Pascual Arriaga

Falling Apart, 2015

ceramic and coil-built disassembled computer pieces

80"  x 48"  x 40"

Courtesy of the artist

We live in an age where words, images and objects seem to have been looted of meaning. In response to this state of affairs, I have come to think of the etchings I make as being miniature Rorschachs, the reverberations of oneiric gunshots acting upon the experiences and senses of the unsuspecting viewer, as well as the artist. Where do my ideas come from? The same place as everyone else’s—the brain. Or more precisely, they come from the interaction between experience and imagination that takes place within the brain, and I tend to think of my discovery of images in terms of receptivity rather than “inspiration” or “creativity”. If anything, my intent in pursuing a carefully worked out and highly detailed image is to work towards an inward goal unbounded by a set beginning or end, rather than trying to make some inner vision tangible. Even a simple nursery rhyme, once you start picking at it, will reveal layer upon layer of associations and further meanings. I consider my work successful to the extent that it continues to generate multiple interpretations, releasing this capacity for receptivity to the mysterious and the ambivalent that reflects the essential vibrancy of life.

Nubia Bonilla

Clorinda, 2015 (top thlumbnail)

hand-built, brushed glaze,  Raku fired with brass, copper, shells, ceramic balls and nails for blacksmithing

43"  x 7"  x 6"

Courtesy of the artist

As an anthropologist and visual artist, my field work in ergological folklore took me to different groups of potters not only in my country but also in Chile, Mexico and Haiti. I was affected by the same simple vessels that were used in everyday life and for religious rituals. Their use of Raku, Saggar, Barrel and Pit firing fascinated me. Their vessels were more than just pots, they told stories, and they were timeless and universal.

I have always derived pleasure from creating something with my hands; my work derives from my passion with clay, the simple forms, the playful parts, the subtle balance and contrasts in color and texture. My ceramics contain a short history through their creation and production process, every piece has its own origin and evolution, its own story full of symbols and contrasts.

Nubia Bonilla

Clorinda, 2015 (top thlumbnail)

hand-built, brushed glaze,  Raku fired with brass, copper, shells, ceramic balls and nails for blacksmithing

43"  x 7"  x 6"

Courtesy of the artist

As an anthropologist and visual artist, my field work in ergological folklore took me to different groups of potters not only in my country but also in Chile, Mexico and Haiti. I was affected by the same simple vessels that were used in everyday life and for religious rituals. Their use of Raku, Saggar, Barrel and Pit firing fascinated me. Their vessels were more than just pots, they told stories, and they were timeless and universal.

I have always derived pleasure from creating something with my hands; my work derives from my passion with clay, the simple forms, the playful parts, the subtle balance and contrasts in color and texture. My ceramics contain a short history through their creation and production process, every piece has its own origin and evolution, its own story full of symbols and contrasts.

Nubia Bonilla

Maichu, 2014 (bottom thumbnail)

hand-built with organic material slips, terra sigillata, rutile and copper oxide

22"  x 9" x 5"

Courtesy of the artist

As an anthropologist and visual artist, my field work in ergological folklore took me to different groups of potters not only in my country but also in Chile, Mexico and Haiti. I was affected by the same simple vessels that were used in everyday life and for religious rituals. Their use of Raku, Saggar, Barrel and Pit firing fascinated me. Their vessels were more than just pots, they told stories, and they were timeless and universal.

I have always derived pleasure from creating something with my hands; my work derives from my passion with clay, the simple forms, the playful parts, the subtle balance and contrasts in color and texture. My ceramics contain a short history through their creation and production process, every piece has its own origin and evolution, its own story full of symbols and contrasts.

Nubia Bonilla

Maichu, 2014 (bottom thumbnail)

hand-built with organic material slips, terra sigillata, rutile and copper oxide

22"  x 9" x 5"

Courtesy of the artist

As an anthropologist and visual artist, my field work in ergological folklore took me to different groups of potters not only in my country but also in Chile, Mexico and Haiti. I was affected by the same simple vessels that were used in everyday life and for religious rituals. Their use of Raku, Saggar, Barrel and Pit firing fascinated me. Their vessels were more than just pots, they told stories, and they were timeless and universal.

I have always derived pleasure from creating something with my hands; my work derives from my passion with clay, the simple forms, the playful parts, the subtle balance and contrasts in color and texture. My ceramics contain a short history through their creation and production process, every piece has its own origin and evolution, its own story full of symbols and contrasts.

Catherine Burce

Archipelago, 2014

Porcelain paper clay

24"  x 48" x 3"

Courtesy of the artist

The current body of work, collectively called The Floating World, imagines dreamy, abstract landscapes and crafted from porcelain slip. Like the movements of molten lava hardening into stone, the clay body forms contours which also shrink, slump, and crack before reaching their final form at the end of the fire. They are not created with any particularities in mind, but instead wait for a name and a story around the studio. Lands that have not been discovered yet.

Catherine Burce

Where Seldom is Heard a Discouraging Word, 2015

Porcelain paper clay

18"  x 48"  x 2"

Courtesy of the artist

The current body of work, collectively called The Floating World, imagines dreamy, abstract landscapes and crafted from porcelain slip. Like the movements of molten lava hardening into stone, the clay body forms contours which also shrink, slump, and crack before reaching their final form at the end of the fire. They are not created with any particularities in mind, but instead wait for a name and a story around the studio. Lands that have not been discovered yet.

Catherine Burce

Frattaglie, 2015

Porcelain paper clay

8"  x 10"  x 8"

Courtesy of the artist

The current body of work, collectively called The Floating World, imagines dreamy, abstract landscapes and crafted from porcelain slip. Like the movements of molten lava hardening into stone, the clay body forms contours which also shrink, slump, and crack before reaching their final form at the end of the fire. They are not created with any particularities in mind, but instead wait for a name and a story around the studio. Lands that have not been discovered yet.

KIT DAVENPORT

Ganga Backfoot, 2014

ceramic, glaze, and paint

12"  x 9"  x 4.5"

Courtesy of the artist

I think of these works as little landscapes of form, arrangements which evoke a situation, a moment, a coherent isolated reality. I am motivated to make these because, like dreams, the sculptures---unifying unexpected forms or gestures in an object--- resolve contradictions and suggest alternate realities.  If others don’t have this experience with the work, I hope at least that the objects convey something honest, experienced as aesthetic pleasure, mystery, or humor.

These sculptures are constructed of low-fired stoneware clay, with low fire glazes and/or acrylic paint.

Kit Davenport

Lake Tableau, 2014

ceramic, glaze, and paint

15"  x 16"  x 6"

Courtesy of the artist

I think of these works as little landscapes of form, arrangements which evoke a situation, a moment, a coherent isolated reality. I am motivated to make these because, like dreams, the sculptures---unifying unexpected forms or gestures in an object--- resolve contradictions and suggest alternate realities.  If others don’t have this experience with the work, I hope at least that the objects convey something honest, experienced as aesthetic pleasure, mystery, or humor.

These sculptures are constructed of low-fired stoneware clay, with low fire glazes and/or acrylic paint.

Kristen Erickson

Top Form 01, 2015

ceramic

15"  x 9"  x 9"

Courtesy of the artist

The intersecting shapes of this form create the shape of a top, but due to its scale, it is, at first glance, unable to spin; unable to meet the expectations of a functioning top. It languishes on its side, able to only roll about in a circle. Though it appears to be impotent and unstable, it still holds the potential to spin.

The materiality of this piece is ceramic. A layer of porcelain skin is carved through, revealing that the object is actually made of strong, high-fire stoneware. What most may see as a delicate object was born of temperatures up to 2,380 degrees Fahrenheit. It is surprisingly resilient and durable.

The texture is a triangulated pattern, inspired by the skin pattern on the back of the knuckle where the thumb meets the hand. My grandmother was an artist whose family discouraged her from pursuing her creative dreams because of her gender. She chose to become a nurse, and while on the job, she suffered an infection to her right thumb, resulting in amputation, but she still continued to create. To me the thumb, and the skin pattern associated with it, is a symbol of creative perseverance.

Olga Evanusa-Rowland

Der Bahnhof/Farewell, 2015

mixed media/assemblage

12"  x 5"  x 5"

Courtesy of the artist

Physical and cultural impermanence are themes that are central to my work. Drawing upon distant times, materials and literature, traces of original context are echoed within the pieces through an array of visual clues. Family photographic images, historical postcards and resurrected detritus evoke vanished time, place, and domestic culture.

Repetition, stage sets and the self-referencing universe of the Brothers Quay films have influenced my work and working methods. Themes of transformation, unease, and illusion within the written work of Robert Walser, Gogol, and Kafka are emotional and aesthetic touch-points that generate my responses to materials and visual interpretation.

In the three-dimensional work Der Bahnhof, a short story by Robert Walser (The Train Station, Berlin, 1920) is transcribed in gold ink on a found cabinet. The work explores themes of transformation, parting and fate.

Gina M. & Deirdre

Sullivan-Beeman

Gina M.

Hanging Bare, 2015

high-fired ceramic, oxide wash, wire and straw

62"  x 36"  x 24"

Courtesy of the artist

The emotionally esoteric Soul Circus by Gina M. and Deirdre Sullivan-Beeman, represents humanity’s naïveté and mystical qualities. The elephant (the mystical) offers protection and holds the innocent young girl (naïveté) “tight as a drum” in his belly as the chaos of life ensues. The piece combines modern day ceramics with traditional oil and egg tempera painting techniques.

Hanging Bare, a ceramic sculpture by Gina M. dangles from a ribbon on a wall and was born from a distorted childhood memory of a Goya etching, an understandable mistake as her family performed at birthday parties where puppets hung in rows, in the shadows, behind the stage. The sculpture started

years later after she saw a photo of the etching again from the Disasters of War: Tampoco, where a smiling French soldier eating an apple, watches a hanged man dying in front of him.

Gina M. & Deirdre

Sullivan-Beeman

Gina M. and Deirdre Sullivan-Beeman

Soul Circus, 2015

high-fired ceramic, canvas, traditional oil and egg tempera

19"  x 19"  x 19"

Courtesy of the artist

The emotionally esoteric Soul Circus by Gina M. and Deirdre Sullivan-Beeman, represents humanity’s naïveté and mystical qualities. The elephant (the mystical) offers protection and holds the innocent young girl (naïveté) “tight as a drum” in his belly as the chaos of life ensues. The piece combines modern day ceramics with traditional oil and egg tempera painting techniques.

Hanging Bare, a ceramic sculpture by Gina M. dangles from a ribbon on a wall and was born from a distorted childhood memory of a Goya etching, an understandable mistake as her family performed at birthday parties where puppets hung in rows, in the shadows, behind the stage. The sculpture started

years later after she saw a photo of the etching again from the Disasters of War: Tampoco, where a smiling French soldier eating an apple, watches a hanged man dying in front of him.

Doris Fischer-Colbrie

Dianella, 2015

from the Winter Storm series

stoneware clay fired to cone 10 in reduction atmosphere

16"  x 12"  x 3"

Courtesy of the artist

I delight in the beauty of the movement of leaves and grasses as a wind passes. By winter, few leaves and grasses remain. Yet, in a snowfall, these few, still keeping rhythm with the wind, become more clearly defined against the white and gray background. These are the grasses and leaves I aim to capture on a piece of clay that will become a platter, to greet me in my home, at any time of year. The platters have the same visual impact as the grasses out in the elements, pushed by a wind, snow or rain, but in addition, they possess the plants’ fragile tactile tracings on a smooth very gently textured surface. Clay truly becomes a transcending material.

To create the winter series of platters, I select plants that are flexible and show detail when pressed into a slab. I apply layers of different slips, put the slab design-side down on a hump mold and build or wheel-throw a foot on what will be the bottom of the platter. After bisque, I apply and remove layers of varying oxides, apply glaze and re to cone 10 in a reduction atmosphere.

Barbara Frey

Dark Matter #4, 2014

hand-built porcelain

7.5"  x 7.75"  x 7.25"

Courtesy of the artist

A crust of random, but precious, material has been deposited on this particle. The intention is to create a contradictory emotional state of both calm and unease.

Joan Gamberg

Bowl, 2015

from the Sunflowers series

porcelain, thrown-incised slip

3.5"  x 7.25"  x 7.25"

Courtesy of the artist

I studied at Hunter College, New School of Social Research, and The School of Visual Arts, but my real art education in ceramics began at the Museum of Art in NYC where I discovered Chinese porcelain, particularly the incised Ding-ware pots and thought: “One day I would make work that was at once hinged to the past and speaking to the present regarding beauty in our everyday lives.”

I learned clay in LA working in porcelain with freehand incising on slip, applying glaze only inside. The ring is cone 10. The sunflowers celebrate our connection with nature.

My incised pieces are as much about how they look on the shelf and the negative space triangulating around them, as it is about how they work as dinnerware, hopefully letting us pause to enjoy each other and what we eat together

Mark Goudy

Relational Vessels (#484 & #487), 2015

from the Equipoise Series

unglazed burnished earthenware, soluble metal salts, interior under-glaze

8"  x 19"  x 10"

Courtesy of the artist

The Relational Vessels in my Equipoise Series were initially inspired by waterworn stones -- the result of monumental geologic and erosional forces at work over vast timescales to produce the elemental rounded forms that we can observe at any ocean beach or streambed. Echoes of this timeless progression are reflected in my work.

This pair of Relational Vessels speak the same visual language. The opening into the interior black void acts as a counterpoint to the rhythm of the exterior form. These vessels are designed to come easily to rest at one of several predefined balance points.

The pattern of circles is created by the interaction of soluble metal watercolor solutions which I paint onto the bisque-fired clay. (The metallic watercolor solutions are can be likened to ink on clay.) These watercolors spread, interact, and diffuse through the clay medium. The final firing transforms this pattern into a permanent surface without the use of any traditional ceramic glaze.

My slipcast earthenware forms are shaped, carved and painstakingly burnished by hand.

Madeleine Graves

Heron Bowl, 2015

ceramic engobe and hand-cut patterns

3"  x 12"  x 2.5"

Courtesy of the artist

The essence of my work is creating patterns and applying them to ceramic forms which I make on a pottery wheel.  I enjoy making patterns which are inspired from both nature, and international designs.  Some of my most recent work reflects a fascination with the role of technology in our lives.

Madeleine Graves

Heron Bowl, 2015

ceramic engobe and hand-cut patterns

3"  x 12"  x 2.5"

Courtesy of the artist

The essence of my work is creating patterns and applying them to ceramic forms which I make on a pottery wheel.  I enjoy making patterns which are inspired from both nature, and international designs.  Some of my most recent work reflects a fascination with the role of technology in our lives.

Madeleine Graves

Red Cell Phone Girl, 2014

ceramic engobe and hand-cut patterns

4"  x 10"  x 3.5"

Courtesy of the artist

The essence of my work is creating patterns and applying them to ceramic forms which I make on a pottery wheel.  I enjoy making patterns which are inspired from both nature, and international designs.  Some of my most recent work reflects a fascination with the role of technology in our lives.

Madeleine Graves

Red Cell Phone Girl, 2014

ceramic engobe and hand-cut patterns

4"  x 10"  x 3.5"

Courtesy of the artist

The essence of my work is creating patterns and applying them to ceramic forms which I make on a pottery wheel.  I enjoy making patterns which are inspired from both nature, and international designs.  Some of my most recent work reflects a fascination with the role of technology in our lives.

Mark L. Hendrickson

Untitled, 2015

hand-stretched clay

7"  x 17"  x 17"

Courtesy of the artist

Unlike most potters, who either throw their pottery shapes on a wheel, or use the coil method to build their work, Mark uses an unusual yet simple stretching method for creation. For his larger pieces, Mark cuts a rectangular shape out of a clay slab, and then rolls it over a tube to form a crude cylinder. He then joins and reinforces the edges and adds a bottom. This basic cylindrical form is now ready for a design element, which will be inscribed using one of many assorted tools. The piece is then to be shaped and engineered, using fingers and rubber ribs into a unique one of a kind clay form. Smaller pottery shapes are made from a solid clay cylinder into which he inserts a dowel, compresses the sides until achieving the desired wall thickness, then incises a design element. Using stick-like tools, he then stretches the clay into the desired shape.

Over the past ten years, Mark has found that using colored slips, and an oxide/stain finish, visually sets off the design element, and surface textures, created by a clay body’s natural tendency to form stretch marks, slight surface tears, and other delicate anomalies.

Donna Hollander

Eleanor Roosevelt, 2014 (right)

From the Mothers to Humanity series

mosaic, hand-made tile, hand-etched tile, glass and ceramic tile

31.75"  x 26.25"

Courtesy of the artist

I am creating a series of mosaics depicting famous woman as iconic ‘madonnas’. Mosaic madonnas are historically a rich media which highlight the life of women who have forged a trail, educated, defended, elevated, or illuminated humanity. Women who are ‘mothers to ideas’ that have nurtured

creativity, science, writing, and art.

Symbology can tell a multi-layered story. So when I research the lives of these women, I look for the events that became symbolic moments. Moments in time that stood apart and made history. These moments become visual images showing ‘her’ story.

I create many preliminary drawings before the final drawing. The final drawing is used as reference for the mosaic. The mosaic faces are almost life-size and fully rendered in hand-cut glass tesserae. I use ceramic tile, glass tile, fine china, hand-etched tile, hand-made porcelain tile that I’ve designed. The halo is gold ceramic tile, and dichroic glass etched with my designs.

I love the idea that some mosaics have been around for millennia, yet they are as alive and vibrant today as the day they were completed.

Donna Hollander

Maya Angelou, 2014 (center)

From the Mothers to Humanity series

mosaic, hand-made tile, hand-etched tile, glass and ceramic tile

32.25"  x 24.5"

Courtesy of the artist

I am creating a series of mosaics depicting famous woman as iconic ‘madonnas’. Mosaic madonnas are historically a rich media which highlight the life of women who have forged a trail, educated, defended, elevated, or illuminated humanity. Women who are ‘mothers to ideas’ that have nurtured

creativity, science, writing, and art.

Symbology can tell a multi-layered story. So when I research the lives of these women, I look for the events that became symbolic moments. Moments in time that stood apart and made history. These moments become visual images showing ‘her’ story.

I create many preliminary drawings before the final drawing. The final drawing is used as reference for the mosaic. The mosaic faces are almost life-size and fully rendered in hand-cut glass tesserae. I use ceramic tile, glass tile, fine china, hand-etched tile, hand-made porcelain tile that I’ve designed. The halo is gold ceramic tile, and dichroic glass etched with my designs.

I love the idea that some mosaics have been around for millennia, yet they are as alive and vibrant today as the day they were completed.

Donna Hollander

Rosalind Franklin, 2014 (left)

from the Mothers to Humanity series

mosaic, hand-made tile, glass tile, ceramic tile, hand-etched tile

30"  x 22.5"

Courtesy of the artist

I am creating a series of mosaics depicting famous woman as iconic ‘madonnas’. Mosaic madonnas are historically a rich media which highlight the life of women who have forged a trail, educated, defended, elevated, or illuminated humanity. Women who are ‘mothers to ideas’ that have nurtured

creativity, science, writing, and art.

Symbology can tell a multi-layered story. So when I research the lives of these women, I look for the events that became symbolic moments. Moments in time that stood apart and made history. These moments become visual images showing ‘her’ story.

I create many preliminary drawings before the final drawing. The final drawing is used as reference for the mosaic. The mosaic faces are almost life-size and fully rendered in hand-cut glass tesserae. I use ceramic tile, glass tile, fine china, hand-etched tile, hand-made porcelain tile that I’ve designed. The halo is gold ceramic tile, and dichroic glass etched with my designs.

I love the idea that some mosaics have been around for millennia, yet they are as alive and vibrant today as the day they were completed.

Stephen Horn

Steve's Bronze Pitcher, 2015

wheel-thrown stone ware, cone 6 and glaze

11.5"  x 6.5"  x 10"

Courtesy of the artist

Anyone who works in clay is confronted with a multitude of possibilities. Complexity and surprise are built into the medium, the process, the technology. Take one purposeful step down an artistic path, and you’re immediately face to face with a crossroads that wasn’t on your mental GPS. Should you keep going straight?—or, what the hell, wouldn’t it be more fun to turn left or right and see what you run into? Exploring the unexpected side roads has always appealed to me. It’s like going on a walkabout. As a teacher I always say to students: “Try it, and see what happens.” This is my own artistic mantra.

My aesthetic wanderings have been guided by the works of the ancient Minoans, Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans; by Japanese ceramic traditions—Jomon, Haniwa, Iga, Bizen, and Oribe; by artists like Gauguin, Miró, Picasso, Motherwell, Pollock, and George Ohr; and by the ideas of minimalism and other art movements. My modes of working in clay encompass drawing, painting, and printing as well as handbuilding, moldmaking, and throwing (if only, sometimes, to smash a pot on the wheel or to engineer its collapse).

What I hope unites my work is a sense of the excitement I experienced in going offroad—and there’s still so much to explore out there.

Stephen Horn

Bird Urn, 2015

wheel-thrown mixed clays, stoneware, cone 6 and glaze

21" x 15"  x 7.25"

Courtesy of the artist

Anyone who works in clay is confronted with a multitude of possibilities. Complexity and surprise are built into the medium, the process, the technology. Take one purposeful step down an artistic path, and you’re immediately face to face with a crossroads that wasn’t on your mental GPS. Should you keep going straight?—or, what the hell, wouldn’t it be more fun to turn left or right and see what you run into? Exploring the unexpected side roads has always appealed to me. It’s like going on a walkabout. As a teacher I always say to students: “Try it, and see what happens.” This is my own artistic mantra.

My aesthetic wanderings have been guided by the works of the ancient Minoans, Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans; by Japanese ceramic traditions—Jomon, Haniwa, Iga, Bizen, and Oribe; by artists like Gauguin, Miró, Picasso, Motherwell, Pollock, and George Ohr; and by the ideas of minimalism and other art movements. My modes of working in clay encompass drawing, painting, and printing as well as handbuilding, moldmaking, and throwing (if only, sometimes, to smash a pot on the wheel or to engineer its collapse).

What I hope unites my work is a sense of the excitement I experienced in going offroad—and there’s still so much to explore out there.

Carol Ann Klimek

Nude Woman, 2014

porcelain

28"  x 10"  x 7"

Courtesy of the artist

I like to think of the activities we share in life which bring joy, love, health, laughter, passion and happiness as the most important for spiritual, emotional, and physical survival in life.  I hope my art work reflects these attributes.

In the smallest of explorations to the largest adventures we experience, I can only say that we are humble creatures creating from a mirror of our minds, what we have learned and experienced together.  That very togetherness is reflected in us feeling as one with nature, and with each other in our shared lives and loves.

Gina Lawson Egan

Birds of Paradise, 2015

cone 02 and clay

38"  x 36"  x 33"

Courtesy of the artist

This large head with its large open mouth is significant to me for many reasons, some I am still in the process of understanding. I began it as a demonstration piece at the LA County Fair in 2014. I did not have a complete vision in my mind except for the fact that I wanted to make this head large and have an open mouth, which is a departure from the serene faces that are depicted in my earlier works. The making of this piece also coincided with the decline of my mother’s health and her death. The top portion of the sculpture was to be a crown made up of standing figures. As I struggled to resolve this portion, the conclusion came just shortly before my mother’s passing. Instead of standing figures, it became a representation of her resting at the top, surrounded by flying birds that celebrate her and form a circular crown. The tiny birds inside the mouth could be interpreted as a morbid addition at first glance, but I see them instead as a symbol of life/rebirth, to complete the life-cycle. The bird people on the back of the head, which make up the hair, are still unclear to me exactly what they may represent except that they could easily add up to the friends and family of a life. Birds of Paradise is the first title I came up with, but I could easily call this piece “Celebration of Life”, for my mother, Laura Lawson.

Gina Lawson Egan is a ceramic artist living in Ontario, California. She received her BFA from the University of Michigan, followed by an MFA in Ceramics from the Claremont Graduate University

studying with the late Paul Soldner. Gina is currently teaching Ceramics at Cal Poly Pomona University. Her work is in collections around the United States.

Gina Lawson Egan

Birds of Paradise, 2015

cone 02 and clay

38"  x 36"  x 33"

Courtesy of the artist

This large head with its large open mouth is significant to me for many reasons, some I am still in the process of understanding. I began it as a demonstration piece at the LA County Fair in 2014. I did not have a complete vision in my mind except for the fact that I wanted to make this head large and have an open mouth, which is a departure from the serene faces that are depicted in my earlier works. The making of this piece also coincided with the decline of my mother’s health and her death. The top portion of the sculpture was to be a crown made up of standing figures. As I struggled to resolve this portion, the conclusion came just shortly before my mother’s passing. Instead of standing figures, it became a representation of her resting at the top, surrounded by flying birds that celebrate her and form a circular crown. The tiny birds inside the mouth could be interpreted as a morbid addition at first glance, but I see them instead as a symbol of life/rebirth, to complete the life-cycle. The bird people on the back of the head, which make up the hair, are still unclear to me exactly what they may represent except that they could easily add up to the friends and family of a life. Birds of Paradise is the first title I came up with, but I could easily call this piece “Celebration of Life”, for my mother, Laura Lawson.

Gina Lawson Egan is a ceramic artist living in Ontario, California. She received her BFA from the University of Michigan, followed by an MFA in Ceramics from the Claremont Graduate University

studying with the late Paul Soldner. Gina is currently teaching Ceramics at Cal Poly Pomona University. Her work is in collections around the United States.

Gina M. and Deirdre

Sullivan-Beeman

Soul Circus, 2015

high-fired ceramic, canvas, traditional oil and egg tempera

19"  x 19"  x 19"

Courtesy of the artist

The emotionally esoteric Soul Circus by Gina M. and Deirdre Sullivan-Beeman, represents humanity’s naïveté and mystical qualities. The elephant (the mystical) offers protection and holds the innocent young girl (naïveté) “tight as a drum” in his belly as the chaos of life ensues. The piece combines modern day ceramics with traditional oil and egg tempera painting techniques.

Hanging Bare, a ceramic sculpture by Gina M. dangles from a ribbon on a wall and was born from a distorted childhood memory of a Goya etching, an understandable mistake as her family performed at birthday parties where puppets hung in rows, in the shadows, behind the stage. The sculpture started years later after she saw a photo of the etching again from the Disasters of War: Tampoco, where a smiling French soldier eating an apple, watches a hanged man dying in front of him.

Gina M.

Hanging Bare, 2015

high-fired ceramic, oxide wash, wire and straw

62"  x 36"  x 24"

Courtesy of the artist

The emotionally esoteric Soul Circus by Gina M. and Deirdre Sullivan-Beeman, represents humanity’s naïveté and mystical qualities. The elephant (the mystical) offers protection and holds the innocent young girl (naïveté) “tight as a drum” in his belly as the chaos of life ensues. The piece combines modern day ceramics with traditional oil and egg tempera painting techniques.

Hanging Bare, a ceramic sculpture by Gina M. dangles from a ribbon on a wall and was born from a distorted childhood memory of a Goya etching, an understandable mistake as her family performed at birthday parties where puppets hung in rows, in the shadows, behind the stage. The sculpture started years later after she saw a photo of the etching again from the Disasters of War: Tampoco, where a smiling French soldier eating an apple, watches a hanged man dying in front of him.

Penny McElroy

El Matrimonio de Archimedes, 2014

from the Regalos del Fuego series

sagar-fired ceramic with encaustic, gouache, photocopy colored pencil, graphite, vintage glass slide, cicada wings, waxed cord and pins

16" x 16"  x 6"

Courtesy of the artist

One of the joys of looking at art is when something in the work sparks a fire of recognition just beneath my heart. This flash of personal understanding is powerful – it is like a shared memory. It makes me laugh for joy, sometimes it makes me cry, and always it makes me think. It is usually small and unexpected elements that evoke this reaction – a slight crack, patched and re-cracked at the edge of a sculpted wrist, a look of longing in the eyes of someone in a photographed crowd, a color subtly peeking from underneath its complement…

These experiences are intimate and deep.  And they provide me with abiding goals for my own work. I want to tell the stories that exist under the surface – to make the unseen, seen. I want to re-experience the intimacy of shared secrets. I want to parse the truth that exists in façade. And when this magic works, it leads me, and I hope for viewers also, on an exploration of fleeting dreams and intimate logic that opens a door to the place where sense and non-sense meet.

Leslie McQuaide

Mother Come Forth, 2014

assemblage: clay with Ediphone base, steel and found objects

58" x 22"  x 15"

Courtesy of the artist

The Dagara tribe of Burkina Faso looks forward with great anticipation to the birth of every new child. Each soul they await has promised to bring a special gift from the spirits of the ancestors that the community needs for its health and healing. The well-being of the larger community depends upon its members taking responsibility for their individual promises as they grow through life as a tribal member.

As a woman in contemporary western society I reflect often on the Dagara sense of living one’s life for the benefit of the larger community.

The work speaks to maintaining the connection to the unseen world of the spirits and to the cultivation of a sacred state of openness to divine messaging.

Leslie McQuaide

The Burden of Purpose and Gift, 2015

assemblage: clay,with encaustic, Hollywood film can, typewriter keyboard and found objects

34"  x 24"  x 12"

Courtesy of the artist

The Dagara tribe of Burkina Faso looks forward with great anticipation to the birth of every new child. Each soul they await has promised to bring a special gift from the spirits of the ancestors that the community needs for its health and healing. The well-being of the larger community depends upon its members taking responsibility for their individual promises as they grow through life as a tribal member.

As a woman in contemporary western society I reflect often on the Dagara sense of living one’s life for the benefit of the larger community.

The work speaks to maintaining the connection to the unseen world of the spirits and to the cultivation of a sacred state of openness to divine messaging.

Leslie McQuaide

In Between Divine Communications, 2013

assemblage: clay with Ediphone base, steel and found objects

28"  x 24"  x 9"

Courtesy of the artist

The Dagara tribe of Burkina Faso looks forward with great anticipation to the birth of every new child. Each soul they await has promised to bring a special gift from the spirits of the ancestors that the community needs for its health and healing. The well-being of the larger community depends upon its members taking responsibility for their individual promises as they grow through life as a tribal member.

As a woman in contemporary western society I reflect often on the Dagara sense of living one’s life for the benefit of the larger community.

The work speaks to maintaining the connection to the unseen world of the spirits and to the cultivation of a sacred state of openness to divine messaging.

Lee Middleman

Oribe Sunflower, 2015

stoneware, wheel-thrown, hand textured

7" x 10"  x 10"

Courtesy of the artist

I throw classic forms and use surface textures to give them energy and vitality, resulting in art that is both pleasing and alive.  I seek to create patterns and textures that emphasize the organic interplay between order and randomness as found in Nature.

The tactile feel and visual look of surface textures are essential to my pieces.  I create textures by deeply impressing patterns into thrown cylinders.  Then, working from the inside only, I expand the cylinder to create the final form.  This technique allows the pattern to evolve as the clay twists and expands.  As the pattern adjusts to the shape and function of the vessel, it becomes reflective of Nature’s adaptation to form.

My glazing process enhances the natural aesthetic of the order and randomness.  Thinly glazed surfaces highlight the macropatterns and reveal the stoneware clay’s micro-texture created during the expansion process.  I often use multiple glazes to intensify the dynamic tension of the surface.

My goal is to pursue the interplay of shape, surface texture, ordered patterns, and random effects so that work is created that intrigues the eye and demands to be touched.  Although my work is functional, it is often prized as decorative.

Yoko Miyahira Bostwick

Great Depth IV, 2015

contemporary coiled jomon piece

15.5" H x 12.5" W

Courtesy of the artist

I was born on the island of Okinawa in Southern Japan. When I think of my childhood and home town, I fondly remember the island as a place surrounded by colorful corals and beautiful, blue sky. I spent my childhood playing, swimming, and collecting many colors of drifted corals and seashells at the beach with friends. As a student at Citrus College, around age 48, I had a fateful encounter with clay. I enrolled in Ceramic classes, and since then working with clay has become my passion. How fortunate I am to find passion in late in life! I enjoy every moment I am working with clay. Somehow, it reminds me of my childhood, and I lose track of time. My heart overflows with joy when I am making things with clay. My interest in ceramics is diverse and I love all different kind of ceramics: avant-garde, contemporary and traditional ceramic arts. I enjoy making all of them as they have their own beauty. Whenever I think of my childhood and my Island, it is a perfect time for creating objects in the Jomon style. Jomon, I have read, is the oldest ceramic style in the world and it comes from Japan. Somehow, when I look at pictures of rustic, yet beautiful Jomon, it humbles me. Back then there were no modern tools such as the wheel to create pottery. Just as in most early societies, women were the ones making pottery. I am hooked with creating Jomon style pottery, and it is my challenge to innovate and create my own contemporary style. I think I have captured the spirit of my little island and ancient Japanese pottery making.

Janet Neuwalder

Potential for Reverie II, 2015

from the Potential for Reverie series

porcelain, steel, vinyl, tubing and plexiglass (site specific)

108"  x 180"  x 20"  (dimensions variable)

Courtesy of the artist

In a world of virtual realities and changing perceptions of what is real, I am celebrating the materiality of things.  As an object maker, I make art to explore and understand my connection to nature and humankind.  I navigate through pathways and intersections of collective experience, creativity and consciousness. I create poetic and engaging spaces to question and explore in what intrigues me and do not understand. I use clay and mixed media to speak directly of delicacy and strength, alluding to the poignancy and importance of balance in the natural and psychological realm. I am mapping my thoughts, materializing them into concrete narratives.

The completeness and perfection of the natural world and phenomena are an endless source of inspiration and imagery. Nothing exists in isolation.

My work has a sense of history. Clay is an ancient material and seems inexhaustible in its ability to express a sense of timelessness, endurance and expressive meaning. The firing process, rapid petrifaction, is the transformative process, resulting in a contemporary fossil. I assemble these petrified fragments into topographic landscapes, poised somewhere between growth and decay, recognition and abstraction, beauty and viscera.  These qualities allow entry into microscopic and macroscopic worlds that often feel familiar.

Annie Nguyen

Insecoolity, 2014

ceramic

26"  x 12.5"  x 12.5"

Courtesy of the artist

My sculptures are my self-portraits. They mirror my life.  These sculptures show stages in my life when I had conflicts with my culture and the western society in relation to my identity and trying to fit in both worlds.  My conflicts deal with body image, self-esteem, sexuality, peer influences, school, occupation and religion.  I choose to use animals in my sculptures because I feel that sometimes people can connect more to animals than other human beings.  The animals that I choose have references through culture, general or American society, and/or religion. The postures, outfits, and expressions all have these references as well.  They document moments where I struggle to make decisions about who and what I should be.  These decisions are sometimes made for my own self, my parents, or social norms.  Through this journey of decision making, I question my own identity:  Am I who I really want to be?  Or am I a fraud (being what others want me to be)?  Overall, the purpose of my work is to build a connection with people and hope that they can relate to me.

Annie Nguyen

Alcoholics Anonymous, 2014

ceramic

24"  x 11"  x 17"

Courtesy of the artist

My sculptures are my self-portraits. They mirror my life.  These sculptures show stages in my life when I had conflicts with my culture and the western society in relation to my identity and trying to fit in both worlds.  My conflicts deal with body image, self-esteem, sexuality, peer influences, school, occupation and religion.  I choose to use animals in my sculptures because I feel that sometimes people can connect more to animals than other human beings.  The animals that I choose have references through culture, general or American society, and/or religion. The postures, outfits, and expressions all have these references as well.  They document moments where I struggle to make decisions about who and what I should be.  These decisions are sometimes made for my own self, my parents, or social norms.  Through this journey of decision making, I question my own identity:  Am I who I really want to be?  Or am I a fraud (being what others want me to be)?  Overall, the purpose of my work is to build a connection with people and hope that they can relate to me.

Annie Nguyen

Horn Dog, 2014

ceramic

21" x 13"  x 18"

Courtesy of the artist

My sculptures are my self-portraits. They mirror my life.  These sculptures show stages in my life when I had conflicts with my culture and the western society in relation to my identity and trying to fit in both worlds.  My conflicts deal with body image, self-esteem, sexuality, peer influences, school, occupation and religion.  I choose to use animals in my sculptures because I feel that sometimes people can connect more to animals than other human beings.  The animals that I choose have references through culture, general or American society, and/or religion. The postures, outfits, and expressions all have these references as well.  They document moments where I struggle to make decisions about who and what I should be.  These decisions are sometimes made for my own self, my parents, or social norms.  Through this journey of decision making, I question my own identity:  Am I who I really want to be?  Or am I a fraud (being what others want me to be)?  Overall, the purpose of my work is to build a connection with people and hope that they can relate to me.

Mary Oligny

Cosmic Dust, 2014

stoneware and underglazes

11"  x 11"  x 11"

Courtesy of the artist

The sphere possesses a mystical nature. The form itself radiates from a central point, creating the shape that incubates and brings forth life. It spins, rolls, and travels through space. The sphere is the form on which life can be brought forth to flourish. The earth sphere is our home and a world where we behold our perceptions and live out our personal realities.

Building large spheres out of clay and keeping them round is very challenging.  Decorating them is an absolute delight.  Each mark, brush stroke or clay addition sets up a dynamic space design that must be considered and manipulated by rotation in order to encompass the whole form.  Ultimately, all the design elements are connected without any limitations imposed by borders.

Liza Riddle

Scorched Earth (#315, #325), 2014

from the Force series

handbuilt earthenware, painted with soluble metal salts

16"  x 11"  x 8"

Courtesy of the artist

I have traveled the world, and along these journeys have been inspired by Joan Serra's sculptures and Andy Goldsworthy's land art, by Namibian deserts and Bolivian salt flats, Icelandic lava flows and dramatic landscapes that showcase constant geologic evolution.

My new body of work, titled Force, draws from these experiences. My work is quiet, but evokes a sense of power–the pieces resonate with contained energy. This series captures a moment in time, a moment in the inexorable process of desiccation, cracking, and destruction I have so often observed in nature. The simple forms have an innate beauty, but the surface tiles are harsh with sharp edges, and seem to be just on the edge of destruction.

My work is hand-built and, after multiple rings at earthenware temperatures, I paint the clay with water soluble metals, using iron, nickel, cobalt, and other metal salts. Through trial and error, I have developed my own mixtures of metal chlorides and techniques for applying these almost transparent watercolors. After a final ring, the metals fix and transform, revealing the earth’s elemental palette of colors.

T. Robert Pacini

Volunteers, 2015

from the Cage Series

ceramic stoneware (3 cages)

101”, 89” , 72” x 24” x 18”

Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

Much of my work celebrates the order in the organic. I built these 3 "cages inside of cages" to represent the organic outgrowth of volunteer plants. Uncultivated, these organic structures begin an upward climb randomly, yet with strength, structure and a sense of purpose.

Linda Smith

Woman with Tattoos, 2015

ceramic, hand-built with slabs, low-fire clay and glaze

31"  x 9.5"  x 9"

Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

Focusing on women’s identity, I have been incorporating my daily life and experience in my artwork. My work is colorful and imaginative, filled with cats, dogs and pattern. I hand-build my ceramics, using low re clay and glazes.

More recently, I have been looking at women with tattoos, taking portraits of them and being inspired by their dress and funky or even elegant tattoos

In Woman with Tattoos I used my imagination and drew skulls, flowers, cats and dogs as well. It is a fun vehicle, and became an integral part of my new series.

Meriel Stern

Domestic Composition 1, 2015

from the Reliquaries series

Cone 5 porcelain, acrylic and chalk

15"  x 30"  x 4.5"

Courtesy of the artist

This work is concerned with the growth and form of living things. I am interested in the processes of composition, transformation and eventual decomposition of living things and the aesthetic similarities of these processes in nature. I use a single line of cotton yarn and crochet dimensional shapes derived not only from material and technique, but also from the close study of natural, fertile forms. With crochet, as with many other systems, changes are simply a matter of an increase or decrease in the number of units, in this case loops. There is contraction or expansion, continued mathematically within a certain range.

I like that all of these forms are basically created from one strand and that one string can become a shape that has so many different associations. Our bodies: skin, fat, and bone, sex, food, and fetishistic attachments–these are my thoughts while working.

The soft sculpture is further transformed into a rigid structure after soaking in porcelain casting slip, and then ring. The ring leaves a vitreous ‘relic’ of its past, much like the coral we collect on beaches is a skeleton of the living creature that once grew under the sea.

Meriel Stern

Domestic Composition 1, 2015

from the Reliquaries series

Cone 5 porcelain, acrylic and chalk

15"  x 30"  x 4.5"

Courtesy of the artist

This work is concerned with the growth and form of living things. I am interested in the processes of composition, transformation and eventual decomposition of living things and the aesthetic similarities of these processes in nature. I use a single line of cotton yarn and crochet dimensional shapes derived not only from material and technique, but also from the close study of natural, fertile forms. With crochet, as with many other systems, changes are simply a matter of an increase or decrease in the number of units, in this case loops. There is contraction or expansion, continued mathematically within a certain range.

I like that all of these forms are basically created from one strand and that one string can become a shape that has so many different associations. Our bodies: skin, fat, and bone, sex, food, and fetishistic attachments–these are my thoughts while working.

The soft sculpture is further transformed into a rigid structure after soaking in porcelain casting slip, and then ring. The ring leaves a vitreous ‘relic’ of its past, much like the coral we collect on beaches is a skeleton of the living creature that once grew under the sea.

Fred Yokel

Relic: Female Torso, 2015

coil-built ceramic, carved, under-glaze, cone 5

21"  x 12"  x 6"

Courtesy of the artist

My work involves exploring the human condition through figurative sculptures that express emotions, events or whimsical stories found in everyday life. I concentrate on freezing an eventful moment in the figures daily routine and expressing that moment by manipulating the clay into a pleasing gesture or form. The figures typically represent scenes that I have witnessed, participated in, or just plain imagined, which inspire a skit, spoof or humorous vignette that I find interesting enough to duplicate in clay.

I sketch many of my ideas before I build them, coming up with titles that will hopefully get the idea across to the viewer. Sometimes the titles are unnecessary, as the viewer can recognize what is going on in the scene, or even make up their own interpretation. I typically build my figures from the ground up, using coils of clay and forming, cutting and paddling the form as I work my way up the figure. The pieces are finished with glazes, underglazes and stains, which I sponge or brush on in layers, building up color and texture. My favorite firing method is Raku, which imparts a beautiful smoky and somewhat unpredictable surface that ties the colors together well.

narrative, filled with raw emotion.

Fred Yokel

Relic: Female Torso, 2015

coil-built ceramic, carved, under-glaze, cone 5

21"  x 12"  x 6"

Courtesy of the artist

My work involves exploring the human condition through figurative sculptures that express emotions, events or whimsical stories found in everyday life. I concentrate on freezing an eventful moment in the figures daily routine and expressing that moment by manipulating the clay into a pleasing gesture or form. The figures typically represent scenes that I have witnessed, participated in, or just plain imagined, which inspire a skit, spoof or humorous vignette that I find interesting enough to duplicate in clay.

I sketch many of my ideas before I build them, coming up with titles that will hopefully get the idea across to the viewer. Sometimes the titles are unnecessary, as the viewer can recognize what is going on in the scene, or even make up their own interpretation. I typically build my figures from the ground up, using coils of clay and forming, cutting and paddling the form as I work my way up the figure. The pieces are finished with glazes, underglazes and stains, which I sponge or brush on in layers, building up color and texture. My favorite firing method is Raku, which imparts a beautiful smoky and somewhat unpredictable surface that ties the colors together well.

narrative, filled with raw emotion.