La Mano's front gallery space is now featuring the work of Peggy Clarke, Diane Waller, and Julie Hadley.
The show will be up thru October 14th.
In the Gallery
Category: Featured Potters
Summer Show
On view in the gallery June 24-August 15, pottery by:
May Luk
Michelle Sholtis
James Tan
Deborah Hunter
Miyu Asakawa
Nonna Hall
Sabina Magnus
Linda Aldrich
Michelle Sholtis Ceramic Artist
Michelle Sholtis Ceramic Artist
Now Showing in the Gallery
The following ceramic artists will be featured in the La Mano gallery from April 1–May 15. Stop by and see the show!
Doreen Baskin, Grace Davies, Lynn Goodman, Julie Hadley, Bonnie Hanna, David Hughes, Jesse Pape, Sally Ng, Linda Skipper, Richard Stauffacher, Diane Waller
Exploring Clay: Two Approaches
Peggy Clarke | Grace Davies
Artists' reception:
Friday September 7th, 6–9 pm
This exhibit highlights the work of two artists whose curiosity about clay challenges them to explore the range of this versatile medium. Although they have different styles, they share an enthusiasm for new techniques to expand their artistic vocabularies.
They work in separate studios, but regularly engage in a lively dialogue about what they are pursuing independently, bouncing ideas off each other and supporting experimentation and dedication to the craft.
Peggy Clarke specializes in functional art—sometimes infused with whimsy, sometimes more classical in shape. Grace Davies devotes most of her energy to creating animal forms, trying to capture the essence of the creature and not just its taxonomical shape.
Peggy Clarke
City and Ceramics
Architectural Pottery and Paintings of Architecture
Robert Pesce, ceramicist | Diane Waller, painter
July 15–August 31
Artists' Reception: July 20, 2012, 5–8 pm
The exhibit is an exciting juxtaposition of two art techniques by two dedicated artists. Robert Pesce makes pottery thrown on a wheel at La Mano Pottery. Diane Hardy Waller paints on the sidewalks and in the parks of New York. Both have a unique style and spirit to their art.
La Mano Pottery, est. 1998, the sponsoring organization, has recently moved to this location in the heart of the new Chelsea. La Mano offers classes and artist residencies to potters of all ages and craft techniques. The gallery has been host to many respected and loved potters in the NYC area. This is a first show of combination of mediums.
Robert, known as Bob to his friends, says about his art of pottery, "Art is the right making of that which has to be made. The artist is compelled to create work by his/her inner self trying to express emotion. I feel that the best art draws you into the work on a very personal level. It is inner self talking to inner self. That dialogue between you and the work is what counts whether it is one word or volumes."
Diane says about painting New York, "When I am painting, I know I am a citizen of the universe. I co-create with something much larger than the local person who eats and sleeps in a coop and paints on the streets of Manhattan. Painting outdoors on the streets and in the parks, looking at the awesome skyscrapers and imagining what is going on behind those windows too high to peek in gives me a feeling of belonging to the world and the comfort of having a personal place in it. The buildings with the colors, shapes, varying sizes and changing light inspire me to explore my inner architecture.
Diane thinks Robert's pottery is beautiful beyond description and says, "Bob's architectural pottery pieces are as structured as New York City's sky scrapers; however the undulating shapes are reminiscent of feminine form as in Botticelli's Venus or Georgia O'Keefe's flower paintings. The dignity and craftsmanship of these fluid and statuesque pieces bring to mind and heart, classic beauty made contemporary, in a fine blend of curves and lines."
Bob thinks of Diane's paintings "Diane's paintings draw you into the scene and you become part of it, a tourist in the city of her vision. When I see her cafe and umbrellas, I hear accordion music as I stroll down the Champs Elysees. Her city towers make me feel like a young boy in the forties in NYC, growing up as the city grows up around me. Her work is evocative, her style impressive as well as Impressionistic."
About Bob:
Born in Brooklyn, NY in the early 50's, R.A. Pesce, known to his friends as Bob, has been fascinated with ceramics since the age of four. Learning to throw pottery on a kick wheel at age 15, his interest led him to ceramic/sculpture majors at both Pratt Institute and Brooklyn College. At Pratt, he was the only sophomore to have his work shown in the annual senior ceramic show and the one man show of his wood sculpture at Brooklyn College showed him to be both talented and skilled at his craft.
He has designed dinnerware and flatware for the Farberware Company. Working as an antique dealer, he specialized in pottery and textiles of the Arts and Crafts period. The influence of this period is seen in much of his ceramic work today. Take a look at his website: www.rapesce.com
About Diane:
Diane Waller has been an artist her whole life. However, she started exhibiting publicly in 1996 as a photographer. Drawing and painting resurfaced after years of being pushed aside for professional careers. After arguing with her inner artist, Diane left the commercial world to be a full time artist and took her business experience on to co-ownership in La Mano Pottery studio in Chelsea. Since then, all three aspects of her art have been exhibited in galleries and exhibition spaces in New York City, Florida, the Tri-state area and Europe. Diane's photographs appear in the award winning children's books, "Where Does God Live?", "Does God Hear My Prayer?" and "Does God Forgive Me?" The Bronx Zoo uses her nature photography in signage and various Wildlife Conservation publications.
The other side of Diane is that she was educated as an engineer, worked in the aerospace industry which she left to get her MBA. With that, she was successful in the not for profit sector. After finding that business less than satisfactory to her creative nature and financial desires, she sold real estate in several states, landing in NYC in 1980. Looking deep within her nature, in 1993, she was ordained as a minister. All in all, it came back to making art fulltime in 2002. Today, Diane is happily painting, taking photographs and making non functional art clay. Please visit her website to see the latest. www.dianewaller.com
This exhibit was featured on MadParkNews.com
Doug Rochelle: Face Time
Doug Rochelle's ceramic sculptures and masks, as well as his Subway Drawings, will be on view in the gallery May 5–27. The opening reception will be on Friday, May 4th from 6–8 pm.
About the Artist
Doug Rochelle came to New York in 2001 from Kansas City and got a job as a waiter, working nights. Doug joined the LaMano Pottery Studio in August 2001. After work, and inspired by what he calls "the madness and mayhem of working the graveyard shift... where fights, barf, homeless and drunks cyclone the edge" Doug would decompress at the studio by creating his haunting ceramic images until the wee hours of the morning.
As he describes his process: “I smash two 25 pound blocks of clay together, then I draw, dig, scoop and poke. The sculptures take about one month to create and four to eight months to dry. The faces/heads are then bisque fired in the kiln, glazed and then high fired. Hopefully they survive..."
His imagery, which began when he was 13, with doodles over the Yellow Pages while on the phone with his girlfriend, has continued to develop and grow. "I did try all the isms -- Abstract Expressionism, Impressionism, Fauvism, and Surrealism, but I was always drawn back to the doodle figure/head. I like sculpting heads. They are made of abstract shapes yet easily recognizable. The masks also express my search for the truth which, in theory, can be better seen by looking at something from different points of view.”
Kate Burns
The work of Kate Burns will be featured in the La Mano gallery this month. Join us for the reception on 4 June from 6-9 or stop by throughout the month of June.
About the Artist
Kate Burns is an international traveler and who has made La Mano her second home. Her gardening skills have brightened up the front of our studio. Kate came to La Mano just over three years ago and through pottery has found a new passion. In a stressful job at the United Nations working on responding to emergencies due to conflicts or natural disasters, Kate finds pottery an escape. This is Kate’s first show at La Mano. You will see a variety of pots from platters to demi-tasse cups, wall pockets to vases.
Creativity with Clay
Kira, Matias & Gil Santiago
The work of Kira, Matias and Gil Santiago will be featured in the La Mano gallery from April 5–April 30. Please join us on Saturday, April 9, from 6–9pm for the artists' reception.
Kira Santiago has been “playing” with clay for years; first with her potter aunt Almut at the Cold River Pottery and then at LaMano Pottery. She has published an artist journal on Clay. Kira has won numerous City, Regional and National Awards for photography, painting, drawing, sculpture and ceramics. She is currently attending the Beacon High School. Her other interests include learning ASL and becoming a certified interpreter by the time she graduates high school; and the flying trapeze, where her goal is to be their first female catcher at trapeze school NY (TSNY).
Matias Santiago has also been “playing” with clay for a number of years; both at his aunt’s pottery and at LaMano. He has won Regional and National Awards for both photography and ceramics. In September he’ll be starting high school at High School for Math, Science & Engineering at City College. His interests are computer, Warhammer, and reading just about anything he can get his hands on.
Gil Santiago has also “played” on and off with clay for years. Only recently getting back into it while taking classes with his children at LaMano pottery. He has a degree in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute, and his Masters in Architecture from Columbia University; and is currently an instructor at Pratt Institute
All of our feelings about clay are well described by this quote from Kira’s book Clay and Artist Journal:
Clay is a beautiful mud, before the fire’s touch turns it into stone. You can make it dance and spin, telling it what you want from it with your hands. When you do pottery for years, your hands pretty much have their own brains for doing the same technique over and over again. Clay is not patient of the wheel, you can only use it once and then it’s over. It becomes something for the fire or something for the clay bin. On the wheel, the clay is forever moving each time your skin touches it. It’s like you are giving the clay a massage and the clay is massaging your hands as you both share space and time on the Wheel. With hand building the clay is much more patient than with the wheel. It is still on your skin as you touch it. When I have finished a shape on the wheel or a piece by hand, I stop to look at it. Sometimes, when I make a piece, I would be so focused on the hard pars that I might forget an eye, nose, or some other detail that would bring the clay to life. If it looks good, I sometimes feel like a goddess.
Julie Schulweis Hadley
Julie Schulweis Hadley’s bowls and other work will be featured in the gallery throughout March. Please join us for the closing reception on Saturday April 2, 6–9pm.
Artist’s Statement
Being an owner, operator, and teacher at La Mano Pottery for over ten years has provided me with an environment more conducive to creating art than when I was in fine art school for painting. I look forward to the moments that I spend at the studio, able to immerse myself in the medium of clay, as well as the carving and decorating of it. It transports me to other places and provides the space and time for me to let down my guard and take a breath.
All of my pottery is about letting go, loosening up, relaxing, finding, refining and redefining my inner self. As an adult, I feel my childhood was too short, went by too quickly—and I became increasingly tight with my art. At the beginning, I was very concerned with making the perfect round bowl. Now, after twelve years of potting, I am finally able to make the perfect bowl that is not perfectly round, know when it is finished, and know that less is more.
Danica Holoviak: Thought Bubbles
Danica Holoviak's work will be on display in our gallery throughout the month of Februrary, with a reception on Saturday February 12th, 7-9pm.
Artist's Statement
I've been realizing lately that I've been working with my hands creatively my entire life, but I've kept each medium separate -- clay, fiber, paper, fabric. As I thought about what to create for this exhibit, the idea that kept sticking in my head was to find a way to integrate everything. I wanted to challenge myself to make something different, fun, thought provoking.
The other idea that's been rattling around in my head is more of a concept: Where do thoughts come from? If they were physical what form would they take? Thought bubbles: two dimensional, three dimensional, flimsy and thin, solid, ceramic...
