Feast your eyes on 10 of the 50 plates for sale to benefit NCECA’s 50th Anniversary. Selected by Simon Levin and generously donated by 50 artists who believe in NCECA’s mission. Although several of these plates have already been sold and are enjoying their new homes, you still have an opportunity to own a beautiful piece of artwork while simultaneously benefiting NCECA. Click on any plate image to go directly to the NCECA online Store where you can purchase the plate.
Adam Field
6.5”L x 6.5”W x 1”H
reduction fired porcelain with carved pattern and various celadon glazes
Sorry, this plate is already sold
ADAM FIELD
Born and raised in Colorado, Adam earned his BA in Art from Fort Lewis College. For two years he immersed himself in the culturally rich art scene of the San Francisco bay area, where he began his full time studio practice. From there, he relocated to Maui, where he established a thriving studio business. He spent most of 2008 in Icheon, South Korea, studying traditional Korean pottery making techniques under 6th generation Onggi master Kim Il Mahn. In 2013 he created and debuted HIDE-N-SEEKAH at the NCECA conference in Houston, TX. After maintaining his studio in Durango, CO for 5 years, Adam recently moved to Helena, MT where he is currently a long-term artist in residence at The Archie Bray Foundation. His works are included in private collections and kitchen cabinets internationally. www.adamfieldpottery.com
I am fascinated with antique artifacts, the way they can speak of mastery of lost peoples, places, and cultures. This inspires me to create works that both radiate history and capture my own place and time. I work toward a clean aesthetic that celebrates the masterful simplicity of antique Far Eastern pottery, while retaining the modest utility of colonial American wares. The surface of my pottery is meticulously carved with intricate designs that borrow from nature and incorporate the human touch. Much of the carving on my work is informed by pattern languages found in indigenous fiber art, such as Hawaiian tapa, Incan cordage, and Zulu basketry.
David MacDonald
13.5 inches in diameter
Porcelain Plate. Quilt Series. 2013
Decorated with a black vitreous engobe base; with glazes applied over it using wax resist
DAVID MacDONALD
A native of New Jersey, Prof. MacDonald received his undergraduate degree from Hampton University; where he studied under the noted African American ceramic artist Joseph Gilliard. After receiving his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Michigan in 1971, he joined the faculty of the School of Art and Design at Syracuse University.Professor MacDonald’s creative work is mostly inspired by his investigation of his African heritage. Looking at a variety of design sources in the vast creative traditions of the African continent; Mr. Mac Donald draws much of his inspiration from the myriad examples of surface decoration that manifests itself in the many ethnic groups of sub-Saharan Africa (such as pottery decoration, textiles, body decoration and architectural decoration). Prof. MacDonald’s work is represented in many public and private collections throughout the nation. His work has also been featured in several ceramic textbooks and magazines. Since his retirement in May 2008, he has been active lecturing across the country and working in his studio. www.davidmacdonaldpottery.com
For myself, the essence of the art experience, is one of self-discovery and communication. In one sense, it is a very private and personal journey in search of order, reason, reality and beauty. Yet in another sense, it is a very public act in the attempt to express and share, with others, my realizations and discoveries.
Kristen Kieffer
10 1/2” diameter x 1 1/2” h,
Wheel-thrown and altered porcelain with slip-sponge, underglaze, and slip-trail deco, cone 7 oxidation, 2013
KRISTEN KIEFFER
Kristen Kieffer is a full-time studio potter, workshop leader, and ceramics instructor in Massachusetts. She received her BFA in Ceramics from the N.Y.S.C.C. at Alfred University and MFA in Ceramics from Ohio University. Her professional experience includes being an Artist-in-Residence with studio potter John Glick in Farmington Hills, MI, as well as at Guldagergård in Skælskør, Denmark, the Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN and the Worcester Center for Crafts in Worcester, MA. Kristen has exhibited her work internationally in juried and invitational exhibitions, as well as taught workshops around North America at craft centers and universities. She has work in numerous private and public collections including the New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taipei, Taiwan, the Guldagergård Museum of International Ceramic Art in Skælskør, Denmark, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art in Fort Wayne, IN, and the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts in San Angelo, TX. Website & blog: KiefferCeramics.com
I make pottery that brings elegance, sophistication, and merriment to the everyday. I have a diverse range of influences and seek to marry the splendor of past eras with a modern desire for beauty and utility. My influences for these Victorian modern porcelain vessels range from 18th century silver service pieces to Elizabethan and couture clothing and from Art Nouveau illustrations to cake fondant and vintage wallpaper. Such diversity combined with my own background and distinct studio processes culminate into a unique style. Graceful forms, refined patterns, and lively colors convey a design that is robust as well as elegant and cheery.
Josh DeWeese
Small Plate, 2014, stoneware, salt/soda fired, underglaze and glaze
Sorry, this plate is already sold
JOSH DeWEESE
Josh DeWeese is a ceramic artist and educator. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Art teaching ceramics at Montana State University in Bozeman, where he and his wife Rosalie Wynkoop have a home and studio. DeWeese served as Resident Director of the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana from 1992-2006. He holds an MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred, and a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. DeWeese has exhibited and taught workshops internationally and his work is included in numerous public and private collections. www.deweeseart.com
I am inspired and challenged by the art of pottery and strive to make work that is successful on multiple levels. I want my pots to be well designed and comfortable to use; to be rich with ceramic wonder, and seductive to behold; and to have reference to history and the field of ceramic art to spark the imagination. I’m drawn to the beauty and mystery of high temperature ceramics and the element of chance that occurs in atmospheric firings. Wood firing and salt/soda firing are processes where extreme surfaces can be achieved, in the subtle qualities of raw clays and the vibrant depths of a running glaze. I have a passion for painting with ceramic materials on a three-dimensional form, having the drawing unfold as it moves around the pot. I enjoy the phenomenon of the melt and the element of gravity that enters the image through running glaze. The loss of control is important, blurring the lines made with the hand. The viscosity and movement of the glaze becomes an important element in the final image. The drawings often disappear among the layers of information that become the final surface, creating depth and a sense of curiosity.
Mike Gesiakowski
7” x 7” x 1”
Black Stoneware, Reduction Salt Fired, 2014
MIKE GESIAKOWSKI
Mike Gesiakowski is currently a MFA candidate in ceramics at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. He received a BFA in Design from Northern Illinois University in 1998. His work investigates the processes of material degradation and decay. Originally from Chicago, Mike had grown up on the city’s south side and it is from that urban and heavily industrialized environment that he draws inspiration for his work. www.mgclay.com
I am interested in investigating the process of material degradation. I am drawn to corroded and weatherworn objects and the work I create is a reflection of my observations. I take cues from aged buildings and structures, tools and machinery. Dilapidated architecture, sun damaged signs and components left to the elements provide the surfaces I look to emulate. I try to capture the enigmatic beauty and the unperceived intricacy of this ongoing process. My work carries narratives of the human condition. The broken down forms and degraded surfaces are metaphors to describe both our fragility and our resilience. References concerning belief systems, either those of an individual, a culture or a society, can also be found throughout my work. Everything has a beginning and an end, all things age and eventually breakdown. My work glimpses in during this journey when time has made its indelible mark.
Bede Clark
9.5” (h) 9.5” (w) 1”(d)
Stoneware, Wood Fired, 2012
BEDE CLARKE
Bede Clarke has been a Professor of Art at the University of Missouri since 1992. He received his Master of Fine Arts from The University of Iowa (1990) and a BFA from Eckerd College (1982). Bede’s work is found in public and private collections in the U.S. and abroad. Bede maintains a studio in Columbia, Missouri where he produces his ceramic art work and continues to exhibit worldwide, recently at: Yingge Ceramics Museum 2012 Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA, and, Arvada Center for Fine Arts and Humanities, Arvada, CO. Web Site: http://www.bedeclarkestudio.com
My goal in making this work has been to create quiet, simple pots, which like a good meal leave a healthy, full feeling. Pots like these have been my constant companions for over forty years. They are forms and surfaces that I never grow tired of. They are rooted in ceramic history; yet, I hope they reflect a personal and individual quality of feeling. Above all, these pots are intended to be good to live with and interact with on a daily basis. They are made with others in mind. For me, good pots spring from compassion. My “technique” amounts to wishing the work well as it moves through the process of forming, articulation of the surface and firing. I try to find ways of working that respond to the only ability I have ever had, wishing the work well and silently encouraging it to “be good, be good.” I keep returning to the studio simply trying to bring as much sincerity as I can muster to bear upon the work.
Bernadette Curran,
1” h, 8.75” w, 8.75”d,
cone 6 porcelain, thrown and altered, electric fired, 2013
BERNADETTE CURRAN
Bernadette Curran is a studio potter in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. She teaches clay and drawing in her community and conducts workshops, most recently at the Archie Bray Foundation and Haystack. She was awarded fellowships from Baltimore Clayworks, Chester Springs Studio, and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works. Bernadette earned a BFA from Pennsylvania State University and an MFA from the Ohio State University. Her work is exhibited widely in the US and is included in publications such as Contemporary Ceramics (Thames and Hudson), 500 Cups (Lark Books), Studio Potter, Ceramics Monthly, and Clay Times. www.bernadettecurran.com
I describe my pots as clay sketches; improvised and spontaneous, graced with serendipitous glaze drips and thumb marks, revealing animals whose oddities are so slight that one may question their identity. Thrown fresh off the wheel, the clay is playfully modeled, utilizing the volume and plasticity of the form to give life and function to my pots. Sometimes the animal has been drawn to make and made to draw- the sum of which remains vaguely superimposed. Ideas flow when the brush, full of slip, is in my hand. I embrace images that are sweet and sentimental, which quietly teach us the virtue of patience and application. When making my pots, I try to emulate these qualities replete with compassion, humor, and risk. As food brings fullness and conversation among participants, I trust my work to do the same.
Mark Shapiro
9.25” x1.25”h
Wood-fired, salt-glazed stoneware, 2013.
MARK SHAPIRO
Mark Shapiro makes wood-fired pots in Western Massachusetts. He is a frequent workshop leader, lecturer, curator, panelist, and writer, and is mentor to a half-dozen apprentices who have trained at his Stonepool Pottery. His work was featured in the 4th World Ceramics Biennial in Icheon, Korea, and is in many public collections. His interviews of Karen Karnes, Michael Simon, Paulus Berensohn, and Sergei Isupov, are in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art and he edited A Chosen Path: the Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes (UNC Press). He is on the advisory board of Ceramics Monthly, and is a contributing editor to Studio Potter Magazine. stonepoolpottery.com
Many potters stay away from plates—they warp, take up a lot of studio shelf and kiln space, and are receptacles for the debris that inevitably is cast about during firings. Customers are also more immediately comfortable acquiring a mug then a handmade plate; they can be heavier and less familiar than industrial ware. As such they tend to be on scholarship from more reliably profitable pots. But I do not want to be like a furniture maker who makes tables and not chairs—chairs being more complex yet less remunerative. To me it is interesting to make the many pots that people use.
Lindsay Rogers
Height: 0.75” Diameter: 7.5”
Stoneware, Electric fired to Cone 6, 2014
Sorry, this plate is already sold
LINDSAY ROGERS
Lindsay Rogers is a full time studio potter, ceramics instructor and food enthusiast located in the beautiful mountains of western North Carolina. She has been working in clay since 2002 and recently received her MFA in ceramics from the University of Florida. Prior to that, Lindsay completed two multi-year artist residencies, one at the EnergyXchange in Burnsville, NC and the other at Natchez Clay in Natchez, MS. Over the years, Lindsay has travelled all over the country for her work. Her pottery has been exhibited in both local and nationally recognized galleries, as well as in juried and invitational exhibitions. She has participated in collaborations with other artists, local chefs and farmers, and her pottery, writing and words can be found in a range of publications from blogs to books and podcasts. www.lindsayrogersceramics.com
I feel a great sense of gratitude for all that NCECA offers to our community. Without a doubt, the yearly conference is part of the core foundational structure for communication between ceramic artists. This communication is critical to our collective effort to do the important work that we do. However, as the recipient of a Graduate Student Fellowship in 2011, I know first hand the influential role that NCECA can also have on individual artists lives. My own work and studio philosophy was profoundly changed because of the resources provided to me from that fellowship. For this I could never thank NCECA enough.
Kenyon Hansen
8″ x 8″ x 1.5,
soda fired, porcelain, 2014
KENYON HANSEN
Kenyon Hansen grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and in 2005 received a BFA from Finlandia University. He has been an artist-in-residence at Watershed Center for the Ceramics Arts, and the Archie Bray Foundation where he was awarded the Lincoln Fellowship. In 2013, he was selected as an Emerging Artist by Ceramics Monthly. Kenyon currently resides in Hancock, Michigan where he’s a full time potter, and adjunct instructor at Finlandia University.
I believe that finely crafted, thoughtfully made pottery can contribute to a renaissance of tradition and habit. My hope is that the pots I make can play a role and be a factor in a renewal of ritual. Clay allows me to play with a physical language. When I throw or hand build, I’m engaged in the conversation, curiosity often pushes the dialog, while the desire to find something new guides me forward. I strive to create pottery that is both considered and balanced, containing a healthy dose of spirit and care.
Mark Shapiro 9.25” x1.25”h Wood-fired, salt-glazed stoneware, 2013.
Lindsay Rogers Height: 0.75” Diameter: 7.5” Stoneware, Electric fired to Cone 6, 2014 Sorry, this plate is already SOLD
Mike Gesiakowski 7” x 7” x 1” Black Stoneware, Reduction Salt Fired, 2014
Kristen Kieffer 10 1/2” diameter x 1 1/2” h, Wheel-thrown and altered porcelain with slip-sponge, underglaze, and slip-trail deco, cone 7 oxidation, 2013
Kenyon Hansen 8″ x 8″ x 1.5, soda fired, porcelain, 2014
Josh DeWeese Small Plate, 2014, stoneware, salt/soda fired, underglaze and glaze
Bernadette Curran, 1” h, 8.75” w, 8.75”d, cone 6 porcelain, thrown and altered, electric fired, 2013
Bede Clark 9.5” (h) 9.5” (w) 1”(d) Stoneware, Wood Fired, 2012
David MacDonald 13.5 inches in diameter Porcelain Plate. Quilt Series. 2013 Decorated with a black vitreous engobe base; with glazes applied over it using wax resist
Adam Field 6.5”L x 6.5”W x 1”H reduction fired porcelain with carved pattern and various celadon glazes
