Here is a link to a video summary of the four days we spent building the kiln:

Building a kiln for Julia from Paul Wisotzky on Vimeo.

Building a Kiln for Julia

Thanks to Paul for the great video.

Many thanks to all our friends who helped build the kiln and to all those who contributed to the fund.

Love,

Vince

]]> http://www.juliaterr.com/?feed=rss2&p=447 http://www.juliaterr.com/?p=439 http://www.juliaterr.com/?p=439#comments Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:54:40 +0000 admin http://www.juliaterr.com/?p=439 Please join us to celebrate Julia’s work and passion for ceramic arts on February 5th, 2010 at  The Arts Guild of Sonoma which will feature Julia’s work in a month long exhibition. The proceeds of the sales will go in part to the Arts Guild and to The Julia Terr Fund for Ceramic Arts. Opening: Friday [...]]]> Please join us to celebrate Julia’s work and passion for ceramic arts on February 5th, 2010 at  The Arts Guild of Sonoma which will feature Julia’s work in a month long exhibition. The proceeds of the sales will go in part to the Arts Guild and to The Julia Terr Fund for Ceramic Arts.

Opening: Friday February 5th from 6 to 8pm.

Where: The Arts Guild of Sonoma, 140 East Napa Street, Sonoma.

Check out the website of the Arts Guild of Sonoma for their hours: http://artsguildofsonoma.org/

Teapots, mugs, plates, hut jars, bottles and much more will be for sale.

The Julia Terr Fund for Ceramic Arts is a non-profit fund managed by the Community Foundation of Sonoma County. If you’d like to make a donation to the fund, please send to:

The Julia Terr Fund for Ceramic Arts

Community Foundation of Sonoma County

250 D Street, Suite 205
Santa Rosa, CA 95404-4773

Map and directions to the Arts Guild of Sonoma are here.

I wanted to share just one with all of you, from a woman who started collecting Julia’s work a few years ago. She bought a teapot from Julia and wanted to give it to her mother who lived in Japan. A few months ago, she sent Julia a picture of her mother holding Julia’s teapot all the way from Okinawa, Japan.

Megumi wrote to me:

When I told Julia that I was torn between taking the teapot home for fear of having it broken (My mother is mostly blind. She also has Parkinsons. Between the two ailments, she knocks many things over) yet still wanting very much for her to touch the teapot and to share tea with her brewed in it, Julia graciously said…”I can always make you another pot. Take it with you and share some tea with your Mom.” Julia indeed was a true artist. She honored the essence of her art even beyond the physical form of her work.

So true. Thanks, Megumi for sharing your thoughts with me about Julia.

Love,

Vince

The pot, the poem, the lesson - the universe speaks in forms that tell us of our own. A vast theatre whose architecture, whose movement and sound, whose episodes have us billed in cosmic roles, speaking lines we cannot memorize for we know them for the first time consciously only when we utter them, developing character and destiny amid what scenery!  A symphony of soloists playing simultaneously in a composition the structure of which has been given by the composer, but the music of which, the individual sounds of which, are the choices of each performer. Art creates images of that world that moves within the world. And it is this realm which embodies itself continuously. From day to day in our bodies. From page to page in our writing. From canvas to canvas, stone to stone, dust to dust: the pot returneth.

-  M.C. Richards, Centering in Pottery, Poetry and the Person

My wife, Julia Terr, searched for a way to articulate her unique joy in life and found her vehicle in the making of pots and ceramic objects. Working in pottery allowed her to address not only questions of aesthetics, but of politics as well; she believed pottery held the potential to touch another human being in subtle but profound ways. An object of beauty on the dining table created a communication between her and the outside world. Julia was an artist who lived and worked with a passion to perceive and to express, to communicate and to share; she reciprocated the generosity she felt all around her in nature, people and art.

To keep her generous spirit alive and to support the institutions who continue to sustain the art of studio pottery, myself and Julia’s family have established The Julia Terr Foundation for Ceramic Arts. The foundation will provide funds to programs across the country devoted to the promotion of ceramic arts, in particular non-profit organizations supporting the field of studio pottery.

The first project of the foundation is to refurbish a kiln at Penland where Julia studied and learned the art of ceramics. I know how much that experience changed the direction of Julia’s life, and I can’t help but think, that in some manner, Julia will be watching with a smile over kiln loads of pottery for many years to come.

Tax-deductible contributions for the foundation can be sent to:

The Julia Terr Fund for Ceramic Arts

c/o Community Foundation of Sonoma County

250 “D” Street, Suite 205

Santa Rosa, CA  95404-4773

Love,

Vince

vince@vincemontague.com

The Julia Terr Foundation for Ceramic Arts  is a non-profit organization (EIN 27-1061885)

Julia at the American Craft Council Show, August 2009

My wife, Julia Terr, was killed as the result of a road accident on September 13, 2009.

On November 8th,  a gathering of artists, friends and family will take place at the Presidio Log Cabin in San Francisco at 1pm.

Here is the link to the directions to the Log Cabin.

http://www.presidio.gov/event/rental/logcabin/Directions.htm

In honor of Julia, we’ve established a foundation in her name: The Julia Terr Foundation for Ceramic Arts.

The purpose of the foundation will be to distribute money to non-profit institutions who support and sustain studio pottery across the United States. The first mandate of the Foundation is to refurbish a kiln at Penland where Julia discovered her love of pottery and convinced her to pursue the art of studio ceramics.

More details will be posted on this website as to how to contribute. If you have any questions or thoughts, please contact me at vince@vincemontague.com

My partner of twenty-two years expressed the pure joy of being in every single one of her pots. It’s my hope to continue and carry forward that spirit she possessed and shared with so many others.

Love,

Vince

From the minute Joyce and Carol arrived I knew it’d be great.  We made pots,

Trimmed, slipped, carved, waxed, glazed, and made some more…

We took the occasional road trip. (Wine run… it IS the Wine Country!)

We decided on soda firing, since the kiln was the right size for our work and since we wanted to soda, because it’s so darn fun.

We decided to once fire to save time and fuel. We loaded and lit.

We “candled” for hours below 200, then slow to 1250.

Carol and Joyce made a scrumptious dinner which included bok choy, marinated in tasty garlicky vinegrette before grilling.

Fun with fire was had by all, and Vince, Carol, Joyce and I sprayed and dampered until the sprayers were kaput.

It was so much work and fun that we hardly blinked regret when the Cuban male model with exemplary muscle tone canceled figure drawing that week. The day the kiln cooled we chillaxed. And then the goods came out…

and the cycle begins again. Thanks for the best workshop, Carol, Joyce, and my love Vince.

In so many ways I’ll always be a student. I love learning more and more, and the more I learn the more I realize I need to learn. But I decided to run a workshop out of my studio. Rather, two gals called me up and said, “We’re coming for a workshop.”

Carol is a teacher (artist, writer, and more), and Joyce a school principal (artist, hiker, runner, athlete and newly a horsewoman as well).

It has been a party since they arrived. Here’s Vince meeting Carol and Joyce.

These two are working so hard, I’m jogging to keep up. And we’re ramping up for a firing Friday. It is an absolute joy to see their pieces. I’m seeing my information be transformed with their touches and ideas, and adding more ideas to mine, and I’m truly inspired.

Hey, who’s the teacher? Who’s the student?

We grilled veggies and chicken and had wonderful summer meals here, and then, because you can’t work hard unless you’re well fed, we went out for dinner at Diavola, an excellent wine country pizza place in nearby Geyserville.

Great food, great wine (it IS the wine country after all!), and great friends. There’ll never be another workshop like this, that’s for sure.

Here’s pictures of my booth from this last weekend’s Live Oak Park Fair, where the weather was divine.  Lots of nice items were there from painted silk jackets to hand forged knives with fancy wooden handles to ceramics to jewelery jewelery jewelery and more jewelery… and it was the good stuff too.

Keith Middlesworth and I shared a booth at Live Oak Park this last weekend.  He did the hand carved wooden fish on driftwood stands, and he made the pedestals. I made all the ceramics.

Aren’t these display pedestals nice?

Really nice, eh?

Those pedestals Keith made were so nice in fact that other artists were dropping by.  “Are those pedestals for sale?”  “Did you make those pedestals?” “Can I buy those pedestals?”

I spent much of the fair fighting the other artists off “my” pedestals! They were coming from the left, coming from the right, ready to pry out the pedestals from under my bowls. At any rate, I managed to pay Keith and stuff most of them into the truck before the others grabbed em.  The upshot is that Keith just added an excellent item to his repetoire.  More pix of the beautiful pedestals to come… thanks Keith!

I’m taking these fresh pots to the Live Oak Park Fair, in Berkeley, in a beautiful park, just off the gourmet ghetto, and by that I mean Shattuck Avenue near Chez Panisse and the Cheese Shop. This year they allowed artists to share booths, and my buddy Keith Middlesworth, who makes beautiful wood fish, is sharing with me.

Live Oak Park is such a pretty park. They will have music and food. Good music, and good food, that is. I remember last year kids were walking around with mango-on-a-stick as a snack, like giant orange popsickles. Maybe I’ll have to get one this year…

Please come out if you’re in the Bay Area!

Guacamole + Margaritas = Summer

No better way to start out the flagship first weekend of summer with that classic kick-off.  Beyond the squiggly guacamole bowl are the first two margaritas of the summer, one in a Jeff Oestrich and the other a Jack Troy, blended with salted rims.

Speaking of classic summer kick-offs, a visit to the grocers was in order.

Ta Da!  Red white and blue dyed bouquets. With lots of stuffed bears sprinkled around, and Mylar balloons. In case there was any wonder about the holiday, Ray’s Supermarket was a good reminder. And Ray’s was also a great reminder of the bounty of the summer.

Peppers, in particular.

Hotter, hotter, hotter. I’m afraid of the really hot ones, but I can medium hot-it. I’d love to try some new recipes with peppers this summer.

Always a pretty site, crossing the Golden Gate. During the summer it’s most often sunny with a dividing line right cross this bridge.  I used to think I was made for the cool side of that bridge. Now I’m super happy on the hot side, with trips across to visit the cool side. I guess that’s what you call the best of both possible worlds, eh?

Here’re a couple new pots, once fired to cone 10.

I’ll be scratching out more scraffitto animals this summer.  Animals are infinitely interesting, aren’t they?  Thanks for looking, and, Cheers.