Jim and Nan McKinnell
Ceramic exhibitions don’t receive as much press as other art mediums here in Colorado and I suspect throughout the nation (if not the world). Imagine my delight in seeing a full page feature story on ceramic icons Jim and Nan McKinnell in the entertainment section of the Friday edition of the Denver Post. Even though they’re not originally from Colorado, Colorado claims them as their own after they settled in Ft. Collins, CO in 1970 after teaching and studying ceramics in many different locales.
A retrospective of the couple’s work is on view at the Beyers-Evans House Gallery courtesy of the Colorado Historical Society. Included in the exhibition are 84 pieces of pottery from full scale work to miniatures just a few inches tall, as well as some of their pottery tools, correspondence, framed and loose photographs. I’m intrigued by the artist couple – they both shared a love of ceramics and collaborated on nearly everything they made making it difficult to assign credit to a specific piece.
I’m looking forward to seeing the show and have been meaning to go to the Kirkland Museum, which also has a large collection of ceramics and pottery and is a few blocks away from the Beyers-Evans House Gallery. The only downside of going to the Kirkland Museum is that no one under 13 is allowed entrance. That puts the kibosh on going with my 10 year old daughter.
After looking for more information about the McKinnells, I stumbled upon the Smithsonian Archives of American Artists. The Smithsonian has digitized many of their collections and the information is available online. Isn’t that cool? The site also has a written transcript of an interview of Nan McKinnell archived, but the audio is not available online.
Meanwhile, I decided not to read Thoreau again, because I’m going to listen to it instead while I work. After cruisin’ the ‘net this morning I found LibriVox, a group of volunteers whose goal it is to record all public domain books in the USA (basically anything published before 1925) and make the audio recordings available for free to anyone who wants to listen. I found the full Walden audiobook on the site and am going to load it onto my iPod Nano. A list of cataloged books in on their site, but can also be found under Podcasts in iTunes.
As to a Thoreauesque family experiment, I suggested the idea to my husband and daughter over dinner last night. My husband is interested, but my daughter was sputtering like I just asked her to cut off her right foot or something.
Finally, my mom and a few others emailed me yesterday to tell me that my blog wasn’t showing up correctly. I checked it out in my browser (Firefox) and it looked fine, but then decided to open my site in IE after suspecting that there might be a compatibility issue since a similar thing has happened in the past. Lo and behold, it looked like gremlins had eaten everything! I checked the html code editor in Wordpress (I normally use the WYSIWYG editor) and some weird code was present. It must have happened yesterday when I did a cut and paste of my post after I edited it in Word. Luckily it was a quick fix and nothing serious.
Have a good week,
~Cynthia
3 Responses to “Jim and Nan McKinnell Ceramic Retrospective”
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Thanks for the tip on downloading the Waldon podcast. I enjoy listening to podcasts while I’m working. Also the Smithsonian interviews — there’s a Warren Mackenzie interview and Michael Simon interview that I’ve read. Both are terrific. And I didn’t know of Jim & Nan McKinnell’s work — that was a treat. And they are so cute!
I really enjoyed your last post – it’s had me thinking for a couple of days. I’m very much into the slow food movement – but I think I would like to move more slowly throughout my whole day. And there are a number of ways I can live more consciously – green in my studio procedures. It’s going to take a real commitment and a gentle reminder – to myself – daily.
Hey Judy, I bookmarked the Smithsonian site and am going to look for the Warren Mackenzie and Michael Simon interviews. Jim and Nan are Colorado Ceramic elite along with Betty Woodman who taught at CU Boulder for quite awhile. Their past acquaintances include Voulkos, Leach, Hamada and a whole slew of who’s who in clay. Jim actually studied Industrial Ceramics in School and spent time in Europe on the GI Bill furthering his ceramic knowledge. I can’t quite remember how the 2 met – but just love that they worked and collaborated together. In some ways, it makes me wish that my husband was a potter. I keep telling him I’ll teach him the basics – he’s naturally artistic, but doesn’t use that part of his brain much.
I’m also into the slow food movement – I’ve been diligently cutting out processed food, and have been shopping at my local organic market. It’s more expensive, but I find that if I plan, and am flexible, it’s doable. I’ve been trying to shop every 3-4 days so that everything is fresh and I’m finding that I don’t waste as much. It might even help our waste lines since it is more expensive, I don’t buy more than what my recipe calls for. Greening my studio is on my radar!
My husband starts a handbuilding class tomorrow night with Debra Fritts (www.debrafritts.net). She’s the director at ACW where I’m an apprentice. He’s very creative — works in wood & can draw/paint well. But I never thought he would turn to clay. I think when he gets some experience he will do some sort of mixed media. He has a real job though – so he can’t spend long hours in the studio yet.
And I’m so sorry to see summer and all the fresh vegetables end. But I was happy to see apples at our organic market! I agree with you — I don’t shop as mindlessly as I once did. Organic & local food is more expensive, but if I’m careful & only buy what we can use – I actually save money. At first my son rebelled at the ‘healthy’ food – but now I notice he chooses it when we are out. I try not to use much processed stuff. And we rarely eat out. I’d much rather cook with a glass of wine at the end of the day – then make the effort to drive to a restaurant!