#wild materials

Gearing up to mix a new batch of clay. Looking at chunks of clay, pots from the last firing and drawings for inspiration.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/t-magazine/ocher-heidi-gustafson.html

When I buy cider or vegetables at our rural farmer's market and a vendor tells me their produce is local I once imagined they meant a few miles from our location. I now know that in fact, local cider might be coming from Pennsylvania, 100 miles away. So in my clay search I have questioned the use of the term local materials. For me, local has come to mean intriguing and accessible. That might be a two and a half hour drive to Perryville, Maryland to the Stancills mine, or even five hours to North Carolina for tantalizing new ingredients. Local has come to mean the clay is of aesthetic use and of practical availability. I hve come to like the term wild materials or minimally processed.

Brick sculpture on the west shore

Mug and birchbark.

Clay painting With mud and granite dust

I stayed home and made collages and paintings while warren went on a field trip to Jc stone and brought home interesting granite dust and chunks.

Experiments with local materials, thinking about paint but with a broad definition.