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    Open Studios Preview Exhibit at Santa Cruz Art League

    Join me and about 300 other talented artists at the Santa Cruz Art League this Sunday! This new piece from my rock candy series will be on display making its exhibition debut there. If you need a little art & nature for your space, you can purchase it at the opening which also helps support the Art League. Hope to see you there!

    Preview Exhibit for Open Studios 2015
    September 26 – October 18
    Artist Reception Sunday, September 27, 3-6 pm
    Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture | the dirt | Open Studios Preview Exhibit Opens at Santa Cruz Art LeagueFor more information about Open Studios visit the Arts Council website!

    The Hive has landed in Grand Rapids

    The Hive Series Installation is officially set up at (106) Gallery in Grand Rapids for ArtPrize2015! It was quite a venture getting nearly 200 fragile pieces wrapped, boxed, crated and shipped across the country only to have the gallery staff rely on really detailed instructions from me to get the whole piece installed. They did a beautiful job assembling each piece and I’m so pleased with the exhibit. Here are a few gallery shots taken just before ArtPrize officially opens. If you’re in the area, get out and see some art and rock the vote!

    Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture | the dirt | The Hive has landed in Grand Rapids Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture | the dirt | The Hive has landed in Grand Rapids Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture | the dirt | The Hive has landed in Grand Rapids

    ArtPrize 2015 Opens!

    Weighing the Landscape | September 9 – October 11, 2015 | (106) Gallery | Grand Rapids MI
    ArtPrize is a “radically open competition” held in Grand Rapids, Michigan for two and a half weeks each fall. This year the Calvin College (106) Gallery presents, “WEIGHING THE LANDSCAPE.” Drawing on the environment for both thematic and formal inspiration, these twelve ArtPrize artists explore and measure connections within the landscape. Whether it is the relationship between strength and fragility, sustainability and wastefulness, light and dark, or growth and decay, each artist addresses the topic in unique ways. As a result, this measuring of opposites brings questions to mind. How does one find beauty in deterioration, see order within chaos, address stewardship amongst change, or understand rigidity within an organic space? These and other questions are at the root of the artistic process and invite the viewer to weigh the landscape in this exhibition. If you are in the Grand Rapids area, visit the gallery at: (106) Gallery and Studio, 106 South Division Ave. Grand Rapids, MI 49503 and register to vote for your favorite piece!

    Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture | the dirt | ArtPrize 2015 Opens

    The artists are: Valerie Allen, Al Denyer, Kate Gesel, Yasmin Khalaf, Karen Lemmert & David Naill of MANIFOLD Design, Jeannette MacDougall, Armin Mersmann, Zach Mory, Kimberly Roush, Sam Soet, Jo-Ann Van Reeuwyk, and Jenni Ward

    Earth Art Studio Students Shine at the SC County Fair!

    So proud of my students from my summer workshops who all exhibited a piece of art at the Santa Cruz County Fair this year. I just picked up the work and was so impressed to see the number of ribbons on their work. In the category of ceramics or sculpture we had SEVEN 1st place winners, SIX 2nd place winners, THREE 3rd place winners, SIX honorable mentions and TWO special awards; one for excellence in originality and one for excellence in technique! Amazing amounts of talent coming out of the studio! Hope that you all had a chance to walk through the Fine Arts building at the fair this year and check out the work. See ya next year at the fair!
    Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture | the dirt | Earth Art Studio Students Shine at the SC County Fair!

    Inspiration Through Exploration

    I’m back! Nearly 3 weeks on the road traveling through Morocco, Gibraltar and Spain has been an epic adventure of inspiration. Time working in the studio is intense and solitary for me, I’m focused on building and being thoughtful about my work so I find its important to balance that with ventures out into world with unknown outcomes and explorations of new cultures and people. Nothing refuels my passion for creating like these explorations. Below is a short slide show of some of the colors, textures and spaces that inspire me. I was also able to visit a production pottery studio in Fez Morocco and learned that they fuel their wood kiln with olive pits- how amazing is that? I hope these images inspire your own wonderlust!

    Studio’s Closed ( just for a few weeks!)

    Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture | the dirt | Studio's Closed (just for a few weeks)Just wanted to let you know that you won’t receive The Dirt in your inbox for the next few weeks as I’ll be on the road exploring through Spain and Morocco — Wahoo! I promise to share my adventures and photos of all the amazing Gaudi art and ceramic tile work as soon as I return- Inspiration through Exploration!

    Also, just a reminder that the studio will re-open for classes the week of Sept 28th. Adult classes will be offered on Tues nights from 7 – 9pm and Thurs mornings from 10 – 12pm. Private classes for kids, families and home-school groups are also available, but space is limited.

    And mark your calendars for Open Studios 2015!
    October 10, 11, 17 & 18
    Studio is open 11- 5

    Giving Back: A school in Port-au-Prince

    Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture | projects | HaitiI have been helping with philanthropic projects in Haiti for many years now and have made 6 trips there since the earthquake in January 2010. I have met incredible people, doing incredible things to help the Haitians thrive but one of the most amazing people I have met there is a man named Winter.  He lives in the middle of one of the poorest neighborhoods in Port-Au-Prince and has been working tirelessly for years to provide a free school for the children who live there. He is a firm believer that education is still the best way to improve someone’s lot in life. It has been an honor to know him, visit his school and donate supplies whenever I can.

    Winter’s school, named Rajepre, has grown enough over the past few years to now require nine teachers, all of whom have been working for free ever since they began. Not surprisingly, the teachers are not certain they can continue this for one more year, and the school will have to close if they leave for paying jobs. Winter would like to pay each teacher $120 for one month’s work, so it will take $3240 to keep the school running for the rest of this year. (A new plan will be considered for next year.)

    My friend Kathy Barbro has organized a Go Fund Me page to Keep Winter’s School Open, please consider donating to this drive as every dollar has the potential to be life changing for a child in Haiti. Thank you for supporting education in Haiti!

     

    Making Tools

    Even with all of the gadgets, gizmos and tools you just have to have out there sometimes, you can’t find just what you need and you have to make your own. I’ve seen artists use everything from pool noodles to pipes as they support their work in the wet building stages, but my work needed support in the kiln, which means I needed something that could survive the firing process.

    I’ve been firing flanged pieces from my bone series with some good results but I often get a small crack line along the length of the pieces during the glaze firing process. I realized that some more support might be what’s needed to help them survive the firing process with a higher success rate. So I started building some angled clay shapes for the sculptures to rest on. But because the glaze can’t touch anything during the firing, I added short lengths of heavy gauge nichrome wire pins poking out of the clay everywhere. So the glazed piece rests on the pinpoints instead of on the clay support. The result looks like some crazy torture device but so far so good, my new tool appears to have worked its magic. Making the tools to make the art makes artists inventors as well as creators!
    Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture | the dirt | making tools Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture | the dirt | making toolsJenni Ward ceramic sculpture | the dirt | making tools