Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts,
Annual Salad Days Event and Invitational Pottery Sale
July 12th, 10 am - 3 pm

above, Adero Willard (salad days plates) and below Naomi Cleary

above, Rob Sutherland and below Ingrid Bathe

Watershed is gearing up for its 14th year of its most important and enjoyable annual fund raiser- Salad Days. It is an old fashioned picnic social with great food, music, and art. Visitors to Salad Days make a $25 donation to Watershed and receive a handmade earthenware salad plate created by resident artist Adero Willard and all you can eat salads from local farms, restaurants and Watersheds very own kitchen.

The pottery sale is also a very important component of the weekend. This year we have another stellar group of potters peddling their wares…. Kirsten Bassion, Ingrid Bathe, Mark Bell, Naomi Cleary, Susan Dewsnap, Leah Guerin, Molly Hatch, Sarah Heimann, Woody Hughes, Jody Johnstone, Kristen Kieffer, George Pearlman, Diane Rosenmiller, Nick Seidner, Rob Sutherland, and Holly Walker.

If you can make it, come!!! You wont be dissapointed.

Watershed is located in mid-coast Maine off Route 1 in Newcastle on Cochran Road. Turn north at Skip Cahill Tire & Citgo, opposite the Rt 27 S turnoff to Boothbay Harbor. For more information, call 882-6075.W

Good Morning Cats and Kittens.

FY…I now have an Etsy store to sell all those not quite perfect ceramic oddities that i continue to save (and unfortunately produce). How honored I am that my friend Kate Binghaman -Burt of Obsessive Consumption did one of her Daily Drawings of the Strawberry cups she bought from me on Etsy?

What a great gal this Etsy is. Lots of terrific handmade objects to choose from and by eliminating the middle person they are extremely accessible. If you need a gift I highly recommend a lengthy browse.

I think that Etsy is making history and I am interested in how the DIY generation is breathing new life into “craft”. I would say that there is a new “Crafts Movement” one of which the majority of us overeducated MFA’s are not a part of.. Garth Johnsons “Extreme Craft” has quite a few posts on this very topic and a link to a conversation (can i call it that?) started out on the Imogene blog. What ensued was a VERY lengthy, but yummy exchange between DIY’ers, artist/writer Bruce Metcalf and the new editor of American Craft Magazine Andrew Wagner (have you seen the new website?? where am i?). If the idea of a “New Crafts Movement” is of any interest to you- have faith and trudge through this.

More Soon.

Kari

what more can i say?  (…..except that if you too need one of these lovelies you can get your very own at cafe press )

If you love your garden (or your neighbors garden) and are in Maine anytime between now and July 13th you must check out Garden Archive at the George Marshall Store Gallery in York, Maine. (literally minutes off I-95)

This is an exhibition curated by artist Gail Spaien. She has installed just a slightly trimmed down version of her piece Garden Archive which was recently exhibited as part of the exhibition New Natural History on view at the Portland Museum of Art earlier this year. She has installed an imagined and most decadent botanical archive that includes her scientific watercolor illustrations and preserved flowers. Along with Archive she has invited area artists, flower arrangers and landscape designers to make work in response to their own gardens. Every week three new artists will install their work. My work will be sited the week of June 20- 27- I will be sure to post images of the work i generate.

garden archive installation

garden archive detail

garden archive plate

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Well this little mill town has finally arrived. Our first arts walk is this Friday the 23rd and every fourth Friday until Nov. 28th from 5-8 pm.

It is an industrial strength self- guided tour of working artists studios, performance events, galleries, creative businesses and restaurants. There is free parking behind CVS pharmacy and free maps at many local businesses. (find out more and download a map here)

Ian and I will have our Portico Gallery up and running with lots of work, both high quality firsts and last chance seconds. If you cant make it this Friday just give a call to schedule an appointment.

We are looking forward to meeting you and celebrating this momentous event in Westbrooks Creative Community.

NEW WORK Good day to all you crazy cats….quick post.These pots just went into the kiln bathed in glaze. They are getting ready for that big Fed Ex road trip to the Pittsburg NCECA. They are approx. 10-16″ in height and are all coil built with Terra Cotta Clay. Check out my gallery to see finished images or in person you can see them at the following Pittsburg NCECA shows:

• Juicy Terra Cotta, Sweetwater Center for the Arts.
• Tactility Tactile, Gallerie Chiz
• La Mesa,Santa Fe Clay

Last weekend I was in Atlanta teaching a workshop at Mudfire Studios. This could quite possibly be one of the best furnished, most clean and well organized studios I have ever seen. It was very inspirational to see two young people with such a grande and daring vision.

I thought I would thaw out a bit in Atlanta….but no such luck. I should have brought my snow suit. I woke up on Saturday morning and you guessed it- it was snowing.

So I am blowing on my Forsythias, and chipping away at my compost pile. Begging spring to come out and play. I dont care if winters lease hasn’t run out yet. I am getting the gallery ready to open for spring. Unpacking from winter shows, dusting off my seconds, and the super fun endeavor has been my new “Pottery” sign. Made from hand cut Terra Cotta tile that I made while teaching fall concentration at Penland in 2006.

Do you know what happens on april 4th at 10 p.m. ? Yes my friends, season 4 of Battlestar Galactica commences. It is for sure one of the greatest shows ever. Adapted from the cheesy 70’s sci fi show. It is a gripping allegory of the war on terror. Full of religious zealots, sleeper cells, civil liberty crackdowns, and prisoner- torture scandals…sound familiar?
I could go on and on but i wont. You can watch a recap of all three seasons in eight minutes and get caught up before the start of season four. Did I mention this is fraking hysterical?

Its been a long time since my last post…sorry. I have been busy shoveling snow. We just had out billionth storm of the winter and as much as I love it I am ready to see some green stuff. All I do is listen to Mike McGrath yap about compost and corn gluten meal and think about my new garden beds. The Johhnny’s Seed cataloge haunts me at all hours of the day and night. I cant decide if i should order the Savor French Melon or stick with the tried and true Honey Pearl. What’s a gal to do??? I should probably get a hobby.

I have been traveling a ton and doing workshop after workshop. Last week I went to my favorite city- Philadelphia and did a visiting artist workshop with my new friend Michael Connelly at Montgomery County Community College. One of his students Dave Thomas has put together a fabulous website and great teaching tool. The site captures all the past visiting artists almost frame by frame. It is like looking through a flip book. Did i mention the crocus’s were budding in PA?

Every week I have been trying to resist this…but i cant any longer. Pushing Daisies is one of my most favorite tv shows ever. (aside from battlestar gallactica, twin peaks and the x-files) It is scratch and sniff, syruppy sweet, and candy colored goodness all in one gumball. It is Burtonesque in its magic, romance and dark comedy. The only thing missing is a pair of 3-d glasses.

The show is about Ned a lonely piemaker who as a boy discovers with one touch he can bring the dead back to life. He discovers another ability, a second touch and they are gone for good. Unfortunately he also learns that if he lets them live someone else must take their place.

Pushing Daisies has a Big Production feel..almost as if it were a two hour feature length movie. This may be the result of a cast who are predominately stage actors and actresses or may be that the Executive Producers Brian Fuller and Barry Sonenfeld have ties to big stuff like Star Trek, The Adams Family and the Coen Brothers.

There are so many things that I love about this show….I love that Jim Dale the voice from the Harry Potter books on tape narrates this program. I love that Ned’s bakery is called The Pie Hole. I love that the two things Ned cherishes most in the world he cant touch (Digby his dog and Chuck his true love). And I love that this program doesn’t discriminate. It is equally enjoyable for both the young and old. Check it out in all its technicolor glory…Wednesdays, 8 pm on ABC.