Our Time with Julia Galloway

“Julia shared three beautiful July days with us at sfclayworks and shared her clay philosophy. She told us about her appreciation for labor, passion, and beauty. Together we looked at many inspiring historic pots. She emphasized that we can’t help where we are from and how the clouds of Montana end up on her pots. We learned a lot, ate a lot, and laughed a lot! Thank you Julia Galloway!” __@sfclayworks

The above comments captured the events of our Julia Galloway workshop at sfclayworks in a nutshell and were provide by Saba Parsa. Below we will try to recap in more detail the impact her visit had on some of us.

Three beautiful days with Julia

The workshop covered lots of ground in a very short time. The workshop started on Friday evening with a well attended artist opening featuring Julia’s beautiful wares on display in the gallery. If you were lucky, you were able to purchase work to add to your ceramics collection.

After the Gallery opening, Julia gave an artist talk and slide show. Julia’s evening talk was extremely interesting and she managed to keep the audience fully engaged and impressed. Julia shared some of her past work with us; the descriptions of her monumental installations, “The Birds of North America”, and her “Library” installation showed how much “larger” a singular ceramic object could be when part of a greater whole. It is unfortunate that there was not a permanent home for some of her larger concept oriented installations, as they seem much greater if they were allowed to remain together. Based on a comment overheard in the crowd, I think many of us will never look at the potential impact of ceramics the same after seeing her work.

On Saturday and Sunday she continued to open our eyes wider to the world of pottery history and decoration. There were many who felt that Julia’s depth of knowledge and love for what she does provided us with a mini history of pottery through the ages. Julia’s insightful commentary as we looked at historical pottery will forever alter the way that many workshop attendants will look at pottery in the future.

Julia also demonstrated some of the techniques she uses to make her amazing work and shared with us the incredible resources she has on her website to help artists navigate their way through the art world. If you have not checked her site out yet, you must! Julia’s “Field Guide for Ceramic Artists” is an incredible resource for anyone in the ceramic arts.

An added bonus was the chance to try out her slip inlay technique on a cup that she had prepared for us. Julia also provided a few brave souls the opportunity to get feedback on their work. I think the opportunity to hear comments from someone as knowledgable and passionate for her craft was invaluable.

Overall, as the opening comments by Saba Parsa said, “it was three beautiful July days at sfclayworks with Julia!”

Below are photos of what you missed!