Kiln cat <3

Katie Wargo makes excellent work. She may be hard to find, but here in Orlando all the best things are, a little bit at least. I love having a place to lift that up.
I grew up on scrappy punk rock shows. You go if you know. We still have that here. Every day of the week. Thanks always, Chins up xo

We kicked off the year at Crossdraft Gallery with the exhibition “We’re All Friends Here” by @dolomite78.bsky.social
and featuring work made by Ian and a selection of folks he’s befriended in the PNW. It was lovely, and you can read all about it here:
www.crossdraftgallery.com/exhibitions/...

www.crossdraftgallery.com/events

Honored to be hosting Katie Wargo and her work. Orlando, Florida, this coming weekend. Link above for details. See (some of) y’all there!

Thinking about the time the Orlando Museum of Art IG page hardposted a collage I made and when I asked them to credit me they deleted it instead 😂

I do make cups and stuff, I promise. But I really love forms that leave the field for function open: Vases, boxes, censers, platters.
These open ended containers allow for endless play on my end and versatile use on the owners’ end. It’s a collaborative field and I love that. Do what you want 💖

Little teeny tiny box.

One time I went into the gallery to clean and stuff and I opened a small box like this and found the remnants of a lovely pinner that one of our guests thoughtfully left behind and that’s why DIY spaces rule so I gave it to my gallery neighbor and they were happy. Friends.

The Orlando museum of art has a Crass poster up on their walls. Wild times, yall.

Yes sir, I will.

These boxes are a product of my earliest foray into making work that was less than traditionally functional. I was a studio tech and as such, recycled a lot of clay. The mindless act of chopping and wedging let me see clay in a way I hadn’t before. I’ve been chasing that place of new vision since.

I discovered these forms while prepping clay to make other forms. Sometimes it works that way and I feel lucky when I see it. These are very thoughtfully made by pounding a cedar 4x4 post with a rebar handle into big blocks of clay until it’s just right. And then stopping. Perfect.

Three boxes. In undergrad I made a lot of solid objects. Bossman was always “you should hollow this out” and I was like “no” and then I left school and was like “what if I hollowed these out” (I made an urn for a friend) and so I did and then people were all “kuriniki” and was like what? Reductive

The seasons in Florida often pass more to the rhythm of semesters and as such I find myself revisiting explorations in form accordingly.
I made a promise to myself years back to not let teaching dictate my output, but rather to grow it. I found these forms teaching, so now I’m making them w lids.

I discovered these forms while trying to wrap my head around teaching beginner handbuilding courses and also using that time to make work I’m actually invested in. Which took a good couple of years. Currently making these as lidded boxes. Don’t know til you try. 📦

Orlando art folks: Crossdraft Gallery is proud to present the work of Katie Wargo for a special one weekend only event. Details and map in the link:

www.crossdraftgallery.com/events

For those local to Orlando, or passing through, I’ll be using this platform to help with promotion and engagement for ceramic exhibitions I host here in town. For y’all not local, I’m building a website. It’s in progress, but let’s throw it into the sky anyway:

www.crossdraftgallery.com

I think it’s really vital at this juncture that we not give over methods of mass communication and information sharing to the corporate overlords who have provided it to us. I think it’s time to bite the hand that feeds. Hard. But also hi there, Bluesky!