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ENLARGE
Samples of raku, created by a Japanese firing technique, almost beg to be admired at the Idleyld Park home of Peter and Lynn Alsen. Peter Alsen will have a few pieces in the Hundred Valleys Northwest Juried Art Show and Competition at the Umpqua Valley Arts Center in Roseburg.
So you know...
WHAT: Umpqua Valley Arts Association presents the third annual Hundred Valleys Northwest Juried Art Show and Competition. The show features 52 pieces representing artists from Oregon, California and Washington.
WHERE: Umpqua Valley Arts Center, 1624 W. Harvard Ave., Roseburg
WHEN: An artists' reception is scheduled for 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, with the awards ceremony taking place at 6:15 p.m. in the Hallie Brown Ford Gallery. The show will run through Oct. 30.
RECEPTION HIGHLIGHTS: Harpist Laura Angel will perform. No-host wine bar by Henry Estate Winery. Appetizers will be served. Three artists will receive cash awards of $500, $300 and $200 and one artist will receive a People's Choice award.
INFORMATION: 672-2532
WHERE: Umpqua Valley Arts Center, 1624 W. Harvard Ave., Roseburg
WHEN: An artists' reception is scheduled for 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, with the awards ceremony taking place at 6:15 p.m. in the Hallie Brown Ford Gallery. The show will run through Oct. 30.
RECEPTION HIGHLIGHTS: Harpist Laura Angel will perform. No-host wine bar by Henry Estate Winery. Appetizers will be served. Three artists will receive cash awards of $500, $300 and $200 and one artist will receive a People's Choice award.
INFORMATION: 672-2532
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ENLARGE
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Peter Alsen of Idleyld Park fires up another raku creation.
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ENLARGE
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Peter Alsen
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Enter Peter Alsen's studio: a whimsical world on a hilltop in Idleyld Park.
In Alsen's studio, creativity is allowed to breathe a long fantastic whistle of relief.
The shelves are inhabited with petite birds perched on hippopotamus' backs, upside-down and ball-balancing elephants, frogs lollygagging on lily pads and grinning pelicans swallowing shimmering fish.
There are monkeys stacked on rhinoceroses stacked on elephants. There are pyramids of polar bears and cantankerous Moroccan camels.
The rabbits are tangible cartoons — a piece of a fantasy in the palm of Alsen's hand.
“I can't get 'em to not look evil for some reason,” he said with a chuckle.
Alsen and his wife Lynn work together primarily in raku — an ancient Japanese firing technique — to create large Oriental vases and animal-shaped vessels.
The Alsens' home caters to their lifestyle with a pair of sheds in the backyard. One holds an electric kiln and a raku kiln with a dirt pit just outside the door. Another is filled with buckets of burnt orange, eye-shadow purple and desert-yellow glazes, which Peter blends onto his clay with paintbrushes, resulting in playful colors to match his outlandish creations.
“They all have belly buttons and fat cheeks,” he said. “They sort of unintentionally take on my characteristics. None have any hair...”
Alsen attaches hand-built sculptures to wheel-thrown jars and lids. He refers to his ceremonial vessels as “hyper-Oriental” because of their unreserved nature.
His animal figures resemble children's book illustrations with age-old flair; their surfaces crackled in black patterns.
Once the pieces are fired in the kiln, they're picked up, red-hot and glowing, with tongs and covered with buckets in the pit. Lynn and Peter sprinkle the pieces with sawdust until they ignite again.
The charred animals are hosed off and cleaned by hand with a toothbrush and a Brillo pad — Peter's least favorite part of the process. Alsen said his audience is people who want a piece of art they can smile at, not study and interpret.
“It's something people can just buy and enjoy,” he said. “It's the simplicity of it.”
The potter's love for ceramics started at Roseburg High School with a teacher who had big ideas, such as television with a gaping mouth and a set of pearly whites.
For Peter, the teacher was a perfect match.
“He was real inspiring,” he said. “He was great for me.”
Peter and Lynn, both 1973 RHS graduates, were high school sweethearts. Lynn said Peter even persuaded her to take a ceramics class in high school.
“It was the only D I ever got in my whole life,” she said.
Circumstances pulled the two teens apart, and Peter went on to study art on a fine arts scholarship at the University of Oregon. In 1990, he moved to Georgia, where he worked full-time for a large engineering firm but still made time for pottery.
It was at their 30th class reunion in 2003 that Lynn and Peter rekindled their relationship. Peter talked Lynn into moving to Georgia; last year, Lynn talked Peter into retiring in Douglas County.
It's safe to say Lynn is one of Peter's most loyal fans. Through the years of separation, Lynn kept and cared for some of Peter's first pieces of pottery. While Peter worked full-time in Georgia the last couple of years, it was Lynn who glazed his creations.
Locally, Alsen's art can be found only at the Umpqua Valley Arts Center, where three of his pieces were recently selected for the third annual “Hundred Valleys” Northwest Juried Art Show and Competition. The show opens Friday.
Artists from Oregon, California and Washington submitted a total of 168 images for the show. From those images, juror Walt Padgett of Grants Pass selected 52 images.
Padgett, who taught art at the community college level for more than 30 years, said there's always a bit of fear and trepidation judging art from a CD.
“I went with fewer artists who showed more of a representation of their work,” he said, adding that he hopes the show is encouraging and inspirational.
While Alsen entered pieces in this particular show, the artist isn't interested in teaching classes or chasing art festivals. He can barely keep up with the current demand for his work.
“I'm all about making pottery,” he said with smile as he brushed a clear glaze onto a porcupine's buck teeth.
• You can reach reporter Cara Pallone at 957-4208 or by e-mail at cpallone@nrtoday.com.
In Alsen's studio, creativity is allowed to breathe a long fantastic whistle of relief.
The shelves are inhabited with petite birds perched on hippopotamus' backs, upside-down and ball-balancing elephants, frogs lollygagging on lily pads and grinning pelicans swallowing shimmering fish.
There are monkeys stacked on rhinoceroses stacked on elephants. There are pyramids of polar bears and cantankerous Moroccan camels.
The rabbits are tangible cartoons — a piece of a fantasy in the palm of Alsen's hand.
“I can't get 'em to not look evil for some reason,” he said with a chuckle.
Alsen and his wife Lynn work together primarily in raku — an ancient Japanese firing technique — to create large Oriental vases and animal-shaped vessels.
The Alsens' home caters to their lifestyle with a pair of sheds in the backyard. One holds an electric kiln and a raku kiln with a dirt pit just outside the door. Another is filled with buckets of burnt orange, eye-shadow purple and desert-yellow glazes, which Peter blends onto his clay with paintbrushes, resulting in playful colors to match his outlandish creations.
“They all have belly buttons and fat cheeks,” he said. “They sort of unintentionally take on my characteristics. None have any hair...”
Alsen attaches hand-built sculptures to wheel-thrown jars and lids. He refers to his ceremonial vessels as “hyper-Oriental” because of their unreserved nature.
His animal figures resemble children's book illustrations with age-old flair; their surfaces crackled in black patterns.
Once the pieces are fired in the kiln, they're picked up, red-hot and glowing, with tongs and covered with buckets in the pit. Lynn and Peter sprinkle the pieces with sawdust until they ignite again.
The charred animals are hosed off and cleaned by hand with a toothbrush and a Brillo pad — Peter's least favorite part of the process. Alsen said his audience is people who want a piece of art they can smile at, not study and interpret.
“It's something people can just buy and enjoy,” he said. “It's the simplicity of it.”
The potter's love for ceramics started at Roseburg High School with a teacher who had big ideas, such as television with a gaping mouth and a set of pearly whites.
For Peter, the teacher was a perfect match.
“He was real inspiring,” he said. “He was great for me.”
Peter and Lynn, both 1973 RHS graduates, were high school sweethearts. Lynn said Peter even persuaded her to take a ceramics class in high school.
“It was the only D I ever got in my whole life,” she said.
Circumstances pulled the two teens apart, and Peter went on to study art on a fine arts scholarship at the University of Oregon. In 1990, he moved to Georgia, where he worked full-time for a large engineering firm but still made time for pottery.
It was at their 30th class reunion in 2003 that Lynn and Peter rekindled their relationship. Peter talked Lynn into moving to Georgia; last year, Lynn talked Peter into retiring in Douglas County.
It's safe to say Lynn is one of Peter's most loyal fans. Through the years of separation, Lynn kept and cared for some of Peter's first pieces of pottery. While Peter worked full-time in Georgia the last couple of years, it was Lynn who glazed his creations.
Locally, Alsen's art can be found only at the Umpqua Valley Arts Center, where three of his pieces were recently selected for the third annual “Hundred Valleys” Northwest Juried Art Show and Competition. The show opens Friday.
Artists from Oregon, California and Washington submitted a total of 168 images for the show. From those images, juror Walt Padgett of Grants Pass selected 52 images.
Padgett, who taught art at the community college level for more than 30 years, said there's always a bit of fear and trepidation judging art from a CD.
“I went with fewer artists who showed more of a representation of their work,” he said, adding that he hopes the show is encouraging and inspirational.
While Alsen entered pieces in this particular show, the artist isn't interested in teaching classes or chasing art festivals. He can barely keep up with the current demand for his work.
“I'm all about making pottery,” he said with smile as he brushed a clear glaze onto a porcupine's buck teeth.
• You can reach reporter Cara Pallone at 957-4208 or by e-mail at cpallone@nrtoday.com.
