NOV 2 AND 3: WILD CLAY WEEKEND EXPLORES THE NATURAL AND
THE REFINED (AND THE TOXIC) AT 50 ARROW GALLERY
EASTHAMPTON, MA — Please join us November 2 and 3 for Wild Clay Weekend, a celebration and exploration of the raw materials—the clays, rocks, metals, minerals and even the rash-inducing sap of poison ivy—used in ceramics, and the creative ways people transform those materials into art.
The event marks the final weekend of the exhibition Wild Clay at 50 Arrow Gallery, located in Suite 134 at Eastworks in Easthampton, MA. Co-curated by UMass Amherst Studio Arts MFA graduate student Michael Medeiros and Liz Rodriguez, owner of the community pottery studio Easthampton Clay, the exhibit features the ceramic work and research of dozens of artists, clay enthusiasts, scientists, and thinkers from western Massachusetts and around the country.
Wild Clay explores the organic nature of clay as a medium, its roots in the earth, the natural processes inherent to clay work, and how we synthesize ceramic origins into modern, functional pottery.
Other members of the UMass Studio Arts MFA cohort Kiran Jandu, Hayle Lovstedt, and Kait O’Brien will also be participating over the course of the weekend. Both Jandu and O’Brien will create work on-site, while Lovstedt will be selling her work as part of the weekend sale.
“Wild Clay begins with the unpredictability of a natural resource like locally-dug clay and continues through the thinking, creative excitement and experimentation that helps us gain a better understanding, and hopefully deeper respect, of how to interact with that resource and the natural world from which it’s harvested,” says Medeiros, who also runs Poesia Pottery at the Brushworks Arts and Industry Building in Florence, MA.
WEEKEND SCHEDULE
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2
1-2:30 PM WILD CLAY: A HANDS-ON WORKSHOP & TALK
MICHAEL MEDEIROS
3 PM X-RAYS & TADPOLES: COMMUNICATING WITH CLAY
GREG DE WET & ALIX GERBER
4 PM DISQUIET ARK: A PERFORMANCE OF POETRY & CLAY
ABIGAIL CHABITNOY
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 3
12 PM CRYSTALLIZED CLAY JASON MONTGOMERY
1 PM FIRING CERAMICS IN THE PIT, WOODFIRE KILN
& COMMUNITY STUDIO
INGRID FLORY, FINLEY FOSTER, LUCAS MAY,
MICHAEL MEDEIROS & LIZ RODRIGUEZ
2 PM POISON IVY KINTSUGI, OUR BODIES & THE WORLD
ABIGAIL ROSE CLARKE & MARIELENA FERRER
3 PM ROBOTIC CERAMICS FALLON NAVARRO
4 PM MAKING HISTORIC CERAMIC TILES
KATHERINE VERDICKT & MICHAEL MEDEIROS