I’d mention this show a while ago, and before I knew it, it’s almost the opening!

This Saturday from 3pm to 8pm, stop by Madera Woodworking in Tacoma, WA, to explore an amazing collection of Northwest Woodfire.  The opening is longer than normal to accommodate everyone who might wander by.  I’ll probably be at the gallery between 5 and 8.  I think I’ll even try and finally explore Tacoma’s famous glass museum!

The line up for the show looks incredible: John Benn, Colleen Gallagher, John Harris, Sam Hoffman, Terry Inokuma, Chris Knapp, Jen Lee, Andy Lewis-Lechner, Susan Lochner, Hiroshi Ogawa, Reid Ozaki, Erin Solberg, and Natalie, Warrens.

I’m also going to be using the show to unveil “Glowback”, a creature that I’ve been working on for a while.  I teamed up with my husband to wire up LEDs and a microcontroller to cause the back of the beast to glow.  I have an entire flickr set up documenting the whole process.  If all goes as planned, we’ll finish up the last bit of work tonight, and I’ll take it to the gallery tomorrow.

It seems like I have all sorts of shows coming up, all over the country! Between looking forward to my next firing, and planning my trip to Japan, it’s looking like it’s going to be some very busy months. I’ll also be heading to NCECA in April, which should be a lot of fun. I’m really looking forward to tracking down ceramics friends from across the country, and some even from around the world!

The first show to open is “Endangered“, at the Gloria Kennedy Gallery in Brooklyn.  It was an international juried show, and is viewable as of today, but the opening reception will be on February 5th, as part of a First Thursday art walk.  I will actually be flying out to NYC to attend it, along with taking some time to catch up with my New York friends. I will also be working on a collaboration sculpture with Dan Funderburgh, my brother, who’s also in NYC.  I’m going to bring bisque fired critters out to him to do underglaze designs on.  I’m pretty excited about it.

The day after I return from NYC, I’ll be heading across Puguet Sound to Bremerton, WA, to attend an artists’ reception for CVG 2009.  CVG 2009 is a juried show that collected submissions from more than 260 artists, mostly across the state of Washington.  The show will opening on Feb 1st, and run through the end of the month, at the Bremerton Collectives Visions Gallery.   The show will also be open late on Thursday, Feb 5th, for the local art walk.  I’ll unfortunately still be in NYC that evening.

Also in Washington state, I’ve been invited to a show in Tacoma.  “The Path of the Flame” is a show of Pacific Northwest woodfire artists at Gallery Madera from Feb 19th to April 4th.  The opening reception will be on Feb 21st.  I’ll have more information about this as it gets closer.  So far it looks like really great list of folks, including Terry Inokuma, Hiroshi Ogawa, and John Benn.

The last show is also far enough away that precise information will have to wait.  Jamie Adams, a cool print artist in Pittsburgh, who I really respect, has asked for me to be part of a show tentatively titled “The day before yesterday/ The day after tomorrow”.  It will be going on in March, in Pennsylvania. I will put up some more information about its post-apocalyptic goodness once March gets a bit closer.

Just a short update on the silent auction that’s coming up at the Holiday extravaganza.  Since I know of several people who are interested but aren’t in Seattle, I’m going to try and figure out some sort of remote component for the silent auction.  It will most likely be something as low tech as email or text messages.  If you’re interested in being involved, send me an email and I’ll keep you updated.

On Saturday, December 13th, 2008, Florentia Clayworks will have its second Annual Holiday Sale and Party!  This year, we will be doing a single night celebrations, from 7 to 10pm.  Come on by for a chance to check out my work in person, meet my studio mates, browse fun art work, eat, drink, and generally enjoy yourselves! We are located just South of the Fremont Bridge, in Seattle, Washington, on 218 Florentia St.  Stop on by and have some fun!

As a first this year, I will be doing a silent auction of two of my favorite sculptures.  I will donate 40% of the proceeds to charity.  Here are the two beasts, and the two charities.

First off is ‘Digger Beast with Ball.”  He is one of the best pieces I got out of this last firing.  I will be donating 40% of his sale to Child’s Play.  Child’s Play is a group that raises games, toys, books, and money for childrens’ hospitals world wide. I figured this playful digging beast would approve of the choice (as long he can keep his ball).

Second is “Discovery.”  I have to admit that I often wish I could just keep all of my sculptures myself.   I just really like the interaction I’ve capture in the piece.  I leave it up to the viewer as to how these two guys will behave, but personally, I picture the big guy sniffing the little one, and maybe being hissed at.  Nothing too sinister.  However, since real world interaction seldom end up as nonviolently, (especially between countries) I will be donating 40% of his sale to the International Red Cross.

I’ve just now gotten my confirmation for signing up for Design Festa vol 29.  Design Festa is Asia’s largest freestyle art event.  The term “art fair” really doesn’t do it justice.  Twice a year, approximately 3,500 artists take over “Tokyo Big Sight“, the iconic Tokyo conference center.  Next May, I will be one of them.

The way Design Festa works is that anyone can obtain a booth.  It is then up to you as to what to do with your two tatami mats worth of floor.  Photos I’ve seen online range from people showing off paintings, selling t-shirts, jewelry, and vinyl figurines, rocking out on electric guitar, dressing up as a horse while painting a picture of a horse, doing crazy performance art, selling cardboard robots, metal monsters, and tiny faces painted on matchstick heads.  A personal favorite appeared to be a booth that sold or rented paper bags with happy animal faces drawn on them.  The idea, as described in an illustration, was that if you were sad, you would put one of these on your head, and it made you happier. As I said, anything goes.

The more I look around, the more strange and intriguing stuff I find.  (Beautiful tiny dyed fish skeletons!?) While I’m not too sure what to expect, other than an adventure, it is my plan to take myself and a large number of critters to Tokyo in May, 2009.