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President’s Message

Yes folks, it is September and the seasons are changing; time
for many of us to start thinking about membership renewal. The
benefits of being a member are all listed on Page 9 of the newsletter,
and you can renew your membership online here: http://www.
bcpotters.com/Guild/membership.php.

Every year there is a discussion and debate around the actual and
perceived benefits of membership, but as with any organization, a
group/guild is greater than a simple sum of its parts. The guild is
what we the members combined make it. One benefit that comes to
mind is information flow. Our website, Facebook page, ebroadcasts
and newsletter link us together by creating lines of communication
to and from all parts of the province and beyond. Many of our
members work alone, often living far from clay colleagues. These
lines of communication can inform us about opportunities, events,
presentations, techniques, workshops, and publications. We
can learn about other artists, their work and what inspires them.

Members can even promote their own work and events such as sales
and exhibitions. It is this sharing of information that creates and
inspires us to venture out and contact other community members.
Of course, there are more benefits, not the least of which is being
part of a larger knowledge base of supportive artists which helps to
encourage artistic and personal growth for each of us.

Along with the usual reminder to most current members that
fees are due again, we are as always looking to reach new potential
members. If you know of anyone - potter, hobbyist, or enthusiast, all
are welcome. As well, if anyone has ideas on reaching new potential
members, we would love to hear about them,

Here is hoping everyone (plus a few extra) renews their membership
and many choose to take part in upcoming PGBC events.

—Denise Jeffrey

Gallery & Exhibition News By Laura Carey

Staff Changes

Atthe end of the summer we wind down with
a few changes in staffing. Karah Goshinmon
has left to pursue a full-time job, and we wish
her all the best. We have welcomed a new
staff member to the team - Katherine Neil, a
ceramics student from Emily Carr University.
We will also be welcoming back Janine Grant
after her trip to France for the summer. We
have been so fortunate to have so many keen
Emily Carr students joining our gallery team.

We look forward to being able to better
serve you as our knowledge of ceramics

continues to grow!

September Exhibition: Sally

Michener

Back to the Future, curated by Mary Fox

Sept. 5 to Oct. 1; Opening Sept. 5, 5 to 7 p.m.
Sally Michener has

participant in the ceramic and visual arts

been an active
community in Canada for more than 40
years. Her role as a teacher and working artist
has insured that her influence has been felt by
many generations of artists, collectors, critics,
and the art viewing public. She is probably
best known for her large scale interior and
exterior installations. Yet it is her crossover
status which distinguishes Michener from
other working artists. Over the years she
has played an important role within the
competitive visual arts scene in this country
while at the same time remaining a leader in
the clay arts movement.

The Leach tradition of wheel-thrown subtly
glazed ceramics is the foundation of modern

studio ceramics. As a university student
in Minnesota, Michener enthusiastically
embraced the technique but found herself
creating add-ons to her pieces: human and
animal forms or other natural images. That
led to hand building and an artistic trajectory
that rapidly advanced a unique vision. The
column, which appears throughout art
history, is seen in Michener’s early works
as the base for a hand-built tea bowl or a
serving dish. Later, two columns became
legs to support a rectangular surface, making
a table or morphing into an arch. A single
terra cotta column created by the centuries
old coil technique reflects the proportions of
the human body and has a face at the apex
built from a life mask. A contingent of these
columns was employed by Michener to create
the Granville Island Hill Installation in 1981
(see: www.surrey.ca/files/Michener1.pdf).

The human body is a recurring image in
Sally Michener’s art. Etched, drawn or in
three dimensions, it is more than a motif.
It is a visual articulation of the possibility
of exploring space and interacting with ic.
Michener’s first installation was a garden that
she designed and executed for the gallery at
Presentation House. There were planters
containing live plants, tables and tiles creating
a pathway through the exhibition space. Thus
the human body can be an image or it can be
you and me walking through an environment
made by the artist.

Sally Michener’s artistic importance cannot
be assessed without seeing the ambitious
installations she’s created over the years for

Granville Hill People, by Sally Michener.

galleries, gardens and public spaces. It’s
in these works that you come face to face
with her immense productivity and ability
to take a theme and explore it in countless
mutations. This exhibition of smaller works
is but a suggestion of what is seen in a fully
realized Michener installation. However, it
does lead the viewer through aspects of the
formal evolution of her iconography and
technique culminating in the magnificent
heads encrusted with coloured tiles and
ceramic shards she is making today. What
is evident in these works is the continuity.
What is past is also seen in the present. Past is
prologue. Back to the future.
—Mary Fox, Curator, Victoria, B.C. @

Potters Guild of BC Newsletter - September 2013

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