This weekend it's the Wellfleet OysterFest down at the far end of the Cape Saturday and Sunday, then at the same time the opening of "Three Cups" at the Durango Art Center in Colorado. (And a Saturday annual board of directors meeting of Studio Potter Magazine in Boston ... learning how to be in two places at once.)
"Three Cups" opens Friday night. I won't be there, though my four teabowls will be. And I will be in the company of some people whose work I have admired for years - Warren McKenzie, the late Tatsuzo Shimaoka, Doug Casebeer, Alleghany Meadows, Joe Bennion, Peg Malloy, Sandy Simon - and newly-made friends such as Doug Fitch, Hannah McAndrew and Ron Philbeck. And many, many more. See the photos attached here; just a few of the pots in the show. Wish I could get there. (Adam Field contributed the show photo below.)
The OysterFest in Wellfleet has become for some of us the event that marks the true end of the summer season. It's the last craft fair before the holiday shows begin in November, and it's more or less the last chance for sunny and unseasonably warm weather. Often, the air is cold and a heavy breeze blows in off the Atlantic on one side or Cape Cod Bay on the other. Tents can fly at this show.
But thousands of people come out to it - for the oysters, fried clams and other seafood, for the beer and wine and the oyster-shucking contests and the rock bands on stage. Oh, and a few come to look at the crafts and the art. It can be a big show or - and this happened two years ago - hurricane force winds can blow in and send everyone packing. You never know.
I've got my first Studio Potter board meeting in Boston Saturday morning, so my friend Dafney Shufelt will fill in for me and we'll see if an attractive young woman sells more pots than a scowling 65-year-old male. I'll drive down well before dawn and get the tent up and the pots arranged, then hand it off to Dafney and head for Boston. I'll be back in the tent Sunday.
Speaking of Studio Potter, the board is debating the future of the magazine - in part trying to figure out if we remain a hard-copy magazine or become in addition/instead some sort of online digital presence. It's a very 2012 kind of situation.
Ideas? I'm happy to contribute anything you say to the conversation.
5 comments:
I have always enjoyed Studio Potter, and want to have a hard copy to take anywhere.
If SP goes strictly online, I will stop reading it.
Just sayin'...
and i would read on line.
studio potter is near and dear to me, NH roots, Gerry Williams and all... but I have to say I am not impressed with it's direction since Gerry retired as editor. It's also been out of my price range. I understand that it is more like purchasing a couple of books each year as opposed to a magazine, but I can't justify the cost right now.
I still do go back and reread the past issues that I own, dating back to it's inception. I will never part with them.
I have started using my ipad more and more to read online, but I am still old school and like my hard copies. So hard to decide, moral dilemma and all that.
Good luck with the windy show, I would be scowling too it I had done as many outdoor shows as you have done this year. I pulled out of line before the only show I signed up for this year even started, haha!
Oh...I am a bit sad to hear that Studio Potter might go virtual. It's a bit tough for me to get any perusing of anything in right now--babies and simple forward-motion are forefront...But I do like the heavy chunk of something pretty to look at. Nostalgia, I guess. Congratulations on the show, Hollis! It all looks gorgeous.
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