In Touch: APA February Newsletter

02.29.2024

IN TOUCH

HELLO CLAY
COMMUNITY

In this issue

In Studio With : Raneece Buddan
Easy Listening : Colour and Ceramics Podcast by APA member Bob Acton
Call for Entries : APA Spring Teapot Show
Coffee + Ceramics : Details for March gathering

The APA is welcoming newsletter submissions. Send your clay related content to newsletter.albertapotters@gmail.com.

IN STUDIO WITH RANEECE BUDDAN

By Roberta Binotto

Since 2019 Raneece Buddan has explored themes of identity and belonging in her art practice through the lens of her heritage. As an interdisciplinary artist, her practice is focused on wood and ceramic sculpture and oil painting, and she incorporates a variety elements and techniques in her work.

“These are like self-portraits,” Raneece explains, gesturing to her pots. She is seated at her kitchen table in Edmonton, surrounded by vessels in various stages of completion. For the moment, her home is also her studio and there is a poetry in this, as her work is born from a deeply personal place.

Her ceramic pieces defy easy categorization. At first glance, the forms appear familiar, but the addition of brightly coloured textile fragments, hand-painted surface decoration and braided synthetic hair, elements that reference her Indian and Ghanian roots, invite closer consideration and hint at a deeper meaning.

“I’m Jamaican, but my heritage is Indo-Carribean and Afro-Carribean. I was trying to find a way to connect my heritage [with my art] so I started digging deeper.” Raneece began learning about traditional handbuilding methods used in Ghana and India, incorporating them into her sculpture practice. “By doing these processes I’m engaging with these traditional art forms. In Jamaica, as person in the diaspora, I felt disconnected from my Ghanian and Indian heritage so it was a way to relearn and a reconnect with my culture.”

Image: Pottery Series II. Ceramic, gold finish, fabric, sequins.

Raneece’s approach to clay is both additive and iterative. She builds the piece up to get the massing and general form before refining, smoothing and carving. Then begins the process of layering: impressing patterns into soft clay, painting designs or adding textile, sequins and synthetic hair to the pieces.

Often she is actively working on multiple pieces in different mediums at once, adapting techniques and borrowing elements. Each piece informs the others and she finds that working like this helps her generate new ideas and ways of making meaning.

While in school, a sculpture professors tasked her with creating 2 sculptures each week. She learned quickly that it was easier to create smaller pieces, which allowed her to perfect form and technique. At the end of the semester, finding herself with more work than she had space for, Raneece cut them up, and reassembled the fragments, combining Ghanian and Indian pieces to create a fusion.

Early on, Raneece was looking for a way to combine her painting and sculpture practice, and as she had already been using Ghanian and Indian textiles in her paintings, it seemed natural to add fragments onto the pots. She’s now progressed to painting directly onto the pots, using patterns and imagery from traditional cloth.

Hair is another dominant motif in her work; a way to explore her connection to both her Afro-Carribean and Indo-Carribean heritage. She examines her connection to both cultures in terms of beauty norms: “My attachment to my beauty and my connection to my Indian side was through the length and straightness of my hair. When my hair is braided or in bantu knots or an African hairstyle, there’s a connection to African hair and black history […] Now I’m less attached to hair in order to feel beautiful or like I fit into these spaces.”

Image: redefining a story, 2023. Gglazed ceramic pot, gold embroidery thread, synthetic hair, 9.6”x7”dia.

As she continues to learn more about the traditional Ghanian and Indian techniques and motifs, she finds new ways of combining and representing these elements of her identity into both her 2D and 3D pieces, creating a cohesive body of work in which the quest to understand and define her identity has evolved into a celebration of her heritage.

MUSIC OR PODCASTS?

It depends on the day. When I’m doing woodworking, I’ll listen to more music (usually alternative or RnB) because it’s noisy. With pottery, sometimes podcasts for background noise, or I just work in silence.

WHAT ARE YOUR 2024 CLAY GOALS?

Exploring different glazing techniques and learning to use the wheel so that I can make bigger pots!

FAVORITE TIME OF DAY TO CREATE?

I’m an early bird. I like starting in the morning [and] prefer to have dedicated days where I’m just doing art. Working for 1 or 2 hours doesn’t feel as satisfying as spending a 12 hour day where I get to work from morning to night and I can see the progress.

WHAT DO YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT WORKING WITH CLAY?

How versatile it is, and how many possibilities there are when using clay. I like working with my hands and having the form come to fruition. It’s meditative; I’m not thinking too much and just going with the flow.

WHAT’S THE MOST CHALLENGING PART OF WORKING WITH CLAY?
The hardest thing is realizing that it won’t be as perfect as I thought it would be. With a painting I can perfect the lines and clean it up. [With clay] I give myself more space to relax, learn and grow.

Raneece’s upcoming exhibition, titled Threading Through Time, runs March 14 to April 25 at the Art Gallery of St. Albert.

Reception: Mar 21, 2024 from 6-8pm
In-Person Tour w/ Curator: Mar 27, 2024 at 12pm
Virtual Tour: Apr 2, 2024 at 12pm
Artist-Led Workshop: Apr 6, 2024, (time TBD)

Follow along here to see more of Raneece’s work.

Image: adorned in our threads, 2023, Dutch elm wood, Textiles- Kalamkari, Kente and dutch wax, oil paint, resin

OPEN CALL : APA TEAPOT SHOW

The Alberta Potters' Association invites you to apply for our 2024 juried exhibition, APA Teapot Show 2024. The exhibition will take place on May 9th, 2024 at The Naked Leaf in Calgary, Alberta, All teapots entered into the show must be for sale. The consignment split for sold items is 30% to the APA and 70% to the artist. Everyone is welcome to attend the event at The Naked Leaf as it is open to the public from 6-9 pm. Winners are expected to be at the show at 7pm to receive their awards.

Please apply with any teapot, functional or sculptural, to our exhibition. To be considered, work must be minimum 75% ceramic. This call is open to all clay artists living in Alberta Canada or holding an associate APA Membership.

This is a juried exhibition. You may submit up to 2 pieces. Not all submissions are guaranteed entry to the show. There will be two jurors forming our jury committee. A professional potter, Zimra Beiner, from the Alberta University of the Arts and a knowledgeable community member, Trudy Bond, from Ceramics Canada.

Please visit ArtCall link to apply: Home | APA Teapot Show 2024 (artcall.org)

Submissions accepted until Fri, Mar 15, 202411:59 PM

We are excited to see your entries!

EASY LISTENING : COLOUR AND CERAMICS

Our very own Bob Acton has started a podcast titled “Colour and Ceramics.”

As Bob says, colour affects peoples’ emotional reactions and mood. In ceramics, the artist uses colour and surface decoration to imbue something other than that communicated by the form itself. The podcast explores the entire spectrum of colour, surface design, the psychology of colour, and how to use colour to communicate in ceramics. He might even tap into his background as a psychologist to talk about how colour and surface affects the artist themselves, their confidence, and their business plan.

Bob will not only interview top ceramic artists, potters, and sculptors from around the world but also artists using other mediums who use colour in their work. He’s been hard at it getting ready for the launch. Check out his Instagram page at @bobacton or the podcast Instagram page at @colourandceramics to find out who’s going to be on the show. His current guests include creatives from both home and abroad - including the UK, the US and, of course, Canada.

The show launched Tuesday, February 6. Be sure to keep an ear out for a new podcast every two weeks. You can find the podcast wherever you find your current podcasts such as Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, and Google.

And, of course, Bob would love to hear from you about ideas you have for the show. You can reach him at bob@bobactonceramics.com.

COFFEE + CERAMICS

Join us at the next meetup, where we’ll continue to explore the world of pottery and share our creative adventures. Dawn Sieben of @studio11calgary will be hosting next month’s gathering March 2, 2024 from 1-4 pm at her home studio at 28 Dovercrest Way SE, Calgary AB. Dawn’s studio is also open by appointment Thursday to Saturday.

If you’re interested in connecting with fellow Alberta ceramic enthusiasts, or to host a future meeting, follow @coffeeandceramics and DM for details.

Thank you to Ceramics Canada and their knowledgeable, approachable team for their continued support of the APA. If you’re in the Calgary area, be sure to stop in to pick up a few boxes of clay and talk shop with their amazing team!

Thanks Plainsman Clays Ltd for your continued support of the APA, and for producing such a wide range of high quality products; keeping potters’ hands dirty since 1962!

Click here to learn more about Plainsman’s history and the wide range of information on their offering which includes a wide range of clay bodies, the majority of which they both mine and produce.