Virtual Events Archive
Scroll Down to Watch Recordings of Previous Virtual Events Including More Artist Happy Hours…
Artist Happy Hour Series: Gerald A. Brown
Thursday, Sept. 3 at 7:00 PM (Eastern)
Return of the Artist Happy Hour: Gerald Brown will be sharing about her work and involvement in many different arts organizations. Join in the conversation with Gerald and Stacy Larson as they talk about outreach within and beyond her community.
Gerald A. Brown is a Chicago Southside native, currently based in Philadelphia, PA. She received her BFA from Syracuse University, double emphasis in Sculpture and Ceramics. Gerald is a current member of the art collective Vox Populi, curating shows and special programming. In addition, she is a teaching artist assistant with The Clay Studio’s Clay Mobile outreach program, one of the Board of Directors at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts and co-founder of the Clay Siblings’ Project, a non-profit initiative providing free ceramic workshops around the country.
Be sure to check out her website at geraldbrownart.com
Instagram: @geraldbrownart
Photo credit: Jesse Defrancesco
Watch the recording…
Creator of complex immersive installations, I use ceramic objects, found objects, sound and wall signage to execute my goals. Fundamental to my practice has been creating the sculptural ceramic forms and using the materiality of clay to communicate complex ideas, challenging the viewer physically and conceptually.
I use this methodology to execute my work about Descendants of Strange Fruit, an exploration of the current generation of offspring of the Strange Fruit Billie Holiday and Nina Simone sang about. I define this concept of Strange Fruit as a fruit-bearing plant, growing in a country deeply infected by Anti-Blackness. My work analyzes these biological American oddities and their placement in this country’s foundation. Implementing several researching methods, I map out the lifespan of the fruit and make diagrams that identify the fruits’ characteristics to reinterpret their symbolism using my own personal experiences. Primarily examining American constructs of Black Exceptionalism, Womanhood, and respectability, I identify several varietals of the Fruit and theorize their unique behaviors, such as Bloodbending and Shapeshifting.
I, then, commemorate the life of the descendants through the creation of sculptures and installations. Building abstract nonrepresentational fruit-like forms, I formulate a visual language of the Strange Fruits through a variation of postures and gestures. The forms are placed in mixed-media constructed installations to contextualize the fruit’s surroundings, exposing connections between the characteristics of the Fruit and the effects of the Strange Fruit disease. Navigating themes of joy, greed, nobility, trauma, and, ultimately, freedom, together, these forms and installations evoke aggressively interrogating questions of who are each of us in this Strange Fruit ecosystem and what does [our] harvest look like.
Touchstone Intern Artist Demonstrations
Tuesdays at 7:00 PM (Eastern); July and September
Throughout the summer, we’ll be checking in to the studios to see what our Interns are working on.
From Tuesday, September 1
7:00 PM (Eastern)
Jessica Howerton
Jessica is a metalsmith who recently graduated from Tennessee Tech University’s Appalachian Center for Craft. She gives a live demonstration from the Metals & Jewelry Studio.
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From Tuesday, September 8
7:00 PM (Eastern)
Meghan Burke
Meghan Burke gives a live hanbuilding demonstration from the Ceramics Studio. Meg is a New Jersey transplant now living in Pittsburgh.
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From Tuesday, September 15
7:00 PM (Eastern)
Julia Castor
Julia is a ceramic artist and a fine art painter from Bucks County, PA. In this demo, she demonstrates wheel throwing and painting on ceramics.
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From Tuesday, July 14
7:00 PM (Eastern)
7:00 PM (Eastern)
Taylor Mezo
Ceramic artist, Taylor Mezo demonstrates jewelry making techniques using clay, different jewelry findings, and how to assemble the pieces once they’ve been fired.
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From Tuesday, July 21
7:00 PM (Eastern)
Taylor Fentz
Metalsmith, Taylor Fentz demonstrates some of the processes and techniques she uses to create unique one of a kind jewelry pieces.
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From Tuesday, July 28
7:00 PM (Eastern)
Makena Henriksen
Blacksmith, Makena Henriksen demonstrates forging a gate latch live from the Hart Moore Blacksmithing Studio.
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If you would like to give to Touchstone in support of these programs, please consider a donation. Because of you, we’re able to continue the great work that we do. Click to Donate Now
Artist Happy Hour Series
Artist Happy Hour Series: Marlene True
Thursday, July 23 at 7:00 PM (Eastern)
Metalsmith, Marlene True will be joining us to share about her work and studio practice. Marlene is an obsessive collector of tin cans and other ephemera with the intent of repurposing. Marlene earned her MFA at East Carolina University and her BFA at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. She is the Executive Director of Pocosin Arts School of Fine Craft in Columbia, NC.
Website: marlenetrue.com
Instagram: @marlenetrue
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Artist Happy Hour Series: Travis Townsend
Thursday, July 16 at 7:00 PM (Eastern)
Mixed media artist, Travis Townsend joins us to share about his work and studio practice. Travis draws, builds, rebuilds, paints, and tinkers upon wood and mixed media sculptures in his Lexington, Kentucky studio. His process-oriented works evolve from sketches and travel through many transformations before being cut apart, reassembled, and reworked (sometimes many years later).
Website: travistownsendart.com
Instagram: @travistownsendart
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Artist Happy Hour Series: Maia Leppo
Thursday, July 9 at 7:00 PM (Eastern)
In this week’s Happy Hour, we sit down with Maia Leppo to talk about her work and studio practice. Maia is a jewelry artist who lives in Pittsburgh and works out of her studio at the Brew House Association on the Southside. She works mostly with steel and incorporates ceramics, found objects, and some unconventional materials in her work.
Website: maialeppo.com
Instagram: @maialeppo
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Artist Happy Hour Series: Kelly and Kyle Phelps
Thursday, June 25th at 7:00 PM (Eastern)
Kelly and Kyle Phelps create high relief figurative ceramic narratives influenced by their blue-collar background. The use of the figure can be the perfect vehicle to talk about topics like race, class, politics, environment, religion, sexuality, gender, poverty, war, and other issues of our time.
The identical twin brothers grew up in a blue-collar/factory environment in Indiana where they were inspired by the working class. They work together to combine hand crafted figurative works with found objects from actual factory sites to create narratives that depict the everyday struggles of the common men and women who worked in various manufacturing plants, steel mills, and foundries.
Click to read more about Kelly and Kyle (from Ceramics Monthly, 2016)
Follow Kyle and Kelly on Instagram: @kelly_and_kyle_phelps
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Artist Happy Hour Series: Jordan LaMothe
Friday, June 19th at 7:00 PM (Eastern)
Jordan LaMothe joins us from his shop in Hebron, NY to talk about his journey to becoming a bladesmith, his passion for making all manner of fine knives, daggers, and swords; from sturdy, utilitarian blades to luxury collector’s pieces.
Jordan currently holds the Journeyman Smith ranking in the American Bladesmith Society. He was a champion on The History Channel’s ‘Forged in Fire.’
Click to Learn More about Jordan
Follow Jordan on Instagram: @jordanlamotheblades
Due to technical difficulties, this recording will not be available.
Artist Happy Hour Series: Michael Nashef
Friday, June 12th at 7:00 PM (Eastern)
Michael is a jewelry designer from Portage, MI. He is an instructor at Kalamazoo Institute of Art and also on Touchstone’s board of directors.
Click to Learn More about Michael
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Artist Happy Hour Series: Lindsay Ketterer Gates
Friday, May 29th at 7:00 PM (Eastern)
Touchstone’s executive director, Lindsay Ketterer Gates, shares her work and talks about the wire looping technique. Lindsay is an arts administrator and studio artist whose work is exhibited internationally. She is on the board of the Fiber Artists Guild of Pittsburgh and vice president of the National Basketry Organization.
Click to Learn More about Lindsay
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Artist Happy Hour Series: Mark Arnold
Friday, May 22nd at 7:00 PM (Eastern)
Mark is a studio potter born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, now living and working in North Carolina where he teaches at Elizabeth City State University.
Click to Learn More about Mark
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Artist Happy Hour Series: Jamie Bates Slone
Friday, May 15 at 7:00 PM (Eastern)
Jamie is a sculptor living in Norman, Oklahoma where she is also an Assistant Professor of Ceramics at the University of Oklahoma.
Click to Learn More about Jamie
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Artist Happy Hour Series: Taylor Robenalt
Friday, May 8 at 7:00 PM (Eastern)
Taylor is a ceramic artist and educator living in Sarasota, Florida where she is an instructor at Ringling College of Art and Design.
Click to Learn More about Taylor
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Artist Happy Hour Series: Travis Winters
Friday, May 1st at 7:00 PM (Eastern)
Touchstone’s Programs Manager, Travis Winters, offers a glimpse inside his home studio, see what he’s been working on, and hear him talk about themes and stories behind his work!
Click to Learn More about Travis
Watch the recording…
If you would like to give to Touchstone in support of these programs, please consider a donation. Because of you, we’re able to continue the great work that we do. Click to Donate Now
