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Announcing New Core Fellows

Welcome, new Core Fellows!

We’re excited to announce and welcome our three newest Penland Core FellowsErin Addie, Mia Donalson, and Jan Rybczynski. They will join returning fellows Kimberly Jo, Brandon Lopez, Nicholas McDonald, Grace Anne Odom, and Amal Tamari. For two years, they will live together, take classes, expand their practices, and help run Penland.

Learn more about the Penland Core Fellowship here.

Erin Addie is an artist currently living and working in Philadelphia, PA. Their work is primarily metal and wood, often exploring themes of home and identity. They look forward to expanding their understanding of craft and materials as a core fellow. 

Clamp III (Bread), poplar, cast iron, bread, 11 x 6 x 16 inches

Check out Erin’s website and Instagram.

 


Mia Donalson‘s work references craft objects found in the home from the scale of furniture to jewelry. They utilize autoethnographic practices and subversion of expectation in form and materiality to investigate concepts of belonging.

Hold Your Tongue , sterling silver, human mouth, 4 x 2 x 3 inches

Check out Mia’s website and Instagram.

 


Jan Rybczynski loves experimenting with all kinds of materials and processes and is excited to be able to think creatively surrounded by such a wonderful community! 

Torsion Chair, patinated steel and rope, 30 x 22 x 20 inches

Check out Jan’s website and Instagram.

 


Selection Panel

Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to apply. Penland received 200+ applications to the core fellowship this year. The selection process was thoughtfully undertaken by the following panel, in conjunction with Penland staff.

Tom Huang holds an MFA in Furniture Design from the Rhode Island School of Design and is an Associate Professor of Design at The University of Kansas. He has exhibited nationally and is a Fellow of the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship.   He has held exhibitions at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art and other nationally acclaimed art centers, has been published in American Craft Magazine, in E. Ashley Rooney’s Bespoke: Furniture from 101 International Artists,  Eduard Broto’s Bamboo Design Guide & 59 Case Study, and Pablo van der Lugt’s Booming Bamboo.  His love for paddling and his local waterways in Kansas inspires his most recent work.

Kento Saisho (he/him) is an artist and metalworker currently based in Los Angeles, CA. He makes vigorously textured and tactile sculptural objects, vessels, and contemporary artifacts. He graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 2016, where he was a Windgate-Lamar Fellowship recipient from the Center for Craft. Following this, he completed the Core Fellowship at the Penland School of Craft from 2018-2020. He was also a recipient of the inaugural Emerging Artist Cohort from the American Craft Council (ACC) in 2021 and the 2022 Career Advancement Grant from the Center for Craft. He has exhibited nationally  and internationally and currently shows at Citron Gallery in Asheville, NC and Reisig and Taylor Contemporary in Los Angeles, CA.

Originally from Yokohama, Japan, Sayaka Suzuki has been residing in the US for the past 35 years. She received her BFA from Tulane University in New Orleans and her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has been a workstudy student, scholarship recipient, teaching assistant and a teaching artist at Penland over the course of 20 years. Her work explores her deep roots in Japanese culture in conjunction with her new adopted identity as an American immigrant. She has had solo exhibitions at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art and Pensacola Museum of Art (FL) and been included in group shows at the Washington Project for the Arts-Corcoran (DC), New Mexico Museum of Art ,Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (Korea), and Museo Crocetti (Italy) among others. She is a recent recipient of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship and was a recent fellow at the Vermont Studio Center. 

Christina Shmigel is a Ukrainian-American artist working in sculptural installation and drawing. Shmigel studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design (BFA 1980), sculpture at Brooklyn College (MFA 1987), metalsmithing at Southern Illinois University- Carbondale (MFA 1995) with additional training in blacksmithing at the Penland School of Craft. Since 1994, she has been active at Penland in various guises: student, studio assistant, resident artist, instructor, and board member. She is an educator and maker who has participated in numerous solo and invitational exhibitions both nationally and internationally.

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Sound Mandala

The frequency of healing… in glass.

We are captivated by summer instructor Nisha Bansil’s Glass Mandala series, undertaken during her residency at the Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass.

Nisha writes:

This project was an investigation into Cymatics. In 1880 a German scientist named Ernst Chladni discovered that when you strike the edge of a metal plate covered in sand with a violin bow predictable figures appear.

These figures are created by the pressure waves of sound vibrating the material on the plate.  I was interested in capturing the resonant patterns of the vibration of sacred instruments. Lama Tsultrim and Lama Lordo from Karme Ling monastery played traditional instruments called Gayalings into a microphone which was connected to a modified speaker.

The speaker vibrated glass frit poured on top of thin glass plates.  I made 36, 16” x 16” glass patterns from that recording. I found that the patterns lined up in visual chords and the nodes intersected in such a way that the stacked plates began to reference patterns found in sacred geometry and Muslim architecture.

You can explore the art of embedding patterns in glass castings through a variety of methods this summer with Nisha in her Penland glass workshop:

“Embedded Pattern and Thick Forms”
Nisha Bansil
June 30-July 12, 2024 (11 STUDIO DAYS)

Registration opens January 15!

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Marsha Owen Scholarship Fund Announced

A studio potter for over thirty-five years, Marsha Owen traced the origins of her career to a Penland workshop. Believing that “there is always something to learn from the clay,” she would return to Penland again and again to learn and to find inspiration.

In the wake of her untimely death, Masha’s friends and family have come together to found a Penland scholarship in her memory, celebrating her life and carrying on her legacy. The goal is to raise $100,000, creating an endowment which will fund the cost of a Penland clay workshop in perpetuity. We invite you to make a gift in Marsha’s honor.

About Marsha

Marsha Owen and friend and mentee Wei Sun created the mugs for the 37th Annual Penland Benefit Auction in 2022.

Marsha Owen took her first pottery course with John Givvines at the North Carolina State Craft Center. “I was a slow learner – I took the beginner’s course three times – but I knew almost immediately that this was work I wanted to pursue,” she said. 

Working as a self-employed potter for over thirty-five years, she concentrated on utilitarian pieces for everyday use. Marsha and her husband, Rick Moss, collaborated in their home studio in Raleigh, North Carolina where Marsha was the primary potter and Rick ran day-to-day operations for their business and contributed his handbuilding and relief carving skills to the work.

Marsha worked extensively with colored slips, stains, underglazes, various resist techniques, carving and texturing as well as the more common glazing techniques of dipping and spraying. Her work includes an impressive variety, all stamped with the Marsha Owen imprint.

“What many might not know about Marsha but was evident in her ceramics, is that she was an outstanding baker and cook,” said Kathryn Gremley, Penland Gallery Curator and friend of Marsha’s since 1984, when they were both residents. “Her work was beautifully designed for pairing with food— the forms and colors thoughtfully considered for what could be served from them, or how they would fit in the hand— always working to create the perfect dish that we would value for both its function and simple artistry.”

Marsha and Penland

Marsh Owen (right) and Elizabeth Brim (left) at a Penland Benefit Auction in the mid 1980’s. Marsha is holding one of her famous chocolate carrot cakes, made for the occasion.

Marsha first came to Penland as a student in 1978 with Rebecca Plummer and Jon Ellenbogen. “That was, without question, the class that gave me my career,” said Marsha. Following that initial visit to Penland, she attended numerous classes including concentration courses and summer workshops. Marsha was a Penland core student in 1981 and resident artist from 1984 to 1985. 

Penland helped start Marsha’s pottery career and continued to be an important part of her life. Over four decades, Marsha was a frequent student, visiting artist, and winter resident. Her pots have long been a staple of the Penland Gallery. “For Marsha, Penland was not only a teaching and learning place, but also a sanctuary where she could renew her connection to the ceramic community and find inspiration for her work,” said Wei Sun, Marsha’s close friend and colleague.

Marsha Owen Scholarship


Ice cream bowls created by Marsha Owen

A skilled potter with close ties to Penland, Marsha Owen passed away unexpectedly on July 7th, 2023. Because Marsha loved her work and sharing her knowledge, family and friends are championing the Marsha Owen Scholarship as a way to celebrate her life and carry on her legacy. With support from family, friends, and the community, the scholarship will be established as an endowment, covering the full cost of a workshop in ceramic studies to selected candidates every year.

If you would like to support the Marsha Owen Scholarship, please Donate Here.

Note: Many companies have gift matching programs which will double your donation. If you are interested in a gift matching program, please contact Wei Sun (weisunpottery@gmail.com) for details.

Learn more about Penland’s scholarship program HERE.
Find Marsha Owen’s obituary HERE.