Cottage Pottery Sale

November 5 & 6

10- 5

614 Stanton Ave

Mars Pa

Where ya been anyway?

Quite some time has passed since I've written anything other than a "Come out and see me" post. The start of the school year hit and although it has been a new, challenging and great start, it has left me with little time for posting. As I posted awhile back, I am 90% of the art department. The nuts of bolts of this is that I now teach the 2 D program as well as the 3D. The most amusing part of this new position is the comment from students, "You mean you know how to draw and paint too?" This of course opens the door for so many new conversations about having skills and talents in many areas, but truly loving one a teeny bit more! If anything, my students are learning that we humans are much more than we appear to be. I, too, am remembering what pencil on good drawing paper feels like and how smooth watercolor can be.I guess we really are more than we think we are. 

Finally a weekend at home in the studio and the kitchen! Cold weather hit and all I want to do is cook soup and bake. Thursday night brought a pot of wedding soup with rosemary from the garden. Appearing today, everyone's favorite Fat Ass Red Raspberry Cornbread. These awesome berries were picked at Pete's berry patch last night...4 quarts!! He's been picking all week. Schramm's Farm Market sells what he and I don't eat or shove into a cornbread or salad. The lovely little dish you see under that luscious cornbread and lemon thyme is from Penland, North Carolina by Shawn Ireland.

The fall weather brings with it upcoming shows and the long "to do" list. After doing Fair in the Park in September, I was happily reminded that people really do want to interact with pottery. They want pieces they can use over and over. So my list includes several different sizes of oval bakers- some large enough to accomodate a baked chicken, a medium size for cherry cobblers and a smaller one for cheesy artichoke dip. And of course the brie bakers....a half dozen are waiting for the final glaze coating as I type.
If you are in the need for one of these... try the following locations:
1. Saxonburg Area Artists Coop, 215 Main St. Saxonburg PA  Tuesdays 1-9,Fridays 1-9, Saturday 10-8
2. Cottage Pottery Sale, 614 Stanton Ave, Mars Pa November 6&7 10-5
3. Holiday Stop n Shop, November 19, 10-5 Penn Glade Lions Club 150 Church Rd. Butler PA

Now, how about that cornbread??

Cottage Pottery Sale!

Mark your calendars! November 5 & 6, 10-5
614 Stanton Ave, Mars Pa

Join us for a day of shopping for everyone on your holiday list, and of course, some sweet things for yourself.

Karen McKee and I will be serving up pie, tart and mimosa's while you browse through a beautiful selection of salad and pasta bowls, tea pots, platters, pie plates, sushi servers, magic salt shakers, chip n' dips, mugs, cups and the ever popular BRIE BAKERS!!!

For the second year, Christine and Dennis Mooney have graciously
opened their home for our sale.
614 Stanton Ave. Mars, PA

Hope to see you there!

Artist In the Parking Lot Sale!

Hope to see you this Saturday at The Hole in the Wall Gallery in Lower Burrell!
I'll have pasta bowls, tea pots, serving bowls and much more! Start your holiday shopping now, or find something for yourself. Stop by and say hello! Do you know about the chocolate counter??!! It's to die for!!

Look at those jugs!!

No, really. Look at those jugs. Moving away from the crass way society has referred to female body parts, I am lamenting the loss of the traditional jug form in the contemporary kitchen. While the world of ceramics, mostly wood and salt fired pottery, still loves the jug, somewhere it disappeared in household use. Do we need Walmarts full of jugs for daily use? Definitely not. Do we need well crafted and designed containers for various liquids? Yes, and there are many out there.
Today, most of us carry our own personal hydration containers, whether they be the "your favorite water brand" plastic bottle or the BPA free reusaeble container. Not being critical of these containers, the question still stands: when did the jug get lost? Was it the stigma of hillbilly hooch? (Insert banjo here please.) Was it Hee-Haw's Moonshiners? ( I know, I know, there's a great picture of me looking like Minnie Pearl On Facebook!)
So why not consider a jug for your hydration needs? Or even consider replacing your favorite wine decanter with a nice jug! Red, white, rose, all will pour so nicely at your picnic...The handle fits comfortably around the finger of your choice, the cork is easily removed and reinserted, and it holds any liquid of your choice. You'll be the first kid in the neighborhood to start an uber-cool trend. Just make sure you've got your straw hat and plaid shirt on when you leave the house.

Life After Penland...part 2

Finally, a body of work out of the glaze fire! It's been so hot I could've fired them in the back yard. I've added canister sets to my long list of "Pottery pieces you absolutely MUST HAVE in your kitchen." You'll be seeing more of the black and white leaf pattern this fall. The simpler pattern creates contrast to the very busy and "girly" cherry ware.

This serving dish looks deceptively small, in reality it's 12" long and 5" inches deep. Think of all the friends you could feed with this on your table! Think of all the gazpacho, mac n' cheese, fried chicken, or buttermilk biscuits you could fill this with!! Invite me over for dinner and you can test it out on your own table...I'll fill it with something delicious.

Life After Penland...

Penland...two incredible weeks at a place like no other. Nestled, (I'm not kidding, Mapquest gets lost in all the nestling between mountains.) in the mountains of western North Carolina, it is one of the foremost craft schools in the US, hosting international and national artists to teach courses year round. As I last posted back in June, I signed up for the Figurative Ceramics class with Steve Dixon of the UK. We focused on the idea of "hero" or even "anti-hero" in our personal lives. In today's world, do we have heroes? What defines a hero? I was always a huge fan of Wonder Woman and the Bionic Woman...but in reality, heroes don't always come with super powers, instead, they come with presence and the presence of mind to sit still in the insanity of daily life and the unfolding traumas. In my life, the women in my mother's family have kept me sane, they are the bumpers on life's road, keeping me pointed forward. Not wanting to make a portrait of one particular woman, the bust became my Grandmother, Mother, and Aunt Janie. Little tchotskies representing all the sisters were placed within the giant curls of what was my Grandmother's "set." (I remember her getting her her "done" once a week.) At the front of her head is a tiny dining room table with 6 chairs...the most important place in the house. In remembering the table, as a child it seemed at least 20 people could sit around it. Originally I made 8 chairs, but was told there were only 6 chairs!! It was the place we always gathered and it seemed very fitting to put it at the front.

In her hair are: mascara and lipstick, a rolling pin, a lady finger and crochet hooks, a blue spiral representing "free spirit" and chocolate chip cookies, a log cabin with a bluebird of happiness at the top, a pair of orange pumps and a wine bottle, a big red heart, a baby and rubber ducky, as well, as the vodka slush container and a sacred heart.

Around her neck is a collar of pierogies and 11 philodendron leaves for the 11 kids in the family. It seems our family centers around eating, drinking, and looking good. My biggest struggle was to find a way to represent these very strong women who's very essences are intangible but very much who they are. I think it is the struggle of any artist trying to symbolize humanity. The hardest thing I learned about this particular piece of art was this...it was only a precursor to the next version. While still working out all these ideas in my head, trying to move from what is a literal representation to one filled with symbolism of more complicated ideas, the piece was unfortunately rushed into the kiln with an even more unfortunate ending. (Insert explosion and expletives here.)While contemplating how long it would take my school district to find my face on the front page of a North Carolina newspaper accused of murdering the studio assistant, I remembered a great friend once saying, "Never get attached to your pots." I applied the same wisdom, and set about building some little houses and heart rattles ( not shown). While I didn't bring home what I expected, I did bring home a new batch of friends, great memories and lessons still revealing themselves.

Back to the present...I've been home two weeks now, and what have I been doing??? Making pots of course!! "A Fair in the Park" is coming up in September. Cake plates are always fun to make and with the food channels fussing over cakes these days, why not? Penland artists made some of the most beatiful large food servers for the caferteria buffet line. I was inspired to make a few homages to these food boats, as well as, tall vases, canister sets and casseroles and brie bakers.

I know, I know, it's 97 degrees and the humidity is dripping, who wants to think about baking?? But autumn is just a cricket's chirp away. Soon I'll be craving baked artichoke dip and wool sweaters. In the mean time, I'll keep making pots and watering the garden, and cranking up the air.