Ann Marie Cooper
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Reflections and Celebrations

A Very Pleasant Experience

5/1/2023

 
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Ann Marie Cooper, Heather Hitt, Eva Funderburgh, Jeremy Noet, Jesse Rasmussen
2023 is a year of great wood-firing adventures for me! Beginning in April, I had the opportunity to spend a week in Oregon at Pleasant Hill Pottery, firing one of Jesse Jones' many wood kilns.  This time, my friends from home, Jeremy Noet, Heather Hitt and Eva Funderburgh came along too.  Later this year I have a couple of more away wood-firings, but I'll share about that when the times come.
The firing of the Pleasant Hill train kiln  was one of the most relaxing experiences I've had at a wood kiln. Jesse Jones is a kind and generous host, with a gorgeous property ripe with kilns, gardens and bird life.
Being with a small crew of close friends with a lot of experience under our belts made the loading and firing process flow so smoothly.

Situated in the Springfield/Eugene area of Oregon, we had plenty of sights to see while we waited for the kiln to cool.  Jeremy Noet and I took the opportunity to hike up Mount Pisgah one day, and headed to the Oregon Coast the next.  We visited the Sea Lion Caves, and Darlingtonia State Park.  I love a good working vacation with my friends.
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Ann Marie Cooper and Jeremy Noet at the top of Mount Pisgah
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The Sea Lion Caves
Darlingtonia--carnivorous plants!
Sail jellies!
Pacific Ocean

Growing Community

4/1/2023

 
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Lisa Orr, Ann Marie Cooper, Simon Levin, Birdie Boone
It's been a while since I've written a long post here. I've been up to a lot over the past couple of years. So many things. One of the biggest things has been taking on the management role of Cohorts.Art, of which I'm very proud to be a part.

Cohorts.Art is a small batch mentorship program created by my good friend, Simon Levin. The program rose from an idea sparked during the COVID pandemic, and then was launched in 2021.  After a year developing the program, Simon decided to expand and take on more mentors and a manager(me) to help with the growth in 2022, and now in its third year, the program has grown again, with further plans for expansion in 2024! It's very exciting.

We have students coming together from across the globe for this opportunity to work one-on-one with an experienced mentor and build a community within their small cohort of fellow students--and the students in the other cohorts.

At our workshop in Illinois in October 2022, Simon and I were thrilled to have so many past, present and future Cohorts cross our paths during the week. 
At NCECA this year we scheduled a meet-up for all past and present Cohorts and were able to lunch with at least 18 students and program mentors. Friendships developed and folks began sharing their NCECA experiences the rest of the week.
Coincidentally (and not-so-coincidentally) and quite fortunately, I have several Cohorts in my neck of the woods here in Washington.  Laura Skiles-Bundy and Will Abraham have become regular helpers at my soda firings at Burnish Clay Studio. And yes, we talk about their Cohorts experience A LOT because they're SO EXCITED about it. (Yay!)
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Laura Skiles-Bundy, Ann Marie, Will Abraham
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I also host an annual exhibition of the Clay Cohorts work at Good Earth Pottery, to close out their Cohorts year and celebrate their achievements.  Having some local folks around added to the festivity with an opening reception.
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Ann Marie Cooper, Any Guelmann, Will Abraham
We're excited (have I mentioned excitement?) at how the program is growing, and that we're moving into other disciplines beyond clay, like writing, and hopefully painting and other creative pursuits in the future.

We also are partnering with The Color Network for our BIPOC Artist Scholarship Program.

And we have received a generous donation to fund our Cohorts.Art Lecture series.

2024 will have some new mentors added to the options, and more excitement!
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Ann Marie Cooper, Simon Levin, Yael Braha, Andrew Linderman

Back to Illinois

10/15/2022

 
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Ann Marie Cooper, Simon Levin & Amy Song
This October, I had the immense pleasure of returning to Illinois for a wonderful workshop experience with my dear friends Simon Levin and Amy Song at River Song Ceramics.

Simon led a wood-firing in Amy's Train Kiln with a delightful crew of folks that I look forward to spending time with again!
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Over the two days while the wood kiln cooled, Simon and I co-demonstrated our different pottery making techniques to the workshop participants. It was both a lively and relaxing week for me with music-making and shenanigans and new friends! I will go back for more.
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Amy Song offers these types of workshops a couple of times a year with different visiting artists--and her kiln produces gorgeous results. If you're interested in wood-firing, I highly recommend a trip to her beautiful pottery on the banks of the Fox River in Plano, Illinois! Click here for River Song Pottery Workshops

There's a lot of good information there!

6/30/2022

 
We built it! Unfortunately, the first firing of our Coyote Kiln of Many Colors wasn't quite what we'd hoped, but as Jack Troy says, "there's a lot of good information there".  (We overheard this comment from Jack at the Northwest Wood Fire Conference, and it really stuck with us.)

Our wood kiln obviously needs a few tweaks, but we had fun and learned a lot and can see from the ash distribution that our kiln will perform beautifully when we can actually get it to desired temperature!  Here are a few of pictures from the construction and first firing.
We will be raising the shed roof (again), making our chimney taller, rebuilding our "Chunnel" (horizontal chimney tunnel), increasing the size of our flue, and insulating the front and back walls with fiber and cement board. Then we'll be golden! Stay tuned....

On the Road Again

6/7/2022

 
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Ann Marie Cooper, Jeremy Noet & Heather Hitt
The Traveling Trio headed off to another wood-fired themed conference in June. It was just the spark we needed to fuel us for our upcoming wood-firing!

We saw many a wonderful wood-fired pot, and sculptures and talks and demonstrations, and got to know a lot of kindred spirits at the Northwest Wood Fire Conference in Oregon.

One of the highlights for me was purchasing a jug from Jack Troy himself. As keynote speaker of this well-planned event, Jack gave a lively and inspiring presentation.

Building Excitement

12/3/2021

 
PictureThe Coyote Kiln Crew: Heather Hitt, Jeremy Noet, Ann Marie Cooper, Amy Popelka
Living the Dream

In January of this year, almost a year into the lonely pandemic, 3 masked friends and I gathered around a bonfire and made a plan to give us a little light of hope and excitement during a difficult time: to build ourselves a small wood kiln. Shortly thereafter, things started to happen. In the spring, we dug a hole and poured a concrete slab. Then a friend offered me bricks! Once we were all fully vaccinated, our cohort took an exciting ferry ride in a large rental truck to fetch them. In the summer, we built a roof. And now it’s fall, and we’re stacking bricks into the shape of a kiln which we hope to finish and fire this winter.
If you know me at all, you know I’ve been firmly hooked on wood-firing since my first experience almost 9 years ago. So this is a big, dream-fulfilling deal to me. I’m going to compile photos and document the process here. There are already some funny stories that deserve sharing. I’ll keep you updated on the progress of the Coyote Kiln Project.

Oh, NCECA, how I love you.

4/14/2019

 
PictureMy Mary Tyler Moore impression, and my cups on display at Urban Forage Cidery.
​In March, I went to the annual NCECA (National Council on  Education for the Ceramic Arts) convention in Minneapolis.  Land of the Mary Tyler Moore Show and Warren McKenzie.  I found inspiration traveling by bus through the Upper St Croix River Valley, visiting the studios of Matthew Krousey, Will Swanson, Janel Jacobson, and Linda Christianson(one of the invited artists in our upcoming Good Earth Pottery pitcher show). The numerous gallery exhibitions offered drool-worthy and jaw-dropping examples of what ceramics has to offer, I even had the great pleasure of seeing my own work in an NCECA sponsored exhibition, "You've Been Served" organized by Clay Arts Vegas and the University of North Dakota ceramics department. The vast array of studio tools in the expo hall is overwhelming and covet-worthy. All in all, it's a highly stimulating and overwhelming experience, brought to its apex by the community of people that readily embraces each other.  I feel fortunate to have found myself in this tribe of clay people who understand the struggles and triumphs and why we keep repeating the madness that is ceramics.  This, my 5th NCECA, did not disappoint when it came to the people. It strengthened existing friendships and built new ones, and was just what this working potter/gallery owner needed to energize herself for the coming year, both in the studio and the gallery--and life in general!

See you next year in Richmond, Virginia!

Looking Back, Looking Forward

2/7/2019

 
So many things happened last year, and the final couple of months flew by so quickly I didn't have a chance to post about some until now.

​In October I had the opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream of traveling to Montana. (I know, I know, it's not that far away, but still, it never happened 'til now.) I traveled with some of the best traveling companions I could hope for. Friends who are fun--and patient and helpful when the car breaks down.

We drove to Helena for the Cultural Confluence Woodfire Symposium, a coming together of wood-firing enthusiasts from all over the world.  It began with artist demonstrations at the Archie Bray Foundation(mecca for potters), then on to informative and inspiring lectures, all making me wish I had my own wood-kiln, of course. Highlights of the weekend included having some wonderful conversations with Linda Christianson and George McCauley--you'll even catch me in an episode of George's House of Clay!

Then the holiday season blew right on by, and suddenly January 1st arrived, where I took the reins of Good Earth Pottery firmly in both hands, as my business partner, Deb Martin, retired. Now here I am, making plans for the future, and celebrating the past! Good Earth Pottery turns 50 this year (that's right--50 years old). So I feel the need to honor the legacy, while at the same time helping it continue to evolve. I decided to start by hosting our first international (US & Canada) call for entries "Pitcher Perfect", juried by the one and only, Deb Schwartzkopf (Ceramic Monthly's 2019 Artist of the Year). I'm excited to share that I also have invited three renowned artists to include their pitchers in the show, Linda Christianson, Adam Field & Simon Levin.

So it's going to be an exciting year, while I work on achieving balance in all aspects of life: studio, gallery, teaching, family.  Stay tuned for developments!

So, this happened--again!

10/23/2018

 
I'm pretty ecstatic to share that two photos of my work (with captions written by yours truly) are included in the new, revised edition of "The Encyclopedia of Pottery Techniques" by Peter Cosentino. I feel very honored to have been included--especially after seeing some of the other artists pictured within.

Have Pots, Will Travel

9/20/2018

 
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Illinois was beautiful in its difference from Washington. I really enjoyed the insects. (Really! Especially their sounds.)
I am constantly grateful for how ceramics has enriched my life. My mind continues to whirl from my latest pottery-related adventure, which sprouted quite out of the blue and quickly grew into a full-blown harvest of excitement. At the end of August, Simon Levin invited me to come fire his new wood-fired kiln (affectionately dubbed the Thunder Train) in Pawnee, Illinois. I had barely 3 weeks to accumulate, make and ship nearly 8 cubic feet of work.  Luckily, I had a small stash of work that hadn't made it into the June wood-firing in Ellensburg, and then I coiled my heart out day and night to make certain I could meet my volume goal.  I sent two big boxes with 30 pounds of work in each to meet me in Pawnee, and purchased some hard-sided luggage to take the rest with me on the plane.  Fortunately, there was only one small casualty in the post, and everything survived the airplane, even after a TSA inspection (they were kind enough to tape my bubble-wrapped packages back together--thank you TSA!).

We were a small crew at Mill Creek Pottery South, besides myself and Simon, I reunited with my friends Amy Song & Harry Levenstein for this firing, and became acquainted with Simon's newest apprentice, Meng-Che of Taiwan, and Molly Morning-Glory of North Carolina.
It was a change to fire with such a small crew--I actually spent a couple of hours on shift alone in the wee hours of the morning (with a friendly cricket by my side). My love of wood-firing has stemmed quite a bit from the social aspect, but I now see the value in being alone with the kiln, and giving people their space for the experience, too.  In fact, I had quite a bit of quiet time during this adventure, which felt very strange to me. I'm always on the go, so I got a bit twitchy during the down time--which lead me to master the machete for splitting side-stoke wood. But I also realized that my inability to be still was in itself a problem, so I made the effort to use  that peaceful time to ponder. By the trip's end, I felt like I'd hit the "reset" button and had a new energy to get back into my regular life with a better plan for balancing all aspects of what's important to me--including down time.

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It wasn't all deep thoughts and deeper conversation (although there was plenty of that), we ate well, we laughed, we danced, we fortified friendships, we learned.  Every wood-firing teaches me something new about the process, and about myself. (Who knew I'd love to wield a machete?)  
The flames appeared to drip through the bricks as we shut down the kiln and headed into the down-firing process.
The graceful down-firing process:
Unloading day was exciting, and thoughtful. After each stack came down, we paused to clean the posts and shelves in preparation for the next firing. 
I'm extremely thankful to Simon Levin and his family for their gracious hospitality, and the hard work and enthusiasm of our merry firing crew! I will treasure this experience always.
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Thank you so much for this exciting experience, Simon Levin!

Amy Song and I spent one of the kiln-cooling days in Chicago, and visited the amazing Shedd Aquarium.  I'm so appreciative of Amy's generous spirit, as both host and tour-guide extraordinaire, and greatly admire her enthusiasm and work-ethic. (She managed to juggle all this, along with her kids' baseball and softball practice, music lessons and taking all three cats to the vet at once!) Amy is in the process of establishing her own wood-firing facility, River Song Pottery, in Plano, Illinois. Some unexpected challenges have arisen, so she's fired up an Indiegogo crowd-sourcing campaign to help meet costs. She'll reward your contribution with a gorgeous piece of handmade pottery fired in the inaugural firing of her train kiln. Please consider donating: ​https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/river-song-pottery#/
I'll add more pictures of my work from Simon Levin's Thunder Train kiln to my wood-firing portfolio page soon.
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    Ann Marie Cooper

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  • HOME
  • PORTFOLIO
  • FIRING PROCESS
  • SHOP
  • NEWS
    • UPCOMING EVENTS
    • RESUME
    • PUBLICATION
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  • BLOG