Sunday, October 18, 2009
Arts & Extras: Pottery: functional to funky
Courtesy of Jared Soares
The Mill Mountain Star reflects in sunglasses worn by Roanoke rapper Oxygen Elements. This is one of the photos in a new exhibit at O. Winston Link Museum.
Arts & Extras column
Mike Allen, arts columnist
Recent columns
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- Writing on the walls is inaugural installation
- 'Avenue Q' rolls into Roanoke
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For the members of the Blue Ridge Potters Guild, the creation of pottery is not just about making pots and vases. It's about artistic expression.
"We're a creative group in our own right," said guild member Barbara Wise.
"All working from the left side of the brain," finished fellow member Jessie Rusinko.
In two weeks, the guild will hold its 10th Anniversary Show and Sale -- it's the show's 10th anniversary, not the guild's, which incorporated as a nonprofit in 1996. At the show, guild members will display creations ranging from the "very functional" to the "whimsical and funky," as Rusinko and Wise describe it.
More than 50 potters will have work on exhibit. The show's theme is "Tea for the Tenth."
"You make anything that you can put on a tea table," Rusinko explained.
"I'm making tea bowls, I think," said Wise.
The tea-related objects go into a theme gallery, and the entries are judged.
There will also be a charity gallery, with donated works for sale to benefit the Military Family Support Center.
The slowly growing guild prides itself in the mutual support members give one another in improving their clay-shaping skills. It takes awhile to get the hang of clay as an artistic medium, but "once you get it, it's just the biggest high in the world," Rusinko said.
"No matter what level you are, you pick up something every single time you work with clay," Wise said.
Many of the members attend classes held by Roanoke County Parks and Recreation. The group also hosts classes given by master potters.
The free show will be held Oct. 30, 31 and Nov. 1 at Cave Spring High School in Roanoke County. On Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, there will be demonstrations with potters wheels.
For more information, visit www.blueridgepotters.com.
Poetry at Hollins
Hollins University announced that Backwaters Press has published associate English professor T.J. Anderson's second book of poetry, called "River to Cross," available from Internet booksellers.
Anderson has written critical analyses of jazz poetry and made recordings combining poetry and music. He's also host of Studio Roanoke's monthly "Poetry Lounge," scheduled the first Tuesday of each month at the downtown Roanoke theater.
His previous poetry collection, "At Last Round Up," was published in 1996.
For more information, visit www.hollins.edu.
'Criminal Minds'
We're not talking about the TV show here, but the edgy play by Robin Swicord (screenwriter of "The Jane Austin Book Club" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") that opens the 2009-10 season for Roanoke's offbeat theater company Gamut.
The darkly comic scenario involves two escaped criminals, one of whom has a girlfriend who's a former porn star, the other of whom has a strange case of amnesia. They've holed up in an abandoned miniature golf course -- props for which have been supplied by well-known Natural Bridge phantasmagoric fiberglass artist Mark Cline.
The shows are 7:30 p.m. Thursday and 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday, Oct. 29 and Oct. 30 at Jefferson Center.
Tickets are $12; students $8. For tickets call 345-2550 or visit www.jeffcenter.org. For information about Gamut, call 380-3168.
Miss the Shooting Star?
In what might be the ultimate Roanoke Valley nostalgia trip, the History Museum of Western Virginia opened an exhibit earlier this month called "Thrills, Chills & Spills -- Lakeside, the Roanoke Valley's Premier Amusement Park."
It's an expanded version of the exhibit that's been on display at the Salem Museum, complete with a model of the late, lamented roller coaster Shooting Star -- which I remember being more frightening for its rickety instability than anything else. The display at the History Museum ends Nov. 9.
Admission $3; seniors and students $2. For more information, call 342-5770 or visit www.history-museum.org.
'Beyond the Frame'
The O. Winston Link Museum is hosting the second in a series of question-and-answer sessions called "Beyond the Frame," in which the photographer behind an exhibit is interviewed in the style of "Inside the Actors Studio." This session, Friday at 7 p.m., marks the opening of "On the Block," an exhibit of a personal project by Roanoke Times photographer Jared Soares that will be on display through Jan. 26.
For two years, Soares followed a select group of Roanoke residents who participated in hip-hop music and culture. During Tuesday's session, Soares will be interviewed by Roanoke schools arts coordinator and musician Cyrus Pace.
Admission is $5. For more information, call 982-5465 or visit www.linkmuseum.org.
Off to a fellowship
As you read this, I'll be in New York.
For 10 days, I'll be watching classical music and opera performances -- not to mention Broadway's "West Side Story" -- and doing writing exercises under the gun as a fellow in the 2009 NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera, conducted by the Journalism School at Columbia University.
Because of my fellowship, this column is going to take a two-week hiatus. But I won't disappear. Though I expect to be busy, I'll do my best to post about my New York adventures on the Arts & Extras blog (blogs.roanoke.com/arts).
