Residencies

MISSIVE: NCECA SYMPOSIA IN NANTUCKET - A GIFT!

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Missive re Nantucket Island School of Design & the Arts

 

I’m still basking in the glow of my week on Nantucket, tucked away in a massive studio barn with some NCECA peeps and a couple of new mug slinger friends. (National Council for the Education of Ceramic Arts – I’m on the volunteer working board of this organization through which this opportunity came about).

I used the time and space to play, and begin to bring concept to clay with the still life series I’m planning for the Montreal solo show this September. I had brought moulds to get out of the gate running, and little tubs of different possible inclusions to enhance the gritty surface textures I am going for. Serendipity prevailed, and the quality of the tile crushed pebbles/gravel in the sand on the beach at the end of the road need the studio proved to be the most conducive – stunning. I travelled with a small Rubbermaid container of this in my backpack, and twice had security do some extravagant fenagled test on it – apparently they were testing for explosives – but they were happy to let me have a piece of the island.

I have to admit that I also carried a small sampling of scallop shells home, hoping to make earrings for my friends. The abundance of these shells on the beach is immeasurable. Drinking in the fresh Atlantic Sea air brought me right back to summers in my youth at Kouchibouguac, New Brunswick. Tracing a collage of sandprints on the beach with my tai chi remains a favourite privilege and joy.

Steve Hilton, the incoming President of NCECA was our fearless and incredibly helpful leader, and Yesha Panchal, Grace Han, Alex Ferrente, and Stephanie Lanter were part of our talented group. We had an outing to Long Point – bouncing along the beach in the back of a pick up truck, and tumbling out to explore the dunes that bourgeoned with wild rose and fluffy baby sea gulls. The ocean was azure blue and ice cold, but the seals were just as curious about us as we were of them, and they frolicked nearby, peering at us as if we were the main attraction. The excursion ended in an unexpected team building experience when we took the interior road back, and got seriously stuck in the sand. After digging ourselves and pushing and grunting for a while, uner the relentless hot sun – we sent two parties out in two different directions in search of help. Mitch and I eventually flagged down a friendly ranger who saved the day.

 The crew of young residents were shy at first, but once we got them to strut their stuff, we felt like a team, and ended the week with twelve wheels spinning, 24 hands creating pots for the Empty Bowls charity.

 Laura and Mitch are the summer resident couple who basically make things happen – Laura is the Director of Programming and Mitch makes things happen, along with his trusted furry buddy, Buddha. Mary Kuhn is the magic maker who envisioned and realized the arts centre oasis. We had artist talks, Pecha Kucha style and 15 or so community members came out, and we each had a piece in the small gallery. One community member, invited us to her home with her friends and we got to take in the charm, wit, beauty, and honestness and hospitality of the spirit of Nantucket.

A highlight for me was the Whalers’ Museum that I visited when we spent an afternoon wandering the city itself. The hydrangea are too beautiful for words, and the majority of the homes conform to a grey and white palette, mostly cedar shingles. I happened into a guided visual presentation of the history of not only the island, but the relationship between the Indigenous peoples, the W, and the settlers – it was the Wampanoag People who taught the white man to salvage and efficiently harvest the whales who washed up on the shore. It was the white man who got greedy and started to hunt the whales out of the water. Nantucket was one of the top five whaling ports in North America.

 I would be remiss if I did not to mention the culinary expertise that abounded – chipotle, arepa, dosa, chole/channa, falafel, bibim bap – pretty much an unparalleled global cuisine!

 I came away richer for the new and deeper friendships forged, with a fulsome sense of mutual sharing – sharing of ceramic technical and creative tips, sharing of critical feedback, and sharing of our lives. All of the members of the ad-hoc committee re Multicultural Fellows Exhibition Planning happened to be with me – and we engaged in much productive NCECA visioning.

Maria Gezler Garzuly Workshop - Kecskemét

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Missive – Maria Gezler Garzuly Printing on Clay Workshop, Kecskemet, October 2-8 2023

Maria Gezler Garzuly

Sharing and learning with mentor, Maria Gezler Garzuly is a powerful, would-nourishing experience.

I met Maria in May of 2018. I was participating in a Hungary/Canada symposium at Kecskemet Ceramics Institute on the theme of Muscle Memory facilitated and invited by Mimi Kokai. There were seven Canadians and seven Hungarians, and we were working very hard to get our exhibition pieces ready within the one-month time allotted. I noticed this tall, yet spritely elderly woman with a lovely blue apron working to glaze a number of large stone-like objects near the gas kilns. I was curious, but Maria was frantic, working with extreme focus and tenacity. Two days later, Maria came to me, and she asked me about myself, and she shared about herself, her life, her work, and her family. We found a natural connection through our mutual love for classical music. I had begun to explore photography on porcelain prior to meeting Maria. A few days later, Maria invited me to come and study with her in her workshop to learn about image transfer and screen-printing. Covid happened, and five and a half years later, October 2023, the universe opened a doorway — Maria’s invitational course aligned directly with the end of my residency at Cill Rialaig in Ireland. I knew it was meant to be. The week was a massive adrenaline shot to my professional development, and a gift that I am so grateful to have received.

Nine women came together under one roof and drank fully of the wisdom, knowledge and expertise of Maria. We began, unexpectedly for me, with printing on glass, and suddenly I was a multimedia ceramics/glass artist! We each chose an image and made our own 8” x 10” silk screens from scratch – stretching the fabric over the frames, and learning under Maria’s careful instruction the magic of emulsification, light and image transfer. Maria taught us that there is no limit to what we can achieve, except for our own imaginations. She also taught me not to rush forward, to be patient, to be precise and to honour accuracy while at the same time allow for spontaneity. The joy of watching Maria create a new work from a shattered set of shards is something I will never forget.

I chose to work with an Irish block print image that was reminiscent of the landscape that seeped into my soul in the south of Ireland. Others brought their existing screens, six of the students are repeat apprentices under Maria’s tutelage. Each shared their images, and the collective ingenuity of the group was also a great learning opportunity. My creative taps are bursting with ideas to explore when I return, many years-worth of inquiry in the studio await me.

We also spent several evenings sharing our creative journeys on the big screen over palinka (vodka-like plum schnapps that is a local specialty). Maria offered us an overview of Hungarian ceramic artists and her work, I shared my work with image on clay, others shared about their life and work, including administrator, Kitti Antel, and our last guest, the mentor starting a workshop the following week, David Binns from Wales, illuminated us with his impressive research, creation and “green” recycling industry glass/ceramic work.

I had two days at the end of the course, and the warmth and openness of the group did not let me down. A fellow student from Austria offered to drive me to Maria’s hometown of Szombathely, the oldest city in Hungary, settled by the Romans in the 2nd century. Five of us arrived in virtual tandem, and spent a rare and enraptured afternoon at the Szombathely Keptar, revelling in Maria’s solo retrospective exhibition, Drama in the Garden. Maria has donated the works to the museum, and this is to become a permanent exhibition – the culmination of a lifetime of love, passion, loss, pain, curiosity, joy, rendered through Maria’s lens and life experience. Words are not enough.

We were then treated by Maria to a visit in her home and her studio, stories of her family, of the war and of the Revolution. Maria’s generosity and hospitality is overwhelming.

I am honoured to have eight new friends and colleagues in clay, and to glimpse but a fraction of the genius of Maria Gezler Garzuly.

I would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council for supporting in part, my participation in the workshop with Maria Gezler Garzuly in Kecskement, Hungary.

IRELAND: Cill Rialaig, & Much More!

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Cill Rialaig is a miracle of a place on the southwestern cliffs of county Kerry in Ireland. It was born out of the will power and vision of 80-year-old Noelle Campbell-Sharp who formed a conservation committee and renovated eight 1790 pre-famine cottages thirty years ago. Noelle is a force of nature unto herself – a former magazine media mogul, she is dedicated to the over 6000 artists who have donned the doors of Cill Rialaig. I have had the privilege to stay in one such cottage with the best view of the cliffs, and a generous skylit studio space for the past two weeks. The people of Kerry are warm a kindly folk. While I have spent much time in silent solitude, wifi-free, reading, writing and beginning to hone my 2D painting skills with acrylics – I have also enjoyed getting to know a handful of kindred spirits here, perhaps a third to half of the artists who rotate through the cottages, and formed friendships quickly and with ease.

The highlight of my time here was taking advantage of a glorious sunny day, the stars aligning, and heading out for four and a half hours with a local archeologist in search of 5000 year-old petroglyphs. She took us to a spot that she knew well, and we easily found a dozen or so fairly stunning examples of rock art on the boulder strewn meadows of Glenbeigh, about an hour’s drive north. Then she asked us (I was with two American artists at the retreat) to wander about and find petroglyphs. And I did! I discovered a rock that had not been registered or recorded before. It’s a significant finding, with little to no lichens, which means that the peat had recently cleared from its surface. My eye counted at least eight circles and a straight line joining a few of them, concentric and small stacked “figure-8-like” chiselled markings within larger circles. Our guide was taken aback, as no visitor had ever discovered new rock art before. She contacted me the next day to get my particulars and my photographs for the national monument registry. I have truly left my mark in Ireland!

I have struggled with a sense of insecurity – and it was virtually impossible to break free from the drive to render the land with paint – but once I let go of the urgency to create something with a semblance of realism, I was able to flow with my true heart’s calling, abstraction, and then overlay the works with sand-paintings of the petroglyphs, actual transcriptions from my photographs.

Another highlight has been getting to know Stephen and Alexis O’Connell – a couple of production potters who set themselves up a mere four years ago, and are working full-time to supply a few Micheline star restaurants and chefs in Ireland. They work with ash and minerals making subtle minimalist work that appears to be atmospherically fired, yet brilliantly all fired in electric kilns! We had a couple of great visits and found that, yet again, the world is a tiny vessel indeed: Stephen was in Delhi last year and was guided in his pursuits by my former mentor, Mini Singh! Alexis is from Australia, all sorts of points of connection, and many shared values. Good people.

Stephen and Alexis O’Connell @ Fermoyle Pottery

When I felt as if I had put in a day’s work in the studio, and rain was not driving down on my skylights, I rewarded myself with a little excursion to see some local ruin or small town, or to take in the salt air of the sea. I was gifted many angels on my journey – artists who know the land well who guided me to find the ancient monastery ruins, the standing stones, and literally gave me the lay of the land. I am thrilled to find myself in the global communications capital of the 19th century, where the first transatlantic cables made contact with Heart’s Content, Newfoundland the 1850’s. I walked the shores of the cable stations and my heart leapt to be filled with the scent of the Atlantic – the wind whipping through every nook and cranny of its cragged landscape. I couldn’t help recall my time growing up in New Brunswick and all the times we ventured to the coast. There is a real sense of home, but not home. The small mountains with sheep grazing within the confines of their respective stone fences take me back to when I was a wee lass, and our family lived in Edinburgh for a year. However, the glory of these glens, cliffs, islands and rockface are like nothing I have experienced before. Today the power of the ocean reared its fierce fury against our cliffs – I’m going to estimate the spray reaching over 40 feet!

Before I came south to Kerry, Ali and I covered a lot of ground in Belfast (warmly received by fellow ceramic artist, Michael Moore); the Antrim Coast (welcomed by our new Trinidad friends, Pat Mohammed and Rex Dixon in their seaside home); we visited the UNESCO site, the Giant Causeway, and its impossible basalt stone formations, walked the forests, and gallery hopped in Dublin on our 25th wedding anniversary. Ali also spontaneously stopped in Linsburn for the International Festival of Linen – modelled after the one in Quebec where I showed a few years ago, Biennale International du Lin de Pont Neuf. I connected with many people there and took in the deep history of the place. I am working on a textile piece that I will send back to be part of the 2025 group project – the Longest Linen Tablecloth in the world, sewing my ancestors into the tapestry of their homeland. We did visit Armagh, from whence the McMenemy’s hail, and I have many leads to follow up to find out more. We ended up having a lovely connection with the guide at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and wandered into the city’s annual Cider Festival, to take in live music and all-round top-notch people watching. We took the train to Kilkenny and met Tina Byrne at her recently established ceramics residency, Strata – and have bookmarked this piece of heaven as a place to return to as well.

The trip has been life-changing. Something in me feels more grounded and connected to a sense of where I came from, the land my mother’s ancestors would have toiled. I feel like a spec of sand on the beach of Ballenskelligs, one of many trillion, but all part of one.

I would like to acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council in making this dream a reality.




Missive #3 Home from Medalta in the Historic Pottery District

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My solo exhibition on Feb 25th in the beehive kiln, “it will be what it will be” -

My solo exhibition on Feb 25th in the beehive kiln, “it will be what it will be” -

I started the last missive just past the three-quarter mark. I was busy making lemonade from lemons and had lifted myself out of the inevitable funk of disappointment that tends to transpire when you work with new clay, new kilns, and new creative endeavours. Cracks were mended, alternative techniques tested and I was buoyed by the credo that my wise friend, Harlan House sent round at the time: “You can always do it better. And until you’ve done it a thousand times you haven’t done it.  Until you can fix it you haven’t done it at all.” (Claudia Fleming, baker). The glass half-full, turned out to be a glass overflowing with learning and somewhat to my astonishment, achievement. I managed to create my “new-modernist” forms at large scales without kiln explosions, and put on a solo exhibition in a beehive kiln. I have left the work to be professionally crated by a past resident and now am actively shopping it around as, alas, David Kaye Gallery was forced to close its doors in the New Year.

Many of the highlights of Medalta for me were the people that I connected with over my time. I already mentioned Jim Marshall, the brick muralist who lives across from the artist lodge. I had the opportunity to more time with him, and I am looking forward to writing a profile about his life and work for an upcoming issue of Ceramics Monthly. I am writing this a a week after I left Medicine Hat – and I’m already nostalgic for the dry cold, the charming repertory cinema, the surreal small-town kareoke and the comraderie of new friends who are “in the know” when it comes to transforming mud. It was an honour to work alongside veteran scuptor, Grace Nickel, and watch the year-round residents as well as Heather Lepp, who arrived with me on New Year’s, flourish over such a relatively brief time. We weathered some rocky times and we all braved the -30C+ windchills, all of us except many of the vehicles who refused to perform in the permafrost. I believe I became somewhat cavalier about the deer waltzing by my window.

Jim Marshall with “the gang” in his studio with his latest mural in progress.

Jim Marshall with “the gang” in his studio with his latest mural in progress.

Noriko Masuda our fearless studio leader - crutches and all.

Noriko Masuda our fearless studio leader - crutches and all.

I left Medalta knowing that I will return. I am full of ideas that need to come to fruition in the particular alchemy of the place. I am on a train returning from Montreal, having taught half a dozen potters some of the tricks of the trade with coloured clay, and done a whirlwind tour of the contemporary art scene. I look forward to getting grounded, reconnecting with friends and hunkering down for the upcoming season of grant deadlines, planning and scheming – and getting my hands dirty back in the studio.

Until next time, Medalta - I loved your frozen warmth!

Until next time, Medalta - I loved your frozen warmth!

Missive #1 from Medalta, Medicine Hat

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The landscape is an adjustment, but I’m learning to love it. Anwar said it best “beauty in the bleakness.” Truly. The deer are virtually unphased by humans, as are many of the multitude of bunnies jetting around. And the magpies are mammoth! I’m serenaded every morning by vociforous Canada geese on my 20-minute walk over bridges and creeks to the studio. Generally I pack a lunch and head over mid-morning for the day, work until 7 or 8pm, come back to the lodge and cook. The lodge is like a one story small school house converted into a residency with modern fancy kitchen but alas, until now, no working wifi. We are quite remote, and you need a car to really get anywhere, except the clay supplier who is walking distance – but I can’t walk my clay home! Their technician is the fabled Tony Hansen of Digifire, and he’s a veritable wizzard. I’ve struck up quite the friendship with Tony and he’s helping me out a lot with my testing.

I’m not used to the society of group artist residencies – planned pizza and waffle sessions, spontaneous outings to the Cypress Hills. There are about nine of us, seven in the lodge, and most other artists here are just out of school and in their mid twenties. There are a couple in my snack bracket, and I’m enjoying getting to know all of these committed artists and their passions. 

The creek that winds it’s way to the Saskatchewan River that I pass on my 20 -minute walk from the residency to the ceramics centre.

The creek that winds it’s way to the Saskatchewan River that I pass on my 20 -minute walk from the residency to the ceramics centre.

It takes a village to put together a 50kg sculpture!

It takes a village to put together a 50kg sculpture!

It’s been two weeks since I arrived in Medicine Hat. Wow – it seems like a lot has happened in those two weeks, and at the same time, I feel as if I’m struggling and time is already bearing down on me. I came with the intention to build big and the expectation that I would make high fired work (something I can’t really do at home) and gas fire (another thing I can’t do at home). But what I have found is that the low fire sculpture clay has amazing qualities that make it by far a better choice.  BUT – it’s limiting me in terms of surface decoration due to it’s high fired porosity. I’m exploring and investigating and making a zillion test tiles – and regret not starting there as my work stays under plastic until I’m ready for it and the air is SO SO DRY!!!! Apoloigies for the shop talk, moving on.

view of the brick factory from the top of the hill that I look up to from my window

view of the brick factory from the top of the hill that I look up to from my window

The whole brick factory operation flooded so badly in 2010 that it wasn’t worth rebuilding. It’s a fascinating relic that will soon be converted into a tourist attraction. Jim Marshall lives in the old tile factory office right in front of my window, which is next to the defunct brick factory. Jim is 80, and aside from my friend Peter, the fittest most active octagenarian around. He’s still sculpting brick murals internationally and currently building a replica of an 1880 train on site. It’s also a treat to have an old Sheridan friend here to show me around, Annette Ten Cate, who took me to the Banff Film Festival last night. There never seems to be a dull moment. Today we had a field trip to the Medicine Hat Archives and an idea of working with archival images of the brick factory (similar to the one my father worked in in Hamilton) is fomenting in my mind. 

The oil rig that was INSIDE the brick factory - is now a work of public art outside the factory - Medicine Hat nickname, Gas Town.

The oil rig that was INSIDE the brick factory - is now a work of public art outside the factory - Medicine Hat nickname, Gas Town.

Completed the building of my first large-scale coil built sculpture. Prepping my artist talk to the staff and other artists for tomorrow. It’s full-on here and not as cold as I had anticipated – although felt like Toronto: 96% humidity! 

Missive #2 from Medalta, Medicine Hat

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Mireille Perron cyanotype of glass birds with branches

Mireille Perron cyanotype of glass birds with branches

Back at the studio, I’ve been busy building the large abstract paisley shape that I have had in my mind’s eye for years. It’s 30” tall – picture included and just started it’s slow drying process (which is no small feet in this unbelievably dry climate!). Starting today to research imagery for these pieces. We are amidst a shuffle of residents as the Portland sculptor and Calgary-based conceptual artist have left and we receive the head of the University of Manitoba Ceramics department, Grace Nickel tomorrow. I look forward to getting to know Grace, and have been following her career for years – she will be presenting in Tasmania with me in May! I also managed to connect with the new Executive Director of the Crafts Council here, Jenna Stanton, who will also be in Tasmania.  It’s a global community – to be sure.

getting a little help with Paisley Uprooted

getting a little help with Paisley Uprooted

Nur Rodriguez making 1094 cups, underscoring the hoops New Canadians face in this country.

Nur Rodriguez making 1094 cups, underscoring the hoops New Canadians face in this country.

Two full weeks have flown by. I have just returned from a whirlwind 24-hour jam-packed, art-filled and networking intense trip to Calgary with fellow resident Rob Froes. We went for Mireille Perron’s opening and managed to squeeze in four other galleries, two curator meetings, the Alberta College of Art and Design’s renaming ceremony (now Alberta University of the Arts), and a whole bunch of great new friendships.

playing with engobes and Plainsman new dark clay

playing with engobes and Plainsman new dark clay

I’m just deciding to work with some of the locally sourced clay and push my dinnerware series a bit while I’m here on the “down cycles” when my large pieces are firing. I’ve just received my tally of 20 test kiln firings – I have been really busy sorting out glazes and surface decoration, and am still on the hunt for the definitive results.  Such a treat to have a small test kiln to whip up a few tiles in.

I have had a chance to play anthropologist/ observer week before last when I attended several of the Tongue on the Post Folk Music festival events and concerts.  The Medalta Potteries was the main site for the evening and weekend events, and there were free café concerts all day all over town (I managed to get to one with my Sheridan days bud, Annette Ten Cate). Preliminary conclusions – Medicine Hat continues to feel nostalgic and similar to growing up in Fredericton. I look forward to one or two more day trips, but am really buckling down and getting the work produced that I came here to make. I already have an idea for locally rooted work that I’d love to come back to realize some time in the next decade…we’ll see. Once you come to Medalta, it’s hard to ever really leave.

Tongue on the Post Folk Music Festival with Annette ten Cate

Tongue on the Post Folk Music Festival with Annette ten Cate

Warmest from the coldest – and it is REALLY cold here this week, and waiting for the next chinook.

Heidi

Kecskemet, Hungary, 2018

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This is a pictorial account of Heidi’s time creating work in Kecskemet, Hungary in 2018.

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The first 20 pgs of my travelogue, check out the whole book.

Sydney, Australia, 2017

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This is a pictorial account of Heidi’s time creating work in Sydney, Australia in 2017.

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Guldagergaard, Denmark, 2014

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This is a pictorial account of Heidi’s time creating work in Guldagergaard, Denmark in 2014.

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The first 20 pgs of my travelogue, check out the whole book.

Jingdezhen, China and Bali, Indonesia, 2013

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This is a pictorial account of Heidi’s time creating work in China, Hong Kong and Bali.

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CHINA BOUND – THE ART JINGDEZHEN

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made in porcelain, cone 13, 1320C – thrown, altered, slip cast with chinese transfers. Made in Jingdezhen, China.

Andretta, Himachel Pradesh, India, Spring 2009

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This is a pictorial account of Heidi’s time in apprenticeship under Mini Singh at Andretta Pottery, Andretta Himachel Pradesh, from April 1st to June 26th, 2009.

Heidi describes this time as a “creative sabbatical” which has proven to be the catalyst that has thrown her life into the fire of transformation. . .

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The first 20 pgs of my travelogue, check out the whole book.