It was First Friday, again, and there I was back at my favorite haunt, the Clay Studio, where Rain Harris’ “Gilding the Lily” pieces joined voluptuous baroque architectural decoration with venomous femininity (shown, Presuming Desire).The surreal pieces, shaped tiles with pearly glazes arranged like moldings on the wall, were as spectacular to me as they were to Roberta when she reviewed them back in September at Temple’s Tyler campus (see her Sept. 21, 2003 post), so I won’t say much except, if you haven’t seen these creations, which turn walls into decorated women and make me think of Elizabeth Taylor (if only she had a grip on how to turn her bad taste into something beyond taste), go look.
Of all the things I saw Friday, this took the cake, the prize and the laurel wreath (shown, Pretty in Pink detail). (Roberta and I went separate ways and saw different things, so she’ll have a different take on better and best.)
The work eclipsed the rest of the work at the Clay Studio, and especially drained the life from the group of out-of-town potters showing in the back room, their work trapped in traditional shapes, with only glazes to rescue them from dinnerware.
