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POTTERS
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COLUMBIA
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Mariko Paterson McCrae: Life in a Ceramic Nebula

By Amy Gogarty

“In my orbiting universe there is plenty
more material that can be dragged in
and spun into the pulsating weave
of historical and contemporary.”

—Mariko Paterson McCrae

The North-West Ceramics Foundation
is pleased to announce Mariko Paterson
McCrae as their featured speaker at a free
public lecture Thursday, June 2, at 7:15
p-m. The lecture will be held in Room 291,
North Building of Emily Carr University
of Art + Design at 1399 Johnston Street,
Granville Island, Vancouver. All are welcome
and encouraged to attend.

Mariko McCrae grew up in Vancouver,
studying ceramics at the Langara campus of
Vancouver Community College and at the
Alberta College of Art + Design in Calgary,
Alta. In 1998, she received her MFA in
ceramics from Kent State University in Kent,
Ohio. She lived subsequently in New York
City and attended residencies in Banff, Alta.
and Skaelskor, Denmark. She has taught both
workshops and credit courses in New York,
Michigan, Calgary, Red Deer, Winnipeg
and Vancouver and exhibited in over thirty
exhibitions in the United States, Canada
and Denmark. In 2008, she co-founded Box
Social Inc., an online gallery and store ded-
icated to promoting fine craft. In 2010, she
moved with her husband, graphic designer
Bryan McCrae, to Gabriola Island, where
they established Feedlot Studios, a combin-
ation ceramics workshop/studio and graphic
arts design business. From her studio, McCrae
has launched an online gallery and ambitious
program of classes promoted by her humour-
ous and wide-reaching blog posts and emails.

McCrae
narratives interspersing alter-egos, historical

creates elaborate _ personal
precedents, fantasy elements and actual
events and locations. Often working in
series, she subverts such traditional sources

Staffordshire
Dutch décor and the Blue Willow pattern

as spaniels, Pennsylvania
to surprising and playful effect. Her use of
zany alter-egos first surfaced in 2002 while
at a residency in Denmark, where she was
presented with pristine porcelain blanks
on which to work. Somewhat daunted, she
tiffed on Royal Copenhagen’s Flora Danica

to create Dana Florica, a bearded, overweight,

ge
BNWCF
North-West
Ceramics
Foundation

transvestite china-painting art star whose work

she channeled. For her show at the Crafthouse
Gallery on Granville Island in February 2012,
she will present works arising out of her
imaginative creation of Abigail Tackle, an
elderly prairie woman who dreams of living
at sea. McCrae will populate Tackle’s “Shrine
to the Muddy Mariner” with “sea sponges and
slithering snakes. ..4 la Bernard Palissy, twisted

Onward Ho! Handbuilt Cone 6 Porcelain,
glazes, underglaze, luster and decals/
detail.

replicas of exotic coral-infested lamp bases...
commemorative platters” and a few more of
her favorite sea things. Other favorite things
from her online gallery include tableware
decorated with jaunty sea-going vessels and
pirate maps comprising an inspired “mash-

Continued on Page 8,
Cheeky portrait sculptures

Specialty Courses & Workshops

at the Surrey Art Gallery

Raku Workshop

Enhance your pottery with beautiful
crackle or iridescent glazes, and the
smoky textures of Raku.

Fee includes one studio drop-in visit,
one bag of clay, bisque firing, and
Raku glazes.

May 17, 7:30—8:30pm (info session)
June 26, 9am—4pm (Raku firing)
2 sessions $98 | #4243089

Instructor Cheryl Stapleton is an artist,
educator, and pottery studio technician and
manager. She holds a BFA from Emily Carr
University of Art + Design, and has been
teaching ceramics for 15 years.

surrey
art gallery |

surrey centre

13750 - 88 Avenue
WWW. surrey.ca/arts

BaSiiRreY

Kiln Operations Workshop

Learn all about electric kiln
operations from the kiln manager at
the Surrey Art Gallery. Topics
include trigger adjustments, kiln
loading, re-wiring, firing schedules,
cones, troubleshooting, and safety.

June 4, 10am—12:30pm
1 session $26.50 | #4243073

Instructor and full-time potter Murray
Sanders has taught at the Surrey Art
Gallery for nineteen years, and is also
the ceramics studio technician. He holds
diplomas in Fine Arts and Adult Education.

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Conseil des Arts
du Canada

Canada Council
for the Arts

BRITISH COLUMBIA
ARTS COUNCIL

An agency of the Province of British Columbia

Potters Guild of BC Newsletter - May 2011

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