Happy Thanksgiving from Michael W. Moses Ceramic Art Pottery

Wishing everyone a great Thanksgiving!

More New Ceramic Art Pottery by Michael W. Moses

I've been working to get some new greenware pieces ready to fire and I must say that it looks as if there will be some exciting new works coming out of this group.  I will hopefully have a few new finished pieces to show in the near future also.

New Ceramic Art Pottery by Michael W. Moses

 Well, here along the Gulf Coast as the horrors of long winter days in the 60°F's and 70°F's are occurring,  I am finding myself stuck inside more and more and I guess I will be doing a bit more pottery and probably more frequent posts on this blog.

Michael W. Moses at the 2012 Peter Anderson Festival in Ocean Springs, MS

Goods displayed at the Peter Anderson Festival

This weekend (3-4 Nov 2012) was the annual Peter Anderson Festival here in Ocean Springs. Here along the Gulf Coast when people think of Arts Festivals everyone immediately thinks the Peter Anderson Festival in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. This Sunday morning I spent a bit of time browsing through some the many booths that were set up and was surprised by the pieces that I saw.  There was pottery, wood carvings, jewelry, paintings, sculpture, and the ubiquitous Giclee digital photography prints.  A number of local artists were also represented in the offerings from near and far.

Glass goods at the Peter Anderson Festival

I must say that there were a lot more vendors set up this year and the ranks have swelled to 400 booths. As I walked around from booth to booth I was almost constantly amazed at the quality and quantity of so many of the booths. I have been to many arts and crafts festivals all over the country and a few in other countries and I have seldom seen any that can compare to the goods being sold at the Peter Anderson Festival. In fact, the festival was bursting at the seams. The booths were full and boxes of merchandise were stacked up behind the counter to fill the needs of the buying public.

You can tell that the jury that chose the venders were true Gulf Coast art connoisseurs. It would be difficult to maintain this level of merchandise at the festival with out being privy to the ins and outs of the labyrinthine intricacies of the modern art and crafts world.  There was a fairly good crowd in town shopping today; thousands thronged in over this weekend to look and buy. This sprawling show draws not only local people, but also folks from nearby Gulfport, Biloxi, Wiggins, Van Cleave, and Pascagoula. 

Wall Plug-ins Booth

Wall Plug-in display

The Peter Anderson Festival has become rather crowded and parking a bit dear and it wouldn't be amiss, in my opinion, to branch out and have a fine arts and high crafts only festival, let's say limited to 60 booths, so people don't have to struggle so hard to see the stars of the Gulf Coast. 


I will say that there were some people who's works and or personalities really shined above the crowd.  First I  will say that Charles Smith was set up and what more can I say than his work was breath taking in it's perfection, as always.  I truly admire and respect  this man and his exceptional work. It is always a delight for me to see his work.

Charles Smith Pottery

More Charles Smith Pottery

Yvonne Brown, Potter
 from Gulfport, MS

Secondly  I meet a young lady from Gulfport, whom I think may be a potter to keep an eye on.  Her name is Yvonne Brown and her work embraces some of the best qualities of Gulf Coast modern traditional(made post 1960, along the Coast) pottery, but still has a solid fresh  look about it that shows a special talent. It was a pleasure conversing with her and her family.

Yvonne Brown's  Pottery

Thirdly I met Dainna Yum-Bucher of SuzYum Designs, she does classic bead work jewelry that has a lush rich historical feel. Her jewels seem as if they are directly taken from Ali Baba's treasure cave or an exotic Mughal Harem.  She uses sophisticated nuances of color and style to give her pieces a aura, that is almost magical.
 
Well, This years Peter Anderson is over and I guess everyone will be getting over it all this week and then starting the processes for getting next years even bigger and better one started!

"The Pollinator" Sculpture by Michael W. Moses SOLD

As I sometimes tell people.  I love doing pottery and I love doing bead work and sometimes I just get a bit excited and do both at the same time. This is one of those occasions where I do both pottery and bead work to create the effect that I desire. 

I have been using clay as a creative medium for well over thirty years now and I have been doing bead work for as long as I can remember. By the time I was a teenager I was doing small bead work things on my bell bottom jeans dragonflies and such.  So doing a piece like this that is half pottery and half bead work is not a very unusual thing for me to do.

The hand modeled pottery base  has a solid three dimensional sculpted in the round form, that gives this piece a sense of weight and reality that I really like. The bead work portion has a light weight airiness that gives this work a delightfully alienness that blends to form a truly impressive work of art in my opinion. I call this work  "The Pollinator" and if you look closely you can see why I have chosen this name. The little floater is created out of little tiny mini seed beads and is firmly anchored in place, but looks as if he is just floating or swimming on by after having fulfilled his natural duty in his niche in an alien ecosystem.

 The bead work is all created on wire in the traditional French Beaded Flower technique to make a shimmering delicate presentation that will be both eye catching and sturdy enough to last for a very long time if just a little care is taken.

The hand crafted pottery base is about 6 inches across the bottom at the widest and is approximately 6 inches tall.  The over all height of this piece is 19 inches tall with the bead work in place.

I spent more than a small amount of time planning and setting things in place to get this work completed.  Some of the beads I used have been in my stock of glass beads for well over 35 years and were being saved for something special and I assure you that this was the something special that they were waiting for.  The bead work on this piece trembles with the slightest movement or breeze!  as I look at it setting in my kitchen, it just shimmers and shines as it every so often slightly moves in the warm evening air coming through my windows.

What "The Pollinator" looks like in my kitchen

This piece is now in a private collection in Ocean Springs, MS