A Saturday Pottery Workshop: Gail Kendall and Michael Strand

DEMONSTRATION WITH HANDS – ON COMPONENTS

In this simultaneous demonstration workshop, participants will be exposed to a wealth of making and decorating techniques on and off the wheel.

In this workshop, Gail Kendall will demonstrate the techniques she uses to construct her hand built pottery forms: teapots, tea caddies, platters, plates, and more. She constructs everything from soft slabs and coils using paper templates, bisque molds, and a few simple tools. She will also demonstrate surface techniques with the use of slip, sgraffitto, and ‘tattooing’. Participants will receive a handout of all formulas.

Formally trained as a painter, Michael Strand is at home with clay as the most appropriate material for his mark making ideas. Additionally trained as a potter Michael maintains a continuous cycle of form and surface research, primarily through the traditional cup and bowls forms. In addition, conversation will develop as Michael Strand leads participants in a lightning-fast art making session using clay (less than five minutes), followed by the group collectively examining the product.

This workshop reflects the exhibition currently in the CAC Gallery: Lineage: The Art of Mentorship.
Michael Strand was a student in the MFA program at University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Gail Kendall was one of his advisers. They are friends in art and life. Although their goals are seemingly different, in this workshop they will share their commonalities and explore their different paths while also talking about pottery, pottery making, techniques and technologies. The day will consist of demonstrations and conversation with an afternoon hands-on experience for workshop participants.

Kendall’s work enlivens the daily aspects of life: mundane routines and community celebrations and enhances those routines and rituals with a touch of grace in the domestic arena. Michael Strand’s work scrutinizes the function of art and craft in contemporary society through projects that create a bridge of communication that is enabled by the common use and/or distribution of hand-thrown ceramic ware. Through this fusion, Michael’s practice exists in a state of inquiry rather than exclamation.