For the month of September we are excited to bring you the animal portraits of Tony Cockrell. His detailed drawings of animals with colorful backgrounds are sure to draw you in and we hope you can come meet Tony on the first Friday of September.

For September's trunk show we will feature the nature inspired pottery of Jeannine Calcagno, both elegant and functional.

Statements from the artists:

I draw animals from life. Through observation there is a remembering and in drawing there is an embellishment burnished into the remembering through the documentation of details. This seeing becomes a type of meditation where ten minutes becomes very still and shadows move positions. When drawing wildlife, moments are so paper thin that everything must be fluid between the eye and the hand. This translates to only a few glances downward at the drawing.
Lines are applied quickly, shadows recognized, direction of fur or feather filaments indicated so that the initial drawing has a field documentation quality to it. Notes, memory and sometimes photos are used to later complete the drawing.
Because the drawing is a record of these many aspects coming together from a life drawing setting, accuracy through proportion, which is a quality of biological illustration, is not always a priority, and, actually, certain aspects that are remarkable about that animal may be purposefully over-emphasized in the drawing. The finished artwork hides the underlying process of its origin– all completed things belie their beginnings. The process in which I choose to create these works, I believe, is unique enough to share and worthy enough to explore together. ~Tony Cockrell.

This marks my 52nd year of selling pottery! I first touched clay at San Jose State University while studying art for a teaching credential. After graduation I taught for a few years, then joined a clay production studio. When I married, we moved to Santa Cruz where I set up my own studio. Having grown up in the Central Valley, I was surrounded by fields and my mother’s fantastic flower garden. During college I found inspiration in the floral Art Nouveau period, and later, a survey class in Asian art along with my first trip to Japan really sealed the direction of all my work. Each piece is hand thrown and decorated with colored clay slips while the pot is still damp. After bisque firing, a liquid wax resist is painted on the areas to remain unglazed. The piece is then dipped into a vat of clear glaze and fired in an electric kiln to 2165 degrees F. The surface dynamic between the glossy glaze decor and lava-liked black unglazed clay-body gives my work it’s distinction. All pieces are watertight, usable for food and dishwasher-microwave safe. – Jeannine Calcagno
https://jcalcagnopottery.com/