"Crashing Horse Teapot" Awarded Best of Show
at Ceramic Showcase 2007
Dennis Meiners has been participating in the Oregon Potter's Association CERAMIC SHOWCASE since it's beginning, 25 years ago. The show began with a few dozen potters at the Oregon Forestry Center and has grown to a sophisticated annual event at Portland's Convention Center with over 230 ceramic artists exhibiting. Booths represent individual ceramic artists and a central gallery displays the best of each artist's work for an annual competition for Best of Show. Members of the association vote for what they feel is the strongest piece in the gallery, both in terms of aesthetics and excellent craftsmanship, and an awards ceremony on opening night announces the winners of several kinds of awards. Dennis' work is known for highly textured surfaces and metaphoric content. In a recent Artist's Statement he says:
"The act of making things is a magical privilege for which I have made and will make many sacrifices. I have found that the objects that result from the act of making are secondary to being in the process of bringing those objects into existence. Whether the act of making results in a coffee cup, a sculpture, a drawing or a poem, the immersion in the process is a journey through an imaginative landscape where possibility reigns supreme and taking advantage of what is there is a chimerical game. I have compared this experience to riding a horse at night. The objective is to trust the horse, not fall off, and be awake to see where I have arrived when the light returns." |