Exhibit this Friday- Playful Minds

The opening of "Playful Minds" is this Friday night. Here is a little publicity for it. 

This is one of the 5 pieces I that will be in the exhibit. Hope to see you there!

Playful Mind

    So the full story of how these pieces came about includes my students.We were in the middle of state testing in April and after they had finished their tests on one of those long days (they had 3 hours to take the English portion and all finished within two) I decided to entertain them and demonstrate some thrown pieces on the wheel. Usually when I demonstrate it is for something they are expected to create...perhaps a small cylinder. Well... this was more to kill some time so they requested something "bigger". I threw 3 pieces quickly finishing one on the wheel and moving directly to another wheel. It was very playful and fun and the students enjoyed seeing me throw (I think!)... not as a teacher, but as an artist.
      I was also thinking about how I needed to create work for the exhibit at the Arts Council coming up in July, so I figured I would take these playfully created pieces and finish them for that exhibit. The days after state testing, I decided to continue "playing" with carving, textures, adding grog as decoration and so forth. I am really excited about how they transformed from entertainment for my students into pieces of art that I am excited to share with the public. Hope to see you at the opening of "Playful Minds", July 6th at the Younger Gallery!

Exhibits on the Horizon

     I received this invitaion recently to be a part of a ceramic show for the Arts Council of Kern (see below). What a gift to have a deadline to get some work made! I am definitely the type of artist that needs a deadline. I can scarcely get anything made while teaching full time unless I have a finite date looming. I am looking forward to this exhibit... after I return from NCECA I will get busy creating so all the pieces can be fired before school let's out for summer.

My neice and nephew were visiting recently and they dug right into my art supplies. My nephew Max created this incredible abstract piece of his name. I love it. Children's art always reminds me of "play"; I am going to try to channel that feeling when making work for this upcoming show.



2nd Annual Exhibition

Ceramic Artists of Kern County
“Playful Minds”

July 6 – September 4, 2012

Dear Yvonne,

On July 6, 2012, our 2nd annual exhibition Ceramic Artists of Kern County will open at the Younger gallery. As a participant of last year’s annual exhibition and as an artist who submitted works of high artistic quality, the Arts Council invites you to this year’s exhibition. We would like to build up on last year’s success and raise public interest in our community for this wonderful art form.

This year we would like to challenge you to be a “Playful Mind”. We would like you to play with ideas around games, toys, theatre plays, playing music, and anything else you associate with the word “Play” and incorporate it into your works. We hope that you can come up with 3 to 5 playful pieces of art for this exhibition.