Friday, February 24, 2012

Art chick day

 First of all, I wanted to give a shout out to my friend Susan Wells for a great opening night at the Eno Gallery with her reliquaries. Go Susan!!!!  I had dinner in Hillsborough tonight with my art pals and then went to the opening at the Eno gallery. Susan has this house and two others in the show. I am so proud of her and the work she has put into her art. She be a hard working mom and artist!
 My other great pal, Laura Farrow, also fierce talented art chick, went with me to Charlotte today to drop off some work to the Lark and Key Gallery. I finally got to meet Sandy, after many emails back and forth. What a beautiful gallery. I am so pleased that my work will be there and what amazingly nice people. Laura and I had art day, visiting the Mint Museum and the new Betchler Museum. We were engulfed in art all day, so inspiring and so affirming that art has to be in this world.  I copied down this quote in one of the museums:

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”  Piccasso


And not to forget, my other good friend that we had dinner with, Shannon Bueker, one of my very favorite artists. I have a tiny piece of hers, but one day, I will have a bigger piece....... of course this one with the houses is so great.
Driving to Charlotte today, gave me and Laura lots of time to talk about art, goals, themes, issues, lots of great thoughts. Laura made a very interesting point to me recently that I really liked. We were talking about how many blogs had images of houses on them lately. I had a friend awhile back at Claymakers that called it heightened awareness. We worked together as assistants and there were always cycles of similar things. One person would make a votive candle holder and then the kilns would fill with them. Someone would make a slab tray with leaves pressed in it and then the shelves filled up with slab trays. It's an interesting phenomenon in a community clay studio. I have seen it in every one I have worked in. Anyway, we were talking about the house form and how so many people use it and she made an interesting point. We all live in a house. It is a universal symbol: we all take shelter in a house, raise families in them, rest, laugh, love, all in our houses. So of course it is a familiar and comfortable object to many of us. Just like a bowl or a cup is a familiar and comfortable object to all of us. Today I mentioned that I thought it would be cool to see  all of the potter/bloggers make a house in their own style, like the cups or bowls they make, or the sculptures they make, just using their own glazes, surface decorations, inspirations. I had even emailed several potter friends a while back to see if I could send them one of my houses and then have them decorate it in their own style. I would still love to do this, but the logistics went out the window when Ron requested red clay and Michael needed to wood fire his, see where this is going?! But what if everyone made one in their own way? It would be interesting, don't you think?! Maybe Meredith could put together another show, haha!
I'm excited to see the House and Home show go up next week at Mudfire and see the many interpretations of this shape we all have in common. I think it will be a fantastic show. I am very proud of the pieces that I sent down and very proud of the pieces that I left at Lark and Key today.
I am also very proud of these art chicks that are my friends. They lift me up, they support me, they cheer me on, they give me advise, encouragement, and blunt talk when I need it. They don't try to tear me down, they don't envy me, they accept me and they carry on and make their own great and powerful work and I love the strong, intelligent women they are.  They make me stronger, smarter, and bring me laughter and joy when I am with them. Today was one of those very great days, being with women who know who they are and don't give a rat's ass what anyone thinks, because they are confident and secure with who they are. ROCK ON Susan, Laura, and Shannon!!!!!! Thanks for being some kick ass girls!!!

ps: I hope it's ok that I borrowed these images from your blogs :)

8 comments:

cookingwithgas said...

Great idea- but I think my show planning days are over right now.
But someone will see this and snatch it right up. The other day Mark and I took the same bottle form and carved it- when i looked over at his it was complete different than mine.
It is true that given clay we might walk the same path but the results are different.
Go Susan!

Unknown said...

Now you've asked for it Tracey! I'm foolishly going to give one house a shot for you. I've had half an idea kicking around for a while... and now i'll try it out on a house. Oh boy, this will test my slab building skills. I'll let you know when i finally do build it, but there's going to be a lot of sgraffito... yikes!
Sounds like you gals had a good old time, brilliant!

Kelly said...

Great post! I'm jealous of your day with your friends-sounds awesome. Love the idea of everyone making a house in their own style. Keep me posted if you decide to pull that idea together! I've seen Lark & Key online-looks awesome!
Yay for strong, accepting friends!,

Tracey Broome said...

Hey Meredith, it's the same with cups and bowls, every potter makes a different one if it comes from their head and their heart. Scott, my idea last year was to get some other potters with a very distinct style to decorate some houses of mine, for example I was thinking that Ron could do his sgraffito on one, my friend Laura could do decals, etc. but the more I thought about the logistics the harder it got to coordinate. Maybe this is better, it would be nice if they all didn't look like mine though :)
Hey Kelly, yes a girl has to have her supportive friends to keep from being eaten alive haha!

smartcat said...

I am loving this idea!

What a great way to spend a day....friends and art!

Michèle Hastings said...

The house building project would be cool. Just think of the variety that would be created! If a physical show would be too hard to pull off an online show could be manageable... sort of like the vase finder international exhibition. Maybe we could get a real estate company to sponsor prizes! ok.. now I am getting carried away.

When you mentioned heightened awareness it also made me think of whenever I buy a new car... I suddenly notice that every other car on the highway is the same make and color as mine.

Susan Wells said...

It was a delight to see you on Friday! Especially with you and Laura's matching outfits!

Susan Wells said...

Fun to see you and Laura and your matching outfits on Friday!