The past few weeks I’ve been putting together an exciting piece for a show focused on the marine life of Puget Sound.  The piece builds from some of my earlier work with chickenwire, but uses cloth and plastic fencing in addition to the chickenwire. The end result is an abstracted 9ft long alabaster nudibranch, which gives the piece its title, Dirona albolineata. Here’s a sneak peak of the piece!

The opening is tonight, from 6 to 9pm. The show is called Between the Tides: an Intertidal Art Show, and a portion of all the sales will be going to support the Vashon Beach Naturalist society! It’s out on Vashon Island, at Ignite Gallery. Come say hello if you’re in the area!

NCECA is coming to Seattle! NCECA, the National Council for Education on the Ceramic Arts, is the largest ceramics conference in States and every year is in a different city. This year, Seattle is playing host to this grand event. I’m extremely excited about it. The conference consists of three days of panels, lectures, and discussions and draws in about five thousand people every year. However, even more exciting to me is the fact that there will be approximately 190 ceramic art shows going on in the Puget Sound area. (A pdf of all the exhibitions can be found here.) My artwork will proudly be displayed in five of these shows. This should be a month of fun, a month of opening receptions, and a month of eating small cubes of cheese and pita chips.

The first of these shows to go up is “Through the Clouds”, a multi-piece installation featuring my largest beast yet. It’s in the front window of Gallery 110 in the Pioneer square area of Seattle. While the opening reception has already occurred, there’s going to be an additional reception during NCECA, on March 17th from 6 to 8pm. I’m also sharing the gallery with Becky Frehse, Jane Kelsey- Mapel, and Monika Dalkin. I’m very excited to be showing off this piece, which has been in progress since December. Also, this part of Pioneer Square is a positive warren of art galleries, many of which share the same building at Gallery 110. I’d recommended taking some extra time to explore the area, if you can!

Next up on my schedule of shows is Chimeras, a show I curated up at my old stomping ground, Twilight Artist Collective in West Seattle. This show is pretty exciting, since it’s given me a chance to collect some of my favorite sculptors in one place. It’s going to be featuring Rachel Van Wagoner, Sandra Farmer, Simone Clunie, and Cheryl Robinson. It will also be a chance to show off some of my best work from my most recent firing. The opening reception is this Thursday, March 8th, from 6 to 9pm. There’s also going to be an extra reception during NCECA, on March 30th from 6 to 9pm, so we can celebrate with all the out of town ceramics folks.

In addition to that, this week I have a second opening, this one for a show that isn’t related to NCECA at all. I’ve been invited by Ryan Henry Ward, better known simply as “Henry” due to his mural fame, to take part in his show “Who’s Hoo” at the Urban Lights Studio in the Greenwood neighborhood.  This show is pulling together a wide and non-conventional selection of the hippest part of the Seattle art world, all on the theme of owls! It’s hard to think of a better show set up than that. We’ll be living it up at Urban Light Studio, this Friday, March 9th, from 6 to 9pm

Switching from North Seattle to South Puget Sound, I’m also in a show in Tacoma. This year, the Washington Clay Arts Association’s annual show was juried by Josh DeWeese and Beth Cavener Stichter, of whom I’m a very big fan. This makes it even more of an honor that three of my sculptures were selected to be included in the show. The show is at The Art Stop on 940 Broadway and will have an opening reception on Thursday, March 15th from 5 to 8pm. It’s also going to have a NCECA reception on the evening of the 27th.

The final show that I’m going to be in during NCECA is a shorter affair and is only open the week of the conference, from Monday, March 26th through Saturday, March 31st. It’s called “12 Wood Fire Kilns of the Northwest”. I’m extremely excited about it, and while I realize I’ve been saying that about all my shows, it’s the truth. In this case, the show will feature wood kilns from around the Pacific Northwest, with each group of wood firers having their own little area to show of the style of work and results from the kiln. I’ll be there, helping to represent the two anagama-style kilns “Santatsugama” (Three Dragon Kiln) and “Ochawangama” (Teabowl Kiln). These two kilns basically siblings, being built and fired by mostly the same group of people. I’ve been firing with this group of compatriots since 2006, and it’s a wonderful group of friends and artists.  It will also be fun to compare and to contrast the work from the different kilns in the area. The show will be at 3509 Fremont ave N, Seattle WA, and will have an opening reception from 6 to 9pm on the 29th.

A couple weeks ago I got an chance at an excellent opportunity – putting up an art installation in an empty storefront of the Ballard Neighborhood of Seattle. Now, after three weeks of work battling 240 square feet of chicken wire into 17 sculptures, the piece is finally fully complete! We’ll be having an art opening to celebrate at 5607 20th ave NW this Saturday, September 10th, from 6 to 9pm.

My work with chicken wire as a foam armature had led me to realize that chicken wire itself is a surprisingly nice sculpture material. It’s great for making rapid, expressive beasts. You can tweak it repeatedly without weakening it, changing your beast’s stance as much as you want. In addition to this, the end beast looks surprisingly good as straight chicken wire. The effect is ghostly and striking.

When this opportunity in Ballard showed up, I sprung for it. I’ve long been thinking about an installation of large running beasts, but had nowhere to display such a thing. I decided to create a version of this idea, choosing chicken wire over a more conventional material for its speed and unusual appearance. I gave myself two weeks to create as many running beasts as I could, and took another week fine tuning the final piece. In the end, I even made a time lapse video of the final beast.

In the end, I finished up 17 beasts, using around 240 square feet of chicken wire. Karol, the manager of the U-Frame-It was nice enough to donate black paper to go under the beasts, which allowed gave the chicken wire more contrast. We’re actually working together to help set up a pop up art show for this Saturday, the 10th. If you’re in the area, please come on by the storefront at  from 6 to 9pm for art, fun, and refreshments.

The only downside of the beasts is that they’re very hard to photograph. I’m planning on doing another photo shoot later, which will hopefully give me some more photos to post here.