Page 20 - the NOISE March 2014

20 • MARCH 2014 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us
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adorned with chains and cherubs, bullets and brackets, faucets and ornate drawer pulls. Behind the glass face of a disembow- eled banjo, illuminated from within, is a hodgepodge of Americana memorabilia: school rulers, trains, marbles, planes, and other iconic childhood items of the 1960s.
Another piece he created out of a French horn and Parisian hat box, fitting it with a vegetable steamer, a 1930s coffee warmer, and art deco era earrings. A little conductor figure in a top hat presides over it all. Alto- gether, his aesthetically aligned odds and ends transcend their individuality and are transformed into entirely cohesive pieces, in this case a snail-like marching band parade float with a dash of Sergeant Peppers.
A gleaming tuba bursts into a sweet bou- quet of metal flowers, a music scroll and ar- ticulated wooden man. An iron sewer cap that Mr. Stebila had driven by for days before stopping to retrieve it, made an ideal base, just as the one piece of beveled glass Mr. Ste- bila owned “happened” to fit perfectly into the face of his banjo.
“This kind of thing happens to me all the time,” he says. “Not serendipity, but syn- chronicity. There is a universal language in the world and once you can get into the con- versation, this stuff flows toward you. The universe provides — and when it doesn’t, you go to eBay.”
Mr. Stebila — also a longtime musician — will give a musical performance at the gallery on Sunday, March 2 at 7PM, and an opening reception for the exhibit takes place during First Friday ArtWalk on March 7 from 6-9PM, Vhay Gallery, 107 N. San Francisco
Street, Suite 3.
THE CARPENTRY OF CERAMICS
A multitude of Barry Carpenter’s afford- able functional ceramics pieces are featured at Gallery One13 for the month of March. Taking pleasure in experimenting with vari-
A “steam punk” tuba is one of John Stebilla’s new sculptures at the Vhay Gallery.
ous glazes and their interactions with the heat of his kiln, Mr. Carpenter’s coffee mugs, vases, tea jars, berry bowls, plates and stack- able bowls come in a wide variety of color and texture, glossy and mottled, matte and uniform, but all boasting the signature of this artist’s skilled hand.
Mixing his own glazes from recipes found online, Mr. Carpenter experiments to create different effects. There are three parts to his glazes—a glass bonding material (often silica); a flux that brings the melting tem- perature down so that material flows; and a viscosity modifier, the clay. Depending upon the compounds in the glaze, some pieces take on a blue-green copper matte, oth- ers have a crackled surface, and still others a “faux ash” finish, simulating the effect of a wood fired kiln.
“I like to make things people can use ... I always try them out and see how they feel,” he says, placing a comfortable round mug in my hands, its stamped impressions forming gentle indentations for the hands.
Standing three feet tall are curvaceous vases reminiscent of gourds or the human form. He throws these larger, more decora- tive pieces in parts to better manage the weight of the clay and then fuses them into seamless pieces.
“In this series I was exploring proportions and volume,” says Mr. Carpenter. “My goal was to construct graceful forms where the vi- sual volume is arranged to create a composi- tional, yet elegant tension within each piece. I like to exaggerate certain parts — whether it’s the middle, or putting the visual weight up high or low,” he says, showing me a tall el- egant-necked vase with a big bowl balanced on a tiny base. “Even though the weight is low, there’s a floating quality to it.”
Mr. Carpenter, who has a Bachelor of Arts in Ceramics from NAU, and a Masters of Fine Arts from Louisiana State University, is strongly influenced by Asian aesthetics and