Call for entry – emerging craft artists

Coming Up Next
An exhibition for emerging fine craft artists.

Deadline March 20th

The Alberta Craft Council is organizing it’s 4th annual juried exhibition that is open to emerging fine craft artists who are in the first five years of their career or in the last year of their formal education. If you are creating contemporary fine craft (clay, glass, fibre, wood, furniture design, jewellery or metals) with fresh new designs submit: a current cv; artist statement; 3 – 5 good quality images (digital – 4″x6″ 300dpi) of work presented for the exhibition; an image list that includes title, medium, technique, year made and size in inches

Exhibition Dates: April 25 – June 6 (Discovery Gallery)
Artists Reception: April 25, Saturday 2:00 – 4:00 pm

Note: All submissions must have been produced in the last two years.

Send your submission to the
Alberta Craft Council [email protected]

10186 – 106 Street, Edmonton AB T5J 1H4.

Popcorn packing, wobbly kilns and memories of Marilyn.

So as I began my day on Sunday, charged with a list of tasks to try to get completed on one of the few days I have my husband home to help watch the little munchkin, I got entirely sidetracked…It all started with our charming new kitten exploring in the dark depths of our basement storage only to find my packing materials and a goldmine of a bag of styrofoam popcorn. Needless to say the new game that began involved bringing the popcorn upstairs piece by piece to present to my son as a toy. We discovered them both playing away (luckily my son had his pacifier in mouth!) covered in styrofoam bits…sigh. So began the task of ridding the basement of these tiny horrors before it was too late. In the process I did manage to run across a box that had been sadly water damaged months before when our tub had leaked and to my delight and surprise I had stumbled across a bunch of old pictures from my college days. List of tasks for the day completely out of mind I spent the next while going through old memories, rediscovering old friends and handling cherished momentoes. In the midst of the pile of pictures I found the following which brought a smile to my face and reminded me of how far I’ve come (even if it doesn’t feel like it everyday).

These pictures are of the first kiln I ever tried to build, must have been over ten years ago now. It’s embarrassing to even show you (and now I question why I even am?) The first shows our pathetic attempt at working with the worst of discarded kiln bricks to build the floor of our raku kiln. Wobbly much? It makes me laugh out loud!

The second shows the floor after our probably 4th or 5th attempt. A little more stable.
In the end it wasn’t the worst kiln ever, but it might have gotten an honorable mention. We did fire it quite a few times, enough for me to decide I really didn’t care much for the raku process for my work, but I did enjoy the challenge of kiln building. And I also really enjoyed the atmosphere around the raku firings. Being that we were on the university campus we often had to fire at night when there were less students around (or maybe it just took that long for the sad little kiln to reach temperature?!) Often students from the surrounding dorms would come by to see what was going on as they could see the smoke and fire from their dorm windows. We’d often find ourselves with great company, pizza delivery and beer….aww college life! It was good times all round, not that we ever fully appreciate them at the time. I’m also reminded of this by the photos I found of the late, and oh so great, Marilyn Levine giving studio visits and critiques with us students. An opportunity I’d die for now…I wonder what she told me…I’d also take the good company, pizza and beer any day!

That time of year again…NCECA calls for program proposals

NCECA 2010, 44TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE

March 31-April 3, 2010 • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Theme: INDEPENDENCE
TOPICS FOR PROPOSALS For the 44th annual meeting of NCECA in Philadelphia, we call for proposals of lectures and panel discussions relating to issues of exploration, discovery, and the relevance of site, location and environment. As always, we also welcome proposals on all subjects relevant to our field. Submissions will be evaluated in regard to merit, the presenter’s expertise in the area, and a general interest in providing a balanced and inclusive program for the members. The general categories for proposals are as follows: Aesthetics and Critical Theory, including presentations about concepts of beauty and value, art attitudes, theory, content, goals and standards.
Art History, including presentations about traditional and non-traditional artists and movements, styles, and surveys of regional, national and international art in clay.
Education, including presentations about traditional and non-traditional curricula, goals, standards, methods and ideologies.
Professionalism, including presentations about working standards, goals, methods and attitudes, and/or the professional working relationships of guilds, co-ops and other ceramic centers.
Technology, including presentations about traditional and non-traditional materials, processes, kilns, equipment, innovations and theory.
New Work, is a category of proposals for up to four artists to make a 15-minute visual presentation on the subject of a body of their own work completed within the last three years. Artists 30 years and older who have been working professionally for at least five years since completing their training are eligible to submit. Proposals should include 10 to 20 images of new work and 5 of older work, along with a list of works, a resume, an artist’s statement and an explanation of how this work is new within the context of the artist’s overall career.
As for all conference proposals, the application deadline is May 1, 2009.APPLICATION PROCESS Applications must be submitted completely electronically. Your ONLINE submittal should include the following:
Presentation content description—400 word maximum
For New Work only— 200 word artist statement and a 200 word description of the New Work
Two-page resume
For panel proposals: names, addresses and brief resumes of the panelists
5-10 images of each presenters’ work. (Include only images that will strengthen the proposal.) Guidelines will be posted soon.
Link to ONLINE Submittal Form
or go to the NCECA website.
Your proposal abstract, images and support material will be made available electronically to all NCECA Board Members for review prior to the full Board meeting in May 2009. Proposal selections will be made by the full Board at that meeting. Please make sure that your submittal is complete, as incomplete proposals may not be considered. The Programs Director will notify you of the Board’s decision after the May meeting. *Any person needing help with applying in an electronic format is encouraged to contact the NCECA Programs Director for assistance:
Joe Molinaro,
(859) 527-0088 or (859) 622-1634

Artist residency opportunity – Red Lodge Clay Center

Don’t forget that the deadline for residencies at the Red Lodge Clay Center is right around the corner…

Applications need a postmark date on or before March 1st.
Starting next year the deadline will be February 1st.
They will be setting up interviews with final candidates at the NCECA conference in Phoenix. Find out more on their website here.

Are you “INTO Ceramics”?


There is a new online ceramics magazine and social networking site based out of Africa. It’s great place to meet other artists, share info, upload images and give feedback on work. There is also a magazine – to be launched March 1st – that is either emailed or posted (i’m not quite sure yet as I just joined). Come and check it out!

INTO Ceramics website.