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Handbuilding Laboratory with Eric Knoche, November 1-7, 2015

Wood-fired clay sculptures by Eric Knoche

When viewing sculptor Eric Knoche’s work, it’s clear he has a facility with form. And when he describes his forms, it’s clear that he finds a lot of inspiration in the clay he works with. As he recently explained in an interview, “Clay is just such an amazing material, and you can work it so many ways; additive and subtractive processes work equally well, it is both demanding and forgiving, it can be softer than water and as hard as stone, as delicate as an eggshell and more durable than anything else humans have ever made. It changes from second to second as you work with it, which creates a feedback loop or a dialog. For me, the material itself is endlessly fascinating.”

Eric’s clay forms are deceptively simple. Squiggled lines and arcs gain volume and edges to become three-dimensional surfaces that draw the viewer in from multiple angles. His pieces suggest common objects and quick doodles at the same time as they evoke ancient architecture and the earth itself. Some are small enough to hold in a hand, while others stand as tall as person. “I think of my work as one installation stretching through time as space, each piece adding meaning to the others,” Eric writes in his artist statement. “I have been strongly influenced by languages I don’t understand and tools I don’t know how to use, male and female figures, machine parts, shelters, math equations, micro-facial movements, the Argentine tango, alphabets, the spine and other bones, the distortional nature of memory, the limits of ocular perception, plants, running water, and songbirds.”

 

Eric Knoche working on a clay sculpture
Eric at work on a piece in his Asheville studio. Photo by Frank J. Bott.

 

We are looking forward to bringing Eric to Penland this fall to teach a 1-week workshop November 1-7, 2015. The class will focus on using handbuilding techniques to realize sculptural goals, and we expect it to be jam-packed with insights. After all, Eric is the guy who likes to create clay pieces that are as large as he is to challenge himself technically. “I have no proprietary information,” he states. “I’ll tell anybody anything they want to know about anything I do.” In other words, this week will be pure gold for anyone interested in creating forms with clay. To reserve your spot, register here.

 

Handbuilding Laboratory

Eric Knoche
November 1-7, 2015
In this class we’ll blur the lines between pinching, coiling, slab work, and modeling in order to open up more possibilities in the world of handbuilt ceramics. Students will gain a deeper understanding of the clay itself as we establish a paradigm of creative problem solving and develop a personal set of integrated methods that most expeditiously accomplish each student’s artistic goals. We’ll look at various ways to successfully construct large work, intricate work, and multiple-piece sculptures using simple tools and processes such as tarpaper templates and clay armatures. All levels. Code F03CB

Studio artist; presenter at first European Woodfire Conference (Germany), guest lecturer at Australian National University; Ceramics Monthly emerging artist; exhibitions: Blue Spiral 1 (NC), Baltimore Clay Works, AKAR Design Gallery (IA), Mint Museum (NC), Hjorths Fabrik (Denmark), Gallerei Klosterformat (Germany); collections: Mint Museum (NC), Mission Hospital (NC).

ericknoche.com

Sign up for Handbuilding Laboratory.

 

To see more of Eric’s work and his process, watch this video about how he approaches his art.

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Turn Your Travels into a Book with Gail Rieke | April 20 – 26, 2014

 
 

Artist Gail Rieke wrote to us recently:
 
 

Lately I’ve been working on two travel journals. They live in suitcases on the suitcase wall in my studio. The arrows indicate the suitcases containing these two journals:
 
 

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Otafuku’s Dream is a journal of two trips I took to Japan in 2012:

 
 

Otafuku's Dream Journal

 
 

The transparent pages usually live folded up within a cocoon folder tied with a grey kimono sash but sometimes they are mounted on a mylar covered window for display:

 
 

Otafuku's Dream Pages

 
 

Gail Rieke
The Artist as Traveler
In the books studio
April 20 – 26, 2014
Do you have a pile of travel memorabilia stashed somewhere in your life? Have you promised yourself that you will return to it someday and make it into something meaningful? This workshop explores how travel has affected the lives of artists throughout history and how you can transform memory into artistic expression. The workshop will include individual and collaborative exercises in collage, drawing, mapping, writing, and bookmaking. Our pieces will be structured at the onset and open-ended in their resolution. Ignite your own unique responses! Take a leap! Beginning level. Code S03B

 
 

Register here for this workshop

 
 

The second journal I’m working on right now is about two trips I took to France, teaching at my friend’s rural studio in a medieval town and then exploring Paris. Here are some pages in-process responding to one of these trips:

 
 

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Gail Rieke has taught at the University of Edmonton (Canada), Haystack (ME), American Academy of Bookbinding (CO), and the Brayer Studio (Japan), among others. Her exhibitions include: the Cheongju International Biennale in Korea and a career retrospective at Museum of Fine Arts (Santa Fe).

 
 

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Multiples: Fabrication Through Repetition with Sarah Loertscher

 

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Image courtesy of Sarah Loertscher.

Metalsmith, jeweler, and former Penland core fellow Sarah Loertscher will return to Penland this spring to teach a workshop in the metals studio. Elaine Bleakney corresponded with her about the workshop, her work, and its deep ties to landscape.

 
 

I think a lot about the way poems build through repetition, and how when a poet repeats a phrase, the phrase invokes the possibility of a form emerging for the poem at large. Do you have similar feelings about the creation of visual forms in your work?

Yes. Since being a core fellow at Penland, the idea of a starting place (in my case, usually a repeating shape) has been at the heart of my making experience.

It started as a coping mechanism while I was a student Penland–we were exposed to so many new instructors and techniques in such a short time, and I wanted to jump into making, not figuring out what to make. At the time, I would use the triangle and the hexagon–so no matter what class I was in, I would just start making one of those shapes out of metal, clay, paper, glass. It got me working.

It’s still the same experience today–I love the repetition of forms, and some days I just want to build the same building blocks over and over again, and other times I want to build with them. The building part is really organic–the pieces dictate how they want to grow. The hardest part is knowing when I’m done building and when I need to finish it. It’s somehow collaborative–like I help bring a piece into the world, not that I create it.

 
 

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Image courtesy of Sarah Loertscher.

 

Using a shape–and getting people working, and building, through repetition–will be the focus of the workshop. We are working on getting out from obsessing over one precious piece. This really stunts learning, because after a point you begin to be scared of taking chances and “ruining” what you started.

I want the workshop to be a really active one, where people are moving through processes and learning through experience. We’ll dive into deeper projects later in the workshop, but the core of the class is going to be experiencing different processes and understanding what you love (or dislike) about each technique.

 
 

Sarah Loertscher
Multiples: Fabrication Through Repetition
In the metals studio
This workshop will focus on fabrication using repetition to build familiarity with materials and techniques. We’ll cover the basics—piercing, filing, riveting, cold connections, soldering—and advanced techniques like hollow construction (sheet and wire), inlay (solder, resin, wood, and soft stone), enameling, and steel fabrication. This workshop is perfect for beginners as well as experienced students interested in creating a production line or new body of work. The emphasis will be on honing skills and creating meaningful, well-designed jewelry and objects. All levels.

 

To find out more and register for this workshop click here.
Spring scholarship deadline is November 29.
Please note: applications need to be at Penland by this date to be considered for scholarship. Overnight service may not deliver to Penland’s campus on time, please plan accordingly.

 
 

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Image courtesy of Sarah Loertscher.

 

In your artist statement you talk about the expansive Midwestern landscape you grew up in as providing a backdrop for forms to impress you. Do you miss this, living and working in an urban environment, and do you find forms in the urban landscape that inspire you now?

You know, I do miss it.  The urban environment feeds me in different ways, mainly through interaction and opportunity. The density of Seattle brings together the opportunity of collaboration and exposure, among other things.  For example, this last weekend we pulled off a photo shoot where we had professional make up artists, stylists, models, and a photographer, and mostly from our circle of friends and acquaintances. That would be hard to pull off last minute in a rural setting. Seattle has also helped me expand my studio through interested students and apprentices, and given me teaching opportunities and press.  The social landscape is beautiful, and rich in designers, makers, and people who appreciate those things.  The surrounding physical landscape is also breathtakingly beautiful, but is usually just seen from afar–a beautiful backdrop of mountains and water.

 
 

Sarah Loertscher teaches and works out of her West Seattle studio. She has taught at Pratt Fine Art Center in Washington. A former Penland core fellow and American Craft Council AltCraft artist, her exhibitions include Velvet daVinci (CA) and Sienna Gallery (MA). Her runway collaboration with Angel Sanchez appeared at New York Fashion Week 2013 and a collaboration with Mila Hermanovski at Los Angeles Fashion Week 2012. She might be watching this right now: