Japan, other people's blogs

Euan The Potter, in Japan - now!

http://euancraig.blogspot.com/2011/03/equinox.html

Euan and his family live in Japan and felt the earthquake that shook so many lives, well, this part of the world really. He shares his thoughts as the pick up the pieces and consider their future.

Whoopsie!

I got into the studio this week, despite the relentless heat and I got a fair bit of preparation done for cranking out some wheel work - chucked stuff out, drilled new batts, rehydrated buckets of slurry. It has been a disgustingly hot and humid summer not to mention the floods, earthquakes and bushfires in Australia.  Didn't someone once refer to it as God's country.  Mmm methinks we may be out of favour this millenium - maybe we are just too good at every sport we do, and an impossibly goodlooking lot of folk too. A supermarket dash for some dinner ingredients found me slipping on a mat in the fresh produce aisle and landing hard on my left side.  Good job it wasn't my left, cos that hip already hurt.  Now I have a whole new lot of hurt bits.  But you know what?  It is NOT going to stop me from pushing on with my plans. 
Have I ever shown you my wheels?  I own two, one is a Bitsa - made from bitsa broken wheels, and the other is a BEAUTIFUL kickwheel all wood and copper tray like something from a Leonardo DaVinci exhibition.  I think is based on a Leach style kickwheel.  I was lent a wireless Venco wheel over Christmas, loved it and have begged to borrow it again.  I shall snap some photos today.  Do you know Venco wheels, the modern incarnation is high on my wishlist so portable and adaptable. Made in Western Australia of course http://www.venco.com.au/

Uh, I am re-emerging from Summer Slumber and all this sticky Australian heat.  School is 'back' the normal routine is kicking in and looky here, I have a much neglected blog to shake awake.  It is not like nothing has heppened in the interim, it is just that --- well we all need a beauty sleep sometimes.  The part I find hard is it is too hot to go into my studio.

Do you 'waste' your time on Facebook?
I do - only a little, and I can honestly say I have made a few extra friends via Facebook and blogs just by following links, a little comment or two and voila, I have at least three regular correspondents whose online presence I look forward to everyday. 

Recently my pal Adriana Christianson http://www.adrianachristianson.com.au/ and http://www.adrianachristianson.blogspot.com/
sent me a link to design site she really rates, and now, so do I - you might too  http://thedesignfiles.net/

To me, the web, blogs and links are equivalent to a massive library of the cooooolest magazines ever.  Who knew you could meet nice pals there too.  Bonus!

MY NESTS

You know how you sometimes can't see the forest for the trees?  Well that has been me for the last few months, possibly years.  Someone asked whether I'd completed the Distance Ceramics course at ANU Canberra yet. I finished last December, the work was completed long ago so by graduation time, I was OVER it, and had moved on.  BUT...it seems I had forgotten to share. Odd, I was sure I had posted about it.  So these are some images of my final project work, as displayed at the Grad Show in December at ANU Art school. These photos by Deb Plumb.  Soon, to share with my ANU pals, I will post images from the Grad show.

MAKING HIS MARK - JEFF MINCHAM

MEMBER (AM) IN THE GENERAL DIVISION OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA

Mr Jeffery Dean (Jeff) MINCHAM, Cherryville SA 5134

For service to the visual arts as a ceramic artist, to a range of 

contemporary craft organisations, and to the community of South 

Australia.

Ceramic artist who established, and was Head of, the Ceramics Workshop 

at the Jam Factory in Adelaide for 5 years. Represented in over 100 

public and private collections in Australia and overseas.

77 solo exhibitions since 1976 in Australia, New Zealand and USA. 

Participated in over 200 group shows including invitational, survey 

and touring exhibitions in Australia, USA, New Zealand, Italy, France, 

Japan, China, Taiwan, UK and The Netherlands. Art in South Australia, 

Art Gallery of SA, 1999-2000. Landscape, Memory and Imagination, 

Brisbane City Gallery, 2001. Material Cultures, Australian National 

Gallery, 2002. A Sense of Place, Quadrivium, Sydney, 2003. Jeff 

Mincham Australian Ceramics, Masterworks Gallery, New Zealand, 2004. 

Jeff Mincham Ceramics, National Touring Exhibition, since 2009.

Committee Member, Taxation Incentives for the Arts, since 2010. Board 

Member, Visions of Australia, 2003-2009. Board Member, Country Arts 

South Australia, 2000-2004. Interim Board Member, Craft Australia, 

2002-2003; Senior Vice-President, 1981-1983.   President, Hahndorf 

Academy Foundations; Chair, Board of Management, 1998-2003.   

President, Royal South Australian Society of Arts, 1983-1987.

President, Crafts Council of South Australia, 1978-1981.

Chairman, Regional Development SA, 2002-2006. Member, Regional 

Communities Consultative Council, 2002-2007. Chairman, Adelaide Hills 

Regional Development Board, 1999-2007. Acting Chair, Adelaide Hills 

Tourism, 1998; Committee Member, 1999-2000. Councillor, East Torrens 

District Council, 1993-1997; Deputy Mayor, 1995-1997. Member, 

Cherryville Country Fire Service, 1978-1998; Brigade Officer, 1988-1998.

Awards/recognition include: Named a ?Living Treasure: Master of 

Australian Craft?, Crafts Council of South Australia, 2009.

australianceramicsdiscussionlist@australianceramics.com

http://www.saltmagazine.com.au/articles_web-exclusives_jeff-mincham-art-sunshine-coast.aspx