Monday, April 21, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Gretchen Lucchesi, 1945-2007
Lucchesi was a long time Maine resident active in the art community. She exhibited widely and was active teaching pottery to all age levels. With over 12 years teaching at Unity College, she is strongly linked with college level students and the area boasts many former students still pursuing their art. She recently passed away and has directed that her artwork be donated to public institutions that will exhibit it. To assist in implementing this optional dispersal, I am seeking Maine non-profits that will display and accept a donation of artwork.
Primitive fired pottery best describes the bulk of her recent work. Her organic hand built forms are fired in a pit with sawdust that results in a beautiful, soft abstract coloration from tans, pinks to black.
Artist Statement-Gretchen Lucchesi
When I was an undergraduate, I worked in stone, steel and bronze. I enjoyed the processes of carving, welding and lost-wax bronze casting, but when I discovered clay I felt a directness and immediacy with the material I had not experienced before. I fell in love with the “feel” of it. The sensual quality of clay, the almost life-like response to touch has kept me totally enthralled for over 30 years not. The interplay of form and surface, the ability to approach it both intellectually and intuitively, and the ultimate transformative results of the firing process are what keep me going. The reason I do the work in the first place is difficult to articulate. It is not making more objects. It is about how the process of working with the material brings me to a spiritual place of strength, purpose and peace, and hopefully the pieces communicate those feelings.
Artist Statement-Gretchen Lucchesi
When I was an undergraduate, I worked in stone, steel and bronze. I enjoyed the processes of carving, welding and lost-wax bronze casting, but when I discovered clay I felt a directness and immediacy with the material I had not experienced before. I fell in love with the “feel” of it. The sensual quality of clay, the almost life-like response to touch has kept me totally enthralled for over 30 years not. The interplay of form and surface, the ability to approach it both intellectually and intuitively, and the ultimate transformative results of the firing process are what keep me going. The reason I do the work in the first place is difficult to articulate. It is not making more objects. It is about how the process of working with the material brings me to a spiritual place of strength, purpose and peace, and hopefully the pieces communicate those feelings.
My work is about space; interior and exterior, literal and figurative, architectural and psychological. It is also about process. Wet clay is hand formed-sometimes around metal armatures, sometimes draped over sand bags or more clay or plaster forms. Various clay slips, sands and metals, sometimes mica are burnished into the partially dried surfaces. The pieces are pit fired (or smoked) outdoors in wood shavings for anywhere from 6 hours to 3 days depending on their size and the weather. Over time, my work is evolving from more abstract architectural forms to more personal and figurative shapes.
Gretchen Lucchesi is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, where she studied sculpture with Leonard DeLonga, and has an MFA from the University of Massachusetts in ceramic sculpture. She was an artist in Residence for the Maine Touring Artists Program and on the LA Arts Roster (LA Arts, Lewiston, Maine); she has been a fellow of the Vermont Studio School and Colony, Vice-President of Maine Women in the Arts, and a member of the % for Art Selection Committee of Kennebec Valley Technical College. She has served as a Visiting Artist in numerous schools around Maine and taught sculpture and pottery at Unity College in Unity, Maine.
scam targets artists
This is a VERY common scam. It may make you feel icky but it is so pervasive that it has almost become a joke. Artists and photographers are the latest targets.
The scams almost always work the same way:
The scammer wants what you have to offer. When you respond to their query, they insist on sending you postal money orders for the item in excess of what you are offering. The deal is that you then deposit the money orders and write a check for the excess to send to their "agent." The money orders are high-quality forgeries and will take a while to be discovered, by then your check will be cashed and you will owe the bank for the worthless money orders and you will be out the amount of the check as well.
It's pretty easy to spot the scam.
1. The English is almost always poor, bad grammar, bizarre constructions, etc.
2. The scammer never seems to know the details of the item about which they are so interested. The address the item in generic terms.
3. The scammer is in a different country but wants the funds sent somewhere in this country.
If you want to have fun pretend to go through with it and then send the money orders to the FBI. I've done this before, it's kind of amusing although the scammer started calling me constantly asking me to hurry up and send the money (Nigerian sort of accent...) until I told him that I'd sent his money orders to the feds, then he hung up quickly.
Eric Tadsen
Tadsen Photography
608.469.2255
http://tadphoto.com
The scams almost always work the same way:
The scammer wants what you have to offer. When you respond to their query, they insist on sending you postal money orders for the item in excess of what you are offering. The deal is that you then deposit the money orders and write a check for the excess to send to their "agent." The money orders are high-quality forgeries and will take a while to be discovered, by then your check will be cashed and you will owe the bank for the worthless money orders and you will be out the amount of the check as well.
It's pretty easy to spot the scam.
1. The English is almost always poor, bad grammar, bizarre constructions, etc.
2. The scammer never seems to know the details of the item about which they are so interested. The address the item in generic terms.
3. The scammer is in a different country but wants the funds sent somewhere in this country.
If you want to have fun pretend to go through with it and then send the money orders to the FBI. I've done this before, it's kind of amusing although the scammer started calling me constantly asking me to hurry up and send the money (Nigerian sort of accent...) until I told him that I'd sent his money orders to the feds, then he hung up quickly.
Eric Tadsen
Tadsen Photography
608.469.2255
http://tadphoto.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
