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Michael Sherrill at The Penland School of Craft - The Unified Object: Color, Form, Surface - CLAY SUMMER SESSION 6 AUGUST 9-21, 2020
In the natural world, color is always in motion, transitioning from one color to the next. This workshop will explore techniques using porcelain and slips to create transitional color. I will demonstrate post-firing surface techniques using diamond abrasives to remove material and polish the surface. We’ll cover the use of extruders and some handbuilding techniques and make a variety of sample pieces. Artists who work at the wheel will also discover applicable techniques. Students will be encouraged to bring their favorite handbuilding tools—particularly for mark making, texturing, carving, and embossing. Electric firing. All levels. Code 06CA
NBC Channel 4 Washington, DC
Artist Michael Sherrill takes glass, metal and clay and molds them into creations that could make nature long for his gifts. His works are on display at the Renwick Gallery in D.C. through Jan. 5.
Check out this great spot on Channel 4 in Washington, DC.
Painting by Micah Sherrill
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
From all of us here at Mudtools, Happy Holidays!
Thank you for choosing and using Mudtools. We love our customers and you’ve made 2019 a terrific year. We‘re proud to be a part of your creative journey and wish you the best in 2020.
International Academy of Ceramics
It is an amazing honor to become a new member of International Academy of Ceramics (IAC). It is with gratitude that I thank everyone for your help and support. Congratulations to all who became new IAC members.
Michael Sherrill using an Atomizer Sprayer
Michael Sherrill at Centro De Arte, Curaumilla, Chile
TALK THE TALK AND WALK THE WALK
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2019 - 7PM EDT
Artist talk with Michael Sherrill
Peruse the Renwick Gallery’s exhibition Michael Sherrill Retrospective, then join the artist for a discussion about his work. Made primarily of clay, metal, and glass, Sherrill talks about how his artworks explore our relationship with these materials. He also shares the development of his clay tool line, MudTools. The talk is followed by a question and answer session with the artist.
Photos by Scott Allen at Hang the Moon Photography.
- Categories - After Five, Lectures & Discussions
- Building - Renwick Gallery
- Event Location - 2nd floor, Rubenstein Grand Salon
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Co-sponsor - Renwick Gallery -
Cost - Free; walk-in -
Part of series - Featured Programs
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2019, 12-1PM
Nature Walk with Michael Sherrill, Golden Triangle BID, and Smithsonian Gardens
Take a stroll through the Renwick Gallery’s Golden Triangle neighborhood with artist Michael Sherrill, horticulturist James Gagliardi from Smithsonian Gardens, and David Suls, senior director of planning and policy at the Golden Triangle BID. The group leads a walking tour to explore the innovative rain garden landscaping in the neighborhood. Be sure to check out the exhibition Michael Sherrill Retrospective at the Renwick to see how Sherrill’s artwork reimagines the natural world in creative new ways.
Meet in front of Renwick Gallery, Pennsylvania Avenue.
Categories - Gallery Talks & Tours,
Building - Renwick Gallery
- Event Location - First floor lobby
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Co-sponsor - Renwick Gallery -
Cost - Free; walk-in
Washington Post Review of Michael Sherrill Retrospective
August 30 at 8:00 AM
North Carolina ceramist Michael Sherrill set out to make if not a better teapot, at least a more distinctive one. The Renwick Gallery’s “Michael Sherrill Retrospective” demonstrates clearly that he succeeded. But it’s what he did next that makes this exhibition so memorable.
The show, organized by Charlotte’s Mint Museum, covers more than 40 years in the largely self-educated artist’s life. It includes 73 items, beginning with inventive but relatively conventional pieces made in the 1970s and culminating with recent mixed-media, nature-inspired creations in which form entirely dispenses with function.
Sherrill’s tea vessels are notable for their fanciful contours and shimmering glazes, which can simulate gray-silver metal or produce rainbows of graduated hues. As the artist continued to innovate, the pots got bigger and their parts more exaggerated. These agreeably cartoonish creations are far too large for conventional use, with enormous spouts that compete for attention with the object’s central part.
Some of the teapots and other items, among them oddly beautiful “oil cans” that exalt industrial design, evoke myth, literature and Sherrill’s own background. “Right and Left Brain” comprises two identically shaped vessels, one multicolored and the other black-and-white. The artist, who is dyslexic, has written a chapter of his autobiography in fired clay.
The ceramist has spent his adult life in the North Carolina mountains and now maintains a studio near the evocatively named town of Bat Cave. Over time, the surrounding landscape has figuratively infiltrated his studio. Much of Sherrill’s later work borrows motifs from the forest and expands into other materials. The show’s final gallery blooms with exquisite floral arrangements in porcelain, bronze and glass. Most of the inspirations are botanical, but in one 3-D tableaux coils a snake rendered in green glass.
Sherrill hasn’t entirely forgotten teapots. There’s a lovely, if not especially functional, 2005 one that emulates the soft shape of a folded elephant-ear plant leaf. But this potter’s journey has sent him far from the housewares department and deep into the woods.
October Issue - CERAMICS MONTHLY
Listen to the Mint Museum's podcast "Art Crush" featuring Michael Sherrill.
"Michael Sherrill part 1 and 2" produced by the Mint Museum's series Art Crush and hosted by Sheri Lynch.
