If you stroll by Kim Murton’s west Vancouver picture window, beware: You might get made into a flathead.
That’s what Murton calls her whimsical ceramic portraits of people and other strange creatures. Sometimes the faces that she forms, decorates and fires in her street-facing studio are versions of unsuspecting passers-by, she confessed.
A new art exhibit now at Vancouver City Hall features Murton’s flat-headed portrayals of the citizens of our town. It’ll be up through June in the lobby and some of the conference rooms.
“Flathead” isn’t a swipe at your brain capacity, by the way; it only refers to the dimensions of these artworks, which are flat like plates and hanging on walls. Murton also does “roundheads” and “half-rounds” — as well as a huge assortment of other artworks.
She grew up in New York and worked with clay before falling in love with drawing and animation. She did cel-by-cel drawing for TV commercials — a discipline that’s never left her, she said Tuesday while penciling lines onto a huge clay head that dominated her studio. She’s always been a doodler, she said. Recently she’s sold illustrations to The New York Times. She posts a daily drawing on her website, http://kimmurton.blogspot.com.
But Murton still loves getting her hands covered with clay. She remembers being wowed by “Closed Mondays,” an early “claymation” classic by Portland-based animation wizard Will Vinton — in which a drunkard stumbles through a museum while the artworks come to life.
Clay artworks — and clay plates, bowls, mugs and other functional pieces — have long been the bulk of Murton’s living, she said, and she stays so busy cranking out those pieces that she’s hired an assistant to help.
“I still love opening up the kiln. I love seeing my doodles made into real life. I love getting into the mud,” she said. “Clay is great.”
Meet the curators
Alongside Murton’s work at Vancouver City Hall are the three-dimensional artworks of Gesine Krätzner and Baba Wagué Diakité, mixed-media artists based in Portland who hail from distant places — Krätzner from Germany and Diakité from Mali. Krätzner, like Murton, has a background in animation that comes through in her humorous sculptural pieces; Diakité’s works are infused with the vibrant colors and folk traditions of West Africa.
This three-artist show was put together by Jess Graff, Vancouver City Hall’s curator-in-residence for 2017. A Corvallis, Ore., native, Graff is also a ceramicist as well as an educator who has brought art lessons into elementary schools and community centers. In addition to curating Vancouver City Hall, she’s the artist-in-residence manager at the Portland Children’s Museum. She will curate three City Hall exhibits this year.
“With each show, I want to make sure that we have a diverse group of artists whose styles could play well off each other, but they’re not exactly the same,” she said.
You can explore all three artists’ works during a guided tour of the exhibit, 6 p.m. on May 8.
Also, Graff will be on hand for a casual meet-and-greet from 6-8 p.m. April 18 at Angst Gallery, 1015 Main St. Erin Dengerink, who curates the sixth-floor Rebecca Anstine Gallery in Clark County Service Center, will be there too.
And what does Graff — who has little connection with Vancouver, and didn’t know we recently came in second in a nationwide City Hall beauty contest — think of our humble little runner-up?
“It’s a beautiful building,” she said. “What a great space for art.”
Serious ceramics
Graff wanted this Vancouver exhibit of 3-D art to overlap with a truly immense one that opens today in Portland: the 51st annual conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. Thousands of ceramic artists and their fans are expected to attend.
Many of the events and exhibitions at NCECA are free and open to the public — including a project space where you can watch artists work and representative galleries from all over the country where you can shop. Tonight’s opening ceremonies, keynote talk and performance art by “Pepper the Potter” are also free and open to all.
Visit http://nceca.net to view the busy program of events. While you’re at it, read the preview of that keynote speech, which likens these strained political times to a high-temperature kiln, and sees a serious need for serious art. Not exactly what you’d expect from a bunch of potters.
The world of ceramic art is viewed much more seriously than it used to be, Murton said. “It used to be seen as a hobby for a wife,” she said. “Ceramics are finally being accepted and appreciated as a real art form.”