Australian Ceramics Triennale- coming up...

I'm firing madly getting ready to take some work down to the Australian Ceramics Triennle.

I'm on a panel about education. This sounds very dry but it will be a cracker - I think it should be called "Revolting Education- the Changing Face of Ceramic Learning in the 21st Century" It will be a panel discussion with plenty of input from the revolting artists who are watching. Throw us questions (not rotten fruit and vegetables) on mentorships, how they can work with contemporary artists. The internet, does it have a role in education(!?) Is formal learning of ceramics dead? ......And other contentious issues.

I'll also be doing a presentation on using blogging as a powerful tool for creativity and financial independence.

And last but not least I'll be bringing down a selection of work to sell at the Ceramics Direct Market on Sunday. One of my favourite memories of a conference is finding Sandra Black sitting behind a table at the National Conference a few years ago. She only had a small selection of beautiful items and it has been my lasting pleasure to have bought one. I look at this little pot nearly every day.

It makes me think of clouds, the soft/hard, cold/hot push and pull of the clay and lovely Sandra making a few dollars to supplement her trip. I'm so glad she was there and I could buy this lovely pot.


Maybe I'll see you at the Triennale.

Coming up........

I am in a few shows in Sydney opening soon.
"On the Table Too" at Planet Commonwealth is a group show that promises to be full of beautiful, amazing and practical handmade vessels. I love the group shot of ceramics on the invitation. It emphasizes the notion of the lively table, a place for food and ideas. In Italy the majolica ware used for the everyday table is bursting with history, colour and pattern. The food is there as an element, a vehicle for the flow of ideas and discussion around the table. I've often wondered what the trend for pure, white, factory made plates signifies. Is it a kind of control freak thing around food? Putting the food in a frame with nothing to distract the eater, none of the connection to community that a handmade plate brings to the table creates a strange kind of over-emphasis , almost a fetishization of food.

"On the Table Too" can cure this!

Exhibition from wednesday 8th - 22nd July to coincide with the Australian Ceramics Triennale

An exciting showcase of new ceramic tableware from Australian studio ceramists, including

walter aue,r bridget bodenham, kris coad, catherine fogarty, shannon garson
szilvia gyorgy, nicole lister, sandy lockwood, ruth mcmillan, sophie milne
vanessa owens, chris plumridge, simon reece, jane robertson, liz stops
dawn thirlaway, murray topham.

planet commonwealth is located at 114 commonwealth street
surry hills between reservoir and campbell streets

monday - friday 10 - 5.30
saturday 10 - 5
sunday noon - 4
ph 9211 5959

A little bit spice

Jiansheng Li is one of the speakers at the Australian Ceramics Triennale. I have seen Jiangsheng speak a couple of times and he is an inspiring, poetic and powerful speaker. Jiangsheng is the founder of the Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute in Jingdezhen , China.

I have seen quite a few artists speak over the years but Jackson Li was one of the ones that has stayed with me and genuinely influences my day to day work in the studio. I can't quite put my finger on why I loved his talks and demonstrations so much. Was it his story of travelling back from Canada to his hometown in China? The affection and connection Jackson Li feels for "his place"? Was it Jackson Li's preoccupation with finding good food in a small Australian town?
(a preoccupation I share) The first time I spoke to Jackson Li was when the bus carrying us further and further west for the conference stopped at a Macdonald's for lunch.. A large protesting groan went up among the potters but most people stayed at Fast Food Hell and made do. Jackson and I set off towards the town. After walking VERY fast for a couple of kilometres we came to a greasy spoon and before I could warn him Jackson Li ordered a Dim Sim! Delicious if you are eating them straight from the vendors cart in China absolutely horrible deep fried in five day old fat beyond the Black Stump!

Jackson Li gave me one of the nicest compliments on my work I have ever received which also contains some advice I try to follow.
"Shannon your work is just like you very sweet but a little bit spice" A little spice can make all the difference.

Here is an introduction to the Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute.

"Sanbao began as a dream of Jackson Li of Jingdezhen and Wayne Higby of Alfred University, USA back in the mid-1990's. They envisioned an international ceramic art center located in China, that would provide the opportunity to the international arts and crafts community to explore and exchange the culture, arts and crafts of China.

The concept of a first international ceramic art center in China led to the search for a suitable site on the outskirts of Jingdezhen, long the world center of porcelain production and the origin of the best porcelain artifacts in history.

The Sanbao Valley had for countless centuries been the source of China stone for the studios of Jingdezhen and was dotted with numerous old water-powered hammer mills for crushing the stone. A group of farm houses and an adobe building were chosen as the site for the future art center."
From the Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute Website.


Jiangsheng Li (also known as Jackson Li) is also a renowned brush maker and will be doing a brushmaking demonstration at the Triennale. I have one of Jackson's brushes and the quality of the line it produces would make any ceramic decorator swoon. These brushes are just a small sample of the wonderful brushes for sale on the Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute website.




Opening

On Friday the 17th of July there will be a screening of the international award winning film titled 'Potter and Dragon Kiln Village' by Jiansheng Li (Jackson Li)at COFA

(COFA is an easy 5 minute walk from the National Art School)

There's something human about that garlic!- the paintings of Wendy Van der Drift

Wendy Van der Drift posts a painting a day on her blog "Painting Daily" Her beautiful paintings reference old masters and dutch still life painting.
What I like is that her composition and subject matter is modern and humorous. There's something human about that garlic!

Throwing pots- in a few easy steps!

Gone Swimmin'

We've been away for a week at Stradbroke Island.
There are hardly any shops on Stradbroke but Oceanic Gelati is the shop to end all shops. It is a little gelati shop sitting on the very point of Point Lookout. every day they make new flavours.
I had baklava with pale pink Turkish Delight gelato on my first day....several others in between and icy white zingy lemon gelato with homemade orange and almond cake on my last day.

Oceanic Gelati is a gelati flavoured cafe, from the tropical print dresses the shop assistants wear, to the sherbet coloured curtains and chairs.
One morning we interrupted the owner as she stood behind the counter with her binoculars looking at this....

watching for whales.

Ceramic Jouneys

I have some work in an exhibition called "Ceramic Journeys" at Fusions in Brisbane. This is an exhibition celebrating the past and present students of Southbank Tafe.

After completing a Bachelor of Visual Art at QUT (the "university for the real world!") I was feeling shell- shocked and uninspired. The only thing I loved doing was decorating Clairy Lawerence's beautiful pots for her gallery Amfora. It was Clairy's mother Kitty when teaching me to wedge clay who said "Why don't you just enroll at Southbank Tafe?"

Southbank Tafe was a revelation, finally here was a place with a collegial atmosphere, practical people talking in an inspired way about pots, glazes, clay and colour. I truly fell in love with this place about three weeks in. At the end of the day a group of potters were opening the wood kiln, someone had bought along HOMEMADE CAKE!!! What a place! We all unpacked crusty wood fired pots and ate cake.
This is what making things should really be about, there was a sense of shared purpose and community that was missing in the quasi-intellectual halls of the BAVA.

Many teachers at Southbank inspired and encouraged me. Scott Avery with his emphasis on drawing and the discipline of the two-dimensional, Ray Cavill flattening huge lumps of clay and turning them into gorgeous platters (he taught me how to cone- wedge), and Ronelle Clark who curated "Ceramic Journeys" and showed me how to make teapots. The tools and encouragement these people gave have enabled me to be where I am today.
Thank you.