With A Lotta Help From My Friends

Games People Play Ceramic Exhibit

 

This is my Oscar Acceptance Speech. Or maybe it’s my Jimmy Fallon-style Thank You Notes, and I promise to keep it short and heartfelt. But guys, just look at that shot of a portion of my Games People Play Solo Show! To make such a sustained effort in the studio and to see it showcased so nicely gives me a thrill over and over. It’ll be great to move on to whatever’s next, but first, a moment please, to acknowledge the crap ton (a technical term) of help from my friends that I had in bringing it to this point. It would have been insanely harder, if not impossible, without them. In no particular order, other than what my perforated remembrance affords, they are:

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Games People Play: Toss It Off and Gear Train

Two Ceramic Games_Toss It Off and Gear Train
Rear: “Gear Train,” Ceramic, Found Objects, 2017                 Front: “Toss It Off,” Ceramic, Wood, Rubber, 2018

 

Here are two more of the seven sculptural ceramic games going into my upcoming solo show. For a fun contrast to the others, they come up off the flat playing surface, create fusions of well-known games and open the mind to further possibilities. “Toss It Off” is a combination of Ring Toss and Beer Pong, while “Gear Train” is a steampunky variation of “Connect4” and similar. Let’s see how they work.

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Games People Play: Gummo

Ceramc Gum Playing Pieces, found Object checkerboard
“Gummo”  Clay, Found Object, Magnets, Foil, 2017

 

We’re continuing our explorations of the artworks that will comprise my upcoming solo show, “Games People Play,”  with this take on the venerable boardgame family internationally known as Draughts. (That’s Checkers to Americans.) In this version, which I titled Gummo, the ceramic playing pieces are fashioned to resemble used chewing gum and, just like gum, they can cling to the underside of the checkerboard when not in play. Whaaaaat? How? Why?

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Games People Play: Color Theory

Ceramic Board Game Color Theory
“Color Theory” Ceramic, Sand and Found Object, 2018

 

 

 

Here’s the second installment exploring the series of ceramic works I have created in the past nine months: sculptural but playable games. Let’s take a closer look at “Color Theory” which challenges players to move across an 8-colored grid based on what color their opponent just landed on.

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Games People Play: Intro and First Game

 

Ceramic Crystals and Corns Game
“Crystals and Corns Game”, Ceramic and Found Object, 2017

 

Let me formally introduce you to the first installment of a series that I’ve been creating for my upcoming (March 2018) solo show at Roscoe Ceramic Gallery in Oakland, CA. With a working title of “Games People Play,”  the show’s all about seven artfully intriguing and fully playable games which incorporate my hand built ceramics in major ways. I fashioned the playing pieces for all of them, and sometimes I created the playing field as well. Found Objects abound. Let’s look at the Big Idea for this Exhibit and then at the first game I made. We’ll explore the other six over the month of February, providing I finish the last two!

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Studio Tour Part Two: East Wall

Liz Crain Ceramics East Studio Wall

 

Here we have Part Two of the Up-Close and Personal Virtual Studio Tour. (Read Part One, if you like.) We take a look at the East Wall and its groaning shelves, tubs and binders. During my Santa Cruz Open Studios Art Tour weekends, visitors can peek into my studio, but not enter it. From the doorway (on the left in this photo) they really cannot see this workhorse of a wall. So here it is, from my daily vantage point.

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An Opening Gambit

Photo by Tazo Ozawa
Liz Crain with Flora Benzal at Roscoe Ceramic Gallery     Photo by Tazo Ozawa

 

 

Art Openings. I used to think they were about The Art. Nah. They’re about the people who come to see the art  – and just possibly the artists.

The Art matters mightily, don’t get me wrong, but The Opening Moment affords a certain focused richness and therefore matters more in real time.  It’s this Moment that I address here, which is informally subtitled, “What Really Happened at the First Friday Opening for my 99 Cans of Beer on the Wall Exhibit at Roscoe Ceramic Gallery in Oakland, CA.”

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