China 2013 - Jingdezhen here I come again!

Asia » China » Jiangxi » Jingdezhen
June 13th 2013

Published: June 15th 2013

Summer 2013. Nearly eleven weeks in China. A week visiting friends in Shenzhen/Guangzhou and then working in a Jingdezhen studio.... Read Full Entry

Photos are below

Photos: 65, Displayed: 21

Comment Follow (0) Message

Clay Guy in China

Clay Guy

Professor Gary Erickson, Art Department - Ceramics, Macalester College, St. Paul, MN has been traveling to China for nine years. He has done artist residencies at the Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute in Jingdezhen, China and now rents his own studio in town. Summer 2011 he had a solo exhibition of his sculptural work at the Jingdezhen International Academy of Ceramics gallery. He received a 2013 Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant to ship work back to Minnesota for a fall exhibition at Concordia University in St. Paul. This will be the first time he has shown his Jingdezhen crea... full info

Blog Options

Blog Map

Print Version

[blog=791108]

[blogger=165798]

Shenzhen

Da Wang Culture Highland artist residency. Entry to ceramic studio.

Shenzhen

Da Wang Culture Highland artist residency. Ceramic studio.

Shenzhen

Da Wang Culture Highland artist residency. Tom Hayes work.

Shenzhen

Da Wang Culture Highland artist residency. Tom Hayes and his work.

Shenzhen

New cell phone use fashion

Shenzhen

Da Wang Culture Highland artist residency. Dinner with some of the resident artists.

Shenzhen

Hard to pass up the alligator dish on the menu....but did!

Guangzhou

I will visit my teacher/painter friend Andy Chen. I met Andy two summers ago at Sanbao when he was traveling around China for a month and stumbled upon Sanbao and stayed for three days. We, the residents, really enjoyed his company and demeanor...very kind, sincere and peaceful. I had hoped to travel to see him last summer but it never worked out. I texted Andy to say I was in the taxi heading to the hotel he had given me the link to... 7 Days Inn near the old university campus and near his apartment. He said he would meet me in the hotel lobby. When I arrived he was not there and after checking in I called him. He said he has been waiting in the lobby. After much confusion we realize there are seven 7 Days Inn's in this area and he was another five minutes away. After finally connecting and starving by this point he said his girlfriend and he had dinner ready for me at their apartment. They live in on the top floor of a tall building that had a great view of the city from its rooftop. She is a designer and makes some very nice leatherwork (bags, coin purses, necklace pieces, even tiny cowboy boots). We had a nice evening chatting, eating and looking at Andy's paintings. It was very nice to see his loose paintings, not in a traditional Chinese style by any means. http://www.saatchionline.com/art/Mixed-Media-Assemblage-Collage-how-far-from-heaven-to-earth/64391/1511385/view http://www.saatchionline.com/art/Drawing-Charcoal-standing-solo/64391/1500873/view http://www.saatchionline.com/art/Painting-Oil-Memories-of-Tomorrow-2/64391/1507861/view http://www.saatchionline.com/art/Drawing-Pen-and-Ink-hight-above-1/64391/1500990/view Here are links to images of some works. I needed to do some final changes to my lecture the next morning so headed back to the hotel.

Guangzhou

Was met at 8:15 by a Ms. Zhoe, the ceramic assistant to Professor Tan, who would drive Andy and I to the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts new campus. I was introduced to Professor Tan who had invited me to give my presentation and demonstration to her ceramics class. They also invited a ceramics design class to attend. I was a very warm morning and lots of students crammed into the classroom with no air conditioning. I gave a power-point presentation with a brief introduction to Minnesota and Macalester College and then about the history of my creative works.

Guangzhou

During the early part I talk about paying attention to details and how important it is for artists to see beyond what they think they see. I show images of an experience I had visiting Death Valley and first seeing landscape and then becoming more and more interested in a single flowering cactus. Finally ending with detailed images of an ant crawling on the flower. I said it is easy to be distracted by technology but artist should try not to fall into that trap. The whole time I am speaking to this issue the young woman sitting directly in of myself and my translator is nose down texting.....the whole time. I wanted to stop and scream out...ESPECIALLY YOU!!!!! Strange world we live in.

Guangzhou

I played the Jingdezhen television documentary ww.youtube.com/watch?v=peiqSK_KM7Q at the end of the presentation to give them a taste of Jingdezhen. They all gasped when they saw the five throwers working on five hundred pounds of clay. We took a fifteen-minute break before the demonstration to give them some air and a break from sitting. Ms. Miao, my translator, was very good and helpful not only during the lecture but also the forty-minute demo. I hand-rolled coils and showed them how I built my spiraling forms. They were attentive and students took some photos at different stages. I kept asking for questions but in very typical Chinese student style no one would speak. After the demo was finished and we were cleaning up a student approached me about going to school in the U.S. He wanted a U.S. education and wanted advice.