deb schwartzkopf

you can see these pieces (and more) currently showing at TRAX in Berkeley through Nov 8.
I went to the opening yesterday to be able to see her work up close. It is worth seeing; these pictures do these pieces NO justice whatsoever - there is such nuance in her work - go see the show.


I also bought two for myself - yay!





I took a workshop yesterday from Deb Schwartzkopf. It's easy to be attracted to her work. I especially appreciate the aesthetic of her glaze technique with spots of color and layers of interest and how it is so married to the form - one does not overpower the other - they are beautifully complimentary. The workshop was an all day demo for her; she made 4 different forms. She is mostly a hand builder, but she does incorporate thrown and altered pieces in her work as well. As you can imagine, there is a lot of information imparted in a 7 hr workshop.

The biggest takeaways for me were more about watching 'how' she works more than any particular tip or idea. I got a lot out of just watching her process throughout the course of the day - how she relates to her work, how she moves through her steps - watching her steps of organization in relationship to the particular form she was working with.

THEE best thing I got out of her workshop was that she is all about smoothing! Smoothing, smoothing, smoothing! I am the smooth queen; and I have always thought the smoothing thing was a crutch (for me), or it was because I wasn't great at some other part of the process, so I was overcompensating, over handling the pieces. I have always imagined that super talented artists aren't spending a lot of time smoothing. So, phew! I know it seems simple, or silly, but it really felt good to get from her that smoothing is where it's at :)

It really set me free! It so satisfying to connect to another artists process so literally and get a message so clearly about something that applies so directly to your process; It's like a free pass. I guess you also could call that "getting over yourself".

P.S. I took a lot of video of the workshop and will have a lot of pictures once I process them; I'll try to figure out how to get them off my new iphone and on to this handy little vehicle for information!