christa assad

Dearest Pottery Pals,

Do any of you have a creative solution to help me get to Gatlinburg, TN, for the Utilitarian Clay Conference (Sept. 10-13)? I am trying to find a carpool that will get me there…from somewhere in one of the neighboring states, maybe? Any of you that are DRIVING there, I would love, love, love to fly somewhere OTHER than the Knoxville Airport…to meet you to drive the rest of the way!! Please send a message through my contact page, or comment on this post…THANK YOU!

This weekend my show at Red Star Gallery opened – as did Chris Gustin’s show at Sherry Leedy Gallery, right here in Kansas City! It was a beautiful spring evening (never mind the tornado warnings and screaming sirens the night before) and the First Friday turn-out was great, complete with guest stars, Victor Babu, and my colleagues Cary Esser and George TImock. My beloved friends and students came out to see what I’ve been hiding in my studio all this time.

It was exciting to see the culmination of my efforts to keep up the studio practice during this intense year of teaching at the Kansas City Art Institute – there were definitely moments when I wondered if I would, in fact,have a new body of work ready in time for the opening.

The new glazes I’ve been working with this year include a yummy satin pink, electric orange, and powder blue, along with a testy crystalline glaze that either fired out gorgeous…or dunted! 

Saturday I taught a workshop at Red Star – great crowd, delicious Bison burger at Bluebird café for lunch! – and was most impressed by how sparking-clean my tools were after Nathan got his hands on them! Nathan and Andrew kept the show running all day Saturday, and afterwards I wondered why I didn’t hang out with these guys more this year!

Oh! I forgot to mention that I had the pleasure of hanging out with the legendary Val Cushing a few weeks ago during his visit to KCAI. Val is undeniably one of the kindest Ceramic Superstars I’ve ever met, and one of the easiest to engage in conversation. I took him to my favorite local coffee shop, The Filling Station, and was very amused by his reaction to this sophisticated “hipster” café: he LOVED it, maybe as much as I do! I learned a lot about Mr. Cushing that week – like how he was an athlete in school, as well as a musician (both things we have in common), and that Bauhaus potter Marguerite Wildenhain was an early and significant influence. The stories he told about Marguerite were fantastic…and to top it all off, Val gave a most memorable throwing demonstration of his new-improved apple-core drop-lid technique! Amazing!

It’s time!… For sleep-deprivation, road-tripping, and pottery-hawking, that is! Yep, Artstream Nomadic Gallery has hit the road - and will be making three stops on this spring tour. Hope you’ll drop by to say hi!  
 

One of KCAI’s beloved former painting and drawing professors, Lester Goldman, was featured in a mind-boggling retrospective exhibition here in Kansas City last month. A staggering amount of works on paper and paintings are still held on display in an unleased warehouse space on at 1619 Walnut Street downtown. Goldman, now deceased, was prolific during his months off between teaching semesters at KCAI - and apparently used every spare moment during the semester to paint and create works on everything from canvas to brown grocery bags! My good friend Sam Harvey of Aspen, CO, came to KC to snatch up a masterpiece for himself. He and Kathrin Goldman, Lester’s wife and keeper of this grand estate of artworks, lifted drawing after drawing from one stack to another, while a group of us art-whore-voyeurs peered over their shoulders…   Occasionally I dragged myself away from the huddle to view the bright, abstract paintings on the walls around us. The entire space reminded me of Pee Wee’s playhouse - oversized, neon-green plastic spheres clustered in one area, tubular squiggles of some unidentifiable material in another - it was a virtual playground for the eyes! I looked at these two paintings the longest…      

I was extremely honored to have one of my Iron Teapots included in a special exhibition at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s brand new de Young Museum. The teapot show is part of a fabulous exhibition, The Diane and Sandy Besser Collection, up through the beginning of January ‘08 (see de Young website for full details). I attended the opening (my first visit back to my long-lost homeland) and it was an INCREDIBLE show - and I’m not just saying that because my work was in it! Jason Walker’s piece blew my mind, as did Sergei Isupov’s (both represented by Leslie Ferrin Gallery, my dream gallery) and many others. There were 75 teapots in all, a virtual who’s who of contemporary American ceramics. A gorgeous color catalog is available - you can even buy it on-line for $29.95 and it is WELL worth the money…here’s the link for that. THANK YOU, Sandy, for making this all possible!!
The opening weekend was full of events for the artists and collectors, and many parties were held in Sandy Besser’s honor…we had tons of fun. Despite being shooed away by museum guards, my friend Whitney snapped this pic of me in front of my teapot!

Last Saturday a bunch of us KCAI clay enthusiasts attended Jun Kaneko’s amazing kiln opening of a project he’s spent nearly 3 years completing. In collaboration with Mission Clay of Pittsburg, Kansas - a manufaturer of commercial sewage pipes - Kaneko and his team built large-scale Dangos and Heads that were fired on-site in these gigantic beehive kilns. All of these photos were taken by Gabriel Reed of Kansas City.
The Heads were some of the largest of their kind, and part of the intensity was entering the kiln interior to mingle with these incredible creations. I really loved viewing them in their “natural habitat”, so to speak.
Jun Kaneko was a very generous host, providing a gorgeous barbeque banquet, live classical music, libations, and a setting for it all that couldn’t be beat. It was a beautiful day, perfect weather actually, and the kiln yard bricks, pipes, and other industrial jewels provided an inspiring landscape. Here is a shot of some of my students from the Art Institute - I think it is fair to say we all had a fantastic time!
Thanks, Jun, for a very memorable day…

Wow - summer is over and today I teach my first class at the Kansas City Art Institute. It’s a busy time, this “back to school” business, but I just had to post a few photos from my amazing stay at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, CO. Doug Casebeer, Program Director of Ceramics at the Ranch, invited me and some fabulous folks to teach for two weeks at the beginning of August. If you have never visited the Ranch, I INSIST that you make it a priority for next year! Since my first stay way back in 1994 I have met many incredible artists there, but never before was I witness to the spectacle that was the Martin/Babu/Parady reunion! I was lucky enough to be a part of this session - and I won’t leak any of the juicier secrets of our party’s party! Suffice to say, a lot of work was made, even more food was eaten/drinks imbibed, and I think we counted 14 kilns that fired off. Oh, and there was hot-tubbing. Yeah - every sore-backed potter’s dream!
During my stay, Doug Casebeer put up a fabulous show of his sculptural work at the Harvey/Meadows Gallery in Aspen Highlands. Here’s Doug with my long-time friend and fellow potter, Bradley Walters. Owned by my favorite clay-pals, Sam and Alleghany, HM Gallery was chock full of treats for us to touch. Here’s a group shot of the gang: Scott, Alleghany, me, Sam, Victor and Andrew. Sam and Ghany even let us visit their “behind the scenes” rooms where all the buried treasures lay! Alleghany’s newest treasured creation was also on-hand…