Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: lillstreet, Mom & Dad

Yesterday was the Spring Open House at Lillstreet Art Center.
As a resident studio artist, we’re kind of “expected” to be there. Which is fine by me
as it’s also a great chance to have people stop by, see me working and hopefully they’ll
become a customer or student down the road. So there I was, working on a few projects…
finishing up my lidded jar class demo piece, and the extra “lid” which is now a small
dipping bowl… and throwing small plates for the new berry bowls.

It’s a long day of greeting people…
“Welcome, let me know if you have any questions…”
“Welcome, let me know if you have any questions…”
“Welcome, let me know if you have any questions…”
Repeatedly. Over & over. Until, imagine my surprise, when my parents turn the corner
and I throw them the same stock response… and then realize it’s them! They had read
on the blog that it was the Open House and they decided to come down to visit and
surprise me… and they did! So they hung out, visited a few studios including metalsmith
Rebecca Zemans who they met a coiple years ago as my art fair booth neighbor in Hinsdale!

And then… when the day was over, we decided to go out for dinner. I think it might have been
their plan all along to go to Rose Angeli’s?! I think the “surprise studio visit” may have been a
good “means-to-an-end” for us all to get a great meal?! Which I’m totally fine with as you know
I LOVE Rose Angeli’s!!! And we did have an incredible meal… I had some Chicken Vesuvio
filled ravioli with parmesan cheese & lemon cream sauce concoction YUMMY!!! – and we
shared three desserts!!! Bread pudding with pools of hot caramel sauce, chocolate & peanut
butter ice cream, and a hot chocolate fondue pot! Plus some quality time to get caught up
on  a bunch of stuff. Including all of the craziness going on at Lillstreet these days!

2 Comments

March 20th, 2011

You are such an inspiration! I’m up to 170 bowls, and thought I was pretty sick of bowls, and then wha-la, you show a beautiful lidded bowl and I want to get my hands wet again. I am still having difficulty e-mailing you, even a straight e-mail won’t go through. So I might be mailing you some photos of my inspired textures. Dinner sounded great with your parents, mine passed away years ago, so love yours every chance you get! We don’t have much cultural activities in rural Nevada so I really enjoy the photos you post, like the Contemporary Mosaic Exhibit…Beautiful. Thanks!

March 20th, 2011

HEY SAM – I can’t wait to see your bowls. I still don’t understand why you’re having such difficulty e-mailing to me? It seems to work for everyone else. My only thought is that your photos need to be re-sized to be a lower dpi and smaller file size? Either way, I’m glad that you’re still enjoying the project… and that I can inspire you to get back in the studio to do even more!!! You keep making bowls.. and I’ll keep blogging & sending some “city culture” your way!

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