A ceramic experience for viewers is both a connection of ideas and a contextual relationship. It can be narrative, intimate, conceived in sequence, exploratory or interrelated in context. The viewer is invigorated with process, idea and pattern. The thought patterns of the artists are connected to history, to nature, and to earth. Often blurring boundaries in an organic way, the subconscious connection may be expressed through storytelling, by way of symbolic or metaphoric means; the visual reaction of each voice is invigorating and refreshing. Our subconscious cognition is awakened…a memory lane of connection, a visceral or intuitive reaction and a network of artists’ dreams.

The artists selected are all dissimilar in what they do, but at the same time contribute to contemporary ceramic discourse. Each deals with the problems of fragility and durability, but they maintain the spirit of a logical sequence of ideas. Some deal with a detailed process and special materials, while others express a juxtaposition of different forms of image making that might be viewed as casual or complicated. From small and intimate to large scale, these artists create non-functional, labor-intensive objects. The concept Clay Connections expresses ceramic works that are both conceptually and technically well resolved.

In this exhibition the artist takes “a detour” from previously shown ceramics. Using found objects collected over the past few years and influenced by Arthur Gonzalez use of objects, Magdalane Crivelli produces a series of clay mixed media masks. She calls the entire piece “Emotional Junk”. She writes, “ This is not meant to be derogatory but to show that even the small emotions of everyday life are not really junk to be ignored but to be treasured.”

Continuing his tongue-in-cheek commentary Eric Dahlin poses new antics, thus bringing his perception of the comic and silly things, some poised as animals, that humans do. He calls attention to personalities and the emotions portrayed in the human experience. Dahlin makes us happy and instinctively gives entertainment to the viewer by his fanciful liberation of clay into everyday experiences all can recognize and accept as “letting our hair down”.

Melody Evans ceramic sculptures speak in a quiet way of the mystery of natural processes, connectivity, and inner structures. They possess a certain familiarity as deriving from natural forms-- nests, seeds, pods, and blastulas, and yet also strangeness that defies signifying the objects. The color palette of black, white and a range of reds lead away from a depiction of nature into the man-made world of networks and into the realm of symbolism, metaphor and the subconscious. Although Evans does use a coil building approach, she departs from this approach by not merging and blending the coils. In this contemporary execution the intensive process is evident and suggests other making processes such as weaving and basketry. She consciously chooses to use associations with woman’s handicrafts and female forms to generate a “feminine” energy in the Jungian sense.

Outdoorsman Fred Gordon encounters a battle between man and nature in streams and rivers. To many he is the first call guide on the best trout streams in Northern California. To those who recognize his specialty of creating imaginative ceramics appreciate this artist’s “fish stories”. Gordon now plays with his new series, a fisherman’s nightmare metaphorically, depicting man’s gear left in an empty row boat under which a fish humorously fights for survival.

The surface, form and unique color are skillfully managed in this new series of connected wall boxes. Here Thomas Orr demonstrates the issues of some pattern perceived as a landscape, but it is the “looking into” that wondrously appears in his works. He is noted for his sculptural cups generally with a black lip and with special surfaces, not open as in a cup, but very much like a profile of a being. His forms either as boxes or other markers such as cups have a startling effect as they are beautifully articulated and thoughtfully profound.

Nora Pineda passionately speaks from her roots. Her forms appear as stories in the round as she transforms and mutates a magic fusion of colors, shapes and a way of life. Although she is influenced by her Mexican culture, she does not think of herself as anyone but an artist with messages to reveal. Pineda often uses profiles of faces joined by zigzag or curved lines. Her flower petals characteristically fashion the idea of dealing with one’s aura. The vessel form is used as it symbolically connects earth to women…a container used for nutrients of survival. Pineda vividly speaks to healing. Her works show great depth of emotion, celebration, suffering, and cultural bonding. In this way her elegant and beautiful vessel forms reach out beyond her hands to symbolize the togetherness of communities and culture.

A trip to Paris and voilà! It is teapot time and Tom Rippon gives us a heartfelt, humorous and delightful twist with his multiple clay processes that create personal stories. Small but potent, the whimsy in these new teapot shapes gracefully dance before our eyes enacting a surreal and charming reverie.

The strength with which Stephanie Taylor works in clay abounds with a post modern look at the figure in our environment. She builds on process and fragments that explore the constant absurdities of technological modernity both in surface realities and hidden interiors. For Taylor, a deep passion for drawing translates to the three dimensions of clay, giving us a somewhat haunting and intriguing view of ourselves with imagination as partial bodies or in full-bloom.

Rimas VisGirda takes a critical look at fads and fashions, especially fringe areas outside of everyday culture. His imagery may be socio-critical, sometimes playful, sometimes even alluding to eroticism. The two new plates in this exhibition demonstrate his intense interest in visual levity and views on life and art and at the same time satirizing himself and society. VisGirda’s ceramics creations speak of amusing stories. Each work is a colorful interpretation of life.