Kiln Surgeons to the Rescue Amidst the Onset of Summer!

On Tuesday afternoon 3 fabulous volunteers gathered to re-wire the large electric kiln and replace some of the chipped bricks. It was quite the endeavor as nobody in the trio had ever re-wired a potter's kiln before, but fearlessly, they proceeded into the great unknown!

Brian Sherburne, John Franz and Jim uncoiled the tuckered-out wires and slowly worked the new ones in. They slowly pushed the old bricks out and gently set in the replacements.

That evening, the Spring Clay Class fired that sucker up and found that the replacement was successful, everything turned out great! So, our kiln is back up and running, just in time for summer art-making! Thank Goodness!

On another note, the summer solstice is quite a ways off, but here at the Art Colony it feels like summer has arrived! The sky is so blue and the trees have sprouted into brilliant light greens - the sprigs of new life. The breeze is actually warm and the sun makes me wish I were a cat so I could roll onto my back and purrr.... Pull up a chair, and join us on the Art Colony deck; with views of the lake and the sun shinning down, it is the perfect picnic spot to soak up the sun!

But what really makes it feel like summer here is that Artist Instructor Elizabeth Erickson and her 12 dedicated students arrived this morning for a full four days of intensive art exploration.

I love listening to the bustle of artists at work. Chairs creak, papers rustle and I imagine the brushstrokes as they are decisively placed on the page.

Summer has arrived, and it feels good.

Clowning Around in Business Class...?!

The Artist Business Class invited me to come to their final session last week to watch their project presentations. In most Business Classes, one would expect to hear about cash flow projections, profit and loss statements and, of course, the balance sheet in a final summation... but an Artist Business Class, is no typical business class!

It was clear that in the past 4 weeks, these artists spent some serious time becoming fluent in business jargon, but more important, they grappled with melding what seemed to be vastly different worlds: art and selling it. The final presentations invoked a sense of joy as the artists described exactly what they needed to move forward. They were empowered by their new knowledge that laid the groundwork to tell their art story to a patron or navigate tough next-step decisions. I laughed and cried as I listened to their journeys and by the end, I was inspired by these creative souls who realized their art could be fully incorporated into every aspect of their life - including the financial side. They boldly took on business classes - and succeeded!

A special thanks to Mike Lattery, our golf course artist from the Northeast Entrepreneur Fund who collaboratively hosted this class with GMAC.

On another business note, GMAC has new hours: Everyday 9 am - 4 pm! Thanks to grants from the Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation and the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, we were able to hire Gary Atwood, marketing and volunteer coordinator, and extend our hours! Stop by and see us soon!

Ceramic Explosion & New Staff Extraordinaire!

The "Ceramics Dinnerware" class just wrapped up after 8 weeks of non-stop pottery-making! Featured here (L to R) students: Brian Sherburne, Rick Skoog, Ann Ward, Jeff Stark and Bridget Nies. Each student had their own advanced projects in mind - from creating bowls to look like stones to an alter set for a local church to a set of matching dishes as a present for the potter's spouse. This talented group produced large quantities of high quality work - a true Ceramic Explosion in our clay studio!

Next up, a 4-week class, "Spring Clay" and then in June "Play with Clay" will run for 6-weeks and be co-taught by Joan Farnam and Ann Ward. We are excited to see all the fabulous work produced in the upcoming weeks. (There is still space available in "Play with Clay" don't miss this great opportunity to be mentored by both Joan and Ann.

In other Art Colony news, we have a fabulous new staff member! Gary Atwood is joining us for the summer to get out the word about everything going on at GMAC! Gary brings years of marketing and design experience as well as a trained artistic eye. We are delighted to welcome him to the team and hope you get a chance to meet him.

Hope all is well with you out there, we hope to see you soon at the Colony.