AAW Symposium - Friday, 2006 Jun 23

Friday morning breakfast was a bit better than Thursday. Art Liestman and I found a small Deli up a few blocks on Fourth Street after hearing about it from Harvey Fein. We shared a table out of doors with Mark Baker, Nick Agar and Sharon Doughtie. That was a nice way to start a hectic day.

The first rotation I attended was called, "The Hans and Jacques Show." And, it was, indeed, a show. Minda, Jacques' wife, was in the back of the room adding comments where needed, which was a lot of fun, too.


I also attended Clay Foster's demo on "Figurative Art and the Turned Object." Clay did an excellent slide show presentation and talked about design inspirations.




During the first afternoon rotation I volunteered to help with the Youth Turning Program. Nick Cook led this session on making honey dippers. The room was set up with 25 mini lathes along with all the tools and gear needed for hands-on classes.









Nick started with an overview of woodturning, and then demonstrated how to make a honey dipper. After that brief intro, the kids got started at a lathe with help from the adult assistants. I helped a boy named Matthew, and it was a fun experience for both of us. Matthew was an eager learner and was good at following directions.







Here we are after his project was complete. He made a very nice honey dipper.

Matthew and his brother took a couple of different classes, and I understand from his parents that they are now the proud owners of a mini lathe. It will be fun to see what they bring to the instant gallery of next year's symposium.





I went to J. Paul Fennell's session on "Personal Creative Expression" for the last rotation of the day. This was a really good presentation on how artists explore a theme and bring an idea to fruition with a personal narrative.

Here are some more images from the instant gallery:



Pascal Oudet (from France) brought these gems. The vessel in the upper left has been sand-blasted to the point of disintegration of the grain lines. It was really neat to see. The piece in the foreground is patterned after Mike Hosaluk's cut and reassemble techniques. This one had a lot of character - as if two individuals were having a discussion (or checking one another out in a singles bar?).






One of Binh Pho's vessels.


















Mike Mahoney's canister set along with other items for the kitchen.












Robert Cutler's resin inlay work. I don't usually like a high gloss finish, but it really works for this body of work.










Stuart Mortimer's spiral work.
















The AAW banquet was held in the convention center. How would you like to have dinner with 2400 of your "closest" friends. This event was a logistical challenge, to put it kindly. One couldn't hear anything from the podium, and the pre-dinner mixer was a recipe for disaster. I nearly had a panic attack from being pressed into a small area with so many people surrounding me.

The good news is that the auction raised $85K.



Here's Stuart Mortimer having a good time posing for pics with me.











I don't think Art Liestman had quite the same effect on him. . .