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My Ceramics

In the studio I like to do	Handbuilding, Sculpting
Pottery Wheel	Don't, much.
Clay body	Earthenware, Stoneware
Clay Brand	Laguna, as provided by Red Lodge Clay (Montana)
Kiln Type	Electric Kiln, Gas Kiln, Raku Kiln, Pit firing
Kiln Atmosphere	Reduction Atmosphere, Oxidation Atmosphere
Temperature	low-fire earthenware; 06-04 mostly. Have done a bit of stoneware to higher temps.
Glaze	Mostly Amoco, some studio-mixed raku and stains. Am using local community college as a base. Hoping to have my own space at home someday.
You can buy my work from	Contact me directly, at this point. I have 2-D items in the Cody Art League, but no ceramics available there yet. Website is Drawings, Paintings and Ceramics – The Artwork of Bobbie Brown (bobbiebrownart.com)

About Me

Introduction	Hello, I’m Bobbie! I have lived in Australia, California, Washington State and Utah, and for thirty years I’ve lived on a fourth-generation cattle ranch in Wyoming. We are about two hours east of Yellowstone National Park. Many of my family are cowboys, and we raise Black Angus beef cattle. We also run a bakery which delivers bread all over Wyoming and into nearby states. I enjoy reading, music and handicrafts, and recently finished a 2-year degree in fine arts, expanding my skills in drawing, watercolor and oil painting, as well as ceramics. The local community college has an excellent art department! I especially enjoy painting portraits, and sculpting birds and people. I have a previous bachelor’s degree with majors in both education and music performance. I’ve also taken graduate courses in distance education and am a certified ESL instructor. I have taught English online since 2007 to students in Korea, China and Japan. I also love to travel and have been to Canada and Mexico, Uruguay and Brazil, Australia, England and several European countries. I want to see Asia someday, especially Japan and China.
What I Love about Ceramics	The tactile and 3-D adventure of it. I love drawing and painting, but working in the round with clay is a more complete experience. I love the temporary nature of it — you can whack off an ear or gouge holes in a vessel, then re-build your project with a bit of slip and a firm touch — or even smoosh it into a ball and re-wedge and re-start. I love working at the banding wheel and watching things come to life as I correct perspective and add or subtract lumps of clay. I particularly enjoy the beginning shaping, and the finishing details — sgraffito and carving!
How I started with ceramics	I love 3-D work! I began this adventure by taking some drawing and watercolor classes at the local community college, about 8 years ago (newly-widowed and at loose ends). When I first laid oil paints on a canvas, my immediate reaction was, “this feels like sculpting!” Which was weird, because I’d never done any sculpting! I continued to take on every class and every teacher in that art department, and when I hit 3-D, I found my home! I still enjoy drawing (it’s essential) and painting, even print-making, but I will always return to clay and hand building and sculpture. My hands just seem to know how to put people and critters together. I have taken pottery wheel, but it’s a struggle, due to old arthritic hands and lack of strength to wrestle more than 2-3 pounds of clay on the wheel. But I can build vessels and put people together, and love it!
What inspires me	Everything inspires me. For some reason I was drawn to create birds on my earliest vessels — a 3-D crane on the blue pitcher in my banner. I’ve continue to sgraffito herons and swallows, cats, and various other critters on the vessels I hand build. Have tried raku occasionally, and recently discovered majolica — I love the painterly work of laying on fruits and flowers in bright stains. I’ve also been inspired by sculptures I’ve seen, grandchildren at play, and the news. I just finished a small sculpture of a group of Xi’an warriors (the 4,000 full-size Chinese warriors dug up from a long-ago emperor’s tomb — my version was 3 soldiers and a horse, however), and plan to make more.
What I'm working on at the moment	I broke my wrist early in September, so I haven’t worked with clay or accessed the local college kilns for some weeks. However, I’m sketching preliminary ideas for a pieta statue, more majolica vessels, and various hand built portrait sculptures. Pondering slip trailing ideas. Am anxious to get through wrist therapy and back to projects! In the meantime I’m drawing and painting in watercolor (opening oil paint tubes is too painful just yet).
My Artist Statement	I’ve been a teacher much of my life… I puddle up at teaching moments, when anyone catches a concept, or turns a corner. Many people are blinded to beauty by inattention, by ignorance, and by an increasingly dense culture. They are walled off from truly celebrating life. Art makes people notice the wonders of the universe, and the wonders of the clay at their feet. For me, art is a tool or portal to guide people in seeing what they don’t naturally perceive. My goal as an artist is to create teaching and learning moments, and windows, to what is beautiful and marvelous in life.
My CV	Some local recognition in student juried shows and local plein air events. Just beginning to sell a few pieces. Website is Drawings, Paintings and Ceramics – The Artwork of Bobbie Brown (bobbiebrownart.com)