Indigo Street Pottery Newsletter
February 2010 Newsletter
Welcome to our monthly newsletter! It is part of our website indigostreetpottery.com, which you can browse from the top of this page. We write here about our studio, arts events, projects, studios of our friends, garden musings, and whatever else strikes our fancy. Hope you enjoy it!
In this Issue
1. ASU Art Museum’s 9th Annual Self-Guided Ceramic Studio Tour
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2.Indigo Street Pottery Calendar
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3.Strange Brew: The Daphna and Gerald Cramer Teapot Collection exhibition at ASU Art Museum Ceramic Research Center includes four Valley artists
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4.Contemporary Forum Art Auction & Dinner: A Night of Stars
5. 31st Annual Contemporary Crafts, Mesa Contemporary Arts, Mesa Arts Center, Mesa Arizona
6. ASU Art Museum Ceramic Research Center Ceram-A-Rama: A Progressive Clay Affair
7. Progress Note on Farraday’s University’s Hospital Health System wall tile commission
8. Jeff’s New Body of Sculptures
9. Agave Murpheyi flowerstalk emerging and Cascalote tree blooming in our garden
2. Indigo Street Pottery Calendar
December 15, 2009 - February 19, 2010: Strange Brew: The Gerry & Daphna Cramer Teapot Collection, ASU Art Museum, Ceramic Research Center http://asuartmuseum.asu.edu/ceramicsresearchcenter/
December 4, 2009 - March 3, 2010: Cups, Bowls and Plates, Tempe Center for the Arts, Tempe Main Post Office, Mill Avenue, Tempe
January 22 - March 14, 2010: 31st Annual Contemporary Crafts, Mesa Contemporary Arts, Mesa, Arizona. public opening 6-8pm, January 22, 2010. Both Jeff and Farraday have pieces in this show this year. www.mesaartscenter.com/index.php/artexhibits/juriedexhibitions/31stcrafts
February 20, 2010: Contemporary Forum’s Art Auction & Dinner A Night of Stars, both of us will be part of the Silent Auction and Artist Centerpiece Auction, Phoenix Art Museum contemporaryforum.org
February 26, 2010: Friday Conversations @ 11, Jeff and Farraday will be giving an artist talk in this casual and informative speaking series, free to the public, Arizona State University Art Museum Ceramic Research Center, 11a.m - 12p.m
February 27, 28, 2010: ASU Art Museum Ceramic Research Center Ceramic Studio Tour, Indigo Street Pottery is host site #15 with Jeff, Farraday, and guest artists Linda Painter and Tacha Vosburgh
asuartmuseum.asu.edu/ceramicsresearchcenter
March 4-7, 2010: ASU Art Museum Ceramic Research Center Cerama-Rama Gala, Silent Auction will include pieces by Jeff Reich and Farraday Newsome.
April 2010: Artists of the Month - Jeff Reich and Farraday Newsome, Tohono Chul Gallery, Tohono Chul Park, Tucson, Arizona tohonochulpark.org
September-October 2010: Northern Clay Center’s 20th Anniversary Exhibition, with a collaborative piece by Jeff and Farraday, Northern Clay Center , Minneapolis, Minnesota northernclaycenter.org
This will be Indigo Street Pottery’s 8th year as a host site for this highly anticipated, free self-guided annual ceramic studio tour. We are site #15 this year. The tour is sponsored by the Arizona State University Art Museum Ceramic Research Center.
Studio ceramists across the Valley of the Sun open their studios to hundreds of visitors. In addition to Jeff and Farraday’s work, our studio will host guest artists Linda Painter and Tacha Vosburgh.
Along with seeing plenty of finished work by the various participating artists, there are scheduled demonstrations to gain insight into how the art is made. Complete information on all sites and artists, as well as a map and locations of all sites and schedule of demonstrations can be found on Arizona State University Art Museum’s website: asuartmuseum.asu.edu/ceramicsresearchcenter
You can also visit the Ceramic Studio Tour’s new Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ceramics-Studio-Tour/274600532039?ref=ts
1. ASU Art Museum’s 9th Annual Self-guided Ceramic Studio Tour: February 27 & 28, 2010,
10am-4pm each day.
Linda Painter, glazed terra cotta platter. Linda will be one of our guest artists at Indigo Street Pottery during the upcoming ASU Art Museum sponsored Ceramic Studio Tour
Tacha Vosburgh, Diana, metallic patina earthenware, 26x17x6”. Tacha is our other guest artist for the Ceramic Studio Tour.
9. Agave Murpheyi flower stalk emerging and Cascalote Tree blooming in our garden
Agave Murpheyi is a local native. We saw several beautiful specimens on our Christmas day hike in the nearby Superstitions Mountains east of Mesa, Arizona (image from that hike near the top of the newsletter). The one in these three photos is thriving in our wildscaped garden at Indigo Street Pottery. The emerging flower stalk has been beautiful to watch! These phases were photographed on different days, so different lighting and color.
3. ASU Art Museum Ceramic Research Center’s Strange Brew: “The Daphna and Gerald Cramer Teapot Collection” exhibition includes four Valley artists
One of the current exhibitions at the Arizona State University Art Museum Ceramic Research Center in Tempe, Arizona is Strange Brew: The Daphna and Gerald Cramer Teapot Collection. The show dates are December 15 to February 19, 2010. Four Phoenix-area artists are represented in the exhibition: Sandra Luehrsen, Junya Shao, Farraday Newsome, and Jeff Reich.
Sandra Leuhrsen, Offering for the Metal Man, 2005
Junya Shao, Triangular Form Teapot, 2005
Farraday Newsome, Clarity of Heart, 2002
Jeff Reich, Architectonic Teapot, 2005
4. Contemporary Forum Art Auction & Dinner: “A Night of Stars”
The Contemporary Forum is an auxiliary group of the Phoenix Art Museum dedicated to raising money for museum acquisitions, contemporary exhibitions, support for artists, U.S. and foreign travel, gallery and salon events, architectural tours, and arts lectures and films. Their glamorous annual Art Auction & Dinner at the Phoenix Art Museum is a major fundraiser for this worthy group. This year’s theme is A Night of Stars. The event takes place Saturday evening February 20, 2010. See images/artists names/retail prices of all this year’s auction items at http://www.contemporaryforum.org/new_pics/Auction%20Artwork.pdf
For more info and tickets: contemporaryforum.org
We always donate work for the auction, and this year we will also be two of six artists invited to create auction centerpiece artworks for the forty dinner tables. Each centerpiece will be part of the auction fundraiser with a silent auction bid sheet at each table. The other four invited centerpiece artists are ceramic artist Sam Chung, metal sculptor Kevin Caron, metal sculptor Jeff Zischke, and metal sculptor Michael Anderson
This is where we took our Christmas day hike: First Water Trail in the Superstition Mountains east of where we live in Mesa, Arizona. The beautiful formation in the background is Weaver’s Needle. It was a perfect clear, cool day in the Sonoran Desert - in fact, we saw ice on the trail! It was great to get away from cars, power lines, houses, streets, and the studio for a day!
Jeff Reich, The Insistence of Thorns V, glazed stoneware, 2009
Farraday Newsome, Persephone Box with Butterflies, 2009
Farraday Newsome’s auction piece for “A Night of Stars”: Promise of Moonlight, lidded box, glazed terra cotta, 2009
Jeff Reich’s auction piece for “A Night of Stars”: Winter Thorns, glazed stoneware sculpture, 2009
7. Progress Note on Farraday’s University’s Hospital Group commission
Here are photos of one of the six boxy wall tiles that I am making for the new Cancer Hospital in Cleveland Ohio. I was commissioned by Trudy Wiesenberger for the University Hospitals Heaalth System of Cleveland. What you see below is one of the terra cotta tiles that has been bisque fired to cone 1, then sprayed with a cone 05 lowfire white glaze. This tile was then fired again to a low temperature (cone 014) to set, but not melt, the white glaze. This second firing is called a sinter firing. It leaves the glaze an immature, matte texture that is tough enough to draw on it with charcoal, which I do to to figure out my glaze color plan (see photos below). The charcoal burns out during the final firing. The sinter firing also serves another purpose: the sintered white foundation glaze is tough enough to easily brush on the many layers of colored glazes that my work calls for. When I’m done glazing, the tiles will go back in the kiln for the third and final firing, the glaze fire.
For more information and photos on this project, see the October 2009, November 2009, and December 2009 Indigo Street Pottery Newsletters - just click the months here or at the links at the top of this page for these archived issues!
6. ASU Art Museum’s “Ceram-A-Rama: A Progressive Clay Affair” : March 4-7, 2010
The Ceram-A-Rama is a biennial event sponsored by the Arizona State University Art Museum Ceramic Research Center. This major fundraiser for the Ceramics Research Center consists of four active, fun-filled days featuring a silent auction and a live auction of a wide-reaching array of prominent ceramic artists, plus lectures, collectors home tours, and more. This year the Gala will be a “progressive affair”, with the auction & associated events moving from site to site by means of a lively shuttle bus.
Jeff Reich’s piece in this year’s Ceram-A-Rama silent auction: Yucca Fields, 11 x 15 1/2 x 13”, glazed stoneware sculpture, 2009
Farraday Newsome’s piece in this year’s Ceram-A-Rama silent auction: Dark Blue Bowl with Oranges, glazed terra cotta, 6 x 14 x 14”, 2009
The Cascalote tree (Caesalpinia cacaloca), above, is a fantastic winter bloomer. It is native to many areas of tropical Mexico, so we need to give it frost protection here in the Sonoran desert. We do get freezes in the winter!
8. Jeff’s New Body of Sculptures
Jeff has just finished constructing a new body of sculptural work. He’s been working with Aardvark Clay’s cone 10 Black Mountain Sculpture clay for these stiff slab constructions. In the photos below, the new greenware is grouped together to be covered and slowly dried under cotton muslin and plastic sheeting. It will take for a few weeks for the work to dry and be ready for the bisque firing. Jeff will be demonstrating the construction of his sculptures during his one-day workshop at the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona on March 16 , 2010.
For more info, click:
http://www.mesaarts.com/index.php/classes/ceramics/ceramicsstudioatthemesaartscentersamplerworkshops
5. “31st Annual Contemporary Crafts”, Mesa Contemporary Arts, Mesa Arts Center, Mesa Arizona
This long-lived annual Mesa Arts Center show is now into its third decade. The exhibition showcases contemporary craft from across the country and is always juried by a prominent figure in the field of contemporary craft. This year the juror is Jane Sauer, owner of the highly regarded Jane Sauer Gallery of Santa Fe, New Mexico. We are very pleased to both have work in the show this year.
Mesa Contemporary Arts is the large, multiple-gallery art museum at the Mesa Arts Center, which is located on the SE corner of Center St. and Main St. in Mesa, Arizona. The free public opening is 6-8pm January 22, 2010. www.mesaartscenter.com/index.php/artexhibits/juriedexhibitions/31stcrafts
Farraday Newsome, Fern Bird, Unseen Drift series, 28.5x17x16”, glazed terra cotta, 2009
Jeff Reich, Interwoven Fields,21x17x17”, glazed stoneware, 2009
