Not all expressions of ceramic art are vessels, of course, but that’s a good place to start if you’re inclined to stop in at River Gallery in Rocky River, which celebrates its 6th Annual Cermamics Invitational through May 25. The gallery is 19046 Old Detroit Road, Rocky River.

More than 30 of the region’s finest ceramics artists parade their talent with form, glaze and surface decoration. Check out Bonnie Gordon’s electric sense of color, Brian Sarama’s mysterious, story-infused plates, and  sense of narrative and Diane Bjel’s nodule-covered “Bird Jar.” You’ll fine nods to nature, odes to architecture and — if you’ve got the vessel lust — plenty to love.

Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 pm. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

The works are part of “The Missing Piece,” an interactive exhibition that began in March 2006, when Schneider came upon a strange little particleboard puzzle piece during a walk in the woods.

“I had no idea how long it had been in the desert, who had placed it there or if it had fallen from the sky,” writes Schneider. “It was definitely a profound, Eureka moment for me. I flipped it over to make sure nothing was living underneath it, picked it up, and carried it back down to the car and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since.”

This is the essence of the artist, no? To consider the stuff that drops in from nowhere and try to find meaning? Schneider has perpetuated the meaning-making by replicating the piece and hiding the replications throughout  Ohio. Schneider has linked her prints to maps that indicate the location of the replicated pieces. Maps will be distributed at the gallery from 5 to 9 p.m. May 18th.

In the meantime, gallery visitors can experience the “Missing Piece” exhibit at Legation, 1300 W. 78th St., Cleveland. Call 216-650-4201. Check them out online at www.legationagallery.com.

Each week we point you to happenings in galleries, artist studios, and museums that make Greater Cleveland a robust place for art lovers. We always make sure to let you know what Red Dot Project member artists are up to. And because a passionate, art-going audience is a key to the success of our artists and the cultural health of the region, we also shine a light on anything else we think you should know about.

So if you’re an artist, let us know if you have news to share.
If you’re a reader — thanks for visiting. Stop and scroll the events here often!

Carol Barton's "Small Gardens" is a carousel book

One of the great, under-acknowledged treasures of the Cleveland art scene is the Morgan Conservatory, a non-profit center dedicated to handmade paper and the book arts.And what greater way to get to know the Morgan than to take a workshop on constructing a three-dimensional carousel or “star” book? This engaging form has a beloved place in the history of the book, and lends itself to endless contemporary interpretations.Paper engineer extraordinaire Carol Barton visits the Morgan May 19 and 20 for two info-packed days of instruction on the form. For a better look at Barton’s work, or to see a gallery of carousel books, check out www.popularkinetics.com. For more info on the workshop at the Morgan, visit www.morganconservatory.org. The Morgan is located at 1754 E. 47th Street Cleveland. Gallery Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Drawn And Quartered started four years ago when a handful of local drawing groups assembled to compete, Olympic style (well, almost) in figure drawing events. Competitors choose long-pose or fast-pose contests, trying to capture the best representation of models from the art and fashion world. The audience votes, and artwork will be sold after the competition.

The teams:

The Murray Hill Drawing Group
Dr. Sketchy Cleveland
Pretentious Tremont Artists of the Literary Care
N.O.I.S. (The Northern Ohio Illustrators Society)

It all starts at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 19, at the Loren Naji Studio Gallery, 2138 West 25th Street, Cleveland, OH 44113

The artists featured will have artwork perfect for gifts.  While you are in the building, check out the studios of RED DOT Project artists, Michael Greenwald, Laurel Herbold and Susie Frazier.

W78th Street Studios is located at 1300 W78th Street, Cleveland.  The exhibition is part of Third Fridays running from 5 – 9.

“My observation of the natural world as a basis for making my art has led to my increasing concern for maintaining our planet,” says Nancy Richards-Davis, who makes abstract paintings using encaustic, a beeswax-based medium.

“I am very concerned with the problem of hive abandonment among bee populations,” she says. But the issue isn’t just that a dwindling bee population makes beeswax more expensive for her. It’s that thriving hives feed a healthy planet.

Richards-Davis is one of the 15 artists whose work has adorned the PNC SmartHome, a model home in University Circle that demonstrates sustainable building technologies. RED DOT Project and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History collaborated in finding Northeast Ohio artists whose methods, materials or subject matter echoed the theme of sensitivity to the environment.

Richards-Davis easily met the criteria.

“I spent two years working on a show in collaboration with artist/photographer Bradley Hart on a project titled ’1 Degree of Change. ‘ Part of my concept in that work was the metaphor of the fusing of encaustic (in beeswax painting, each layer of wax must be heated and fused to the previous layer) to the warming of the planet.”

Hart, who is also a SmartHome artist, created six black and white photographs while  Richards-Davis did six encaustic works. Each addressed issues around climate change. “Bleaching,” featured at the SmartHome, explores the rising temperature of the seawater and its effects on the coral reefs. (Like other featured art and decor, it will be at the Smart Art Sale, which takes place from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.)

Being green is a local issue, too. In Richards-Davis’s studio, she uses rags rather than paper towels and weighs the benefits of using the more expensive but environmentally friendly soy wax to clean brushes. Her other option is paraffin, which is petroleum-based.

In the end, though, her work isn’t just about the right methods and materials. It’s about aesthetically beautiful abstraction and what it evokes.

“I think that in our superficial, fast-paced world, art asks us to slow down long enough to consider, ponder and reflect,” says the artist. “As for what it does for me, it allows me to play my one note in the symphony. ”

Artwork shown: Bleaching, Nancy Richards-Davis

For Nicole McGee, both questions lead to the same spot. McGee’s art business, Plenty Underfoot, owes its very existence to the artist’s response to her environment.

“I find creativity in the excess and scraps of other people’s work and lives,” says McGee. “I let the materials themselves inspire me.  I currently work a lot with vinyl flooring samples, plastic bottles, cereal boxes, telephone wire, and brown paper bags.”

McGee works in Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood. She’s one of 15 artists whose work has adorned the PNC SmartHome, an example of low-environmental-impact living that has been on display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

The SmartHome can be toured throughout this week, and visitors will see, among other things, McGee’s flowers made out of vinyl floor covering she found at Cleveland’s ZeroLandfill, which recovers design materials and provides them for upcycling to artists and teachers. McGee’s other flowers  – shiny and brightly colored — are made of recycled 2-liter pop bottles.

“I look at the end products of what happens around me, and I think of it through a creative lens,” says McGee. “My husband likes to drink pop from 2-liters, for example.  I saved the bottles, knowing they could be reused in a creative way.  From that process of saving the leftover containers and considering them from a new angle, the bottom bottle flowers were born.  The challenge is not saving too much; we all have to throw some things away!”

McGee likes re-using materials in part because they have a story.  Yet her work itself tends not to have the patina of age, but to be cheery and bright. It’s the same energy you get from McGee herself, when she considers the importance of what she and other artists do.

“This is my art, it is what I see when I’m not trying to see anything at all,” she says. ”It’s what happens between my brain, my hands, and leftover materials of all sorts.  It’s an expression of what I care about in the world.    Art is important in the world because it’s what some people do when they’re being as true to themselves as they ever will be.  Who wouldn’t want more of that in the world?”

Nicole’s flower vases, along with works by other SmartHome artists and designers, will be part of the SmartSale from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday Oct. 9. The SmartHome sits adjacent to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in University Circle.

Photo Credit: Laura Watilo Blake

It’s an evocative nod to Zielski’s love of nature, done in metal etching — another love, which she discovered by accident when she was teaching high school art.

“I was researching non-toxic printmaking techniques that I might be able to safely bring into the classroom.  They ended up changing my schedule and I didn’t teach that particular class, but I fell in love with the process and have been working with it ever since.  I started Copper Leaf Studios a few years later, and now it’s where I work full time.”

Zielski makes copper maps and metal wall art from hand-cut etched copper and zinc, layering colors and textures.  In addition to natural imagery, she does science-inspired art, too.

“What holds them together are the delicate surfaces filled with rich texture and color,” she says.

Recently she’s been working with photo transfer on metal, using her own imagery and scientific drawings and diagrams from the 16th through 18th centuries. She also does commissions using favorite photographic images provided by others.

“While art can have various political or social purposes, I see my artwork more as comfort food for the soul,” she says.  ”I want it to be interesting and intriguing, but mostly I hope it helps create a warm, comfortable space. My copper maps are often commissioned by people who want to honor a particular moment in their lives. I love that my work gets to play such an important role. ”

Large Copper Branch, along with works by other SmartHome artists and designers, will be part of the SmartSale from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday Oct. 9. The SmartHome sits adjacent to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in University Circle.

“According to Greenopolis.com, of the 300 million cases of wine sold each year in the United States, almost none of the bottles are reused and 70 percent end up in landfills,” she says.

We’re accustomed to seeing every new plastic water bottle as a blight on the planet, but it’s a little head-spinning to think of wine bottles in the same way. They’re so attractively made and beautifully labeled. Some of us have bought wine of uncertain quality based solely on the beauty of the packaging!

Well, Tucker understands — and she’s doing her part to preserve that beauty.

By day, she does marketing and promotion for independent artists and arts organizations. By the other part of her day, she operates wine2wick, selling upcycled wine and liquor bottles that she cuts by hand and fills with soy candles. She sells them at several home-decorating stores locally. They’re also part of the decor at the PNC SmartHome, which is on display through this week in University Circle.

“I come from a long line of ecology-minded creative thinkers, and have always valued the principles of treating the earth with respect and re-using and recycling whenever possible,” Tucker says. “Creating something long-lasting, fun and functional from a bottle that has served its original purpose clicks with me – and with wine2wick patrons.”

The earth-friendly nature of the candles is obvious.

“I proudly leave friends’ homes toting empties and have worked with restaurants to collect their empties,” she says. “The soy-based wax I use is earth-friendlier than petroleum-based waxes and supports the farming industry. ”

Tucker also buys supplies locally whenever possible.

The candles, along with works by other SmartHome artists and designers, will be part of the SmartSale from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday Oct. 9. The SmartHome sits adjacent to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in University Circle.