Time Flies

Where has the month gone?

We've been zooming along this month, with Mother's Day, ArtWalk, an antique car and boat show, all bring lots of visitors and shoppers to our downtown. And of course we are still stocking up with great art and fine crafts from our many artist friends.

This week we received new pieces from North Carolina artist Andrea Iliadis - we love her fresh, funky style - made with recycled wood and metal.

Janet Dixon brought in some beautiful paintings including this rose painting - love it!

And new jewelry from Lesley McKoewn

Just to name a few!

Marvin Maune at Carolina Creations

Carolina Creations Fine Art and Contemporary Craft Gallery at 317 Pollock Street in Downtown New Bern announces their new show for May and June, called “Looking Up”.

This show will feature work by well-known architect and artist Marvin Maune.

Born in Missouri during WWII, Marvin Maune has had a lifelong interest in expanding his own world.  That quest has taken him throughout Scandinavia (where he lived and worked in Copenhagen, Denmark), Europe, Canada, and the United States.

After fifty years in the architectural profession, Maune has turned his focus toward creating artwork.  Painting since childhood, his paintings are focused on capturing the emotion, light, and feeling of a particular moment in time, a special place, or special experience.  The diversity of his subject matter reflects his interest in all aspects of human endeavor, and the world we have created.

Marvin works in acrylic, oil, and watercolor as he develops images reflective of his diverse interests and travels.  He resists the temptation to explain his work, feeling that the paintings speak for themselves, and convey the emotional content he intends.

Marvins current work focuses on the iconic forms we see when we look up.  The forms that make places immediately recognizable, when they're familiar, and that capture our imagination when they're unknown to us.

Most of the images are local, accompanied by images from some of his other favorite places: Quebec City, Denmark, and Italy.

Meet the artist during ArtWalk, May 13, from 5-8 pm. The show runs through June 30, 2016.

Coral Reefs by artist and diver Chris Campbell

Chris began taking pottery classes in Atlanta, Georgia in 1988 and moved to Raleigh, NC in 1991where she attended a workshop on colored clay taught by Jane Peiser, a fabulous NC colored clay artist. She has spent all the years since that week immersed in the endless possibilities of color in porcelain.

At Carolina Creations she is showing her reef series.

Chris talks about how she got started. For one thing she has over 400 dives from all over the world. 

"This adventure began quite simply …  I was watching a pottery demo by Yoshitaka Hasu at the North Carolina Potters Conference in March and decided to try his hand building technique with a large volume of clay.

By mid-April, I had about 60 lbs of clay ( and growing ) on my workshop table morphing into a Coral Mound destined for my garden. Once I saw it was going to be a Reef, I decided make make other smaller sandy looking coral outcrops.

Then, of course, I needed fish …

and sponges …

and anemones ...

and seashells  ..

Now the project is done and ready to install … except the small coral mounds are too wonderful to put outside in  my garden … at the mercy of the elements. Finding good homes is the next step. So I contacted my friend Jan Francoeur at Carolina Creations to see if she thought anyone in New Bern would be interested, she said YES!!

EDUCATION

Business Administration, Ryerson College, Toronto, Canada

POTTERY EDUCATION

Colored Porcelain – Jane Pieser, Penland, North Carolina 

Line and Surface – Rimas VisGirda, Champaign, Illinois 

Hand built forms – Kathy Triplett, North Carolina 

Surface Decoration – Linda Arbuckle, University of Florida 

Surface Considerations – Lana Wilson, Del Mar, California 

Designs for Function – Pete Pinnell, Lincoln, Nebraska 

Wood firing – Ben Owen III, Seagrove, North Carolina 

Hand building Tricks– Vince Pitelka, Smithville, Tennessee 

Surface Treatments – Steve Howell, Gainesville, Florida 

Colored Porcelain Tiles – Ro Mead, Colorado 

Functional Wares – Cynthia Bringle, Penland, North Carolina

ELECTED OFFICES

2008 - 20012 Executive Board of Potters Council

2009 - 2011 President of Potters Council 

2011 - 2012 - Past President of Potters Council

COLLECTIONS

SAS Institute, Raleigh, North Carolina 

North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 

Clayworks, Melbourne, Australia

Super Busy Weekend and a Visit from Gordon Batten

Everyone is gearing up for Mother's Day, Weddings and Graduation so we've been getting new work in!

Over the weekend North Carolina Gordon Batten stopped in to visit. 

Gordon owns and operate a small clay studio in Western North Carolina about 10 miles from the Cherokee Indian Reservation. 

Upon graduating from Western Carolina University in 1976 with a BFA in ceramics, Gordon Batten immediately began his career as a full-time studio potter.  

Nature and architecture provide the platform for Gordon’s inspiration, but with an abstract interpretation.  This abstraction allows him to painterly express himself without using realism.

By still making his own clay and glazes, Gordon is able to greater expand on ideas and execute them to his satisfaction in a way that resembles conveying a language by way of color and movement instead of voice.