Podcasts about haystack mountain school

Ceramicist, Malene Barnett, returns to the Noize! We learned all about her amazing book Crafted Kinship and now we learn all about her artistic practice. From designing rugs to ceramics walls Malene's curiosity and passion has pushed her in new directions. After discovering her love for hand building clay she has been on a journey to learn the craft and make work in all forms. We talk about her ceramic murals, how residencies helped her learn about ceramics, being a part of a community of artists, and the structure she uses to keep her on track in the studio. Malene has some great insights in to clay and how it connects her to her ancestors. More of that good art talk that you love on the Noize! Listen, subscribe, and share!Episode 202 topics include:Crafted Kinship world tourworking in clayfinding residencies to study clay being a part of the ceramics communitybeing objective about your worksturcture and discipline in art practiceceramic muralstraveling to Ghana for research Malene Djenaba Barnett is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, textile surface designer, and community builder. She earned her MFA in ceramics from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture and undergraduate degrees in fashion illustration and textile surface design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Malene received a Fulbright Award to travel to Jamaica in 2022–23 as the visiting artist at Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston. Malene's art reflects her African Caribbean heritage, building on her ancestral legacy of mark-making as a visual identity, and has been exhibited at galleries and museums throughout the United States, including the Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling in New York City, the African American Museum of Dallas, and Temple Contemporary in Philadelphia. Malene's art and design work has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Galerie, Elle Decor, Architectural Digest, Departures, and Interior Design. In addition, Malene hosts lectures on advocating for African Caribbean ceramic traditions and has participated in residencies at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Greenwich House Pottery, Judson Studios, the Hambidge Center, and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. In 2024, Malene released her first book, “Crafted Kinship: Inside the Creative Practice of Contemporary Black Caribbean Makers” (Hachette), which includes interviews with over 60 artists of Caribbean heritage, taking readers on an important journey through the world of Black Caribbean creativity. This groundbreaking collection is the first to feature Caribbean makers' intimate stories of their artmaking processes, and how their countries of origin—the “land” —influences and informs how and what they create. See more: Malene Barnett website + Malene Barnett IG @malene.barnettFollow us:StudioNoizePodcast.comIG: @studionoizepodcastJamaal Barber: @JBarberStudioSupport the podcast www.patreon.com/studionoizepodcast

Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area. In this episode Emily interviews artist and singer Mary Graham about her journey from drawing as a child, to painting in high school and eventually moving to the Bay Area to study at the California College of the Arts. Mary discusses her recent residencies in Maine and Colorado, and exhibitions at the Berkeley Art Center and Jonathan Carver Moore Gallery. She delves into her impactful 'brown paper bag' series, which explores themes of colorism inspired by her father's stories and broader research. Mary also reflects on influential works by artists like David Hammonds and Betty Saar, and shares her inspiration drawn from the streets of San Francisco. The episode highlights Mary's creative process, community experiences, and the significant role of the emerging artists program at the Museum of the African Diaspora in her career.About Artist Mary Graham :Mary W.D. Graham an interdisciplinary artist working in painting, sculpture, and vocal performance. Utilizing art-making methods rooted in traditional techniques, she studies the notion of “the ancestors” as a conceptual medium through which historical, interpersonal, and introspective insight might be gained.Her conceptual development originates from the veneration of her own lineage, an off-shoot of the African American spiritual tradition of ancestor worship. The work expands to encompass themes of generational love, collective human origin, our relationship to history, and our relationship to the future (the unknown). Working primarily in figuration and portraiture, she utilizes a level of precision in her representation. Her compositions are minimal; the subtlety of the substrate, or the intentional application of color intend for focus to be drawn to the subject. The subtlety of this approach is meant to provide a contemplative environment in which significance might be derived. These aesthetic philosophies of simplicity, stillness, and precision are applied to her performance work as well, which is rooted in her training as a classical vocalist. Here, the human voice is utilized as a kind of clarion. The haunting melodies are structured to slowly fill space and time, drawing viewers in so that they might share in what manifests from the collective experience of song.Mary was born in 2000 and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania amongst a family of artists. She attended California College of the Arts where she received her BFA in Individualized Studies in 2022. Her travels for arts and cultural exchange have taken her around the globe to Mexico, Japan, Kenya, South Africa, Peru, Morocco, Indonesia, and India.Graham has been exhibiting, collaborating and performing nationally since 2006. She was a commissioned artist for projects at Burning Man from 2019 through 2023, performed at the Institute of Contemporary Art + San Francisco in 2022, and in 2024, opened her first solo exhibition at Museum of the African Diaspora as part of their Emerging Artist's Program. Graham's work has been covered by CBS News, 48hills and the MoAD Journal. She has been awarded residencies with Black [Space] Residency in San Francisco, California; Haystack Mountain School of Craft in Deer Isle, Maine; and Anderson Ranch in Snowmass, Colorado.Visit Mary's Website:  MaryDGraham.comFollow  on Instagram:  @Mary.Graham.ArtTo learn more about the Beatiful Scars Exhibit at Jonathan Carver Moore CLICK HERE.For more on Archives Yet To Come at the Berkeley Art Center, CLICK HERE. --About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Women's Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWilFollow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast--CREDITS:Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson. Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions. For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com

This episode of Why Make? is brought to you by Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.Thanks to Haystack to becoming our first sponsor and partner. Haystack currently has open spaces in select Square ONE Workshops for beginners and Summer 2025 Workshops! Spaces in workshops and housing are limited, and applications are processed on a rolling, first-come, first-serve basis. Applications for these open spots will be open the public starting Wednesday, March 26. To see workshop details and to apply, visit haystack-man.org or go to haystack-mtn.org/summer-workshops-details#workshops-how-to-applyOn this episode of Why make we continue our conversations from the 2024 Emma International Collaboration in Big River, Saskatchewan This time Miranda Jones. Miranda is primarily known in the art world for her paintings of animals but she is so much more than that. I saw her mostly in the metal fabrication area with plasma torch in hand but she could also be found in Tiny Shiny the jewelry workshop as well as the painting area. Miranda is a longtime participant in the Emma Collaboration and also sat on the Emma board, so a great person to talk to to get the length and breath of this hard to describe event. Here is my conversation with Miranda, we start with a silly reference to her honorary citizenship from New Zealand I refer to as her Kiwiness. Miranda is in fact a Canadian citizen and resides in Saskatoon but was originally from Australia.

Today we shine the light on our Caribbean brothers and sisters with Malene Barnett and her amazing book Crafted Kinship: Inside the Creative Practices of Contemporary Black Caribbean Makers. Melene talks about her heritage and how this incredible book came together. More than 60 artists are featured included some Studio Noize Alumni like April Bey. Malene talks about the connections between Caribbean artists in the diaspora, experimenting with materials, and what it means to be rooted to a place. It's more of that good art talk that we love right here on the Noize! Listen, subscribe, and share!Episode 197 topics include:Crafted Kinship: Inside the Creative Practices of Contemporary Black Caribbean Makershighlighting Caribbean artists in the diasporagrowing up with parents from the Caribbeanexperimental materials land, climate and sustainability as a themepride in your homelandsocial constructs around artistic disciplinesceramics in the CaribbeanMalene Djenaba Barnett is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, textile surface designer, and community builder. She earned her MFA in ceramics from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture and undergraduate degrees in fashion illustration and textile surface design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Malene received a Fulbright Award to travel to Jamaica in 2022–23 as the visiting artist at Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston.Malene's art reflects her African Caribbean heritage, building on her ancestral legacy of mark-making as a visual identity, and has been exhibited at galleries and museums throughout the United States, including the Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling in New York City, the African American Museum of Dallas, and Temple Contemporary in Philadelphia. Malene's art and design work has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Galerie, Elle Decor, Architectural Digest, Departures, and Interior Design. In addition, Malene hosts lectures on advocating for African Caribbean ceramic traditions and has participated in residencies at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Greenwich House Pottery, Judson Studios, the Hambidge Center, and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. In 2024, Malene released her first book, “Crafted Kinship: Inside the Creative Practice of Contemporary Black Caribbean Makers” (Hachette), which includes interviews with over 60 artists of Caribbean heritage, taking readers on an important journey through the world of Black Caribbean creativity. This groundbreaking collection is the first to feature Caribbean makers' intimate stories of their artmaking processes, and how their countries of origin—the “land” —influences and informs how and what they create.Malene is also the founder of the Black Artists + Designers Guild, which supports independent Black makers globally. When she's not traveling the world researching Black diasporic aesthetics, Malene resides in Brooklyn, New York.See more: Malene Barnett website + Malene Barnett IG @malene.barnettFollow us:StudioNoizePodcast.comIG: @studionoizepodcastJamaal Barber: @JBarberStudioSupport the podcast www.patreon.com/studionoizepodcast

Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area. In this week's Episode, Emily features artist Carrie Ann Plank. Originally inclined towards a medical career, Carrie Ann found her true calling in printmaking. Her work, which combines science and art, is showcased in multiple renowned collections, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Library of Congress. Her latest exhibition, 'Cacophony' at Jonathan Carver Moore, visualizes sound through layered prints. Carrie Ann discusses her process, inspiration from scientific data, and collaboration with scientists. About Artist Carrie Ann Plank:Carrie Ann Plank is a San Francisco based artist working in installation, printmaking, and painting. Focusing on layers of sophisticated geometry, Plank examines the space of intersecting patterns to describe new structures. The work utilizes mathematical equations to create multiple overlapping impressions that reveal additional distinct pattern formations. The resulting forms are space in between, the intercession, of concrete data.Carrie Ann's work is included in multiple collections including the Fine Art Archives of the Library of Congress, Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, the Guanlan Print Art Museum in China, Museum Meermanno in The Hague, Netherlands and Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba. Residencies include Black Church Print in Dublin Ireland, KALA in Berkeley, CA, Konstnärernas Kollektiva Grafikverkstad in Malmö, Sweden, Local Language, Oakland, CA, Taller Experimental de Gráfica de La Habana in Havana, Cuba, the Íslensk Grafík in Reykjavik, Iceland, Edition/Basel in Basel, Switzerland, Mullowney Printing in San Francisco, CA, Haystack Mountain School of Craft in Deer Isle, ME, and Bullseye Glass in Emeryville, CA. Additionally, Plank has had a 20 year teaching career before devoting herself solely to her artist practice in 2018. Plank is active in the Bay Area arts community serving on boards and committees such as Root Division, California Society of Printmakers, and Art for AIDS. She is also a 2024 SECA nominee.Visit Carrie Ann's  Website:  CarrieAnnPlank.comFollow Carrie Ann on Instagram:  @CarrieAnnPlankLearn more about Carrie Ann's exhibit "Cacophony" at Jonathan Carver Moore - CLICK HERE. --About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Women's Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWilFollow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast--CREDITS:Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson. Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions. For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com

Michelle Samour a multi-media artist whose work explores the intersections between science, technology, and the natural world, as well as the socio-political repercussions of redefining borders and boundaries. Samour has been a Scholar-in-Residence at the Tufts European Center in Talloires, France; and an Artist-in-Residence at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine; The Banff Centre in Canada; and at other institutions. Samour's has exhibited her work at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachussetts; the Museum of Modern Art in Strasbourg, France; and the Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan, WI; and at many other venues. Her work has been featured in Surface Design Journal, FiberArts, and Hand Papermaking, and is included in public and private collections. Samour is Professor Emerita of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) at Tufts University where she taught historical and contemporary approaches to working with handmade paper and pulp.

In this episode of Shaping Your Pottery, Whitney Gill shares her journey into the world of ceramics, influenced by her artistic family and a defining moment at the Haystack Mountain School of Craft. She discusses embracing simplicity in pottery design and the importance of documenting one's creative process. Whitney emphasizes the role community and craft schools like the Maine Crafts Association play in her development as an artist. She reflects on her evolution during COVID-19, experimenting with her craft, and tapping into inspirations from her surroundings and her partner's music. Whitney offers advice on finding one's own pottery voice, the value of community involvement, and promoting one's work through social media. The episode concludes with encouragement that you don't need to be full-time to be a legitimate artist; the key is starting where you are with available resources. You can learn more about whitney by checking out her instagram https://www.instagram.com/whitneymgill/Join The Shaping Your Pottery Newsletter By Clicking This Link shapingyourpottery.com/newsletterFor more episodes and resources click here www.shapingyourpottery.com00:00 Introduction and Newsletter Invitation 00:19 Guest Introduction: Whitney's Pottery Journey 01:50 The Influence of Artistic Parents 02:35 Community and Craft Schools 07:18 COVID and Pottery Evolution 14:07 Designs and Patterns in Pottery 16:10 Finding Your Unique Pottery Voice 19:22 Balancing Life and Pottery 22:45 Final Thoughts and Advice

Kristina Logan makes unique and complex beads in intricate patterns whose sometimes knobby forms recall the remarkable eye beads made in ancient China. Yet Logan's style is purely contemporary, reflected in work that stands out for its originality, sophistication, and innovation. She is not only interested in beads as body adornment but also as decorative elements for boxes, candlesticks, goblets and teapots. Logan states: “Beads are part of my lifelong fascination with art and ornamentation. Glass beads form a historical thread, connecting people and cultures throughout our history.” In 2002, Logan was one of only four artists selected for exhibition in the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery Invitational Four Discoveries in Craft. “Logan's beads exist in their own right as art… ,” writes Kenneth Trapp, Curator-in-Charge at the Renwick Gallery.  Articles about Logan's work have appeared in numerous publications including ORNAMENT magazine, GLASS magazine, Beadwork magazine, Bead & Button magazine, Lapidary Journal, and La Revue de la Céramique et du Verre. Her work has been collected by the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Renwick Gallery, The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, the Corning Museum of Glass, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Musée du Verre de Sars-Poteries, France. The artist served as president of the International Society of Glass Beadmakers from 1996 to 1998. Logan's work and desire to educate has been an inspiration for many glass beadmakers throughout the world. She travels extensively throughout the United States and Europe teaching workshops and lecturing on contemporary glass beads and jewelry at places such as The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass, UrbanGlass, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Penland School of Craft, Carlisle School of Glass Art, Millville, New Jersey, Musée-Atelier du Verre à Sars-Poteries in France, and Centro Studio Vetro and Abate Zanetti in Venice, Italy. The Corning Museum of Glass produced a DVD video in 2009 of Logan's flamework beadmaking as part of their Master Class Series. An excerpt and full version of the video is available on YouTube and on Logan's website. https://www.kristinalogan.com/videos Having taught at The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass earlier this year, Logan is now focusing on several projects that have been incubating over the years, including casting small vessels and encrusting them with beads and metal – some that stand alone individually and also as a group of 12 vessels that represent a personal calendar or living reliquary. She also continues working on a new collection of beads centric necklaces. And most importantly, Logan is documenting more of her work on YouTube. She says: “I would like to document with videos more of what I do. I am not ready to teach online or offer specific tutorials, but I would like to use YouTube as a way to share footage from my studio. I am thinking about this as an extension of my creative process–I love being behind a camera. I love being a maker, and I have been so fortunate to learn from others over the years. I want to be part of what I see as a cycle of learning and giving back. As I age, I also think about how I would like to document what I do for my kids and future artists.   “I have been fortunate enough to have made a living at what I do, and I would like to be honest about how I have done that.”  

Housed in a 19th-century cheese factory, Audrey Handler's studio was founded in 1970 and is one of the oldest continually operating glassblowing facilities in the country. Through demonstrations she gave there and workshops she taught on the road at places such as Penland School of Craft and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, she helped spread the idea that glass could be used as a medium for personal artistic expression.  A pioneer of the Studio Glass Movement, Handler started working in glass in 1965 as one of Harvey Littleton's first female glass students. He and his students experimented and learned together, renting old glassblowing films from the Corning Museum of Glass and trying to emulate the techniques. “It was so exciting,” Handler recalls. “Every day was something new.”   As a glassblower, Handler creates fruit forms, glass platters, and vases but also sculptural environments that comment on universal experiences, usually domestic in nature. These sculptures reflect small worlds and landscape portraits with life-sized objects and tiny sterling silver or gold people that evoke a surrealistic time and place. In well-known series the artist calls Monuments in a Park, Pear in a Chair and Wedding Pair, glass, wood and precious metal combine to tell a story. These works are made in collaboration with her husband, John Martner, who fabricates the tiny wooden chairs and love seats.   Wrote James Auer, Art Critic, The Milwaukee Journal: “By combining pieces of hand-blown fruit, in particular apples and pears, with tiny, hand-cast silver figures, (Audrey Handler) creates bizarre, Lilliputian landscapes that evoke universal human emotions and experiences. …this universality – combined with a neat sense of humor – is Handler's principal strength. It permits her to invest her work with a cutting satirical edge, to the point where her miniaturized depictions of conventional household scenes and cliched gender role models become winning little exercises in small-town surrealism.” Handler was a board member of the Glass Art Society, an international organization she helped create in 1971. She holds a BFA from Boston University School of Fine and Applied Arts and a MS and MFA from the University of Wisconsin, Department of Art. Her work was represented in the New Glass 1979 and New Glass Now 2019 exhibitions and published in the Corning Museum's survey of cutting edge-glass art, New Glass Review, in issues 5, 16 and 43. In 2014, Handler was awarded the Wisconsin Visual Arts Lifetime Achievement Award, joining fellow honorees Frank Lloyd Wright and Georgia O'Keeffe. The artist currently serves on the Glass Advisory Board of the Bergstrom Mahler Museum of Glass in Neenah, Wisconsin. Handler's sculptures can be found in collections and museums worldwide. During 2023 and 2024, her work was exhibited at the Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin, in two separate group shows: Women in Glass and Wisconsin Artists: 1960 – 1990: A Survey. Her work is on view now at the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia, in 60 Years of Studio Glass, 2022 to present, and at the Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin, in Recent Acquisitions, 2021 to 2023, and an ongoing exhibit of her work from 1965 to present. Her latest endeavor involves creating new mixed media sculpture and painting with low-fire glass paints on tiles and glass, creating landscapes of the prairie seen from her studio window, areas around Wisconsin and visions of landscapes from her many travels. These glass paintings are an extension of her work with blown glass – an endeavor which spans more than 50 years – as well as a return to her roots as an oil painter.    

Welcome clay artist/potter/ceramicist, Wendy Joy Goldsmith. She graduated with a BFA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst where she also graduated with a MAT (Masters of Art Education). Wendy also attended workshops at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Coastal Maine where she studied with Jack Troy and Bernadette Curran. She also has participated in various workshops at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill in Truro, Massachusetts. Wendy Goldsmith was an art teacher at Friends Academy in Dartmouth, Massachusetts for 33 years. Her pottery is mostly hand-built.  She likes experimenting with hand-carved stamps or found objects for printing or impressing texture. Wendy strives to integrate both function and beauty into her work and her inspiration comes from nature and the interpretation from her imagination.  She has been a creator and made art since childhood. She majored in printmaking in art school but also took ceramics classes and stayed with clay, using printmaking techniques in her process. Wendy speaks with The Artists Index's cofounder, documentarian, and podcast host, Ron Fortier, about her art, life, and journey. This episode was recorded with Zoom. The Artists Index uses Zoom to accommodate our guests' schedules and to allow them to remain in the comfort of their homes, especially those who no longer live on the South Coast of Massachusetts.  Our home base and recording studio is located at Spectrum Marketing Group in Howland Place in New Bedford.  If you would like to be a guest on The Artists Index or have a suggestion, please let us know!   Offering listeners up close and personal conversations with the artists, supporters, and cultural impresarios of our creative community. Listen to the artists talk about their work, backgrounds, passions, dreams, and accomplishments.  Also featured are those work in, or manage the creative community's economy, promotion, and cultural agenda. The Artists Index is sponsored in-part by Heavenly Spirits who invite you to celebrate the art of life. Enjoy this podcast? Consider making a one-time small donation to help support our mission.

Yael Braha is a ceramic artist of North African descent who applies her formal studies in Graphic Design (BA) and Cinema (MFA) to ceramics. In 2021 Yael received the Multicultural Fellowship Award from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA). Yael's work has been exhibited in Museums and Art Galleries in the Usa and Japan, and is part of permanent collections in the Usa. Yael has been a Ceramic Artist in Residence in the United States (Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Starworks Ceramics) and in Japan. http://ThePottersCast.com/1026

The inspiration for Jonathan Capp's art comes from the experiences that shape his life. Whether hiking the Appalachian Trail, coaching Little League Baseball, becoming an archaeological illustrator halfway around the world, or competing on Blown Away, he channels those experiences into ideas and fully embraces life as a part of his art. Capps states: “I welcome new ideas and innovations in the studio, bringing fun, energy, and an inspiring enthusiasm into the hot shop.” Raised in Knoxville, TN, Capps spent much of his youth outdoors, camping, hiking, and playing baseball. After moving to Kentucky in 2001, he developed a passion for glassblowing during undergraduate school at Centre College in Danville, KY, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2005. For the following decade, he worked as a freelance glassblower, artist, and designer, traveling extensively to learn, teach, and pursue the mastery of his craft. During this time, he received several residencies and scholarships, including Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, The Pittsburgh Glass Center, Corning Museum of Glass, Penland School of Crafts, and an International Artist Residency at Lasikompannia in Nuutajärvi, Finland. After “thru-hiking” the Appalachian Trail in 2013, Capps attended graduate school at Ohio State University and, in 2016, earned a Master of Fine Arts degree. He received several awards and scholarships, most notably a travel grant and fellowship as an archaeological illustrator in the remote Oğlanqala region of the Autonomous Republic of Naxçivan, Azerbaijan. In 2018 and 2019, Capps was awarded a U.S. Fulbright Arts Grant to research Finnish glass and design for a year in Finland. In 2020, he was chosen to serve as an Alumni Ambassador to the U.S. Student Fulbright Program; today, he continues to engage in outreach and recruitment for the Fulbright Program and Finland's National Fulbright Foundation. His work is held in the permanent collection of the Finnish Glass Museum and the Prykäri Glass Museum in addition to private collections. Capps has taught and exhibited extensively in the United States and Internationally. Throughout his career, he has worked with many glass artists and master craftspeople, developing a diverse practice that fluently moves between traditional techniques and experimental methods, pushing the boundaries and seeking new applications of the glass medium. He says: “My studio practice is rooted in the multicultural traditions of the glass craft; significantly, the physical nature of glass blowing requires reliance on others to create art successfully. For me, learning and then mastering a variety of glass techniques is where the culture behind the craft comes alive. “My work in the visual arts is rooted in the hot glass studio. My research has developed, over time, into a global practice of interdisciplinary collaboration, social engagement, and cultural exchange. I have learned that there is something in my use of the glassmaking tradition that goes beyond form and function, and enters into the realm of experience, relationships, and communication.” Most recently, Capps competed in Season 4 of the hit Netflix series Blown Away. On Saturday, May 18 at the Glass Art Society convention in Berlin, Germany, Capps will demonstrate at Berlin Glassworks from 10 a.m. to 12   – an opportunity he won on the show. From June 10 – 14, he will teach a summer intensive at the Pittsburgh Glass Center, Lifting the Veil, and present a free lecture on June 11.  He will also be the featured guest artist for this year's Gay Fad Studio's Festival hosted at the Ohio Glass Museum. https://www.gayfadstudios.com    

In this episode of the Artist Business Plan we sit down with Susan Hensel to talk about digital embroidery. Learn about her gallery shows and what makes the Midwest perfect for fiber artists when you tune into this lovely episode.Guest: Susan Hensel received her BFA from the University of Michigan. Her continued study includes Haystack Mountain School of Craft, Penland, Christies Education, Praxis Center for Aesthetic studies among others. She has a history, to date, of well over 300 exhibitions. Hensel's artwork is known and collected nationwide, represented in collecting libraries and museums as disparate as the MOMA andThe Getty Research Institute. Upcoming, Susan has a 2-person and a group exhibition scheduled with Suwon Museum of Art, South Korea, Artistry in Bloomington, Minnesota, and the Garrett Museum of Art in Garrett Indiana as well as solo exhibitions in Leipzig, Germany, Hopkins and Duluth, Minnesota.For more information on applying to Superfine Art Fair as well as recordings of this and all of our past podcasts, just visit www.superfine.world.IG: @superfineartfair, @theartistbusinessplanIG: @susan_hensel_multimedia_artistIf you want to submit a listener question you can email it to joshua@superfine.world for a chance of it being answered by Alex, James, and our guest!Hosted and Executive Produced by James Miille and Alexander MitowExecutive Producer/Producer : Joshua GuicheritWritten by: Joshua Guicherit, Alexander Mitow, and James MiilleAudio Edited by: Christian Parry

In this episode of Reshaping Culture, I am thrilled to be joined by Marcia Minter, the co-founder, and director of Indigo Arts Alliance, a remarkable non-profit organization located in Portland. Together with her husband, artist Daniel Minter, they established Indigo Arts Alliance to provide a platform for artists of color to connect, create, and exhibit their work. Prior to starting Indigo, Marcia held the position of VP of Creative Director at LL Bean for 16 years. She also serves as a Trustee of the Portland Museum of Art and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and is a respected member of the Maine Arts Commission. During this episode, Marcia delves into what it took to plan last summer's 2022 ReUnion Retreat at Haystack Artists Residency and then gives us a sneak peek into Indigo's big plans for this Spring and Summer season.Find more on Curious Story Lab:Website: Curiousstorylab.comTwitter: @curiousstorylabInstagram: @curiousstorylabEmail me: curiousstory21@gmail.comCredits:Creator & Host: Michele Y. WashingtonProducer: Alicia Ajayi @aliciaoajayiEditor: Angelina BrunoSound Engineer + Music: Roifield BrownFollow us on Spotify or Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcastYou can check out Indigo Arts Alliance on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, or Twitter. For more information on upcoming events, visit: Indigo Arts AllianceDavid C Driskoll FellowshipPrem Krishnamurthy:On LettersDept of TransformationSymposium information:How Can We Gather Now? Organized byWashington Projects for ArtsAsad Raza

What do we get out of making things with our hands? Traditions the world over incorporate crafts into their religious practice, and for secular people, that experience of getting “in the zone” while weaving or working with wood or clay can also feel meditative, even spiritual. So maybe it's worth asking: Is there a craftsperson in all of us that we should occasionally step away from our devices to nurture? And could craft, even for the non-artist, be a way to connect with spirituality for us all? We'll talk to Claremont Graduate University psychologist Jeanne Nakamura about what characterizes the experience of “flow” that so many makers experience while they work. And we'll talk to Stuart Kestenbaum, poet and former director of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, about how people of all skill levels can benefit from working with their hands. We'll also hear from two renowned makers: Tlingit glass artist Preston Singletary and Tibetan mandala master Losang Samten. To learn more about Jeanne Nakamura's research on flow, click here. And have a look at this TED Talk by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the founder of the study of flow. Find out about Haystack Mountain School of Crafts' programs here, and read about Stuart Kestenbaum's work as a poet here. Visit Preston Singletary's website to learn about his practice and see some of his work. See some of Losang Samten's mandalas and learn more about his story on his website.

Producer/Hosts: Ron Beard and Liz Graves Theme music for Talk of the Towns Theme music for Talk of the Towns is a medley from Coronach, on a Balnain House Highland Music recording. Talk of the Towns: Local Community concerns and opportunities This month: While many individual organizations have cultural heritage as part of their mission, the new Cultural Alliance of Maine, begun in 2020, is highlighting the many aspects of culture in our state, including the celebration of Cultural Heritage Week in Maine, March 15-22. -What is culture? And what are some of the more easily understood elements of culture in Maine? What elements are now coming into focus in our state, or those overlooked? -What led to the creation of the Cultural Alliance of Maine? -Who are the constituents of the Cultural Alliance of Maine? -What is the work of the Cultural Alliance of Maine? -Why is this work important, both to your constituents, and to the state as whole? -How does culture intersect with business, health, community-building, education, quality of life? -What is Cultural Heritage Week in Maine (March 15-22) and who/what will you showcase? Guest/s: Molly Cashwell, Co- Director, Cultural Alliance of Maine, prior work with cultural organizations internationally and in the US, board member of MDI Historical Society and Jesup Library, Lamoine Ekhlas Ahmed, Co-Director, Cultural Alliance of Maine, former educator, human rights activist, resettled to Maine in 2005, a refugee from Sudan, board member for Portland Public Library and Mayo Street Arts, Windham Stu Kestenbaum, Steering Committee and co-founder, Cultural Alliance of Maine Senior Advisor, Monson Arts, former Poet Laureate, former director of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle About the hosts: Ron Beard is producer and host of Talk of the Towns, which first aired on WERU in 1993 as part of his community building work as an Extension professor with University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant. He took all the journalism courses he could fit in while an undergraduate student in wildlife management and served as an intern with Maine Public Television nightly newscast in the early 1970s. Ron is an adjunct faculty member at College of the Atlantic, teaching courses on community development. Ron served on the Bar Harbor Town Council for six years and is currently board chair for the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor, where he has lived since 1975. Look for him on the Allagash River in June, and whenever he can get away, in the highlands of Scotland where he was fortunate to spend two sabbaticals. Liz Graves joined Talk of the Towns as co-producer and co-host in July 2022, having long admired public affairs programming on WERU and dreamed of getting involved in community radio. She works as the Town Clerk for the Town of Bar Harbor, and is a former editor of the Mount Desert Islander weekly newspaper. Liz grew up in California and came to Maine as a schooner sailor. The post Talk of the Towns 3/8/23: Cultural Alliance of Maine & Cultural Heritage Week first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

SOREN LIT...A Southern Renaissance of women, femmes, and/or non-binary creatives exploring the lingering South... SOREN LIT. 2023: Verlena Johnson, MFA www.sorenlit.com Producer & Founding Editor: Melodie J. Rodgers, MFA Verlena L. Johnson was born in Chicago and grew up in Madison and Beloit Wisconsin. She earned a B.A. in Sculpture and a M.A. in Afro-American Studies with an emphasis in Art History from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and a M.F.A. in Sculpture from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Verlena has also studied wood carving with Ghanaian Master Wood-carvers, as well as, at the Haystack Mountain School of Craft and Penland School of Craft. She has exhibited her artwork in Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, Oakland, amongst other places. Her artwork has appeared on the cover of the book Approaches to Teaching the Novels of Toni Morrison and the journal Sinister Wisdom. She has taught studio art and art history to children and adults in community centers and colleges. Her children's book, The Adventures of Kai and the Magical Machines was published in 2018. Verlena's current book project is a children's picture book about a little boy named Jimmie in rural Mississippi in the 1940s. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/melodie-rodgers/message

Ellie Richards is a furniture designer and sculptor interested in the role the furniture and domestic objects play in creating opportunities for a deeper connection between people and their sense of place. Ellie looks to the tradition of both woodworking and the readymade to create eclectic assemblage, installation, and objects exploring intersections of labor, leisure, community, and culture. She has traveled extensively to investigate the role play and improvisation have on the artistic process. Her work, both furniture and sculpture, has been included in exhibitions at the Mint Museum; Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design; SOFA Chicago; and the Society of Contemporary Craft. Most recently Richards was awarded Windgate residencies at the Center for Art in Wood, and in the wood/furniture design programs at San Diego State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Additionally, she maintains an active teaching schedule sharing the fundamentals of woodworking and artistic practice with a breadth of audience including appointments at Yestermorrow Design/Build School, Appalachian Center for Craft, and Haystack Mountain School of Craft.  She is currently a resident artist at Penland School of Craft 2020-2023. You may follow along with Ellie on Instagram and her website. Follow along with the Podcast on Instagram.

How an urgent need to make can lead to simple, accessible tools and methods.  Open pit fire the wild clay you harvested and processed with us earlier in the Season - if you don't have land, use a trashcan!  Can your earthenware make the transition to becoming ceramic?  Emily shares her artistic process and methods as a ceramic artist.    This is Part 3 of a three-part making exercise over the season of the show – harvesting wild clay (Ep 2), processing wild clay (Ep 11) and firing your wild clay in an open pit (Season finale and Part 3).   About Emily:  Emily Brownawell is a New York based ceramic artist. She earned her MFA in Ceramics at the State University of New York at New Paltz. Grants and fellowships include the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts Technical Assistant, Andrah Scholarship, Research and Creative Projects Award, Bolton Scholarship, and the Virginia Fuller Prize.  She has exhibited at the Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, Williamsburg Arts and Historical Center, and Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.   Raised by oceanographers across the street from an intertidal region of Long Island Sound, the marine ecosystem played a powerful role throughout her childhood and continues to inform her practice through visual inspiration and systems of organization. Her work focuses on the physicality of the landscape. In her practice, the ceramic process represents a transformation of natural materials into objects of culture and records of time. Through ceramic sculpture and installation, she explores various relationships between natural and synthetic processes.  www.emilybrownawell.com instagram.com/emilybrownawell/ Music credit: "Song We Came To Sing" by Living Roots livingrootsmusic.com  

Our guest this month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs is Stuart Kestenbaum, arts innovator and poet.STUART KESTENBAUM is the author of six collections of poems, most recently Things Seem to Be Breaking (Deerbrook Editions 2021), and a collection of essays The View from Here (Brynmorgen Press).  He was the host of the Maine Public Radio program Poems from Here and was the host/curator of the podcast Make/Time. He was the director of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts from 1988 until 2015. More recently, working with the Libra Foundation, he has designed and implemented a residency program for artists and writers called Monson Arts. Stuart Kestenbaum has written and spoken widely on craft making and creativity, and his poems and writing have appeared in numerous small press publications and magazines.  He served as Maine's poet laureate from 2016-2021. CONVERSATIONS FROM THE POINTED FIRS is a monthly audio series with Maine-connected authors and artists discussing new books and creative projects that invoke the spirit of Maine, its history, its ecology, its culture, and its contribution to community and quality of life.Learn more at pointedfirs.org

Host:Peter Neill Producer: Trisha Badger Music by Casey Neill Conversations from the Pointed Firs is a monthly audio series with Maine-connected authors and artists discussing new books and creative projects that invoke the spirit of Maine, its history, its ecology, its culture, and its contribution to community and quality of life. This month: Our guest this month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs is Stuart Kestenbaum, arts innovator and poet. Guest/s: STUART KESTENBAUM is the author of six collections of poems, most recently Things Seem to Be Breaking (Deerbrook Editions 2021), and a collection of essays The View from Here (Brynmorgen Press). He was the host of the Maine Public Radio program Poems from Here and was the host/curator of the podcast Make/Time. He was the director of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts from 1988 until 2015. More recently, working with the Libra Foundation, he has designed and implemented a residency program for artists and writers called Monson Arts. Stuart Kestenbaum has written and spoken widely on craft making and creativity, and his poems and writing have appeared in numerous small press publications and magazines. He served as Maine's poet laureate from 2016-2021. About the host: Peter Neill is founder and director of the World Ocean Observatory, a web-based place of exchange for information and educational services about the health of the ocean. In 1972, he founded Leete's Island Books, a small publishing house specializing in literary reprints, the essay, photography, the environment, and profiles of indigenous healers and practitioners of complimentary medicine around the world. He holds a profound interest in Maine, its history, its people, its culture, and its contribution to community and quality of life. The post Conversations from the Pointed Firs 12/2/22: Stuart Kestenbaum first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Richard Royal, a native of the Northwest, has become recognized internationally as one of the most skilled and talented glassblowers in the Studio Glass movement. Bodies of work such as his early Diamond Cut series to the more recent Geometrics are the hallmarks of his successful career in glass. The artist began working as a glass sculptor in 1978 at the Pilchuck Glass School, located north of Seattle. After spending a number of years as a ceramist, the birth of a new artistic movement appealed to the young artist.  Working his way through the ranks, Royal became one of Dale Chihuly's main gaffers. This relationship lasted for a number of years and consequently led to Royal's emergence in the art market in the 1980s. He has since been an independent artist exhibiting work internationally in both solo and group exhibitions. Wrote gallerist, Ken Saunders: “When Royal joined the staff of Pilchuck it was ostensibly as a maintenance man. In those early days a guy hired to clean up and a guy hired to drive a truck – Royal and William Morris respectively – might easily find themselves assisting the world's greatest glassblowers as they worked the hot glass, in demonstrations for students and for themselves after hours and after the summer sessions had ended for the season. Though Royal was introduced to glass as a student at the Central Washington University he pursued an interest in ceramics and in 1972, he and fellow student Ben Moore built a studio in their hometown of Olympia, Washington. There they created a line of production objects made from clay. The young men worked compulsively and energetically but typically found themselves in bohemian circumstances. Royal made his rent money building high-end wood furniture and endeavored to keep the studio viable while Moore enrolled in the under-graduate program at the California College of Arts. At CCA Moore met Marvin Lipofsky, who was running the glass program, though Moore did not participate in glass at that time and went on to earn his undergrad degree in ceramics. For graduation, Moore's parents gifted him with a session at Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington. There, Moore met Chihuly who liked his energy and encouraged the young artist to help out during the summer programs at Pilchuck and later to attend RISD to earn an MFA in glass. As the small staff of the school expanded to accommodate the explosion of interest in the programming, Moore reached out to his buddy Royal, inviting him to join the staff in 1978. Royal jumped at the chance to get out of Olympia where maintaining the ceramics studio had become a lonely enterprise. ‘I'd heard about what was going on at Pilchuck but I was just thinking about having a job and getting fed regularly. I had no idea what was going to happen…it changed my life.' After spending the summer of 1978 at Pilchuck, working maintenance and, on many occasions, assisting in the hot-shop during classes and after hours, Royal was invited to stay for the fall to assist Chihuly with his work. Chihuly was assembling a large team that he felt would allow him to create ambitious, large- scale sculptures and installations… Once winter descended on the Pacific Northwest the team was forced to abandon Pilchuck for the season. Chihuly filled his calendar with Visiting Artist Residencies at colleges and universities around the country and took members of the team with him. Royal recalls the excitement: ‘We'd take over the art department and during our demonstrations the hot shop would be standing room only,' the team putting on what amounted to a performance with Chihuly playing the master of ceremonies breathlessly directing the action. ‘We would hit the campus like rock stars.' While Chihuly developed a very specific vision of a large studio employing extremely gifted crafts people to handle very specific tasks in an effort to harness the best each had to offer to the process, most artists working in glass in those days worked in very small teams, basically a handful of artist/friends who took turns leading the creation of their own works with the assistance of the others. ‘We all had our own ideas. In fact, when it was your turn you were expected to have your own ideas for your own work.' And led by the example set by Dale, ‘everybody was completely supportive of the others and willing to lend a hand if need be.' Dale set the tone, ‘really supporting whatever each of us wanted to create.'  Royal continued working with Chihuly for nearly 30 years until 2006,. He simultaneously worked at Benjamin Moore Inc. beginning in 1984.  Wrote Saunders: “Royal's first series of blown objects to find commercial and critical success, the Diamond Cut and Shelter Series, were begun at this time… The most important technical characteristic of this early work was the overlay of color on the outside of the bubble – a strategy that turns the usual process of picking up color first on its head. Royal describes the process: ‘In the Diamond Cut Series I overlaid four or five different colors on the outside of a bubble, brought the blank down to room temperature and used a diamond band saw to cut through those layers…I wanted to create an object that would allow you to look at the outside and inside simultaneously…This was a personal metaphor for exploration, looking inside.” The Shelter Series extended this metaphor reflecting profound changes he was going through emotionally, financially and professionally.  In 1989 his engagement and subsequent marriage to Jana led to Royal's Relationship Series. The form consists of a top and a bottom of equal size that meet and entwine around a smaller vessel at the center of the sculpture. ‘The Relationship pieces…show two equal entities coming together around a single idea.' Central to these works was the artist's sense of scale. Royal committed early on to working in the largest scale that was technically feasible. Those early bodies of work especially reflect the profound influence Moore and Chihuly had on the artist's work. Moore's tight technical approach was itself influenced by Italian Design. Moore blew on-center and his work is often characterized by a restrained use of color. Chihuly, on the other hand, had an organic sensibility but his approach to the creative impulse was as much informed by Warhol as by nature. His pieces were gestural, gaudy and loud in color and in form. Royal thinks that his work has benefited from the influence of these two opposites. In Royal's latest body of work, the Geos, the artist has sought to capture the qualities of kiln cast glass in his blown glass constructions. He has emphasized simple and subtle coloration and given the individual pieces a sculptural presence by referencing organic forms as opposed to utilitarian objects. The artist is also reinventing his Diamond Cut series, creating fresh new objects (such as those seen at the top of this page). Royal's work can be found in such noteworthy museum collections as The Mint Museum of Art + Design, The High Museum, the New Orleans Museum of Art, The Tampa Museum of Art, and the Daiichi Museum (Japan). His artwork is also included in the SAFECO Collection, PricewaterhouseCoopers, IBM, and the Westinghouse Corporation. One of the first Artists-in-Residence at the Waterford Crystal Factory, Royal continues to teach as both a guest artist and faculty member at various universities and the Pilchuck Glass School. A past grant recipient from the National Endowment for the Arts, he has served as a visiting artist at the Corning Museum of Glass, the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Ohio State University and the University of Hawaii at Manoa.  

Technology is pervasive in every aspect of life, including art and creative education. Artist and educator, Rob Duarte, has seen the impact of technology on creators firsthand.  Rob is an Associate Profession in the Department of Art at Florida State University, teaching courses in sculpture, digital fabrication, physical computing, and mechatronic art. He also serves as Co-Director of the FSU Facility for Arts Research and Director of the REBOOT laboratory. He earned an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of California San Diego, a BFA in Sculpture from the Massachusetts College of Art & Design, and BS in Business Information Systems with a minor in Computer & Information Science from the University of Massachusetts. At UCSD, Rob was an Ujima Scholar and a San Diego Fellow.  Rob's work has been exhibited in venues as diverse as the Venice Biennale of Architecture, the Smithsonian Museum of American History, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the New Children's Museum, and the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. He has also been invited to exhibit his work as part of the Florida Art Prize in Contemporary Art, the San Diego Art Prize, and the southXeast Triennial. In this special episode, we got Rob's opinion on the impact of technology on today's creators. He also discussed how to bridge that gap between artists and engineers, and how he takes things back to basics in his classroom with mediums like cardboard and scissors. And finally, find out how he helps students become technology creators, not just consumers.  You can learn more about Rob here: https://robduarte.com/. Check out what's happening at FSU at  https://artsresearch.fsu.edu/ and https://art.fsu.edu/.

Joy, laughter, and the unexpected are at the heart of Annie Evelyn's work. Employing a range of materials (handmade paper flowers to Swarovski Crystals) and processes (tessellating metal pieces to create soft upholstered seating or embedding fresh cut flowers to add aroma), Evelyn uses furniture's inherent interactive qualities and relationships to the human body to create new and surprising experiences. From 2014-2017 Evelyn was resident artist at the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina and in 2016 was awarded The John D. Mineck Furniture Fellowship. She received both her BFA and MFA from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Evelyn has taught at RISD, California College of the Arts, Parsons - The New School, Haystack Mountain School, Penland School of Craft, and others. Her work has been featured on the cover of American Craft Magazine and published in Agata Toromanoff's book, Impossible Design.  She has been awarded Windgate Furniture residencies at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (2011), the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2018), and San Diego State University (2020). Evelyn had a solo show at the Houston Center for Craft and in 2018 was a finalist for the Burke Prize for contemporary craft and her work was included in an exhibition at the Museum of Art and Design (MAD). In 2019, Evelyn co-founded Crafting the Future, a collective of artists working together to provide equitable opportunities in the arts. You may follow along with Annie's work on her Website and Instagram.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne On this month’s edition of Maine Currents, we bring you to the Word Festival in Blue Hill in October 2021. Reading from their website: “Every October, Word brings together readers, writers, and tellers of tales to celebrate the written and spoken word—fiction and non-fiction, children's literature, poetry, drama, nonfiction, storytelling and more. The festival takes place in Blue Hill, Maine where a literary tradition of great thinkers and artists extends over two hundred years and includes Jonathan Fisher, Mary Ellen Chase, and E.B. White to name a few. Many writers continue to call the Blue Hill peninsula home as does a large community of passionate readers. To celebrate this rich heritage, Word presents three days of author readings, a poetry crawl, writing workshops, panel discussions, school events, and spoken word performances to sold out crowds.” One of the events this year was an interview with Bob Keyes, author of the new book, Isolation Artist: Scandal, Deception, and the Last Days of Robert Indiana, conducted by Paul Sacaridiz, Executive Director of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. The talk was recorded via zoom by festival organizers, and we thank them for making it available to our listeners. About the host: Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters. The post Maine Currents 12/7/21: Word Festival Interview with Bob Keyes, author of a new book on Robert Indiana first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Amy Browne On this month’s edition of Maine Currents, we bring you to the Word Festival in Blue Hill in October 2021. Reading from their website: “Every October, Word brings together readers, writers, and tellers of tales to celebrate the written and spoken word—fiction and non-fiction, children's literature, poetry, drama, nonfiction, storytelling and more. The festival takes place in Blue Hill, Maine where a literary tradition of great thinkers and artists extends over two hundred years and includes Jonathan Fisher, Mary Ellen Chase, and E.B. White to name a few. Many writers continue to call the Blue Hill peninsula home as does a large community of passionate readers. To celebrate this rich heritage, Word presents three days of author readings, a poetry crawl, writing workshops, panel discussions, school events, and spoken word performances to sold out crowds.” One of the events this year was an interview with Bob Keyes, author of the new book, Isolation Artist: Scandal, Deception, and the Last Days of Robert Indiana, conducted by Paul Sacaridiz, Executive Director of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. The talk was recorded via zoom by festival organizers, and we thank them for making it available to our listeners. About the host: Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters. The post Maine Currents 12/7/21: Word Festival Interview with Bob Keyes, author of a new book on Robert Indiana first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

You're listening to the Westerly Sun's podcast, where we talk about the best local events, new job postings, obituaries, and more. First, a bit of Rhode Island trivia. Today's trivia is brought to you by Perennial. Perennial's new plant-based drink “Daily Gut & Brain” is a blend of easily digestible nutrients crafted for gut and brain health. A convenient mini-meal, Daily Gut & Brain” is available now at the CVS Pharmacy in Wakefield. Now for some trivia. Did you know that Rhode Island native, David Littman is a former ice hockey goaltender. At Boston College, he was captain of the Eagles held the BC record with 2,548 saves for many years.  He played three games in the National Hockey League: two with the Sabres and one with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Now for our feature story: Rhode Island's education department has awarded grants to eight districts to support homeless students. Governor Dan McKee and Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green announced Wednesday that the department awarded more than $336,000 in McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act Education for Homeless Children and Youth sub-grants to eight school districts. McKee said: “It is critical that we support our most vulnerable students in Rhode Island's recovery. These funds are specifically geared to help students and families experiencing homelessness and will make a positive difference in many lives during a time of great need.” Infante-Green said that students experiencing homelessness were severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and it is their duty to ensure these students are provided the support needed to get ahead. The latest round of sub-grants is part of the third year of a three-year award that each of the selected districts received, totaling more than $970,000. The money comes from a federal grant administered by the state. For more about the coronavirus pandemic, the recovery, and the latest on all things in and around Westerly, head over to westerlysun.com. Today we're remembering the life of Patricia Arrow, of Charlestown. Ms. Arrow danced with the State Ballet of Rhode Island and taught ballet in her dance studio located on Main Street in Wakefield for several years. A woman of many talents, she was a fiber artist and made colorful, whimsical quilts, constructed using organic cotton cloth which she hand-dyed. She perfected her work during a summer workshop at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. Her quilts were shown at the Hera Gallery and are on display at Hasbro Children's Hospital and other commissioned locations. She was a talented landscaper and gardener, enthusiastic decorator, and wonderful cook and baker. Patricia was also known for her constant sense of humor, making everything, including the most mundane of chores "fun." Wearing plastic nose & glasses was a favorite gag of hers. Ms. Arrow is survived by Russell Kolton, her sons, her beloved sister, her grandchildren, as well as her dear friend and former daughter in law, her 'Lil Outlaw. Thank you for taking a moment with us today to remember and celebrate Patricia's life. That's it for today, we'll be back next time with more! Also, remember to check out our sponsor Perennial, Daily Gut & Brain, available at the CVS on Main St. in Wakefield! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Strong. Calm. Serene. So are the vessels of Sonja Blomdahl. In an industrial neighborhood near Seattle's Lake Union, the artist turned loose her vivid colors into the unsuspecting gray of her spacious cinderblock and cement studio. If a Scandinavian flavor is detected in the hue of her celestial orbs, it is by chance as she credits rainy Seattle as her primary inspiration. But Blomdahl is in fact of Swedish descent, leaving some collectors of her work to wonder if the Scandinavian sense of style and design is in her blood.  After graduating from Massachusetts College of Art with a BFA in ceramics, Blomdahl studied at Orrefors Glass School in Sweden for six months, providing her with a solid background in efficiently handling her material. Upon arrival at the glass factory in 1976, she had $300 in her pocket. When her apprenticeship was over and in need of cash, Blomdahl went to work as a cleaning woman in a Swedish hospital to finance trips to Italy and the British Isles. Back in Massachusetts, she blew glass in a New Hampshire studio for nine months until Dan Dailey, a former teacher at Mass Art, invited her to be his teaching assistant at Pilchuck.  Three weeks at Pilchuck in the summer of 1978 proved to be a pivotal time in Blomdahl's career, for it was there that she viewed the Italian master Checco Ongaro demonstrate the double bubble or incalmo technique. She honed this process over the next two years while working at the Glass Eye Studio in Seattle and teaching glassblowing at Pratt Fine Arts Center. After her first exhibition at Traver in 1981, Blomdahl stopped working at the Glass Eye, bought a three-month Euro Rail pass and traveled around Europe. There, she had the opportunity to produce new work in Ann Wolff's studio in Sweden – a wonderful experience that further entrenched Blomdahl's desire to establish her own hotshop. She shipped the work made there back to Seattle and had a second sell-out show at Traver, allowing her to build a studio in 1982, where she worked for the next 25 years. Currently on view in Venice and American Studio Glass, curated by Tina Oldknow and William Warmus, Blomdahl's work was the focus of solo exhibitions at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art, Montgomery, Alabama; Martha's Vineyard Glassworks, West Tisbury, Massachusetts; and the William Traver Gallery, Tacoma, Washington. Permanent installations and collections include American Craft Museum, New York, New York; Clinton Presidential Library and Museum, Little Rock, Arkansas; Museum of Decorative Art, Prague, Czech Republic; Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York; and Kitazawa Contemporary Glass Museum, Kitazawa, Japan, to name a few. She has held teaching positions at Pratt Fine Arts Center, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine, and the Appalachian Center in Smithville, Tennessee.  Blomdahl's focus has been the vessel. She states: “In the vessel, I find the form to be of primary importance. It holds the space. In a sense, the vessel is a history of my breath: It contains the volume within. If I have done things correctly, the profile of the piece is a continuous curve; the shape is full, and the opening confident. Color is often the joy in making a piece. I want the colors to glow and react with each other. The clear band between the colors acts as an optic lens; it moves the color around and allows you to see into the piece. The relationship between form, color, proportion, and process intrigued me.”  

Donna Polseno is a sculptor and potter living in the mountains of southwest Virginia. Donna will be featured on our next 2021 Artemis cover to be released in June. She graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and has been honored with 2 NEA Artist Fellowships and a Virginia Museum Artists Grant. Donna has shown her work in major exhibitions in museums and galleries, nationally and internationally. Her work has been published in many books and magazines. Donna has taught seminars at many schools including  Penland School, Haystack Mountain School, Anderson Ranch, Jingdezhen University in China, La Meridiana School of Ceramics in Italy. She lives and works part-time in a small village in Italy. She was a ceramics instructor at Hollins University for 15 years, where she created and still directs the "Women Working With Clay" Symposium.  

Tiffany and I talk about how she built her studio in her backyard during the pandemic to continue her practice, detrimental artistic processes, mental health, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Astrology and what fuels her work. Tiffany Tang is a ceramicist and multidisciplinary artist. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Today, Debbie has a conversation with Maine’s Poet Laureate Stuart Kestenbaum. Whether or not you're a fan of reading or writing poetry, you won't want to miss this episode. Stuart tells stories in his soothing, often humorous style, including what led him to decide to become a poet and how he fell in love with  Maine. They talk about listening to poems read aloud and how that slows time down and creates a moment of community. They also talk about his process of discovery when he is writing poems. The topics they touch on: community and connection, love and loss, grief and creativity are relevant to this pandemic year. Stuart is the author of five collections of poems, most recently Things Seemed to Be Breaking (Deerbrook Editions 2021), and a collection of essays The View from Here (Brynmorgen Press). He was the director of the internationally renowned Haystack Mountain School of Crafts from 1988 until 2015. He was the host of Maine Public Radio’s popular program Poems from Here, where each week he read aloud a poem by a Maine author. He hosted/curated the podcast Make/Time and he is the host/curator of a soon-to-be-released podcast, Voices of the Future, a series of conversations with a dozen young Maine writers about their writing and their lives. This 12-episode podcast is his last project as Maine’s Poet Laureate as his five-year tenure, sadly, is coming to an end in 2021.He also reads two of his poems on this episode, including one of Debbie's favorites, Starting the Subaru at Five Below. As former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser has written: “Stuart Kestenbaum writes the kind of poems I love to read, heartfelt responses to the privilege of having been given a life.  No hidden agendas here, no theories to espouse, nothing but life, pure life, set down with craft and love.” See below for  links to Stuart’s poetry collections, his podcasts, stage performances and more. He writes and speaks widely on craft-making and creativity. His poems and writing have appeared in numerous small press publications and magazines including Tikkun, The Sun, The Beloit Poetry Journal, The New York Times Magazine, and on the Writer’s Almanac and American Life in Poetry.This was a wonderful conversation.  Mentioned in this episode or useful:Stuart Kestenbaum's websitePoems from Here with Maine Poet Laureate Stuart Kestenbaum, his program on Maine Public RadioFor final project, Maine poet laureate puts out podcast featuring young writers by Bob Keyes, Portland Press-Herald, March 7, 2021Words of Gratitude From Maine, New York Times, Nov. 25, 2020Make/Time PodcastStarting the Subaru at Five Below by Stuart KestenbaumAmen, Stuart's poem selected by Naomi Shihab Nye for the New York Times, Jan. 2, 2020Sometime during eternity... by Lawrence FerlinghettiWild Geese by Mary OliverOut of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking by Walt WhitmanProfessor Fred WagnerStuart Kestenbaum's talk at Maine Live about his brother Howard who died in the Twin Towers on 9/11Susan Webster:  Stuart’s wife and collaborator on art & writing:Maplewood, NJLong Lake, Naples, MaineCadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, MaineMount Desert, MaineHaystack Mountain School of CraftsHancock CountyThe Telling Room, Portland, Maine  Note from DebbieI hope you enjoyed this podcast. Would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than sixty seconds, and it really makes a difference in attracting new listeners and upcoming guests. I might read your review on my next episode!Sign up for occasional updates and get my free writing guide at http://eepurl.com/qGTPConnect with me:Twitter: @debbieweilInstagram: @debbieweilFacebook: @debbieweilLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/debbieweilEmail: thegapyearpodcast@gmail.com- Debbie WE ARE LOOKING FOR A SPONSORIf you are interested in reaching a smart and thoughtful audience of midlife, and older, listeners, contact Debbie Weil. Media PartnersNext For MeEncore.orgMEA Support this podcast:Leave a review on iTunes: it will help us find a sponsor! If you are interested, contact Debbie WeilSubscribe via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or Spotify Credits:Host: Debbie WeilProducer: Far Out MediaPodcast websiteMusic: Lakeside Path by Duck Lake

In August 2020, Verlena L. Johnson was featured in ZAMI NOBLA's virtual art show, Cocktails, Tea, and Art. This interview was recorded remotely a few days before the show. Verlena L. Johnson was born and raised in the Midwest (Wisconsin and Illinois), but also briefly lived in New York City, Ealing England, Oakland, Long Beach and most recently Los Angeles.  She earned a Master's Degree in Afro-American Studies (emphasis: Art History, 1996) from the University of Wisconsin — Madison and a Master's of Fine Arts Degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Sculpture, 2001).  She has also studied wood carving with master Ghanaian woodcarvers and at both Penland School of Craft and Haystack Mountain School of Craft. Her M.A. thesis, “The Image Text Composite in the Art of Faith Ringgold: Form and Narrative” explores Ringgold's art using WJT Mitchell's Picture Theory to examine the meaning created by Ringgold combining images and text.  It also examines Ringgold's "Picasso's Studio," as a meta-picture or a picture about pictures, specifically focusing on Black female subjectivity.  Thesis Advisor: Freida High Tesfagiorgis. She has exhibited her work in Chicago (IL), Madison (WI), New York (NY), Oakland and Los Angeles (CA), amongst other places.

Since the pandemic began, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts has seen many changes. What decisions were made by administration for the safety of the island? How did Haystack switch gears and begin producing free personal protective equipment? How many people have been helped through this innovative use of technology and art? Join me for a heartfelt conversation with Paul Sacaridiz, Executive Director of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. Throughout our discussion, it is evident that Paul leads with knowledge, experience and compassion and we are lucky to have him here on Deer Isle-Stonington. Haystack Website for ordering personal protective equipment and/or making a donation: https://www.haystack-mtn.org/ Healthy Island Project website for contact information on obtaining personal protective equipment: https://healthyislandproject.org/ email: healthyislandproject@gmail.com Paul's Book Recommendation: "What Can a Body Do?" by Sarah Hendren https://www.amazon.com/What-Can-Body-Do-Built/dp/073522000X/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3A3FK50BGZXNV&dchild=1&keywords=what+can+a+body+do+sara+hendren&qid=1607452380&sprefix=What+can+a+body+do%2Caps%2C968&sr=8-2

As a queer person of mixed race, Corey Pemberton often feels other. Knowing nothing about his African roots and very little about his European heritage, the artist considers lineage and the idea of connectedness in his glass art, paintings, and other works on paper. Pemberton’s vessels, blown glass baskets based on those of his presumed ancestors, are made in a European style that borrows forms and patterns from the sweetgrass weavers of South Africa. He says: “I use color and pattern as vehicles to describe situations where society has used a person’s uniqueness against them; where people have been labeled or categorized based on physical characteristics in an effort to hold them back. Can we, as a society, find a way to unite in our otherness?” Born in Reston, Virginia, in 1990, Pemberton received his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2012. After graduating and relocating to Augusta, Missouri, he worked as a production glassblower under Sam Stang and Kaeko Maehata. Subsequent travel through Norway and Denmark exposed the young artist to both country’s rich design history as he worked with fellow glass artists. Upon return to the US, Pemberton participated in a Core Fellowship at Penland School of Craft, Bakersville, North Carolina. Currently residing in Los Angeles, Pemberton splits time between production glassblowing, his painting practice, and Crafting the Future (CTF), an organization he co-founded with furniture artist Annie Evelyn in early 2019. CTF partners with organizations across the country such as Louisiana’s Young Aspirations/Young Artists, known as YAYA; Kentucky’s STEAM Exchange; North Carolina’s Penland School of Craft; and Maine’s Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, with the goal of increasing access to education and opportunity for underrepresented artists in order to help them develop thriving careers. In 2019, CTF raised more than $8,000 to send two young New Orleans students, Tyrik Conaler and Shanti Broom, to Penland School of Craft.  Despite the challenges of COVID-19, a growing number of artists have banded together to fundraise for student scholarships. The CTF membership page went live in February 2020, and in the next three months culled around 50 members and $2,000. Following the killing of George Floyd and several other innocent African Americans, and the ensuing protests that raised awareness of racial injustice, membership increased to more than 1,200 by late May. Over the next few months, CTF raised over $175,000 for scholarships and other programming, though more is needed to affect lasting change. If you’re interested in joining or donating to Crafting the Future, visit: https://www.craftingthefuture.org Striving to bring together people of all backgrounds and identities, Pemberton breaks down stereotypes and builds bridges, not only through his work with CTF, but in his personal artistic practice. In the artist’s recent solo show creature, comfort at the Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) of Raleigh, North Carolina, painting, photography, and hand-blown glass came together to create visual environments that depicted subjects in both real and imagined homes. Pemberton’s goal was and is to make his subjects relatable and intriguing, so that viewers consider those subjects fully and are able to see themselves in the work.  Join Corey Pemberton next spring at the Chrysler Museum of Art’s Perry Glass Studio for a lecture and free demonstrations during the 2021 Visiting Artist Series. Next summer, the artist is scheduled to teach at Pilchuck and in the fall at Penland with Cedric Mitchell.  

Jonah and Renessa briefly express their current rage at the state of the U.S. system and politics, and then to lighten the mood, chat about the new show Ratched! Our very exciting guest this week is Ayumi Horie, a potter artist from Portland, Maine who believes that the best handmade pottery encourages connections between people and makes daily life better. She received a Distinguished Fellow grant in Craft by the United States Artists and is the first recipient of Ceramics Monthly’s Ceramic Artist of the Year award. In 2020, she was awarded an Honorary Member at National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts for “outstanding contribution” to the field. She also organized Obamaware, a fundraiser involving the work of nationally known ceramic artists who made Obama-themed work, which raised funds for the Obama/Biden campaign. Ayumi is currently on the board of the American Craft Council and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and her work is in various collections throughout the US. We talk with Ayumi about pottery as functional art, her Japanse background, family (and redefining family), and social media.Show links:https://ayumihorie.comInstagram: https://instagram.com/ayumihorieFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ayumi.Horie.PotteryPots in Action: https://www.instagram.com/potsinaction/The Democratic Cup: https://www.instagram.com/thedemocraticcup/Portland Brick: https://www.instagram.com/portlandbrick/Slay Queens Podcast: Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/slay-queens-podcast/id1487393379 / Google https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9mYjdhZTFjL3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz

Creating under the pseudonym 2-Stroke since 2013, Christopher McElroy constructs one-of-a-kind pipes and rigs adorned with his colorful, psychedelic, textile-inspired patterning technique known as Heliocoileh. His current body of work includes polychromatic water pipes, dry pipes, cups, marbles, and beads, created with the philosophy that the ornamentation of daily objects serves to elevate an experience from mundane to mystical. McElroy earned his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and his MFA from The University of Washington, where he studied under Mark Zirpel. His early glass mentors Emilio Santini, Sally Prasch and Rick Schneider encouraged him to forge his own path from the very start of his relationship with the medium. His sculptural and functional works have been exhibited at The Henry Arts Gallery (Seattle, Washington), Anderson Gallery (Richmond, Virginia), Traver Gallery (Seattle, Washington), Missoula Art Museum (Missoula, Montana), Dampkring Gallery (Amsterdam) and Pismo Fine Art Gallery (Aspen, Colorado).  Teaching has played an important part of McElroy’s history with glass and includes flameworking instruction at Kyoto University of Art and Design in Japan, Penland School of Crafts, the Corning Museum of Glass, Pilchuck Glass School, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Israel.  Growing up in Southwest Virginia’s scenic rolling hills and farmlands shaped McElroy’s affinity for agrarian and wilderness landscapes. Informed by color relationships in plants, animals, lichen, and minerals, the artist studies and examines how colors convey information of biological purpose. Lessons of age, nutrition, fertility, and danger are communicated among entities that speak the language of color. Informed by avant-garde contemporary fashion, ceremonial objects of pre-columbian South American cultures, and textiles from around the world, the artist cites artistic influences to include Robert Irwin, El Anatsui, Kelsey Brooks, & Tom Sachs. Color, collection, and craft have always been and remain at the core of his studio practice. In early June 2020, the artist exhibited new work in a four-person show, A Time for Passion, held at Stoked, Connecticut, and will be a part of Mins, a group pipe show held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 16, 2020.  From his studio in Hudson, New York, McElroy discusses the transition from sculpture to pipes, and how art school training affects his approach to functional glass.  

We discuss: The freedom to fail, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Mendocino Art Center, The road through Miyama, Book by Leila Philip, Penland School of Craft, The importance of forming a collective, SAW (Studio For Arts + Works), Developing a critical eye, Artstream Library, Online sales, That objects are instilled with memories, Art academia, How to run/organise a workshop, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Studio, Farm, Table: the art of dining workshop with Barclay Dodge, Artstream Nomadic Gallery http://www.alleghanymeadows.com https://www.instagram.com/alleghanymeadows/   Please be sure to visit our Patreon page and help support the podcast by being part of the conversation. The more money raised, the larger the global reach we can offer you: https://www.patreon.com/thewisefool For more information about the host, Matthew Dols http://www.matthewdols.com   transcript available here: https://wisefoolpod.com/transcript-for-episode-088-potter-alleghany-meadows-carbondale-colorado-usa/

We discuss: The freedom to fail, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Mendocino Art Center, The road through Miyama, Book by Leila Philip, Penland School of Craft, The importance of forming a collective, SAW (Studio For Arts + Works), Developing a critical eye, Artstream Library, Online sales, That objects are instilled with memories, Art academia, How to run/organise a workshop, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Studio, Farm, Table: the art of dining workshop with Barclay Dodge, Artstream Nomadic Gallery http://www.alleghanymeadows.com https://www.instagram.com/alleghanymeadows/   Please be sure to visit our Patreon page and help support the podcast by being part of the conversation. The more money raised, the larger the global reach we can offer you: https://www.patreon.com/thewisefool For more information about the host, Matthew Dols http://www.matthewdols.com   transcript available here: http://wisefoolpod.com/transcript-for-episode-088-potter-alleghany-meadows-carbondale-colorado-usa/

TakeawaysDon’t wait for confidence. You get confidence by doing.Suit up and show up because you never know what's going to happen. Even if it’s a terrible day in the studio, you might just meet someone that really lifts your spirits and makes you think about your work differently.Let go of all the rules that say art has to be this way or that way. Just do it because you want to.The best revolution we could have for the preservation of democracy is to do it yourself.Mentioned in this EpisodeFollow Mary on InstagramPenny McElroy at the University of RedlandsMary’s internship in New Jersey pouring bronze casts for different artists led me to research the sculptors she worked with. Check out the trailer for this fascinating documentary “Julian Schnable: A Private Portrait.”Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Ox-Bow School of ArtAmerican Craft Council list of schools with craft workshops and coursesUniversity of Wisconsin Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts Sculpture programUniversity of Wisconsin Madison Glass LabWomen’s Caucus for Art Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest  

Michelle Plucinsky is the epitome of a human passionate about evolving. Together with her husband Chris Nordin, Michelle runs Furnace Design Studio, a place where glassblowers create their incredible art and where individuals learn the art of glassblowing. Michelle became fascinated with art early on, stemming road trips as a kid when her mom dropped craft kits into hers and her siblings' laps to keep them busy. Her love of manipulating these little craft projects turned into a fascination with glass. One of Michelle's first jobs was at the Henry Ford Museum in the glass shop that turned into a role demonstrating glass blowing for tourists at age 20. There Michelle combined both her burgeoning love of art and history. She attended a seminar at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and studied under Italian master artist Lino Tagliapietra who, along with other teacher artists, opened Michelle up to a new world of techniques and where she discovered the "art" in glassblowing. Then she followed one of the teachers from Haystack to Alfred University where she found her advanced abilities helped her push her art even further. Our conversation traces the lines in her evolution as both an artist and as a business person bent on ensuring she and her husband were able to sustain their art and raise their family. Some misfortune in the economy created a need for the couple to understand the business they were in and make some smart decisions. Michelle developed into a marketer, an accountant and a salesperson seemingly all at once in order to help the Studio grow. Today, both the Glass Academy and Chris Nordin Studios are on solid ground. And Michelle is discovering some other parts of herself that had been hidden. The conversation with Michelle is a testament to how a person can pivot in their career but not lose their essence along the way. You can find Michelle at MichellePlucinsky.com and on social media @michelleplucinsky. Hope you enjoy my conversation with Michelle.

Producer/Host: Ron Beard Studio Engineer: Amy Browne Key Discussion Points: What were some of the larger conversations in the world of art and craft that gave rise to Haystack? Art vs. Craft, Cranbrook, the Bauhas, Black Mountain, other antecedents? What was the enduring philosophy that undergirds Haystack from creation to present? Who were the principle “forces” of what became Haystack (Francis and Priscilla Merritt, Mary Bishop, Marni Sewell, Estelle and William Shevis) and how did they shape it? What led to the original location of Haystack in Liberty Maine? What were the first summer sessions like… what was taught? Was there an underlying philosophy to the teaching and learning? What was the arc of the story of Haystack in Liberty? What were the main points of success? Where was there tension (e.g. summer vs year-round)? What issues did the trustees wrestle with? What led to the relocation of Haystack from Liberty to Deer Isle? What was the process of designing the new campus at Sunshine? Ed Barnes and Fran Merritt, with construction by Basil Bray Guest: Alana VanderWerker, Waldoboro, ME artist, author Haystack at Liberty, 2019

Producer/Host: Ron Beard Studio Engineer: Amy Browne Key Discussion Points: What were some of the larger conversations in the world of art and craft that gave rise to Haystack? Art vs. Craft, Cranbrook, the Bauhas, Black Mountain, other antecedents? What was the enduring philosophy that undergirds Haystack from creation to present? Who were the principle “forces” of what became Haystack (Francis and Priscilla Merritt, Mary Bishop, Marni Sewell, Estelle and William Shevis) and how did they shape it? What led to the original location of Haystack in Liberty Maine? What were the first summer sessions like… what was taught? Was there an underlying philosophy to the teaching and learning? What was the arc of the story of Haystack in Liberty? What were the main points of success? Where was there tension (e.g. summer vs year-round)? What issues did the trustees wrestle with? What led to the relocation of Haystack from Liberty to Deer Isle? What was the process of designing the new campus at Sunshine? Ed Barnes and Fran Merritt, with construction by Basil Bray Guest: Alana VanderWerker, Waldoboro, ME artist, author Haystack at Liberty, 2019 The post Talk of the Towns 11/8/19- Art Amazes, Craft Satisfies: Early History of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Christopher Staley is an artist and educator who works out of Pennsylvania where at Penn State he is a distinguished Professor of Art in ceramics in the School of Visual Arts. He received his BFA from Wittenberg University, studied at the Kansas City Art Institute and received his MFA from Alfred University. He served as the president of NCECA (the National Council of Education of the Ceramic Arts), he was the Chair at the Haystack Mountain School in Maine, he’s a member of the International Academy of Ceramics based in Geneva, he was an artist in residence at the Ceramic Art Museum in Fuping, China, he’s been an artist in residence at the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana and has received an NEA grant twice. His work is included in collections such as the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina, The Palmer Museum of Art in Pennsylvania, The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii and the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art to name just a handful. There’s many more. He’s had over twenty five solo shows and has been in countless group exhibitions. He currently has a solo show at the Jane Hartsook Gallery at Greenwich House Pottery at 16 Jones Street in New York City entitled “Touching Time” up until September 27th. Sound & Vision is proudly sponsored by Golden Artist Colors. Golden makes the best acrylic paints, mediums and gesso in the business. They also make QoR Watercolors and Williamsburg Oil Paints. Based in New Berlin in upstate New York, they are an employee owned company dedicated to making the best supplies for you to make your best work. Check out their products in just about any art store or at golden paints.com

In the final episode of season one, I speak with Mike Rothfeld, an artist living and working in Oakland and San Francisco. He received his MFA in Fine Art and MA in Visual and Critical Studies from California College of the Arts (CCA) and his BFA in Photography and Imaging from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University (NYU). Rothfeld’s lo-fi, seemingly clumsy sculptures serve as set-pieces and props for the partial science-fiction and fantasy narratives he imagines while working in the studio. His sculptures display a dedication to play, campiness and the absurd along with an underlying sentiment of melancholy and doom. Concerned by an inability to imagine new and viable alternative futures, while still wanting to locate hope for a better tomorrow, Rothfeld makes work that references an era of visual media effects that required viewers to heavily suspend their disbelief to immerse themselves in an imagined reality. Rothfeld’s work has been displayed at The Contemporary Jewish Museum, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Southern Exposure, the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, Alter Space Gallery, and San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA; the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; Jan Larsen’s Xpo, Brooklyn, NY; the Beacon Artist Union, Beacon, NY; and the Institute of Contemporary Art, London, England; among other venues. His writing has appeared in Art Practical and show take-aways for Stairwell’s exhibitions. Additional Links: In the interview, Mike mentions working with artist, author, and curator Deb Willis while studying at NYU. She she later introduced him to the graduate programs at CCA. Between undergrad and grad school, Mike attended the Haystack Mountain School of Craft Residency. Finally, Mike and I discuss his participation in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ ‘Bay Area Now 7’ exhibition, a project that was curated by Stairwell’s. You can learn more about Mike’s work on his website and follow him on Instagram. As always, podcast music is provided by Mr. Neat Beats.

Aysha Peltz’s pottery explores imagined space, scale and the poetic properties of the ceramic medium. She is a studio potter and faculty at Bennington College in Vermont. Aysha and her husband, Todd Wahlstrom, also own and operate StudioPro Bats. Aysha has taught at a number of schools and art centers including: Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and the Kansas City Art Institute. Aysha's work is in many collections including Huntington Museum of Art, where she received the Walter Gropius Master Award. Aysha received her BFA and MFA from Alfred University.

It’s interesting to contemplate why Claire Kelly’s colorful and expertly patterned toy-like animals are so appealing, but perhaps more curious to imagine is what theywould see in us. Much of her recent work centers on elephants because of their unique role as a beloved childhood toy, a popular decorative figure with a strong history in glassmaking, and a perilously threatened species.   In work that examines the connections humanity has with animals and our larger relationship to the world, the artist has created a series of fantastic microcosms that bring a consciousness to their decorative status. As a story about the fragility and conservation of these small worlds is told, their role in a grander scheme is revealed.   “We live in a time when our smallest decisions can affect our environment in unpredictable ways. As a conscientious inhabitant, I am constantly weighing my choices and attempting to choose the lesser evil. My works are a gentle mirror allowing us to examine our contradictory world.”   Graduating with a BFA from Alfred University in 1996, Kelly subsequently worked collaboratively with Anthony Schafermeyer from 2000 to 2008 as Schafermeyer/Kelly Glass. In 2008, she moved to Providence, Rhode Island, to assist glass artist Toots Zynsky with her work.  During this time, Kelly developed her own sculptural series integrating traditional Venetian glassblowing and various cold working processes. Greatly influenced by the unconventional forms and patterning of mid-century Venetian Masters such as Napoleone Martinuzzi and Carlo Scarpa as well as contemporary masters Dick Marquis and Zynsky, Kelly works with cane and murrini techniques in a unique exploration of line, pattern, and color.    In spring of 2017, Kelly worked as Artist in Residence at the Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York, where she created a new body of work using specialty 104 COE glass from Effetre, a glass company based in Murano, Italy. The artist has recently been awarded residencies at Salem Art Works Salem, New York,and at the Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington, to further her processes and designs.   From October 12 through December 10 new work was exhibited, and Kelly presented a lecture and demonstration at Duncan McClellan Glass Gallery in St. Petersburg, Florida, in a show with friend and hot glass artist Jen Violette titled Vibrant Perspectives. Penland Gallery, Penland, North Carolina, Vetri gallery, Seattle, Washington, and Montague Gallery in San Francisco, California, also represent Kelly’s work.   A self described “unexpected instructor,” Kelly has taught workshops at Penland School of Crafts, Pilchuck Glass School, the Pittsburgh Glass Center, The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and the Centro Fundacion del Vidrio in Spain. Her 2019 teaching schedule includes March 4 – 8 at Espace Verre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and March 18 – 22 at the Glass Spot in Richmond, Virginia.      

In a world of technological excess and social turmoil, one longs to return to the simple goodness of the earth and its bounty. Like a trip to the local farmer’s market, Jen Violette’s cornucopia of glass fruits and vegetables renews in the viewer a connection with the ground we walk upon and the faith that we remain part of a plan that makes life on earth sustainable.   A full-time glass and mixed media artist based in Wilmington, Vermont, Violette is known for her colorful, garden inspired glass sculptures that often incorporate metal and wood. Recreating plant structures with molten glass, the artist has mastered the use of glass powders to mimic the colors and textures found in nature. “Since the growing season is relatively short in Vermont, I enjoy gardening with molten glass to extend my growing season.”   A 27-year hot glass veteran, Violette received her BFA in Glass and Metal Sculpture from Alfred University School of Art & Design, Alfred, New York in 1994. She continued her glass art education through courses at The Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass (CMOG), Corning, New York; the Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington; the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island; the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine; and Penland School of Crafts, Bakersville, North Carolina. Her mentors and inspirations include hot glass royalty such as Lino Tagliapietra, William Morris, Martin Janecky, Dante Marioni, Richard Marquis, the late Pino Signoretto, Randy Walker, Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen, Jasen Johnsen, Stephen Dee Edwards, Fred Tschida, Walter Lieberman, and Brian Pike.   Violette’s work can be found in private collections worldwide and is represented by a number of fine art glass galleries including Schantz Galleries Contemporary Art in Stockbridge, Massachusetts; Vetri Gallery in Seattle, Washington; Raven Gallery in Aspen, Colorado; Sandra Ainsley Gallery in Toronto, Canada; and Montague Gallery in San Francisco, California. Her work can also be found at Duncan McClellan Gallery in St. Petersburg, Florida, where from October 12–14, 2018, the artist will be featured along with glass artist Claire Kelly in a weekend event including glass demos by both artists.   Currently fabricating larger scale installations and glass sculpturesdirectly mounted to the wall, Violette’s aesthetic now includes forest floor imagery with fall leaves and branches. She moves in and out of the seasons, simultaneously creating a spring inspired installation containing fiddlehead ferns and glass trilliums, as well as an homage to summer with black-eyed Susans and sunflowers, and a wall piece featuring large-scale ferns installed at different angles.   Upon her return from the Glass Art Society conference in Murano, Italy, in May2018, Violette will participate in a Vermont Crafts Council Studio Tour held during Memorial Day weekend. During August 6–11 the artist will teach her first class ever, a Creative Glass Sculpting Techniques workshop, at the CMOG Studio.    

For this episode of NCECA 360 we have an interview from our 2016 conference in Kansas City, MO. You will hear host Brian Jones talk with Stu Kestenbaum about his long career in the arts. Kestenbaum was the director of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts for many years and is currently the host of the Make/Time podcast. The podcast is a joint venture among the nation’s top craft schools to shed light on the importance of craft makers in American society. You can find out more information at www.craftschools.us.   Join us in Pittsburgh, PA March 14-17 for our next conference Cross Currents: Clay and Culture. Registration for this year’s conference is now open and preregistration is encouraged. For more information please visit www.NCECA.net.

This is the Blacksmith Buzz Bulletin.  Where you get the low-down about upcoming classes and events that are happening in the following month, though this month I’ll be telling you about classes and events happening in January and Feb 2018.  I’ve got a lot of schools and events lined up for the rest of the year coming at you every month. If you have an event or class you would like to submit, send an email to info@blacksmither.com and I will send you the details I need for the press release. This year is the bi-annual ABANA conference which will be held in Richmond Virginia June 27th – 30th, registration is open on the abana.org website.    Also, this year’s CBA Spring conference is held in Placerville, CA, just outside of Sacramento, the dates are April 12th – 14th and registration just opened on their website, www.calsmith.org, this year it’s $180 for the 3-day event. As of Jan 1 Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, application process opens for the two blacksmith summer sessions they will be holding.  The two classes are: on June 10th Patrick Quinn is teaching "Thinking Big, Working Small", it’s a 2 week session. Workshop students will explore sculptural forms through forged, riveted, and mechanically fastened parts. Working with thin gauge plate and other small-scale industrial materials, focus and emphasis will be placed on creating small-scale sculptural pieces using joinery techniques, paired with inspiration from large-scale public works. June 24-July 6, 2018 , Marc Maiorana, Heirloom Iron This workshop will teach students to create ironwares for the home that will stand the test of time.  DEADLINES:   March 1 for applicants seeking scholarship support for a workshop April 1 for general workshop applications Adam's Forge is a non-profit org founded in 2002. This organization offers a regular schedule of blacksmith and metalworking classes.  They are starting a fundraising campaign to build a new forge home at the Heritage Square Museum in Los Angeles. This is a call for art from all the blacksmiths out there to help raise funds for the relocation and the new smithy building. They are hosting a one day annual festival for the public on Sunday, February 18th. You can donate hand-forged items that they can sell at the festival, be sure to add your touch mark and send it in before the end of January. Mail your metal donations to Adam's Forge at 2640 North San Fernando Rd, Los Angeles, CA 90065.  This info will be in the show notes of this episode as well.   They are also accepting cash donations and another donor has stepped up to match dollar for dollar donations, up to $5000! All of the details are on the Adam's Forge website which is www.adamsforge.org .

The material turn in art is deeply linked to craft processes, materials and ways of making. For Book Talk, we invite people from different fields to read and discuss a single book. How might artists, curators, educators, and theorists respond to a book and potentially use as a tool in their own thinking? Join Stephen Knott, Sarah Margolis-Pineo, Rowland Ricketts, and Namita Gupta Wiggers for their discussion of anthropologist Tim Ingold's Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture. This first episode was recorded at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine in person and via skype in July 2014. Special thanks to Brian R. Jones for sound editing and Calder Wiggers for the music. Visit www.criticalcraftforum for more information.

Libby DeLana, founding partner of Mechanica joins Host Deirdre Breakenridge on Women Worldwide.   Listen to find out how Libby went from a graphic designer by trade to award winning creative director and founding partner of a next generation marketing and advertising firm. Libby discusses creativity and innovation and how only a small percentage of women have lead creative roles in firms today. Libby’s work helps to empower women in their creative careers, imparting advice on raising the bar and the numbers.   A little more about Libby … Libby honed her skills at the Boston Architecture Center and the Harvard School of Design, as well as under Milton Glaser at the Haystack Mountain School of Craft. She has designed print ads for Saucony, web pages for Communispace, sleeper bags for Brahmin handbags, illuminated maps for Forest City Enterprises, a fragrance for a boutique hotel, packaging for Swiss Army and Tribe Hummus, shoeboxes for StrideRite, catalogs for L.L.Bean, a dictionary for Houghton Mifflin, logos and materials for many more. Libby has recently taken her creativity to Instagram with her #morningwalk. A day that starts early with a ritual morning walk through her hometown of Newburyport, Massachusetts. An hour that always provides fresh inspiration, and at least one image, shared via her Instragram feed @parkhere.   Libby's work has won many industry awards and has been featured in such noted publications PRINT Design Annual, Graphis Design, Graphis Logo and Communication Arts. You can connect with Libby on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.   A little more about Deirdre Breakenridge … Deirdre Breakenridge is an author, entrepreneur and CEO of Pure Performance Communications. A 25-year veteran in PR and marketing, she is the author of five Financial Times Press books including her latest titles, “Social Media and Public Relations,” and “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations.” Breakenridge speaks nationally and internationally on the topics of PR, social media and marketing. She's an adjunct professor at NYU and UMASS at Amherst, a recognized blogger at PR Expanded, and also the co-founder of #PRStudChat, a dynamic twitter chat with PR professionals, educators and students.        

Speaker 1) “A Hackerspace of One’s Own: Curriculum and the Maker Movement” Garth Johnson, Assistant Professor, College of the Redwoods. Speaker 2)“Digital Fabrication: Implications for Craft and Community” Neil Gershenfeld, Director, The Center for Bits and Atoms, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stuart Kestenbaum, Director, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and Phyllis Klein, Director, DC Fab Lab.

Today I talk with Stuart Kestenbaum, the director of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. If you have ever thought of traveling to Maine to attend a session, you will want to listen, as Stuart shares about the magical place called Haystack.  Also today, some reviews of my favorite new addictions, plus information on an upcoming FREE webinar February 8th, called “I Love Tools” Register for it here.www.craftcast.com