E M E R G E D A F T E R T H E R E S I D E N C Y

© 2014 Lillstreet Art Center4401 N Ravenswood AveChicago, IL 60640

Artwork © the artists. Essay © Bill GriffithPhotographs by the Joe Tighe. Designed by Jess Mott Wickstrom. Edited by Tracey Morrison.Exhibition: March 14 - April 20, 2014.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic or mechanical means, without permission in writing from Lillstreet Art Center.

Cover image: Peter Christian Johnson, Blue Arc, 2014

HP BLOOMER

CHANDRA DEBUSE

MAT THEW DERCOLE

VIRGINIA JENKINS

PETER CHRISTIAN JOHNSON

MEGAN MITCHELL

LINDSAY PICHASKE and JESS RIVA COOPER

KATE ROBERTS

KENSUKE YAMADA

LILLY ZUCKERMAN

F R O M T H E C U R A T O R

Emerged: After the Residency is especially

personal and important to me having

experienced the “emergence” of over 100

early-career artists through my work as

Residency Program Director at Arrowmont

School of Arts and Crafts since 1992. In

order to be considered for this exhibition,

ceramic artists must have completed a

residency program within the past 3 years. I

reviewed the artwork of many artists, some

of the work I saw in person and some of the

work through only images in websites or

publications. In making my final selections

for Emerged, I chose artists whose work

engaged me aesthetically, awed me

technically and maintained my curiosity

without having to read the titles or artist’s

statements.

Residency programs provide a unique

transformative experience, usually

outside of an academic setting, often at

pivotal times in an artist’s career. At their

best, these programs support artists with

the gift of time and an atmosphere that

encourages experimentation, professional

and personal growth, lots of questions

and sometimes only a few answers.

Residencies also play an important role

in providing a community of peers for a

period of time while continuing to expand

the circle of artists, educators, mentors,

and collectors outside of that community.

In the end, residencies are as much about

discovering who we are as artists and

people as they are about what we make.

The impressive nature of all of the

work that I reviewed is a testament to

the residency experience. As Caitlin

Strokosch, Executive Director of the

Alliance of Artists Communities, wrote:

“There are 500 artists’ residencies in the

US today and more than 1000 worldwide,

and the organizations are as different from

each other as you can imagine. And yet

each one holds steadfast to a belief in the

messy, unpredictable creative process.”

I believe the impacts “after the residency”

often last several years or even a lifetime,

well beyond the experience itself. Artists

experiment and discover new directions

which ignite fresh work resulting in a

personal voice and style. The works

exhibited here showcase the outcomes

of the time and support that residency

programs provide.

Thanks to Lillstreet Art Center and

Jess Mott Wickstrom, Gallery Director

for inviting me to curate an exhibition

involving such talented and diverse,

emerged, early-career ceramic artists.

Bill Griffith

Bill Griffith is a ceramic artist and Program Director at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

HP BLOOMER

Carbondale Clay Center (2011-2013)

HP Bloomer IV was raised in central Texas in a household which embraced art and artistic

expression. After finishing his BFA in 2007, he was awarded the Masters and Doctoral

Fellowship to work on his MFA at the University of North Texas. Upon completing his MFA

in 2011, he moved to Colorado for a residency at the Carbondale Clay Center. During these

two years he served as a studio technician at CCC while maintaining positions at Colorado

Mountain College, the Aspen Art Museum, and the Harvey/Meadows Artstream Gallery.

The primary intent of my work is to create thoughtful, personal compositions and

relatable everyday objects. My forms are rooted in an aesthetic developed through a

childhood spent in my father’s architectural firm and mother’s studio. The understated

designs developed by mid-century architects and designers I saw as a child have stayed

with me through the years. Elements of my work are related to designs of the Bauhaus

School, the Eames, and the International Style.

My glazing and patterning technique has become a starting point for determining the design

of the form, allowing a conversation between form and surface. These forms, patterns, and

glazes may at times seem busy. Their intent is to parallel the eventful and vibrant world in

which we live by reflecting ways we often segment, structure and compartmentalize our

lives, while playfully providing handmade objects for everyday use.

Pitcher, 2013Porcelain9 x 7 inches

HP Bloomer

Cap Lid Jar, 2013Soda-fired porcelain2.5 x 3.5 x 3.5 inches

HP Bloomer

Stupa Jar, 2013Soda-fired porcelain

7 x 5 x 5 inches

HP Bloomer

Drinks for Nine, 2013Porcelain

Cups 4.25 x 2.25; Bottle 10 x 4 x 4; Tray 3 x 11 x 11 inches

HP Bloomer

Teapot, 2013Porcelain5 x 5 x 9 inches

HP Bloomer

Vase, 2013Soda-fired Porcelain

10 x 5 x 5 inches

CHANDRA DEBUSE Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts (2011-12)

Chandra DeBuse is a full-time studio potter and educator in Kansas City, MO. Originally from

a small town in Nebraska, Chandra earned a degree in psychology before discovering her love

for making pottery during a community class. After completing her MFA from the University

of Florida in 2010, Chandra completed year-long residencies at the Armory Art Center, and

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. She was an Emerging Artist through NCECA in 2012 and

was named an emerging artist in the May 2012 issue of Ceramics Monthly magazine.

My functional pottery incorporates narrative imagery, pattern and form to amuse and

delight the user, imparting a sense of play. My work, in practice and product, reflects

my approach to make-believe, which I identify through worlds of imagination with

determined characters and landscapes of leisure. I incorporate bouncing lines, candy

colors, low relief and hand-drawn elements into my ceramic serviceware, encouraging

a sense of discovery and exploration. Illustrations of anthropomorphized animals and

stylized humans employ exaggeration, humor, and metaphor to facilitate the viewer’s

ability to capture the narrative and apply it to his or her own life. Patterns found within

nature, such as tree bark, water waves, or flower petals are abstracted and simplified,

ricocheting across forms. My salt and pepper landscapes, treat servers, jars, plates, cups,

and bowls become playscapes where pattern and character frolic, inviting human fingers

to also roam the topography, seeking out their own morsels of delight.

Tree Jar, 2014White Stoneware13 x 7 x 7 inches

Chandra DeBuse

Floral Mug, 2014White Stoneware4 x 5 x 3.5 inches

Chandra DeBuse

Floral Mug, 2014White Stoneware 4 x 5 x 3.5 inches

Farmscape Salt and Pepper (detail), 2014

Chandra DeBuse

Farmscape Salt and Pepper, 2014White Stoneware 6.5 x 7 x 7 inches

Chandra DeBuse

Treat Server, 2013White Stoneware12.5 x 10.5 x 8 inches

forced perspective (you are still new at this), 2012Porcelain, underglaze, felted wool40 x 21 x 8.5 inches

MATTHEW DERCOLE

Lillstreet Art Center (2011-2012)

Matthew Dercole currently teaches Ceramics at Chicago State University and works for

Theaster Gates Studios in south Chicago. He has completed long-term residencies at

the LUX Center for the Arts in Lincoln, NE and Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago, IL. His

work has been included in exhibitions across the US, and is in the collections of the

Kerameikon Collection of Contemporary World Ceramics, Varazdin, Croatia, and the

Museu de Ceràmica de L’Alcora, L’Alcora, Spain.

The exploration of the self, the understanding of others, and the dynamics they create are

underlying themes throughout my work. Drawing from a fascination of biology, I create

forms based on principles of nature coupled with the experience of thought and feeling.

The works become combinations of the natural progression of life, such as growth and

decomposition, and the human aspects of reason and ability. I am reacting to the way

people think and feel about their identities, how the act of learning and the responsibility

of knowledge affect our everyday lives.

Matthew Dercole

cut, cuddle, consume, 2014Porcelain, underglaze, glaze11 x 12 x 4 inches

Matthew Dercole

proper pruning and good hygiene, 2014Porcelain, underglaze, raw fleece

32 x 19 x 3 inches

Heejin Hwang

Dropping I, 2011Crocheted steel wire.44 x 7 x 7 inches

Matthew Dercole

hunger is our shared disease (amputate), 2014Terra cotta, porcelain, underglaze, raw fleece

22 x 27 x 8 inches

Matthew Dercole

the purveyor of heavy petting, 2013Porcelain, underglaze, felted wool25 x 13 x 10 inches

VIRGINIA JENKINS

Pottery Northwest (2012)

Virginia Jenkins received her BFA from East Tennessee State University and her MFA from

Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. In addition to her academic experiences, she

has undertaken five artist residencies, several of which have allowed her to live along

some of the world’s most beautiful coastlines. She has produced commissioned projects

for Monsanto Corporation and the William Kerr Foundation and has received a GAP

grant from Artist Trust for the development of her artwork. Virginia maintains a studio at

Inscape Arts and Cultural Center in Seattle, WA.

My sculpture represents an esoteric reality based on the potential of the undiscovered.

Coastal and deep-sea environments predominantly inspire me where scientists believe

500,000 to 5,000,000 species have yet to be discovered. Additionally, I utilize the

architectural landscape and cultural diversity the city of Seattle has to offer. The city

provides a broad palette from which to draw iconographies. My work has a semblance to

the biological and unique spirituality, thus, provoking the experience of an independent,

symbolic world. By creating indeterminate forms, I hope to empower them with new,

unpredictable functions and relationships.

Bovid, 2013Red Earthenware13 x 9 x 6.5 inches

Virginia Jenkins

Muck Diver, 2013Red Earthenware6 x 9.5 x 4 inches

Virginia Jenkins

Aqueous Modification (right, details above), 2013Red Earthenware 15 x 9 x 6 inches

Virginia Jenkins

Shoot #1, 2013Red Earthenware 6 x 5 x 2.5 inches

PETER CHRISTIAN JOHNSON

Archie Bray Foundation (2011-2013)

Peter Christian Johnson is an Associate Professor of Art at Eastern Oregon University.

He earned his MFA from Penn State University and a BS in Environmental Science at

Wheaton College. Peter has been a resident artist and Visiting lecturer at the Alberta

College of Art and Design, Australian National University, The Archie Bray Foundation,

the LH Project and the Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts. His work has been exhibited in

Canada, Australia, and throughout the United States.

This body of work is a formal exploration of structure and material. The porcelain

grid systems become a framework on which to stretch a fluid skin. They expose the

relationship between soft and hard, the fluidity of a membrane, and the moment of

intersection between these contrasting elements. They strive to pair labored construction

with a more unpredictable surface and reveal both the rigid and malleable aspects of

ceramic material.

Yellow Cube, 2014Ceramic8 x 12 x 12 inches

Red Cross (detail), 2014

Peter Christian Johnson

Red Cross, 2014Ceramic

6 x 16 x 16 inches

Peter Christian Johnson

Blue Arc, 2014Ceramic

12 x 20 x 6inches

MEGAN MITCHELLRed Lodge Clay Center (2012-2013)

Originally from New Hampshire, Megan Mitchell has also lived in Alaska, Minnesota,

Montana, California and Utah. Megan holds a BA in Studio Art from Carleton College in

Northfield, MN, with an emphasis in painting and printmaking. She was a studio assistant

at Whitefish Pottery, in Whitefish, MT, and the Hoyman Browe Studio in Ukiah, CA. In May

2012, she earned an MFA in ceramics from Utah State University, and was named USU’s

Graduate Researcher of the Year. Her work has been exhibited in numerous national

exhibitions, and was featured in Ceramics Monthly in December, 2011. In July 2013, Megan

completed a year-long residency at the Red Lodge Clay Center. She was the Mellon

Fellow in Ceramics at Marlboro College in the fall of 2013, and is currently the Rosenquist

Resident Artist at North Dakota State.

My work is an examination of human relationship with place and a meditation on

intrinsic, contradictory yearnings for belonging and freedom. Through the overlay of

pattern, structure and space, I intend to create work that conveys intimacy as well as

a sense of great distance. My forms are inspired by architecture and furniture, and are

altered to imply movement and instability. I use a repeating vocabulary of patterns in my

work across two and three dimensions. In the movement between these dimensions, it is

my desire to generate an exchange between illusory and actual space.

Vase, 2013Porcelain, vitreous engobe, underglaze, decal8 x 5 x 3 inches

Stacey Lee Webber

Screw Chain, 2013Brass screws, 10ky gold plating.

17 x 1 inches

Megan Mitchell

The Place Between, 2013Stoneware, silkscreen, stencil, slip inlay

30 x 84 x 3 inches

The Place Between (detail), 2013

Megan Mitchell

Mountain Road Diptych, 2013Porcelain, slip inlay, lithography

12 x 9 x 1 inches (each)

LINDSAY PICHASKE and JESS RIVA COOPERArchie Bray Foundation (2011-2012)

Lindsay Pichaske received her MFA in Ceramics from the University of Colorado at Boulder

and her BFA in Sculpture from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is currently

based in Washington, DC, where she is a resident artist at Red Dirt Studio. She moved to

the DC area from Helena, MT, where she was the 2011-2012 Taunt Fellow at the Archie Bray

Foundation for Ceramics. She has also been a resident artist at ART342 and Watershed Center

for Ceramic Arts. She is the recipient of the 2013 NCECA Emerging Artist Award.

In these collaborative pieces with Jess Riva Cooper, I was interested in translating my

intricate textured surfaces onto the human form. Furthermore, while I use the animal as

an avatar for the human, working with Jess’ figures allowed me to use the human form to

explore the complex boundaries between seemingly disparate states of existence.

Jess Riva Cooper is a ceramic artist and educator currently based in Toronto, Ontario.

Cooper received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and

a Master of Fine Arts in ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design. Cooper has shown

work and participated in artist residencies throughout Canada and the United States, such as

Brandeis University, Lillstreet Art Center, Medalta, and The Archie Bray Foundation.

Lindsay and I created collaborative works for this exhibition. We mailed each other clay

forms we had created, and allowed the other free reign to attend to the surface of these

sculptures. In our separate studio practices Lindsay traditionally works with the animal

while I focus on human figure. This collaboration has brought a sense of freshness and

freedom to our art-making, one we will continue to foster.

Fray, 2014Porcelain, low-fire clay, paint, glaze22 x 13 x 10 inches

Jack Rabbit (detail), 2014

Lindsay Pichaske and Jess Riva Cooper

Jack Rabbit (detail), 2014Clay, acrylic, ink, mixed media

12 x 10 x 7 inches

Lindsay Pichaske and Jess Riva Cooper

Flay (right, detail above), 2014Porcelain, glaze, string, paint15 x 12 x 8 inches

KATE ROBERTSAnderson Ranch (2011)

Kate Roberts is native of Greenville, South Carolina and a 2010 BFA graduate of Alfred

University with a major in Ceramics and minors in Art Education and Art History. She has

traveled extensively and completed residencies and internships at art centers around the

world, including Anderson Ranch Arts Center in CO, La Meridiana in Italy, Cite International

des Arts in Paris, Project Art in MA and Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill. Her work

has been exhibited in museums such as the Tampa Art Museum and Everson Museum

in Syracuse, NY and included in major exhibitions such as Scripps Ceramic Annual and

Ceramic Top 40. Currently, she is a 2015 MFA candidate at Alfred University.

The Win and The Chase question the physical and mental properties of a relationship,

specifically of a relationship based on love. Through the use of bird imagery and changing

of seasons, the piece conveys the emotions felt and the body language revealed during

this relationship, and shows its temperance.

The Chase, 2012Porcelain18 x 18 x 6 inches

Kate Robert

The Chase (detail), 2012Porcelain

18 x 18 x 6 inches

Kate Robert

The Win (right, detail above), 2012Porcelain18 x 18 x 6 inches

Figure and Kong, 2014StonewareFigure 37 x 18 x 9 inches; Kong 22.5 x 13 inches

KENSUKE YAMADA

The Clay Studio (2012-13)

Kensuke Yamada was born in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan. He received his MFA from

the University of Montana in 2010 and has a BA from The Evergreen State College,

in Olympia, WA. Kensuke has participated in artist residency programs at The Archie

Bray Foundation, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Oregon College of Art and

Craft, and was an invited guest to make a sculpture at Chihuly Inc. His sculptures have

been exhibited throughout the USA at SOFA Chicago, Holter Museum of Art, Seattle

Center, and more. Kensuke is currently a visiting artist and professor at the University of

Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR.

In my sculpture, I seek figurative extensions of shared experiences. Clay has become another

primary source of communication for me. The vocabulary consists of gestures, patterns,

textures, colors and rhythms. In conversation, these qualities bring the figure to life.

Kensuke Yamada

Figure (detail), 2013Stoneware.37 x 18 x 9 inches

Kensuke Yamada

Kong (detail), 2013Stoneware.

22.5 x 13 inches

LILLY ZUCKERMANClay Studio of Missoula (2012 - present)

Lilly Zuckerman is originally from Pittsburgh and grew up in rural Greensburg, PA on a farm

with horses, geese, chickens, dogs, cats, and magical woods. The ground there is sticky

orange clay and so her richly colored clay not only bears the vast and complex history of

earthenware ceramics, but also her memories of home. Zuckerman received her BFA in

Ceramics with a minor in Art History from Penn State University in 2010. While there she was

funded to conduct research in Morocco on contemporary ceramics. Morocco’s architecture

of adobe houses, diverse geology from the Sahara Desert to the Atlas Mountains, and

unglazed earthenware cooking vessels continue to influence her work. Zuckerman’s work has

been made possible by residencies at The Archie Bray Foundation, The Anderson Ranch Arts

Center, The Clay Studio of Missoula, and The Clay Studio in Philadelphia.

Clay has the ability to be both tactile and intelligent. I work to create and invite

contemplative moments, where experiences of the physical hand and intellectual mind

can coexist. Pinched clay is a remarkably clear and straightforward trace of touch from

maker to user. My moment of touch can be experienced by others tomorrow or in

thousands of years. Starting with a solid block of clay, I slowly and methodically pinch

the form. No clay is added and very little clay is trimmed away; encompassing many

changes of state. This process teaches me to embrace unexpected moments.

Untitled (detail), 2013Earthenware.13 x 6 x 3 inches

Lilly Zuckerman

Untitled, 2013Earthenware.11 x 9 x 3 inches

Lilly Zuckerman

Untitled, 2013Earthenware.

11 x 9 x 2.5 inches

Lilly Zuckerman

Untitled, 2013Earthenware.

10.5 x 7 x 3 inches

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