Gallery of BC Ceramics www. galleryofbcceramics.com Sharon Cohen, Gallery Manager galleryofbcceramics@bcpotters.com 604.669.3606 || Hours 10 a.m.to 6 p.m. | Gallery Assistants Carita Ho, Roxanne Gagnon, Nadiya Chettiar, Kate Metten, Kelly Austin, Natasha Chettiar, Dave Carlin, Karen Lew, Amy Johnson and Linda Lewis staff@bcpotters.com | Gallery Volunteers Maggi Kneer, Sheila Morissette, Elizabeth Claridge, Jinny Whitehead, Celia Rice-Jones | The Gallery of BC Ceramics is a gallery by potters for potters. & The Gallery coordinates and curates several exhibitions a year. Artists must apply to be juried; the deadline is September each year. To download and print a Gallery Jury Application, click here. @ Every month we showcase an artist, usually someone just starting his or her career. BH We also sell the work of more than 100 artists in the retail shop. \) For information on Gallery A Policy, click here. POTTERS GUILD of BRITISH COLUMBIA a 2011 Featured Artists ‘The Featured Artist slot affords a non-juried artist the opportunity to sell work in the gallery for a month-long period. All Guild members are eligible to apply, and may show work other than the mugs and tiles to which non-juried potters are usually restricted. Please apply (include images of your work) directly to the gallery manager at galleryofbcceramics@bcpotters.com. ‘The following artists will be featured beginning on the 15th of the month listed: ¢ February: Shannon Merritt ¢ March: Trezlie Brooks e April: Kelly Austin ¢ May: Anne Rusch e June: Molly Magid e July: Laurie Embree * August: Don Jung ¢ September: Larry Cohen * October: Rona Hatherall Shannon Merritt is February’ featured artist. She grew up in southern Ontario, received a B.A, in Native Studies from Trent University and then moved to Yellowknife, NT. She now lives in Nelson, B.C., and is a graduate of the Kootenay School of Arts. Shannon considers herself a writer disguised as a potter. I make modern day folk pots to create an intimacy in the way we consume the foods of our time. I've spent the better part of two days taking apart a typewriter so that I could press the keys into the flesh of the clay, recording my thoughts and observations onto pots. I've collected a number of things that are used as stamps. These miscellaneous cast-offs are more valuable than trimming tools and include antique letterpress blocks, pieces of retired machinery, and a caribou tooth from my adventures in the north. Together, the words and symbols become a story of my rhythm of Minding My Ps and Qs, Pitcher and Pipkin Set for Six, by Shannon Merritt. making. Lessons, kindnesses, tattletales and laughs are highlighted using coloured slip beneath a clear glaze. These handbuilt or wheel thrown and altered pots speak of precious functionality: bowls that are meant to be sipped from and mugs with inverted handles, so that the user can cradle the cup, warming the hands. The proof of alteration has been left to remind the user of the individual attention the pot received. These techniques come from a millennium of making, and applying them to contemporary functional porcelain pots is an exciting way of story-telling. This shared journaling is incredibly personal. And what I'm finding is that the pots I write stir something in the people who use them. It's almost as if we've witnessed something together, like we share a great secret. The words are a reaching out; a minute's worth of conversation between us. 2011 Gallery Exhibitions A number of gallery exhibitions are in the works, but they haven't been finalized yet. Here is a taste of things to come: MAY: Spottery A non-juried members’ show featuring work with a dot or spot motif. Deadline: Mar. 15. JUNE: First Serve Emily Carr graduates, Kelly Austin, Darcy Greiner, Emma Walter and others begin their conversation with the ceramic community in Vancouver and the art world in general. JULY: Celebrate the Bowl A non-juried members’ show featuring bowls in support of A Loving Spoonful’s Project Empty Bowl fundraising event. Potters Guild of BC Newsletter « February 2011 SEPTEMBER: Classic Forms Revisited Work by Mary Fox. A new interpretation of classic vase and amphora forms that have inspired Mary's work. NOVEMBER: Wide Open A juried show of small works by members of the Alberta Potters Association, this exhibition is one-half of an exchange with the Potters Guild of BC.