleeping in the woods to welcome autumn.

John Geci sculptures. I love this series and his signature double walled bowls. I’m gonna try some ceramic double walled bowls soon.

I bought a John Geci flask!

I also bought a Lindsay Rogers plate!

Instructor Gallery

Tara Wilson is teaching Altered Pots in upper clay. Everyone in her class seemed to be having a lot of fun and had just unloaded the wood kiln. They’re firing it again this weekend so everyone was busy making more work. Here is one of her signature pitchers.

Jerilyn Virden is teaching Sculptural Pottery in lower clay. I absolutely love her work and wish I could be there taking her class. Actually, both clay classes left me envious, but such is life.

Resident artist exhibition

I was really drawn to the glass work of Devin Burgess. Aside from his balanced forms, I appreciate his muted palette. Glass is often too bright for my taste, although it all has a place. Were I of stronger means, his work would have a place in my living room.

Other work at the gallery

Michael Sherrill continues to amaze me. You can see better pics of his work on his website. Aside from his artwork, Michael has been reinventing the wheel, well pottery tools at least, not a wheel yet. He did improve the basic potters sponge though. I really love his variety of ribs, the carving bow, and shredders. Check out his product line at Mudtools.

detail

Here is a glass and concrete sculpture by Junichiro Baba. Again, the muted glass fits my taste, plus I think it compliments the concrete well. Both seem cold, but the glass seems cold in more natural way versus the industrial chill of the concrete. This idea of nature and industry, where they meet and where they collide, has been a theme central to what I hope to make in the next year. I used to have a cup by the artist but it somehow disappeared during a party. Go figure.

Last but not least, I saw some of Tom Spleth’s new cups.I think they do a great job of combining his print making with his ceramics. You can buy them at his new cup website too! I got to know Tom while working on his retrospective at the Gregg Museum and I’ve had a lot of ideas since then about art I would like to make incorporating slip cast. A lot of these ideas revolve around the exploration of nature versus industry. Fortunately, I’ll be his studio assistant next spring for concentration at Penland so I’ll have a good shot at making some of these ideas come to life.

More Penland area coming pics soon.

We showed up to the annual core student exhibition at Penland just as Jerry Jackson was roasting each of the core students. I had to wonder if he ever had a stint as a comedian because he did one hell of a job.

The core students threw an incredibly lively dance party after the opening. It was pouring rain so everyone was either on the dance floor or packed in on the porch, so meeting new people was easy.

I went back to see the core exhibition the following day. I’m a chatterbox so I never look closely enough at exhibit openings.

In the foreground you can see a Korean kick wheel by Joshua Kuensting. There was a real lack of ceramics in the show, which is fine. The clay geek in me just had to wait until the Spruce Pine Potters Market the following day.

My favorite piece in the show is a collaboration between Beth Schaible & Justin Turcotte. Its a vessel made of blown glass, steel, and handmade abaca paper.

I’ll post some autumn images and pics of the resident show soon.

Jugtown and Mark Hewitt will be featured in the new PBS Craft in America tonight from 8-10. Here is the full trailer.

On PBS, Wednesday, October 7, 2009, 8-10pm *Check your local listings Craft in America explores the vitality, history and significance of the craft movement in the United States and its impact on our nation’s rich cultural heritage. Capturing the beauty, creativity and originality of craftsmanship, the film highlights artists in a way that goes beyond the mediums in which they work to explore the inter-relationship of what they do, how they do it and why they have chosen a life of creating art.

Episode IV: Origins
Early craft techniques used by these artists are passed on in a continuum of creativity.
Episode V: Process
What inspires a career in craft? How does one learn a craft and make a living at it?

Sorry for the blog lapse loyal readers. I assure you I have been a busy man. I’m about to drop my core application in the mail to Penland. I feel really good about the packet I put together. The photographer in me enjoyed having my pottery portfolio printed and nothing boosts the ego like some solid reference letters from respected friends. So keep your fingers crossed and otherwise, its First Friday!
Tonight I’ll have work at the Raleigh City Museum as part of Abstractations. The show will run through December 22nd and is easy to find for you out-of-town friends. Its right on Raleigh’s main street, Fayetteville St, in the historic Brigg’s Hardware building. I’ll also have new work at Rebus Works in addition to the sculptures from the last show there. Rebus is going to start carrying my work on the regular so I’ll be in good company alongside folks like Jerilyn Virden and Greg Fidler. Tonight Rebus opens Three Piece Suit featuring Andrew Hayes, Celia Gray, and Kreh Mellick. All three of these artists have been through the core program so I’m especially excited to see this diverse show.
Beginning tonight, my Seagrove friends Fred Johnston and Carol Gentithes will have their work featured at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences’ Nature Gallery. I don’t think I’ll make the opening but since it is next door to my office, I’m going to grab a sneak peak this afternoon.
I have some clay about ready to throw, but I need to finish sanding and grinding some pots to get them out of my way. It can be hard to switch modes sometimes but I’m getting the ol’ creative itch.

What I lack in pictures was made up for in drinks. But seriously, downtown Raleigh’s arts conference SPARKcon has grown so rapidly. This was the fourth year and it moved from Moore Square to Fayetteville St. All of the events seemed more focused and better organized.

I had pieces in a prime spot for the artSPARK gallery. As an emerging artist it was sweet to have the front and center spot in the roaming gallery off our main street.

Anne, Adam, and Maarja came to town again this weekend and we had a great time. I really like playing host, especially on a weekend when downtown is teeming with the creative class.

Anne and Adam introduced me to their friend Seo who had an installation in a POD (Portable On-Demand Storage). Seo is the ceramics coordinator at East Carolina University and as you can see a really light-hearted guy.

Here is a shot of the New Raleigh trivia show. This one of of several events our website sponsored. We also had a hand in ideaSPARK, the new media lounge (which was absolutely mind-bending), and soulSPARK. soulSPARK was dead on one of the best shows downtown Raleigh has seen in some time.

Thanks to all of the organizers and contributors!

It turns out I did get to unload the bulk of the kiln. It was a good firing, but we had some issues too. If we had soaked a little longer and let the side-stoked embers burn down more then we probably would have had a sensational firing. We had a lot of black crusty pots where we usually have more colorful pots with crust and gloss, but those can be re-fired. Also, we got too hot too early and a lot of the pots in the front stuck to the shelves and floor, but the ones we got out without breaking are gorgeous. It may be worthwhile to experiment with some different wadding mix. Anne suggests a flour mix. Losing pots is part of this kind of firing though. The best pots come out of the high risk spots, so you find yourself putting some good work in pretty dangerous spots. I’ll take a few stellar pots over a bunch of mediocre pots any day.
Also, we crash cooled the kiln. You can really tell by the high gloss on most of the pots below.
The jar below was in the firebox.

The jar on the left was halfway back on the the front side of a tier. The smaller jar was in the firebox.

The jug was on the floor right behind the firebox.

This gourd was opposite the jug behind the firebox.

These small towers were the only real keepers I got from the floor in the middle of the kiln. Its a local stoneware straight and porcelain marbled (talk about some spook ware). They fared better than the solid black crusty pots, but only beacuase they were tucked in towards the middle of some larger pieces.

The two pots below never made it home. They’ll be with three other pieces at artSPARK in Raleigh this weekend. artSPARK is a temporary gallery for the annual arts conference/extravaganza SPARKcon. Both of these pots were right behind the firebox.

I’ll try to post more pics soon, and I haven’t forgot about my promise to post some hikidashi video either. busy, busy, busy…