“In Residence” to explore work of Sawtooth wood and ceramics Artists in Residence

Jul 21, 2023

Carey Nathanson

The awesome powers of fire and earth will reveal themselves in the latest artists residencies at Sawtooth School for Visual Art starting in September.

Max Saunders

Sawtooth will present “In Residence,” an exhibition featuring artwork by Sawtooth’s 2022-2023 woodworking and ceramics Artists in Residence September 15-October 28, Mondays-Fridays 9 a.m.- 7 p.m. and Saturdays 9 a.m.-4 p.m. in the Eleanor and Egbert Davis Gallery, upstairs at 251 N. Spruce St., Winston-Salem, NC.

Sam McCall, Pitcher and Cappuccino Cups, 2023, 11 x 5 x 5 in., Wood-fired stoneware with slip. Photo: C. Stephen Hurst.

The exhibition will be preceded by an artist talk, “Fireside: Forest to Flame,” Thursday, September 7, 6-8 pm at Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, 750 Marguerite Drive, Winston-Salem. The opening reception at Sawtooth will be Friday, September 15, 5-7 p.m.

Carey Nathanson, Arch Bottle, January 2023, 20 x 5 x 5 in., Wood-fired stoneware with natural ash glaze, cone 12. Photo: Carey Nathanson.

The Artist in Residence Program at Sawtooth School for Visual Art aims to encourage and enhance the creative, intellectual, professional, and personal growth of emerging or established visual artists and craftspeople. The residencies provide a period of time for artists to focus intensely on their work, explore new ideas and techniques, and push their work to new levels. Community involvement, professional development, and self-exploration are at the core of Sawtooth’s goals for resident artists.

Rebecca Juliette-Duex, Both Sides Now, 2023, 25 x 18 x 14 in., Poyner style Ladderback Chair made with hand tools and green woodworking techniques in Ash; woven, ice dyed Shaker tape; “cloud” slat pattern drawn by Marisa Mahathey. Photo: Rebecca Juliette-Duex.

Sawtooth Program Directors and a rotating jury choose the resident artists. Selections are based on the quality of the work and its artistic merit, experience in their craft, and the artist’s ability to bring new perspectives to the community.

Sam McCall

The coming gallery exhibition features pieces crafted during the artists’ yearlong residencies at Sawtooth.

All events are free and open to the public. Artworks in the exhibition will be for sale.

Rebecca Juliette-Duex, Gondring Residency in Woodworking, and Sam McCall, Carey Nathanson, and Max Saunders, Ceramics Artists in Residence, are this season’s participating artists.

The three Ceramics Artists in Residence are the first artists to use Sawtooth’s Catenary arch and Train wood fire kilns. Led by Visiting Artist Ted Neal and former Ceramics Director Seth Charles, Sawtooth students built these kilns in the Summer of 2022. Firings – between 36 and 48 hours long – now take place regularly through Sawtooth ceramics programs, requiring hands-on participation from staff, residents and ceramics students.

Max Saunders, Coil built pot, 2023, 21 x 15 x 15 in., Wood-fired ceramics. Photo: C. Stephen Hurst.

These two kilns are the only wood fire kilns in the Triad area available to the ceramics community and local educational organizations. The kilns are made possible through Sawtooth’s partnership with SECCA and generous funding from the Windgate Foundation.

Rebecca Juliette-Duex is the first resident in Gondring Residency in Woodworking. The year-long residency is made possible by a gift from Kelley Gondring, in honor of her parents who are lifelong artists and avid supporters of the arts. Applications are open through September 5 for the 2024 Gondring Residency in Woodworking. Details are at https://www.sawtooth.org/studios/wood/artist-in-residence/

Artists in Residence Bios and Statements

Juliette-Duex’s maternal grandparents first introduced her to the value of craft. As a child, Juliette-Duex saw their hands sew, saw, and shape objects out of practical necessity. They inspired her to study fiber art and furniture making and to pursue craft as a personal necessity.

A multidisciplinary artist, Juliette-Duex makes objects that bring textiles and wood into conversation to tell the story of her own creative heritage and inspire others to do the same. She places equal value on personal practice and community engagement. In addition to being the 2023 Gondring Artist in Residence at Sawtooth, Juliette-Duex is a Board Member of The Chairmaker’s Toolbox, an organization committed to equity in the field of green woodworking.

“When I started my Sawtooth residency, I had specific plans to further my practice through the resources at the school,” Juliette-Duex said. “What I did not expect was how the school would shape me as a person and transform my ideas of ‘productive’ studio time. At Sawtooth, I have the opportunity to be both a student and a teacher, and it is this duality that has had the most impact on the work that I am creating.

“The work in this exhibition is a thank-you to the pathways and places that have become like home to me in Winston-Salem and to the people at Sawtooth — the educators, administrators, teachers, and students — who have been major influences on the objects that will become a tangible legacy of this residency experience. Intertwined in each of these pieces are stories, like diary entries, of my time in the classrooms of Sawtooth and this city.”

Sam McCall was born and raised in Southern Utah and had his first ceramics experience, like many, in a high school class. After graduating, he attended Utah Tech University where he received his associate degree. The itch to wood-fire and the lack of resources around him drove Sam to move to Logan, Utah, where he completed his BFA with an emphasis in ceramics in the spring of 2021.

“I intend to make pots with a revelation of process,” McCall said. “Using a variety of tools and methods, my vessels are evidence of the clay's reaction to a pinch, scrape, stretch, or cut into the surface. These interactions with the clay result in honest gestural forms. The subtleties react to the soluble salt atmosphere and accumulation of natural ash glaze from wood burning kilns. Pooling of ash further obscures the forms, while thin layers of flashing from the flame emphasize their structural qualities. Ultimately, these processes combine to create work with lively forms and dynamic surfaces.”

Carey Nathanson started working with clay during his high school years in his hometown of Wilmington, NC. The bulk of his education in ceramics came in 2018 and 2019 studying wood firing as a studio assistant under John Dix in Kobe, Japan, and Nick Schwartz in Comptche, California. Since his time as an assistant, Carey has completed residencies at the American Museum of Ceramic Art, the Mendocino Art Center, STARworks, Red Lodge Clay Center and the Clay Studio of Missoula.

“My recent work is primarily hand-built cups, platters, bottles and other vessels made with the intention of being fired in the wood kiln,” Nathanson said. “Using pine and a mixture of hardwoods, the goal is to fire for the better part of a week to get as much fly ash on the pieces as possible, encourage local reduction effects by building large ember beds and create dramatic and dynamic surfaces with big color palettes.”

Max Saunders is a ceramic artist and educator with more than 15 years of experience in ceramics. He received his MFA from Utah State University and a BFA in ceramics from UNC-Asheville. He has worked with a variety of potters in the North Carolina Appalachian region and has experience in kiln building, firing, welding, and carpentry.

“These pots encompass a series of work that explores four of the regional clays made by Starworks in Star, North Carolina,” Saunders said. “I have chosen two main forms as the basis of this exploration: faceted cups and textured teapots. The first part of the exploration is forming the pots on the wheel. The different materials respond variously to the fingers, which subtly influences the base form. Cutting and tooling reveals the natural textures inherent to the clay. The pots are wood-fired without glaze, and the addition of wood ash and minerals deposited by the flame expose the clay’s characteristic color. Paired with the cups and teapots are two additional forms: large, coil-built jars and flattened shield vases.

“The coil-built pots are the continuation of an exploration in traditional coil building techniques using the wheel, paddle and anvil; the ‘shield’ vessels are the first iterations of an abstracted vessel series inspired by archeological relics. These works could be categorized first as an exploration of material, the exploration of form, and finally as the exploration of an idea.”

For more information, visit www.sawtooth.org or call 336-723-7395.

Sawtooth is celebrating its 78thyear as a multidisciplinary school for visual arts - strengthening our community’s creative core by providing high-quality instruction and hands-on visual art experiences for students of all ages, backgrounds and skill levels.

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