Harold Goldstein
From eccentric art pieces to traditional chili bowls, the “Clayful Abandon” art exhibit will be at the Pierce College Art Gallery from Nov. 27 to Dec. 20, officially closing the gallery’s year.
With several art pieces featured from last spring’s exhibit in Davis, Calif., the ceramic sculptures are both wondrous and uniquely disturbing in their design.
The gallery exhibit that featured these works of art was part of the California Conference for the Advancement of Ceramic Arts (CCACA).
“The [Pierce] students worked on the project for about nine months time,” said art instructor Melody Cooper. “[Their work] went up to the CCACA in Davis, Calif. last year. It’s a conference that has been going on for 19 years and is been hosted by the John Natsoluas Gallery. It was started under the direction of the famous sculptor, Robert Arneson to promote ceramic sculpture.”
Along with the fifth annual Pierce Winter Arts Festival showcasing pottery and blown glass art pieces, many of the ceramic works were up for sale for anyone that wanted to have a ceramic art piece in their house.
Many of the ceramics had a unique style that could be reflective of a person’s tastes.
Sculpture pieces included turtles stacked one on top of the other, a vase with sexually suggestive references imprinted on the front, multi-colored animals that you might find on a children’s television show and even a clay version of a cowboy boot.
One that looked particularly interesting was an actual human heart that could’ve confused a doctor.
The prices for the ceramic art pieces ranged from $25-$1,500. The blown glass and pottery pieces featured at the Winter Arts Festival ranged from $15-$100.
Tom Puckett, a Pierce student whose work was featured at the Clayful Abandon art show and at last year’s CCACA gallery exhibit, gazed upon one of his favorite art pieces.
“I did [a series of pieces] called the tube series,” said Puckett, “and they all have varying tubes coming out of them.”
Melody Cooper, my instructor and head of the ceramics area, wanted me to take things off-center as much as I could basically.”
So I threw in all of the altered pieces and put the clay into a cylinder form and moved it around to make it as off-center as I could.”
The sales from “Clayful Abandon” and The Winter Arts Festival will be divided among the artists, educational workshops and funds for CCACA 2008.
Helen Spiro gazes at works at the “Clayful Abandon” exhibit at the Art Hill, Saturday afternoon. (Nick Carey)
Nick LaPointe carves designs of various animals into a freshly-made, beehive shaped vase created during a clay-throwing demonstration for “Clayful Abandon,” that took place on Art Hill Saturday afternoon-bees, wasps, moths and frogs. “With each piece of work you, literally, put yourself into it,” said LaPointe. ()