Gloria Singer Top-notch potters have pitched in, donating wares to raise money for new potter’s wheels at Brookdale Community College, Lincroft.
An all-day preview of donated works will take place on Nov. 14 at the CVA Gallery from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The opening reception is from 4:30-7 p.m. Nov. 15. The cash-and-carry sale will begin during the reception and will continue through Nov. 22.
Husband-and-wife professors Ed Stein and Lori Uffer, of Brookdale’s art department, have led the effort by creating 100 elegant, hand-thrown vessels at home over the past year and a half.
“This is an opportunity for us to give back to the college,” said Stein, Art Department chair. “It’s a nice way of having faculty, students and alumni come together, donate their pottery and bring some attention to the ceramics area of the art department.”
In addition to Uffer and Stein, artists who have delivered their works for inclusion in the show include Michelina Tambone, Holmdel; Danielle Mazzucca, Red Bank; Diane Sweeney, Lincroft; Ana Diaz, Tinton Falls; Lyn Gilles, Freehold; Gloria Singer, East Brunswick, and others. More works by additional artists have been promised.
Lisa Naples, of Doylestown, Pa., voted Best Gallery Artist in Philadelphia Magazine in 2010, has offered a pot (valued at $80) or pair of mugs ($76) from her current exhibition at the Philadelphia Craft Show.
George “Picasso” Bowden, of Red Bank, a well-known potter in Monmouth County, has almost finished his pot. Late last week he stood in Brookdale’s ceramics studio having just completed a tall, white, asymmetric vessel covered with abstract sculptural decorations. He said it will be pitfired in time for the show.
In contrast to the symmetric, traditional forms of wheel-thrown functional pottery, Bowden’s pots are often free form.
He says, “I let the clay go where it wants to go. I let it move on its own and I go along for the ride.”
Bowden has worked in clay for over 35 years. He can be found creating his unique ceramics several days a week at Brookdale alongside several other accomplished ceramicists.
Brookdale’s Ceramics Studio
On any given day, there are three generations of students at work in the ceramics studio. The radio, tuned to WBJB, 90.5 The Night, plays a lively mix of music. Students wedging clay, working the tile roller and throwing pots on the wheel generate a quiet orchestra of background noises. “It’s wonderful to have so many advanced students working in our studio,” said Uffer. “The advanced students are very generous in helping our first-year students.”
Why new potter’s wheels?
Stein explains, “Many of the potter’s wheels are the originals from when Brookdale first opened. Some have been repaired, some have been replaced.”
“Anumber of the current wheels in our studio predate me,” said Erik Johanson, adjunct professor and learning assistant, who has been employed at the college for 23 years. “Several of our potter’s wheels are between 25 and 50 years old. They are beyond repair, despite tender loving care over the past two decades; they have reached beyond their useful lifespan,” he said. “They have to be replaced.”
Various styles of pottery will be for sale
“We are hoping to sell everything that has been donated,” said Stein. “Prices are being set at half off regular retail.” The lowest prices are $10 to $12.
“We would like to sell it all. One hundred percent of the sale prices will go toward purchasing new potter’s wheels,” he said.
Finished surfaces on vessels for sale include glazed terra cotta pieces; highly polished black and grey horsehair fired wares that are lined with actual singed marks of individual horsehairs, causing thin, straight lines as well as wildly erratic marks; mattefinished stoneware vessels patterned in triangles of red-ochre and toast, and a wide range of smoky-hued barrel-fired pots.
In addition to functional pottery, there are some delicate and beautifully rendered forms in this show that are better identified as sculpture than pottery. If you love portrait sculpture, for example, arrive before Ana Diaz’s goddess mask is sold. Once each piece is sold, it’s gone.— Marie Maber
If You Go: All-day preview:
Nov. 14, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Opening reception:
Nov. 15, 4:30-7 p.m.
Cash-and-carry sale begins during
Nov. 15 reception & continues
through Nov. 22
Gallery hours:
Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
CVA Gallery
Brookdale Community College
765 Newman Springs Road, Middletown
Use parking lots 1 and 2.