(Available each month to Tile Heritage members who e-mail the Foundation from the address they
would like
E-News sent to. Contact: foundation@tileheritage.org)
PRINTED VERSION
Here’s What’s Below:
New Member Tile Gallery
Important Deadlines
Upcoming Events
CERF Support
Lifetime for Winter
Tile Heritage Prizes
On a Sad Note
To establish the gallery we chose a representative image from
each member’s website. If you wish to have a different image of
your work, email our web designer Julia Murray, julmurray@aol.com,
with an image of your choice—roughly 4” x 4” at 150 dpi—and copy us
in foundation@tileheritage.org
so that we can track your request.
If you are not in the gallery and would like to be, simply upgrade
your membership to the Centurian ($100) level—we will advance your
expiration date accordingly—and then email an image with your website link.
(Please do not email credit card numbers—use snail mail or fax 707 431-8455.)
Looking down the road apiece, we plan to provide an option that will
instantly regionalize the Member Tile Gallery. With a simple click a
viewer will be able to see all gallery members in a particular area
of the country. We’ll keep you posted.
Call for Entries. The search is on for architectural and design projects representing
the most innovative and visionary use of ceramic tile and natural stone, and $36,000
in prize money is at stake as the annual Spectrum and Prism Awards issue their
Call for Entries. As is tradition, the competitions—Spectrum for tile, Prism for
stone—culminate with a presentation ceremony during the Coverings expo and conference,
April 17-20, in Chicago. Detailed information and entry forms are available at
www.coverings.com. Deadline: February 2, 2007.
500 Tiles, a proposed gallery-style book, will showcase images of ceramic tiles.
Lark Books is seeking all kinds of architectural and decorative ceramic tiles,
including mosaic, terra cotta, painted, and textured, created by studio artists
from around the globe. Diverse materials, techniques, and styles are desired.
Juror: Angelica Pozo. Scheduled for release in the fall of 2007, 500 Tiles aims
to serve as an inspiring collection for beginning and professional tile makers,
as well as tile collectors and enthusiasts. Entry deadline: February 1, 2007.
For more information on submitting, please go to www.larkbooks.com.
March 2 - April 22, 2007. Artisan Tile NW Spring Show in Seattle at the
Northwest Craft Center and Gallery at the Seattle Center. Members of Artisan
Tile NW will be showing their work. For details and directions go to
www.artisantilenw.org
March 14-17, 2007. NCECA’s 41st Annual Conference in Louisville, Kentucky.
Visit www.nceca.net for details.
March 21-24, 2007. SAMA’s 6th Annual Conference in Mesa, Arizona.
Go to www.americanmosaics.org
for more information.
April 17-20, 2007. Coverings will be held in Chicago at McCormick Place.
Check out www.coverings.com for more information.
April 27-28, 2007. Northwest Handmade Tile Show in Seattle at the Swedish
Heritage Center. For details go to www.artisantilenw.org
May 19-20, 2007. Tile Festival in Doylestown, Pennsylvania at the
Moravian Pottery and Tile Works. See www.mptw.go.to
The Tile Heritage Foundation is continuing its monthly support of CERF, the Craft Emergency Relief Fund,
in its effort to respond with financial assistance to craft artists throughout the country impacted
by a broad range of emergencies, the most notable of which were caused by Hurricane Katrina and its
aftermath. As of the end of last October this national organization had committed close to $300,000
in grants, loans and other donated services to over 100 craft artists in Louisiana and Mississippi.
CERF is the only nonprofit focused entirely on emergency assistance for artists in the US.
Especially impressive is the organization’s proactive approach of helping artists prepare for and
mitigate the effects of disasters, focused in areas that are disaster-prone. Artists are encouraged
to develop disaster plans, to store copies of their portfolios offsite, to understand the ins and
outs of insurance coverage, and to evaluate risks.
We are proud of our support of this worthy organization and want to encourage Tile Heritage members
to join with us in supporting its programs. Take a few minutes and check out the website for detailed
information: www.craftemergency.org
While celebrating its 30th anniversary, the Southern California Chapter of
the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH/SCC) took the opportunity to
acknowledge one of its founding fathers, Dr. Robert Winter, known to many
as Bungalow Bob, with a prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. The gala
took place at a candlelit banquet in the elegant ballroom of the Lanterman
House (Arthur L. Haley, 1915) in La Cañada on Sunday, December 3, 2006.
(Dr. Winter was quick to point out that the house,
Dr. Winter, architectural historian and professor emeritus at Occidental
College, serves as custodian for the house of tilemaker Ernest Batchelder
(1876-1957), where he has kindly hosted a Tile Heritage symposium and
welcomed countless visitors over the years. Through 43 years of teaching,
13 books (including the invaluable Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles),
another on its way, tours, public lectures, service on commissions,
Bob Winter has surely done more to arouse interest in Southern California’s
architectural (and tile!) heritage and to inspire its preservation than any
other living person.
Kudos to Bungalow Bob!
The Tile Heritage Foundation provides prize money each year in support of
contemporary tile-related artwork. We do not involve ourselves in choosing
the prizewinners; we leave this up to the jurors involved in each competition.
The Tile Heritage Prize is awarded to the artist whose work, in the jurors’
judgment, best reflects ceramic traditions.
The Tile Heritage Prix Primo was awarded to Bob Smith of Idledale Pottery,
Idledale, Colorado for his piece “Arid Torrent,” submitted last spring to the
16th annual National Ceramic Competition presented by the San Angelo Museum of
Fine Arts, San Angelo, Texas. Juror Ann Lancaster, co-founder and former
executive director of the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, commented that
Smith’s work “reminds us of clay’s practical place in the manmade world.”
Quoting Bob Smith from his “Artist’s Statement”: I have been changed significant
ly and irrevocably by making clay art. My head, hands and heart have come together
during this active, long-term pursuit of my dreams. I am beginning to understand
the complexities of my medium, and because I work hard and with care and sincerity
to train my hands to do what they must, in this self-actualization I have become
passionate. Through some stroke of good fortune, I have found work which is
satisfying, engaging, challenging, and comprehensive, and through which my heart
can sing.
At the Third International Ceramic Tile Triennial (elit-tile) presented by the
Igneri Foundation Art and Archaeology at the Museum of Modern Art, Santo Domingo,
Dominican Republic in mid-November, Dwain Naragon was awarded the Tile Heritage Prize.
The jurors Mark Gordon from the U.S.,
Francois Ruegg from Switzerland, and tonal
contrasts and
Dwain Naragon is Professor of Art at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.
Commenting on his work he wrote, “For years I have studied historical ceramics.
Consequently this has led me to exploring anthropology and archaeology which provide
universal clues to functionality and containment.”
Prizes were awarded in mid-September for “One Square Foot,” a national juried tile
exhibition at the Infinity Gallery in Minneapolis presented by Clay Squared to Infinity.
Among the works chosen by juror Jason Busch, formerly a curator of decorative arts at
the Minneapolis Institute of Arts was a tile by Wendy Penta-Nelson at Stone Hollow
Tile, St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, that won the Tile Heritage Prize. Wendy’s tiles are
infused with her love of the Arts and Crafts era. The subtle matte glazes create
shadows and capture the moods of nature.
There is no easy way to report the loss of two dear friends, Mildred and Chris Bradley,
who passed into tile heaven within a month of one another just before the holidays.
Many of you will remember them fondly—Chris, the Navy vet with his metal “front legs,”
and Mildred with her cherubic charm weighted down with bags full of tiles. On tour
Mildred would admonish me for catering to what I perceived as Chris’ needs. “Don’t
worry about him,” she would say, “he’ll catch up with us soon enough.” Of course, she
was right.
We first met in 1992 when they attended the Tile Heritage symposium in Southern
California. From that time on they came to every Tile Heritage event until the recent
conference in Minneapolis. Avid rock collectors for years, the two quickly became tile
fanatics, collecting both historic and contemporary tiles. Sheila and I visited them
at their home on Staten Island and were thrilled to see all the tiles on display, each
with its own story. We also noticed that most of the rocks had been relegated to the
basement!
Yes, they will be missed, but many of us will carry them both in our hearts for years
to come. That’s just the kind of people they were.
Joe Taylor
New Member Tile Gallery
Here’s a New Years treat for you, the Member Tile Gallery!
Click here
for a colorful surprise! Although all members are listed in
Who Supports THF, members who contribute $100 or more each year
in membership fees (providing they have a website to link to) are
now featured in the gallery with an image of their work.
It is truly a striking array of tile talent!
Important Deadlines Ahead!
Call for Entries. The Lincoln Arts & Culture Foundation is presenting Feats of Clay XX,
its 12th annual juried competition of ceramic works on April 28-May 27, 2007 featuring
artists from the U.S., Canada and Mexico. This celebratory exhibition of contemporary
ceramic art will be held at the renowned Gladding, McBean clay factory in Lincoln,
California and displayed inside an original 35-foot beehive kiln and in the historic
architectural design studio. Juror: Sherman Hall, editor of Ceramics Monthly.
Prospectus / Deadline for submissions: February 2, 2007.
March 15, 2007 is the application deadline for both the Juried Tile Show and the
Northwest Handmade Tile Show both presented by Artisan Tile NW
and held simultaneously at the Swedish Heritage Center in Seattle on Friday and
Saturday, April 27-28, 2007.
The 2-day tile festival will bring together the
Northwest’s amazing tile creators with other tile artists, buyers, designers,
architects, home owners, and all those who are passionate about handmade tiles.
“Insects” is the theme for the Juried Tile Show.
For more information go to www.artisantilenw.org
Upcoming Events in Brief
CERF Support
Imagine a Lifetime for Winter!
with all due respect,
was NOT a bungalow!) Among the celebrities present at the event were
Sheila Menzies and Irene de Watteville representing the board of the Tile
Heritage Foundation
Tile Heritage Prizes
Wilfredo Torres from Cuba commented on Natagon’s excellent use of glazes,
his exquisite way of realizing the duality of repeated patterns.
On a Sad Note