Thea Alvin

When other little girls were playing with dolls... I was eating my 15 pounds of dirt.

I live in a funky farm house in rural Vermont where we are allowed to freely express our feelings. We play with color and texture and dance in the rain and play in the mud. Life is full and rich. I look at life with a smile and find the humor in the silliest of things. I look at the stars at night and know I am not important.

The work I do happens with me, through me and not so much because of me. My plans for the year include loving and working with lovers of earth and stone all around the globe, if I root in a place, I will stay there and cultivate it.

I've recently completed the building of a new green house at my home studio and invite people to visit, especially the people who want to tell stories and wave their hands in the air and laugh. If you dance you are also welcome, or sing and dance, that's ok too. I'll be wintering in Boulder 2010/11, planning a return to Italy 2011 with Yestermorrow Design Build School, and restore the ancient village of Ghesc which I have invested in.

Ria Blaas

Born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Ria Blaas moved to Vermont in 1981 and has been working here as a sculptor for the last 24 years. Trained in the classical tradition she has worked in clay, bronze and stone but has returned to her first love in sculpting: WOOD

She carves her sculptures out of the trees surrounding her and in her latest outdoor installation "The Incurious Seekers" the trees seem to be transformed into 18/20 feet tall human figures that grow out of the ground and reach to the sky.

Next to chisel, axe and chainsaw, fire is an important element in the creative process.

Although the human figure always has been the focus of Blaas' sculptures, lately her work has moved into more abstract hanging installations, like the 12 feet long spoon/spadelike wooden forms that move in the wind.

She has exhibited all over New England and taught numerous workshops, classes and school residencies. Through the residencies she seeks to give the students a real experience of 3D by executing a large sculpture with the entire school, often using "affordable" materials such as twigs, branches, scrap wood, cement, teaching them how to work with hand tools and how to get a sense of the framework needed to make a sculpture stand up. The subject matter is chosen in close agreement with the school's curriculum.

Rob Hitzig

Robert is a self-taught artist who developed his woodworking skills while constructing furniture as a hobbyist.  As his work progressed, he became more and more focused on accentuating the natural beauty of the wood, emphasizing the grain patterns and figure.  Slowly, he realized that the furniture distracted from the beauty of wood and that by creating non-functional pieces he could express what attracted him to working with wood.

Robert arrived at his path of fine art through a circuitous route.  Although he has always enjoyed studying art, his last art class was in the eighth grade.  His education was focused more on the sciences.  Robert has an undergraduate degree in Geology and History from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and a graduate degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  Following graduate school, Robert spent three years working in West Africa, Senegal and Benin, as an agro-forester/forester with the Peace Corps.  After returning to the United States, he worked for ten years with the Environmental Protection Agency in their Underground Storage Tank and Superfund divisions in Washington, DC.

Stephen Procter

My work reflects my fascination with archetypal large ceramic forms and the complex ways they elicit responses in the viewer. A good large vessel is a numinous object, and its resident spirit has the potential to touch those who come into its presence.  The unglazed surfaces I favor point toward what is most elemental in the material and the forms.

While I look at good pots from all periods and cultures wherever I can, the impressions I take away are inevitably transmuted  -- by imperfect memory, by imagination and by a contemporary sensibility.  The defining influence that inevitably links my work with historical and traditional forms is the material’s inherent tendencies and limitations: The clay itself suggests the forms it is suited to.

The Process

I build large pieces in many sections, joining wet clay to the partially dried wall in a modified version of the coil-and-throw method found in many ancient cultures.  Although I work on a potter’s wheel, my attitude toward building pieces is essentially sculptural:  Beginning with a rough idea of scale and mood, the details of form and decoration arise through an improvisational dance that unfolds over a period of days as the piece finds its way to completion.  

The Material

The vessels are made of high-fire stoneware.  The clay is denser and less porous than the softer earthenware clays (such as terra cotta) typically used in large ceramic vessels.  Consequently, lidded pieces can remain outdoors year-round in the New England climate.

Brian-Jon Swift

Despite my reflexive disinclination to name the work I do this piece "a tree story” which starts with a white pine sapling probably 7-8 feet tall and @1-2 inches in diameter. Its terminal bud was compromised and the first strong branch took over the job at which trees are so amazingly adept, reaching for the light.

Throughout my life I have found resonance in objects (mostly "natural" but occasionally human crafted) far beyond the simple sum of their attributes. What I consider my art is in the presentation of these things. In the course of celebrating and presenting this piece many fancies and notions have occurred to me and I hope it is equally evocative for others.

James Irving Westermann

James Irving Westermann was born in Morrisville, Vermont in 1984. Raised in Morrisville by a school teacher and a carpenter James had a great environment for creative expression. Growing his skills through high school James was always tinkering with something. After high school James was trained and certified as a welder at Modern Welding School in Schenectady, NY. There he learned the technical skills needed to create stunning sculptures. He also holds a Vermont State Journeyman electrical license, which adds a whole other element to his creating abilities.

His main focus is working with steel although he likes to incorporate stone, wood, and glass to his pieces as well. James is a self taught artist drawing inspiration from natural surroundings. He thrives on the creative process, in many cases his pieces evolve as he is working on them not revealing what they will be until nearly finished. James also enjoys incorporating functional aspects in his pieces to interact with the viewers. Most of all the reactions of others is what James finds makes being an artist worth it.