I have a few new pieces available at the Compound Gallery!

Here is one of my favorites!

‘Heading North‘ features a woman and a polar bear about to embark on an adventure.

Artist: Crystal Morey
Title: Heading North
Dimensions: 8.5″x 8″x 4″
Medium: Ceramic and Underglaze
Date: 2011
Purchase here!

New

I have a beautiful new piece in this show, here is a preview!

“Waiting On Tomorrow “ is about the anticipation of seeing our natural world change. The ground reveals a landfill of sedimentary layers composed of dried bones, old eggs, branches and birds. The trees are severed and disjointed at their trunks showing their rings of age and history of growth. Lastly, the women are observers, waiting to see what will happen and fearing the end.

Outlandish: Contemporary Depictions of Nature
July 7 – September 4, 2011

Press Release

The Bedford Gallery wraps up a memorable 2010–11 season with Outlandish: Contemporary Depictions of Nature — a two part exhibition that features both a juried section and an invitational. Carrie Lederer, Bedford Gallery Curator of Exhibitions and Programs, invited twenty-eight contemporary artists that explore themes of nature — from micro to the macro — ranging from a tiny speck of a garden to a global view of the world. This intriguing exhibition looks at over-the-top depictions of landscape from a variety of vantage points and in a range of media.

Invitational
Mari Andrews, Emeryville, CA
Vaughn Bell, Seattle, WA
Arthur Bell, San Francisco, CA
Tony Bellaver, Oakland, CA
Tyler Bewley, San Francisco, CA
Tiffany Bozic, San Francisco, CA
Gary Brewer, Oakland, CA
John Casey, Oakland, CA
Noah Doely, San Diego, CA
Charlene Doiron Reinhart, Hayward, CA
Sarah Filley, Oakland, CA
Jessalyn Haggenjos, San Francisco, CA
Misako Inaoka, Ventura, CA
Michael Kerbow, San Francisco, CA
Josh Keyes, Portland, OR
Amanda Klimek, San Francisco, CA
Mary Anne Kluth, San Francisco, CA
Therese Lahaie, Emeryville, CA
Dan Lydersen, Davis, CA
Yvette Molina, Oakland, CA
Crystal Morey, Oakland, CA
Areca Roe, Minneapolis, MN
Noah Sakamoto, Oakland, CA
Phyllis Shafer, South Lake Tahoe, CA
Nicole Shaffer, Oakland, CA
Jenn Shifflet, El Cerrito, CA
Jake Watling, Oakland, CA
Derek Weisberg, Oakland, CA

Juried
Outlandish was juried by Alison Gass, Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and drew artist submissions from across the United States.

I am teaching at the ASUC Berkeley art studio, come take my class!

Projects:

1)   We will be making self-portraits from the chest up including personal symbols. We will use a step-by-step process to build a chest and head that will show emotion through expression. We will also learn underglaze-painting techniques to strengthen the ideas behind the pieces.

2)   We will build small bust figures that show a personal likeness as well as convey feeling and emotion.  In this project we will try to show an emotional and literal realism using color and gesture.

Supplies:

-       Clay: B-Mix with Grog

-       Clay tool kit

-       Banding wheel (borrowed from the studio)

-       Brushes to use with underglaze

Artists to look up:

-       Lisa Clague

-       Arthur Gonzalez

-       Justin Novak

-       Steven De Staebler

-       Christina Cordova

-       Crystal Boger

Class Schedule:

Class 1: May 25th

-       Class overview

-       Introductions

-       Purchase clay

-       Head demo

-       Bust sculpture demo, part one

-       Studio work/one-on-one check in

Class 2: June 1st

-       Head demo

-       Studio work time

-         Bust demo, part two/ attaching the head

-       Studio work/one-on-one check in

Class 3: June 8th

-         Underglaze demo for project #1

-       Coloring the face.

-       Underglaze painting to tell a narrative.

-       Studio work/one-on-one check-in.

Class 4: June 15th

-       Demo: Project #2 small bust with a realistic likeness

-       Studio work/one-on-one check-in.

Class 5: June 22nd

-       Studio Work

-       Additional requested demos

Class 6: June 29th

-       Studio Work

-       Show and tell with snacks!

Thank you to Hi-Fructose Magazine and wonderful writer Danielle Vogel for the mini-review on their blog. The picture selection in great and Danielle Vogel’s words are accurate and eloquent!

Thank you!

Come see my new work at Rowan Morrison Gallery and visit!

This Saturday and next I will be in the gallery from 12:00 to 5:00!

Artist’s Reception: March Into The Sea: New Works by Crystal Morey

When: Saturday December 4th, 7 – 10pm
Show runs December 6th – January 22nd

Venue: Rowan Morrison Gallery
330 40th Street
Oakland, California 94609

Gallery hours: special events and by appointment

Call Pete or Narangkar at 510-384-5344
email us at info@rowanmorrison.com
visit our website  www.rowanmorrison.com

Crystal Morey’s intention is to explore human emotion and its relationship to our natural world. While studying the tenuous, symbiotic balance between human necessities and the health of our habitat, she has combined her impulse and drive to create with her thoughts of the world and its curious progression. She explores changes to the environment and how it influences our psyches, body language, and attitudes towards life. In particular, she is fascinated in those poignant, articulate moments of beauty, found through stress, that are able to re-form ideas in unexpected ways. By revealing these delicate thoughts she exposes the fragility in our coalition with the earth and the balance that is needed in order for life to continue.

In this body of work she has thought about evolution and cycles of life, with water being a constant theme. Life came from the sea and now through polluted run-off, so much of our waste finds its way back to the sea. This destructive twist to the water cycle has the potential to alter natural life in ways we cannot yet fully comprehend.

The result of these explorations are invented landscapes inhabited by figures who observe, contemplate and respond to their surroundings without judging the actions that created them. In this habitat, natural beauty contrasts with the man-made changes that have altered the environment. These sculptures show the sadness as well as the hope that can come from new beginnings – new beginnings that are necessary whether desired or not.