SEPTEMBER 12 – OCTOBER 8
Sales Gallery & Online
Jill Foote-Hutton, Kirk Lyttle, Laurie Shaman, Andy Shaw, Jewelry: Heather Nameth Bren
Jill Foote-Hutton, Kirk Lyttle, Laurie Shaman, Andy Shaw, Jewelry: Heather Nameth Bren
Our Early Autumn Featured Artists’ works are full of playful and distinctive characteristics. Foote-Hutton posits that totem, talisman, angel, witch, hero, and spirit (from any tradition) have been equally used as devices of liberation and oppression. With her “Guardian Monsters” she aims to seize the power of those objects from an authoritarian state of mind and put it back into the hearts of the individual. Lyttle says, “I’d like my pots to appear as though they were knocked off on a whim. If some have acquired an aura that transcends these inauspicious beginnings, I’d like it to be attributed to the mystery of the wood-fired kiln.” Shaman’s work features painted imagery with varying combinations of animals, landscapes, and figures. It is hoped that the pieces evoke a combination of classical and contemporary sensibilities in shape and surface quality. Shaw’s work is balanced and precise, decorated with textured patterns that collaborate with designs in your home. Nameth Bren offers a new series of contemporary ceramic jewelry for your fall accessory wardrobe.
About the Artists
Heather Nameth Bren
Lauderdale, MN
Heather Nameth Bren received an MFA in ceramics from the University of Kansas (Lawrence). in 2003. Since then, Bren has received grants through the Jerome and McKnight Foundations and has been recognized as a Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist. She is a 2013 recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant which funded her research on Delft tiles. Her creative practice and ceramic exploration are diverse, including ceramic jewelry, installation, functional ware, and her most recent “tile paintings.” Bren’s tile paintings explore the relationship of inner trauma to external environments and conditions. In contrast, Bren’s “uncentered centering cups” encourage and affirm the user with playful imagery, cheeky quips, and glitter glaze. In addition to her studio practice, Bren has been a professor of art since 2007. She currently teaches at Bethel University (St. Paul, Minnesota).
Jill Foote-Hutton
Raytown, MO
Jill Foote-Hutton has always been committed to the craft of storytelling. Born and raised by the descendants of hillbillies, Foote-Hutton is an artist following in the tradition of medicine woman and storyteller through her creative practice dubbed Whistlepig Studio. “Monster” is a device she uses to engage a conversation about the disparities of what we think and what we do, about the distance between two human beings, and the nature of lightness and darkness. She posits that totem, talisman, god, demon, angel, witch, hero, and spirit (from any tradition) have been equally used as devices of liberation and oppression. Renamed “Guardian Monsters” in her practice, Foote-Hutton, aims to seize the power of those objects from an authoritarian state of mind and put power back into the hearts and minds of the individual. They are a shibboleth. They are an interpretation. They are multivalent.
Kirk Lyttle
St. Paul, MN
Kirk Lyttle was born and schooled in Seattle, Washington. In addition to his ceramics practice, Lyttle was an illustrator and graphic artist for the Pioneer Press. He and his wife, potter Jil Franke, fire their pots alongside Linda Christianson in her double-chambered Bourry box kiln. His work slowly evolves with the introduction of new clays, slips, and the nature of the drawings that grace his pots. Of his work, Lyttle says, “I’d like my pots to appear as though they were knocked off on a whim; the drawings have been done for my personal amusement. If some of them have acquired an aura that transcends these inauspicious beginnings, I’d like it if this were attributed to the mysterious atmosphere of the wood-fired kiln.”
Laurie Shaman
Chicago, IL
Laurie Shaman is a ceramist who handbuilds vessels, tiles, and wall pieces in porcelain. She has maintained a studio practice for over 40 years, created a Chicago Public Art tile mural, and has held arts administration positions at the Art Institute of Chicago and Lillstreet Art Center. Her work features painted, incised, or carved imagery with varying combinations of animals, birds, landscapes, and figures. Shaman hopes the pieces evoke a combination of classical and contemporary sensibilities in shape and surface quality.
Andy Shaw
Baton Rouge, LA
Andy Shaw is associate professor of ceramics at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. His creative projects include the Mid-Atlantic Keramik Exchange (Reykjavik, Iceland), the LSU Ceramics Factory production studio, and co-directing the Queeramics Symposium at LSU. Shaw has completed artist residencies at the SÍM Residency (Reykjavik, Iceland) and Íshús Hafnarfjarðar (Hafnarfjörður, Iceland), the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (Halifax), The Clay Studio of Philadelphia as the 2007 Evelyn Shapiro Foundation Fellow, The Archie Bray Foundation (Helena, Montana), Arrowmont School of Crafts (Gaitlinburg, Tennesee), and a McKnight Artist Residency for Ceramic Artists at Northern Clay Center. In 2000, he earned his MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and in 1992 a BA in history from Kenyon College (Gambier, Ohio).