From the Ground Up

Tonight was the opening reception for From the Ground Up at Larson Gallery. The shows looks great, there is a lot of variety in the work. It's mostly fired clay, but firing range, technique surface and color all vary. There are even a few works in synthetic (polymer) clay and there are several pieces on the wall.

I made most of the pieces in this grouping during the past summer with the idea of grouping them together for this show. I'm happy with how they came together, though the installation went a little differently than I expected. Each of the medium to large pieces in this installation could probably be shown individually, but I think they are much stronger as a group. I had a lot of comments about the piece during the reception this evening. Most people who spoke to me seemed to like the piece and I know it made an impact. One of the most interesting comparisons was to the underwater scenes in "The Life Aquatic." (I tried to find examples but I'll have to rewatch the movie, I guess.) A student with a fear of camel spiders saw scorpions in the work, others saw sea creatures or sexual references.

I had other work there too but it was overshadowed.

At least one person liked this piece but the pedestal pieces were hardly discussed--at least around me. 

One person did tell me that the gallery director had done a good job installing my work. I laughed; I hadn't considered having someone else install my work. 

The show, like I said, was good and it was also nice to chat with a bunch of other ceramic artists from the region. The NCECA conference is coming up at the end of March in Seattle so we all had lots to talk about besides the show.

*sorry the photos aren't great, I still haven't figured out my camera so I took these quickly between running errands and grading.