Mutatione Mirabeli

Cara Driscoll, Louise Pentz & Steve Smith

September 10 to January 7, 2007

Donald & Pamela Bierstock Gallery

Mutatione Mirabili features the work of artists who examine and question aspects of the spiritual in their work: Cara Driscoll, Louise Pentz and the Smith family - Steve, Leigh and Santee. St. Augustine once compared the transition that the human soul makes after death to the changes that occur in the firing of a clay pot. The soul, or spirit, of a person – like a pot made of wet clay – is malleable and can change. But once a person enters the realm of the spirit they, like the fired pot, become a finished and complete work.

Saskatchewan artist Cara Gay Driscoll creates ceramic objects which are characterized by a female sensibility. Her hand-coiled full-bodied vessels are made using traditional techniques that pay homage to the past. Drawing her inspiration from literary figures or the women of the bible, Cara strives to infuse her work with spirituality, strength and historical perspective.

Louise Pentz is a graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (BFA 1973) and has studied at the University of Regina, at Metchosin School of the Arts in British Columbia with Robin Hopper and in Phoenix, Arizona with Michael Wisner. She travelled to Europe and Japan to study ceramics and, specifically, clay vessels as funerary containers. Her work is represented in Robin Hopper’s newest book on ceramics, Making Marks. Her work has been exhibited at the George R. Gardener Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto, in both in 2003 and 1996 Nova Scotia Potters Guild exhibition, in A Show of Hands, a juried exhibition of the Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council and, more recently, in a group exhibition in Clermont-Ferrand, France and in a two person exhibit in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

Louise’s technique of manipulating the clay is called “smokedware”. Each piece of smokedware is made from a white bodied clay, usually a combination of porcelain and stoneware. The surface of the pot is

burnished several times during the drying stage. “Burnishing” is a process of rubbing the clay with either a very smooth stone or a thin rib of flexible metal to compress the clay particles and leave the piece with a smooth surface. Pots are then fired, sprayed with colorants and dipped in a thick slip. The slip cracks during the drying and some pieces fall off.

Steve Smith was born and raised on the Six Nations Reserve. He belongs to the Turtle clan of the Mohawk nation. His parents were Oliver and Elda Smith who developed a traditional style of Iroquois pottery using modern techniques such as an electric wheel and electric kiln. Steve's award-winning pottery has been featured in a TV Ontario Special and Global TV, along with many newspaper articles. In 1977, Steve was an honored guest at the Silver Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen in a "Tribute to Young Canadians Who Have Achieved Excellence in the Arts and Science." His artwork is found in museums, galleries, corporations and private collections throughout the world. His work was featured last year at the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery as part of our First Nations Contemporary Clay exhibition.

Mutable Garden -   Cara Driscoll
28 x 25 cm (2006)

Dead Sea Scrolls - Louise Pentz
sizes vary (2005)

Spider's Web - Steve Smith
25 x 18 (2006)