By Edie Carpenter
Julia Clift
10.11

Julia Clift, View from the North Window, 2010, oil on canvas, 15 x 22 inches
One of the pleasures of visiting an artist’s studio is a chance to see works in progress and observe the artistic process in situ. Heading to meet Julia Clift at her studio in Artspace in Raleigh, NC, where she is the new Regional Artist in Residence, I think of some of the other artists I have met through this great residency program – fiber artist Claire Burdulis surrounded in skeins of woven electrical wire; Shaun Richards in front of a painting of a haunting corn field, and Megan Sullivan and her witty “beagle topos” quilts in the 2008 Gallery Nomads exhibition.
Julia’s studio is tucked away at the end of a hallway on the second floor of Artspace’s renovated industrial building at the center of the growing downtown art district. The artist, in tortoise shell glasses and jeans, stands in the center of the small room. The poise and self- assurance she projects are reflected in a recent self-portrait on an easel next to her and we enter into a conversation about that work. She has portrayed herself sitting cross legged on the floor, in a simple skirt with head bent downward, a thin brush in her right hand and her folded knee grazing the surface of the picture plane. I comment on the interesting pose and she laughing says she was avoiding the traditional heroic stance of the artist before the easel. During my visit I can’t help thinking that if the dark curtain of a dry spell fell upon you during the limited time of a residency it would be difficult to be so exposed. Julia appears to have no problem with producing, and two new works in progress are fleshed out in sepia under-painting on the walls. To my eye they reveal a kinship of sensibility with Odd Nerdrum, the Norwegian artist with whom Julia has just completed an apprenticeship. On another wall I admire one of her paintings that will be exhibited in the upcoming Winter Show at Green Hill Center. It is a view from her window at Nerdrum’s stronghold outside of Paris. The painting of a view of the edge of the formal garden and the thick stone wall below her window, like her self-portrait, offers a surprising perspective and projects a depth of feeling beyond the confines of the architecture. This sense of investing inanimate objects with feeling is more evident in another painting, also in Winter Show, of a bronze statue of a standing nude, with a playful addition of a pink scarf.

Julia Clift, The Statue, 2010, oil on canvas, 19 x 16 inches
Daniel Johnston
10.18
Driving into Seagrove always brings to mind visiting this unique potters’ community with Toshiko Takaezu and her assistant several years ago when Toshiko returned to NC for her one-person exhibition at Green Hill Center. The young New England potter accompanying Takaezu was one of the last of her live-in assistants. He had never seen so many working potteries in one place and kept murmuring how wonderful it was. That day we visited one of Seagrove’s masters of large-scale pots, David Stuempfle, and I can still see Toshiko’s smile as David led her in to look at his large kiln up close, her diminutive form engulfed in the entrance.

Daniel Johnston, Jar, 2010
After only a few wrong turns I am driving slowly down a straight gravel road through quiet farmland to visit Daniel Johnston. This long approach to the complex of wooden buildings and kiln structure that compose the pottery was the scene of one of the Johnston’s recent projects — 100 large (30-50 inch high) pots which were produced in three months and sold in 20 minutes. With preening hens scratching at our feet we look at new slip-trailed pieces awaiting the revelation of firing and speak of the project. He says that he is just finished all the back orders for pieces but was happy so many large works got out into the world. I am here to select works for Winter Show where Johnston will be exhibiting for the first time. Today is a busy one with a firing of the modified Anagama kiln which I am told has nearly 900 cubic feet of space. Constructed from finely aligned fire bricks and rising to a narrow arc, the kiln can accommodate large scale works by Johnston as well as the work of fellow potter Kate Waltman whose carved leaf-patterned surfaces have caught my eye and who has just returned to NC with her MFA.
Of his own work Johnston has stated:
I enjoy the hard work and it leaves no part of the process separated from me. I do not try to control my materials, rather I try to understand them. From digging the clay to firing the kiln I put all my effort into creating pots that have a powerful presence. It is important to me to create pots that are timeless but reflect the culture and times in which I live. This holistic approach, so evident in the homemade wood ash glazes Johnston prefers, recalls Takaezu’s statements about listening to the clay. Though an enormous amount of sheer labor is everywhere in evidence, from the perfectly formed vessels to the waiting stacks of pine planks that will be replenished and consumed in the two day firing, there is creative charge here. And I am glad to have met Daniel Johnston and Kate Waltman who like others in Seagrove, live surrounded by pottery history yet are continually renewing the potter’s art.

Kate Waltman, Mint Jar, 2011
Edie Carpenter
Director, Artistic and Curatorial Programs
Green Hill Center for NC Art