Over the month of June in 2024 I was lucky enough to be an artist in residence at the cub creek foundation. My residency was short by necessity, but gave me the experience of working with native clay in a woodfired atmosphere. The kiln affectionately dubbed the “Bassigama” was what I had known previously as a “groundhog” kiln. Partially buried in the ground the kiln fired fairly rapidly, but was exceedingly slow in cooling. It took longer to cool to under 200 degrees Fahrenheit then it did to reach over 2000.
Going in to the experience I knew my residency was going to be fairly short, so I chose to really focus on the single firing. I created several works, not currentlypictured, that will be continued in mixed media.
Also of note in the gallery is the small mud dauber nest. Mud daubers in this area were creating their nests of the native clay with no real alteration. The nest pictured was plucked from a wall and fired to cone 10 with no modification. This really speaks to the refractory and resilience of the natural clay found at Cub Creek.