Jim Koudelka Workshop
The Clayfolk Workshop Committee is pleased to announce a hands on workshop with clay artist, Jim Koudelka. He is a Professor Emeritus in Ceramics from the Oregon College of Art and Craft, Portland, Oregon where he has taught for twenty eight years.
To register! Just click on the Register NOW button to the left.
Have questions? Please contact Jim Nordal at moc.liamg@jladron
Dates: May 20-21, 2023
Time: 9 AM to noon, and 1 to 4 PM
Cost: $150 for Clayfolk members, $170 for non-members with a 20% discount for Bloom Pottery Members
Clayfolk has made it super easy to register online! Just click on the Register NOW button.
Jim Kouldelka Bio:
Jim Koudelka was born in Cleveland, Ohio and spent the first half of his life in the Mid West where he received his BFA from OhioUniversity and his MFA from Indiana University. The great Northwest is his current home. He is a Professor emeritus in Ceramics from the Oregon College of Art and Craft, Portland, Oregon where he has taught for twenty eight years. Jim has been an Artist in Residence at The Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT, the Bullseye Glass Connection, Portland, OR and Senior Resident at OCAC, Portland OR. He has maintained an involvement throughout his career in both functional and sculptural work. His work has been exhibited in numerous national and regional shows; receiving honors and awards and has been published in a variety of books and magazines. Jims’ recent functional work explores the vessel as a painting in the round with the form becoming a sculpted 3 dimensional canvas. A variety of playful line drawings, geometric shapes, patterns and vivid colors also reference the visual environments, activities, and participants of the exuberant carnival atmosphere.
Jim Koudelka – Artist Statement
Functional Work
Mid Century Modern Plus
All of my current functional vessels’ represent my interest in the plastic nature of ceramic materials and processes and my response to them. This manifests itself through the spontaneity and directness in which I throw, alter and decorate these pieces. I regard each piece as a painting in the round with the form becoming a sculpted 3 dimensional canvas. Line, shape and color interact with and accentuate form. As one touches and views the pot from various sides they can experience numerous visual components, compositional relationships as well as physical attributes. These vessels and their surfaces are playful and pleasurable in viewing and use. They embody the intentional and responsive dynamic that generates from and is my creative process. To achieve the visual, physical and informative qualities of this work I involve myself in an intuitive but informed drawing and painting process. The wheel thrown porcelain forms are results of a creative and technical dance between materials, process and myself. It is somewhat choreographed but is also improvisational. The drawn and painted surfaces are my abstract representations of feelings and places using line, form and color. Paintings by abstract artists such as Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Alexander Calder and Joan
Miro' inspire some of my style. The richness and complexity of each vessel’s surface involves numerous steps: the lines are impressed in the clay when it is made and semi soft; after bisque firing, stain is applied and wiped off; then a variety of colored underglazes are hand brushed in areas to define and complete the compositions on the vessel/canvas. The porcelain is covered in a beautiful clear glaze and then fired in a gas kiln to a
high fire temperature 2,400 degrees F, vitrifying the clay and making it semi translucent.
