Gallery of BC Ceramics

Wish we could have our name in lights!!!

We have new lighting in the gallery! The new MR-16 halogens cast
a very pure spectrum of light, and we have 3 different degrees of bulb
to choose from; flood, narrow flood and spot lighting, It will take a
while (and oven gloves) for the staff to get used to them. They are also
literally cooler, which will be a huge difference to customer shopping
time as well as the frequency of visits to the ice cream shop for the
staff! Again, thanks to the generous zmug donations from so many of
you. You made it all possible for this worthwhile project that will
brighten many artists’ pocketbooks for years to come. The tireless
gallery committee steadily moved every item in the gallery, painted
and repaired ceilings, and worked physically long hours for this to be
possible. Maybe it’s their names that should be in lights... Every
artist who sells here should give a tip of their hat to the volunteer
efforts of Jinny, Pia, Maggi, Celia and Sheila! Maggi even has a battle
scar to prove it!

Canada Day is Thursday July 1st this year. Granville Island is host to
over 70,000 people on that one day with events taking place in every
corner of the island! Many events are now stretching into the evening,
with BBQ's and jazz festivals. Because it is the first Thursday of the
month, it is perfect for Lynne Johnson's opening night! The gallery
will be open until 8pm so come on by and join in!

During the day, the gallery is hosting an ikebana demonstration from
11-3. If anyone is available to help out on Canada Day as a'security
guard’ that would be great, as it is one of our busiest days of the year.

Welcome to newly juried artists Matthew Freed, Tanya Mitchell and
Michele Wilson. There are a few others who were successfully juried,
and we look forward to supporting them in the gallery!

Remember, the exhibition jury deadline for 2005 is September 15th,
2004. This will be the 50th anniversary year, so expect some uncon-
ventional programming with exhibitions that may affect opportunity.
There are usually 10 spots, and if we do some extra features, there may
not be the usual number. This year, we are asking for submissions to
be written, but include one ceramic piece.

Good luck and have fun being creative with your ideas!

If you're from out of the lower mainland, please stop by on your sum-
mer trips if you're passing through, and don't hesitate to introduce
yourself to the staff as a Potters Guild member! Now, don’t let that
clay dry out too fast in the summer sun...

Enjoy the sweet summertime!

Tamara Ruge - Gallery Manager

The North West Ceramics Foundation is happy to sponsor a lecture
by one of Britain's best known ceramic artists, Alison Britton OBE.
The lecture will take place on the evening of Friday September 10th
at the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design's auditorium. The
evening is free of charge, although the Foundation would appreciate
the gift of a mug for the mug wall which funds our scholarship pro-
grams. Exact lecture time will be available in August. At that time,
check guild website or contact 604-874-7116.

Since the 1970's, Alison Britton (b. 1948) has
been a potter, dedicating herself to making,
studying, and understanding pots. Now a lead-
ing British ceramist whose gestural, sculptural
pots have garnered an intemational reputation,
Britton is also well known for her contributions
as a curator and writer Instead of taking the
high road as a painter or sculptor, she has stuck
to pots negotiating the difficult ground between
art and craft, she has become a spokeswoman for
her generation and. a major contributor to anew
period in English craft. Along with ceramists
like Elizabeth Fritsch, Carol McNicoll, Jacqui
Poncelet, Andrew Lord and Richard Slee, she
has defined a new context for the ceramic vessel that defies those that
came before.

Britton takes her work extremely seriously, a fact that is evident in the
authoritative confidence her pots exude. These are works that have

Alison Britton

been long considered and deliberately constructed by a dedicated
maker. Degpite their centered, unambiguous presence, Britton's pots
are difficult to classify: They stubbomly resist being placed within the
classical ceramic tradition, or within any tradition except their own.
They are built of slabs of clay, rather than thrown on a wheel. Their
planes are angular, but not edge-like, as each blends softly into the
next. Their surfaces do not suggest a glazed vessel, but rather an
expressively painted canvas. The marks that
dance across them refer more to modernist
painting than to the decorative patterns that are
more readily associated with craft.

Even so, a Britton pot retains its ties to craft
through Britton’s insistent focus on the func-
tional domestic object as a jumping off point.
Moving through a Britton exhibition, one finds
a room full of bowls, jars, and jugs These
objects hover between traditional disciplines in a
unique hybrid space that Britton has carved out
for them. Perhaps they are best described in the
words of Quentin Blake, who says, "the work
may begin as a jug, but it becomes a free-stand-
ing story, a poem, a situation”. Put in the pos-
tion of reader, the viewer comes back again and again, each time find-
ing anew word, line, or verse to fall in love with.

Alison Britton bio kindly provided by Frank Lloyd Gallery at
wwwfranklloyd.com

July/August 2004

Potters Guild of British Columbia Newsletter 3