Peggy Clarke's pottery is in the gallery for the month of January. Peggy, as many of you know, is one of the three owners of La Mano. She is highly skilled and hands-on in the many facets of the business and is teaching a class at the studio this semester.
She uses many techniques and different types of firings with her pottery and shows her work upstate, as well as in NYC. We hope you have a chance to stop by and view her fish-themed wall hanging on the wall at the entrance to the studio. The pottery was raku-fired and is quite exquisite.
Diane H Waller is our featured artist for November, and her work will be on display at the studio throughout the month. There will be a reception on November 14th from 4-6 pm--save the date!
Artist's Statement
The visuals that inspire me most are the human figure and nature in its abundance. Living in New York City provides a constantly changing view of how people function mostly without nature. Always seeing whimsy and humor in everyday life gives me joy.
The focus of this exhibit is three fold.
In the pottery and small works in paint, the figure and the whimsy are obviously very present. Clearly, this was fun to do.
In some of the larger pottery pieces and a few paintings, Nature shines through in many colors shapes and forms, which is also quite whimsical at times.
Most of the cityscape paintings were done on the site and are my impressions of what was in front of me. I don’t always paint realistically, but everything is certainly recognizable. Here again, is the whimsy. Who would ever think that the New York MetLife building was purple or the Lackawanna Railroad Terminal, magenta? That’s how I see them.
I am never sure what is going to emerge from the clay or what will happen on the canvas, making my creative life a grand adventure. I say, pottery grounds me and painting drives me. They overlap or cross-pollinate. There is a singular inspiration for both.
Barbara's work will be on display in the gallery and front window throughout July.
Artist's Statement Clay has sung its siren song to me nearly from the cradle, though I didn't start potting until I was 15. I’ve lost and found myself in its intoxicating melody on and off for many years. Mud is in my soul, you might say.
Clay touches me on a few different levels. First, feeling the underground cool of its earthy bulk restraining my fingers as it works its way into my skin, under my fingernails, over my wrists and onto my clothes, both mushy and crusty, smooth and scratchy.
And that smell. Some days, when I'm walking to LaMano, I can smell it halfway down the block and I smile. Clay carries the musk of ancient soil, which might sound dramatic, but to me, it’s a soothing, primordial, this-is-where-we-all-came-from scent. It smells like home to me.
I’ve always preferred wheel-throwing over handbuilding, primarily because of the instant gratification factor. Watching and feeling the clay turn under my hands mesmerizes me and sends me into blissful alpha state, so it’s like meditation with my eyes open. Over the years, I learned and honed my skills, which never matched the passion I held for the process. I’d watch other potters with envy, as they turned out matching sets of mugs or plates or vases and marvel at the level of their skill. I’d get all inspired, and toss a big, fat lump-o-clay onto the wheel with the intent of beginning a series of masterpieces and then....play with it.
Thoughts of overcoming the clay with my will fly completely out of my head as we dance and breathe together. Clay is first and foremost my friend and never are we each other’s taskmasters. I guide and persuade it, tease it and cajole it, but ultimately our best selves are brought forth during our silent, intimate conversations over muddy water and a spinning wheel.
Creating pottery has saved my heart and soul on a few occasions. When I was in my 20s, I was married to a man who knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life. This moved me to try to find that same certainty in myself of who I was going to be in this world. I’d been away from the clay for about 7 years, but it was the first thing that came to mind to do. I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up, but I knew that throwing a pot made me really, really happy. I worked at it for a few years and then, for some long-forgotten reason, stopped.
I began again in 2002, when a boyfriend told me about a new studio in town. When the bf and I split, it was clay - and the other artists in the studio - that saved me from the Bad Breakup Abyss of Misery (heh.). It was then that I began to find my identity as a potter, discovering my style through failed attempts at mimicry. A key moment came when a lovely vase I'd thrown fell on the floor and as I reached to smush it, another potter cried, “Don't! Look what a cool shape it has now!” That opened something in me and my work took on a different direction. It freed me to make mistakes, force errors, poke a hole in a perfectly balanced cylinder if I felt like it. Sometimes I'd take a tool and randomly hack away at a piece, just to see what might come of it. And some mighty cool things emerged.
When I found LaMano last year, I also found fresh inspiration in the skilled and outrageously creative ceramic artists here. So much talent and love of mud in one place feeds my potter's soul. I couldn't ask for more.
The pieces on display in LaMano's gallery reflect a few different phases I've gone through and some I'm just beginning to explore. The clay bodies and I hope you enjoy them. Thanks.
Nonna Hall is the potter of the month. Her artist's reception will be at the studio on June 12 at 7–9pm.
Artist's Statement
Although I am relatively new to pottery (only two and a half years), I know for certain that it is now a significant part of my existence. It’s like I found a part of me that was missing my whole life.
Every stage of creating something with clay is really exciting for me. First comes the inspiration. I can be inspired by almost anything, pieces in a museum, trinkets in antique stores or at fleamarkets, a scene from a movie, or some images in fabric. Next, I think about my project, drawing on the inspiration but making it mine and mine alone. Finally, the fun part, making the piece.
I love to make functional pieces, but I feel especially uplifted and excited when making teapots and bottles. I also like to think that if one of my pieces lives a functional life, then my work is complete. It might be a very nice piece of decoration in your home, but if you can use it then the piece is alive and happy and brings happiness to you as well!
My new direction with bugs and butterflies was inspired by my coloring books when growing up in Russia, those coloring books with big butterflies that I could make any color I wanted. I fell in love with those creatures! And all these butterflies, ladybugs, and other beetles are so summery that I wanted to share this part of my memory and my summer mood with anybody who will welcome it.
Artist's Statement
Pottery for me is like a resting place, a place to get out of my head and breathe. It's corny to say it's about getting centered, but there is such a truth to that cliche for me. It is at the pottery studio, much like in yoga, where I find a sense of personal peace.
Part of my pleasure with pottery is creating something with a person in mind, I love to imagine that person as I work, putting positive energy into their piece. I like to wedge my clay 108 times, and when I stir the glazes I do so in multiples of nine, always trying to think good thoughts. It's a bit magical to me I suppose.
I have been very drawn to the spiral, the symbol of the Wise Woman, and so prolific in nature, and when working on the wheel, the spiral organically appears. I like to exaggerate that and make it very visible, using it as my signature and sometimes inside a piece, as its statement. The spiral is a reminder of life ever evolving. My work outside of pottery is in the healing arts and I love to work with herbs. The earth and her well-being is always at the forefront of my thoughts, and again it is this image of the spiral that to me serves as a reminder to take care, to tread gently. It's such an honour to have this opportunity to celebrate my work as a potter.
Diane Hardy Waller is the current potter of the month. Her work, shown below, will be on display at the studio through the end of February.
Artist's Statement
Creativity is a driving force. It flows through me like magic. Everything is an opportunity to think and feel differently about materials, people, myself, nature and God. The search for the divine in my surroundings inspires and motivates me.
When I look inside me or around me for an idea to make from clay, I notice the basic shape first and then the graphic elements; these satisfy my need for order and godliness. Then I wait for the clay to tell me what it wants to be to make the object unique and personal. I enjoy finding the irony, humor and tenderness in the form. Most exciting is when the whole process is spontaneous: Divine Inspiration expressing through me.
Peggy Clarke is our featured artist this month. In the window of the studio and in our gallery, you can see an array of Peggy's recent work which includes a study of small porcelain teapots and a series of large hand-coiled vessels that Peggy calls her "yoga bodies".
Here is how she describes these pieces and what they mean to her:
"I discovered ceramics quite by accident about 10 years ago and I was immediately hooked on the technical challenges, the creative outlet and the mental focus that clay offers to its students. In a very different way, studying clay has taught me some of the same lessons that practicing yoga has.
"These two disciplines, while physically demanding at times, are as much about finding balance and listening to yourself as they are about achieving a particular outcome. Yoga and ceramics have helped me to 'get centered'.....to 'be flexible'.....and to 'accept change'.....in such delightful and unexpected ways.
"This past year, I combined my two passions and created a series of 25 hand-made ceramic vessels that represent the bodies of my yoga students. In constructing these pieces, I pay tribute to the beauty, grace and strength of my students whose influence on my life has been profound. Each piece was constructed of coils or slabs and lovingly formed -- to reflect the energy and spirit that I witness in every class I teach."
Peggy is one of La Mano's owners and also teaches pottery classes in our studio. She teaches 9 yoga classes a week, ranging from advanced vinyasa classes to basic classes in yoga and meditation. Peggy is a member of the faculty of FIT.
Mimi Young is the new Potter of the Month. Her work will be on display in the front window throughout November.
"I am new to clay and find the medium very exciting and challenging. Being a painter, my work has always been 2 dimensional, focusing on creating an engaging surface. I’ve found that working with clay has fit in very well with my visual sensibility.
"The line of canisters I am showing has developed over the summer and features bits of rocks, branches and found objects that I have accumulated over many years. The collection of these elements is really what the focus of these pieces is about, the canisters are their canvas.
"I studied hand building with Richard Stauffacher and am so inspired by his vision and talent. Those of you who know his work will no doubt see his influence in my pieces."
The work of Bob Pesce is on display in the front window and the gallery this month.
Bob Pesce is a display designer and native New Yorker who mastered the use of a potter’s wheel at age fourteen and hasn’t stopped yet. His undergraduate work at Pratt Institute and the art department at Brooklyn College has led to exhibitions of his pottery and wood sculpture at both institutions as well as a co-op gallery in Brooklyn.
His current series of ceramic pieces center on a fascination with the continuity of the cosmos as seen in the small everyday object . (Think the marbles at the end of “Men in Black”). Organic and sensuous, his pieces evoke whirlpools and flowers among other things. Think of yourself enveloped in a swirling mass of comforting energy and you’ll be right at home with his work.
Professional work includes the Holiday Décor Installations at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the residence of the Vice President (Al Gore), the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, as well as twenty rooms (each room themed in a different fairy tale) at the Lyndhurst Castle in Tarrytown. His work has been published in the book, The Heart of Christmas, as well as the Village Voice, Victorian Homes, The Journal News, Westchester Magazine, and numerous trade magazines and is the basis for the book A Fairy Tale Christmas (Stewart, Tabori and Chang, NYC, a subsidiary of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.).
Bob's work will also be featured at the TOJ Gallery booth at The Modern Show: October 16-18, 2009, 7 W 34th Street at Fifth Avenue, New York City.
Peggy Clarke's pottery is in the gallery for the month of January. Peggy, as many of you know, is one of the three owners of La Mano. She is highly skilled and hands-on in the many facets of the business and is teaching a class at the studio this semester.
Diane H Waller is our featured artist for November, and her work will be on display at the studio throughout the month. There will be a reception on November 14th from 4-6 pm--save the date!
Jessie Lazar is the potter of the month for September. Her opening reception and sale will be at the studio on September 11th from 7–9 pm.
Peggy Clarke is our featured artist this month. In the window of the studio and in our gallery, you can see an array of Peggy's recent work which includes a study of small porcelain teapots and a series of large hand-coiled vessels that Peggy calls her "yoga bodies".
Mimi Young is the new Potter of the Month. Her work will be on display in the front window throughout November.
The work of Bob Pesce is on display in the front window and the gallery this month.
