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WEB EXHIBIT:
this special feature focuses on the artistic synergy between members of
our Guild.
COLOR, TEXTURE,
PATTERN
This web exhibit
examines the work of Marie DeVito
and Colleen Williams, who both
create unique ceramic pieces through their own, highly-developed sense
of color, texture, and pattern. This interview explores how they
consider and create their ceramic works of art.
How did you first become interested in ceramics?
Marie DeVito: When
I worked
in advertising in New
York, my boss's wife was an accomplished ceramic artist, and I just
loved her work. I'd always wanted to learn to work in clay, and the
feeling never left, even after I moved to Los Angeles and became a
talent agent. A chance
encounter gave me the opportunity to begin to take classes in 1999 at
the
Cahuenga School, and I have worked in the medium ever since.
When I left the talent business in 2005, I moved to Vermont, and became
a full-time artist, working not only in ceramics but in fiber too.
Colleen
Williams: It is a very interesting story since I'm not the kid
who liked to play in the mud! While in my twenties, I was
studying textile design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC,
as I loved designing patterns. During the summer, I attended Penland
School of Crafts in North Carolina on a scholarship to study surface
design and narrative wall quilts, and there I met a friend whose mother
wanted to resume her ceramics business in Fort Lauderdale,
Florida. I had up to that point been making patterned discs in a
relatively new material called FIMO polymer clay, so when a proposition
to learn ceramics as an apprentice "from the ground up" presented
itself, I jumped at the chance and moved to Florida. I never did
apprentice,since the ceramics business that was to be restarted never
did, but I did clean up the studio, and that seemed to be enough
to entice me to pick up some clay. By day, I was an
architectural draftsman -- so it was a natural extension for me to
apply symbols to a slab of clay and create patterns by using a series
of them to form a design.
How do you select the colors you use in your work?
Marie DeVito at
work in her studio.
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Marie DeVito: It really
depends on my mood! I have a vast array of different glazes on hand at
all times, and I will start
with a general idea of what I expect from a piece I have created. If it
is an involved form, I may go with a single color that possibly has
some texture, too, or a glaze that has some "magical" and unpredictable
properties, such as a crystalline glaze. I do like being surprised by
the result. |
On the other hand, if
I am working on a simple form
such as a square plate or platter, I could very well decide to "go all
Virgo" on it -- and use as many as 30 different colors and finishes,
using colors to achieve a "mosaic" feeling, or satins and glosses to
create more textural interest. Since
I hand-paint
everything, this is
obviously a lot more time-consuming (and way more disappointing if it
doesn't please me in the end) than a simple one-color decision.
Colleen
Williams: I do extensive color tests of Mason Stains and natural
elements, such as cobalt, as colorants. I create recipes using one or
more of these colorants and then I decide which test samples to make
into larger batches. The whole process is very time consuming
because the clay must be fired to see the result. When looking for a
palette for a particular piece, I often turn to artists' paintings,
photographs, etc., for color inspiration. Lately, I am fond of using
two sources: a book on vintage labels and a book of artist's photos of
India.
How do you create some of
the textures in your pieces?
Marie
DeVito: Some of the texture comes from the
form itself - a smooth clay, made smoother still by meticulous sanding
at the greenware stage; a rough "groggy" clay left unsanded;
impressions made in the wet clay with stamps, fabrics, or carvings;
added embellishments attached to the surface of a piece; overlapped
slabs of clay, etc. The variables are endless. And some texture can be
added at the glazing stage.
Colleen Williams: In both my line of jewelry, known as
"Local Texture," and in my sculptural work, texture is important to me
because it involves another sense: that of touch.
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Textural patterning
in my jewelry line is achieved by impressing very tiny porcelain stamps
into the clay slab while it is fairly wet. The entire slab is filled
with the motifs of five or six stamps combined into a kind of clay
textile, like a piece of cloth from which a garment's pieces may be
cut. My bead-pieces are then cut from this
decorated slab. |
In my
sculptural work, the texture is achieved by creating a raised design
through etching. I apply several layers of porcelain slip to a base
form of colored porcelain and then paint a design onto the surface
using shellac. When dry, the shellac is water-etched as the layers of
clay beneath the shellac resist are removed.
How do you come up
with
the ideas for patterns in your work?
Marie DeVito:
I find inspiration everywhere, quite
literally. I could be in a museum and see a painting I love, and see a
way to translate something about it to a glaze approach. Or, I could
watch TV and see a combination of colors in a commercial, and decide to
do some plates that work the same way. I did a series of plates that
conveyed the rusty colors of the mountains of Afghanistan, when some
amazing pictures appeared in the NY Times soon after the 9/11 attacks.
I have done funerary urns for pets that were glazed to mimic the
animal's fur. I have found paper plates in the supermarket that I
decided would make great molds for dinner plates...I'm all over the
board, really. I am all for mixing things up all the time, too -- even
if an idea doesn't turn out the way I envisioned it originally, it may
open the door to some new technique or pattern for me...so I will try
anything once! What's the worst thing that could happen - something
turns out badly? So I throw it out. Big deal.
Colleen
Williams: My sources include
old kimonos, Chinese and art nouveau
designs, and Arabic forms. I stylize or modernize the imagery to
make it my own.
Do you have a
favorite
piece of work currently in the gallery?
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Marie DeVito:
Without question it is a square blue
"mosaic" plate exhibiting a variety of textures and colors in the
glazing. It took a very long time to produce but I was absolutely
thrilled with the result. |
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Colleen
Williams: Not yet. I mostly exhibit my line of jewelry in the
gallery while my favorites are larger,
sculptural, non-utilitarian
pieces. |
How does being a
member of
the Guild inspire you?
Marie
DeVito: I think the simple act
of being
around other artists is good for my creative spark. I need the
feedback, I need to see what others are doing, I need to feel part of a
community; I need to see what is new and what is different, I need to
continually refresh my creative-brain, so that I don't continue to make
the same plate over and over again until I die. The talents and
personalities in the Bennington Arts Guild are so varied, it's just the
ticket. I feel lucky to be a part of it.
Colleen
Williams: Being surrounded by artists who work in the variety of
media exhibited in the Guild is inspiring in many ways. Sometimes it is
subtle and you realize that a small section of the painting you'd been
looking at are now the colors you want to work with. Sometimes the form
of an object can be enough to send you on a path of exploration because
there is something the artist in that medium is able to create that
would be more of a challenge in my medium. Also, I like being part
of an artistic group that shares methods, ideas and resources with one
another.
Please contact the
artists directly to share a comment:
Marie DeVito
Colleen Williams
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GALLERY EXHIBIT
November 2009: brown
WEB EXHIBIT ARCHIVES
October 2009: Inner Forms and the
work of Joe Comi and Ray Mullineax
September 2009:
Surface Explorations: the
work of Ann Webster and Jessica Phillips
August 2009: Recycling and the work
of Joe Chirchirillo and Paula LaPorte
July 2009:
Mosaic Chest by Arline
Mayer and
Cyndi Saint
June 2009: behind the scenes with
our curatorial team
April 2009:
Yin Yang Water Chairs by
Cyndi Saint and Paula LaPorte
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