Simple & Complex - Form & Color

Anderson Ranch’s January Studio Sessions provide artists the opportunity to work on independent projects while receiving mentoring and critique sessions with Anderson Ranch artistic staff and interns. Each participant receives an assigned studio space, orientation, and access to equipment, as well as some morning group demonstrations and / or critiques. This program affords artists the experience enjoyed by national and international artists who access our state-of-the-art studios. Participants may expand their practices, take artistic risks, try new media or complete works for exhibition. *Studios are open 24 hours a day and on weekends for students enrolled in multiple weeks, with limited use of equipment due to safety requirements. The machine rooms are only available when monitored – weekdays 9 AM-5 PM. Evening monitoring hours are Mondays - Thursdays, 7 – 9 PM. IMPORTANT DETAILS: Students will be responsible for all material costs associated with their projects. Participants who register for multiple consecutive weeks will gain access to the studios on weekends (with the exception of the machine rooms due to safety constraints.) Private dorm rooms are available at Anderson Ranch for one, two or three weeks for an additional fee; please inquire for details and availability. Applicants must submit project proposals or portfolios for approval. Contact Betsy Alwin to apply: balwin@andersonranch.org

This beginner-friendly workshop focuses on developing basic and intermediate wheel throwing, surface treatment, and firing skills, aligning them with key elements of the creative process. Covering the basic skills of centering, throwing off the hump, and teapot assembly, the course meets individual participants where they are, giving them new perspectives to broaden their creative horizons. Sources of inspiration and personal creative growth accompany skill building through discussions about observation, time, energy, and focus. Daily demonstration, sketching, practice, and assessment help students expand their practices. This course aligns the how and why in service of fresh directions and an open mind.

This one-week workshop delves into the process of combining ceramic and glass in a technique known as slumping. Gravity and heat from a kiln shapes sheet glass into a mold. Simple commercial molds are available for this process, usually to produce a dish, bowl, or vase form, but here students take this process in a different direction, making sculptural objects by including the ceramic “mold” as part of the finished work. Students create ceramic forms and experiment with several glass firings to truly understand the stages of glass as it melts in the kiln, gaining the knowledge to develop this technique within their own practice.