Liz Zlot Summerfield Workshop
Elegant and Intimate - 2008
Liz will instruct participants on the creation of functional forms working from basic paper templates. Forms covered will include boxes, creamers and sugars, and butter dishes. Participants will use soft slab forming techniques, then decorate surface with terra sigilatta and underglazes.
Throughout the weekend, the group will discuss how to draw from personal influences in order to better individualize the work. Participants will explore the broad term "function" through slide talks, class discussion, and the making of pots. Liz encourages participants to come with specific questions, and sketches and images (not only of pots) that they are drawn to.
Liz will demonstrate rolling and folding of soft slabs, and creating components of pots such as spouts, lids, and fee. Participants will learn to make and apply terra sigillata on the surface of their bone-dry pots. Liz will provide a packet of recipes and technical information to take home as a reference guide.
Class size 18. Basic clay skills required.
Free to the public
August 1-3, 2008
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Liz Zlot Summerfield Bio
Liz currently resides in Western North Carolina with her husband, Scott Summerfield and their daughter, Roby. They are both full time artists working from their studios located at their home in Bakersville. Lindas work in earthenware has been recoginized through an artisits fellowship from the national endowment for the arts, as well as a florida.
Liz attended the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis to complete her Masters of Fine Arts in 2001. She has taught at numerous clay facilities and she exhibits her work nationally through exhibitions, galleries, and fine craft shows. She currently works as a full time studio artist from her home.
Liz Zlot Summerfield Artist Statement
I find function a vehicle for expression while also allowing approachability to my work. Creamers and sugars, salt and pepper sets, and lidded containers are my primary subjects. My work is small and intimate in size. These handheld objects are constructed with slabs that softly drape over one another creating three-dimensional drawings throughout the surface of the piece. These lines are kept visible to accentuate the process of the making.
The beauty of utilitarian objects is that they are capable of functioning away from their primary context but also retain their inherent sense of function. A pot, box, or tool may function primarily as a useful object and later retire its usefulness and function as an aesthetic object such as in a collection. In either context, the object has a specific purpose, whether it is to contain or sit among others of its kind. Within a collection, everyday objects gain importance as members of a whole; they start to become more than the sum of their parts and have potential to give value to valueless objects.
I view my work as an ever-growing collection, where I am the maker of objects that are similar but also defined by their subtle differences. I draw inspiration from my own personal collectibles such as vintage aprons and hand made boxes. As with many collections I strive to embed my work with a sense of nostalgia, memory, and past time.
