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Saturday, February 20th, 5:30-9pm

$35, limit 40 guests. BYOB.

For reservations: (413) 442-1622 or info@ferringallery.com

DISH & DINE @ Ferrin Gallery - the first in a series of evening dinners in the gallery pairing local food with local artists.
In conjunction with Jason Houston’s solo show of photography, Family of Mine,the gallery teams up with our new neighbor THE MARKET for a catered dinner featuring a menu from locally grown produce served on dinnerware by MARY ANNE DAVIS.The evening will include a viewing of new work from his farm series, a visual presentation and dinner conversation with JASON HOUSTON based on contemporary photography, documentary, and personal perspectives.
ONVIEW: JASON HOUSTON Photography: Food and Farming

Jason Houston, an independent documentary photographer, focuses on social and environmental issues across the country and around the world. He has photographed the small family farms throughout the Berkshire region for over a decade and traveled to over a dozen countries documenting community-based conservation in the developing world. His environmental portraits, landscapes, and elemental details focus the viewer on the global issues and processes that define how we live on this planet. Houston is a frequent contributor to Berkshire Living Magazine and serves as the photo editor of Orion Magazine.
DISH – Mary Anne Davis out of nearby Chatham, NY makes functional porcelain dishware intended for daily use. She shares thoughts on making and using functional tableware – “Art and life come together at a table. Using handmade dishes to set a table provides the opportunity to express private creativity: ephemeral and memorable. The social fabric, the relationships built one meal at a time becomes the real art and the meal has an energy of a higher order. Conversation is magic, bringing each individual at the table into a personal bond.”
DINE – The Market, a new neighborhood corner store, creates a dinner based on the range of products carried at the store.

MENU:Equinox Farms mixed greens w/ balsamic vinaigrette

Seasonal Root vegetable puree

Woodstock Farms mustard-rubbed roast pork loin

Seasonal grilled local vegetables

Homemade mini-cupcakes, brownies, and chocolate chip cookies for dessert

(from the Ferrin Gallery website)

My friends Eric Rymshaw and James Fulton run a fabulous design firm in Philadelphia called Fury Design. We originally met in the late 90’s at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show. They have inspired me over the years with numerous projects. Last fall Eric shot me an email while I was the ACC Conference. He said a client MIGHT be interested in a grouping of vases. I shot back a quick sketch and low and behold she went for it.

Cyinders and Ovoids, 2010

Here is what I shipped to them today. The tallest piece is 23″ high. I am pleased with this collection : the scale, the whimsy, the color. These shapes inspire me to do more sort of tree like shapes. Thank you  guys!

MAD and Kathryn Scott at work

Interior designer Kathryn Scott spent the day here yesterday working on a project. It is my great pleasure to occasionally work with another artist or designer on a special project. Collaboration is an especially exciting way of working. I approach collaboration from a number of angles. The easiest way to enter into a collaboration with me is to aquire a set of dishes and set the table, prepare incredible food and have friends and family over to share. That is how I collaborate with most people. However, on occasion a designer or artist happens to be interested in entering into a more specific collaborative relationship. Skill and production capacity are rare birds in the US. If they are here in abundance they are shy. Look for them, find them, use them. Artisanal production is the soul of any culture, be it food or art. You must use it to help it flourish.

Kathryn Scott’s interiors are sublime. It is an honor to work with her and I will post outcomes of the project as they develop.

Stack of colorful udon bowls

Last night I finished loading a kiln and today it is cooling. It has the end of a set of dishes, I will post later, and 5 new vases for some designer friends of mine in Philadelphia. Fury Design. Fabulous Jim and Eric who I have known more than 10 years. They have been a catalyst for my dinnerware and have now inspired this latest collection of vases. Yay! Fury Design!!!!

I am working on drawing an hour a day, mostly birds, but also the circulatory system and nervous system. Will start posting soon. Am thinking about SXSW and am sending some work to a show in Austin to be held during the conference. Thinking about sending works on paper. Less fragile than ceramics.

I just love this shot of udon bowls stacked in the sunshine. Feels warm on a cold day. Hope your day is going well. Enjoy as much of it as you can.

Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin,  is a grand dare. He dares us to be artists. He exclaims we ARE artists. In that respect, he is bringing the ubiquity of art to a brand new audience.

When I got my advance copy there was a note inside. It seemed written for me. It suggested I bookmark page 101, the chapter on resistance. Of course, I turned right to it. If you are a long time fan of Godin’s, its message isn’t really new. But it is honed. Steven Pressfield talks about the resistance in his book the “War of Art“, a book Godin references.

Seth’s overarching message is to blaze a trail. Make things happen. Take a risk. Get into trouble. Go out on a limb. All things artists do everyday. His thesis, that we are all artists rings true to the idealist in love with an alternative to current trends. A subterfuge to the sheep mentality. Do not go quietly into the night. Do something. Ship it. Do it again. Don’t follow a map. Explore. Invent. Create something different.

Marina Abramovic is a performance artist with a long history of endurance performance art. She is having a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York In March. Mentioning her in the same article with Seth Godin is not such a stretch. Seth’s premise, that we are all artists, was originally proclaimed by avantguard artist, Joseph Beuys in the 1970’s and his work was among the most influential of any single artist in the 20th century. Abramovic met him early in her career and “Beuys helped me get invitations to perform in Europe because he liked me and thought me crazy”. (Yablonsky, Artnews, Dec 2009) Abramovic says “Going to the studio everyday is a really bad habit-it’s like being an employee,” she says “You have to live life. And from life comes ideas.” (Belcove, W, Jan, 2010)

These two events, Seth’s book and Abramovic’s furtherance upon the road of creation and discovery, point to a direction for making, doing, and thinking which I find very useful. It is basically to have serious courage; don’t be afraid to believe in something and make it happen. Over and over and over again.