We started
NCECA (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) annual conference, last week in Philadelphia in miserable weather, over half of the planes were delayed. A lot of students were driving through blizzards from the north. However, it didn't stop over 5,000 clay/ fire maniacs gather to share.
Wednesday turned to be a perfect day for continuous shuttle loops tour. I did the Museum and Center City route, 10 stops and visited over twenty galleries and exhibitions. Every time I would like to think I've seen just about everything you can do with clay, I got surprised again. I guess that's part of the clay magic.
Shared room with the Hasegawa family in the conference hotel. All the lectures, panel discussions, movies, demos, conference shows were just downstairs. We also fully utilized China Town across the street for breakfast, lunch and dinner. After a day and a half of indoor activities, we ventured out to the Old City route by subway to see the rest of the exhibitions. Feeling very lucky that I didn't miss the Clay Studio, The Works and Snyderman Gallery.
Normally the conference ended with refreshing presentation by a number of emerging artists and closing lecture by a veteran on Saturday morning. John Oles is my favorite young artists this year and Malcolm Davis's lecture just topped everything I've heard. He started clay late in his life after twenty years of being a social activist, struggle for social justice. At age 72, He still tries to answer the haunting question - "What difference does clay make anyway?" Since, it is one of the BIG question in the back of my mind, I feel totally related to every sentence. Also knowing no one can answer one's personal struggle, seeing his journey of transformation through clay gave me enough inspiration and courage to face the question again.
We wandered out to find Rodin Garden along Benjamin Franklin Pky under clear blue sky but end up with the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It turns out to be the biggest treasure in town. After 3 hrs of totally immerse in thousands of year of human cultures from the east and west, I stepped out the west exit and ready to get on bus 38. I looked down and saw Fairmount Park along Schuylkill river, thinking what a way to end the trip. Not until Sunday morning while waiting for the shuttle to the airport, I noticed the peak of cherry blossom right in front of the hotel main entrance, which I only used once during the miserable rain the first day, and missed them all. More photos of the trip
click here.
This year, instead of books, I indulged myself with a couple of very nice trimming tools from the conference. As the box describes; Sharp! The feeling is like handling sushi knife, instead of butter knife.
Bison (far right) is no question the best in the industry, costs 5 times as much as the Dolan (center). However, when your tool is sharper than you (or simply that I'm not very sharp), accident is waiting to happen. I paid a small extra price with my finger today. No biggie, just a small cut. 
