STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
God well could have been the world’s first potter.
At least, if you consider how He took a ball of clay and created Earth out of it.
At any rate, potters at Boulder Mountain Clayworks consider their avocation one of the oldest and noblest of the arts. And their pride was on display Thursday night as the ceramic studio’s artists threw their annual Tuscany on Tenth fundraiser.
“With ceramics comes community,” said Jacob Foran, a Seattle artist who has taught workshops at Boulder Mountain Clayworks for the past three years. “Ceramics takes kilns. It takes a team. And that inevitably leads to people getting together and feeding off one another, brainstorming ideas.”
Ileana Wood, who created dozens of golden ceramic wine goblets for the event, told of a pinch pot in a museum in Spain.
The artist had stuck his or her thumb in a ball of clay and worked that thumb around to make the hole bigger. Chances are the clay was accidentally put in a fire where it hardened and that was the beginning of pottery.
“They saw they could make all these containers, and the art has been going strong ever since,” she said. “It’s one of those things—when you’re hooked you’re hooked. Creating works on the wheel is so much fun because you can pull the clay higher or flatten it out. You can do handwork on the pot, adding to it or cutting parts away. And centering clay is like being centered in life. If you don’t center, you get a lopsided pot.”
The hundred or so people who attended the event raised their complimentary ceramic cups in honor of Susan Ward, who founded Boulder Mountain Clayworks 20 year ago., turning it into a nonprofit organization 10 years ago.
Ward’s iconic Helen of Troy sculpture, which she made before her death in June, was auctioned off as were many of her other works.
“We’re very grateful to Susan who provided this wonderful community,” said Lauren Street, who has worked alongside Ward all these years.
“She was so prolific,” said Gerri Pesch. “She produced and produced.”
Foran, named the 2017 Emerging Artist by Ceramics Monthly Magazine, donated a unique wedding vessel, covered with a silver-black glaze made of glass, copper and iron because Clayworks reminds him of the sort of studio where he was first learned to work with clay.
“I worked with engineers in the Netherlands on the glaze,” he said. “I wanted viewers to feel a sort of liquid volcano as they looked at it. I wanted it to reflect the world around it.”
Ginna Lagergren, a longtime painter, was among those who tried their hand at creating pieces that Mary Ann Chubb and Ernie Kendler fired and set in various sized garbage cans outside. Though she’s been making art all her life it was the first time she’s ever worked with ceramics.
“Creativity is creativity,” said Lagergren, who put glass beads in the bottom of her bowl to give it the appearance of containing water. “Often, when I want to relax my mind, I’ll rearrange my stone collection on my porch. Creating a different design makes me happy and inspires creativity.”
Part of the adventure of raku firing, said Dorothea Cheney, is that you don’t know what your piece will look like when you take it out of the kiln, as chemicals and heat change the clay.
Taking viewers through the process was Jake Adicoff, who plans to compete in his second Paralympics next winter in Korea.
“This will be signed by the artist, who is a two-time Olympian. And that’s worth more than you can imagine,” said auctioneer Jackson Flynn, who has worked at Boulder Mountain Clayworks for the past four years while studying art at college.
Flynn, who is on his way to a career with Red Bull, led the auction with his father Larry Flynn, a longtime auctioneer locally and around the country. This was their first time working together, as Dad has always been working in another city whenever his son had a gig.
“His mother and I told him: Just love what you do,” said Larry Flynn.
Boulder Mountain Clayworks focuses on cultivating artists, rather than importing art from elsewhere, noted Susan’s husband Frank Ward. The organization partners with groups like Higher Ground Sun Valley to throw throwing classes for teenagers with disabilities. It takes clay art to Camp Rainbow Gold and Hunger Coalition’s Bloom truck.
This summer’s Youth Clay Camps, titled “Under the Sea,” are giving youngsters a chance to create coral reefs with starfish, mermaids, mermen and octopus.
“Ours is one of the least expensive children’s camps, which we’re proud of,” said Board President Maureen Jenner.