Side Street Studio Blog | The best art that B.C. can offer

Andre Gogol writes;

“I was born in Calgary, Alberta and came to the West Coast to study Visual Art and Art History at the University of Victoria. There, I majored in painting and drawing and received an Honours Degree in 1998.

Several years later, a fortuitous series of events led me back to UVIC where I discovered my talent and dedication to pottery through eminent Canadian potter Walter Dexter.

“I found in pottery a drive and intuitive quality I had not experienced in other media. Ideas I struggled with in paint seemed to occur more
naturally and fluidly in clay.”

After a period of working and teaching at a community pottery, I decided to establish my own studio. Focusing on techniques using the potter’s wheel, I fire most of my work to stoneware temperatures in an electric kiln.

Occasionally I fire my work in a gas kiln where I continue to work with the copper red glazes that initially attracted me to pottery.

“I’ve always been interested in rocks and geology. I am fascinated by the way that glazes and clay can be manipulated to produce rich and wonderful surfaces.”

My functional work is very durable and suitable for the microwave, oven and dishwasher. The stamp that I use to identify my pottery is based on a traditional Ukrainian cross design, into which I have worked my initials.

In addition to my work with clay, I currently teach at a High School in Sidney, British Columbia.

You can see Andre’s superb work at http://www.sidestreetstudio.com/catalog/index.php

Jo Priestley writes:

 ”I have been a studio potter for over 30 years and I live and work in a beautiful flower filled garden set in a landscape of forest and mountains in the rural highlands of Mission, B.C.

 My life is constantly in flux; a collage of clay and garden each inspiring the other.

 I work exclusively on the wheel in high fire porcelain and Raku clays. Using my (long practiced) throwing skills, glaze and firing knowledge I strive to produce elegant one of kind vessels and a limited edition of fine functional ware such as mugs, plates, bowls and vases.

 My Horse Hair Raku work is particularly special to me. It has taken many years of experimenting to produce this finish. After firing, I apply Horsehair to the pots. The very high heat causes the protein in the hair to change to carbon leaving the black lines. The pieces are then fumed with iron and given a final polish when cool.

My garden has won a number of awards and is my place for work, rest and renewal. It is a small piece of Heaven where my creative side can rest and become renewed.

I have exhibited widely both in public and private galleries and in numerous juried exhibitions and sales. My work can be found in private collections around the world.

My greatest wish is that you can find pleasure in my work”.

Jo’s magnificent work can be found at Canada’s largest studio; Side Street Studio, Victoria, B.C. www.sidestreetstudio.com

Master Potter Jim Etzkorn writes,

“Like the crow and the raven shiny surfaces arouse my curiosity . That curiosity has been explored, created and expressed in the bronze body of work included in this article. These vessels illustrate techniques and ideas that fuse antiquity with contemporary practices.

While studying art history the minimal forms of early Chinese Shang bronzes struck a chord in me.

These bold austere objects were nominally decorated, often only having a linear incised line to outline the structure. My bronze work utilizes form to discover, investigate and express creative concerns.

Travelling in Japan in 1987 I partook in a variety of cultural activities. One of these was the Tea ceremony which uses a variety of utensils. A cast iron tea kettle caught my attention. This simple spherical object reflected similar properties of the Shang bronzes but was stated in an entirely different way. The complete form was embellished by a raised surface of small bumps that employed pattern to stimulate visually and tactilely. Rope cording, where a small piece of rope is rolled across the surface of the clay to create reoccurring pattern, is a technique that I use. This was stimulated by the Neolithic Jomon culture of Japan who used rope cording and incising to delineate their surface decoration. When looking at the pictures of the work one can see the reoccurring texture of the rope framed by the incised lines. Sprigging is another historical method I use. I have a tiny mold where the clay is squeezed into and then applied to the surface to create a raised design. [Often a swirl on my pieces] When looking at my pieces one can begin to see how I begin to employ texture and pattern to delineate the form. The application and location of sprigs punctuates the form. Drawing on cultural antiquity and integrating different historical techniques aids in creating contemporary vessels”.

You can find more of Jim Etzkorn’s magnificent work at http://www.sidestreetstudio.com/catalog/index.php

You can also read Jim’s Biography at http://www.sidestreetstudio.com/catalog/artist_bio.php?id=80250

Jo Duffhues-Artist Statement

I have wanted to work in clay for pretty much as long as I can remember. I thought it all started when I was a little girl in Australia where we’d moved when I was a 5-year-old. I loved playing in the red clay under the hot North-Queensland sun. I could pour water onto this glorious stuff and mold it any way I chose. Within a short time the sun would have hardened it, and well, not much of a girly kid, I would ride little make-belief cars over roads I made. My mother tells me as a toddler I liked nothing better than plasticine. Just feeling something in your hands that lets you create… it’s a way of life for me. In high school I begged to be given a chance to try the potter’s wheel.

Our art teacher didn’t particularly like the girls and would only allow students who managed an “A” in an art project a chance. I went home and created a beautiful silk-screened crib quilt, an extra project, just to get that chance. The woman gave me the clay and left the classroom without a single word of instruction or guidance. My clay went flying through the classroom off the wheel, and my one chance died there and then. But my desire stuck.

In my early twenties I found a private instructor, Gerry Balint. She put me through a very tough course and my first project was a tea set… the teapot had a very bizarre curly spout. The mugs and the cream and sugar pots were terrific. I was hooked. So hooked, in fact, that Vic bought me a potter’s wheel as a wedding gift when we married in 1979. It wasn’t long before he was trying it out, and yes, I was his first instructor.

Together we make a great deal of functional stoneware. It’s great to think that people use our pottery every day. They use it for special occasions, celebrations, and simply to enhance their lives. However, I still love the way clay can be sculpted, going places the wheel and slab work alone won’t. Sometimes this leads me to create hand-sculpted raku fish, special one-of-a-kind pieces hits me hard; at other times it results in truly whimsical hand-built tea sets, or special vases and treasure boxes. The customers who delight in these pieces reach a part of me that soars with delight… they get me, they get my work.

My inspiration comes at me from the funniest places… watching a cake competition where wall-paper had to be used for inspiration had me racing to the store for that textured stuff. And yes, I used slip much as a baker might trail piped icing patterns on a cake. A trip to a museum with my granddaughter led to a series of treasure boxes, though it took a while before I realized this trip had inspired their creation.

I’ve been able to attend many pottery workshops and courses over the years, first studying at Sir Sanford Fleming College in Peterborough, and later when I was able to minor in fine art at the University of Waterloo. I was fortunate enough to become a full-time student after my marriage to Vic. All my teachers have helped to inspire and to some degree help shape my work, chief among them: Mick Casson, Gerry Williams, and Lana Wilson. But learning is a technical experience, what I do with the clay may have been helped by these teachers, but the work comes from within me and me alone.

These days I spend part of my time teaching at a local Native High School. Vic and I have actually introduced many of the students to clay through a coop education program. Seeing the kids respond to clay continues to keep me inspired. I am glad that my hands enjoy the work and like Lucie Rie, I hope to continue to do this until I’m completely creaking with old-age.

Vic Duffhues-Artist Statement

As a potter, I feel deeply connected to our planet and its rich human history. Clay vessels always contribute not only to culture, but spiritual rituals, and even simple sustenance. Working in my studio allows me to strive to fulfill my own goals and life purpose in a way that not only fulfills my creative needs, but is spiritual for me as well.

My wife was my first instructor, and I’m delighted that we’ve been able to continue to work in our studio for the past 3 decades. But I also spent 10 of those first years honing my skills as a production potter. I know my wheel-work is exceptionally well made, and I still love making functional stoneware pottery. It requires repetition and consistency, but offers a rhythm that truly centers me. I take great pride in, for instance, making what are considered to be the most beautiful of mugs, knowing that they are the prized possession of many customers as well as collected by many other potters. People often tell me how important their own mug is to them… and don’t they kiss the rims daily?

While I am considered a production potter, I’m proud to say that I don’t make factory ware, and I absolutely refuse to uses molds or presses. It’s true that a ram press can result in total consistency, but it leaves me cold because it lacks individuality. It’s rather like artificial insemination, it works, but it takes all the fun out of it.

I know that my work reaches far back into the past and will live on well into the future. But unlike ancient potters, I have modern technical advantages, like the pug mill I use to make sure my clay is well-blended, and the computer technology that helps me to ensure that my functional stoneware is complete food-safe. Our glazes are the result of many years of testing and development, and they too are the result of a creative joy. But it’s so great to know that I can use computer analysis to ensure their safety.

As much as I love making stoneware, like my wife, I do love to create special one-of-a-kind pieces. Funeral urns, ginger jars, vases, lamps, even special series, such as the Myanmar Vases I made after seeing a documentary and some amazing photographs… each of these can transport me to a place beyond simply being centered. There’s a euphoria that comes from making pieces that transcend the purely functional. And I sure do enjoy playing with raku firings as well. Hunter Thompson once said something to the effect that working with your hands makes you a laborer, adding your head makes you a technician, adding your heart makes you an artisan, but adding your soul to that mix makes you an artist. After three decades of working with clay, I can truly affirm his theory.

I’ve had the pleasure of learning from some great potters, but for me the real joy in the development of my career in clay stems from the fact that I am now the Master Potter, offering courses and workshops and inspiring others the way that Tom Coleman, Mick Casson, and so many others have inspired me. It has been many years since my first formal training began at Sir Sanford Fleming–almost 3 decades have passed. With a little luck, I have a few more of those decades ahead.