For more information, contact Dave Barnes, 620-792-9342.

January 5, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Story by: Linda Jerke

Barton Community College’s Shafer Gallery will present the works of two ceramics artists, Marko Fields and Carol Long. An opening reception for the exhibit is planned for 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 9. In addition to the artists, the reception will feature Wichita guitarist John Francis in a one-hour concert beginning at 2 p.m.

Both Fields and Long share a love for visual texture, said Gallery Director Dave Barnes. “They create vessels that are covered with elaborate decorative details. Fields creates a mytho-poetic yet whimsical lost culture, while Long finds inspiration in the decorative revelry of the late 19th century Art Nouveau.” Both artists have Kansas roots.

Fields, a Wichita native, earned a bachelor’s degree in ceramics from the University of Kansas and a master’s degree, also in ceramics, from Kansas State University. He has been Resident Artist at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minn., since 2003.

Earlier in his career, he taught three-dimensional art at Seward County Community College and was artist/owner of Mind’s Eye Studio. He served as art director of Key West Publications in Key West, Fla., from 1988 to 1991. While in Key West, he also was an editorial cartoonist for the Key West Citizen, producing a weekly cartoon for the editorial section of the daily newspaper.

“I enjoy the marriage of materials, such as combining fabricated or cast metallic elements with ceramic forms. My surfaces are tactile, inviting touch,” Fields says in his artist’s statement. “I love to instill my work with humor, irreverence, animation and anthropomorphism.” More than its functionality, Fields said, he likes the metaphor of the vessel, particularly teapots or bottles, as they contain, serve and pour, which are significant activities when humans gather.

Long is a St. John High School graduate and continues to reside in St. John. She is a 1985 graduate of Barton Community College, where she majored in art. Following her graduation from Barton, she embarked on her art career, creating a studio in her home and specializing in ceramics.

She has been creating handmade ceramics since 1984. She says in her artist’s statement, “Presently, I use mid-range electric fired clays and glazes. I throw, hand build, extrude, slip trail and texturize by pressing, and I stain, spray glazes and paint glazes to create my work.”

She has continued taking art classes and participating in the many art workshops offered at Barton over the years following her graduation. She said she can see the influence of many of those instructors and workshop clinicians in her work today.

In high school, Long received her first instruction in ceramics from art instructor Sheldon Ganstrom. While she attended Barton and in the years following her graduation from the college, her mentors have included Barton instructors Jon Ulm, Glenda Taylor, Linda Ganstrom, Steve Dudek, Norma Ward, and many of the guest artists who have conducted workshops at the college.

Guitarist John Francis took up the guitar in Kansas City, Mo., at the age of 11. At 14, he studied classical guitar and arranging for a short time before shifting to the blues. When he moved to the Wichita area in 1979, he studied jazz and related styles with David Coffin. He studied with instructor Jerry Hahn at Wichita State University and earned a bachelor’s degree in communication with a minor in music composition in 1997. Today, he divides his time between teaching, composing, producing and promoting concert artists and their masterclasses as director of the Wichita Guitar Society, a position he has held since 2002.

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 "Extruded Bottles"
Carol Long

 “Gaia’s New Friend”
Marko Fields

 

“Gaia’s Sleepytime Nightwatch Teaboat”
Marko Fields

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The public is invited to see the ceramics exhibit and listen to Francis’s hour-long concert during the reception on Sunday. The exhibit will continue through Feb. 20.

All Shafer Gallery exhibits are presented in part by the Kansas Arts Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.