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)

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.

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.

A recent trip to New York City came with a cultural treasure trove of exhibitions. A couple I want to share with you here include the New York Ceramics Fair at the National Academy Museum and Art School and the Bauhaus exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art.

From the New York Ceramics Fair, the work I found particularly interesting and inspiring is that of Clarice Cliff, British artist/designer whose career spanned 1922-1963.

Here are some images of Cliff’s work from Cara Antiques. These pieces were designed by Cliff then decorated by “paintresses”, a term used in the industry. Her designs were so popular that at one time the paintresses numbered upwards of 100.

In September of 2009, The Victoria and Albert Museum in London opened its ‘New Ceramic Galleries’ and Cilff’s work was chosen to be included.

The Bauhaus show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City is a bit overwhelming. I attended a day long symposium in addition to seeing the exhibition. I learned a great deal more about this very famous institution. Mies van der Rohe said the Bauhaus was an idea, not an institution. I love that.

Walter Gropius's "Idea Organization of the Staatliches Bauhaus Weimar", 1923

The exhibition is a wonderful expression of student experiments from Weimar, Dessau and Berlin.  Joseph Albers, after enrolling as a student in the Weimar incarnation of the Bauhaus became a professor in 1925 at Dessau. When the school closed in 1933, he and Anni Albers went to North Carolina to teach at the Black Mountain College. Black Mountain College, a direct descendant of the Bauhaus, wanted to send out to the world ethical change agents.

My main take away from both exhibits was that skill is what will make the difference. Technology and industry are tools only. It is the skill of the craftsman that leads us out of the darkness. I might add that no amount of cleverness, posturing or acrobatics replaces the need for skill in the development of human potential. Skill forms the foundation of a truly independent mind that can solve a problem and have the patience and depth of character to surmount any number of obstacles.

This year has been a busy year in the studio. Working, listening to books on tape (I particularly liked “The Book of Air and Shadows”, by Michael Gruber), reading blogs and attending a few conferences. SxSW, the Feast Conference and the American Craft Conference are 3 that stand out.

It was my goal several years ago to stop doing shows; that is, stop doing trade shows and craft shows to sell my work. I have more or less succeeded and continue to learn about ways to show and sell my work. Mostly by work of mouth and brides seem to find me. Learning and sharing by attending conferences is far preferable to standing in a booth and selling my work. Conferences often lead to other surprising kinds of development.

I am working on goals and planning for 2010, which everyone seems to feel will be better than this past decade. One goal I want to commit to right here, right now, is more regular blogging. So, let me leave you with a thought for new years eve and day- Let ‘er rip. Well, that maybe more for me than you, but hey, maybe you relate?

Thank you for stopping by. See you next year!

Thanksgiving 2009, Brooklyn, NY

My friends Laura and John sent this great shot of their Thanksgiving Day dinner table. Yay table art!

Naked Dishes :: low bowl, veggie bowl, place setting, 4 miso bowls, oval platter

Half Stripe :: Orange, Yellow and Lime : assorted bowls plates and platters

Half Stripe :: Jade, Turquoise, and Periwinkle : assorted bowls and platters

These pieces are glazed with half stripes, inspired by works on paper I have been doing since last spring. The paintings on paper came out of studies for stripes in textiles. I am particularly interested in the way the glazes break as they are layered. The process has roots in majolica glazing technique.

Petravic and Catherine Bailey, wife, partner and co-owner, bought the company in 2002.   Robin and Cathy were designers; Rob product design engineer and Kathy an industrial designer.  Together they set the vision and the culture. Design and craft are at the forefront of their vision.

In 2009, the business grew. The business is 5-6 times bigger than when they bought it in 2002.  The building was built in 1959. The building feels like a Case House study. Very modern. They have 2 stores, one in Sausilito, one in Los Angeles and plan on opening one in San Francisco next year. Their business model is to sell directly to customers.

There were 24 people there when Petrovic and Bailey bought the business in 2002. Today there are 80 employees. Everything is manufactured on a human scale. 45 pepople work in production.

He compared working for, i.e. Nike, where the design process is divorced from the actual making and the making takes place on a larger scale (huge factories in foreign lands). Heath is much more rewarding because everything is made on site.

Charles and Ray Eames

Picture of Charles and Ray Eames working in real materials, as opposed to foam core or some other typical mock up material common in industrial design model making.

Heath has always been about designing and making. All Heath Ceramics are made on the premises in Sausolito.

Many employees have been there a long time. It is the last pottery of its kind in California. Edith Heath has left this legacy. She taught herself how to make pots and was a potter. She designed the clay bodies and taught herself chemistry. The holistic depth of knowledge of the work informs the work.

Eva Zeisel, in contrast is more about the form only. Heath is about the materials.

At Heath, the move to production pottery came out of came out of a curiosity of industry and used as a tool.

Petravic talks about 3 generations of shoppers, still loyal, still bringing new people to shop.

Design has brought a renewed interest and relevence to the brand. Tiles are a big part of the business.

He thinks of himself as a designer/maker/enabler.

Christina Zamora is their main designer.

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