Robert Alexander
Response Number Three, 2016
ink on paper, mixed media, collage
11 x 46”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Last year, I started making collages of all of the things I had spent years storing: magazines, stationary supplies, analog drafting equipment, etc. I can’t throw anything away: old drawings, magazines, art supplies, pens, ink, letraset transfer letters, paint samples. It was exciting to look through all of this stuff again after years of being in boxes. Seeing all of these things I had saved for some reason many years ago, and deciding which pages and photos I liked, and which things could be thrown away, made me realize how much, or how little, I had changed. I started throwing some things away, which forced me to make decisions about what to save, what was compelling and what could be sacrificed. With the amount of visual information seeking our attention today, there is power in deciding what is and what is not worth keeping from our experience of it. By drawing on top of it, cutting it up, and rearranging it, I am reorganizing a world for myself.

Francisco Alvarado
After Nice, 2016
acrylic and ink on paper
22 x 30”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
My work reflects life experiences through various colorful abstractions. My inspiration comes from nature and my travels. Using bold colors and patterns I am constantly exploring new territory. I utilize both technology and hands on manipulation of acrylic paint, mixed media and digital imaging to create my work. My series, Without Brushes, consists of drawings made on an iPad and later finished with a photo editing tool. These artistic explorations took me in a new direction of combining my paintings into a series of Digital Art. I am a member of the Los Angeles Art Association/ Gallery 825 and the Silver Lake Art Community (SLAC). I received an award in 2012 Ink & Clay 38. I am also an active member of the FAUX SHO’, a bimonthly group show that focuses on different art movement/genre, where every show is interpreted by a diverse group of artists, each negotiating the fine balance of replication and free interpretation of a masterpiece.

David Avery
Running on Empty, 2016
hard-ground etching
6 x 6”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
A practitioner of traditional black and white etching in San Francisco for over thirty years, I have long been drawn to the works and techniques of the master etchers and engravers of the past 400 years, as well as their literary counterparts. I often find inspiration in them or a point of departure for my own work—a bridge, if you will, between past thought and contemporary issues. One that sheds light in a unique way on such concerns. Often the depiction of mythological themes in these works contained political references mirroring the concerns of the day, and I try to utilize the same techniques with regard to current curses of humanity. It is the strange luminosity brought about by the unique quality of line etching on copper, coupled with, perhaps, a somewhat suspect vision about things as they supposedly are, which can give this work its compelling appeal and allow for the possibility of generating a multiplicity of narratives and interpretations.

David Avery
The Last Roundup, 2017
hard-ground etching
12.75 x 6.25”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
A practitioner of traditional black and white etching in San Francisco for over thirty years, I have long been drawn to the works and techniques of the master etchers and engravers of the past 400 years, as well as their literary counterparts. I often find inspiration in them or a point of departure for my own work—a bridge, if you will, between past thought and contemporary issues. One that sheds light in a unique way on such concerns. Often the depiction of mythological themes in these works contained political references mirroring the concerns of the day, and I try to utilize the same techniques with regard to current curses of humanity. It is the strange luminosity brought about by the unique quality of line etching on copper, coupled with, perhaps, a somewhat suspect vision about things as they supposedly are, which can give this work its compelling appeal and allow for the possibility of generating a multiplicity of narratives and interpretations.

David Avery
Concerning the Great Ship MOUR-DE-ZENCLE, 2016
hard-ground etching
6.875 x 5.875”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
A practitioner of traditional black and white etching in San Francisco for over thirty years, I have long been drawn to the works and techniques of the master etchers and engravers of the past 400 years, as well as their literary counterparts. I often find inspiration in them or a point of departure for my own work—a bridge, if you will, between past thought and contemporary issues. One that sheds light in a unique way on such concerns. Often the depiction of mythological themes in these works contained political references mirroring the concerns of the day, and I try to utilize the same techniques with regard to current curses of humanity. It is the strange luminosity brought about by the unique quality of line etching on copper, coupled with, perhaps, a somewhat suspect vision about things as they supposedly are, which can give this work its compelling appeal and allow for the possibility of generating a multiplicity of narratives and interpretations.

Peter Baczek
Transit Twilight, 2016
lithograph
20 x 16”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Urban landscapes capture what we all experience in our environment. Throughout our lives we modify our living and working space to fit our needs. We are constantly surrounded by an ever-changing landscape of mood and color that I capture in various media. These landscapes have always been a part of my vision. I choose to depict cityscapes through a more refined interpretation of the composition before me. The use of shadows, texture, and color establish areas of movement and light that can create a certain mood.

Mariona Barkus
Inspiration. Please. Inspiration, 2017
ink-generated digital text on paper collaged into wooden box, acrylic paint and plastic letters on box, praying hands made using paperclay in a candy mold
11.5 x 8.875 x 2.625”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
“Inspiration, Please, Inspiration” humorously explores the transcendent creative process. Praying hands symbolize respect for the ineffable creative experience or perhaps are an expression of desperation. Harvesting some of the inspirational quotes I keep around my studio, I used yellow text to play off Kandinsky’s characterization of yellow: “Yellow is the typically earthly colour….It may be paralleled in human nature, with madness, not with melancholy or hypochondriacal mania, but rather with violent raving lunacy.” Ah, yes, indeed, that good old Artistic Raving Lunacy — Sheer Obsessive Creativity! “I DON’T HAVE A CLUE” repeated all around the outer rim of the box is surrender to a Higher Power or maybe just Exasperation, similarly, “INSIPIRATION PLEASE INSPIRATION” on the outside of the box.

Ann Bingham Freeman
Head 6 Series, 2016-2017
clay, patina
14 x 11 x 11”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
As a young student I fell in love with clay. My life has changed greatly in the last three years. I have given most of my time this year to clay. I returned to clay this year as a particularly satisfying medium to express these changes. I feel wonderful when I work with clay.

Caroline Blackburn
No. 244, 2016
clay, thrown on wheel
and hand-built, cone 10
22 x 10”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Caroline Blackburn, a Los Angeles native, creates vessels that explore her interest in abstract painting, architecture, fashion, and nature. Trained as a painter, her work focuses on bringing a freshness and immediacy to each piece through color, form, surface, and texture. Every work is highly considered, whether it is thrown on a wheel, hand built, or a combination of both techniques. Glazes perform at a level that engages the viewer in an abstract skin generated through the glazing process. She juxtaposes color, texture, and drawing using a variety of materials to accomplish a painterly surface, including ceramic pencil, slip, oxide, or glaze creating a sublime effect, reflecting phenomenon found in nature. Color plays a significant role in the work. Blackburn has developed glazes that are versatile, whether used opaquely, transparently, or ones that create cratering or pitting on the surface. When she glazes a work, she approaches it as a canvas. She may first apply a slip, draw on the work with a ceramic pencil, and then hand-paint each piece with a variety of brushes to accomplish a painterly effect. While investigating an interest in plasticity, the work produces a continual shift between surface, texture, color, and object. Each vessel provides a contemporary sense of life that is very personal and universal at the same time. Caroline received a MFA from Art Center College of Design and a BFA from Boston College.

Nubia Bonilla
The Crossing (La Travesia), 2017
ceramic, porcelain, Paperclay,
Black Mountain clay, cone 10, iron
35 x 39 x 20”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
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. My long trajectory in the investigation of indo-Afro-American groups has given her the opportunity to develop my unique style in the design of my artwork.

Nubia Bonilla
The Funeral of Maria Del Rosario, 2017
ceramic, iron, porcelain, Black Mountain clay, cone 10
21 x 23 x 13”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
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. My long trajectory in the investigation of indo-Afro-American groups has given her the opportunity to develop my unique style in the design of my artwork.

Nubia Bonilla
The Guardian (La Guardiana), 2017
ceramic, iron, wood, Black Mountain clay, cone 10
29 x 10 x 9”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
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. My long trajectory in the investigation of indo-Afro-American groups has given her the opportunity to develop my unique style in the design of my artwork.

Ronda Brown
Contain Her from the Bow 2 the Altar, Divine Feminine Re-Arise Series, 2017
ceramic sculpture
9 x 6 x 6”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
This work is to celebrate the sensual revelations of the sacred feminine and interconnected ancestral symbolism. Sustain-ably minded, my approach my artistic practice, home, and family life, is constantly reverent of form, process and evolution. Powerfully ritualistic by nature, as cultivated in my own spiritual practice, this work represents a deep connection to culture, tradition and mysticism that honors the Star Nation, Native-American and Alkebulan Ancestry. Each Terra Cotta peace is Utilized as sacred object to invoke the Divine Feminine by utilizing the Ancient Traditions of Altars and Altar Heartifacts.

Matthew Brugger
Sentry from the Clay Epoch Series, 2016
hand-built ceramic, oxide wash, and glaze
53 x 14 x 11”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Clay epoch is an exploration of ceramic sculpture as receptacles of the human condition through surreal deities and creatures, monolithic idols, and artifacts. I am fascinated by ceramic’s permanence and record keeping, by mythos and resonating narratives, and the forms, symbols, and aesthetic of prehistoric and Neolithic art. These totems of stone, relics, and vessels housed spirits and stories that provided explanation and connection to the strange world surrounding humans and the worlds beyond. The process of working with clay at a large scale is physical and immersive, inviting us into a meditative state of clairvoyance and spontaneity. Collaborating with clay’s earthy personality to bend, crack, and respond to my physical influence, it is the vehicle through which I feel a similar sense of connection to the external world and internal balance, the clay as well being equally hollow and given meaning as we find its form.

Catherine Burce
May Gray, 2016
porcelain
22 x 84 x 3”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
I am a form selector as much as a form maker. I gather parts of the world around me and use them as raw materials for the works. The clay becomes an impression of those materials and through the serendipity of the process it eventually reveals what it wants to be.

Catherine Burce
Shine On, 2017
porcelain cast intoplaster panels
7 x 7 x 5”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
I am a form selector as much as a form maker. I gather parts of the world around me and use them as raw materials for the works. The clay becomes an impression of those materials and through the serendipity of the process it eventually reveals what it wants to be.

Sandra Camomile
11/9 Anxiety Drawing _03 from the 11/9 Anxiety Drawings Series, 2017
ink on paper
17 x 22”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Following the US Presidential Election of November 8, 2016, I began a series of drawings in an effort to relieve the negative stress I was experiencing. I approached the drawings using the idea of the automatic drawing style of the Surrealists as a means of expressing the subconscious. But I was soon surprised by the tightly, controlled outcomes of the drawings. I’ve come to understand my creative process as a means to organize the chaos in my world, similar in theory to the Buddhist practice of Sagyeong.

Jennifer Chen
Christmas Tree Lane-Altadena,
CA_34°10’48.84”N 118°08’20.18”W_elev1132ft.eyealt1519ft.1994_20160313_Cedrus deodara_India_1883-1885 from the Succession-Landmarks Series, 2016
screen-printed digital print
33 x 45”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
The interests and areas of my research are currently focused on urban zones as microecologies and how some things become integrated into changing dynamics of the landscape. To question the type of landscape: what it contains, its organization, its distribution, and over a period of time its secession of both the living and non-living components is to see how these interfaces developed. What is familiar in the Los Angeles fauna becomes a starting point when looking at ornamental trees that line the streets and shade the parks. Palm trees, for example, are not indigenous to the region but is an icon and symbol of the exotic and leisure of this temperate Mediterranean climate. Eucalyptus trees are also not indigenous but brought in as resource husbandry for lumber, pulp, and shade. How do these two trees affect the original ecosystem? How do they affect our aesthetics? How do we effect their condition? What is interesting is that the current distribution of the eucalyptus is mostly in the southern hemisphere in Australia and New Zealand, but the oldest fossil record dates to over 50 million years ago in Argentina. Geological forces caused slow extinction and man-made forces can reincarnate. We are all migrating, transplanted organisms and infrastructure in different habitats.

Chuka Susan Chesney
My Last Meal, 2017
watercolor, pen and ink, pastel
12 x 16”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
I have a lovely studio in my house with a sweeping view of Los Angeles. My rule for working in my studio is that I have to be happy and inspired before I enter the door. I got burned out as an artist when I was a lot younger because I worked when I hated what I was creating. I stopped making art for many years. So now, I protect myself from burn-out. There are many books in my house, and I look at them to get inspired. I also read articles on the Internet, and often go to museums and galleries. I find that if I do these things and take good care of myself, my creativity bubbles up. I find that I have no choice —I must either go in my studio and paint or sit at my computer and write poetry or short stories. My Last Meal was inspired by an article on the Internet about a woman named Kelly Renee Gissendaner who spent 19 years on Death Row in a Georgia State Prison. After 19 years, she was executed. Kelly Renee was convicted of conspiring to murder her husband. The painting shows a portrait of Kelly Renee, the components of her last meal on Death Row, and the death room where she was executed.

Sapira Cheuk
Leaf Cut, 2016
ink and acrylic on paper
39 x 42”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Sapira Cheuk’s work revolves around issues of the body, embodiment, and women’s sexuality. Her work incorporates traditional Sumi Ink painting techniques and geometric elements to depict the complexity of the subject and corporeality, while building an alter- native narrative of not only bodily desires, but also intersubjective relations. Cheuk has exhibited in over fifty exhibitions, including those at the Orange County Contemporary Art Center, Riverside Art Museum, Rochester Contemporary Art Museum, Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art, and The Robert & Frances Fullerton Museum of Art. She received her BA at University of California, Riverside and MFA from California State University, San Bernardino.

Sheri Chillingworth
Not Always Obvious, 2017
glazed ceramic
15.5 x 12”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
I am interested in the ideas that relate to how cultures interact, perceive, and manipulate the environment. A deep appreciation for the physical world, my inspiration comes from the landscape and natural phenomena – “nature doesn’t make mistakes.” Through the continuous process of building up and tearing down, I think about the present as well as what no longer exists. History, personal experience, documentation, ecology, and technological methods are of assistance in my research. Having a multi-disciplinary practice, I incorporate both painting and ceramics sculpture. The work embodies an experimental nature using an alchemic approach where materials become the vehicle for transformation. This information ignites a dialogue and mimics the multiplicity of layers present in a constantly changing environment. Relocating throughout the United States and Australia provides a unique perspective towards contrasting landscapes. My interests are in the perception of the changing environment, and I repeatedly ask questions about how and why the transformation is occurring. Through this lens, my work conveys new ways of looking at the world around us.

Melanie Maria Ciccone
Flesh & Blood
from the (1 & 2) Diptych Series, 2017
silkscreen, sewn thread
21 x 27”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Heading into the second-half-of-life, I found myself in a kind of wilderness, turning many stones, and asking questions. Like the young bird in a favorite children’s book, Are You My Mother, I found myself on a bumpy journey that kept taking left turns that I thought to be right. The process left me feeling lost and unmoored, unstructured and purposeless. But as a faithful student of curiosity –and by virtue of forward motion and friends as unsuspecting guides– one thing lead to another as I leaned into the possibilities. I am a textile artist and printmaker. My work has its origins in quilting, but has evolved into something much less readily definable –allowing for a larger container of discovery where border lines between thread, paper, ink and scissors integrate; where fiber and thread are used with a liberty afforded to painters: pulling color into narrative thought both pointed and abstract. These pieces are a meditation on our nation in transfiguration, and its relationship to the greater human family.

Kathryn Cirincione
All, 2014
mixed media
lithograph
11 x 17”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
I’m a printmaker, photographer and painter living in West Marin, California and have been making art since childhood. My Southern Italian ancestors worked as church muralists and stained glass window artists who still find expression in my work. I’ve lived, worked and traveled extensively in Europe and Latin America and have been influenced by the events, traditions and vibrant colors emanating from these worlds. Ancient church art as well as con- temporary social issues frequently find their way into my work, but I also find joy in creating something that for me is simply beautiful or fun.

Wendy Deleon
Across the Universe, 2016-2017
hand- and wheel-thrown raku
forms, scrubbed wood
16 x 96 x 48”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
I began making clay balls with my cap clay from throwing pots, and raku firing them with bands of white. The graphic quality of the black and white balls, the round shape and the straight lines, the curved lines, round forms are thrilling. The jumble of directions they point to is almost like dozens of voices speaking at the same time; they create a vision of chaotic energy and power. As I began creating tableaux with balls I created even larger balls, bringing more energy to the compositions. There are now cake shaped pieces glazed with circles, and one bowl, black with white patterns that stops your eye, to challenge the other other conforming elements. They create a very dynamic composition combined with the smooth, undulating grain pattern of the driftwood, which reads as long and flowing. A visual harmony is created between the disparate pieces. I enjoy gathering contrasting shapes and patterns and materials to create a new experience. Driftwood on the floor, with black and white clay objects scattered with them, like debris on a forest floor, or small atoms, or other galaxies viewed from far far away. I started imagining them as spinning atoms or planets, and realized how similar I perceive the world world being structured, large and small through either microscope or telescope.

Diane Divelbess
Formal Thought Revisited - IV from the Formal Thoughts Revisited Series, 2015
graphite and ink drawing on paper
9 x 11.5”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Over the past several years my prints and drawings have reflected an ongoing interest in simplified abstract lines, angles, forms and edges. The drawings, “Formal Thought Revisited,” are directly related to this. I am also interested in the suggestion of space and motion using limited means.

Kevin Eaton
Metamorphia Jones, 2017
ceramic slab construction
with carving, cone 5 glazes
17.5 x 15 x 15”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
I’ve been a graphic design professional for many years, however my recen work with ceramics at Santa Monica College has allowed me to rediscover a creative energy that I hadn’t enjoyed since my undergrad days at University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Incorporating my love of comic books and science fiction, I’m creating ceramic sculptures that are humorous, thoughtprovoking, and beautiful. It’s a joyful, toylike world, filled with futuristic vessels and ruled by the gods who hold sway over its inhabitants. My best friend, a ceramist who died years ago, always wanted me to study with him. I was afraid of getting my hands dirty, but now I know that he’s somewhere out there laughing with me… and at me.

Grace Eunchong Lee
Untitled No. 14, 2017
stoneware
6.25 x 5.5 x 4.25”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Lee’s work explores the idea of how a certain mental space and attitude can affect the physicality of a final art object. Eastern art and Shaker design philosophies are large influences in this regard, which can be attributed to her middle class upbringing as a Korean-American. These sculptures are studies of the Vessel as structural figures in both the tangible and metaphorical sense. The use of carving and sanggam technique on hand built and wheel thrown pieces, combined with little to no added color or glazes, draw attention to the form and surface.

Grace Eunchong Lee
Untitled No. 17, 2017
stoneware
5.25 x 6 x 3.5”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Lee’s work explores the idea of how a certain mental space and attitude can affect the physicality of a final art object. Eastern art and Shaker design philosophies are large influences in this regard, which can be attributed to her middle class upbringing as a Korean-American. These sculptures are studies of the Vessel as structural figures in both the tangible and metaphorical sense. The use of carving and sanggam technique on hand built and wheel thrown pieces, combined with little to no added color or glazes, draw attention to the form and surface.

Barbara Foster
L’ll Burn Veil from the Floating Forrest Series, 2017
relief print collé on archival digital carbon print
on Awagami Kozo natural
23 x 13.25”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Over the past fifteen years, my work has addressed the fragility of the landscape. Whether it is the Nevada proving grounds, deep-sea terrain, corporate agriculture, Taiwan urban gardens, or the planting and harvesting of trees as a way of looking at the resurrection of the previously blighted or the implications of the unpredictable. The print projects are directly related to the history, environment, and events at specific sites by linking process and content in black and white relief prints, hybrid digital/relief prints, and carbon prints on Taiwanese and Japanese papers. Ink, paper, and photography, along with specific wood and active physical image development, combine to elicit a response that is not immediately obvious, finding kinship among materials and subject. The visual and actual imprints of the landscape intend to reshape the visual dialogue on these topics by moving the conversation and physical practice to reflect the landscapes that have claimed new identities through process, yet are still imbued with the patina of intention, history, and events.

Barbara Foster
Tagged: Unit Boundary from the Floating Forrest Series, 2017
four-color laser-cut woodcut on
Awagami Kozo thin white paper
31 x 23”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Over the past fifteen years, my work has addressed the fragility of the landscape. Whether it is the Nevada proving grounds, deep-sea terrain, corporate agriculture, Taiwan urban gardens, or the planting and harvesting of trees as a way of looking at the resurrection of the previously blighted or the implications of the unpredictable. The print projects are directly related to the history, environment, and events at specific sites by linking process and content in black and white relief prints, hybrid digital/relief prints, and carbon prints on Taiwanese and Japanese papers. Ink, paper, and photography, along with specific wood and active physical image development, combine to elicit a response that is not immediately obvious, finding kinship among materials and subject. The visual and actual imprints of the landscape intend to reshape the visual dialogue on these topics by moving the conversation and physical practice to reflect the landscapes that have claimed new identities through process, yet are still imbued with the patina of intention, history, and events.

Barbara Foster
Trace from the Edge of the Pleistocene Series, 2016-2017
archival carbon print and relief prints on Awagami Kozo thin white paper
83 x 30”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Over the past fifteen years, my work has addressed the fragility of the landscape. Whether it is the Nevada proving grounds, deep-sea terrain, corporate agriculture, Taiwan urban gardens, or the planting and harvesting of trees as a way of looking at the resurrection of the previously blighted or the implications of the unpredictable. The print projects are directly related to the history, environment, and events at specific sites by linking process and content in black and white relief prints, hybrid digital/relief prints, and carbon prints on Taiwanese and Japanese papers. Ink, paper, and photography, along with specific wood and active physical image development, combine to elicit a response that is not immediately obvious, finding kinship among materials and subject. The visual and actual imprints of the landscape intend to reshape the visual dialogue on these topics by moving the conversation and physical practice to reflect the landscapes that have claimed new identities through process, yet are still imbued with the patina of intention, history, and events.

Gina M.
Reluctant Surrender, 2016
ceramic, oil glaze, wire
18 x 18 x 16”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
I was born in Minnesota and raised in California by a funky and creative family. My mother owned and operated a puppet theater in Norwalk where my family spent many weekends developing shows, building puppets and hosting birthday parties. Art and creativity were a way of life. In all my work there is a whimsy with a dark side. My personal narrative uses innocent childhood imagery like teddy bears, toys, and puppets, to create the reactionary expressions of my inner emotional life. When something happens to me and triggers a buried emotion, a lost sentiment or a hidden pain, I must reconstruct and resurrect it outside of myself and find the story behind it. I select materials based on their authenticity to my process. I choose clay because of its fragility, its relationship to the earth, and its tradition in arts and craft. I incorporate recycled materials such as wood and found objects because of their nostalgia and reference to aging, decay and decomposition. Encaustic wax and resins speak to my faux finish experience and love of historic art materials. Combining assemblage with ceramics fills my current body of work. Trompe l’oeil “fool-the-eye” sculptures are made of high-fired ceramic clay, oxide washes, encaustic paint and found objects. Their homespun construction and textured surfaces simulate threadbare fabric, tattered fur, and the broken button eyes of careworn, faded toys and carnival games. My piece, ‘No Time To Say...,’ is an adult sized, ceramic faux fabric, well loved toy rabbit with springs exposed and joints stressed. She hangs upside down by a large hook as a chain strangles her body, pressing it into the clock face of an over sized pocket watch.

Jessica Gondek
Enterprising Machines I, 2016
woodcut and digital mixed media print
16 x 12”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Enterprising Machines are works inspired by machine aesthetics that reference common tools and domestic utilitarian objects. My work is created by intermingling woodcut, the first print form, with current digital processes. This combination of old and new techniques amplifies the relationship between the human hand and machine within these images. Consumer catalogues published in the early 1900s for Pratt and Whitney tools, and the Enterprise Manufacturing Company, maker of domestic gadgets, inspire these works. Digitally printed elements I compose recall blueprints or plans and create a foundation for the modification of the context of these implements. Working from observation of actual objects and making forms with the assistance of 3D modeling allows for transposition and mutability between layers of printed and observed information. The objects explored are simultaneously transformed, denying their original functional purpose, and asserting an animated physical presence and internal narrative.

Mark Goudy
Curved Space from the Equipose Series, 2017
two closed forms: slip cast, burnished earthware, colors and patters created by painting soluble metal salts
6 x 18 x 17”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
I am drawn to simple minimalistic archetypal forms that reflect the geometries of nature. Weathered stones are a central inspiration for me. These perfect forms emerge through the planetary process of plate tectonics where cooling magma from deep in the earth is brought to the surface and subjected to the physics of erosion over eons. These rounded shapes can be seen on any beach, in any streambed. Echoes of this timeless progression are reflected in my work. My approach is very much material and process oriented. Early on I was attracted to the technical challenge and aesthetic possibilities of working with soluble metal salts on unglazed clay. These “watercolors” penetrate the bisquefired clay and become an integral part of the material after firing. I am attracted to intricate abstract patterns that can’t be comprehended at a single glance and invite in-depth exploration. My rounded forms are designed to be held in one’s hands, and when set on a flat surface, gently rock before coming to rest at their own natural balance point.

Mark L. Hendrickson
Stonze 2 from the Stonze Series, 2017
ceramic, stretched and manipulated clay:
colored slips and oxide stainfired to cone 2
13 x 11 x 7”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
This work is inspired by rock and stone formations. The opening in each piece ties them to pottery, instead of being pure sculpture.

K. Ryan Henisey
Disposition from the Views III Series, 2017
acrylic ink and sharpie pen on paper, paper collage
18 x 24”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
The third movement of the Views collection is focused on dialogue. It is a point/counterpoint exploration of communications, technology, and queer sexuality. Images and hand-writing create a visual environment where language reveals varying perceptions from viewpoints that show dichotomies from straight to queer, celebratory to predatory, religious to lecherous, or supportive to radical. These narrative landscapes are physicallylayered over ink paintings, raised by just a few centimeters. Duality is present in all my works, which seem to argue within one another through symbolism and meaning.This hybrid reality recalls the layered existence of queer masculinity. The paintings explore the objectification of the human experience, using a visual language of power, light, and sexuality. The encounters —from online comments to locker room glances— are recognizable because they are harvested from our post digital reality. Each of the works is paired with cut companion pieces, offering an attempt to reconstruct context, while simultaneously emphasizing the solitary nature of holding a single view.

John H. Hopkins
Porcelain Jar, 2017
thrown and altered porcelain with slip and stamping
12 x 11 x 11”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
I tend to work in cycles of making sculptural pieces or functional pots. Recently I’ve returned to the type of work I did fifteen years ago using low fire and bright colors. I have once again become intrigued by the relationship of the sculptural form and textural surfaces. My designs evolve around a single image. It is important to me that this image is three dimensionally complete. Complete in the since that I see it as a sculptural form floating or sailing in open space. I use sand blasting techniques before and after firing to achieve my textures. I use under glazes for base color and luster’s to achieve the pastel glass like quality. I complete the work with over glazes and additional sand blasting. The entire process takes five to six firings between 04 and 019.

Stephen Horn
Haniwa Bird and Snake Vessels with Lid, 2017
wheel-thrown, mixed color clays, lizard skin glaze, fired cone 6
24 x 17 x 9 ½”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
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.

Stanton Hunter
Intimate Corners #5 from the Intimate Corners Series, 2016
clay, slip mid-fired reduction (hard-slab construction)
8 x 5 x 4”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
The series, “Intimate Corners,” points to the connections of vessels with architecture/ buildings: both are functional, both are containers with useable and often intimate interior space, both have openings and walls, both have foundations, both are deeply involved with design. Not to mention, clay has been used as a building material forever. This series of small-scale ceramic wall and pedestal sculptures are based on these connections - making abstract models inspired by contemporary architecture at the intimate handheld scale of the vessel. So much visual information can be intricately contained at this scale, causing attention to go in, draw close, and explore odd openings, corners, and relationships of hard-edged forms. I find interest and satisfaction in making these contemporary models by hand, rather than produced by 3D printing. Some of the works visually riff upon computer-designed/printed models, taken backwards into the unmeasured handmade. I like the idea of a conversation between low and high tech, how they inform each other, and reversing the order (industry usually only moves in one direction).

Stanton Hunter
Intimate Corners #6 from the Intimate Corners Series, 2016
clay hard-slab construction copper glaze mid-fire reduction
8 x 6 x 3.5”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
The series, “Intimate Corners,” points to the connections of vessels with architecture/ buildings: both are functional, both are containers with useable and often intimate interior space, both have openings and walls, both have foundations, both are deeply involved with design. Not to mention, clay has been used as a building material forever. This series of small-scale ceramic wall and pedestal sculptures are based on these connections - making abstract models inspired by contemporary architecture at the intimate handheld scale of the vessel. So much visual information can be intricately contained at this scale, causing attention to go in, draw close, and explore odd openings, corners, and relationships of hard-edged forms. I find interest and satisfaction in making these contemporary models by hand, rather than produced by 3D printing. Some of the works visually riff upon computer-designed/printed models, taken backwards into the unmeasured handmade. I like the idea of a conversation between low and high tech, how they inform each other, and reversing the order (industry usually only moves in one direction).

Stanton Hunter
Intimate Corners #7 from the Intimate Corners Series, 2016
clay hard-slab construction cash glaze mid-fire reduction
8 x 5 x 4”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
The series, “Intimate Corners,” points to the connections of vessels with architecture/ buildings: both are functional, both are containers with useable and often intimate interior space, both have openings and walls, both have foundations, both are deeply involved with design. Not to mention, clay has been used as a building material forever. This series of small-scale ceramic wall and pedestal sculptures are based on these connections - making abstract models inspired by contemporary architecture at the intimate handheld scale of the vessel. So much visual information can be intricately contained at this scale, causing attention to go in, draw close, and explore odd openings, corners, and relationships of hard-edged forms. I find interest and satisfaction in making these contemporary models by hand, rather than produced by 3D printing. Some of the works visually riff upon computer-designed/printed models, taken backwards into the unmeasured handmade. I like the idea of a conversation between low and high tech, how they inform each other, and reversing the order (industry usually only moves in one direction).

Mariko Ishii
Wind from the Cove, 2017
reduction linocut
18 x 24”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
The theme for this work, A Dialogue with Nature, is inspired by mankind’s existence, side-by-side with the simple beauty of trees and flowers. The images used come from the artist’s frequent trips to Japan and California.

Naoto Ishikawa
Suite 450, 2016
linocut reduction print, edition of 10
22 x 35.25”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
My life-long art theme is “undigital.” In my childhood, everything seemed to happen much slower. Whatever I saw, heard, smelled, touched, or felt, I had more time to think about, enjoy, and digest. Looking back now on my sixty-some odd years, I realize that what has made life rich has been a belief in my five senses; as well as an appreciation of the slow pace at which time has patiently kept me company —as opposed to arriving with a flood of instant information. In Suite 450, I bear witness to the wonderful interplay of nature and time, which had coordinated the falling of leaves on a few generations of man-made elements, namely some office suite numbers stenciled in paint on weathered asphalt. To me, it captured a serendipitious moment of unintentional beauty

Beatriz H. Jaramillo
Broken Landscape 3, 2015
porcelain and paraffin
16 x 8 x 144”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Broken Landscapes is an aesthetic investigation of the tensions produced after breaking ones’ connection with the natural world. The purpose of this work is to present a space for dialogue inviting the viewer to rethink their relationship with nature. The sculptures are composed of porcelain slabs, supported on paraffin at different levels from the floor. The solid but fragile porcelain is supported by an unstable, slow moving, column of layered paraffin: a sign of the accumulation of events and the passing of time. The gaps between the pieces represent earth fractures, and man-made slices. The organic reliefs of porcelain slabs represent mountain ranges that reflect the influence that the natural world has had on me. In contrast, the geometric organization of the installations conveys the image of cityscapes and makes reference to the rational geometrical subdivision of the land. This installation, in particular, is a collection of eighteen small reliefs reminiscent of a costal formation and positioned against the wall, except for the last block that comes forward to break the pattern. It is composed of porcelain plates supported by layered paraffin rising up four inches from the floor, on a geometrical formation, and resembling geologic sedimentation or stratification.

CJ Jilek
Instinct 3 - Him & Her, 2016
ceramic, stoneware, underglaze
Him: 34 x 29 1/2 x 28”
Her: 22 x 31 x 21”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Inspired by the sensuality of the natural world, I utilize botanical forms with their openly displayed reproductive elements as a metaphor for human sexuality. By creating abstracted flower blooms with layers of detail, my intentions are to inspire the viewer to explore the work in the same way one explores nature. Eliminating the presence of stems, leaves, and roots removes the physical context of the plants allowing the viewer to focus on the form specifically in terms of its sexuality. The exaggerated form of the stamens and pistils create a visual language referencing correlations between the botanical forms and characteristics of the human body. These biomorphic forms are designed to lead the viewer to a subconscious association between nature and the human instinct of attraction. Through my work I’m questioning ideas of beauty, eroticism, adaptation, acceptance, attraction, and desire.

Christy Johnson
Cracked Egg Series XXII from the Cracked Egg Series, 2017
Nerikomi: stacked layers of colored porcelain are sliced through the cross section to reveal a pattern. Slices are rolled thin and arranged over a hump mold to form a vessel.
5 x 5 x 6.5”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
My current work, partially affected by my new interest in quilting, has a strong affinity to pattern, sometimes organized, sometimes free. Orderly patterns, symmetric configurations, or fractals with their never-ending repetitions intrigue me. Contrarily, I sometimes take the opposite tact – reveling in abstract imperfections and chaos itself. The latter is true of my “Cracked Egg Shell” series, executed with random colored clay lines and ragged edges. My aesthetic viewpoint is less about what my art says than what I leave out. The things “left out” are obscure references, indistinct or difficult to understand concepts, and contrived thinking. When I found ceramics, some 45 years ago, my life was consumed with the responsibilities of wife, mother, and housekeeper. The results of these activities were mostly fleeting, unremarkable, even routine - not necessarily unimportant or unfulfilling, but they were not measurable. Ceramics provided something concrete, something permanent, that I could point to and say, “This is what I did today.” My art provides an actual accounting of work, effort, and especially expression. It is dependent on visual imagination. but conveyed through REAL physical materials - what I can touch, see, and feel.

Julienne Johnson
Touched 012 from the Touched Series, 2017
Assemblage: plaster, Chinese ink, printer’s ink, acrylic, gloves,
rubber, paper, metal, plastic with collage over birch panel box
53 x 56 x 6”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
In the broadest sense, this is an explorative abstract created between the parameters of a sculpture and a painting. And I confess, this is my second attempt at striving to capture the whitewashed addiction and seductive entrapment of computer technology. All within similar dimensions and chroma of an earlier work titled, Touched #10. Through my personal journey with this artwork, and the body of work that preceded it, I have come to a fuller understanding in the discovery that our hope for meaningful communication can only become reality via personal relationship, the desire for which is built into our DNA. A kind of relationship that has the potential to heal our spirits and enable us to forgive each other for our differences and imperfections as we learn how to forgive ourselves. Although I may never know all it means, or why I’ve incorporated the gloves and combined them with acrylic, ink, plaster, and computer components, this work continues to speak to me and teach me. I have come to understand that while connection and communication has served as a catalyst fueling this body of work, the work in its fullest sense is about healing–my healing and yours.

Colleen M. Kelly
Aqua from the Naked Under Her Clothes Series, 2016
monoprint with chine collé
16 x 11”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
This body of work, Naked Under Her Clothes, is the felicitous outcome of my need to comply with a nudity ban at a civic art gallery. A long time advocate for public art and a community art activist, I found a subversive way to incorporate and defy the ban. I “dressed” my figures with clothing from the envelopes of vintage dress patterns, via a printmaking technique, chinecollé. With this process, the image of the nude figure incised in the printing plate, is printed on top of the dress cut out. The resulting printed images are as if the dresses were transparent. While delighted with the clever work around that solved the problem, I found more thematic implications as I continued with the series. Feminism, women’s crafts, the tyranny of fashion, and puritanical notions of beauty all inform my work.

Colleen M. Kelly
Curtsy from the Naked Under Her Clothes Series, 2015
monoprint with chine collé
16 x 11”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
This body of work, Naked Under Her Clothes, is the felicitous outcome of my need to comply with a nudity ban at a civic art gallery. A long time advocate for public art and a community art activist, I found a subversive way to incorporate and defy the ban. I “dressed” my figures with clothing from the envelopes of vintage dress patterns, via a printmaking technique, chinecollé. With this process, the image of the nude figure incised in the printing plate, is printed on top of the dress cut out. The resulting printed images are as if the dresses were transparent. While delighted with the clever work around that solved the problem, I found more thematic implications as I continued with the series. Feminism, women’s crafts, the tyranny of fashion, and puritanical notions of beauty all inform my work.

Carol Ann Klimek
Low Rider, Hug Nut, Sock Dog, Rotundo from the Howling Quartet Series, 2014-2015
Shino glazed, high-fire ceramics
14.5 x 4.5 x 17”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
As a ceramic artist throwing on the wheel and hand-building, it’s simple and easy to make robots look like humans beings. Putting together common mechanical shapes and exaggerating the form makes it fun and inventive. I prefer robots that are almost cartoonish; a little bit more mechanical looking. They usually have wheels and operate tasks that a human being can not do without getting into danger. I can close my eyes and envision a world where four robotic dogs will gather together to howl at a fake moon.

Kerry Kugelman
Denouement, 2016
acrylic, ink, and charcoal on canvas over panel
24 x 24”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Intimate organic textures and majestic stellar expanses are suggested by the unique qualities of ink and acrylic media. This range of expressive possibilities is only possible with the singular characteristics that ink provides. As an integral part of my art process, ink allows me to create these enigmatic images, in which I continue to discover new aspects of light and form.

Gina Lawson Egan
Birth of Ten Goddesses, 2017
coil and slab-built clay with slips, stains, and glazes, cone 02
19 x 15 x 36”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
I am a ceramic sculptor, working primarily with a coarse, red clay body and muted colors from nature. I use the slow and steady coil and slab building techniques that allow my mind to simmer with full focus and my sculpting to slip into a timeless meditation. My figurative work began with emphasis on the human head and facial features and has organically progressed to investigate the archetypal female figure, seated, lying down, kneeling and to finally standing. The sculptures deepen with narrative from the juxtaposed placement and scale of added autobiographical forms such as animals and objects from my surroundings. Over time, the hair on the figures is replaced with elements that have become increasingly active with movement and details. The birds which makeup the most of the hair on “Birds in Flight” represent the woman’s spirit as she moves through the highs and lows of her life. Each bird represents a vessel to hold memories and thoughts she keeps.

Carolyn Liesy
Autumn Window 1/3, 2017
lithograph
30 x 22”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
In the dawn of prehistory, when I was younger, I spent a summer in a heightened state of awareness sans drugs. I was so exhilarated by the visual world around me, I borrowed a camera and started taking pictures of fields of daisies, Japanese beetles, and dew on the grass. Later I had a series of explicit dreams: the photographs I had taken arrived in collaged compositions that actually had a form-content relationship. I was not an artist at the time, nevertheless, I printed and cut the photos, pre-Photoshop, into these compositions. Recently, I decided to return to work with those images. After wasting a lot of paper and telling myself to keep trying to get the technique right, I produced some lithographs. Autumn Window is a series of photos of dying lilacs and apples from a bitter November day long ago.

Gloria Lujan-Whitney
Lovely Lady, 2016
ink wash on Japanese Paper
21 x 17”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
As a Hispanic female artist, I express myself best through my art. By reflecting on my own life and heritage, my creativity flows. I am a printmaker who pushes the boundaries. Woodcuts and other print-making techniques have allowed me to experiment with a variety of papers and media. Thanks to family members in Japan, my studio features a wide range of washi papers. My ink wash, Lovely Lady, exemplifies my use of ink in multiple ways by washing it with water. The inspiration for this depiction of a breast cancer survivor is drawn from my own experience as a three-time survivor.

Linda Lyke
Evolving Species, 2017
etching and relief
18 x 22”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
The Parched Earth Series illustrates the threat climate change poses to biological diversity. I was inspired by the need to protect diverse animals including African elephants, emperor penguins, and endangered California wildlife. For these species, climate change and human overpopulation constitute real dangers to their habitats. I evoke the damage climate change has wrought on earth using a relief method of printing to suggest the earth with etchings of endangered animals printed on the surface of the parched earth. In Evolving Species and Survival the cracked earth calls forth the dry brittle land of California during the five-year drought. Evolving Species depicts imagined evolutionary changes that species might adapt for survival. Kichwa Tembo, which means head of the elephant in Swahili, uses a scraping technique to capture the migratory routes of African elephants. While these elephants generally follow the same paths each year, they face disturbances posed by prolonged dry seasons and the construction of new towns, roads, and railways as well as human poaching for their ivory. The collagraph plate with the elephants is both etching and relief viscosity printing.

Lisa Maher
Family Tree, 2016
clay, glaze (hand-built, low-fire, electric kiln), wood, fiber, metal
76 x 22 x 22”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
With all the possible vehicles that could interest a ceramic artist, why shoes? Curiously, shoes are not just ordinary objects, they are among the most complicated and fascinating ways of expressing oneself. Shoes communicate, call up memories, awaken emotions, evoke nostalgia and have always represented erotica. For many years, the coexistence of opposites has influenced my work, and ceramic shoes are a way of exploring that phenomenon--the soft image of leather and fabric and the hardness of clay and glazes. Shoes are playful, fanciful and fantastic. I can transform realistic versions of them into sometimes dreamlike creations by using a rich variety of forms and surfaces. My greatest satisfaction takes place in the final stages of production, in adding finishing touches such as ribbons, found objects, tassels and beads, flirting with the prospect of almost going too far. The shoes exhibited here, as are all my creations, are unique, one-of-a-kind. Moreover, the design of shoes represents only one dimension of my work. I also engage in the full range of functional and sculptural ceramics, mainly working on commissions, serving the special requests of my clientele.

CJ Mammarella
The Adventures of Chanticleer and Partlet from the Grimms’ Kinder Und Hausmärchen Series, 2017
ink (Pentel Stylo) and Copic markers on paper
10 x 10”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
These images, all created in 2017, are part of an ongoing project to reimagine illustrations to accompany the Grimms’ Kinder und Hausmärchen fairy tales, originally published in 1812. In particular, these images are intended to illustrate: The Adventures of Chanticleer and Partlet; and The Traveling Musicians. My aim is to both preserve the original vintage quality of the stories while also inserting a element of modernity to the images.

CJ Mammarella
The Traveling Musicians from the Grimms’ Kinder Und Hausmärchen Series, 2017
ink (Pentel Stylo) and Copic markers and color pencil on toned paper
10 x 10”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
These images, all created in 2017, are part of an ongoing project to reimagine illustrations to accompany the Grimms’ Kinder und Hausmärchen fairy tales, originally published in 1812. In particular, these images are intended to illustrate: The Adventures of Chanticleer and Partlet; and The Traveling Musicians. My aim is to both preserve the original vintage quality of the stories while also inserting a element of modernity to the images.

Babette Mayor
Hello Northwest-Goodbye Southwest
from The Observer Series, 2017
mixed media: ink and ink-generated
digital media
20 x 16”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
I have developed several series of artworks under the archetype of ‘Observer.’ The ‘Observer’ is one who sees beyond material achievement and loves watching, looking, and experiencing. I see the ‘Observer’ as a dreamer, very attuned to their surroundings, who allows the cultural minutiae of everyday life to seep in and out of their consciousness. In this new artwork, I am attempting to show the difficulties –loneliness and isolation– and the beauty of starting a new life, in a new state, by combining some of my favorite art and nature from both places. It represents an attempt to normalize this dramatic change in my life.

Lee Middleman
Cosmic Eggs, 2017
porcelain (slip cast, Obvara low fire),
cardboard carton
2.5 x 12 x 8.5”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
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.

Lee Middleman
Winter Ridge, 2017
high-fire stoneware, wheel-thrown
hand-textured, glazed
6 x 9 x 9”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
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.

Marie Nagy
Pig, 2016
wheel-thrown, soda-fired stoneware
9 x 5.5 x 5.5”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
I see all art as being political. And being a contrarian sort of creature and now that my country is becoming a joke, I feel a strong need to get serious. It is a rather hard thing to face a reality, to deal with stupidity. I would like to suggest a strong drink, a liquid courage. But as you see, the jug is empty. Reality bites just like an angry pig. This is a trial by fire. This is one place where life imitates art: for just like pieces in a kiln, some people crack, some explode, and the good become better from being painted by fire.

Luciano Pimienta
9 Lided Container, 2016
stoneware, B’s Shino glaze with cedar ash
11.25 x 5.5 x 5.5”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
This work is driven by its form and function; essentially it’s shape, how it looks and how it’s used. The intention behind each piece is to achieve a balance between geometric and organic elements. Additionally, the balance between control and freedom in the making and firing are equally important. Geometry was used at a basic level; simple forms made more complex by tweaking a measurement, angle or adding a curve. The textures originate from processes found in nature and time such as plants growing, bleaching from the sun or rust corroding metal. These containers also experiment with the way we place our fingers to open them. Using this idea, simplifying and adding to knobs again inform the shape and function. Ceramics can be unpredictable at times; it is a challenge to control. Having too much control and things often will lack soul, having too little and a piece can lose focus. On the other hand, if one notices nuances in the making, and embrace mistakes the process becomes freeing. It is my aim that all of the above will find the viewer feeling or seeing something familiar in these objects.

Luciano Pimienta
9 Lided Container, 2016
stoneware, B’s Shino glaze with cedar ash
11.25 x 5.5 x 5.5”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
This work is driven by its form and function; essentially it’s shape, how it looks and how it’s used. The intention behind each piece is to achieve a balance between geometric and organic elements. Additionally, the balance between control and freedom in the making and firing are equally important. Geometry was used at a basic level; simple forms made more complex by tweaking a measurement, angle or adding a curve. The textures originate from processes found in nature and time such as plants growing, bleaching from the sun or rust corroding metal. These containers also experiment with the way we place our fingers to open them. Using this idea, simplifying and adding to knobs again inform the shape and function. Ceramics can be unpredictable at times; it is a challenge to control. Having too much control and things often will lack soul, having too little and a piece can lose focus. On the other hand, if one notices nuances in the making, and embrace mistakes the process becomes freeing. It is my aim that all of the above will find the viewer feeling or seeing something familiar in these objects.

R. Giusti Dillon
Double Dutch - The Art of Play, 2017
ink, paper, collage
20 x 14”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Play is the sacred part of childhood, a precious segway, competition, and rite of passage. This is a series on the importance of play and the right to childhood. This is a collage of torn ink textures.

Jeff Reed
The Escalator, 2016
FW Artist’s Ink on wood panel
68 x 32”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
I love to work with lines and gesture to express images. The developmental process of drawing generates surprising changes that unfold as the images take their place on the canvas. Images that vary in shape, size, and intensity of color create a collage effect that compels the viewer to notice something new in each observation of the piece. Even the space between the images, and the shadows and light create visual stimulation. The Escalator is an up and down shopping experience.

Jeff Reed
Man and Nature, 2015
FW Artist’s Ink on wood panel
8 x 10”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
I am continually astounded by Man’s relentless conquest to tame and command nature. Our foolish attempts to control nature are comical. The bird is the one in control.

Lizza Riddle
Elemental Palette #447 from the Force Series, 2017
ceramic, soluble metal salts
4 x 13.5 x 9”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
I am creating a body of work titled FORCE, which draws on and reflects my life experiences. My objective is to capture a moment in time, a moment in the inexorable process of desiccation, cracking, and destruction I have so often observed in nature. These works are quiet, but evoke a sense of power and resonate with contained energy; the sharp edged surface tiles are seemingly just on the edge of destruction. My work is hand built, with wet clay applied to a previously fired form. As the surface clay dries and contracts, it cracks and breaks into random or repetitive geometric patterns, forming irregular polygons, three point stars, or small tiles. After firing, 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 metal salt mixtures and techniques for applying these almost transparent watercolors. After a final firing, the metals fix and transform, revealing the earth’s elemental palette of colors.

Lizza Riddle
Elemental Palette #448 from the Force Series, 2017
ceramic, soluble metal salts
4.5 x 12 x 8.5”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
I am creating a body of work titled FORCE, which draws on and reflects my life experiences. My objective is to capture a moment in time, a moment in the inexorable process of desiccation, cracking, and destruction I have so often observed in nature. These works are quiet, but evoke a sense of power and resonate with contained energy; the sharp edged surface tiles are seemingly just on the edge of destruction. My work is hand built, with wet clay applied to a previously fired form. As the surface clay dries and contracts, it cracks and breaks into random or repetitive geometric patterns, forming irregular polygons, three point stars, or small tiles. After firing, 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 metal salt mixtures and techniques for applying these almost transparent watercolors. After a final firing, the metals fix and transform, revealing the earth’s elemental palette of colors.

Frederika B. Roeder
Calafia from the Riviera Series, 2017
acrylic wash with fluid matte medium, interference, flourescent (transparent), 18kt gold leafing pen, gold metallic bronze ink, iridescent (fine), coarse white paste, pearlescent-opaque, fluid acrylic, canvas partially primed with clear gesso
54 x 48 x 1.5”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
I describe myself as a California artist. As a fourth generation California native, much of my work explores the powerful natural elements that dominate the Southern California landscape and the iconic culture that has been born of it. I am influenced by the work of artists such as Peter Alexander, Ed Moses, Ed Ruscha, and Richard Diebenkorn. Working with mixed media, I often include gels, resin, fluorescence, pearlesence, iridescence - materials that capture and reflect light to imitate the changeable conditions of nature. My Riviera District paintings are an exploration of the beaches and waters of San Clemente. “Calafia” uses warm washes of acrylic stains interspersed with golden edges and splatters of bronze ink, reminiscent of summer sunsets simmering like the desert sun. “La Costa” is dominated by an aqua stain - a splash like the many hues of blue always changing along the edge of the ocean, with bold bronze ink like the strong kelp that sustains storms to protect the wild marine life. These colors beckon you to a good today and a happy future.

Karrie Ross
And IT Matters Why? from the The Nature of Things Series, 2016
mixed media: ink, collage, watercolor, metal leaf
30 x 22”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
In a world currently filled with uncertainties the attention to ‘all things Nature’ allows us a freedom of, and connection to the differences in our global community that add to creating a more available quality to life. Each day we are called on to make choices about how to live reaching to our core value, to be. A showing-up for and able to develop critical thinking skills in the not so simple phenomena of the physical world, landscapes, animals, plants; the not so easy human condition man-made structures, social rules; and the never superficial inherent beauty of things—their sense of magic. Each with a language of its own and we can’t look away from what they demand of us, personal growth. Art has a way of saving “things” from extinction, even if it’s just a simple, easy, depth of a new color, sound, distraction from—there is nothing so compelling when it comes to an artistic view. Art is a powerful influencer. Art that encourages choice creates a kinetic pull in such a way that it takes the action of ‘walking away’ from it to realize something changed and a safe place using space/time/ location experiences now exists. Karrie Ross is a Los Angeles based visual artist, whose concepts of self, the human (metaphoric) figure, and how exposure to higher vibrations, deep thinking, and taking actions are able to twist perception to make changes by offering conscious choice, to affect growth on the cellular level.

Elyse Royce
Zuberi (Strong), 2017
clay, wheel-thrown in sections and altered; decorated with colored slip
27.5 x 8.5 x 9.5”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
At eight years old I was placed in foster care and later came to be adopted at the age of twelve. Being thrust from the familiar into the unfamiliar is terrifying. I remember spending much of my time observing in order to gain a better understanding of my new environment. This is a skill we are losing as a society, the ability to see beyond our own perspective. Presently, people around the world are being driven from their “familiar” into the unfamiliar every day. My current body of work, Diasporas, is intended to pay tribute to the internal strength necessary to endure extreme conditions and still have the will to carry on. We as a society must learn to see things from alternate perspectives and make a shift towards living with compassion. My work draws inspiration from Aboriginal culture and textiles. I blend traditional functional-forms with sculptural attributes in order to present a larger concept. Gravitating towards unglazed surfaces, I use dark colored clay bodies and employing the use of slips and oxides. The hope for my work is that it provides viewers with a sense of connection to a global community and a desire to see beyond the familiar.

Gwen Samuels
Closed Encounters, 2016
ink-based digital images printed on transparency, hand-stitched
36 x 36”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
My work is about transformation. I am interested in reconfiguring shapes and patterns by printing in repeat pattern on a transparent material that interacts with light to create a unique visual experience. From a distance the works function as abstract compositions. Upon closer inspection, recognizable shapes take form supporting the whole object.

Debra Self
Chimera, 2017
ink and watercolor on paper
27 x 9”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Chinese calligraphy is prized above painting for its moral and physical components using ink and brush to go beyond traditional meaning of words. The language has developed different styles over thousands of years, and I work over months or years to develop my own abstracted styles after mastery of the traditional styles. My work blends ancient and new demonstrating timeless themes. I use traditional Chinese single xuan paper, brushes and bamboo pens and mixed inks along with western paints in compositions using Eastern and Western art sensibilities. For example, ”Storm Within,” abstracts the characters for “raging fire” in a burning and wrathful work filled with strong and energetic strokes that have been used partially in mirror image. “Chimera” abstracts the characters for “devil king” in a soft and dreamlike setting, but without the strength of upright characters, much as political rhetoric is often delivered. Both works allow for viewer interpretation, regardless of their knowledge of the written language.

Sylvia Solocheck Walters
Vintage, 2015
reductive woodcut with stencils and rubber stamp
14 x 20.5”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
For many years I used my prints to tell visual stories about family, memory, rites of passage, grief and loss, aging and healing. More recently I’ve focused on the environment, the slaughter of wildlife and other troubling calamities impacting the natural world. My images are often pulled from nature, material culture, current events and the written word, family albums and art history – all loosely collaged in the field to suggest how their relationships build towards a larger narrative. My principal medium is color woodcut. Impressions are hand-printed in small editions from a single block using a combination of acetate stencils and reductive cutting.

Howard Steenwyk
Goddess!, 2017
silkscreen print with ”visitor interactive” filter
31 x 21”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
My current work combines two divergent images to create a new image with content each individual image does not possess on its own. The work explores the elusive quality of reality and how our personal conceptions contribute to what we comprehend as truth.

Vincent Suez
Grand Pre Escape, 2016
porcelain, Cu (red copper) glaze, cone 6, glazed and fired
17 x 11 x 11”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
My work has its basis in traditional pottery. First and foremost, I consider myself anartist/ potter. I draw and paint, using traditional ceramic processes to achieve particular affects on my work in order to exploit and develop form. My concern with nature is revealed through my use of animal and bird imagery. Marks of stamps, inscribed lines,and the touch of brush emulate this fantasy in nature. Included in this colorful landscape are dragonflies, a dash of gold a glimpse of purple and brilliant blues. Saying that, I am not particularly interested in a specific genus but rather in that fleeting moment the leap of faith if you will when they are suspended in air for a brief moment, the quick yet magic moment when they seem oblivious to gravity, suspended, or “braking” as they gracefully land on the most delicate of branches. The dragonflies’ rush and dip across the puddles leaving only a trace. Included in this rapture is my use of creatures imbued with the human condition. The intimacies of these anthropomorphic lovers expose my wit and curiosity of the human condition. To paraphrase Susan Peterson’s quote of Hamada, each morning while I’m having my coffee, I sit and watch with delight as the birds and dragonflies dance and converse around the feeders. I am amazed because the birds always carry on the same prattle, yet it is always different and continues to delight and amaze me and I am grateful for the opportunity to take part in this venture. The drawn landscape dwells somewhere inside and it is with great anticipation and patience that I wait to open the kiln and expose joy (sometimes grief) of life. Interspersed with this are both personal and worldly experiences, such as religious personifications as well as events like Sadam’s burning of the oil wells in Kuwait and the 911 catastrophe. The giving and sharing of my pots will enhance ones life. My pots are made to experience and use.

Dusty Tailor
Loin of California, 2015
metal etching with chine collé
22 x 15”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Dusty Tailor is a first generation American and was born in a small agricultural town nestled in the central coast of California. Having spent much of his upbringing around family farms and ranches, Dusty pulls his inspiration from California’s eclectic array of flora, fauna, and food produce. Family heritage and the current state of the environment, like drought or genetically modified foods informs his image making process. Trained in bookmaking and papermaking, the tradition of Print is strongly emphasized yet keeping in mind the evolution of printmaking with an approach towards nontoxic and Eco-friendly materials.

Dusty Tailor
Blue Whale, 2015
color relief, serigraph on book cloth
12-100 x 9 x 4”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Dusty Tailor is a first generation American and was born in a small agricultural town nestled in the central coast of California. Having spent much of his upbringing around family farms and ranches, Dusty pulls his inspiration from California’s eclectic array of flora, fauna, and food produce. Family heritage and the current state of the environment, like drought or genetically modified foods informs his image making process. Trained in bookmaking and papermaking, the tradition of Print is strongly emphasized yet keeping in mind the evolution of printmaking with an approach towards nontoxic and Eco-friendly materials.

Sophia Tise
Moving Towards The Light, 2017
acrylic, ink and collage on linen
40 x 36”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
I create abstract worlds through combinations of line and formlessness. Exploring the challenge of texture and space, I let the painting happen. Rich colors conflict with areas that are translucent allowing marks and textures to come through; a flat arrangement of interlocking planes, an exploration of the natural world, a neglected garden, a fantasy. Each piece is a visual narrative but I cannot tell you what it is. It is my reaction to nature, and the beauty of the outside world. It is my language, coming from inside. You have to stay with my pieces awhile to get it. My work relates to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect. I explore the challenge of texture and space, in paint, ink and collage. Everyday I must be in my studio or I deny myself the chance of something happening, a thread, an idea I can work with. Wherever I live, the challenges as a painter are the same, the explorations endless, the process fascinating and all consuming

Sophia Tise
Walking in an English Winter, 2017
acrylic, ink and collage on canvas
22.5 x 24.25”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
I create abstract worlds through combinations of line and formlessness. Exploring the challenge of texture and space, I let the painting happen. Rich colors conflict with areas that are translucent allowing marks and textures to come through; a flat arrangement of interlocking planes, an exploration of the natural world, a neglected garden, a fantasy. Each piece is a visual narrative but I cannot tell you what it is. It is my reaction to nature, and the beauty of the outside world. It is my language, coming from inside. You have to stay with my pieces awhile to get it. My work relates to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect. I explore the challenge of texture and space, in paint, ink and collage. Everyday I must be in my studio or I deny myself the chance of something happening, a thread, an idea I can work with. Wherever I live, the challenges as a painter are the same, the explorations endless, the process fascinating and all consuming

Kyunghee Valdez
The City Life, 2017
Babu porcelain and B mix, Latex and metal wire
8 x 12 x 12”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Life in the city is full of fun, but everything tends to blur into one color and lose detail over time.

Peter Van Ael
Nocturnal Encounter, 2017
woodcut reduction print
20 x 16”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
My creative research is informed by my interest in pattern, camouflage, mimicry, layering, and relative scale. I find inspiration both in the natural and human-made world, creating abstract and nonrepresentational works of art that gradually reveal and obscure information in richly textured layers. Since 2000, I have focused my studio practice on the reduction woodcut. I find its sculptural physicality in combination with its working immediacy very appealing. I am exceedingly seduced by its inherent quality requiring the gradual destruction of the matrix during the creation of the work of art. The reduction woodcut print is born out of a creative one-way voyage that provides constant challenges and requires total commitment to any decision made. The reduction woodcut does not tolerate any detours or returns. Consequently, the reduction woodcut is always a unique, fresh, direct, powerful, and honest expression of the artist’s creative intent.

Demo:

Jennifer Vargas
Armor, 2017
conceptual performance piece: insect screen metal mesh, paper fasteners, wire, molded using clay flower pots, human form representing the concept of “clay”
36 x 24 x 12”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Throughout human civilization, many cultures have assumed legends of creation in which humans come from clay. A humble material, fragile and unassuming. We are made from clay. And we can break. Everyone is broken or will be broken. Everyone has a story to tell that could bring you to tears and that is also what makes us human. We are the clay. And we are broken. Most days we need an ARMOR. A protection of some sort. Something between our fleshy, fragile clay and the outside world. We are the clay. And we need an ARMOR. So I offer you this ARMOR. An ARMOR made from found objects, insect screen and paper fasteners, transformed into something beyond what it was intended for, beyond what the world sees. Put it on and be reminded that you are strong, that you can become whole again and that everyone else is a little broken too. We are the clay. And we are strong.

Sabrina Weld Feldman
Lit Up from the Stories of Courage Series, 2017
clay, glaze, encaustic, underglaze
25 x 29 x 16”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
In puppetry, we create objects that will come to life via the puppeteer’s hand to tell a particular story. To animate the inanimate. Working with clay has a primitive pleasure. The “life” created as form is built from water and earth. If it could only be kept at the leather-hard stage, where the clay pushes back with its cold damp patina and still feels alive. The work would be complete right at that state; no color or embellishments, just the forms speaking. But as a figure dries out and is fired the original shrinks and dies, becoming a shell archive of itself. Breathing life back in is the goal. Waking up the inanimate to tell its story, as the puppeteer does. Each of my pieces tells its own story. They are folk tales of confidence and being brave, imagined in archetypal characters and forms which are childlike, androgynous, innocent, and playful. They aim to invoke a feeling of vulnerability, yet create a sense of risk. Confidence, being delicate in its beginnings, is lit by a sense of purpose. Images of fire imply pilot lights - on and exposed to the elements. They require care in order not to be blown out.

Sabrina Weld Feldman
Style from the Stories of Courage Series, 2016
clay, underglazes, oxides, encaustic
23 x 16 x 16”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
In puppetry, we create objects that will come to life via the puppeteer’s hand to tell a particular story. To animate the inanimate. Working with clay has a primitive pleasure. The “life” created as form is built from water and earth. If it could only be kept at the leather-hard stage, where the clay pushes back with its cold damp patina and still feels alive. The work would be complete right at that state; no color or embellishments, just the forms speaking. But as a figure dries out and is fired the original shrinks and dies, becoming a shell archive of itself. Breathing life back in is the goal. Waking up the inanimate to tell its story, as the puppeteer does. Each of my pieces tells its own story. They are folk tales of confidence and being brave, imagined in archetypal characters and forms which are childlike, androgynous, innocent, and playful. They aim to invoke a feeling of vulnerability, yet create a sense of risk. Confidence, being delicate in its beginnings, is lit by a sense of purpose. Images of fire imply pilot lights - on and exposed to the elements. They require care in order not to be blown out.

Zengo Yoshida
1-SuperHeros, 1-EmojAttack, 1-Manga(comic) Invasion from the
Pro Wrestler Masks for Millennials & Generation Z Series, 2017
porcelain slip cast, underglaze paint, cone 6 glaze
7.5 x 5.5 x 7.125”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Making ordinary functional ware on the pottery wheel is a meditational process for me, however, it is more exciting to explore possibilities of different techniques, creating unique shapes, firing temperatures, surface decoration, and input some messages or meaning into the piece. As a former graphic designer, I like the thinking process and sketching them out on the paper. Afterward, I do research based on the subject in order to get correct images and how to interpret the ideas into the final work. At the end, I hope these works speak both to me and others. The mask idea was derived when I happened to come across the Mexican professional wrestlers with a colorful mask when I was switching TV channel. My ideas are the reflection of current cultures, such as superhero movies & animation, internet Emoji explosion, and Japanese comic imports. These three pieces are slip cast porcelain and cleaned up with fine sand paper, then painted with underglazes on the bisque. They are protected with the cone 6 clear glaze.

Sharyn Yoshimi
(left to right)
Kaki-Kokeshi 01a from the Ceramic Kokeshi Series, 2017
glazed ceramic (purple)
13 x 3.5 x 3.5”
Courtesy of the artist
&
Kaki-Kokeshi 02a from the Ceramic Kokeshi Series, 2017
glazed ceramic (blue)
13 x 3.5 x 3.5”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Clay has allowed me to make something tangible out of fond memories. I remember that I always looked forward to persimmon season. My grandmother would pick persimmon or “kaki” that grew in her back yard at just the right time so that we could enjoy their sweet crunchiness. Many years later when I was making a mold of some kaki I could almost hear her voice asking me why I wasn’t peeling them to eat rather than encasing them in plaster. I glazed the cast persimmons a bright orange, to match the fruit on the trees. Because one can have only so many inedible kaki displayed in a bowl I began to consider other uses for the kaki shapes. I thought of the wooden kokeshi that my grandmother brought from Japan when she was a young woman, its specialness made clear by its position high on her bookshelf, beyond my childhood reach. The combination of the persimmon and kokeshi forms resulted in my ceramic kaki-kokeshi dolls. My grandmother’s kokeshi now has a special place on my own bookshelf and provides memories and continuing inspiration--always well within my reach.

Zenka
EEG Takes Flight, 2016
linoprint with augmented reality overlay
20 x 26”
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Ever since I was seven years old, I was obsessed with time. I was fascinated by the world’s different coexistent calendars, our internal biological clocks, and the way scientists tried to understand the physics of the 4th dimension. My work today deepens and extends that neverending conversation I have with the historical past I love and the future I am dying to know. I want my work to get people talking and debating the future. What will it be like? How will we react? What about virtual worlds, EEG brain wearables, augmented reality, reverse aging, driverless cars, gender disappearance…? Change is happening on a scale never before experienced. Rather than getting dragged, kicking and screaming, behind the challenge is to step in and create the world we dream is possible. We can start by stopping our instinct to fear change. Only if we can imagine the world we want, can we build it and make it real.

Zenka
Gameface Labs Mark V, 2016
Raku, glass and wire
16.5 x 12.5 x 8”
Courtesy of the artist