The Old Church Pottery Show at Demarest, NJ
(Gwelwch isod am y Gymraeg/ See below for Welsh)
December brought with it two new states to add to my visited list as we made the 15 hour drive from Illinois to New Jersey via Pennsylvania, heading out to the east coast for the second time this year. This trip, over the first weekend of December, was for the 49th annual pottery show and sale at the Art School at Old Church, Demarest, NJ (TASOC), where Simon had been invited to exhibit.
The Old Church Pottery Show originated in 1975 as a brainchild of the iconic potter Karen Karnes and her friend Mikhail Zakin, founder of TASOC. Karen curated the show in this former Baptist Church for more than 40 years before her death in 2019 at the age of 90, and nowadays this nationally renowned event draws close to 1000 pottery enthusiasts annually. It has also set the example for many alternative pottery events since including the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour in Minnesota. Mark Shapiro, one of this year’s exhibitors gave a presentation on the life and work of Karen Karnes for the 2012 American Craft Council Baltimore Show which you can watch through this link: Mark Shapiro: The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes - YouTube. He also edited ‘A Chosen Path, The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes’ which offers a comprehensive look at her life and work.
Malcolm Mobutu Smith
Lisa Orr
This year’s show featured 26 prominent ceramic artists from across the US including wood-firing legend and poet Jack Troy - author of ‘Wood-fired Stoneware and Porcelain’, Lindsay Oesterritter - author or ‘Mastering Kilns and Firings’, Chris Gustin, anagama firing potter from Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and Ben Owen III - a multi-generational potter from Seagrove North Carolina. For the full list of this year’s demonstrators click here: 2023 Potters — 49th Annual Pottery Show & Sale (oldchurchpotteryshow.org) Interestingly for me, it was the first sale I’ve been to where the artists didn’t deal with the sales. Instead the Arts School had a series of volunteer ‘runners’ who took your name and chosen pottery to keep in a hold until you were ready to check out, whereby the pots were taken to a designated packing and paying area away from the exhibitors. I like how this model gives potters the opportunity to have deep conversations with visitors about their work without the need to be available for managing sales as well.
Among my many highlights were Malcolm Mobutu Smith’s cloud cups: large pipe-like vessels that give the impression they are smoking themselves, billowing organic abstractions that intersect graffiti art, cubism and Jazz age Art Deco. They also have the delicious synesthetic quality of scooped ice cream. As usual, Lisa Orr’s whimsical pots were a delight to see and caress. My favourite was this cake stand which resembles an ambitious, elaborate, prize winning British Bake Off creation. I love the sense of joy with which Lisa reimagines historical pottery such as 19th century Palissy-ware with a Disney-esque vibrancy.
Not all the pots were enjoyed for their ability to remind me of food though. I found Mattew Metz’s vessels with their lino-cut quality carved birds, faces and plants profoundly charming. His technique of salt glazing grolleg porcelain with a blue terra sigillata leaves the white carved areas with the icy sparkle of frosty winter mornings. Work by Sang Joon Park, another NY based artist really resonated with me too. He utilises traditional Korean techniques of inhwamun stamping and gwiyal slip painting to add delicate texture and expressive colour to his vessels, often in red, white and black.
Our return journey was broken up with the pleasure of an overnight stay at Jack Troy and Carolanne Currier’s place in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, and a tour of their studio and kiln yard. While I was on residency at Guldagergaard in Denmark in the autumn of 2022 I found an envelope containing pieces of paper on which were written ‘20 questions by Jack Troy’. These questions act as prompts to thinking about our own relationship with wood-firing, pottery and art in general, and you can find a version of them here on his website: QUESTIONS FOR ARTISTS (jacktroy.net) In the new year I want to spend some time pondering these questions and sharing my answers on this blog.
Jack Troy and Carolanne Currier’s Kiln Shed, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania
Looking to New York City across the Hudson River from New Jersey
Sioe Grochenwaith yr Hen Eglwys yn Demarest, NJ
Daeth Rhagfyr â dwy dalaith newydd i fi ychwanegu at fy rhestr o daleithiau wedi ymweld, wrth inni wneud y daith 15 awr mewn car o Illinois i New Jersey drwy Pennsylvania, allan i’r arfordir dwyreiniol am yr eildro eleni. Roedd y daith yma, dros benwythnos cyntaf Rhagfyr, ar gyfer y 49fed sioe ac arwerthiant crochenwaith blynyddol yn Ysgol Gelf yr hen Eglwys, Demarest, NJ (TASOC), lle gwahoddwyd Simon i arddangos.
Dechreuodd Sioe Grochenwaith yr Hen Eglwys ym 1975 fel syniad gan y crochenydd eiconig Karen Karnes a’i ffrind Mikhail Zakin, sylfaenydd TASOC. Curadurodd Karen y sioe yn yr hen Eglwys Fedyddiedig yma am fwy na 40 mlynedd cyn ei marwolaeth yn 2019 yn 90 oed, a heddiw mae’r digwyddiad enwog yma yn denu bron i 1000 o ymwelwyr bob blwyddyn. Mae hefyd wedi gosod yr esiampl ar gyfer llawer o ddigwyddiadau crochenwaith amgen ers hynny gan gynnwys Taith Crochenwaith Dyffryn St. Croix yn Minnesota. Rhoddodd Mark Shapiro, un o arddangoswyr eleni, gyflwyniad ar fywyd a gwaith Karen Karnes ar gyfer Sioe Cyngor Crefftau America Baltimore yn 2012 (gallwch ei wylio trwy’r linc yma: Mark Shapiro: The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes - YouTube.) Golygodd hefyd ‘A Chosen Path, The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes’ sy’n cynnig golwg gynhwysfawr ar ei bywyd a’i gwaith.
Simon Levin
Matthew Metz
Roedd sioe eleni’n cynnwys 26 o artistiaid serameg o bob rhan o’r Unol Daleithiau gan gynnwys y bardd ac arwr tanio hefo pren Jack Troy – awdur ‘Wood-fired Stoneware and Porcelain’, Lindsay Oesterritter – awdures ‘Mastering Kilns and Firings’, Chris Gustin, crochenydd sy’n tanio kiln anagama yn Dartmouth, Massachusetts, a Ben Owen III - crochenydd aml-genhedlaeth o Seagrove North Carolina. Am y rhestr lawn o arddangoswyr eleni cliciwch yma: Crochenwyr 2023 - 49ain Sioe a Gwerthiant Crochenwaith Blynyddol (oldchurchpotteryshow.org) Yn ddiddorol i mi, hwn oedd yr arwerthiant cyntaf i mi fod iddo lle doedd yr artistiaid ddim yn delio hefo gwerthiant y gwaith. Yn lle hynny, roedd gan Ysgol y Celfyddydau gyfres o ‘redwyr’ gwirfoddol a oedd yn cymryd eich enw a’ch dewis o grochenwaith i’w gadw nes eich bod yn barod i adael, pan fyddai’r potiau’n cael eu cludo i fan pacio a thalu dynodedig i ffwrdd oddi wrth yr arddangoswyr. Dwi’n hoffi sut mae'r model yma yn rhoi cyfle i grochenwyr gael sgyrsiau dwfn gydag ymwelwyr am eu gwaith heb fod angen iddynt fod ar gael ar gyfer rheoli gwerthiant hefyd.
Ymhlith fy uchafbwyntiau niferus oedd cwpanau cwmwl Malcolm Mobutu Smith: llestri mawr tebyg i bibellau sy’n rhoi’r argraff eu bod yn ysmygu eu hunain, siapiau organig wedi chwyddo sy’n croestorri celf graffiti, ciwbiaeth ac Art Deco o’r oes Jazz. Mae ganddyn nhw hefyd yr ansawdd synesthetig blasus o hufen ia. Yn ôl yr arfer, roedd potiau gwallgof Lisa Orr yn bleser i’w gweld a’u cyffwrdd. Fy ffefryn oedd y llestr gacennau yma sy'n atgoffa fi o rhai o’r creadigaethau uchelgeisiol, cywrain, sydd yn ennill gwobrau ar y British Bake Off. Dwi wrth fy modd hefo’r ymdeimlad o lawenydd mewn gwaith Lisa wrth iddi ail-ddychmygu traddodiadau crochenwaith hanesyddol fel llestri Palissy o'r 19eg ganrif gyda’r un bywiogrwydd lliwgar a ffilm Disney.
Ond ni wnes i fwynhau'r potiau i gyd am eu gallu i fy atgoffa o fwyd. Roedd llestri Matthew Metz gyda’u hadar, planhigion ac wynebau cerfiedig yn hynod o swynol. Mae ei dechneg o orchuddio porslen hefo terra sigillata glas, wedyn ychwanegu halen i’r tanio yn gadael ardaloedd cerfiedig gwyn gyda disgleirdeb boreau gaeafol rhewllyd. Roedd gwaith Sang Joon Park, artist arall o NY yn atseinio gyda fi hefyd. Mae'n defnyddio technegau traddodiadol Coreaidd o stampio inhwamun a phaentio slip gwiyal i ychwanegu gweadau cain a lliw mynegiannol i'w lestri, yn aml mewn coch, gwyn a du.
Torrwyd i fyny ein taith adref hefo’r pleser o aros dros nos yn lle Jack Troy a Carolanne Currier yn Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, a thaith o amgylch eu stiwdio a’u iard odynau. Tra o’n i ar breswyliad yn Guldagergaard yn Nenmarc yn hydref 2022, des o hyd i amlen yn cynnwys darnau o bapur hefo ‘20 cwestiwn gan Jack Troy’ arnyn nhw. Mae'r cwestiynau yma yn ysgogiadau i feddwl am ein perthynas hefo thanio crochenwaith hefo pren, a chelf yn gyffredinol, a gallwch ddod o hyd i fersiwn ohonynt yma ar ei wefan: CWESTIYNAU I ARTISTIAID (jacktroy.net) Yn y flwyddyn newydd dwi isho treulio amser yn ystyried rhai o’r cwestiynau yma a rhannu fy atebion yma ar y blog.