• The Dancing Fire Wood Kiln Firing
• An Art Department to Be Proud Of!
• Masakazu Kusakabe, DFWK Designer Health Update
• Other News

The Dancing Fire Wood Kiln Firing

The Dancing Fire Wood Kiln’s last firing of 2005 has started. and continues with us be feeding wood into the kiln every few minutes 24 hours a day until Sunday evening October 30. Come visit and see our students working very hard together to create works of great beauty, learning the values of collaboration and cooperation along the way. We are here 24 hours a day Monday through Sunday. Bring your class, bring a friend come and witness this remarkable 1000 year old traditional ceramic firing technique. Come see this trii annual reenactment of Eleventh Century techniques. If you would like to bring a class on a quick or extended field trip and would like me (Marc Lancet) to speak to your class or even involve them in a quick hands on clay exercise, call and leave a message at x497. Many classes have visited in the past from Solano and as far away as Oakland’s California College of Art. Make a point during your busy day to stroll over and view this unique firing process.

This firing is a little different than most because we are firing with greenware. Greenware is a term that refers to ceramics that has never been fired before. Usually we once fire to bisque temperatures (1850 deg F.) before wood-firing. We are temporarily unable to access three out of our four gas kilns. In order to free up our remaining gas kiln to cover the needs of other classes the wood-fire class decided to attempt a green firing. This is exciting because it requires a precise management of temperature. The wood-fire must be controlled in the first days to make sure that we do not rise in temperature more than 5 deg. F per/hour. This slow green firing is actually historically much closer to the original wood-firings of 1000 years ago.

An Art Department to Be Proud Of!

A quick look at the professional activities of our fine art faculty confirms the strength and dedication of our teaching staff. While the current list of exhibitions is inspiring, it is the rule rather than the exception for the committed and somewhat overextended art faculty of Solano Community College. This commitment to professional excellence has greatly enhanced the reputation of the college in the community.

Lisa Reinertson, Sculpture and Ceramics Professor is currently featured in a mid-career retrospective at the John Natsoulas Gallery at First and E Street in Davis. The show runs until the end of the month and gallery hours are Wed + Th 11-5pm. F + S 11- 9 pm and Sun. 12-5 pm. If you do nothing else this month you owe it to yourself to see this show and behold these moving life-size and large than life size ceramic figures. Lisa has created public art around the world including several monuments to Martin Luther King and to Cesar Chavez. Her studio work features compelling sculptures of female figures that appear strong, vulnerable and contemplative all at once.

Carol A. Levy, Professor of Drawing and Painting is currently featured in a careere retrospective at the California Modern Gallery at 1035 Market St., San Francisco.

Gallery hours are Tu – Sat from 12-6 pm. The exhibition called “A Lighted Journey” is a survey of Carol’s work from 1965 to present. Her figurative drawings and paintings are imbued with both a spiritual atmosphere and a true human presence. Once again if you do just one thing this month and you do not tend to drive east then you must drive west and see this show.

Marc Pandone, Professor of Drawing and Painting was an invited lecturer this week at UC Davis in their Nature and Culture program. The program pioneered by Gary Snyder combines Art, Science and Literature. This is something Marc has been doing for Solano Community College students every semester.

Ferdinanda Florence, Professor of Art History has just had her newly designed Art History Degree program approved by the Curriculum Committee and happily awaits board approval. Students may take art history classes now and apply them to the art history major as it comes on line. This is a first for Solano Community College and we are thrilled with Ferdinanda’s great work.

Marc Lancet, Professor of Sculpture and Ceramics has a new book he has co-authored with Masakazu Kusakabe called Japanese Wood-fired Ceramics. Copies will be available for your perusal in the bookstore by the end of the month.

Marc is also leading a workshop on ceramic techniques at the Sonoma Community Center on Nov. 5 from 9-6 pm.

Masakazu Kusakabe, DFWK Designer Health Update

Masakazu Kusakabe, Honorary Professor of the Fine Arts Department of Solano Community College was feeling so well after his first round of Chemo and Radiation therapy that he led a Ceramics Workshop in Mashiko, Japan one of the most famous ceramics centers in the country. By all reports Kusakabe-sensei is fighting a good fight against his diagnosed cancer. The small countryside hospital in Japan has been flooded with cards and letters from Solano Community College students and friends from America making Kusakabe-sensei a bit of a celebrity. He was recently in a little trouble for painting ink brush paintings of Buddha figures on his hospital curtains.

Other News

Rod Guyer, Professor of Ceramics and Sculpture at Solano Community College and Santa Rosa Junior College has added another institution to his teaching itinerary. He now teaches ceramics for the Sonoma Community Center.

Art Work by faculty members Ferdinanda Florence, Jan Eldridge and Marc Lancet were recently sold at auction to benefit Art’s Benicia. The president of the Board of Art’s Benicia is former Solano Community College student Jack Ruszel.

Check out "Japanese Wood-Fired Ceramics"
The new book by Masakazu Kusakabe and Marc Lancet
Due out in the Fall.
 

Marc Lancet
Professor, Fine Art Department
Solano Community College
4000 Suisun Valley Road
Fairfield, CA 94534-3197
707-864-7000 ext. 497