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!

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!

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!  

From dust to dust…I know that death is a part of life, but why do we have to accept premature deaths as a normal part of daily life? I ask this because yesterday I lost another close friend to unfair circumstances. Tommy Hackenson, my childhood pal, died after a six or seven year struggle with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). I had lost track of Tommy after highschool. His parents lived next-door to my grandmother, and growing up  I spent a week or so each summer at “Grammy’s house” - the highlight being spending time with Tommy. I admit that I had a huge crush on him (my very first crush!) and so I spent an awful lot of time hanging out on the back porch, waiting to see him come whistling along with his baseball mitt in hand. We swam in his pool, played freeze-tag, and stayed out late watching for the family of skunks that took shelter in my Grammy’s garage. My favorite Tommy-memory is the time when he spooked my sister, cousins and me by dragging a Styro-foam cup on a fishing line across our yard one night. We girls were on our nightly “skunk watch”, and had no idea Tommy was hiding in the bushes, rigging up his prank. When that glowing bit of white hopped along through the grass, the five of us went shrieking into the house in terror - only to hear the howls of Tommy’s laughter coming from a nearby rustling hedge. That story has become Assad/Salay family legend! Years later, I heard from my sister that she’d caught sight of a now unrecognizable Tommy — in a wheel-chair, head hung to one side, looking much older than his 30-something years. I froze in fear. Then I sprung to action, starting with a timid letter to get back in touch, then numerous care-packages and visits to see Tommy. He welcomed my sudden re-appearance into his life, and we began a slow but steady form of communication. You see, by the time I got to Tommy he could barely talk. He was bed-ridden with full-time care, and unable to move his own body, with the exception of his right hand (sort of) and his mouth (kind of). Understanding his speech took a lot of patience and effort, but I was hopeful. Every time I visited my family in Pennsylvania, I went to see Tommy - sitting by his bed and waiting for the words to form. His memory and brain were fine, but the problem with MS is that the lines of communication between the brain, nervous system and body are greatly hindered. I’m not an expert but you can find a lot of information on this disease at:  http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/whatisms.html .  I wish I could have had more time with Tommy before he died, but I am grateful for the gift he gave me. He taught me to cherish the days, the minutes we have on this earth, for life is fleeting. Tommy’s parents tell me that he never once complained throughout the entire time he fought this horrible illness. He quietly lost control of his body, and accepted his fate with dignity. I will never forget the person he was before he got sick: a firefighter, a husband, a brother and son, and my very first crush. Tommy, fly free!  

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!