SHOPPING/GALLERY
HAPPENINGS August 2007
Enjoy the Refreshing
Experience of Original Art
Cat’s Lair Collection,
located in McStiff’s Plaza, is a new art gallery in
Moab, Utah featuring local, regional, and international artists.
Here you’ll find beautiful and unique works of original
art: jewelry, pottery, wood and metal work, paintings, drawings,
photographs, sculptures, fused & blown glass, azurite
crystal roses, hand-spun wool & silk, light & color.
What follows is a list of some of their 25 talented aritsts.
Mike and Penny
Stevens
Husband & wife,
Penny and Mike Stevens take turns working as the “gaffer” in
their Salt Lake City Glass Studio.The gaffer creates
the design with chalk on the studio floor. The gaffer
also gathers the hot molten glass (2000 degrees Fahrenheit)
from the crucible inside the furnace onto a blowpipe.
They use wooden blocks (molds) and a marver (steel plate)
to shape, form and cool the glass. The blowpipe is continually
returned to the heat of the glory hole to reheat the glass
so the gaffer can continue to blow and shape the art. Once
shaped, it is transferred to another pipe called a punty.
This allows the gaffer to use a tool called jacks to open
the shape into the desired final form. The art is then put
into the annealing oven for cooling and tempering. Each piece
is signed by the gaffer, numbered and dated and is a unique
individual piece of art glass.
Their glass works display beautiful and vibrant colors of
free flowing glass forms and colorful balls.
Terry Horton
(fused glass studio)
“As
an apprentice in a glass studio, I discovered my passion
for the art of fusing. It was not long before I purchased
my first kiln and started to let my imagination and creativity
shape the future of my designs. I have committed myself
to the study of hot glass art. One of the things I enjoy
the most is my classroom experience teaching others the
art of fusing glass.
Several of my fused glass art projects are accented by a
bold splash of color, a whimsical charm or a unique accent.
I love the challenge of incorporating various mediums and
findings with my own original glass shapes, styles and patters.
This collaboration of elements has helped me create a festive
collection of personalized works. I’m always looking
for and inventing new ways to display the works of my craft.”
Edwin Hymas and
Diana Lea
As
a trained observer and teacher Edwin Hymas feels that
creating is what we are here for, and just can’t
stop. Whether it is wood, clay, plaster or metal these
ideas keep taking form.
Born up north in Tremonton Utah in 1948, Ed has been working
in clay since 1972, and was a two dimensional artist before
that for several years. His work is known throughout Utah
and the Western U.S. He resides in North Ogden with his artist
wife Diana Lea.
Diana began her pottery career in 1977 as a production potter
in Bolder Colorado. As her work evolved from stoneware to
majolica she moved to Park City, Utah where she met Ed in
1994. Together they produce some of the highest quality intricately
carved stoneware pottery.
Suzanne Storer
Suzanne
born and raised in Oregon. She received BFA in California
College of Arts and Crafts. She has done many workshops
with Paul Soldner, Akio Takamori, Robert
Peipenburg and Jim Romberg.
Suzanne’s ceramic art centers around life itself. Animals,
birds, water life and the human form inspire her pottery
and sculpture. Her southwestern style bowls and platters
evolve from the spirited imagery painted and pecked into
the rock walls and boulders in the desert canyons of southern
Utah. Her sculpture focuses on the relationship between the
female human form and rock land forms inspired by the desert
canyons of Southern Utah. This Oregon native has made her
home in Utah for the last 20 years and makes her living as
a professional potter. Her work is currently available in
Santa Fe, at shops and galleries throughout the west, and
locally at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts and at Utah Artists
Hands in Salt Lake City.
Charles Parsons
Charles
Parsons, a Salt Lake City resident, has been working
in ceramics for twenty years. He studied for several
years under Lee Dillon and Gordon Moore in the ceramics
studio at the Salt Lake Art Center. He currently works
out of the Red Kiln pottery studio, where he also teaches
wheel thrown pottery classes. He has shown work at different
galleries in Salt Lake City
Until the past few years, most of his work has been functional
high-fired glazed porcelain ware. Although he continues to
do this kind of work, He has become more interested in “alternative” firing
techniques that forsake the use of glazes. Specifically,
he has been experimenting with various low fire techniques
where the pieces are made with a porcelain clay body and
then pit fired, saggar fired or horse hair fired without
the use of glazes.
Wendy Wood
She is one of organizers of UTAH Potters inc. (a pottery
cooperative). She make functional pieces and teaching pottery
classes. She said: “It is a privilege to try to pass
on the wonder of working in clay and the joy that clay
continues to bring to me.”
Her work is strongly influenced by historic pottery forms,
including prehistoric and historic Mediterranean functional
ware, American Indian traditions, and Asian pottery form
and design. She is currently focusing on producing small
pots. These intimate pots are intended to be held in the
hand and reflect an effort to visually define volume by enclosing
space. Although these pieces strive to be decorative and
aesthetically pleasing, they always maintain their underlying
function.
Betina
Cerling
She said; “Clay appeals to me. I am fascinated by its
properties in all its phases. Wet clay is limp and moldable;
as it dries it becomes less malleable, but can still be carved.
Once dry, clay resembles rock in many ways. It’s brittle,
but becomes like stone in the kiln. Each stage of this wonderful
stuff must be treated differently.
I seem to need to hold the clay and feel it before I am comfortable
actually making something. Functional ware that demands knowledge
of and facility working with all phases of this medium catches
my attention. Even seemingly totally nonfunctional pieces
begin as vessels some are interactive.”
Alan Yarmark
Pottery has been my passion for over thirty years. Developing
original designs and glaze combinations continually challenges
me. Improving my line of dinnerware and art for the home
is an ongoing process. I am known for the deep blue glaze
that show enthusiasts enjoy, however, I love experimenting
with many colors together for a depth and landscape feeling
that can be interpreted by the customer. I live in the
San Luis Valley where the view
of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range and the San Juan mountains
inspire a desire to recreate the outrageous sunsets and brilliant
color combinations provided by nature each
day. Much of my wall work is done on the slab roller, with
the focus being the blend of color.
I throw many large bowls that feature glaze combinations
unique to my work. I feel very fortunate to work as a potter
in such a beautiful valley.”
David
Wolfgram(wood work)
David’s love for nature is expressed in his statement: “During
a day where ‘we’ as a society consume natural
resources at such a rapid pace and then cast aside or waste,
what in some parts of the world would be deemed bountiful.
I turn the remains of what thirst for expansion and ‘more’ leave
behind into beautiful functional heirloom quality works of
art. My hope is that the discarded trees in our community
will live on in vibration and history as designed by my heart
and hands.”
Hand-spun
Wool & Silk for Lovers of Fiber Art
And of course we have something special for people who love
to play and create with fibers - hand-spun wool and silk!
Cindy Werner
Cindy is a local spinner who displays her wool/silk shawls.
Cindy learned to spin later in her life and in short time
she become a spinner and a teacher. She taught hundreds
of people her art of spinning and the art of natural dyes.
For many years she has made many people happy with her
wonderful netted clothes and now she start weaving too.
Her work has a vary earthy and comfortable feeling that
people like so much and makes it hard for us to keep her
wonderful fiber work in stock!...
Olga Martinova
Olga
began spinning years ago, and keeps her spinning wheel
in the shop, where she often gives demonstrations to
customers who have never seen this ancient art practiced
in real life. She sells skeins of yarns in beautiful
warm colors that she dyes herself or buys from local
producers, in luxurious blends of Merino/silk, alpaca/silk,
camel/silk, and silk.
We also have a nice selection of stone beads for all the
people who like to express their creativity in jewelry making.
If you’re passing
through Moab, we’d like to invite you to take a few
minutes to stop in and say hello, and enjoy the refreshing
experience of original art!
In Eddie McStiff’s Plaza, where you see the big yellow
cat above its rocky lair, you know you’re in the right
place! The big cat was sculpted by local artist Ekaterina
Harrison, and the rock entrance to its cave was created by
local artist Sandi Snead.
Cat’s Lair Collection
59 South Main St.
Moab, UT 84532
(435) 259-2458
www.catslaircollection.com |