Tim Rowan is running workshops at his Stone Ridge, NY kiln for loading and firing a single chamber sprung arch cross draft kiln. These are limited workshops and will give participants the opportunity to experience the process of wood/soda firing. More information and dates can be found at the above link.

If you have an opportunity to get to Charles Cowles Gallery you can see a wonderful show of Toshiko Takaezu’s signature closed form ceramic works. The way they have been placed in the gallery makes them more of a total installation and the repetition and variation of forms enhances the viewer’s experience. Walking through the gallery is like being in an enchanted forest. The show is only up until July 28. There is, however, another exhibit of her work at the Hunterdon Museum of Art in Clinton, NJ which runs until August 20, 2006.

Also, in a small room at Charles Cowles, is a series of 13 plates by Peter Voulkos. This is the first time I’ve been able to see this many of Voulkos’ works in one place and the fact that they share a single form provides a particularly powerful experience.

The proximity of these two artists, showing forms of limited variety but not limited creativity causes one to long for more exhibits where ceramic artists show work that explores their respective visions in depth rather than seeing a sprinkling of works over many form types.

Grace Glueck provides an insightful review of the current exhibition at the National Museum of the American Indian, “Born of Clay,” in the New York Times.

Fortunately the exhibit will have a long run until May 30, 2007 allowing for a large potential audience. While Ms. Glueck’s review points out the ability to follow development of ceramics to styles still practised by native artists, it is interesting that much of the exhibit is not just of vessel forms but contains many examples of human and expressive forms. This seems to track two large trends in contemporary American ceramics and it will be interesting to see someone write about the influences of early native American artists on current work.

“Born of Clay: Ceramics From the National Museum of the American Indian” runs through May 30, 2007, at the National Museum of the American Indian, at the United States Custom House, 1 Bowling Green, Lower Manhattan, (212) 514-3700.

Part of a continuing program: The ceramic surface is often an unknown entity, much like the blue plate special at your local diner. Sometimes developed in the clay it self, surface design and consideration can occur at several stages from wet to leather hard to bone dry. Other times the surface is applied after the form is established with slips and under glazes or eventually with glaze. Even the kiln and the firing process interjects itself upon the clay surface, leaving marks or transforming the surface in wonderful and mysterious ways.

To learn more about the ceramic surface attend the Southern Fried Ceramics Symposium at Francis Marion University in Florence, SC July 27-29th.