July Potluck Review

Initially planned as a studio tour at Bill Leigh’s, personal issues required a last-minute change. We shifted gears and met at Leslie’s lovely home in Gladstone, OR, a welcoming and inviting space along the Clackamas River. The beginning of the meeting was spent catching up, talking about current interests and projects, as well as grazing the potluck offerings. We had a decent turn out, some great conversation, and a productive meeting. Pictures from the event can be found here. 

We started the meeting off with a call for demos:

This past weekend we had our booth and raku station at Vancouver Arts and Music festival, where we had a few demos, and some live raku firing.

We still have a need for demonstrators at Art in the Pearl, which occurs Aug 30-Sep 1. For demoing info and signup email Jessica at jessica.stroia@gmail.com. To learn more about Art in the Pearl, check them out at https://artinthepearl.com/. 

There were a few announcements:

Russ Ford has an exhibit at the Aqua Gallery, a brand new space in the Waterfront area of Downtown Vancouver, WA. The show runs through the 12th of September. The gallery doesn’t show up on Google maps yet! It’s located on the street level of the Terminal 1 building, in the northwest corner of Cascade Street and Quayside.

The show is available to be seen from the sidewalk outside at any time. The Gallery itself is open on request or posted hours.

PNWS now has an intern! Nat, has been a member for a little over a year now, and recently become our first intern. They will be working on social media, administrative, and education focused tasks for PNWS. They’re a student at Pacific Northwest College of Art and a Sculpture Major. Nat will be taking photos and video at upcoming events for social media and promotional use. If you want to opt out of having yourself included, please let them know at nat@pnwsculptors.onmicrosoft.com. 

We also went over a few of the upcoming events:

Monthly Sculpture Conversation on Zoom on August 13th 7-8pm

August Monthly Meetup on August 16th at 3pm will be a studio tour and potluck at Teri Farhrendorf’s. The address will be emailed out to members closer to the event.

New member Caroline “Carrie” Allen offered to host the September Monthly Meetup at her Yurt and studio in Estacada. Carrie has also offered her Yurt and surrounding land for a 2026 camping trip, so this is a great opportunity to take a look at the space and consider the option. 

There’s an animal mask-making opportunity at Leslie’s place on August 9th as well, with masks being fired at Art in the Pearl. (There’s still a spot left; email Leslie if you’d like to join the fun.)

Other things discussed:

A last-minute opportunity to display in the Portland Justice Center windows; the opportunity has now passed.

Bob Deasy is working on creating a high-level map of member locations to see where small, local member gatherings might make sense.

Book trades: At upcoming meetings feel free to bring books and magazines that relate to sculpting and art to share (or get rid of!). 

Leslie suggested an upcoming informal watch party of Holy Frit, a glass working documentary. Let her know if you’re interested.

Of course the best part of the gathering can’t really be captured with notes, can it? If you haven’t yet been to a monthly meet-up, give it a shot. If you’re a member outside the Vancouver/Portland area, maybe it’s time to start a local version. Sculptors (and sculpture friends!) coming together in a spirit of camaraderie? It’s a great way to celebrate ourselves and our art.