Education
Previous Lectures
This event is free to the public, thanks to support from Members of the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts and a grant from the Windgate Foundation.
(l to r) Karen Karnes, Edith Heath and Marguerite Wildenhain
The Center is pleased to present a lecture, Her Truth to Material: A Woman's Voice in Ceramic Art by Nikki Lewis and Katie Queen. The lecture traces the descendants of the Bauhaus pedagogy and its influence on ceramic art and design through the lens of female makers working in North America; specifically Marguerite Wildenhain, Karen Karnes, Frances Senska and Edith Heath. The lecture was first presented at the Bauhaus University in June, in conjunction with the Bauhaus100 centennial celebrations. Nikki Lewis and Katie Queen are Southern California college professors who specialize in the field of ceramics. Katie Queen is Associate Professor of Ceramics at Los Angeles Valley College and Nikki Lewis is Assistant Professor of Ceramics at Mt. San Antonio College.
Nikki Lewis (left) and Katie Queen
The lecture traces how these remarkable women, who were ahead of their time like Beatrice Wood, resulted in California influencing and shaping the lives of our subjects. Early makers who were schooled at Bauhaus endeavored to continue the social experimentation of communal living, domesticated product design, and scientific methods of creating. After 1933 when the school closed, many teachers and students of the Bauhaus relocated in the United States. This post-industrial generation of craftsmen from the Bauhaus influenced later generations of contemporary American artists.
Teachers of the Bauhaus opened non-traditional teaching institutions, which expanded perceptions of craft and design, and integrated value systems. Among the questions explored in this lecture are: How do these value systems persist in contemporary design and craft? What legacies from Bauhaus do we as American women artists utilize in our studio practice and our instruction? How will the reopening of the Bauhaus school bring equality to women in the fields of design, architecture and craft? Where does ceramics fit into a 2020 generation of Bauhaus trained artists?
This lecture was in conjunction with the Closing Reception for the
American Ceramic Society, Southern California Chapter Presidents' Show
&25 | Porcelain | 5" h x 4" dia
by Christy Johnson
Christy Johnson is a ceramic artist. She also acts as an independent curator, writer and part-time ceramics instructor. She holds a BA in English Literature from California State University, Los Angeles, and later studied ceramics at Pasadena City College with Phil Cornelius and at Otis College of Art and Design with Ralph Bacerra. Her pottery career includes many exhibition credits, awards, teaching experiences, and workshop presentations.
Among her early curatorial highlights is a Sam Maloof woodworking retrospective and Envisioning the Future, a collaboration with feminist artist Judy Chicago. Between 2004 and 2013, Johnson was Director of the American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, CA, where she facilitated a diverse, five-exhibition-a-year schedule. While at AMOCA, Johnson was involved with the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time initiative, producing a critically acclaimed exhibition, Common Ground: Ceramics in Southern California (1945-1975),and book of the same title.
Her 2015 curatorial projects, included Otis Revisited and Crossroads in Clay at Chouinard and Otis: The Ralph Bacerra Years, two out of four Los Angeles, year-end exhibitions associated with famed ceramic artist, Ralph Bacerra. In 2016 she juried the famed San Antonio Museum of Art Ceramic Invitational.
Bipod | by Patrick Crabb
Patrick Crabb's paths of discovery have taken him in several related directions exploring the vessel, architectural interpretations, and the figure. These paths continue to criss-cross each other, conveying a sense of mystery and visual power to the viewer. Historical artifacts from ancient cultures layer the imagery, resulting in a multi-cultural composition, reflecting contemporary life.
Hans Weissflog | Photo by Steven Kennard
Internationally acclaimed artist Hans Weissflog, who will be visiting us from Germany, will offer a
PowerPoint presentation, sharing the development of his work and a
discussion of recent explorations.
Hans Weissflog
Collection of Bowls, c. 2000
Various woods and dimensions |
Hans Weissflog
Ballbox, 1995
Affrican blackwood & boxwood
Permanent Collection
Honolulu Museum of Art |
 We will present Slowing of Perceptual Time: The Spiral Patterns of Light, a lecture by architect Laura Joines, in the Logan Gallery of the Center on Saturday, November 12th at 5 pm. The lecture will draw from wide-ranging sources, including Plato's belief that first-hand knowing is critical to learning and understanding, and Albert Einstein's theories regarding the relationship between space and time.
"My method is made up of unpremeditated intellectual acts of knowing the buildings of a place or the things of a site that have the qualities of slowing time down," Joines says. "I need to know the buildings by feeling the building in the mind through first hand experience. Only then can I attempt the act of interpretation."
Laura Joines, AIA, is a Professor at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Her work embraces feeling a space and integrating the daily processes of life with an emotion and spirit and heralding the moment and the practical. She is currently working on a number of projects for the Besant Hill School of Happy Valley.
The Ventura County Potters' Guild presents
at The Ventura Senior Recreation Center
420 E. Santa Clara St.
Ventura, CA 93001
Kevin Wallace, Director of the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts, will discuss the life of Beatrice Wood and the Center, in the larger context of the art world, philosophical movements, and Ojai history.
Doors open at 7 pm. Free to the public.
For more information, contact Cecile Faulconer 805 985-5038.
Our workshops and classes all take place at the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts (driving directions).
For workshop registration please contact: The Beatrice Wood Center for The Arts
Tel: 805-646-3381 or e-mail us at BeatriceWoodCenter@gmail.com |
