The Doors Are Open!

The Carolina Unleashed by Tom Starland.

Power of the Potters!

Thank you for being so supportative of the Pottery Center and the Seagrove Potters.  

Three kiln openings in Seagrove this weekend, Saturday, October 25

There are three kiln openings around Seagrove this weekend. 

Look to their individual websites for information.

Chris Luther Pottery

Avery Pottery and Tileworks

Ben Owen III Pottery

What Bulldog is working on this week

I have been working on throwing vases out of porcelain this past weekend, and now they are ready to put the finishing touches on them.  These vases will be fired with a variety of our  crystalline glazes on them.   I am also throwing a smooth white stoneware for the gas kiln.  I have some mug forms, small bowls, plates, and cups in the works.  The rest of the week I will be trimming the pots and putting handles on the mugs.

Below are some mugs Bruce threw yesterday and put handles on today.  I sure do like his mugs.  They are always the first that I reach for in the morning.

Back to the Wheel

We have been back to throwing at the wheel for a few days now.  After delivering the pieces to Raleigh a week and 1/2 ago, we have been catching up on domestic and business chores, making clay, watching movies at night, and catching up on some sleep.  It feels good to be turning pots and getting ready for our next kiln loads.  The vases below are made out of porcelain and will be fired with our crystalline glazes applied on them.  The movie we have been watching lately is the vampire movie and series, Blade: House of Chthon.  We are not quite finished with the discs yet,  we are pleased so far.  We like vampire movies.

Pottery and the Art of Gaming

We were looking around cyberspace and bumped into a blog called mashedmarket (excerpts and essays on the expanding space of games).  The reason why we bumped into this blog was because the blog author mentioned Bulldog Pottery.   As we began reading the essay, "Of Tools and Teapots, Rules and Decoration", our days in art school came flooding back.  We did not know where this fellow's thoughts were going, and we were afraid that by the end of his essay we were going be slammed.  We went through some heavy duty critiques in Alfred, and some of those would knock us out.  Usually a day (or two) away from the studio visiting the  library, or to the Jet (food), or to Alex's (the Bar) would suffice, we would lick our wounds and then go back to work.    We had to read his essay a few more times again to figure out if we were having a good critique or a bad one.   When we realized that this was a complimentary metaphor, we were pleasantly relieved.   

We began to read the rest of his blog, and enjoyed his writings about the art and craft of gaming.  We found that some if his thoughts on gaming could be swapped with pottery making.  This quote in particular caught our attention.  

Quoted from "I am Jack's Smirking Revenge"

"Of course, lots of gamers will feel (and play) differently. There’s an almost sickeningly huge range of ways to approach practically every game that’s ever been made. But, inevitably, our relationships to these experiences change over time. Rules are learned; skills mastered. More often than not, the expressive joy of discovery hardens into an almost-ritual ceremony of performance. And then what? We stumble into brand new worlds, keen on finding ourselves all over again."

One can take the three words gamers, game and play, replacing them with potters, pot, and work.  We now have a wonderful and eloquent paragraph about a studio potter's life.

We have not allowed ourselves to play video games or buy a PlayStation.  We have focused our attention on ceramics with our minds in the studio 24/7.  When we see what game designers have created these days, and watch family members play, we are amazed as well as tempted by the artistry.  The complexity of animation of video games has jumped mountains, since I was a kid playing Breakaway on Atari.  As for the art of playing video games, we will continue to read his writings and extrapolate from them, as metaphor, for our ceramic art.  

Visit to Greensboro : Greenhill Art Center

The Greenhill Cultural Center is pictured above,  the Greenshill Art Center is through the doors

Across the street from Center City Park is the Greenhill Center for North Carolina Art.  Visiting Greenhill was our second goal of the day.  There is an exhibition called Allegorical Realism, an exhibit of four NC. painters, on display through November 2, 2008.  We enjoyed viewing the paintings, and would recommend visiting the exhibition if you are in Greensboro.  The space there is wonderful with ample room to get back to view the paintings.  We were excited to be introduced to the work of Henryk Fantazos, who lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina.  This is the first time that we have seen his paintings.   We responded to his use of imagery and composition, and find many of the images he paints are similar to what we are drawn too.  We love stumbling onto work that inspires us.   Here is an example of his work.  Visit Henryk Fantazo's website to view more of his paintings and read his essays.

"Strangers in My Garden" by Henryk Fantazo

Tabernacle of Tupelo Honey by Henryk Fantazo

Greensboro Center City Park

Center City Park, view of bird pitcher and chick from the fountains

We visited Greensboro on Sunday.  Our goal was to see Fred Johnston's bird pitcher and Carol's chicks.  They own Johnston and Gentithes Art Pottery in Seagrove, NC.  He made these a couple of years ago for placement in the Center City Park, Greensboro, NC.,  as a public art commision.  There are some great pictures on their website , showing the process of Fred making the pitcher and Carol forming the chicks.  We were excited to finally see these works of art in their permenant location.  The day was beautiful and there were many people walking around with their families, throwing frisbee, and taking pictures.

Samantha and Bruce with Fred and Carol's two chicks

Bruce pointing out Fred's signiture while Gloria and Ed OOO & AHHH

While we were admiring the Pitcher and Chicks a little girl came over to admire them as well.  

Nature Art Gallery: A few more images

We would like to show a few more images of what we have on display at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.  

A grouping of drinking vessels by Bruce

Fossil Serpent Ginger Jar, Bruce, 7.5" x 8.5"

Skull Vase, Bruce, 8" x 5" x 4"

Wasp and Red Flowers, Porcelain Glaze Painting, Samantha, 12" x 7.75 " 1.5"

Two Golden Butterflies, Samantha, 3.25" x 6.5" x 6.5"

Vase, Samantha, 15.75" x 5" x 5"

Nature Art Gallery, New Works from Bulldog Pottery

Our opening last night in Raleigh was a lot of fun.  We had good conversations, many smiles, and the crowd was upbeat, with a lot of people enjoying the first Friday festivities at the Museum of Natural Sciences.  Karen did a wonderful job setting up the exhibition.  The exhibition will be on display until November 2, so if you are in town drop by to see it.  I think you will find the visit to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences very enjoyable.

Bulldog Pottery Exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

Pictured above is the entrance of the Museum of Natural Sciences which is located in Raleigh. It is a beautiful structure and the inside has wonderful exhibits to delight adults and children. The concept of the museum from the bottom floor to the fourth floor is to introduce you to the natural environment, past and present of North Carolina.  It is located in downtown Raleigh, in the same complex as North Carolina History Museum and across the street from the Legislature Building.   Tonight Bruce and I will be at the opening of our exhibition in the Nature Art Gallery. 

This is what you will see when you enter the the Museum of Natural Sciences.  The Museum Store is located to the left. 

Samantha's Brown Eyed Wasp Settled on Limb, 10" x 10"

Bruce's Leaf Vase 9.5" x 5.5"

North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

Yesterday, Bruce and I drove our exhibition pieces over to Raleigh.   We unloaded the pieces, and checked them off the inventory with the galley curator Karen Bethune.   Thankfully, she will be taking over, and doing the arrangment in the gallery space to be ready for the gallery opening on Friday evening.  The museum's shop staff will also play an integral part in helping to prepare the finishing details for the exhibition.  

The gallery is located on the balcony looking over the shop.

Here are a couple of pieces that will be in the show.

Samantha's moth mushroom jar 3" x 4.75" x 4.75"

Bruce's fossil fish bowl 5" x 5.25" x 5.25"