Overseas Artist Residency | First Stop in the U.S

G'day all and I apologise for not posting my adventures until now. As I do, I get wrapped up in LIVING the adventure and feel reluctant to write about it until I've had a chance to soak up the art!
However, since I am away for four months, I thought I'd better create some chapters for the story - or it would be too much for anyone to digest!

After departing Brisbane on June 10th, around 33 hours in transit (via LA) and arriving in New York to catch up with new and old friends in a bar until 3am, I woke up and energetically hit the streets with my Scottish friend Donnie.

First stop Starbucks.....mmmmm - and thats just because ANY coffee would do!! Over 2.5 days, we enjoyed the underground local Jazz Bar 'Fat Cats', New York pizza (the real deal!), the Guggenheim (Frank Lloyd Wright exhibition), Central Park, The Met Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art.

Yes Donnie is a patient man! Just kept the bagels up to him (while I sought out fruit salad!).

A highlight piece from the MOMA - suspended from the ceiling - was 'Cassiopeia Over Dry Chaparral', 2004 by Russell Crotty (above image sourced@www.moma.org). The shadow and subtle movement on the floor was beautiful - not clay, but beautiful!

There was also an amazing piece by German artist, Marcel Odenbach titled 'You Can't See The Forest For The Trees', 2003 (image sourced@www.moma.org). Musical notes make up the trunks and printed faces on green paper make up the leaves.

Of course the famous works were everywhere I turned yet still had that sense of surprise as I wandered past the Matisse work in the outdoor area of Moma and literally bumped into Picasso's 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'.

For the following week, I travelled down to North Carolina via Washington D.C.
I waved to Obama at the White House and kept travelling to just outside Baltimore. The traffic jams travelling towards Washington were unbelievable....never ever complain in Brisbane again!

The Raleigh area in North Carolina was stunning - amazing forest walks and lakes...photography heaven! Our mission was to visit the Seagrove Region, which can be a day trip from Donnie's - however there are over 80 potteries so I was not going to put a man through that in one day!

We prioritised visits to Jugtown Pottery, the studio gallery/museum of Ben Owen III and then a special visit with Mark Hewitt, master stoneware potter. I had been reading a book co-written by Mark, titled 'The Potter's Eye - Art & Tradition In North Carolina Pottery' and in this brilliant resource, Mark refers to pots which are 'deceptively simple forms'. Upon seeing Mark's work first hand, I felt he captures that 'deceptive simplicity' - because looking closer, the beauty, scale and technical perfection is admirable.

Here are some large pots drying - with Mark's blue glass he calls his 'trade card!'.

What is notable is that Mark is one of the few potters in the region that is maintaining an apprenticeship scheme - apparently many of the potter's are opting to have a 'labourer' employed, as opposed to have the apprenticeship over a 2-3 year period. I personally liked to see the work of Mark's apprentices, which were given their own space in the gallery on his property. Although the Hewitt style is evident, Mark encourages them to do lots of their own work and firing in their own time. In the Raleigh galleries, I had spotted the work of previous apprentices such as Daniel Johnson - and when asked about the path for young apprentices, Mark commented that they appear to do well to set up their own practice close by and to take advantage of the 'hub of ceramics' in the Seagrove area. I've since found out that Noah, another fairly recent apprentice from Hewitt Pottery, has had a residency at the International Ceramic Research Center in Denmark, where I am from late June - early September!

Mark Hewitt and I in front of his studio and kiln sheds - Pittsboro, North Carolina June 2009