Fundraising Event Tonight to benefit Japan @ MoCC

It's Juneuary in Portland, again.

So we're heating it up with a party!Come celebrate your craftivism! Join us next Friday, June 10 for an Etsy Global Craft Party! We've teamed up with Quilts for Quake Survivors and Mercy Corps' Japan Relief Fund to help out some folks in need, while we craft up some fun.

During the day, visit the Museum of Contemporary Craft during regular business hours, 11 am - 6 pm. Stop by the "Lab" to lend your hand to the Quilts for Quake Survivors quilting bee, courtesy of Susan Beal (author of Modern Log Cabin Quilting), and Modern Domestic. We'll also have a host of craft activities scheduled throughout the day.Then at 6:00 pm, the museum doors close and we transform the space into our crafty party land. We've lined up a DJ, food, beer, wine and a bunch of give-aways to keep the party rolling. It's a sliding scale "ticket" ($5-$25) so give what you can. All proceeds go directly to Mercy Corps' Japan Relief Fund.

We hope to see you there!

Craft Perspectives Lecture - Tonight @ MoCC

Elissa Auther -
Fiber Over Time: From the Sixties to Now

March 17, 6:30 pm
The Lab at Museum of Contemporary Craft
724 NW Davis St.

Free and open to the public. Doors close at 7 pm in consideration of the speaker.

Museum of Contemporary Craft and the MFA in Applied Craft and Design host Elissa Auther for a public lecture titled "Fiber Over Time: From the Sixties to Now" providing insight into Laurie Herrick: Weaving Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, which opens the same day.Drawing on her recently published String, Felt, Thread: The Hierarchy of Art and Craft in American Art, Elissa Auther will discuss how Laurie Herrick's weavings fit in historically with the decades in which they were made. Auther is the founder of Feminism & Co.: Art, Sex, Politics, a program at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, that explores feminist social, political and artistic issues through creative forms of pedagogy. She is Associate Professor of Contemporary Art, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.Learn more about Elissa Auther and Laurie Herrick: Weaving Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.

Linkin' Up with the OPA

If you are in Portland tomorrow, Monday, Labor Day, stop by the OPA tent at Art in the Pearl. We'll be across from the Museum of Contemporary Craft for the day introducing kids to clay.

Tomorrow marks the third year in a row for the Links project and with 600+ links and counting, it will be an amazing day. Twelve OPA members will be volunteering throughout the day to introduce the kids to what they do in their studios each and every day. I have been so fortunate to have working alongside me for each of the past three years, Dawn Panttaja. On his second year in the booth, Mark Chapman. And joining us for the first time, OPA President, Margaret Synan-Russell, Showcase Chair Brenda Scott and fellow OPA Board Members, Denise Krueger and Tamara Bryan as well as fellow members, Melissa Ray, Chayo Wilson, Barbara Hertel and Rosemary Tobiga.

It is going to be a great day in the Park Blocks and I hope you stop by and say hi.

Ai Weiwei - Dropping the Urn @ MoCC

If you're down in the Pearl - check out the latest exhibition. And if you still haven't seen the works on David Shaner, they are still on display. Two great exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Craft.

Ai Weiwei: Dropping the Urn

Ceramic Works, 5000 BCE – 2010 CE

July 15 – October 30, 2010

Curated by Richard Torchia and Gregg Moore

This exhibition of internationally acclaimed artist Ai Weiwei features his iconoclastic use of Neolithic vessels, blue-and-white Qing and Yuan dynasty replicas, and a work that consists of one ton of “sunflower seeds” crafted from porcelain. This artist’s first solo museum exhibition in the United States makes its West Coast debut at Museum of Contemporary Craft.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalog featuring four essays commissioned for the exhibition and appearing in both English and Chinese translation. Essays include contributions by Philip Tinari, Dario Gamboni, Stacey Pierson, and Glenn Adamson, as well as the first English translation of an interview with Ai originally published in his White Cover Book (1995). The exhibition catalog is produced in collaboration with Office for Discourse Engineering, a Beijing-based editorial studio, and will be distributed in the U.S. by RAM Publications.

Museum of Contemporary Craft Community Show and Demo Series

On Monday at eleven a.m. sharp, I walked through the doors of the museum to meet with Kat Perez, the Exhibition Coordinator at the Museum of Contemporary Craft, to hand off the artwork for OPA's Community Showcase.

I hadn't coordinated an exhibit like this before, and so was curious to experience the installation and the actual placing and arranging of the pieces in the case. I also hoped to be involved in that process, but wasn't sure if Kat would need or want the help. As it turned out, she was very willing to have me take part. As the museum is closed on Monday, I had to be admitted through the side door and ring a buzzer to be let in. I felt somewhat official and important! As I went through the day, I had feelings that I was involved in something worthwhile... like we were all contributing to the world of art and giving pleasure to the museum's audience. It felt good. I documented the process, much to Kat's chagrin! She and the museum's curator, Namita Gupta Wiggers humored me with some candid shots.

Kat had a very neat and tidy reception waiting for me and the pieces, three long sturdy tables covered in a cushion padding, and an empty case, that morning vacated by the Bead Society. Kat said she had been working toward these shows becoming concept based, and so the theme we chose "Emerging" worked in well with her future plans. I wrote a small piece to accompany the exhibit.

EMERGING

Members of the Oregon Potters Association (OPA) create an astounding variety of work. Though each artist and their work are unique, they share the inherent ability to create something new. Their artwork evolves over time, with the emerging new qualities coming through education, experimentation and the sharing of ideas, techniques and processes. It is this emergence, or the showing of change over time, which makes "the making" so exciting and keeps the artists coming back to the table or wheel for decades.

Perhaps next time we can make more of a process of this show, if and when we are invited again. The pieces were chosen with a jury of six artists and we had 30 submissions. The case is fairly small, so we were limited to the number of pieces we could include. All the submittals were wonderful. Kat Perez seemed genuinely impressed by the work we selected...

We gently unwrapped the pieces and set them on the tables, and I noticed that Kat was extremely careful with them, setting them down with mindfulness. Then after some time, which felt like a truly meditative consideration, we began placing the pieces one by one into the case. We started with the larger pieces, as Kat said she felt it helped to work around them. Then other pieces followed. Soon we started to coordinate the work into groupings which she hoped would create stories within the case. Certain pieces worked well with others, but not at all with some... and we found after two hours of moving and switching the art around, a strong and unexpectedly harmonious solution. It was wonderful to see how Kat considered shape, color, texture, height, and chose all of the wooden blocks and bases for each piece. It is more of a project than I could have imagined to create a properly composed exhibit case and Kat is a master!

(from left to right: Ginger Steele, Sara Swink, Kris Paul, Dara Hartman)

Kris Paul's raku was the last to place. Where does this wild card belong? (I know you'll be laughing at that, Kris!). We tried it in a number of locations. As it turned out, it felt most harmonious between Sara Swink's brooding thinker, and the tall ebony of Dara Hartman. Of course! We should have seen that from the beginning. It wasn't until Namita, the Curator, aimed her trained eye at the case, that Kris' piece was properly positioned with her suggestion. The verticality of Kris' piece went best further toward the center between the two pieces. And Ginger Steele's lovely teapot and cup moved to the outside... directing the eye inward with it's spout. Namita knows her business!

The other groupings went together a bit more easily as we discovered which pieces "played well" with others. Brenda Scott's piece, a wood fired vase had bits of green in it. That and it's sheen finally found a home with Kristy Lombard's tall and lanky teapot, Michelle Gallagher's "Baby" on wheels, Chayo Wilson's dainty and ancient cups and Megan Chalmer-McDonald's other worldly sea creature. The largely green story. I won't go through how everyone was placed or by what means... but I'll say it was a real pleasure to handle all of the beautiful work and really study each piece. What a beautiful process it is and I told Kat that she has quite a job!

(from left to right: Michelle Gallagher, Brenda Scott, Chayo Wilson, Kristy Lombard, Megan Chalmers-McDonald)

(from left to right: Victoria Christen, Debra Nelson, Jan Edwards, Rhoda Fleischman)

(from left to right: Pat Berman, Larry Nelson, Jan Richarson)

I left so that we could all get to our lunches and Kat promised to work her refining magic on the display. She schedules an entire day or more to the set up of each of these Guild shows. She also has to create the signage, including the tags for each work identifying the artist and the title. She sent me photos of the finished display so that I could share them with you all.

I can truly say that our work is in the best of hands at the museum. They treat art with the utmost respect and care. And they have a huge appreciation for the artists of our guild and all the other guilds. They express a sincere desire to encourage, support and be a part of our strong and vibrant arts community. I felt relieved when I got into my car to head home... with a wagon full of empty boxes!

Thank you to everyone who submitted work. It was such a pleasure seeing the variety our guild represents!

The show is up now, so please go take a look and keep in mind the process involved in placing every piece. I think you'll enjoy what you see. Also, keep watch for the demos scheduled every Saturday beginning June 19th from 1 pm to 4pm, going through the month of July.

June 19 (1 pm start time)

Jan Richardson & Tea Thanhbinh Duong

June 26 (1 pm start time)

Larry Nelson & Debra Nelson

July 3 (1 pm start time)

James DeRosso & Brenda Scott

July 10 (1 pm start time)

Michelle Gallagher & Victoria Christen

July 17 (2 PM start time)

Ginger Steele & Rhoda Fleischman

July 24 (1 pm start time)

Alissa Clark & Renee Shearer

These should all be wonderful. So I hope you can attend!