COVID-19 and Getting Back into the World

I quickly realized, during the current global pandemic, that much of my motivation for creative work comes from being around others.  This realization led to very limited creative output during the last couple of years.  Much of this was due to the isolation of the pandemic and dealing with personal events that have influenced, I just didn’t feel motivated.  It was really tough and I know that many others also felt and feel this way.  To fight this, once I felt comfortable enough I quickly planned ways to safely get out and make work. 

My first venture out into the world was with the Hampton County Arts Council in Hampton, South Carolina.  I was invited to be an artist-in-residence and conduct a two-day workshop on coil building, in the Summer of 2021.  The time there was amazing and sparked many questions for me about material and the communities around the region.  I plan on going back to Hampton and also working with the Arts Council on future projects.

Toward the second half of the summer, Valarie Zimany and Daniel Bare invited me to spend some time as a visiting artist at Clemson University.  I spent two weeks creating a wide variety of work including sculptural wall hangings as trophies for a disc golf tournament, electric fired cups, and a good amount of work for a future woodfiring.  I have participated in a few woodfirings at Clemson and always have a wonderful time.  Those firings are something that I look forward to every year and am so glad that there is potential for them to resume.

2019 Recap

It was a crazy year with additional responsibilities on top of teaching. I did not make time to update this blog very much. My goal for 2020 is to be better about posting all of the positive things that have been happening.

February was hectic with shows all over the place. In addition, I was asked to be a part of the panel discussion to close out the South Carolina Clay Conference. The panel was about the future of clay in South Carolina. We had a great conversation with a very diverse panel.

In April of 2019, I was a little blue from not being able to attend NCECA but quickly snapped out of that as I headed to Clemson University to fire the anagama there. This year I took three students along for the ride. Firing kilns is one of my favorite things to do and it was wonderful to be able to share that experience with my students. The faculty and students at Clemson are always super welcoming and really went the extra mile to make sure my students got the most out of the trip.

During the firing, I took a quick trip up to St. Charles, Missouri for an exhibition I was in at the Foundry Art Centre. The show was titled Ceramic Centric. I had two pieces in the show and received an Honorable Mention.

After jurying Artfields, Jr. in 2018 and not being eligible for entry due to not living in the Southeast long enough, I was able to apply in 2019. I was accepted and showed Moving On, Separately at Olio Studio. Artfields is a giant art contest in the Southeast region of the United States with $145,000 in prizes. The exhibition and contest take place every spring in Lake City, South Carolina. There are many different prize categories. If you are visiting the area at the end of April - the first weekend in May, you should definitely make the trip. More information can be found HERE. I recently found out that I was accepted for 2020.

One of the coolest things that happened in 2019 was being invited to be a part of the Mid-Atlantic Keramik Exchange in Iceland. I met a ton of really great people and had a few familiar faces there, too. It was odd being in a place that had light for 24 hours a day. Also, not only was the studio time amazing but the out of studio time was fantastic as well. I experimented with a few new concepts and am still working on evolving them. I will try to make a post specifically about that soon.

After trying some different ways of working and watching videos of people fixing porcelain bathroom fixtures with ramen noodles, I decided to make a mug out of ramen. Surprisingly, I used many ceramics techniques to create the mug. I titled the work of Ramen and it was included in Dirt in the Wrong Hands at Quaid Gallery from August 24 - September 14.

The final highlight of 2019 was being accepted into The Great Divide at the Morean Center for Clay. The exhibition was juried by Bruce Dehnert, Director of Ceramics at Peters Valley School of Craft, and will be up through January 31, 2020.

There were other little highlights in 2019 but these are the big ones. Things are already happening in 2020 and I look forward to sharing more.

Shows, Shows, Shows

The start of 2019 has been jam packed with exhibitions.  I am very happy to a be a part of all of these exhibitions and have only now had a minute to sit down and write about them.

In January, I installed a new piece in an exhibition with the Palmetto Curatorial Exchange at the South Carolina Educational Television Studio in Columbia, South Carolina.This piece is one that contains living grass that slowly gets dry and dies over the course of the exhibition.I have not seen this piece since January and am very curious as to how it looks now.This piece and works from other artists from South Carolina is on display through April 2019.

Also, in January, the 701 Center for Contemporary Art Prize Exhibition moved from Columbia, South Carolina to the Jones-Carter Gallery in Lake City, South Carolina.  The work was displayed in a different configuration and overall the show looked great.  Below you will find some photos from that exhibition.  The exhibition at Jones-Carter Gallery closed on February 23rd, 2019 and a good amount of people able to see the show throughout its duration.

At the end of January, I traveled to Kirksville, Missouri to install work in the Truman State University Art Gallery.  Dreamwork is the collective theme of the work of Leah Boring, Emily Nickel, and me.  All former students of Wynne Wilbur, we were invited to show work alongside the retrospective of Wynne.  She is retiring after this semester and will be leaving a definite whole at Truman.  We were all so proud to be able to be together to celebrate Wynne and our individual successes.  The exhibition ran from January 26th – March 1st.  Below are some photos of my work but it is worth a look around to find images of the whole exhibition.  It looked fantastic.

Opening on March 1st in Savannah, Georgia is Sip: A Ceramic Cup Show will be on display at the Whitefield Center.  The exhibition of cups will be open until March 8th.  This exhibition is put on by the Savannah Clay Community and 10% of sales is donated to the Emmaus House to help feed Savannah’s hungry. The show is also available online, HERE.