Shirley Gromen

 Shirley Gromen

Shirley Gromen's superb porcelain extoles the virtues of the mighty Chesapeake Bay and all the splendorous inhabitants found in and near its waters. With precise workwomanship, she wheel throws or hand builds graceful forms and decorates them lavishly with incredibly beautiful sgraffito and slip trailing, creating visually stunning illustrated, textural surfaces that the hands love to explore. Focusing an adoring lens on small creatures from sandpipers and kingfishers to blowfish and striped bass, Shirley highlights the diversity of the Chesapeake's varied habitats. In a distinctive black-and-white with occasional pops of color, her pots make use of graphic forms and visual space, making this work stand out across a room. Shirley's work is prominently featured in our own collection, and we can't say enough about how much we love her pottery's beauty, its function, and the conversation it kindles amongst guests.

Shirley Gromen received her BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art and her MFA in Ceramics from The Ohio State University. She worked many years as a graphic designer before returning to the clay studio in 2015. She is a member of the Ceramic Guild and the Kiln Club, cooperative ceramic groups in the Washington, DC metro area and has shown as Scope Gallery, their shared gallery space at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, VA, since 2015. Her work has been selected for inclusion in numerous juried competitions and craft shows.

Artist Statement

My work serves as a portal into the ever-chaging natural world of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Through sgraffito, I interpret the region's diverse bird, fish, insect, and plant species on both functional and sculptural ceramic forms. By bringing these intricate ecosystems to the surface, I hope to inspire awareness and appreciation for the interdependent life that surrounds us.

My influences are noted in both the personal history and direct experiences with nature. I think of my grandmother's Limoges china, carried from Europe in 1914, and my mother's Imari plates from Japan, which adorned our dining room walls. Fishing trips with my father and bird watching with my husband inform my subject matter, while ongoing explorations in my craft continue to shape my artistic voice.

Each piece begins with a hand-built or wheel-thrown porcelain form. I spray black underglaze onto the leather-hard surface and use sgraffito to carve away the slip, reveealing the white porcelain beneath. Slip-trailing adds further texture and dimension. After bisque firing, a liner glaze completes the piece before it is fired to 2,200°F in oxidation. This process allows me to create patterns, textures, and narratives that bring imagined gatherings of birds, fish, and plants to life. Working from my home studio on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, I find endless inspiration in the rhythms and beauty of this environment.

Shop Shirley Gromen's pottery here.

Thanks Charlie Cummings Gallery, Gainesville, FL

Happy hearts day!

 

Charles H Geilfus (1856 - 1914) Repairing Hearts 1900

Charles H Geilfus (1856 - 1914) Repairing Hearts 1900

The Boss

 Bruce Springsteen - Dancing in the Dark

Just for fun

The simple beat, and lyrics...still enjoyable all these years later.

Paul McCartney Set The Glastonbury Festival On Fire Saturday Night With A Jaw-Dropping Surprise That Had The Crowd Raging—Bringing Out Unbelievable Guests Dave Grohl And Bruce Springsteen!

Facebook post Feb 10, 2025

Movie: The Lady in the Van

 Upon Dame Maggie Smith's recent death, I started watching all of her movies that I could find. This was a somewhat odd but charming one.

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 The Lady in the Van is a 2015 British comedy-drama film directed by Nicholas Hytner and written by Alan Bennett. The film is based on the true story of an elderly woman named Mary Shepherd, who, despite her unconventional lifestyle, made a lasting impression on Bennett. Maggie Smith stars as the eccentric Mary Shepherd, a woman who lives in a dilapidated van parked in Bennett's driveway for 15 years.

The story is set in London and follows the unique relationship between Mary and Alan Bennett, played by Alex Jennings, who allows her to stay in his driveway despite her unpredictable behavior and often mysterious past. Through a series of flashbacks and humorous exchanges, the film reveals the complicated and touching dynamics of their unlikely friendship. It also explores themes of kindness, boundaries, and compassion, as well as the hidden stories that people carry with them.

Maggie Smith’s performance as Mary Shepherd was widely acclaimed, earning her a Golden Globe nomination and solidifying the film as a favorite among fans of British cinema. The Lady in the Van is known for its wit, depth, and emotional resonance, all delivered with a charming British sensibility. It's a poignant yet humorous exploration of the lives of two seemingly very different individuals who, over time, develop a deep and genuine connection.

Propaganda in art

 Excerpts from BBC 2017  

The story of a painting that fought fascism - 

(published for a 2017 Art Show in London England)

6 February 2017 by Fiona Macdonald

Opening during the Spanish Civil War, the 1937 Paris Exhibition allowed 

artists to speak out against brutality. Fiona Macdonald looks at a moment

 when paintings became propaganda. 

On 26 April 1937, Nazi German and Italian bombers attacked the Basque

 city of Guernica. Over the course of three hours, they destroyed three-quarters

 of the ancient town, killing and wounding hundreds. The raid was “unparalleled

 in military history”, according to reports at the time – and it inspired one of the

 most famous anti-war paintings in history. A new exhibition staged in London 

by Barcelona’s Mayoral Gallery honours a group of artists who responded to 

the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War.

These artists were brought together by the 1937 Paris Exhibition, which 

opened less than a month after the bombing and just 10 months after the

 Civil War began. The Exhibition is usually remembered for the competing

 bluster of two nations: Germany, with its monumental granite tower topped

 with a giant eagle and swastika, and the Soviet Union, whose marble-clad

 structure was capped by an even bigger statue of two figures clutching a 

hammer and a sickle. Yet it also played host to a humbler project that has

 outlasted either monolith. Mayoral’s exhibition commemorates the 80th 

anniversary of the Spanish pavilion, seen by the Second Spanish Republic 

as a way of revealing General Franco’s cruelty to the rest of the world 

against a backdrop of rising authoritarianism.

Its ambitions were far removed from Nazi and Soviet architectural 

one-upmanship. As Europe moved towards war, the situation in Spain took 

on significance around the world. It became a battleground for the forces of 

Fascism and Communism and inspired new works from some of the greatest 

artists of the time. Pablo Picasso, Julio González, Joan Miró, 

Alexander Calder, Alberto Sánchez, and José Gutiérrez Solan were all 

shown in the Spanish pavilion.

Musicians = The Grateful Dead

 Congratulations to the Grateful Dead on being named the 2025 MusiCares Persons of the Year! Since their formation in the Bay Area in the '60s, the group has remained a symbol of peace and love, and inspired generations with their genre-bending improvisational style. Coming together to develop and popularize a new genre of "jam rock," the Grateful Dead left an imprint on rock music forever and birthed a cultural jam rock revolution that is still "truckin" today.

Fronted by guitarist and lead singer Jerry Garcia, the group's popularity grew quickly from their roots in the hippie movement in San Francisco. Their fans formed a tight-knit community called Deadheads who followed the band all over the country. With a beloved repertoire of songs like “Sugar Magnolia,” “Touch of Grey,” and “Friend of the Devil,” the Grateful Dead are an inimitable treasure in the canon of American music.

My friends would go to their concerts and record the music onto their little tape recorders (Walkmans, etc) of that era. So getting good balance of the music was sometimes hard but I think this gives a bit of the setting, as well as their music.

Keep Truckin'

Go to Wikipedia for more:

The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, folk, country, bluegrass, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, and world music with psychedelia, the band is famous for improvisation during their live performances, and for their devoted fan base, known as "Deadheads". According to the musician and writer Lenny Kaye, the music of the Grateful Dead "touches on ground that most other groups don't even know exists." For the range of their influences and the structure of their live performances, the Grateful Dead are considered "the pioneering godfathers of the jam band world".

After Garcia's death in 1995, former members of the band, along with other musicians, toured as The Other Ones in 1998, 2000, and 2002, and as The Dead in 2003, 2004, and 2009. In 2015, the four surviving core members marked the band's 50th anniversary in a series of concerts in Santa Clara, California, and Chicago that were billed as their last performances together.

Like several other bands at the time, the Grateful Dead allowed their fans to record their shows. For many years the tapers set up their microphones wherever they could, and the eventual forest of microphones became a problem for the sound crew. Eventually, this was solved by having a dedicated taping section located behind the soundboard, which required a special "tapers" ticket. The band allowed sharing of their shows, as long as no profits were made on the sale of the tapes.

Of the approximately 2,350 shows the Grateful Dead played, almost 2,200 were taped, and most of these are available online. 

Deadheads, particularly those who collected tapes, were known for keeping close records of the band's setlists and for comparing various live versions of the band's songs, as reflected in publications such as the various editions of "Deadbase" and "The Deadhead's Taping Compendium". This practice continues into the 21st century on digital forums and websites such as the Internet Archive, which features live recordings of nearly every available Grateful Dead show and allows users to discuss and review the site's shows.

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Peter BersaniDead and Company Tour Family on Facebook

Ive been looking on with great joy and not a little bemusement at the celebration of The Grateful Dead over these last few months. From The Kennedy Centre Honours, to the Grammys and Musicares it seems the world is awakening to what many of us have always known. The music, stories, scene and family that the band in all its iterations have perpetrated for nearly 60 years IS worth celebrating. More than 45 years since my first show the music continues to give me solace, comfort and great joy. Oh the places it's taken me and the friends Ive made.

It must have been the roses..

Jerry Garcia in front of the Grateful Dead's Infamous Wall of Sound.

The Wall of Sound was an enormous public address system designed specifically for the Grateful Dead’s live performances in 1974. It was the creation of audio engineer Owsley “Bear” Stanley. The Grateful Dead gave the sneak peek of the Wall of Sound on February 9, 1973 at Stanford University’s Maples Pavilion but it was on March 23, 1974 when they debuted the completed system during their tour stop at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California.

Weighed over 70 tons, comprise dozens and then hundreds of amps, speakers, subwoofers, and tweeters, stand over three-stories tall and stretch nearly 100 feet wide. Its name could only be the “Wall of Sound”.

Drugs were part of their world, and at concerts (most rock concerts anyway) one didn't have to have

 their own - the amount of smoke in the air would let anyone get high, whether they wanted to or not!

Southern Highlands Craft Guild - three

 A final chapter of our visit. We then went downstairs to peruse the various craft wares in the shop. Here are some stunning pots. 

I have a bowl made by Joe Frank McKee, not pit fired or sager fired unfortunately, but beautiful still.

Martin Stankus did the lighter pink pots.

I didn't buy a thing this time!

I have made so many pieces with torn clay. But she got here first. And she applied gold leaf and gold composite to hers!

I loved this lamp, but it was already sold!

detail of the following...

detail for below...

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After we looked a bit at the shop downstairs of all the crafts that are currently being made by members, we sat at a picnic table outside in the sun, with a nice balmy temperature of 70 F.

The remaining stump from a nice old tree that used to shade the picnic table (out of the photo)

I was intrigued by the shades and shapes, as I think someone had had a fire in the stump.

In the mostly grey woods, a holly tree was bright green.

We had seen the cuts in the trees along the parkway (in distant background) but didn't realize the pipe nearby had been a light pole which had been snapped off at the base and was now lying on the hill going down to the parkway. There were high winds that also came through with Hurricane Helene.