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New information on two upcoming workshops....A CLAY WORKSHOP AT THE BASCOM, HIGHLANDS, NC & A CLAY & DRAWING WORKSHOP/RETREAT, LAKE LOGAN, NC

Finding Your Form Through Nature,  The Bascom Art Center, Highlands, NC, June 19-23, 2017

ONLY 2 SPOTS LEFT OUT OF 12  Contact information below if you or someone you know is interested. www.thebascom.org/bascom-art-education-workshops

 

Finding Your Form Through Nature is a hand-building class inspired by the beauty of the natural surroundings of the Bascom in Highlands, NC.  Along with all my favorite hand-building techniques, participants will learn to make and use terra sigillata.  We will use earthenware and schedule two firings for work that is dry.  Other work can be taken home or fired at a later date. Packing and shipping of that work would be extra.

Bring along your sketchbook/journal to record special moments, for sketching and for saving valuable technical information.

NOTE: Participants who have taken "Finding Your Form Through Nature" have the option to plan, with my help if you need it, a focus on favorite hand-building techniques in more depth. For example, you might want to focus on a group of Ikebana containers, moss gardens, organic boxes, or nature platters. 

My contact information if you have any questions about the class or want to ask me about a special project you wish to work on. aliceballard64@gmail.com

Registration has started so contact the Bascom to save a place as this class will fill up fast.  www.thebascom.org/bascom_art_education_workshops  

 

WORKSHOP INFORMATION FOR A FALL WORKSHOP WITH CULLOWHEE MOUNTAIN ARTS, LAKE LOGAN ARTIST/WRITER Program -  PLEASE NOTE THE DATE HAS BEEN CHANGED TO OCTOBER 25TH-OCTOBER 30, 2017

Alice  Ballard
"Finding Your Form Through Drawing & Clay"

Skill Level:  

All levels

     

Regardless of your medium, in this process oriented workshop, we will move back and forth between clay and various drawing media, seeking inspiration from the beautiful surroundings of Lake Logan with its host of natural forms within its environment. Working inside and outside the studio, our ideas and materials will be our partners and the creative process will take us on a journey of discovery. Artist who are used to working in two dimensions and those who usually work in three will all benefit from the contrast and combination of these two ways of working.  We’ll use earthenware clay and a variety of simple hand building techniques along with doing lots of drawing. 

 

Alice Ballard and Janice Mason Steeves will have some joint sessions, integrating the two classes. Janice will lead the first activity, where we begin each day with a 20-minute meditation outdoors in nature, where we contemplate three questions. Each class will then separate to go about their various workshop activities, but come together on the last day of the workshop to share thoughts on their reflective questions.  At the end of each day, Alice will lead the participants in a “Seeing with our hands” drawing as meditation exercise for 20-30 minutes. There will also be a session where the instructors teach each other’s students – so that each group will have the opportunity to feel and experience another medium. These collaborative sessions are very expansive for students and enhance overall experience.

Studio Artist and Teaching Artist Alice Ballard has conducted workshops at University of South Carolina, Francis Marion University, SC, Arrowmont School of Art, the Bascom Art Center, Penland School of Craft, SC Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities and Cullowhee Mountain Arts. Ballard has an extensive exhibition record. Her work is also in permanent collections at: The Renwick, Washington DC, Mint Museums(s), Charlotte, NC, Greenville County Museum of Art, Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts, ALTN TN &SC State Collections, numerous commissions for Corporations. Commissions include: 2 SC Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowships, AK Arts Council Fellowship, 3 MAC Grants, Fulbright Fellowship to study in India. Gallery Representation includes: by Christie Taylor Art Consultant, Blue Spiral 1, Asheville, Sumter Museum of Art, Francis Marion University, Florence, SC.

http://aliceballard.com/

http://www.cullowheemountainarts.org/lake-logan-artist-writer-workshop-retreats/autumn-colors-lake-logan-workshop-retreat#sthash.6uRR1R3Z.dpuf

For more information :

Norma Hendrix, MA, MFA

Executive Director

norma@cullowheemountainarts.org

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These 3 Meditation Bowls just arrived at the Umstead Hotel & Spa gift gallery

These 3 Meditation bowls are available in the Umstead Hotel & Spa Gift Gallery, Cary, NC.  You can contact Marcelle Kick,  <marcelle.kick@theumstead.com>   if you are interested in the purchase of one.... I am delighted to have them at the Umstead. especially since they commissioned my first 15 Pod Triangle installation for the entry of their elegant Heron dinning room.  I might add, it is worth a trip to the Umstead to take a tour of their incredible art collection, both inside and outside.

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Workshop Information for a fall workshop with Cullowhee Mountain Arts, Lake Logan Artist/Writer retreat, October 24-29, 2017

Alice  Ballard
"Finding Your Form Through Drawing & Clay"

Skill Level:  

All levels

     

Regardless of your medium, in this process oriented workshop, we will move back and forth between clay and various drawing media, seeking inspiration from the beautiful surroundings of Lake Logan with its host of natural forms within its environment. Working inside and outside the studio, our ideas and materials will be our partners and the creative process will take us on a journey of discovery. Artist who are used to working in two dimensions and those who usually work in three will all benefit from the contrast and combination of these two ways of working.  We’ll use earthenware clay and a variety of simple hand building techniques along with doing lots of drawing. 

 

Alice Ballard and Janice Mason Steeves will have some joint sessions, integrating the two classes. Janice will lead the first activity, where we begin each day with a 20-minute meditation outdoors in nature, where we contemplate three questions. Each class will then separate to go about their various workshop activities, but come together on the last day of the workshop to share thoughts on their reflective questions.  At the end of each day, Alice will lead the participants in a “Seeing with our hands” drawing as meditation exercise for 20-30 minutes. There will also be a session where the instructors teach each other’s students – so that each group will have the opportunity to feel and experience another medium. These collaborative sessions are very expansive for students and enhance overall experience.

Studio Artist and Teaching Artist Alice Ballard has conducted workshops at University of South Carolina, Francis Marion University, SC, Arrowmont School of Art, the Bascom Art Center, Penland School of Craft, SC Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities and Cullowhee Mountain Arts. Ballard has an extensive exhibition record. Her work is also in permanent collections at: The Renwick, Washington DC, Mint Museums(s), Charlotte, NC, Greenville County Museum of Art, Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts, ALTN TN &SC State Collections, numerous commissions for Corporations. Commissions include: 2 SC Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowships, AK Arts Council Fellowship, 3 MAC Grants, Fulbright Fellowship to study in India. Gallery Representation includes: by Christie Taylor Art Consultant, Blue Spiral 1, Asheville, Sumter Museum of Art, Francis Marion University, Florence, SC.

http://aliceballard.com/

http://www.cullowheemountainarts.org/lake-logan-artist-writer-workshop-retreats/autumn-colors-lake-logan-workshop-retreat#sthash.6uRR1R3Z.dpuf

For more information :

Norma Hendrix, MA, MFA

Executive Director

norma@cullowheemountainarts.org

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Finding Your Form Through Nature, June 19th-June 23rd, workshop at the Bascom Art Center in Highlands, NC

Finding Your Form Through Nature is a hand-building class inspired by the beauty of the natural surroundings of the Bascom in Highlands, NC.  Along with all my favorite hand-building techniques, participants will learn to make and use terra sigillata.  We will use earthenware and schedule two firings for work that is dry.  Other work can be taken home or fired at a later date. Packing and shipping of that work would be extra.

Bring along your sketchbook/journal to record special moments, for sketching and for saving valuable technical information.

NOTE: Participants who have taken "Finding Your Form Through Nature" have the option to plan, with my help if you need it, a focus on favorite hand-building techniques in more depth. For example, you might want to focus on a group of Ikebana containers, moss gardens, organic boxes, or nature platters. 

My contact information if you have any questions about the class or want to ask me about a special project you wish to work on. aliceballard64@gmail.com

Registration has started so contact the Bascom to save a place as this class will fill up fast.  www.thebascom.org/bascom_art_education_workshops  

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TRACES is officially open!!! Kate, Teresa and I hope you will swing by to see this unique collaboration before it closes on March 3rd...

Many thanks to Kate and Teresa for the amazing experience of taking the "blank canvas" of an empty gallery space and working together to install a unique show that truly shows a "shared vision" between 2 artists. 

I would also like to thank old friends and new friends who came to the opening and/or the talk. Your questions were wonderful as were your thoughtful reflections regarding not only the individual work but regarding the conversation going on between Kate's work and mine!

If you have not seen the show, please drop by.  We would love to share TRACES: A SHARED VISION with you and hope you will let us know what you think about it.  We are sure you will see things we missed and would love to hear about it!  

For information and hours, contact Art & Light

artandlightgallery.com/

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Opening THIS Thursday, February 9, 2017, 6-8 at Art & Light, TRACES: A SHARED VISION featuring jewelry, drawings, ceramics, wood, metal by Alice Ballard & Kate Furman.

Try to imagine 3 artists, turning 2 rooms of a gallery into a space that has been transformed by the process and the work!!!  This is what Teresa Roche (artist & gallery owner), Kate Furman and I did this past Sunday and Monday.  Interestingly enough WE were transformed by the creative and collaborative experience of working together.  I will always treasure this experience that brought the 3 of us together in a magical and spiritual way that is difficult to explain....I believe if you come to see the show you will understand how a space or a site, the art and 3 women came together resulting in a special sort of "Happening", not unlike an improvisation!  I believe TRACES, makes evident our process. It is the process after all that artists often cherish far beyond the finished work...

My thanks to Kate and Teresa for the memory I will always have of our process of weaving this show together. .... It required respect, trust, risk-taking, focus, sensitivity, and being totally "open" to the possibilities. 

If you do visit TRACES, We would love feedback so do share your thoughts about the show on any kind of social networking.  We want to hear the good, the bad and any suggestions!  Who knows, you might find that your thoughts have inadvertently become part of our next "happening".

A peak at a detail of the show....

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At last!!!!! Time to post!

Lots happening in my studio!!! The most immediate project is all the preparations for a special show at Art & Light with former student Kate Furman.  It is titled TRACES: A SHARED VISION and aptly so as you will see if you come to the show.

This is an extra special exhibition because it brings Kate Furman, former student when she was in Middle School at CCES and me, her former teacher, together to share our visions.  I always knew Kate was one of those students who had the passion, work ethic and creativity to be an artist.  But I did not see her again until she had a show of her MFA work from Rhode Island School of Design in Greenville. What a fun reunion it was! I was stunned by the maturity, technical quality and the uniqueness of her work.  My response was to think to myself how much I would love for us to show our work together some day.....Well, we are doing just that and are having a wonderful time working with each other and with equally creative Gallery Director and artist in her own right, Teresa Roche, as we consider how we will use the walls and rooms of Art & Light to best show off the similarities and differences of our work in a unique way.

TRACES: A SHARED VISION opens from 6-8:00 on Thursday evening, February 9, 2017. The show runs through March 3 and there will be an artist talk on Saturday, February 11th at 10:00 AM.  We hope you can make the opening, talk or just drop in to see the show.

For more information - artandlightgallery.com

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It is New Year's Eve & the kiln is ready to load and start....

I still have 2 Ming Rose pieces to airbrush so plan to do that tomorrow, New Year's day... Everything will need a second and possibly a 3 firing but all of that should be done during the coming week...  I am relieved to have this much done but the real relief will be when and if I am satisfied with this first firing.  The kiln will be cool and ready to unload this Monday so send positive energy flowing my way for a successful firing!

Heres thanking everyone who has given me love, friendship and moral support this year.  It is so very appreciated.  Enjoy this evening regardless of your plans and stay safe.  I will be in touch next year and may it be a special year for all of us, one that offers HOPE for everyone....

Love, Alice

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Looks like I have my work cut out for me.......The greenware you see is scheduled to be fired and ready for commissions and shows by the 1st of the year. Yikes!!!!!!

Don't forget that I have a sale going on in my studio until the 1st of the year.  Just call, email or text for an appointment for any day except Christmas day!  Many of the "Meditation Bowls" are $99, other work is 30% off and rattles are half off.  (864)414-0478 or aliceballard64@gmail.com.

Many thanks to all of you who have purchased work from me this year!  And thank you to those I am working on projects with during the coming year.  It is a great pleasure getting to know all of you!  Happy Holidays and may we all have an exceptional 2017!!!

Note that over the holidays, I will be posting upcoming shows and workshops during the next year.  They will be posted under events on my site and on Facebook.

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Details of work still available for sale following a very successful GREENVILLE OPEN STUDIOS 2016...

Although I do not keep regular visiting hours, you can always call to make an appointment to drop by to have a look. 

I have set aside a select group of work discounted at  1/3 to 1/2 off to make room for new work currently in process for shows at Art & Light with Kate Furman in February of 2017 as well as work for another invitational show at Blue Spiral 1 that opens in March of 2007. Call or text 864-414-0478 for an appointment or if you have any questions.

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Thank you MAC for putting on another FABULOUS Greenville Open Studios and THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to visit my studio and our home.

Roger and I want to extend a special thank you to Michael Ziemer, Mackenzie Patterson and Karen Polstra for helping greet and help educate all the wonderful visitors.  Also, thanks so much to some of my special students who came to see what their art teacher does when she is not their art teacher.  Last but not least, I thank our precious parti-poodles Jaz and Rosie for delighting everyone with their funny antics and acting as our door bells!

Together, you all made this yet another AWESOME Greenville Open Studios!!! 

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