behind the scenes at Ceramic Innovations and Essential Earth, at the Wayne Art Center

Yesterday afternoon I stepped away from the thick of editing a new book to help Bill take new pieces to the international juried show, Ceramic Innovations. This show and the accompanying Essential Earth Invitational Exhibition are the brainchilds of Brett Thomas, our friend and teacher and all-around exquisite ceramicist.

Brett, who thinks about the plasticity of the earth and the countless ways it can be dug out and shaped, has been building toward these twinned exhibitions for years. He's been traveling the country in search of the finest clay practitioners and spending time in art studios for Essential Earth. He's been searching for just the right judge—Chris Gustin— for Innovations. He's been coordinating with the leaders of the Wayne Art Center, where Brett teaches and where international and regional shows are showcased year-round in two beautiful galleries. Brett has had a vision. It has been realized.

So there Bill and I were, dropping off Bill's work, and there was Anna O'Neill, the Wayne Art Center programs and exhibitions associate who brings her love of art, her academic training, and her gentle fortitude to the work that she does. Surrounded by crates and boxes and pedestals, charts and notes, she and her associate were at work turning so many gorgeous, individual clay creations into a unifying show.

I saw enough of those pieces to know that these will be two very special exhibitions. I invite you to join us all. These events are free.

Ceramic Innovations

2017 International Juried Ceramics Exhibition

Essential Earth

2017 International Invitational Ceramics Exhibition

April 1 - April 29, 2017

Artists' Talk, April 1, 3 - 5 PM

Arists' Reception, April 1, 5 - 7 PM

Wayne Art Center

413 Maplewood Avenue
Wayne, PA 19087

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William Sulit ceramics selected for new international show, Ceramics Innovations

Readers of this blog know happy I am for my artist-husband as he continues to develop his ceramics work—and following. Recently Bill's work was selected for a new international show, Ceramics Innovations, which opens April 1 at the Wayne Art Center, in Wayne, PA. This event was masterminded by Brett Thomas and judged by Chris Gustin and Jim Lawton. It runs simultaneous with Essential Earth, a show featuring some of the most important working clay artists of our time, curated by Brett Thomas.

More about the show is here. Bill's selected work for this show is shown in the third image.

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Essential Earth: An upcoming show, and a gift, thanks to ceramicist Brett Thomas

Could you, I am often asked. Read a manuscript, forge a bridge, write something short, write something long, blog, write a script, step inside, make it quick, grab a headline, do. I run about, a circus act. Or I sit and try.

But every now and then, someone with great talent comes along with a dream, a hope, a possibility that needs to be whispered forward with words. That was the case a few weeks ago, when the beloved ceramicist and teacher, Brett Thomas, called to talk about an idea he's had for a long time now—an invitational exhibition, "Essential Earth," that would bring together the work of leading ceramic artists who, by creating outside categories, meld the power of vessels with the artistry of sculptural clay.

Brett is thinking of artists such as Chris Gustin, Dan Anderson, Gay Smith, Suze Lindsay, Fong Choo, Scott Ross, and Paul Eshelman. He's committed to bringing them together in April/May 2017 at the very gorgeous Wayne Art Center, in Wayne, PA, which has long been the site of renowned exhibitions, juried shows, and exceptional events, including "CraftForms," now in its 22nd year. All Brett really needed were a few words. I gladly helped him find them.

But then what rarely happens in my life happened; Brett said thank you with this gift, above. It's one of his own beautiful pieces—a trencher, as he calls them. Modeled after the vessels once used to feed the medieval poor, it opens like an oyster to the eye, or the ridge of a volcano. Brett took it from his own home so that I might have it here, in mine. A generosity I am not accustomed to. A gift I'll always treasure.

Essential Earth. Look for it next spring.

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