Lee Middleman’s Spring Open Studio
Lee will be hosting his annual Spring Open Studio in Portola Valley on Saturday and Sunday, May 4 & 5, 2024 from 10am to 5pm. The Open Studio takes place at Lee’s studio and gallery at 16 Coalmine View, Portola Valley.
Lee will be presenting his recent work using crater-like glazes that he developed recently. He will of course be displaying his “classic” pieces as well. Come visit.
Lee’s gallery is also open by appointment. Just call Lee at 650-851-0295
Feats of Clay
CALL TO ARTISTS
“Feats of Clay 2024 Regional Competition”
SUBMISSION DETAILS
The Art League of Lincoln is rekindling the FEATS OF CLAY Art Show and Competition in West Placer County, CA. The show legacy celebrates the rich history in clay competitions and was formerly held at Gladding McBean Clay Manufacturing Company in Lincoln, CA. The 2024 Feats of Clay Competition will be a regional competition, with hopes to expand in future years. The Feats of Clay 2024 Regional ceramic competition will be showcased at the 580 Sixth St. Lincoln California art gallery location inside a replica bee hive kiln from June 13 to July 7, 2024.
We are delighted to have renowned ceramicist and ACGA Member Linda Fitz Gibbon jurying our exhibit. Born in New York, Fitz Gibbon has lived over 30 years in Northern CA. Artist residencies include Anderson Ranch Art Center and Vermont Studio Center. A dedicated community arts educator, Fitz Gibbon is an Art Professor at Cosumnes River College, Sacramento and also serves as Teaching Artist in Yolo County K-12 schools. Her work is in the collection of five museums.
All artwork submitted must be gallery ready to install, and if wall art, inclusive of integral wire installed for hanging. Work that is not for sale may be submitted. The Art League will provide pedestals.
There will be $5,000 in cash prizes awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners, Honorable Mentions, a People’s Choice Award and multiple merit and purchase awards.
Up to three pieces of artwork may be submitted for consideration. Entry fee is $40 for up to 3 pieces. Members receive a 70/30 commission split (70% to the artist), and Non-Members receive 60/40 (60% to the artist).
TIMELINE OF EXHIBIT
- ENTRY DEADLINE: Entry application and payment must be received by Saturday, June 1st.
- NOTIFICATION OF ACCEPTED ART: Artists will be emailed acceptance notices no later than June 6th.
- ART DELIVERY: All artwork must be submitted in person on Sunday, June 9th 12pm-3pm orMonday June 10th between 12:00–3:00 p.m. to The Art League of Lincoln, 580 Sixth Street, Lincoln, CA 95648.
- EXHIBIT DATES: The show will be on exhibit at the June 13th – July 7th at the 6th Street Gallery inside the Art Center at 580 Sixth Street, Lincoln, CA, 95648. The Art League is open Thursday- Sunday 11:00am-3:00p
- RECEPTION: Friday June 14th from 7:00-8:30pm (VIP First look preview June 14th from 6:00- 7:00pm)
- AWARDS: $5,000 in cash prizes will be awarded, including 1st, 2nd, 3rd, Honorable Mentions, People’s Choice, and multiple purchase and merit awards.
- PICK UP ART: Artwork may be picked up from 3pm-5pm on Sunday July 7th or on Monday, July 8th from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.Art League of Lincoln requests that if you are unable to pick up your artwork during the allotted times, that you make arrangements to have it picked up for you.
Off Center 2024 – An International Ceramics Competition
It’s Okay To Be A Wild Flower — New Era Series
All people who identify as women should be able to love and celebrate whomever brings out their joyous wild side.
This sculpture is also literally about our California wildflowers. In this case a native Wild Iris is in the womb, protected and embraced. Our wild plants, animals and we, are an interdependent web of wildlife.
I began this piece as an older woman’s wild celebration, of still loving life, sex, family and creating art. And, I saw it as a defiant gesture! While working on this piece Roe v. Wade was being challenged! And then, I was personally challenged by a potential uterine cancer scare. So, the piece became therapeutic. No, I don’t have uterine cancer. Again, it became a celebration, but sober, thinking of all the loved ones who haven’t been so lucky.
Her body’s vessel holds a wildly joyous bouquet made up of a lightning bolt of energy, the moon mirroring the womb, her eye “seeing” you the stars and everything in the universe as entwined. The Okay gesture (NOT a reference to white power) says it is Okay to be a “lowly wild flower” a “wild” woman, I’m going to be Okay, and the determination that all women will prevail in the control of their own bodies.
And it’s Okay to foment the wild notion of changing this system we are struggling to live under. A system that does harm to any life deemed in the way of profit. Evolution, is about adapting and changing. Let’s embrace the wild side and do that!
Women’s Work Exhibition at the Pence Gallery
Women artists have long used humor and satire to critique the unequal treatment of women, in areas
from reproductive rights to their depiction in the media. Women’s Work is a sampling of contemporary
sculpture and paintings by thirteen artists who redefine gender and femininity through their art.
Exhibiting artists include ACGA member Linda S Fitz Gibbon and Chaitra Bangalore, Suzanne M. Long, Sue Bradford, Emma Luna, Shenny Cruces, Shonna McDaniels, Lisa Reinertson, lanna Nova Frisby, Nancy Selvin, Julianne Wallace Sterling, Shalene Valenzuela, and Amy Vidra.
Linda S Fitz Gibbon, Legs Up, 2023. 16″ x 11″ x 9″
Sustainability at Cobb Mountain Art & Ecology Project
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Flame: CMAEP hosts six to ten woodfire workshops annually. Abundant fuel sources along with lots of labor are key factors to maintaining these educational wood-firing experiences. Resident Artists work closely with Scott to manage wood harvesting, processing and assist with firing workshops. Woodfire Resident Lucas Shick: “It’s been so beautiful seeing the life cycle and doing fire mitigation. I really enjoy the time spent in the forest as a community collecting that wood and having a more intimate relationship with the fuel…” Quantity of wood required varies depending on which kiln(s) are being fired. The largest kiln, the Anagama, is fired about twice a year. Those workshops include ten days of firing, and consume thirteen cords of hard and soft wood in the process. Woodfire Resident Dexter Gardner: “It gives me respect for people working in the firewood trade. It is a lot of labor to source all of your own wood for a 10 day firing.” Workshops connect CMAEP to the larger regional ceramics community and foster a learning environment for workshop participants and Resident Artists. |
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Tending to burn pile of brush during ecology management work at CMAEP. |
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Embers: All Resident Artists live on-site and working on the land at CMAEP offers a unique experience unlike any other ceramics residency experience. Scott Parady: “I hope that working with residents on the land gives them experience and a greater appreciation of what it can mean to steward a property. For me it creates a great appreciation for the land and human interaction with it, which has become a guiding force in my artwork.” The reasons artists might be drawn to spend time at CMAEP are varied and there are several residency formats including short and long term options. Dexter Gardner: “I saw it as a great opportunity to gain more woodfire knowledge, and to focus on developing work suited to woodfiring.” |
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ACGA INTERVIEW: MALIA LANDIS
ACGA Where were you born and raised? Thinking back, would you say that art was part of your upbringing?
I was born and raised tromping through the hills of St. Helena, California and exploring the diverse terrain and warm waters of the Big Island of Hawaii. While being creative was a huge part of my childhood, harvesting and collecting while being outdoors were what interested me most. I loved to gather stones and acorns, sticks and moss, shells and flowers, and display them lovingly, each a cherished prize. These collections were my own personal cabinets of curiosity that I cherished and marveled at, pondering the natural beauty of the world. Now I find myself making these things out of clay, attempting to capture a fleeting moment or phase in time.
ACGA When did you start working with clay? Tell us a bit about your journey with your craft.
While having first experienced working with clay in high school, it was not until undergraduate school at Humboldt State University that I fell in love with ceramics. I had started as a Botany major with an Art minor, but quickly found myself spending all my time at the ceramics studio fascinated with the possibilities of the medium. I soon changed my major and began to really focus on developing several bodies of work, one being more production based and the other conceptual. I enjoy this back and forth balance between a meditative reproduction alongside intense detail orientated sculpting. I continued to explore both bodies of work throughout graduate school at San Jose State University, where I discovered how to incorporate screen printing onto my ceramics wares. I have continued to work as a full-time studio artist, now living in Mendocino County of Northern California, producing my screen printed utilitarian wares under my business name, Salt and Earth, while designing
and creating one of a kind porcelain paper clay sculptures
for private clients and gallery exhibitions.
ACGA Are there things about your techniques that are unique to your process?
My wheel thrown and handbuildt functional wares are all decorated with screen printed map design and then hand painted with gold luster. I print and apply all of the mason stain screenprints myself, and love the imperfections translated throughout this process. I use mid range Laguna Frost Porcelain for my paperclay floral and fauna sculptures, and fire to cone 7-8.
ACGA You have two distinct bodies of work. How do you balance the investigation for each and where to exhibit each?
While finding a seasonal exhibition rhythm can be different every year, I often work on both bodies of work simultaneously and love the back and forth each demands. I like to teach workshops in the Spring focused on my porcelain paperclay botanicals, then shift gears to stock up for the Clay and Glass Festival in Palo Alto for the summer. The Fall tends to be when I work mostly on groupings of works for my gallery exhibitions and commissions. Currently in the day to day I am focused working on commissions, which has been very fun and rewarding.
ACGA Clay and glass are physically demanding disciplines. How do you maintain your health?
Besides the help of my personal trainers, my son Bodin (5) and daughter Stella (3) to keep me in shape, I make sure to take time to be in nature everyday. If I am able to just escape for a short walk around our property or afford a long hike in the hills, being active in nature is still the driving force for inspiration in my work and helps me recalibrate when needed. I also have found throwing on the wheel standing up has helped my lower back flare ups and I have a silly looking but very functional yoga ball chair at my studio desk.
ACGA Is there one person or event that significantly inspired you?
My source of inspiration naturally is based on home and place. I find so much wonder in the world around me and the uniqueness that is in the here and now, ever grateful for the opportunity to exist among it all.
ACGA What is one thing that would surprise us to know about you?
I am in a band! We are called the Coyotes, and while only a few years together as a band, we eat together, all sleep under the same roof, and just can’t get enough of one another. I usually am on some sort of percussion instrument, Bodin plays guitar, Stella loves to rock a keyboard and rattle simultaneously, and my husband, Wesley Wright, leads us all on his ukulele.
