Clay Arts in the Exhibit - Overview

With six clay artists in the exhibit, there is considerable variety in the style, the purposes, and the techniques represented. Four of the artists are classified as contemporary artists, and the other two as traditional artists. This distinction might seem confusing, as they are all obviously living, contemporary artists. For the purposes of this exhibit, we used the definition of traditional artists as defined by folklorists. Artists are considered traditional if they learned their craft from members of their family or their community through non-academic means. Traditional arts are passed from generation to generation, but there are changes along the way.

Each artist adds his or her own creative touch to the process. Often new technology changes the way work is done. But among traditional artists, there is a strong commitment to carry on the traditions of their mentors, to honor their heritage. Often traditional artists work in multi-generational family businesses, as is the case with Jerry Brown and Vernon Owens. And quite often, traditional artists rely on resources they collect themselves from their environment. They dig and process the clay before forming it by hand.

Of course, there are contemporary potters who have the same close involvement with the processes of digging and processing their own clay. The difference is that they did not learn how to find and work clay from someone in his own family or community. Contemporary artists usually learn their craft through a combination of study, research, experimentation, and travel. They often study a particular tradition and incorporate elements of that traditional art form within their work, such as Fong Choo’s work with Yiching style miniature teapots. Other potters explore new ideas of working with clay, such as Alice Ballard’s slip cast representations of plant forms and Bonnie Seeman’s elaborately sculpted bowls and teapots.

A simple and fun way to help your students understand the difference between traditional and contemporary arts is to ask them to think of skills they have acquired informally by watching and imitating family members. This is the way that most people learn how to fish, to bake, or to plant a garden. Some students might be fortunate enough to have learned how to quilt or play an instrument – or even to make pottery!

View on-line collections from a number of museums.

Guiding Question:

How do each of the clay artists in this exhibit use the unique qualities of clay as an artistic medium?

Curators' Statements:

Jean McLaughlin, Contemporary Curator
Ceramics utilizes clay, a mineral material that may be formed with bare hands or cast as slip. The plasticity of clay seems preternaturally suited to the potter’s hand and clay workers develop an intimate and interactive relationship with their material. Equally as important as the forming processes, the fire of the kilns profoundly changes the clay object and creates a metamorphosis as complete as that of a moth or butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. Each touch of the hand is registered in the clay—a highly influential characteristic. Clay artists are perceived by many as the crafts artists with the greatest humility perhaps because of this direct and influential marking.

Kathleen Mundell, Traditional Artists Curator
The South is one of the few regions of the country where traditional potters still dig their own clay. For example, The Hewell Family gets their clay sixteen miles from Gillsville, Georgia. Digging this clay, processing it, turning it by hand on the wheel, is paying homage to the way it’s been down before. There are no shortcuts. Like good cooking, each step is carefully executed. As Chester Hewell explains: “Working the clay is part of my history and the history of Georgia. We make the garden ware because we have to eat. But we make the old-timey ware because we love it.”

Vocabulary:

Plasticity, throwing, wheel, cast, slip, fire, kiln, raku, bisque, glaze

For a glossary of clay terms, go to http://www.dicksongallery.com/resources_glossary_of_terms.htm
Scroll down to the second list.

Ask students to define the vocabulary words as they are used when talking about pottery.

Using the PowerPoint:

Often when students are asked to critique a work of art, they think they are supposed to take a negative approach. Even if they understood the term, they are often not sure how to proceed. The process of a critique has four steps:

1. Describe the piece, including medium, size, color, texture, shape/form, etc.
2. Analyze how the principles of design are applied.
3. Interpret the work, including possible symbolism, cultural context, and possible uses.
4. Evaluate the work. Does it make a meaningful statement? Is it aesthetically pleasing?

Even knowing the steps, students sometimes have trouble getting started because they are not used to discussing works of art in depth. Comparing and contrasting pieces rather than analyzing one piece helps student to use more concrete language.

Using the PowerPoint™, guide them in discussing four clay pieces. When they seem comfortable with the process and are beginning to use strong descriptive language, ask each student to select one piece from the soon available PowerPoint™ (or from the Clay Gallery) to critique. To go deeper, have them research their artist before doing the critique to obtain more insight into the artist’s creative process.

Download the presentation (zipped)

Cross-Curricular Connections:

Invite a local or regional potter or clay artist to visit your class, demonstrate and/or lead a hands-on activity. If you do not know a potter or clay artist, consult the website of your state arts agency to find one. You may be able to write a grant to have an artist residency. (See General Arts Education Resources)

Ask students to compare and contrast two pieces from the exhibit in terms of the principles of design (see PowerPoint™ for example) PowerPoint™ coming soon.

Ask students to compare and contrast two pieces from the exhibit in terms of the techniques used and the purposes (narrative, decorative, functional, artistic expression) of the pieces.

Media-Based Activities:

Invite a local or regional potter or clay artist to visit your class, demonstrate and/or lead a hands-on activity. If you do not know a potter or clay artist, consult the website of your state arts agency to find one. You may be able to write a grant to have an artist residency. (See General Arts Education Resources)

Ask students to compare and contrast two pieces from the exhibit in terms of the principles of design (see PowerPoint™ for example) PowerPoint™ coming soon.

Ask students to compare and contrast two pieces from the exhibit in terms of the techniques used and the purposes (narrative, decorative, functional, artistic expression) of the pieces.

Lesson plan on using slab construction for building a free form vase.

View and discuss Sun Koo Yuh’s work. Read about him and his work on his artist page. Use the lesson plan on slab clay figures.

Try your hand at using some of the earliest techniques of pottery making used by Native Americans in the Early Woodland period. Download a lesson plan and instructions.

Jerry Brown and his family create face jugs. Download a lesson plan on this tradition.

Watch a video of Fong Choo throwing his miniature teapots. If you have access to pottery wheels, let your students practice the techniques he demonstrates.

Excellent tutorials on making clay pots by hands (pinch, coil, press, thrown).

A lesson based on an exploration of North Carolina pottery.