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| raven sculptures raven sculptures raven sculptures raven sculptures raven sculptures raven sculptures raven sculptures raven sculptures raven sculptures | ||
RESUMEKENNETH LARSONPATRICIA LARSON3774 County Line Road Sturgeon Lake, MN 55783-9301 218-485-8346
TRAINING/EDUCATIONKen: B.A. in art from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, 1974 Pat: B.S. in art from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, 1975 We both studied ceramics with Glenn Nelson and feel he had a major influence on our decisions to work in clay.
EXPERIENCE/COLLABORATIONWe have worked with clay as self employed artists since 1975, deriving our income from selling work at art fairs and through galleries. Since 1981 we have worked as a collaborative team. We began our joint efforts with functional stoneware changing to decorative high fired work during the late 1980’s. In 1997 we changed all our work to low temperature firing processes and continue that focus to the present. The collaboration allows each of us to work on every piece, in the areas of greatest expertise. Pat works mainly on handbuilding of wall reliefs and sculpture while Ken focuses on elements for wall mounted and free standing sculpture which may be thrown or handbuilt. We both work on alteration, assembly, and finishing of wheelthrown and handbuilt components that become integral parts of each piece. Firing is always a joint effort as it takes two working bodies to fire our work successfully.
PROCESSWe work with a clay body based on Kemenyffy’s raku clay recipe, designed to withstand high thermal shock. Wheel thrown and hand building techniques are combined to produce vessels, wall reliefs, and sculpture. The finished surfaces are all burnished clay, either the actual clay body or an airbrushed on terra sigillata (a very fine clay slip). The pieces are bisque fired after burnishing. We use several different low temperature firing processes to achieve the desired surface effects. They are: LOW TEMPERATURE SALT SAGGAR—Pieces are fired within another covered ceramic vessel (saggar). Salt, metallic sulfates, fine wire, and combustible materials combine to color and blacken the fired clay; BLACKWARE—the work is heated in the kiln to 1500 degrees F, withdrawn and placed in a container prepared with a bed of wood planer shavings, covered with more shavings, and allowed to reduce until cool enough to remove; LOCALIZED REDUCTION WITH ORGANIC MATERIALS—Pieces are heated in the kiln to 1450 degrees F, withdrawn, and placed on an insulating surface on a turntable. After sprinkling with sawdust, cotton thread, pine needles, hair, grasses, etc. are burned on to create anything from sharp lines to subtle shadows.
EXHIBITIONS“Birds in Art” Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI 9/10/05- 11/06/05 “30 Years to Here” Art Center of Saint Peter, St. Peter, MN 12/16/04-01/23/05 “Functional Ceramics” Wayne Center for the Arts, Wooster, OH 03/18-04/13/02 “Burnished Earth” with painter, Cameron Zebrun Waters of Superior, Duluth, MN 06/10-07/19/04 “Fifth Annual Monarch Tile Ceramic Competition” San Angelo Museum of Fine Art, San Angelo, TX 04/19-05/27/90 “Down and Dirty” Sivertson Gallery, Duluth, MN 04/19-05/30/03 “21st Century Tiles: From Earth to Fire” Catherine G Murphy Gallery, St. Paul, MN 09/13-10/20/02 “Transformations” Minnetonka Center for the Arts, Wayzata, MN 04/06-05/11/00 “A Flash of Nature—Raku” Hanson Galleries, Houston, TX 09-10/98 “Clayworks by Ken and Pat Larson” Arts for Living Center, Burlington, IA 06/05-06/26/94 “A Tribute Exhibition to Glenn Nelson” Tweed Museum of Art, U of MN, Duluth, MN 10/17/92-1/10/93 “Keepers of the Waters” Duluth Art Institute, Duluth, MN 03/07-05/01/94 “Right Here! Right Now!” Ceramics Exhibition, Art Institute, Duluth, MN 01/25-03/05/93 “Clay Concepts” Mindscape Gallery, Evanston, IL 09/26-11/07/92 “Clayworks and Art Glass” Lake Avenue Gallery, Lake Worth, FL 12/05/91-01/31/92 “Strictly for the Birds” Ohio Designer Craftsmen Gallery, Columbus, OH 12/92 “The Ceramic Vessel” Grand Avenue Gallery, St. Paul, MN 09/08-10/07/89 “Winter Exhibition” Artisans Gallery, Great Neck, NY 02/01-04/01/89 “Works in Clay and Wood by Ken and Pat Larson” Duluth Art Institute, Duluth, MN 02/06-03/03/85
AWARDS“Columbus Arts Festival” Best of Show, Columbus, OH 2004 “Festival of Arts” Best of Show, Wausau, WI 2004 “Austin Fine Arts Festival” Best of Ceramics Award, Austin, TX 2001 “Columbus Winterfair” Awards for Excellence. Columbus, OH 1999, 2002 “National Craft Show” Awards of Merit, Northbrook, IL 1999, 2002 “Uptown Art Fair” Best of Show--Ceramics, Minneapolis, MN 1986 “Uptown Art Fair” Honors Awards, Minneapolis, MN 1987, 1990, 1999 “Clay Minnesota” Best of Show, Minneapolis, MN 1986,1987 “Festival of Arts” Award of Merit, Wausau, WI 1993 “Art Fair on the Square” Invitational Awards, Madison, WI 1996,1997,1999,2000,2002,2003 “Minnesota Crafts Festival” Awards, St. Paul, MN 1983, 1987 “Craft Fair at Hathaway Brown” Award for Booth Design, Shaker Heights, OH 1999
GALLERIES WITH CURRENT REPRESENTATIONHandmaiden, Santa Fe, NM Kess Gallery, Ely, MN Sivertson Gallery, Grand Marais, MN Waters of Superior, Duluth, MN Mowen Solinsky Gallery, Nevada City, CA
SELECTED ART FESTIVALS“Cherry Creek Arts Festival” Denver, CO “Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show” PA “Coconut Grove Arts Festival” Miami, FL “ACC Craft Exposition” St. Paul, MN “Austin Fine Arts Festival” Austin, TX “Main Street Art Festival” Fort Worth, TX “Art Fair at Laumeier” St. Louis, MO “Festival of Fine Craft” Highland Park, IL “Brookside Art Annual” Kansas City “Sedona Arts Festival” Sedona, AZ “Columbus Arts Festival” Columbus, OH “Boston Mills Artfest” Peninsula, OH “Plaza Art Fair” Kansas City, MO
PUBLIC COLLECTIONSMonarch Tile/San Angelo Museum of Fine Art, Florence, Alabama Tweed Museum of Art, U of MN, Duluth, MN Ceramics Monthly Magazine, Columbus, OH Glendale Federal Savings and Loan, Fort Lauderdale, FL Saint Cloud Hospital, St. Cloud, MN Office of James Fellman, DDS, Cloquet, MN Mercy Hospital, Moose Lake, MN Mission of Quatar, Houston, TX American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona CA U. of Wisconsin, Marathon Campus, Wausau WI |
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