Learning about mud people
-at the first Art in Clay Festival in Redlands CA
The weather was perfect for the first Art in Clay Festival this past weekend, it was primarily a gathering among ceramists and clay enthusiasts but mud people are what they like to call themselves. I was glad to walk among the creative kinds of people and the variety was mesmerizing: dainty and clunky, detailed and funky, colorful or earthly.
What’s so cool about this tangible medium is the versatility of having house wares, decorative objects, jewelry, and games made of the same material. There were flutes and vases and candles in vessels.
Redlands Pottery Community Project hosted the event with the support of the Laguna Clay Company and the oldest print company in Redlands, The Citrograph. Ryan Bailey, the co-owner of The Citrograph, suggested they did the festival at the Asistencia. He joined the Redlands Pottery Project two years ago and got hooked plus has shown a tremendous talent, the clay really likes him. Bailey is one of the people creating community here in Redlands whatever he gets involved in, I really appreciate that about him.
There are an abundance of amazing art festivals in Redlands but none are rooted in the mud. You might not be into ceramics (I just remembered that Hands on Knitting Center hosts an annual Fiber Fair, if that’s more your jam) but I am hoping after looking at the photos you might be. And back to the clay…
[A few edits have been made in the story from the original version, FYI]
At the Art in Clay Festival I spoke with people from Redlands, there was a member of the Redlands Pottery Project who often traveled from Corona to throw on a wheel in Redlands. There were artists from Palm Springs and Idyllwild, the Inland Empire and all the way close to Los Angeles.
I asked one of them how they knew about the event, and Claire said, “Us mud people know each other.”
When Redlands Pottery Project celebrated their 1 year anniversary I interviewed them for a story and was blown away by the enthusiasm of best friends Ezra Bosworth-Amet, Taylor Triplett and Bradley Evans. It’s only been two years and they’ve added a non profit organization (The Redlands Pottery Community Project) to host workshops for people who usually are excluded from this privileged hobby, then there’s the festival and if that wasn’t enough a second location in Fullerton are about to be built.
I wish I had attended one of the work shops at the festival but thoroughly enjoyed watching a professional artist in action: Sam Lopez.
Abbie Bosworth from Redlands Pottery Community Project (she’s the mom to one of the owners) organized the event and curated the artists for the exhibit, I love her ceramics because they remind me of home (Denmark). Her leadership in creating the festival took an intense amount of work for the past five month, in which volunteers and the board of the Redlands Pottery Community Project (the three owners and Holland Snipes) made it all possible.
If you haven’t been to the Asistencia in Redlands then going to a Clay Festival is the perfect reason to go. A historic building made of clay celebrating clay in all of its forms.
Follow me into the exhibit. If you have been reading this Substack for a while you know how much I adore art exhibits, so inspiring and this one did not disappoint.
Art in ash trays
Remember in the olden days when people smoked everywhere? Ash trays stood on every street corner, in every store and restaurant. God forbid, a world without big tobacco.
Smoking was a daily small violence on your body. But artist Kaleigh McMullen addressed large violences too. “The truths I tell in my work are far from unique. Violence often hides in plain sight, buried in the mundane spaces of daily life.”
She said creating miniature scenes makes the experience voyeuristic. “It renders the unbearable more digestible, and the overlooked impossible to ignore.”
Experiments
Artist Naomi Beltran Garcia called her contribution to the exhibit “I Think I can.”
“The beauty of never knowing if something will truly succeed is both wonderful and stressful.” Being a clay artist means letting go of your piece when it enters the oven, in that process you never know what will happen. The piece can be altered and unrecognizable.
Learning to go with the flow is the most important lesson of working with clay.
Healing through pain
The last artist in the exhibit was Jaime Blaise Cadegan who put her own mental health and identity on display. “[Clay’s] capacity to adapt and transform despite its vulnerability to crack or even explode under pressure mirrors bodies and minds under stress, and the resilience needed to heal.”
“My art is about healing. How can a fractured body and a divided mind still be held together? Art can give form to this fragile but necessary hope.“
I love it when art provokes you and make you think in new tangible ways about something, in this case mental health.
At Claire’s booth I found little ceramic mushrooms to put on my refrigerator door and a pair of earrings that were made for the outfit I wore that day. I asked Claire if she made pottery full time and she laughed and said she had a day job. She was afraid if she went 100% into ceramics she wouldn’t like it as much.
I understand the trouble between hobby and career. I write on the side, would write more if people paid me for writing the book I want to write (20,000 words draft so far, it’s very slow going). But I would not like to be told what to write, if that means writing for a living. On the other hand, what I wouldn’t give to be able to dedicate more hours to a creative life, to the writing I yearn for and the sense of being allowed to rest.
It was a joy talking to a couple of ceramists from Redlands I knew: Dan Soury and Monica from MONI Ceramics. One of these days I hope to pass by her front porch where she throws her pottery and see a local artist in action.
In that vein you can find me at our local cafes, at the library, if I’m not writing at home.
This past weekend my family and I also made it to the Great Y Circus. And it made me think that Redlands is full of talented people, in local theater, in circus, in art festivals, in concerts and as athletes. How lucky we are to be living here.
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In Gratitude,
Siw