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NCECA, and GO!
Hello, my dedicated readers... Many of you have caught my letters over the past year, so you may have guessed that my attention has been on NCECA, a major ceramics conference coming to Portland in about a week. I have used the conference as a personal deadline to promote a coherent line of my current work, priced in a manner by which I can sustain a business, and presented in a form (a web store) that shows accessibly and easily that I take myself seriously. I had a lot of catching-up to do! But we managed to pull THIS off!, as well as a private supper for ceramics collectors. This particular publicity could not be better, and I am curious to see what shakes out over the rest of this year. I will continue to write these letters as a backstage look at what’s really going on over here, since I hear that you really enjoy the (not-really-marketing) content’s honesty. Me, I think of it as a touchstone, and relish your replies!
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Lindsay Oesterritter's work dressed in something sublime that I got to put in my mouth after the photo shoot...! (all photos OneHundredSeconds big heart)
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I must thoroughly thank Brett Binford of Eutectic Gallery for his dedication to navigating with me the beaurocratic path by which that latter supper will happen, as well as airing with me the possibility to pursue it. I must also share my enormous gratitude for Monique at Castagna Restaurant to maintain such a generous attitude with her space, her skilled staff, and Chef Justin Woodward. Castagna is generally seen as the origin point of Portland’s regionally sourced fine dining movement, and they also support up and coming chefs. To work with them has been a great pleasure to my sense of environmental ethics as well as to my tongue! Also on the team is Chef Ryan Roadhouse, a most chill and intriguing food artist who owns Nodoguro, Lilith Rockett, who has offered invaluable guidance for my business future, and my dear friends Lindsay Oesterritter and Faye Holliday. Everyone has put out for these suppers and they promise to be quite exceptional.
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Lilith Rockett. I saw her work and thought- ah! now there is competition. I met her and fell in love. Check her out at Canoe and Eutectic this month.
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In more backstage news, that dag-blamed three-footed RAM pressed plate of mine as multiplied by Mudshark is apparently still foiling me! I’m having quite the love/hate relationship with this one! Achieving tight tolerances with clay is tricky, and especially in a form that has very nebulous beginning and ending points. In a plot twist, I found myself actually working in the factory for a few days to modify the plates cast from a mold for which I had presented an imperfect positive. Turns out that I may have modified them too much! Or they shlumped on the second test. Or they are just fine because trouble is in the eye of the beholder? But they are needed for the suppers, so, stacking well or not well, the only way forward is forward. What a nerve-wracking process!
There are so many great shows up! Don’t miss Blackfish, Radius, Jeffrey Thomas, Ash St, or of course Eutectic. NB: some are not on official maps. Vitrified Studio arranged an honest response to the question of professional pottery. I’ll be at Disjecta this Saturday for a soft opening. Please say hello if you see me around...
My best wishes as always-
Careen
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