pottery blog: emily murphy

I thought I’d give a little tour of what some of the studios are offering this holiday season at Lillstreet Studios in Chicago. It’s truly a unique shopping experience to be able to shop directly from the artists in their studios. I’m including photos of just a sampling of the studios. There are over 50 artists under one roof – and that’s not including Lillstreet’s Gallery!

ceramics by Emily Murphy

jewelry by 2nd and 3rd floor studio artists

pottery by Karen Avery

porcelain by Joanna Kramer

porcelain by Karen Patinkin

porcelain by Deborah Schneider

Photography by Guy Nicol

Tags: Amy Lemaire, Cathi Bouzide, Karen Avery, Karen Patinkin, Lisa Harris, Mike Szostak

Here is a virtual tour of the exhibition that I’m currently having at Haus in Chicago through May 6. It is a body of work that I have been working on for months, and had in my head for the last year or so. It is really excited to have the group of work finished and exhibited together. Click on any of the images to see them larger. I hope you enjoy your visit to the gallery…

This is the front of the gallery with my large bottle forms on display in the window. 

Here are some images of the installation of the show.

I have taken the idea of my surfaces being canvases one step further. I have made a series of wall pieces. These are forms that I have been playing with for a while, but this is the first time that I have exhibited them.

And here are some mugs that echo the grid of squares above…

Chicago artist Amy Lemaire designed floral arrangements in my low oval vases. These are pieces that stand alone as sculptural forms, but come to life with greens, branches and flowers in them. This is just a selection of the pieces. I took these photos on a white piece of paper so you could see them a little bit better.

 

The show will be up until May 6, 2007 if you’d like to see it in person. There is going to be a “Wine Walk” in the Andersonville neighborhood (where Haus is located) on May 6th. We’re going to take this opportunity to have a closing party. If you’d like to participate in the Wine Walk, you can purchase a special wine glass for $20 and you can wander the neighborhood and taste 40 different kinds of wine. For information on this event, visit In Fine Spirit’s website.

The previous post is my artist’s statement for this show.

Tags: Amy Lemaire, Andersonville, Bottles, In Fine Spirit's

It’s finally done (almost). The website that I have been making for the group of artists where I have my studio in Chicago: Lillstreet Studios. If you’re not familiar with it, Lillstreet Art Center is a big art center that houses ceramics classrooms, metalsmithing studios, a glass bead making studio and more. Mostthe art center is on the first floor of the building. The 2nd and 3rd floors are what make up Lillstreet Studios. We have over 40 independant artists working. Most are potters, but we also have jewelers, photographer, painters, etc…
We’ve been putting a lot of energy into working together as a group like doing this website and hosting a montly open house called 2nd Saturdays. (Just what it sounds like- a monthly open house on the 2nd Saturday of each and every month!)
It’s great to be a part of a community. There are always people around to brainstorm on business decisions like pricing, or just to have an informal critique about a form. There is a lot of solitary time being a potter (and even more doing all this computer work), but being in this kind of studio helps to balance that out.
Here are a couple of images of some of the studio artists working in their own spaces:

Amy Lemaire, Sarah Busen, Dana Major Kanovitz and Cathi Bouzide are pictured above.

I hope you enjoy wandering through this site.

Tags: Amy Lemaire, Cathi Bouzide, Dana Major Kanovitz, Lillstreet Studios, Sarah Busen