My friend and website designer, Jim Taylor, came up with this brilliant idea to host a newsletter. Here is the first of hopefully many quarterly newsletters to come from yours truly at Elemental Artworks.
This summer I spent two weeks at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN participating in a woodfire workshop hosted by professors Jason Hess of Northern Arizona University, in Flagstaff, AZ and Dan Murphy of Utah State in Logan, UT.
(from left to right: Jason's bottles; Jason & Dan doing a demo; Dan's vase)
We had a dynamic group of 15 undergraduate and graduate art students, hobbyists, art teachers, and professional ceramists among us. Between demonstrations from Jason and Dan, we created our own pots to fill a gigantic traditional Japanese-style anagama woodfire kiln. We cut and stacked wood, loaded the kiln in one day from morning to dark and then started the kiln at 10:30 pm. 66 hours and 5 cords of wood later, we shut down the kiln. It may sound like a lot of hard work but we had our share of camaraderie, friendship, drum circles, fire dances and beer drinking around the kiln!
(from left to right: loading the kiln; firing the kiln; finished pots!)
I'm hooked on the process and product of woodfiring and have plans to convert a top-loading gas kiln into a hybrid kiln that I'll supplement with soda-soaked wood to get some of that soft earthy surface produced in woodfiring. Look for results in the upcoming winter Newsletter.
My husband, Robert, joined me at the conclusion of art camp for a two-week Appalachian tour (which included a lot of mountain biking of course!). We visited pals in Asheville, North Carolina, then on to State College, Pennsylvania and finally to the town of my alma matter, Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio. The trails in the Pisgah National forest around Asheville feel like home - good lung burning climbs with the perfect mix of technical rock drops and roots. The riding in Sate College rocks - seriously! - those are some of the rockiest, hoot-n-holler trails I have ever experienced! The stay in Athens was pure heart-warming goodness. I got in tune with my inner artist and spirit in Athens in the mid 90s and made some life-long friends there and thankfully some of them kept roots in that part of the world.
I ended the summer vacation with a visit to my hometown of Columbus, Ohio to spend time with family before heading back to California. Many thanks to Bonnie and Pat and their neighbor for allowing us to dig up a brick from his patio. Some of you are aware of my latest obsession with salt glazed paver bricks that were created in the turn of the 19th century in the Hocking Valley of Ohio. You may recognize some of the patterns in my work.
This upcoming school year will prove challenging and exciting as I am teaching more classes than ever at the high school including two Advanced Palcement courses (one in studio art and the other in art history) and I will continue with teaching the evening ceramic courses for the local community college. I sold some wares this past weekend at the local Labor Day Arts Festival www.monoarts.org and now I have to get busy on a custom dinnerware set that friends in Mammoth comissioned as part of their wedding gift wish list.
Look for more updates to come in December. Until then, do what makes you happy, love deeply and live fully. And don't forget to check out mine and the student's newest works in the "gallery of work".
Warmest regards,
Rena
at Elemental Artworks