See the Sea Cylinder, Raku
I'm excited that three of my pieces have been accepted for inclusion in the Galley West Art Gallery's Celebrate Summer show, which opens July 2 and runs through August 27.
This new gallery is located in a historic building adjacent to the Church of the Holy Spirit at the intersection of Monument Road and Route 28 in Orleans.
Run by Cape Cod artists and volunteers, the gallery is dedicated to displaying and selling art created by artists from the Lower and Outer Cape Cod towns of Brewster, Chatham, Harwich, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown.
The gallery is open Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 am-3 pm. I hope you'll add a trip to your summer itinerary.
Entry to this juried show required an artist's statement, so I have finally managed to put into words what making pots means to me and what I mean when I make a pot:
Working with clay is, for me, a metaphor for life. I may think I am in charge, but everything I do is subject to powerful and mysterious forces beyond my control. I can choose to work with or against them, but they are always present. When I sit at the wheel, I form a triad with the clay and the centrifugal spin. When I work with slabs, my initial idea often gives way to the will of the clay, bending and folding as it dictates. When I commit my work to the fire, my only choice is to trust the alchemy of time, temperature, and atmosphere. If it is raku, a low-fire technique drawn from 16th century Japanese tradition, the finished pieces will not hold water, but they do hold the history of the fire. When it is high-temperature atmospheric firing, the glazes I choose--powdered chemicals suspended in water--melt and flow to form a glassy union with the clay. If I seek perfection, I will always be disappointed. But if I give myself over to those mysterious forces, I allow myself to be surprised and, often enough, delighted. Pretty much like life.
