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 our kiln build project in 2021, who we are happy to see returning for ClayFest this year. Stay tuned for more visiting artists to be announced soon!
Tom Belden
I’ve always liked building things. Making things in clay has allowed me the opportunity to combine the processes of sculpture and the processes of drawing and painting. Being able to work 2 dimensionally on a 3-dimensional object is fundamental to my recent work. I have, most recently, worked in low temperature earthenware clay with handmade semi vitreous slips for surface decoration. These materials make it possible for me to utilize brighter colors, impasto textures and resulting dry matte and glossy surfaces. I try to utilize these processes in both functional pieces and large non-functional pieces. Historically, I have explored using various materials and processes and concepts in my work that include language, politics, raku, site specific locations, unfired materials, wood firing, self-portraiture, mold making and numerous other approaches to ceramic art.
Chris Leonard
Chris Leonard was born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1962. He currently lives and works in McAllen, Texas where he serves as a ceramics instructor at South Texas College. Leonard earned a BFA in Painting with additional hours to complete the Art Education Sequence from the University of Northern Iowa in 1985. With work and dreams inspired by Chicago’s Hairy Who and most forms of expressionistic excess, unable to find firm grounding substitute teaching or delivering pizzas in the Des Moines area, he quickly departed for the Rio Grande Valley of Texas in 1987 after expanding his educational certification. In the borderlands of the late twentieth century, he quickly began to illustrate high school algebra test O’ funs, paint it up on the patio or garage, and make big plans while living life inch by inch. Time waits for no one. At the completion of his fourteenth year of public-school teaching at the dawn of the twenty first century, Mr. Leonard returned to school full-time at the University of Texas Pan American and dove into their fledgling MFA program, finishing studies in 2003.
Chris joined the South Texas College art faculty in 2009 following service as a sabbatical replacement in the UTPA ceramics department and a stint as a full-time lecturer there from 2006-2009. Leonard now teaches ceramics at the South Texas College’s Pecan Campus and has helped to coordinate their South Texas Ceramic Showdown for the past decade featuring collaborative talent shown from participating schools in and outside of the Lone Star State as well as workshops and exhibitions from established ceramic artists. As the twenty-first century rolls on, work that blends his Midwestern upbringing with media mixed in several directions continues to show fairly steadily on both sides of the Rio Grande where he has now spent over half of his life.
Artist Statement
Just what am I making? If I were decidedly effective in my artistic endeavors through action and energy I’d arrive at a sensation of elemental power. The twenty-first century in America, there are so many choices! But are these choices always clear? I seem to find myself meandering off into symbolic meaning, metaphysical speculation, technical tribulations, and contemplative moods. As soon as I answer one question and solve a problem another three or five invariably show up. What I want is a smile on the face, a twinkle in the eye, a healthy glow in the gut, and maybe even a friend to confide in. If I don’t have these things, I’ve decided to make them. Much of my current work seems to explore boundaries; when does the positive connotation of universal optimism morph into the over the top proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free to engage in the pursuit of more consumable short-term solutions? Who wouldn’t want all the time, all the money, all the power in the whole wide world? Whatever you’ve got, I want, and I’d like to hold on to it all too tightly, if only for a little while.
