In 2005, due to bronchitis, I didn't have any groups shows. However in 2006, I am back with a group show at the exclusive Nippon Gallery in September 2006 and pieces exhibited at Gallery Z in Providence, RI. See more in my main page.
In 2004 I was in two exhibits: Tokyo-New York sister city competition at the Nippon Gallery on 57th Street, (picture above) and the usual group show at the Puck building.
glaze 4x5 and white stoneware wheel thrown bowl 3x4
Exhibit Cocktail opening
During the Ball
Closeup showing details of the work.
The 2003 group show was once again held in SoHo, New York, followed by a successful sale.
The Artist's Statement follows:
Less is more: A personal approach to clay
It seems at times that these annual artists' statements are like a journal: a comment on what is going on currently at my atelier and my life in general. Take for instance, the time I hurt my back, and could only hand build. Or, more recently, when I concentrated on tile making with my colleagues. Both worthwhile experiences, especially when it comes to sharing resources. Yet I find them restrictive in this world of free flowing plastic arts. The attraction to clay is in its many choices: its plasticity allows me to mold a two or three-dimensional piece, by hand or on the wheel, or a combination of both, and then, to decorate it, or not. The key to artistic development is to produce a distilment of one's experiences, old and new, and produce pieces that reflect it. In ceramics, the flow moves also in parallel experiences as I make a piece, another may be in the kiln, and yet another is waiting to be glazed. At the same time, I am influenced by the latest gallery visit, museum show or serendipitous volume I picked up in a bookshop. I am at that age of Less is More in all parts of my life, and this is reflected in my current pieces.
I have noticed over the years, that friends and clients always journey to that corner of the room where the Blue and White ceramic pieces lie. They're the ones that get most touched, looked at, and lovingly embraced.
Analyzing the aesthetic factors around one's attraction to Blue and White, one must go very far in history and geography. It is said that the blue glaze component, the cobalt oxide, first used in Mesopotamian and Persian pottery, was perfected by the Chinese. The impact and fascination in the Western World continued during the 18-19th centuries through trade, imitation, and the pursuit of the true porcelain recipe a Chinese monopoly for over a thousand years.
But why do we all love Blue and White so much?
Perhaps it is the perfection that porcelain represents, its luminosity. The simplicity of the brushwork, no second thoughts allowed. The cobalt underglaze, or, overglaze decorations, representing everyday life, plant and animal kingdom (imaginary or real), humans in various activities and poses.
The love of ceramics is such that even when broken, and White are kept, for they are cherished pieces.
Details of the Work
Art is not a mere passtime in my life. I was recently labeled a "week-end artist" by an art critic who doesn't know me well. The accusation didn't thrill me! Art has been the most continuous "occupation" in my life, and I do it whenever, however, wherever.
I thought to myself: "Le diable l'emporte ", and moved on.
The statement however made me pause and reflect on the age old dilemma of what makes an artist, and the state of art education, support and lack of representation of female artists in Western Civilization. Whether art represents the banal existence of everyday life, or the In Your Face objections of shock artists, art doesn't just belong to those who can financially subsist from it, otherwise New York City itself would be depleted of art.
Here are some foods for thought for all, and an invitation to reflect on the state of the Arts in our time and life.
1. "All art is Instict " - Francis Bacon
2. Women artists still get collected less and show less. The price of their work is almost never as high as that of male artists. [ The Guerilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art]
3. Museums still don't buy enough art by women [ditto].
4. Many male artists can make it because of the full-time jobs of their spouses and/or support of patrons.
I like to tell people that in my lesser known role, I'm a potter. But I am and will always be an artist.
In the past 20 years that I've worked in ceramics, I've held many positions in a Ceramics Studio. My work is predominantly in stoneware and porcelain.
A recent back injury allowed
me to muse on my relationship with clay as a media, the withdrawal I
experienced during my absence from the ceramic studio, and the joys of
rediscovering watercolours.
I found that paper or canvas,
tubes of paint, brushes, a flat working space hold no candle to the
complexities and physical aspect of life in a ceramic studio.
Two-dimensional art, except for aerobics (think Jackson Pollock), are more intellectual endeavors
compared to the TEN steps of life in a pottery:
then start all over again.
Potters work with the Four Elements: Earth, Fire, Water and Air, in one of the earliest forms of art, using raw materials found in all parts of the world. Clay exists in all cultures, and has remained virtually unchanged. It is full of rituals such as creating "Clay Gods" which guard the kilns during firing.
Intrigued?