The Edaren Foundation Presents: Gumbo Clayfest 2023 returns to TASI when ceramists descend on Beaumont July 6, 7, and 8!
No admission fee required, any donations accepted.
A total of NINE nationally-recognized ceramic artists will visit Beaumont, TX to demonstrate their unique works during ClayFest, only at The Art Studio! Here are some of the artists you may remember from last year’s festivities, who we are happy to see returning for 2023. Stay tuned for more visiting artists to be announced soon!
Patsy Cox
Patsy Cox is Interim Chair of the Art Department, Professor of Visual Art and Head of Ceramics at California State University Northridge (CSUN). She is an artist, educator and arts advocate. She is a former president of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) and a Fellow of the Council and is currently serving as Board Steward. She is also currently serving on the board of the American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA) in Pomona, California. She has participated in the Annenberg Alchemy and Alchemy+ programs for nonprofit excellence, was a Getty Scholar for the Linking Service Learning and the Visual Arts Program and has coordinated courses for the CSU Summer Arts Program. She was the curator for the 74th Scripps Annual, Stories Without Borders: Personal Narratives in Clay andwas co-juror for the 2022 NCECA National Student Juried Exhibition. She has exhibited and lectured nationally and internationally, most recently exhibiting in, SETHE: River and Refuge at Core Clay and Project M at the Mason Gallery both in Cincinnati, Ohio; as a mentor for the Color Network residency at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, and as a visiting artist for Gumbo Clayfest 2022. She holds an MFA from the University of Delaware and BFA from Missouri University and lives and maintains a productive studio near downtown Los Angeles.
Stephen Wolochowicz
Stephen Wolochowicz was born and raised near Trenton, New Jersey. He holds a BFA from the University of Delaware (2000) and a MFA from Miami University of Ohio (2005). He has taught ceramics at institutions including The University of Notre Dame, The University of Central Missouri, and Central Michigan University. He currently lives, works, and maintains a studio in Ogden, Utah, where he is an Associate Professor of Art in Ceramics at Weber State University. Wolochowicz is recognized nationally from his exhibitions of artwork, conducting workshops, and presenting lectures at galleries, art centers and colleges around the country.
His current work utilizes abstract industrial shapes with organic features. Through the use of vivid color and textures, he adds a playful aesthetic to his underlying concepts. They deal with the human invention, environment and progress through networks of industrial themes.
Artist Statement
The artwork I create is entirely composed of ceramic material. My constructed forms are derived from abstractions and draw from an array of thoughts and objects that include themes of industrialization, humor, games, politics and the environment. While I have these specific areas of interest that shape and define my practice, I find it interesting how a viewer perceives and interprets my artwork.
Using these ideas, the sculptures I create have a carefully crafted ambiguous quality. They resemble or hint at notions of transport, storage, containment or transformation. Although there are no moving parts in my artwork, I do imply an internal tension or kineticism within my forms. The inclusion of pipes or piping suggest interconnectedness and connectivity. They signify the conduits that link humanity to my concepts.
It is intriguing to me how the use of color and texture in tandem with simplified forms can convey deeper meanings and retain aesthetic appeal. Incorporating vivid equiluminant colors with metallic surfaces seem to play off of each other in interesting ways. Notably, the contrasting tone of fun and serious.
I establish layers of content are through the surface treatment, construction process and form. While some are overt and others are buried, many clues are there for contextualization. For example, the post nuclear age green colored ooze in the pipes indicate what could possibly reside inside the forms. It can be positive or dangerous depending on one’s viewpoint. This is also true for the disk and bulb forms. They act as the storage or containment vessels of that substance. Some of the industrial shapes are derived and/or directly molded from things like clocks and smoke detectors- a reference to alarms and the concept of time or lack thereof. Additionally, many pieces have a white, black and clear dot within the field of color- a nod to a strategy game, like chess, but for me it is a metaphor for the human experience.
