JUDY GORDON
Title: Lady Bird
Dimensions: 7.25” X 4.75”
Medium: Raku Clay
Date Made: May 2019
Retail Price: $250
Artist’s Statement (meaning/inspiration, etc.): “Lady Bird” started out life in my mind as a curvy girl in a dress with a deeply plunging neckline and detail for a medallion. I imagines she would have many feathers on her dress, accentuating her curves and fashioned in the carbon trail left by feathers I have collected. However, as I was working through this concept, she morphed into a baby bird with her mouth open. In my view, the ambiguity of the piece is one of its most intriguing qualities. Is she a lady? Is she a baby bird? Is she both? You get to decide. Thrown and altered, sprigged, burnished, glaze and underglaze, feathers applied, ferric chloride.
Title: Fly away Hoochie Coochie Gal
Dimensions: 8.5” x 5”
Medium: Raku
Date Made: May 2019
Retail Price: $175
Artist’s Statement (meaning/inspiration, etc.): “Fly Away Hoochie Coochie Gal” is a voluptuous feminine form. The colour of the burnished clay suggests a flesh tone, while her belt and other accents are playfully drawn or simply laid on the piece with feathers while its fresh from the kiln. Raku Clay, thrown, burnished, glazed, feathers applied.
Judy Gordon first experienced clay in 1998. She has owned and operated Turn Around Pottery since 2002. She graduated from Carol Smeraldo's Mentorship Program at Atlantic Pottery Supplies & School. Judy has worked at the Findlay Centre as a technician and pottery instructor from 2006 to 2015. She has instructed at Atlantic Pottery Supplies & School from 2008-2013 and at Dragonfire Pottery & Supplies from 2013 - 2015. She has also led Raku workshops together with Carol Smeraldo.
She has been heavily involved with the Nova Scotia Potters Guild since 2004 as Membership Coordinator. In 2012 Judy was elected Co-President of the Guild, together with Sharon Fiske. During her association with the Guild she has been instrumental in coordinating numerous workshops by local and visiting artists such as Randy Brodnax, Joan Bruneau, Cathi Jefferson, Louise Pentz and Vincent Massey. She has also worked to present various Guild Exhibitions, including Shaping Space at the Mary E. Black Gallery in 2009 and New Works in Clay at the Craig Gallery in 2005, among others.
Judy works at her home studio in mid-fire stoneware and in Raku. Her work is featured at Art 1274 Hollis Gallery in Halifax.