JFH Studio

Family Dinner, will be at JFH Studio in New Haven, MO from February 9-28th. While I was doing the residency at East Central College, I also had an opening reception in New Haven. JFH Studio is a great intimate space to have a show with large windows facing main street. I was pleasantly surprised with how many students and artists from the area attended. I had a lovely time.

East Central College Installation Residency

From February 10-13, the art students at East Central College in Union, MO and I were busy creating an installation to transform a portion of their hallway. One of the tenets was to use materials that are readily available and inexpensive, such as kraft paper, charcoal, packaging tape, tracing and tissue paper, and paint. The other was to have the viewer become a participant in the space/installation changing their experience of walking down a hallway. The result is the picture above. They were a great group of students and faculty who worked tirelessly and enthusiastically for two and a half days. Best of all, we had wonderful critical discussions about design and installation art. Furthermore, we created a work of art that engaged the various departments on campus. Thank you for the hard work, camaraderie, and the willingness to embrace the unknown. I had a great time. For more pictures of the creation process you can visit my flickr account, http://www.flickr.com/photos/8158115@N05/sets/72157613868422322/.

Images from UWG exhibit

Natural Distortion: A view of Cultural Landscapes was a show that reunited a former resident artist in glass, Michael Hernandez, with two current residents, Sarah McClary, exhibitions, and myself, the clay resident.  The images above are a few installation shots and close ups of Sarah's and Michael's work. Industrial Evolution, copper, sterling silver, and steel is by Sarah. Michael's piece, Untitled, is made of glass and masonite.  My pieces are predominately clay with mixed media element such as coffee filter, polyfil, and dogwood petals.

I want to thank the University of West Georgia for exhibiting our work and hosting us for our gallery talk.  It was nice seeing the students and faculty attend and ask questions.  Hopefully some of what we said will find root in a few of the students.  

February Events

I will be near St. Louis the second week of February teaching a couple of workshops and having a reception. First up is the installation workshop at East Central College, February 11-12. I am assured that the students are excited, and we have a hall in which we can create/exhibit our work. The ideas are brewing. It is exciting to work with so many students on one project. I can't wait to see how it evolves. I will be posting pictures of all the events when I get back.

In conjunction with the workshops, I will have "Family Dinner" exhibited at my friend Jill's studio, JFH Studios. There will be a reception on that Friday evening. I can't wait to meet the people who attend.

Lastly, but not least in anyway, I will be doing a demo workshop at Krueger Pottery. The focus of this will be hand built functional ware. I am looking forward to sharing my techniques of slab built mugs, tumblers, bowls, and baking dishes. Maybe I'll have designed a plate and pitcher before then, and can demo that too.

New Exhibition!

Natural Distortion: A View of Cultural Landscapes January 8-30, 2009. Work from three Resident Artists from the Appalachian Center for Craft at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, GA. Sarah McClary and I will give a gallery talk followed by a reception on Friday, January 30.

New Functional Work

For more examples of the functional work see my website:  www.melodytiemann.com.  There you will find examples of regular sized mugs, cups, tumblers, and bowls, as well as my sculptural work.  Enjoy!

My Next Year

I've agreed to stay at the Craft Center for one more year. Yay! I'm happy to be back for my third year, what a great opportunity!