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Red Wing Collectors Society Foundation Award
This endowed award is presented annually by the Red Wing Collectors Society Foundation through the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis to a deserving individual who is pursuing a career as a potter or who is studying or researching historical aspects of the pottery industry. The Red Wing Collectors Society Foundation endeavors to broaden the appreciation of pottery, past and present, for the general public and maintains the Red Wing Pottery Museum in Red Wing, Minnesota.
The selected recipient will receive $1000. Applicants and interested parties may inquire about the Red Wing Collectors Society Foundation Award by contacting the Northern Clay Center at 612-339-8007 or at their website www.northernclaycenter.org. |
RWCSF Award Recipient – 2010 – Kristin Pavelka
Kristin Pavelka grew up in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, earned a BA in Studio Art from Carleton College and an MFA in ceramics from Penn State University. She trained as a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana, the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, Maine, and the Tsugaru Kanayama Pottery in Goshogawara, Japan. She received a Jerome Foundation Grant in 2005 from the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis. She headed the ceramics program at Hamline University for 5 years until leaving to become a full-time potter and mother. Her studio is located at her home in Maplewood, Minnesota.
Kristin states about her work, “I make functional earthenware pottery for everyday use and special occasions. My pots often wear colorfully patterned layers of candy-like glaze, referencing a myriad of influences from historical pottery, food presentation, architecture, mid-century design to Martha Stewart.”
Kristin can be contacted at Kristin.pavelka@gmail.com. |
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RWCSF Award - 2009 – Peter Jadoonath
Peter Jadoonath attended Bemidji State University where he earned a B.F.A. in studio ceramics and painting in 1998. His studies at BSU provided the “foundation of creativity” for Jadoonath that continues to have an influence on his work process and his development of new ideas. He exhibits work at local and national galleries as well as a handful of local informal sales. Jadoonath teaches at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis and at the Eagan Art House in Eagan, Minnesota. In 2007 he received a Jerome Ceramic Artist Project Grant.
Jadoonath creates stoneware pottery that focuses on “texture, balance, tension, negative space, and shadows.” Jadoonath relates, “I find inspiration from scientific mystery, unexplained history, small complex ideas, and large simple ideas. Through my craft, it is important for me to honor timelessness, tradition, ancestors…. I strive for this by following my intuition, seeking self-realization, working hard, and gathering the patience to take risks.” Jadoonath forms his pots using the basic clay building concepts of “squeezing, paddling, throwing, pinching, coiling, folding, smashing, polishing, and carving.” The surface treatment is then built up with layers of colored slips and stains as well as layers of “pitted glazes and thin washes of glaze,” creating a skin that transforms and enhances the textured surfaces of his work.
Jadoonath can be contacted through his website: pjadoonath@yahoo.com.
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RWCSF Award - 2008 – Aaron Sober
Aaron Sober is a ceramic artist located in Mid-Coast Maine. He received his B.A. in ceramics from Macalester College in 2001. He was a special student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a core fellow at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina from 2004-2006. Sober was a 2007 Fogelberg Fellowship recipient at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis. He exhibits at several national craft fairs and galleries.
Combining functional pottery and traditional brushwork, his work is intended for use. Sober states about his work, “Like a pair of work boots, my pots are made to be durable and masculine, but also not without grace. As I strive to infuse functional forms with these qualities, I am interested in embellishing the surface with brushwork. The marriage of form and surface continues to fascinate me and motivate my work. As time passes, I am finding that the pots coming out of the kiln are getting simpler and less adorned. It is my hope that my pots become useful and intimate parts of people.”
He continues, “Like all crafters, the process of making things is one that continues to satisfy, humble, and challenge. The relationship to a material undeniably shows through in every piece. As I go through a production cycle, I attempt to handle the clay in a direct, confident, and un-fussed manner. In doing so, it is my hope that the work has a strong and uncomplicated presence.” Inspired by the objects that we use the most, Aaron makes pots that are familiar, comfortable, and ageless. All his work is food, microwave, and dishwasher safe.
Aaron Sober can be contacted at aaronsober@yahoo.com. |
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RWCSF Award Recipient – 2007 – A. Blair Clemo
A. Blair Clemo is the Studio Manager and Pottery Instructor at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. He received his MFA in Ceramics at the New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University in 2010. Originally from Doylestown Pennsylvania, Clemo spent many years in the West studying ceramics at the College of Southern Idaho and the University of Montana, Missoula. After completing his BFA in 2006, Clemo worked as the Ceramic Materials Technician and Artist in Residence at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis. His work has been included in numerous regional and national exhibitions.
Clemo states, “My current work is strongly influenced by the flagrant excess present in the ornate history of the European Decorative Arts, in particular porcelain and silver centerpieces and service ware. These objects flaunt their position at the center of the table as well as their owner's position in society. They serve food; however, their greater intent is to serve as a status symbol. I am interested in questioning how the opulence and stature of these objects operates when expressed through a contemporary studio pottery practice and what it reveals about our persistent desire to collect and display objects of value.”
A. Blair Clemo can be contacted at ablairc@gmail.com. |
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RWCSF Award Recipient – 2006 – Mike Helke
Mike Helke grew up in Marine on St. Croix, MN. In 2005 he earned a BFA in Studio Art with an American Studies Minor from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Helke served as sales gallery and exhibitions assistant, teaching faculty, and studio artist at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis from 2005-2009 and is an MFA candidate at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. In 2008 Helke received a Jerome Ceramic Artist Grant, and his work has been seen in multiple exhibitions regionally and nationally.
Mike states about his work, “A garden responds to the attention of the gardener and the gardener responds to the needs of the garden. This daily exchange is a dialogue in which both participants closely understand and reflect their role and changing needs and desires to one another. I liken this dialogue to the sort of call and response exchange that happens between my work and myself. This exchange dictates a gradual evolution in the making and understanding of the work. The relationship and evolution are linked to a sequence of occurrences that evolve as my desires for my work and my self slowly adapt to changing conditions of each new day. As our world becomes increasingly impersonal, a personal and authentic connection or exchange and understanding between self and other become increasingly difficult to find and realize. I appreciate the connection or self-awareness that making pottery brings into my life. “
Mike Helke can be contacted at Helk0004@umn.edu. |
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RWCSF Award Recipient – 2005 - Ursula Hargens
Ursula Hargens is a studio potter in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She received an MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and an MA in Art & Art Education from Columbia University, Teachers College. Ursula also studied ceramics at Nova Scotia College of Art & Design. In addition to working as a studio potter, she is a teaching artist at the Northern Clay Center. She has taught as adjunct faculty at the University of Minnesota and as a visiting artist at Ohio State University and Nova Scotia College of Art & Design. Ursula has exhibited throughout the U.S. and has received several awards, including fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the McKnight Foundation in 2009.
She writes about her work, "My pieces are colorful and decidedly decorative. I use flowers to create a decorative language that is animated, vivid and new. The flower assertively traverses the form, creating an active dialogue between form and decoration. This body work acknowledges earthenware as a material steeped in folk traditions. Simple motifs unfold to create layers of color, pattern and image, resulting in rich decorative surfaces."
Ursula Hargens’ website is: www.ursulahargens.com. |
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RWCSF Award – 2004 – Rebecca Chappell
Rebecca Chappell received her M.F.A. from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2008 and her B.F.A. from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2003. She has participated in solo and group exhibitions across the U.S. She has been a resident of the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis Minnesota and ART 342 in Fort Collins, Colorado, where she also worked as a visiting professor of pottery at Colorado State University. Chappell was awarded the Evelyn Shapiro Foundation Fellowship in 2010 and currently resides in Philadelphia where she is a resident artist and class teacher at The Clay Studio.
Chappell states about her work, “Pots can be covert instruments for carrying messages. These objects, over time, through intimate actions with the human body, slowly reveal surprises and meanings that are contained within. They are a subtle way of communicating that need not be obviously aggressive or confrontational in order to have presence and importance. Patience, curiosity, and a willingness to play are all required to reveal the surprises that pots for use can contain. These objects are dependent on imbedded memories, as well as the substances they hold or present in order to gain importance."
Rebecca Chappell can be reached at rchappell78@aol.com. |
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