Tuppy's Ceramic Art

ART BRA SHOW

2008-05-19T17:55:00.000-07:00

My Millitit bikini is hanging in the window of University Art on J street in Sacramento as part of the Sneak Preview for this wonderful Art Bra Show. It will be there until the end of May , then moving to the Old Weave Bldg on 20th Street Sacramento. Please check out the Art Bra Show Blog.

Its for a wonderful cause.

For those of you who haven't seen the other bikinis, another are being exhibited in the Redwood Foyer of the Marin Veteran Memorial Bldg in San Rafael until June 8th.

Antonia Lawson's Ceramic Sculpture at CCACA's 30 Ceramic Sculptors Exhibit with me the artist and Bob Rose

2008-05-07T23:12:00.000-07:00

My piece "Two Faced GweiLo" in the show" - 30 Ceramic Sculptors" at John Natsoulas Gallery
April 23-May 24th 2008, Davis, California.

A NEW PUSSY

2008-04-22T18:17:00.000-07:00

Brooke is the new Pussy in our lives. She spends her mornings in the Otter in the sun.

Amber is a little miffed still. Here she is in a bowl straight from the kiln, Hot and alert. The first week was a hissing howling territory dance and Amber of course won the high ground hence the table. Amber was so vocal after Commet's death that we thought she might be lonely. Weren't we wrong!
Brooke arrival soon ended all that vocalization.
A month on they are doing well. Not exactly best buddies but getting used to each other. Brooke eats everything , Amber is still fussy and both now keep me company in the Clay Studio.

Shows Shows Shows

2008-04-22T14:21:00.000-07:00

MARIN OPEN STUDIOS
is in just over two weeks!
May 10 & 11th , 11 am - 6 pm.
It's Mothers day weekend. Come and celebrate with me, hang out in the sculpture garden and check out my new animal planter heads and sculptures.

I currently have sculptures out all over the place here are a few places to go and see my latest pieces.

In the MARIN OPEN STUDIO GALLERY at 301a Corte Madera Town Center I am showing a new piece a bust figure of "Bo Peep" with a lamb on her head. The surface body drawings are created with under-glaze color pencils. This is a new direction I am exploring. Gallery hours: Tuesday - Sunday, 11am - 6pm. April 16 - May 11, 2008

"Two Faced Gwei Lo" is showing at the
JOHN NATSOULAS GALLERY in Davis. Opening this Friday April 25th 7-10 pm don't miss it, its a blast, the music is always good and the sculptures are truly memorable. I love being a part of this - The show is called "30 Ceramic Sculptors". Richard Notkin, Richard Shaw, Jack Earl are just some of the great sculptors showing their work here.

Also in Davis at THE PENCE GALLERY
I have one of my Lingerie-Bikinis - " Burgundy Blossom Bikini" in the exhibit called "Exploring the Surface" this was juried by Peter Vandenberg whose work I love. The opening is also this Friday April 25th from 6-9pm.

MARIN SOCIETY OF ARTISTS - CRAFT AND SCULPTURE 2008, April 13 - May 11, 2008
"Two Faced Deity" is in this show, make sure you check out both of the faces on this Deity.

In the ART WORKS DOWNTOWN gallery in San Rafael. I will be showing three large pieces in "Thinking Green" - June 19 - July 25, Reception: June 27, 6-8pm
a juried exhibition by members of the Association of Clay and Glass Artists of California (www.acga.net) based on the theme "Thinking Green".

And last but definately not least our show THREE COLORFUL FRIENDS is getting great attention and rave reviews. My "Liberty Eagle" that was one of the four political sculptures featured was sold to an Eagle collector. This show is on till June 9th so if you get a chance next time you go to the Marin Symphony or another event there check it out.It is now showing in the Redwood Foyer of the Marin Veteran's Auditorium, 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael, CA 94903. Box office: (415)499-6400. Art exhibits are usually only open to ticketholders during events in the Auditorium.

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED

2008-04-02T14:58:00.000-07:00

My "Liberty Eagle" has landed in a fantastic place.
She was bought by an Eagle collector. Who discovered her in the Three Colorful Friends Exhibition during the Vienna Boys Choir Concert at the Marin Vererans Auditorium. If you get a chance to see this show do, its great and is getting rave reviews. See my previous blog on it.

"THREE COLORFUL FRIENDS" ----- Ceramic Sculpture & Painting

2008-03-06T10:42:00.000-08:00

THREE COLORFUL FRIENDS

ELLIS HEYER - ANTONIA LAWSON - PATRICIA BLAU

An exhibition of Ceramic sculpture and painting

MARCH 5th -June 8th 2008

Redwood Foyer , Marin Veterans Memorial Building, San Rafael, California

Well its up and its beautiful. After all is said and done "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and I'm the lucky beholder for now. Last month I was offered a venue to host a show after 3 artists cancelled last minute so "Three Colorful Friends" was miraculously pulled together. Patti was in India at the time so for 2 weeks I waited hoping she'd accept the offer on her return, luckily she did, then we needed a third someone whose work would fit with Meat and Ceramic Bikinis! not easy, but great minds think alike and Ellis was that thought. Everyone of us found available work for a 3 month exhibition. prepared it for hanging and did all the other things you need to do before an exhibition, and best of all we were all there on the day, on time ready to go.

Wendy & I hung the show Tuesday all day, it was a blast color matching bikinis to chuck roasts, T bone steaks and naked chickens. We had Ellis's artist in her painting eying up a big piece of meat.

There are also four sculptures, Mad Cow Disease, Dolly the Cloned Sheep, Liberty, and Clinton's Head on a platter, strategically placed along the wall. Such fun.

We hope some of you will get to visit the show. Ellis sorry we didn't get you in this photo.

B.M. Walden's Botanical Art Exhibition

2008-02-22T14:28:00.000-08:00

(My mum in the center with Dr. Hu and my dad)

My mother B.M. Walden is a botanical watercolourist. She is currently having a solo exhibition at The Chinese University in Hong Kong. Check out her paintings they are simply magnificent.

Hiking Hong Kong trails, stream beds and numerous hillsides was something I grew up doing with my family in search of plants and flowers that we would bring home for mum to paint. Once she had painted all the Hong Kong Flora, my mother travelled to China, up to Yunan where she continued her search for plants to paint.

My current Ceramic Sculpture series "Kitchen Gods" also draws upon this region and my fantastic upbringing in Hong Kong.

Licking Pots & Off to Oxford

2007-12-27T18:50:00.000-08:00

Commet our wonderful talking , perching cat has been really sick. But the strangest thing to me being a ceramic sculptor is that her relief is to lick clay pots. After months of vomiting and vet visits and a drastic decline in weight she finally had an ultra sound and was diagnosed with a high grade melignant cancer in her stomach. Off the meds she started to eat again and now licks what ever bisque ware I have around the house. I had to shut her out of the studio because she was licking my new sculptures like crazy.

Her current favorites are an Italian red terra cotta flower pot and a small but expensive highly burnished black pot with two snakes attached by Fabiola E Quezada . She licks the Vipers' heads. For Christmas I bought her another piece of Folk Pottery in the shape of a bird and filled it with wheat grass for her. But she won't lick this one, obviously the wrong trace elements or perhaps it is waxed. She is always cold so for the past 2 weeks she has followed me around sitting or lying on me at every occasion. She is happy off her human meds, and I give her homeopathic tissue salts. Its good to hear her voice again and watch her eat. We will keep her as comfortable as is catly possible. Keeping her sister away from the extra food is another challenge.

Other than Christmas, a sick cat and holiday shows my latest news is that my eldest daughter is off to Oxford for the winter (Hilary) and Spring (Trinity) terms. Now this is it, the real break away. So you can imagine where my brain is currently. This was all rather sudden as spaces only recently became available for the winter quarter (not many want to deal with an English winter). She will be sandwiched between my Dad's and brother's colleges at Corpus Christi.

As this is my last blog of the year have a wonderful 2008.

Celebration of Craftswomen Show

2007-11-28T18:31:00.000-08:00

One weekend down and one to go. I'm talking about The Celebration of Craftswomen show that is taking place at the Herbs Pavillion in Fort Mason.
I love my new booth set up that Kirsty helped me with, I feel like I'm inside a Chinese Temple all day long. Last weekend was great , a good crowd and wonderful neighbors. We even got to park in the lot. This coming weekend lets hope will be even better. Friday was fantastic as Kirsty and a friend from Portland helped me set up, I needed that as I was feeling some what queasy after a very overindulgent Thanksgiving.
So if you're in town come by this weekend and see me at booth 411 in The Herbst Pavillion.

Other fantastic news is that Kirsty is off to Oxford for the winter term and possibly spring term too. I'll keep you posted.

Bob Rose & The Sandy Besser Collection

2007-10-29T22:32:00.000-07:00

Last Friday night I went to the opening of the Sandy Besser Collection at the De Young. It was such fun. After my complimentary G&T in the members VIP room I headed down to the lower level where I bumped into Christa Assad who had a beautiful tea pot in the show and Whitney Smith whose blog inspired me to start one of my own.

When I arrived I looked to see if my friend Bob Rose had picked up his artists name card, but it still sat on the table unclaimed so I figured that he must still be in Koi Samui, Thailand where he currently lives. On entering the show Sandy Besser was welcoming the artists, I turned around momentarily and Bob Rose and his friend Pascal were walking towards me. It was amazing, Bob introduced us to Sandy Besser and then we went around the show. Bob has two pieces in the show. The one being featured in the press release is The Bali Tea Pot. Hap Sakwa the best 3D art photographer I know was also there, he had a beautiful wooden teapot in the show. I also bumped into my old neighbours Ron & Diane and Linda Fitzgibbon another wonderful ceramic artist who will be showing at the Pence Gallery 2008. If you love ceramics or just a good cup of tea you must go and see this show.

All Fired Up Exhibition

2007-10-28T23:42:00.001-07:00

Today Alex, Caitlin & I went to the opening of All Fired Up, we were late to the award ceremony because we'd been to see Body Works 2 at the San Jose Tech museum. It was amazing and fascinating so it took me well over 2 hours to get through the exhibit.

All Fired Up will be up until Feb 28th 2008 and is housed opposite the Triton Museum in Santa Clara throughout the Civic Center corridors. They produced a nice full colour catalogue featuring all of the pieces and where they are located in the exhibition. I was pleasantly surprised to receive an award and check for my piece Tin Hau. We stopped at Stanford on the way home to see the mural that Kirsty designed and is now painting.

Grayson Perry's views on Art & Craft

2007-10-27T13:01:00.000-07:00

Craft - a refuge for artists who play it safe

Grayson Perry - from The Guardian

I see the craft world as a kind of lagoon and the art world in general as the ocean. Some artists shelter in this lagoon, because their imagination isn’t robust enough to go out into the wider sea. Although there are some very good things being made, the craft world at the moment is set up to preserve something that can’t look after itself.

Perhaps our modern western emphasis on the individual has distorted our idea of the crafts. People want a direct contact with the maker, want something that hasn’t got the impersonal perfection of the manufactured. Often what we call character or spirit in an object, especially a functional one, are basically mistakes. I’ve recently had a Saville Row suit made, and what sets it apart are the things you might call mistakes. It is softer round the edges.

And yet, the traditional craft areas have dried up. The last bastions of handmade work - Saville Row tailoring, high end car manufacture and bespoke furniture - are disappearing because they are so expensive and the mass-produced is so good in some fields. There’s no need for humble tableware or woven hand-made rugs: there’s always a manufactured design alternative. The handmade has become an expensive indulgence.

But craft isn’t just a synonym for the hand-made. It is about technical skill but there must be a good idea guiding it, either traditional or innovative. I love craft objects to look at, but for me the best thing is a combination of its meaning, its beauty and its craftsmanship. It is all these things combined that make art exciting.

The essential distinction between art and craft is that art has an emphasis on feelings and ideas and the crafts have an emphasis on technique. I always give things the Antiques Roadshow test: would an object be interesting if it came up on the programme? Can I imagine a Sarah Lucas tin can cropping up on Antiques Roadshow and us looking at it in awe? It has to have something of quality about it, either the craftsmanship or rigorous ideas or strong feelings. My least favourite outcome is the beautifully crafted ugly thing.

But the history of the handmade is littered with some very profound objects, and what is beautiful about them is that this profundity is not as self-conscious as a lot of contemporary art. When people ask me who inspires me, who my favourite artist is, I say it is an anonymous artist working before 1800- ancient antique ceramics, prints, embroidery, folk art. Great craft objects once seemed to have sprung out of the culture spontaneously, to have been refined by tradition.

Craft has lost its way and become precious; self-consciousness is one of its great cankers. Sometimes there are peevish voices in the craft world demanding respect from the contemporary art world. It is a bit like an Englishman in France shouting in English. If you want to be accepted in the contemporary art world, you have to accept its culture and speak its language. I see the craft world as the pretentious next-door neighbour. It is failed ambition: you either are an artist or you aren’t. Don’t train yourself as a crafts person, exhibit in the crafts world and then complain.

One of the major difficulties crafts people face today is a definition of what they do. Nowadays craft overlaps with design and contemporary arts, and there is little territory that is actually crafts. Are websites crafted? Is craft making a TV programme, or writing an article? They all have a craft aspect. To call something craft is just to say it is physical. But craft is a hot word in the art world at the moment, because people are tired of conceptual art where the ideas aren’t even that good, ideas that wouldn’t stand up outside the flimsy theatre of the gallery. Once people saw art as a career, it attracted a lot of chancers. A lot of painting I see would probably qualify as craft.

Although I use the emotional and intellectual framework of a craft medium, as a potter, I see myself as an artist, not as part of the crafts movement. Pottery is older than painting, with just as venerable a history, but if you look at the big prices in auction houses, if that is any measure of worth, paintings get the big sums. The crafts have an audience of people who make crafts, in the same way as the theatre has an audience of out-of-work actors. There aren’t any superstar crafts people, any Sam Taylor- Woods. And there aren’t the high-profile collectors in the world of crafts. The craft world has become a refuge for the
less challenging artists.

Grayson Perry is the 2003 winner of the British Turner prize for contemporary fine art. He is the first potter to win this prestigious award.

Boys just you wait

2007-10-24T20:06:00.000-07:00

There is nothing quite like that first glimpse of your pieces after a successful glaze firing. Earlier this week my friend Icka kindly put a couple of my ceramic pieces into her overglaze kiln firing. I had already glazed the work a rich honey yellow colour , but I felt that the pieces needed a little something more, so I painted 14 carat gold onto the sprigged designs. Today she brought the bra and knickers to the studio and the results were fantastic. It set my mind in fast speed motion as all the "What if " ideas came rushing into my head. I have already designed a whole new bikini wardrobe and my mind is still reeling. As for my "Cod Pieces" well boys just you wait.

Friends art Opening & Hong Kong

2007-10-17T23:54:00.001-07:00

Hong Kong from Lugard Road

For those of you who live near Sausalito, I went last Thursday to an art opening at the Hanson Gallery. My friend Daniel Merriam is showing his incredible water colours and acrylics there, his web site link is in my friends list, but seeing his large paintings up close was a real treat. So make a detour and try to find a parking space cos its worth it.

Other than that I am still working on my web site. Its taking a little longer than expected cos when I think I have my colour scheme and font choices etc all chosen then you can bet your bottom dollar that someone will say something that makes me try an alternative design. I've done 3 already and now I'm just going to finish it before I show it again.

View from Island House

I spent the morning glazing my new altar girls for the upcoming Celebration of Crafts Women Show. I love this Kitchen God series as it is pulling up so many old memories of my amazing childhood growing up in Hong Kong.
I lived in this house "Island House" in Tai Po as a kid, it is now owned by the World Wildlife Fund. My Dad put in the swing and our sulphur crested cockatoo used to sit in that now huge tree. On the left is the garage/boat house. In those days the island causeway (you can see under the high rises) was where all the junks moored and there were no concrete blocks of flats. We would walk along the causeway to get to Tai Po market. The cause way was used for drying fish. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_House . After typhoons we would go down to the beach around the house and find prehistoric axe and arrow heads, washed up sea snakes and huge horseshoe crabs. Since my dad first discovered these ancient tools the island has become an archaeological site. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuen_Chau_Tsai

Boobs, Bags & Boots

2007-10-04T23:15:00.001-07:00

Found out today that our proposal for a show at Art Works Down Town Gallery in San Rafael was accepted. "Boobs, Bags and Boots" will feature my wall hung Bikini- Lingerie, Melissa Woodburns ceramic purses and Carol Durhams gut shoes and boots. However you will all have to wait until 2009 for this fun event. 2009 seems so far away right now but then it gives us more time to come up with some wonderful new pieces.
Here's my Arabian Emerald Bikini-Lingerie followed by Burgundy Blossom Bikini-Lingerie. Both are life size, if you're like Twiggy or one of the current super models. But I have been making a few larger sizes too.
Last week I also started on my Cod Piece Collection for all those guys who fancy something totally different. I'll keep you posted as the first ones come hot out the kiln!

Must go as its "Boogie By The Bay" this weekend and I have to make sausage rolls to keep my dancers happy.

Tin Hau is All Fired Up

2007-09-28T14:43:00.001-07:00

I 'm starting this blog because I'm frustrated setting up my new website, its tedious and taking forever and I need to have achieved something small by the end of today that is computer related!

This last couple of weeks I've been in the studio a lot. The garden has been neglected apart from my picking endless apples, cucumbers, tomatoes and courgettes. My new Kitchen God series has opened a floodgate of ideas and I can't stop creating. I'm currently working on a new group of Altar Women and pieces for the Celebration of Crafts Women Show that I'll be participating in later on this fall.
Tin Hau ( Matzu) , the goddess of the Sea, is off traveling again this time to a show sponsored by the City of Santa Clara and the Triton Museum called "All Fired Up". The opening reception will be on Oct 28Th at 3pm at 1500 Warburton Avenue in Santa Clara, the exhibition is open until late February 2008. Tin Hau was one of the pieces I made in reaction to the Tsunami.

Two other pieces from my Kitchen God series are also on the road currently in a show called "Immigration - Merging Cultures" which is at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts until October 21st. You can view the show at http://www.sebarts.org/visual/images/Imm_inst5_lg.jpg

KARMA
H29” x W 15” x D 13”

This piece was inspired by my favorite Buddha Head sculpture that sat on my fathers desk in his office and then later in our home in Hong Kong. It originally came from Ayuthaya. A place I visited as a small child with my mother when traveling back to England on the P&O Line from Hong Kong.
This Buddha Head carries a silver and gold leafed bowl, as a child I loved to take the gold leaf in the temple and rub it onto the various Buddha enhancing their beauty. Hanging from the long “ Lucky” ear lobes are a bound pig and goat. Reminding us of the cycle of life’s Karma. It is also a perspective on today’s food industry, and our general treatment of other living creatures.