Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Art Port Townsend - Lori Bernstein



Art Port Townsend is a month long program of events that showcases many artists in this area. One of the highlights is a weekend of studio tours that invites the public to meet and watch the artists at work in their own studios. This year's list included more than forty participating artists. We were happy to have a chance to stop by several of the studios during the tour.

Today's artist is Lori Bernstein. The following is her artist's statement for the Art Port Townsend studio tour:
"Every evening in the springtime, the pond near my home comes to life with the song of frogs. My studio, Froggy Bottoms Pottery, is named after this little pond. It is both my workshop and a “classroom” where I balance my time between teaching pottery and creating hand made ceramic art.
Some of my work is slab built, but I make most of my work on the potter’s wheel. After forming the pieces, I decorate them by brushing on multiple layers of colored clay. Once the layers have dried, I carve through them to reveal the contrasting clay body beneath. The resulting surfaces, black and white and highly textured, remind me of woodcut prints.
I made my first pots on a wooden kick wheel while living in the Costa Rican cloud forest. Later, I studied pottery at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine and at Pottery Northwest in Seattle. I received my BA in Art from UC Berkeley. My work is available locally at the Port Townsend Gallery.
I teach, I make pots, and the frogs sing me to sleep.”

For more information click here to see her artist's page from the studio tour.

5 comments:

Small City Scenes said...

Ribbit ribbit. Love her statement.
How great to have the event last a month. MB

Jim Klenke said...

Neat, she creates each one by hand. So they all are original pieces of art.

Dragonstar said...

How lovely. I've done a bit of pottery making, and it's not as easy as the experts make it look. I really like the woodcut effect.
Thanks for visiting.

nonizamboni said...

My hat goes off to anyone who can throw a pot! and she sold me with the ginkho leaves.
Great post for Veteran's Day too...sigh...Thanks for sharing!

alice said...

I can just imagine the satisfaction one feels being able to work the clay like that...These gingko leaves are beautiful too.