(G Newsletter

GUILD

BRITISH

COLUMBIA
Sa

July/August 200]

Volume 37 Number 7

THE CARIBOO

Joan Beck and
Lesley Lloyd are
both actively working
in the Carthon,
Lesley’s work ts sold
at the Stationhouse
Gallery, Williams
Lake al #1 North
Mackenzie, anal
through her studio:
call 250, 392.7304

16:00 to
250.994.2515

More detatis page 2

Joan Beck, in front of
| her studio in Wells In-
cated minutes from
Harkerville on high-
way 26. Every sum-
mer, Ioan opens her
working stuclio selling
her work as well as
pieces from ciher agt-
isis. Open weekends
during Juw and Sep-
tember, daily in July
and August from
}0-00- 1 E00) anc Wed
20:0,

ROBIN HOPPER
A Life in Clay and Gardens

| was about three years old when J had my first
meaningful experience with clay. The soft, squishy
texture of the material and the feeling of accom-
plishment from the modelled elephant that came out
of it left an indelible impression in my mind, In the
sixty years since that first contact, I’ve had a love
affair with clay exploring in depth most directions
that thes incredible medium has to offer. [t has led
he inte an ongoing interest in the history of ceram-
ies and an understand.
ing of the cultures that
produced clay objects,
their claly anc religous
rituals that shaped much
of what has been pro-
duced in fired clay
throwghout the world.

An inguisitive mind, en-
couTEged atanenrly age,
led me into museums
and art gallenes .cather
than the football and
sports fields that were
where most boys my age
spent their time. Any
museum was fascinating to me, with collections
ranging from warfare to geology and clothing to
containers. Knowbedge of cultures from far away
led to a long-term appreciation of travel and of
places vital and different from home base. Travel
has been a major part of my life and continues to
influence the way [ view and visualize what T de.

I was in my early teens when | really noticed
gardens for the first time, By the time | was in my
late teens | was an avid gardener, and by my early
twenties had decided that one long-term goal was to
make a really beautiful garden, visualized, de-
signed and constructed as a work of art. Gardening
has become a major consuming passion, one that
incorporites design, fonn, colour, texture and pat-

Above: Robin Hepper
fen Coden Series 199%,
porcelain, fired! in a propane
gas kiln to cone 9 in a re-
ducing atmosphere, wheel
and handbuilt; 13.0 cm di-
ameter, 7.6 cm high

Left: Robin Hopper
Chade Series 1999, porce-
lain. fired in oxidation te
tone &, wheel thrown with
slip decoration, 216 dinm-
eter and 17.9 cm high

tern. Much of the time | only make pots to support
my garden habit! Since the garden is about 2.5 acres
it takes a bot of pot making to satisfy its needs!

Five years of arts programming in high school gave
me the basic skills in drawing, observation and
visualization to consider a future career in art. Five
yeurs of study at South London Ant School special-
izing in ceramics, but also painting, sculpture, etch-
ing. woud engraving, lithography, theatre design,
scenic construction, property making and costume
design, set me up with a wide range of embryonic
skills that have been the basis of almost all that 1
have dome ever since.

dee Hopper page 3