Saturday, April 29, 2023

Student Exhibition 2023 Opening Tuesday


DoVA post card featuring student work 


Yesterday the YVC art and photography faculty got together at Larson Gallery to choose award winners for this years student exhibition, which opens Tuesday, May 2, with a reception from 5-7pm.

Back of the postcard

Choosing awards is always a blast. It’s great fun to see the work we’ve seen in the classroom on display in the gallery and to see the work of our colleagues’ students. This year we awarded over $500 in awards, including best of show. President Kaminski chose the winner for her sponsored award and Tuesday student government is coming to choose their awards.

Work in progress by Amy Matson

Of course each of the faculty like to brag on their own students, and it’s fun when we share students, too. I always love to talk up my clay students, here on the blog and in person and I think this show has some particularly impressive sculpture and pottery, much of which I’ve shared here before (but none of which I remembered to photograph on Friday).

Close up texture of Gicelle Hernandez’s in the gallery (for your scavenger hunt on Tuesday)

This year is my first fully participating in an in-person show in the new gallery. Last year the show was in the new Larson Gallery, but I was on medical leave for most of the year. This year most of the classes were back on campus and we were delighted to have a larger space in which to share more work!


Work in process by Rubi Leyva

The show features pottery and ceramic sculpture from my beginning, intermediate and advanced students, and one student from last spring’s clay classes with Jeff Kent. There’s also photographs, scan-o-grams, and digital art from students in Chris Otten’s photography and digital art classes, drawings from Kayo Nakamura and Monika Lemmon’s drawing classes (and my design class), as well as paintings, woodblock and monotype prints from Kayo’s printmaking and painting classes.


Duck by Carlos Garcia Alcantar

The exhibition opens Tuesday, May 2 with a reception from 5-7. Award winners will be announced during the reception. We hope to have a big crowd of artists, students, family, friends, and others from the YVC and Yakima community. The gallery is always free and open to the public and during the reception there will also be snacks.

Kahula, in a kiln, by Yarelli Sanchez

The show will remain up (with artworks for purchase) through the May 27. Larson Gallery is on the new West side of campus, on the southwest corner of 16th Ave and Nob Hill Boulevard, behind Taco Bell. The Gallery is open Tuesday - Friday 10-5 and Saturdays 12-5. Admission is always free and the Yakima Vintner’s tasting room is conveniently located next door and features award winning YVC wines, as well as food and non-alcoholic beverages as well. We hope to see you there!

Nearly half the art department, during the Yakima Artists Studio Tour in September


Monday, April 3, 2023

Throwing Prescription


Spring quarter started last week. We're nearly a week into this funny shaped quarter (funny shaped because it started on a Wednesday, which makes the first 5 days feel short and long at the same time). I've got a relatively light quarter, with just two classes (or four, depending how you count) as well as my union duties. With the break and a new "prescription," I've gotten into the studio every day for about two weeks.


Apparently this many pieces is too many pieces for me to throw on one day (with stiff clay)


Over spring break, I divided my days between firing, glaze, building, and throwing, as well as class prep and union work. On the day I devoted to throwing (and trying out my new Garrity tools), I threw 25lbs of clay, using up the rest of a box of porcelain. While I was throwing the slightly stiff clay, I looked down at my left thumb and noticed that it was very round and puffy, with a little dent in the middle emphasizing how much it had blown up.

The lymphedema sleeve I've been wearing to try to help with the swelling

Of course the "blow up" was from lymphedema, itself a result of all those lymph nodes taken out last June. Without as many lymph nodes, my body's system for removing extra fluid, from a cut or injury or infection, is impaired. Straining or working muscles too much can also, apparently, result in the lymph fluid collecting in the body because it can't get moved out quickly enough. 

I used these "love birds" throwing ribs from Garrity Tool's tool of the month club to make the textures. 

I've been working with an occupational therapist at the Lymphedema clinic since July to try to reduce the swelling that has collecting in my arm, chest, and breast. OT for lymphedema is pretty great, actually. The main thing, besides wearing a compression shirt and sleeve, is lymphatic drainage massage. I have a series of moved I do myself, but when I go in to the clinic, she has a whole bunch of things she does and it's basically just like getting a massage. Very relaxing, with the benefit of improving the swelling, too.


Another Garrity throwing rib made these textures

When I visited the lymphedema clinic after throwing during break, my therapist told me that I needed to spend more time throwing, but for shorter periods of time. So instead of infrequently throwing 25lbs of clay, I should spend about 30 minutes every day throwing. Basically, the idea is to get me back up to where I can handle more throwing. She also ordered me another compression sleeve, because if I throw in it, it gets messy pretty quickly. 

Some small forms I threw with my sculpture clay (not a great throwing clay body) 

I operate better with specific directions, or maybe I just prefer them. If I'm told to "take it easy" or "not do too much" I feel frustrated about how to define "easy" and "too much," so I really like this clear and specific direction: throw 30 minutes a day. And, it has the added advantage of telling me to do something I want to do anyway (but don't always make time to do).

Some small and large forms I threw with the sculpture body

I started last week Thursday, the first day of my clay class(es). It's a 3 hour class, but I don't throw the whole time in any of those classess, especially not on the first day.  I threw at home on Friday and over the weekend, using some recycled scupture clay. The clay includes nylon fiber and grog (ground up fired clay), which makes it a good sculpture body, but a fairly annoying throwing body. This time around it also had bits of metal in it. I need to figure out if that's coming from the pug mill or somewhere else. 


a thrown and hand-build sculpture in progress


The nice thing about throwing at home is that I can work on my sculpture. On the three days I threw with this body, I threw small pieces that I plan to combine into larger sculptures. Because I threw a bunch of sculpture pieces, that gets me back into the studio the next day (or days) to build with those pieces, so that's a good motivator to get me into the studio in general. Because the pieces are small, I don't necessarily need to commit to more time than I have.


one of the small sculpture forms I threw with the sculpture clay


Today I threw at school, both because I don't have any throwing clay ready, and because I wanted to have more bowls ready to trim tomorrow during class. The nice thing about throwing at school is that other people are around. I chatted with some folks in the studio and generally just enjoyed being in the space. The clay is also a lot nicer for throwing and didn't have any bits of metal (though I did find a bit of rock, which is fairly unusual).
the March Garrity tool makes a good paddle for small work

It's also kind of nice to have a time limit. I'm supposed to throw for 30 minutes, which I was able to squeeze in between meeting a student and attending a Teams meeting. But I also didnt' feel like I needed to commit to a huge undertaking. I was able to setup, wedge, throw, and clean up in about an hour. Because the time has been prescribed, I feel like I can just do it and be done.


the Garrity arm tool (full view)


Having a time limit it nice, sometimes, for something that could expand to take up any amount of time--Like writing a blog post. I could let it expand to take up several months of editing and perfecting (like I've done with the last two posts I haven't actually published) or I could set myself a limit, keep it short and be done.