• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • BLOG
  • WRESTLING WITH GOD BOOK
  • CONTACT

Barbara Falconer Newhall

Veteran journalist Barbara Falconer Newhall riffs on life as she knows it.

  • A CASE OF THE HUMAN CONDITION
  • MY EVER-CHANGING FAMILY
  • WRITING & READING
  • MY ROCKY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
  • WIDOWED
  • FUNNY BUTTON

California Clay: Oozing, Writhing, Glistening Art. Now at the Bedford Gallery

February 3, 2024 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 2 Comments

california clay blot-by-Mary-Alison-Lucas
California Clay: Detail of “Blot,” a work in stoneware clay and nichrome wires by Mary Alison Lucas. It’s part of the California Clay show now at the Bedford Gallery. Photos by Barbara Newhall

Is it a porcupine? Or a toad? Whatever it is, your fingers can’t help wanting to reach out to touch the prickly, worty thing. But, hands off! This is a work of ceramic art, and a sign warns, “Please Do Not Touch.”

You can do all the looking you want for the next few weeks, however. Mary Alison Lucas’ homely creature will be on view through March 31 at the Bedford Gallery of the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California.

It’s part of a show, “California Clay,” where ceramic art appears to have forgotten how to look like art and chooses instead to ooze, glisten, drip and writhe.

Itchy Fingers?

If your fingers itch to fondle one of these works of art — not a problem. For $3,600, “Blot” can be all yours. Take it home. Touch it all you want. Introduce it to your pet iguana.

Same goes for Ahn Lee’s  “Miasma,” priced at $4,400. Or Erik Scollon’s “Lava Lamp,” a more affordable $500.

Or just head on out to the Lesher Center, take a look, and enjoy the wonderful stuff on view. hands behind your back.

More notes on clay at “Ceramics Envy at the Berkeley Art Center — I Want to Get My Hands Into That Earthy, Messy Squishy Clay.”  Also,  “I’ve Got a Pile of Antique Bricks in My Backyard. And They’re Headed for the Dump.”

california clay miasma-ahn-lee
Detail of Ahn Lee’s beautiful, writhing “Miasma.” Glazed porcelain.
california clay erik-scollon-lava-lamp
Erik Scollon’s oozing “Lava Lamp.” Layers of glaze on stoneware.
california clay reniel-del-rosario-sunday-painters-studio
Reniel Del Rosario’s ceramic and glaze “Sunday Painter’s Studio,” with brushes crying out to be dipped into paint.
california clay Nathan-Lynch-glazed-ceramic
At the California Clay show, Nathan Lynch’s glistening glazed ceramic — stepstool? —  tempts the viewer to take a seat.

do-not-touch-sign

 

Filed Under: House and Garden

Share This with a Friend

Share

If you enjoyed this, get my Latest Riffs on Life!

We respect your privacy and do not share your email with anyone. [convertkit form=1389962]

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Sharie McNamee says

    February 4, 2024 at 9:52 am

    I like the old fashioned lava best

    Reply
    • Barbara Falconer Newhall says

      February 4, 2024 at 8:41 pm

      😉

      Reply

Leave a Reply to Barbara Falconer Newhall Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

GET MY Riffs on Life BY EMAIL

True stories often told through a humorous lens–because you just can't make them up!

We respect your privacy and do not share your email with anyone.

 

LET’S CONNECT

ON THE FUNNY SIDE

The (Two-Year-Old) Rhetorician at Our House

Two-year-old girl enjoys her bottle in her crib with blankies. Photo by BF Newhall

What’s rhetoric? I’ve always thought of it as the high-flown language of politics. But really, it’s something we humans do all the time, and that includes the two-year-old humans among us.

 

MORE "ON THE FUNNY SIDE"

CATEGORIES

  • A Case of the Human Condition
  • My Ever-Changing Family
  • On Writing & Reading
  • My Rocky Spiritual Journey

 
Need some levity? Push my Funny Button!

TO MY READERS

Please feel free to share links to my posts with one and all and to quote briefly from them in your own writing, remembering, of course, to attribute the quote to me and to provide a link back to this site.

My Oakland Tribune columns, btw, are reprinted by permission of the Trib. With the exception of review copies of books, I do not accept ads or freebies of any kind. Click on the "Contact" button if you have questions. Enjoy!

 

DON’T MISS!

Turn of the 2oth century men and women on vacation struggling to climb the steep sandy slope of Eagle Top on Lake Michigan.

A Dune on Lake Michigan: We Couldn’t Climb Eagle Top — So We Paid Homage From Afar

woodland-skipper-butterfly

There’s a Pollinator in My Pollinator Garden

Writer Barbara Falconer Newhall in her writing room holding a copy of her book contract with Bondfire Books. Photo by Jon Newhall

Yea! A Book Contract for “Wrestling with God”

pregnant-woman

Unplanned Pregnancy? I Wasn’t as Alone as I Thought

MORE DON'T MISS!

© 2009–2025 Barbara Falconer Newhall All rights reserved. · Log in