By Tim Badgley
More than 400 guests attending the 20th annual Salad Days fundraiser at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle raised approximately $35,000 to benefit community
education and on-site artist residency programs.
Artist-in-residence Stuart Gair making one of the 500 plates for the 2015 Salad Days. (Tim Badgley photo) |
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For the $35 price of admission, attendees were invited to choose one of 500 hand-made ceramic plates to take home. The plates were made by artist-in-residence
Jessica Brendl during her 90-day summer residency at Watershed in 2013.
Virtually all the guests used their plates to enjoy the sumptuous buffet lunch of locally grown and prepared salads, breads, and desserts.
Admission also included two workshops, a tour of the campus and artists’ studios, a pottery sale, children’s activities, and live music by the Gorham-based bluegrass
band Jerks of Grass.
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Cathy Black, left, of Bremen assists her granddaughter Fable Reese, right, in making a face mask at the kids’ tent at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts Salad Days fundraiser in Newcastle July 12. (Tim Badgley photo) |
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Robbie Lobell, co-owner of Cook On Clay, a ceramic cookware company and Sam Hayward, chef-owner of Fore Street Restaurant in Portland presented a talk about
sustainable farming, locally grown food and handmade ceramics.
According to Hayward, his restaurant buys a tremendous amount of produce and lamb from Dandelion Spring Farm and Straw Farm, which are both adjacent to the Watershed
campus.
“Almost all the lamb used in the restaurant, which is three per week when available, comes from Straw Farm,” Hayward said. “We have been working with Lee Straw for
more than 18 years now.”
Lobell was invited as guest artist by Watershed not only to deliver several talks but to participate in a three week residency, working with Watershed clay found
on-site.
“I’m going to do something different, something I want to do,” Lobell said. “I’m thinking of working with decals applied to pottery and making serving dishes.”
Salad Days also hosted another guest artist Trevor Dunn, assistant professor of ceramics at the University of North Florida, who delivered a talk about the method
and materials he used in constructing a wood-fired outdoor pizza oven just outside the back door of the Watershed dining commons.
Dunn said he specializes in the construction of brick ovens and prefers them to earthen kilns.
“The rectangle shape is beneficial,” Dunn said. “It provides for more room for wood than a round oven and is a more efficient heat source.”
Designer of the 2014 Salad Day plates, Jessica Brendl, returned to Watershed Center to attend the fundraising event. She earned her Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics
at Ohio State University.
According to Brendl, since leaving her residency at Watershed in 2013, she has continued working in residency programs with an eight-month stay at the West Palm
Beach Armory in Florida. She is currently artist-in-residence at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Mont.
Brendl said her first opportunity to produce a high volume of functional ware ceramics was at Watershed Center.
“I knew this was going to be a really hard project, making 500 pieces,” Brendl said.
Brendl said her work is inspired by local and regional themes. One of the four plate designs she created for Watershed includes a seaweed and lobster border motif.
Watershed Center executive director Fran Rudoff said Brendl’s plates are still available for sale.
“We’ve sold approximately 450 2014 Salad Day plates so far,” Rudoff said. “There are not many left.”
Deb Arter of Damariscotta and Tomlin Coggeshall of Newcastle select their Salad Days plates at the annual fundraising event for Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle July 12. (Tim Badgley photo) |
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Rudoff said leftover Salad Day plates from 2014 and past years as well as functional and sculptural work by ceramic artists will be available for sale at a Harvest
Dinner, Oct. 12 at 1 p.m. Dandelion Spring and Straw Farms and Fore Street Restaurant will partner with Watershed in sponsoring the event.
Stephanie Rozene, a trustee of Watershed Center conducted a tour of the kiln shed and barn that houses the artists’ studios. This is where the residency programs are
held and the place where the Salad Days plates are made.
Stuart Gair of Hudson, Ohio is the 2015 Salad Days artist. He is midway through his residency and has already produced 250 plates.
Gair has earned a Bachelor’s degree in History at Ohio University in Athens and will be working toward a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics at the University of
Nebraska following his Watershed Center residency.
Gair said his work is influenced by forests, tree bark, and grasses and enjoys experimenting with surface treatments and textures.
“I’m replicating a wheat grass pattern on the plates,” Gair said. “I’m interested in thick forests and specifically the space that divides them, so I’ve been
dividing my plate design in two halves.”
According to Gair, the routine of completing such a large production is meditative. He has been surprised by the longer drying time of the Watershed clay that is dug
directly out of a hill adjacent to the barn. Gair said he will return for Watershed’s 2015 Salad Days.
“This was one of the most successful Salad Days events ever,” Rudoff said. “We were thrilled that so many people from the community came to celebrate with us.”
Located off Route 1 on Cochran Road in Newcastle, Watershed Center hosts 100 artists from around the world and every corner of the country each year in summer and
fall residency programs, according to Rudoff. For more information visit the website at http://wwwwatershedceramics.org.
