christa assad

As I scramble to pack my bags for my 2-week workshop at Anderson Ranch, I can’t help but sneak away from my suitcase to write a little bit about my incredible trip to Greece last month! I mean, how much longer can I procrastinate? I’ve just been so busy trying to get things rolling here in Berkeley at my new studio, and FAST, seeing as American Craft came by to do a little photo shoot there with me the other week and so I just HAD to kick it into high gear…

Anyway - my dear friend and fellow potter, Vicki Snyder, lured me out the gorgeous little island of Kea (first in line of the Cyclades) to help her set up HER brand-new studio - she is, incidentally, the only potter on the island!! Once we got past our initial hang-up of no electricity installed (i.e. no kiln), we breezed through the next hurdle of locating all the raw materials we needed and found plenty of time to get to the beach!

Vicki and our friend Stavros (the electrician!) in front of her new pottery studio

Getting to the beach involved some off-road driving, and Vicki proved to be one tough cookie behind the wheel of an unfamiliar Japanese-made car…with Bella (her Great Pyrenees) in back, we ventured to an average of two different beaches a day, making our way around the coast slowly but surely!

Bella, Vicki and the Aegean Sea!

I fell in love with the maze of steps that wound their way up the hill of Kea Village. I took a long walk every night that would get me good and lost…best way to get to know your way around a place!

My last two days were the first days I laid eyes on any pots, believe it or not! Like I mentioned - there were no contemporary potters on the island of Kea before Vicki planted her wheel there, and I wasn’t planning to visit Athens this visit…that is, until I missed my plane home! Lucky me!

Ancient scoops, at the Kea Museum of Culture

Full Moon over Athens Ruins

The best thing about traveling, though, is meeting people. My favorite local character was definitely Rolando, a jovial, flirtatious Greek chef of his namesake cafe…Roloando’s!

Have I mentioned lately how much I love California?! Well, I love it so much that I’ve decided I’m going to start a new category called “Why I Love California” so you can always check in for the quick stats on why this state is so fabulous. But I digress…what I really wanted to do was show you what I’ve been working on in my NEW STUDIO!!!! My friend Brian came up from L.A. to visit me last weekend and had some genius thoughts to offer about my work…so Brian, this teapot’s for you!

Those of you who know me might already know this, but I love the San Francisco Bay Area more than any place else in our fair country…and after spending a year in Kansas City, I am HOME at last! Don’t get me wrong - I had a great time in KC: great job, super-fun students, unforgettable BBQ, a new b.f.f. (TOM BINGER, YOU RULE!!), and rockin’ out at my favorite local venue, The Record Bar. But on June 14th, after an “epic” cross-country journey with my pal Gabriel, I landed right back where I started here in California nearly ten years ago — beautiful, sunny Berkeley! One of the very first things I did was run off to Stinson Beach with my girl, Whitney, to soak up some of that much-missed Cali-coastline!

My new studio, 4th & Clay Studios, is only a mile down the street from my new abode, and so I am happily skipping (or biking) down the street every day to make pots. You can find me working away with clay gal-pals Rae Dunn and Josie Jurczenia at:

4th & Clay Studios, 2390 4th St., Suite C, Berkeley, CA 94710

Come visit us!

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!

Just got back from NCECA (the national conference on the education of the ceramic arts) in Pittsburgh, PA (my hometown!) and boy am I jazzed up. I think I’ll have to write a few posts to get all the information and photos up, and first I want to start by talking about The Studio Potter magazine. I’ve been a subscriber off and on for some years now, but my commitment to this periodical really became solidified when potter Mary Barringer became editor. Mary has given The Studio Potter a total infusion of fresh energy, ideas, and incredible new thematic content. Published twice a year, each issue is more like a book than a magazine, with glossy, full-page color photos, and informative articles and dialogues with today’s leading ceramic artists, as well as students and educators. The best part is - there are absolutely no advertisements!! Just cover to cover content, breath-taking images, and a polished, yet grass-roots inspired feel - written by potters for potters. In every issue is a call for submissions for the next issue, encouraging experienced and new writers alike. It’s the perfect opportunity for all of you clay lovers to contribute your thoughts and energy to an incredible periodical - a chance to publish your first article, have your images seen, or to try to change the world - who knows! If nothing else, you had damn well better subscribe - because without us, this glorious publication will cease to exist. Visit: www.studiopotter.org  p.s. while at NCECA I was “tattooed” by Mary Barringer and Alleghany Meadows…check out the GUN SHOW!  

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…      

On Saturday, March 1, 2008, we celebrated the grand opening of the brand-new Ken Ferguson Teaching Collection Room at KCAI. After the “ribbon-cutting” ceremony (no real ribbon or over-sized scissors!) and remarks by school president, Kathleen Collins, Ceramics Professor and Chair, Cary Esser, and Ken’s wife, Gertrude, we moved on to lunch at the Kemper Museum’s Cafe Sebastian. Lucky for me, assigned seating (always scary) landed me right next to Victor Babu, my pottery hero, and we shared two entrees like an old married couple. What a blast! Victor is so charismatic and engaging, I didn’t even notice that most everyone behind me had finished lunch and left - while Victor and I were yakking it up!  

I’ve been meaning to post these photos for a while now - think I was hoping I’d have some professional shots done first, but I can see that’s not going to happen any time soon…so here you have it: the glaze-fired Matryoshka Doll series I made at Linda Christianson’s workshop at Red Star Studios last November. Hilarious!    

Just before Christmas one of my favorite people in the world died of injuries from a house fire in Oakland, CA. He was 31 years old, full of life, and at the time was visiting the Bay Area to reunite and record with his long-time bandmates, The Japonize Elephants. I first met Evan about 11 years ago in Bloomington, Indiana. I was in grad school then, and Evan was the best friend of my then-boyfriend…well, back then dating any one of the nine members of the Japonize Elephants was like dating the whole band: we had Jaeger Thursdays (accompanied by reel to reel, old-school movies rented from the library), Bob’s Bacon Barn barbecues, group swims in the “Hair Pool”, and rainy night streaks down South Grant street. Oh, and lets not forget tending to the Cess! Whatever the event, Evan was always there standing in the center of the group of us, entertaining. His effortless stand-up routine left us all writhing on the floor and trying not to pee our pants. No one could wear Spandex like he could, and when GoGoYaYa arrived on the scene - forget about it! - might as well bring your toilet paper along in your bag…I could tell stories about Evan all night. Our paths intertwined closely over the past decade, as most of the Elephants moved to the Bay Area around the same time I did, in 1999. Evan split his time between these cities, balancing love and music, and any time he was in SF I was sure to find him. He just had that special sumpin’ sumpin’ - a magical kind of charisma that drew everyone to him. His wacky humor left nothing untouched, nothing sacred. But most of all, he used himself as the object of all jokes - add costumes, make-up, lights, music, whiskey…and off he went! Evan will always live on in my heart and in my laughter, I know, but his absence will be obvious. He was just so warm and cuddly, ready to give a really great hug, and always able to cheer me up. You couldn’t not laugh around Evan - and he included everyone in his circle. Everyone that knew him loved him - and he holds a special place in my heart. His loss is a very, very hard one for me to bear - so I’d like to post a photo of him here, so that I can see his fun-loving self every time I check in. Evan, you will never be forgotten! Evan leaves behind a wife and two boys. Evan and his wife, Jill, had just bought a house - and now Jill is left to support herself and her two boys without the much-needed help of Evan’s income. Her biggest fear is losing their new home. Any contribution will be gratefully accepted - whether you knew Evan or just want to help. Thank you!! To donate to the Evan Lives Memorial Fund go here: http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick&business=gogoyayaliveson%40gmail%2ecom&item_name=Evan%20Farrell%20Memorial%20Fund p.s. i didn’t even mention what a super-talented, multi-instrumentalist Evan was!!! Believe it!