Clay. Clay is ever the art form. From flags to farms and from fruit to families, the glazed ceramics of Kasse Andrew-Weller are happy, and make you happy. It’s life as it was and should be.
It has always been that way for Kasse—from childhood to now: “Through my art, I express and preserve memories that can still take me to my Happy Place.” For Kasse, it’s a slice of the universe that is wonderfully imaginative and playful. It hovers in the magical space between the naïve ideal and the tarnished reality, forever fresh and fun—it creates its own undeniable certainty.
Kasse has two Masters degrees: one in Fine Arts (Sculpture) and the other in Strategic Studies. She says she used one to make a living and she is now, as a retired Air Force Colonel, following her ion for making art and exhibiting in solo and group shows.
In addition to glazed ceramics, she uses wood, mosaic stones, embroidery thread and metal as well as other available materials. Kasse is also dedicated to helping others find that happy, or at least, peaceful place in their lives through art. She works with veteran programs and groups and is always there for others.
Kasse Andrews-Weller finds happiness in that next step to the future through the past. You can find all of her themes at: www.kasseart.com.
If you are in need of peace and happiness this month, you can find her work at the Hill Center galleries. (See, At the Galleries.). They make great gifts and you can buy online. www.hillcenterdc.org
Jim Magner’s Thoughts on Art
Happy places often rise from the ground. I taught in the mid-70s on what was then the Papago Indian Reservation (now Tohono O’odham). There, I discovered Laura Kerman. She was reliving her own happy place. She had left the reservation as a girl and had spent her whole life in Tucson.
Now she was back in the village of Topawa. She came back to rediscover her grandmother’s ancient methods of making pots. She dug clay from the banks of nearby arroyos and shaped pottery and figures in all sizes and shapes. I was fascinated at how smoothly her gnarled hands could work the wet clay while my young hands couldn’t. She had to learn how to process the clay and when to put the earthen pots on the wall to dry in the morning—before the wind would blow and crack the clay.
She cooked them in pits behind her old adobe house—beneath mesquite branches. That too took much experimenting because there was no one to teach her.
She wanted to locate the white clay that the warriors wore in the old days when they were preparing to fight the Apaches. We drove the vast desert reservation on the Mexican border in my Ford Bronco, digging in dry arroyos until we found some. We tried it, but it wasn’t as good as the red clay.
Laura did not have electricity and refused hookups from the tribe. She got her water from a well. She grew her own corn and had chickens. She and her dog would fight off the big wolf that came to steal a hen.
Laura Kerman was very alive in her happy place. Looking back, it was my happy place too.
Make someone else’s place a happy one this year. There is much art, most of it very inexpensive, at the Hill Center, art galleries, and outdoor markets.
At the Galleries
Hill Center
921 Pennsylvania Ave., S. E.
—Dec 30
This “Hybrid Exhibit” brings you five favorite Hill Center artists. Their work is both on the walls and online. It is all great art, unbelievably inexpensive, and will make great and much-loved gifts.
Martha Pope: Pastel Landscapes.
Kasse Andrews-Weller: Happy Place (See, Artist Profile)
Ellen Cornet: Animal Crackers
Alan Braley: The Joy of Baseball
Monica Servaites: Refraction
Rosa Vera
Touchstone Gallery
901 New York Avenue NW
Dec 3–Jan 2, “
Opening Recep: Sun., Dec 5, 3–5
“For Land and Water” is a new series of paintings by Rosa Vera that embraces all that we hold dear—all that could be lost through climate change. Through floating patterns of symbols and color, she expresses the joy of beauty—the richness that subsists only through ecological vitality and the profusion of natural life forms.
See also Elaine Florimonte’s elaborate and compelling compositions that express the isolation and connectivity of all that we do and see.
On a personal note: You can watch the very short video (85 sec.) for my historical fiction novel, The Dead Man on the Corner. https://youtu.be/bQad2_Ck78Q
You can buy the book on both Amazon and Barnes and Nobel, along with my other new historical fiction novel, John Dillinger and Geronimo. See: www.JamesJohnMagner.com.
