Maurice Weitman on wed 23 mar 05
Howdy,
I have been remiss in not saying sooner how much I enjoyed my time at
NCECA, especially in the clayart room (thanks again, Joyce and Mel)
and sharing ideas and meals with claybuds. Indian food two nights in
a row with friends I see once a year!!! Also how wonderful it was to
see again and spend time with some clayartbuds and claybuds from
other contexts, and to meet many others for the first time
face-to-face. How could being among 7,000 potters be bad???
I have a few, brief NCECA observations and a suggestion for the future.
First, I understand first-hand how difficult it was to get to see all
there was to see in the Tour de Clay. Or, for that matter, to be in
every room at NCECA at once. Never mind to get enough sleep.
Between the privilege of being able to watch such wonderful ceramists
(I wanted to say potters, but that might exclude the star of stars,
Beth Cavener-Stichter), and to see the amazing array of pots and
pieces in so many galleries, it was an embarrassment of riches.
To the folks at Baltimore Clayworks (and especially Deborah Bedwell,
whose humility drove her to call herself their hood ornament) I would
like to express my boundless gratitude and admiration for all the
planning and hard work you expended to turn Baltimore into such a
visual delight for us clayfolks.
Now for my suggestion... I think we (clayarters) should arrange our
own bus/van tours of galleries. If we are faced with another NCECA
with too-many-galleries-to-see-in-a-lifetime (and is there any doubt
that Portland would be anything but that?), how about we have an
advance contingent of early arrivers and Portland-area natives be our
jury to select a manageable number of venues they deem worthy of a
visit. Then we can hire vans, busses, whatever to take however many
of us are interested on the clayart tour.
I have no idea how to improve the quality, number, or relevance of
NCECA presentations, but I'm sure more clayart-offered presentations
is a good one.
My thanks to you all for helping to make this another great NCECA
experience for me: the Mugettes, the pirates, gypsies, licorice
purveyors, boa junkies, button/magnet/bookmark/shell and food folks,
and all the smiling dispensers of warmth and good will that filled
that amazing room on the "Conference Level" of the Days Inn.
Oh... sorry... I almost forgot to acknowledge Gail Dapogny's dried
cherries, about which Mel's warning I neglected to heed. My strategy
of eating those instead of all the delicious chocolates, cookies,
etc., seemed to uhhh... backfire. Repeatedly. Enough so that I
missed my job as laser pointer for Ron Roy's lecture. The gift that
keeps on giving.
Regards,
Maurice in slightly sunny Fairfax, California, where our cherry, fig,
nectarine, and Asian pear trees have been blooming like crazy, and
where our ephemeral creek has been roaring since I got home.
Gail Dapogny on sun 6 nov 05
I'll have them in Portland!!
Gail
P.S. Your ideas are good. Wouldn't it be fun to visit galleries with
Glayarters...
> I have been remiss in not saying sooner how much I enjoyed my time at
> NCECA, especially in the clayart room (thanks again, Joyce and Mel)
> and sharing ideas and meals with claybuds. ......
> Oh... sorry... I almost forgot to acknowledge Gail Dapogny's dried
> cherries, about which Mel's warning I neglected to heed. My strategy
> of eating those instead of all the delicious chocolates, cookies,
> etc., seemed to uhhh... backfire. Repeatedly. Enough so that I
> missed my job as laser pointer for Ron Roy's lecture. The gift that
> keeps on giving.
>
> Regards,
> Maurice
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