Gillian McMillan Ornithikos Gallery of BC Ceramics September 4-September 29 Opening Night - September 4, 6:0¢0-8:00PM Ornithikes, quite simply, is the Greck word meaning bird-like. [t perfectly cap- tures the theme of my recent series, Tope Jughirds 2003, earthenware with coloured slips, terra sigillata and clear gloze, H: 12.7 to 22.9 cm Right: Crow 2003, black slip and clear glaze. H:21.6 cm Puffin 2003, coloured slips and clear glaze. H: 25.4 cm Banmlebird 2003, canhenware wilh terra sigillata. H: 12.7 cm Two years ago, when the Crafthouse on Granville Island called for entries in a show entitled Birds, | created a special group of jugbirds from my large spouted vessels. Since then I have enjoyed shaping different bird versions, and realize that the current flock of fanciful, feathered friends are just part of a possible panoply of avians! What drives my work is really my love of the ceramic process combined with the epiphanies resulting from creating the shapes. Over the many years of making pats and teaching pottery, wheelthrowing is the skill | most appreciate, Also, the three years | spent at Emily Carr Institute of An & Design, acquiring my BFA in Ceramics, really expanded my horizons. While there, | was reminded of the joys of drawing and the significance of colour. Taking printmaking, I found it analogous to the ceramics process, The challenges of combining imagery with print techniques helped me to hone my ceramic processes. Eventually the ceramics studio pulled me back. In what now seems like a pressure-cooker, | absorbed ideas on reconsideration of thrown forms from Jeff Oestreich, and the use of earthen- ware clay, maiolica, coloured slips and outrageous surface from Walter Ostrom, Sally Michener and Tam Irving Photo credits: Kem Mayer encouraged confidence in my creative voice and helped me take my work beyond predictable and safe hori- zons. All these influences have been instrumental in my current series. The day after I have thrown pre-planned forms, | am to- tally engrossed with assem- bling them into individual complex works. The follow- ing day, Lapply luscious col- oured slips to accentuate shapes. If I have that elated fecling as I finish, then I know it works. Ornithikes has encouraged me toe explore the amazing Potters Gunld of British Columbia Newsletter variety of shapes and coloursinthe world’s bird population. I play with the possibility that they can be jugs or other functional vessels, Some are purely imaginary and some are coloured using real species as inspiration. The Rooswer is based on one [ photographed while visiting the French pottery village of La Borne ten years ago. For each bird I make a drawing and de- cide how to break it into thrown shapes. The legs are merely indicated, sometimes forming a pedestal while in other cases be- coming part of the jug's volume. [It amuses me to consider how | can throw beaks, tails and heads. [t is important to me that the viewer can discem the methodology. | coal unslipped areas with fine redart terra sigillata, This provides a satin sheen to contrast with the shiny glaze covering the slips. The works are mostly functional and all food-safe, but some may simply look down at their owners from a shelf, There are many more birds lined up in my sketchbook wasting for me to bring them to life, The ones here are just the beginning of my exploration. Gillian McMillan Gillian McMillan Rooster 2005, carthenware with slip, underglaze, terra sigillata and clear glaze, H: 27.4% W318 cm September 2003