Summer Workshops

2/CLAY

Charger by Gail Kendall, 2009. Terracotta (Slipware), 21” diameter.

Handle—Spout—Story—Shrine: A Low-fire Slipware Workshop

In this workshop we will hand-build pots and vessels from terracotta clay using traditional methods (slabs and coils). White slip application, sgrafitto techniques, and appliqué will set up surface decoration before the bisque firing. Demonstrations will include plates, platters, boxes, tureens, and teapots and participants will be encouraged to expand their horizons beyond what they may have thought likely or possible through discussions and exploration. Following bisque firing we will finish the pottery using underglazes, stains, and transparent colored glazes. Discussions and informal lectures will also explore the aesthetic, technical, and philosophical ideas that underpin the work we are making. Basic handbuilding experience required.

GAIL KENDALL joined the faculty at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1987, after a decade as an independent studio artist in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her research focuses on illuminated manuscripts and European pottery and porcelain. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at the Sheldon Museum of Art at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; LUX Center for the Arts, Nebraska; and St. Andrews-Sewanee School, Tennessee; and her work was included in the Minnesota Potters Tour; Karen Karnes’ Pottery Exhibition and Sale at Old Church, Demarest, New Jersey; and the American Pottery Festival at the Northern Clay Center, Minnesota. In 2009 Gail Kendall received a Lifetime Achievement Award for teaching and research from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts.

2/DRAWING

Noyo Drawing by Larry Thomas, 2008. Charcoal on Rives paper, 42 1/2” x 55”.

Intensive Drawing Workshop

Workshop participants will explore many forms of drawing using a variety of techniques and materials to understand new ways of seeing familiar things. Students will work from the immediate surroundings of Haystack, collecting notes and sketches from an array of natural forms. These initial drawings/sketches will be used as points of departure for further exploration and development in the studio. Drawings or sections of drawings will be enlarged, cut, and torn apart, repositioned and reconstructed to investigate deeper interpretations and responses to the natural environment. Work will be discussed individually and in group sessions along with demonstrations and slide presentations of contemporary and historical examples of drawing. All levels welcome.

LARRY THOMAS lives and works in rural Mendocino County, California. He is the former Dean of Academic Affairs at the San Francisco Art Institute, where he taught drawing and printmaking for many years. Larry Thomas’ work has been exhibited regionally and nationally and is represented in numerous museum and public collections including: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Oakland Museum of California; National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC; and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and is in the artists books collections of: Metropolitan Museum of Art and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Houghton Library at Harvard University; and the Library of Congress. www.larrythomas.info

2/FIBER/DYEING & WEAVING

Stones by Rowland Ricketts, 2008-2009. Indigo dyed felted stones, stainless steel rods, dimensions variable. Photo by Osamu James Nakagawa.

Local Color: Art, Life, and Local Plants as Dyes

The use of plants as dyes is nothing new; for millennia it was the only option. Yet in our global era of standardized mass production, the decision to use locally gathered plants as dyes takes on new meaning. This workshop will foreground the meanings of locally gathered plants as dyes with a focus on how our creative output can play between what we make and how we make it. The first week will focus on the artistic potential of locally gathered plant dyes through plant collecting, dyeing experiments, research, creative classification and record keeping, and collective engagement. In the second week we will develop these ideas into textile-related works with a focus on weaving, although students will also be encouraged to work off-loom or conceptually to realize their ideas. Students who will be weaving must be able to dress a loom.

ROWLAND RICKETTS was trained in indigo farming and dyeing in Japan. He received an MFA in Fibers from Cranbrook Academy of Art and is currently an Assistant Professor of Textiles at Indiana University in Bloomington. Rowland Ricketts utilizes natural dyes and historical processes to create contemporary textiles that span art and design. His recent projects work to involve others in the process of local plant dyes to question how we live, create, and consume in contemporary America. His work has been exhibited at the Textile Museum, Cavin-Morris Gallery in New York, and was included in Fiberart International 2007. www.rickettsindigo.com

2/GLASS

Razzle Dazzle Boat by Richard Marquis, 2008. Fused and wheel carved glass; slab technique, 5 1/2” x 19 1/4” x 5 3/4”.

The Whole Elk Theory

The workshop will cover basic and esoteric Italian techniques including zanfirico and murrini, while the emphasis will be on getting greener by making fewer and better things. We will waste nothing. The Whole Elk Theory states that if you kill an elk you must use everything: meat, hooves, tail, hair, bones, and attitude. In this workshop, all of your mistakes, hiccups, cut-offs, and floor models will be recycled into semi-valuable objets d’arte. Team players only.

RICHARD MARQUIS has been working with glass for over four decades. He received a BA and an MA from the University of California, Berkeley and worked for a year at the Venini factory in Italy. Richard Marquis has received many honors including three Fulbright Fellowships and four grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Australia Council, and was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from both the Glass Art Society and Art Alliance of Contemporary Glass. He has traveled extensively and conducted workshops around the world. For the last three decades, he has lived and worked on Whidbey Island in Washington State. www.richardmarquis.com

2/METALS

X-panded Flatwear by Boris Bally, 1994. .925 silver, goldplated; humanufactured (handpierced, stretched), knife: 8”, spoon: 1 7/8” diameter, fork: 1/2”. Photo by Dean Powell.

Artful Eating Utensils: Making Flatware Sing

Tired of using mundane utensils, dulling the poetry of your meal-time preparations and tabletop presentations? This workshop will awaken your tired cutlery, transforming it into the sparkling tabletop feature it was meant to be. Participants are invited to bring their common (stainless, plated, or silver) knives, forks, and spoons to enhance by incorporating additional materials and applying new techniques. Demonstrations will include basic fabrication, metal marriage, cold-joining, stone-setting, simple hinges, cold forging, and more. Students may also design and create their own original utensils. Structure, design, and concept will be explored, as well as basics of metal fabricating and forming. Basic metal work experience, including soldering and sawing, required. All levels are welcome.

BORIS BALLY was a co-curator of the 2005 Exhibition in Print, an issue of Metalsmith devoted exclusively to Flatware. He received the 2006 Individual Achievement Award for the Visual Arts presented by the Arts & Business Council of Rhode Island, two Rhode Island Council on the Arts Fellowships in Design, and a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Crafts Fellowship. Boris Bally’s work is featured in numerous exhibitions including: Feeding Desire: Design and Tools for the Table, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York, and American MetaLanguage at the Barbican Center, London, and his work is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Museum of Arts & Design, New York; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; and Cooper-Hewitt. www.BorisBally.com

2/MIXED MEDIA

Margot’s Other Cat by Arthur Ganson, 1999. Mixed media, 16” x 16” x 36”. Photo by Arthur Ganson.

With the turn of a crank…

Unleash your inner inventor! With wire as our material of choice we will explore the principles of mechanics, consider carefully movement and gesture, and nurture a personal voice as we create simple hand-cranked machines. Beginning with an introduction to basic wire bending techniques, simple mechanics, gears, linkages, cams, and sprockets, this workshop will provide a framework for developing your own intuition and problem solving strengths while considering the structural, linear, visual, and poetic potential of wire. All levels welcome.

ARTHUR GANSON has been making kinetic sculpture for thirty-one years. He received a BFA from the University of New Hampshire, Durham and is a former artist-in-residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he currently maintains an ongoing exhibition at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Exhibitions include the DeCordova Museum, Massachusetts; the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, Maine. A profile of Arthur Ganson produced by WGBH television was included in the series Nova: Science Now in 2005 and he has also appeared as a cartoon bear on the children’s cartoon series Arthur. www.arthurganson.com