Betsy Morningstar

 Charlie Cumming's Gallery (Gainesville FL) has wonderful ceramic art displayed, and I'm fortunate that they send me an email of art. Here are a few pics of Betsy Morningstar's work.

Mug, "May 5 Capture that rage and turn it into action," $95

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Betsy Morningstar

Featured Artist

Betsy Morningstar makes memorable porcelain pottery not quite like anyone else's. In the fineness of porcelain she masterfully crafts crumpled, folded, stained, and scribbled-on pieces of notebook paper. Frayed edges of porcelain seemingly torn from a notebook or binder become exquisite details. Doodles, dates, and notes become archival and indelible. Stains from tea or coffee and those familiar blue and red printed lines become delicate surface decorations that make the surfaces of these seemingly weightless forms sing. Some of the written notes are poignant, some humorous, some meditative. All are compelling, making us think of mundane, yet powerful moments when we are left to our own thoughts. These humble notes capture snapshots of life and affirm our humanity as they simultaneously serve as eye-catching vessels and light-as-a-feather companions at the table.

Betsy Morningstar earned an MA in Ceramics at Hood College in Frederick, MD as well as an MA in Curriculum and Teaching at Fresno Pacific University in Fresno, CA. She earned a BA in Art Education with a K-12 Certification at Mercyhurst University in Mercy, PA. She is a High School Art Teacher in the Howard County Public School System in Columbia, MD and shows her beautiful porcelain nationally.

Artist Statement

Lined paper has been in my life for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I drew all over it. I scrawled lists and scribbles. I have carefully folded it into love letters, wrinkled it with use, and torn bits for silly notes and gum wrappers. I use it to organize life and store memories in journals. Lined paper is familiar, nostalgic, and comfortable, but it is often unacknowledged in day-to-day life.

I enjoy the magic of trompe l'oeil as I manipulate porcelain to mimic the normalcy of notebook paper, creating the comfort of blue and red lines, the placement of binder holes, and the inevitable frayed edge. I find beauty in the folds, wrinkles, and waviness of used paper. I started creating porcelain notebook papers out of a need to find and see importance in each day and communicate outside of myself in a physical way. Each porcelain paper features journaled notes and fleeting moments from a day in my life, now forever special and permanent. The notes vary on the emotional spectrum of life, but all are significant moments I never want to forget. They are my brain and my heart in physical form.

Shop Betsy Morningstar's pottery here.

I actually have a friend and a granddaughter who live in Gainesville. I wonder if either has ever heard of this gallery, or visited it! Must ask.

Death and Life by Klimt

 Death and Life - 1915

Gustav Klimt (1862 ~ 1918)

Oil on canvas (180 x 200 cm)

Leopold Museum, Vienna, Austria

is an oil on canvas painting by Austrian painter Gustav Klimt. The painting was started in 1908 and completed in 1915. It is created in an Art Nouveau (Modern) style by use of allegorical painting genre during Golden phase. The painting measures 178 by 198 centimeters and is now housed at the Leopold Museum in Vienna. This is one of Klimt's central themes, central also to his time and to his contemporaries among them Edvard Munch and Egon Schiele. Klimt makes of it a modern dance of death, but unlike Schiele, he introduces a note of hope and reconciliation, instead of feeling threatened by the figure of death, his human beings seem to disregard it. The imagination of the artist is focused no longer on physical union, but rather on the expectation that precedes it. Perhaps this new found serenity is rooted in Klimt's own awareness of aging and closeness to death. But before the moment came when he chose to depict nothing more than moments of intense pleasure or miraculous beauty and youth.

Aram Hunanyan

 I had "liked" a Facebook post of an angel several years ago, and it showed up in "memories" today. I this time delved deeper into finding out who the artist was, and here're some of his works.

Aram Hunanyan

He is carried only by the one gallery in California, Lusinet Collective. Here's a description they offer:

Aram, the renowned artist hailing from Armenia, captivates admirers with his exquisite ceramic colorful angels. Each delicate creation embodies a harmonious blend of beauty and spirituality. Adorned with vibrant hues, these angels gracefully hold small pieces of heartfelt symbolism - a tender blossom, a soaring bird, or a warming hearth. Aram's mastery lies not only in his deft hand at shaping the ceramic forms but also in infusing them with profound meaning. Through his artistry, he invites viewers into a realm where the celestial meets the earthly, where colors dance and stories unfold in the palms of divine guardians.

This was the angel I saw in 2018.

The larger angels are finished on the back also, but I had trouble downloading those photos from the gallery. You can click on the gallery's photos to see the reverse details.

I think my guardian angel must look like one of his creations.

Nancy Kubale

 Nancy Kubale, potter

Today's quote:

We are beginning to explore the physics of beauty. Philosophers and scientists have come together to name certain universal themes.

The universe tends toward complexity.
The universe is a web of relationship.
The universe tends toward symmetry.
The universe is rhythmic.
The universe tends toward self-organizing systems.
The universe depends on feedback and response.

Thus, the universe is “free” and unpredictable.

Celebrating art on pottery

 I said in 2022: "I am the proud owner of two pieces of Charlie Tefft pottery."  (His home page is ctpottery.com)

I  found this neat video of him describing his process, Here.

Charlie Teft made this mug and I bought it at a pottery show in Marshall NC. I then kept a eye out when he'd be included in shows. He lives in Summerfield NC. Unfortunately an accident in my kitchen demolished this mug.

I did purchase another of his mugs, the crow to remember a good friend of many years who loved all things corvid! 

Wanting to have another cat mug, I was happy to find this one.

Not a great photo, but my last purchase was the otter, on left here in a years-gone-past-springtime photo!

Many more blog posts of ceramics by others are on my "art blog" Alchemy of Clay.

Today's quote:

Rebecca Solnit, “Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable, an alternative to [polarized certainties. . . .Hope] is the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand.”

Making art

  

Me (in my dyed-hair days of 2011) sculpting at the Community Clay Studio

Me in Community Clay Studio in 2024 trying to return (unsuccessfully) to working in clay. The needs for breathing clean air and not coughing won the day, so I quietly bowed out.

By Norman Rockwell

As an aspiring artist, I put my all into my efforts, but never once did I have this intensity. Perhaps that's why I made my living in other areas of work. However, I do remember that deadlines always gave me a headache.

Today's quote:

If more politicians in this country were thinking about the next generation instead of the next election, it might be better for the United States and the world.

 -Claude Pepper, senator and representative (1900-1989)

A potter my son knows

Noelle Hoover’s dripping, accentuated, confections!
"These sooo remind me of dripping frosting on a totally delicious bunt-cake. Don’t you just want to just put them to your mouth and know how they feel (and just imagine that they’re sweet as sugar?). I sure do. Well these precious pieces are by Indianapolis artist Noelle Hoover who accentuates her flowing white glazes with these great free-form lines w/ radiating shading. They’re drawn with underglaze pencils and often refired a few times to create exactly the look she’s after. Stunning and super functional - just what I’d like in my Holiday stocking… "
from 'In Tandem Gallery', Bakersville, NC (now selling her works)

work of Indianapolis based ceramicist Noelle Hoover.

Her own artist statement:
The challenge of the mold making process and the interaction of ceramic materials is what fuels my curiosity and keeps me active in the making process. My practice begins with carving models from plaster and augmenting found objects for positives. In these models I try to translate the gestures of animals, forms from nature and the swell and movement of cumulus clouds into functional shapes. A ceramic mold is then made from these models and caste in clay. Through adding elements together and multiple glaze firings the repetitious process is modified to create one of a kind functional pieces.
Recently my work has deviated to include simplistic forms that are heavily reliant on repetitive mark making. In this process the goal is to focus only on the line directly before as a way to center concentration. Something about the repetitive motion that requires tunnel vision to stay on task I find meditative. Using mainly underglaze pencil and very fine underglaze applicators, the work is left unglazed or minimally glazed to create a textural experience when held in the hand. The end result are pieces that reflect on natural repetitious patterns in nature. It is though this investigation of everyday tableware I strive to make works of art that the owner will use, handle and enjoy. I would like there to be a tiny celebration everyday and I hope my objects can inspire that in their owners.
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My son, Tai Rogers, graduated in the same class as she did with an MFA in Ceramics from U of Indiana. I met her while we had a dinner-out one night! Maybe 2 degrees of separation there, eh? Incidentally my son moved into working with wood sculptures, and then did other things since he graduated.