Keith Puccinelli at Santa Barbara City College

I just wanted to share with ya'll a solo exhibition I saw about a month ago at the Santa Barbara City College. At the time I was visiting my brother in Santa Maria and had decided to make a day trip down to SB to see some local art. I spent some significant time at the Contemporary Arts Forum's Wired, which may be a good subject for another day. As I was talking to one of the interns at the CAF and mentioned that I would be teaching a class on gallery assistantship at the local community college, he recommended I check out the City College's Atkinson Gallery, which was a short bike ride away.

Keith Puccinelli's exhibition was pretty durn neat. Multi-media, polychromatic sculptures, ink on paper wrapping around a pillar, and an outdoor sculpture on the patio. I failed to take more than a couple of photos with my phone ( I didn't know I would blog about it later), but I did find a video which I posted below and it is quite amusing. Here is an informative local article written about Puccinelli and his exhibition. 

Santa Barbara Seasons presents "In the Studio with Artist Keith Puccinelli" from SB SEASONS on Vimeo.



One of the reasons it was inspirational to me was the variety of work that all seemed to be thought-provoking, well-crafted, and humorous. I'm not exactly sure what it all was about. I wish I could be a student there and pop in every now and again to eat a bologna sandwich out of the terrace that over looks the Pacific, really spend some time with the work. But also inspirational is that this was a gallery in a community college. Tomorrow, I start my first day on the job of teaching art appreciation, along with other subjects. I know, its Santa Barbara, CALIFORNIA, where art people grow on trees, but if SBCC can have an artist of this talent exhibit in their student gallery, then so can Pitt Community College. Although Carl is a good start. 

Last Pots of 2011

Here are some of the last pots of 2011. Most of the patterns were made by using a colored under-glaze that I carved away. It seemed to work really well from the very first ones I made and so I decided to stop experimenting and just play with that process for a while. 

Medium Bowl.

Medium Bowl.

This is a pitcher meant to hold kitchen utensils. 

Small Green Bowl.

Medium Bowl.  Candy bowl. Cigar-holder. Each dimple has a different little shape. Very fun piece.

Tiny cup with brown under glaze. Nothing fancy.

One of my earlier funky designs that I didn't want to touch for a while. Its lopsided too. You know? After glazing it, I really like it. Weird.



I'll be really busy for the next semester teaching four, maybe five, classes at Pitt Community College. I have a feeling this is going to cut into my ceramic and art-making time. Hopefully I can be a go-getter and get up early, run three miles, and throw some pots all before noon....but we shall see. Soon I'll get these onto my main website, where you can buy whats left after the holiday season. 

River Aura and Friends

Making these cups and bowls have been a sort of therapeutic problem-solving activity for me. I still don't have a strong idea why I've begun to learn the ancient art of wheel-throwing. What little bug got into my brain, I'll never know. Maybe its my passion to constantly learn something new to do with my hands and art. Is that pretentious? Good.

These pieces below are some of the better ones that I recently pulled outta the kiln. The first one I really like now that I've spent some time with it. I really don't know how I got that brown dirty look, but I like it. The "aura" curves that I've been manipulating, here, turn into what looks like an old river. Which is neat because it just happens to be the one cup with a brownish glaze, helping it to look like an old map.

River Aura Cup

River Aura Cup

Little elegant white mug with blue interior.
 Nothing special about it.  

The blue line is glaze painted into a carved out line.  

I made another plate. I've made about two plates, so far.
 Someone needs to show mehow to make one, because I constantly fail at it.

This glaze is dank though. I hope you can tell from this photo.

This is a brown clay slip painted onto white clay and then
carved out. Its caveman-ish. 

Caveman Mug

For the Ladies! I just pulled this out of the kiln and immediately
sold it to my neighbor. 

Pinkish outside with blue inside. What I really like about it is the
pattern repeats itself, which is new for me to figure out
how to do. Usually the lines wander around the bowl,
but this one is actually a pattern.

Pea-Green outside and baby blue inside. The colors conflict,
but its still a nice little bowl.

Each one gets my initials and the year. FYI.

A bird flying high under the sun?

Clouds and sun-streaked sky on a nice mug.

Maybe I got influenced by some of the retirees that I spend
time with at the Parks and Rec where I make these. I think this
would've looked less childish with a better glaze job.
But hey, maybe its perfect.