A Ceramic Sculptor And A Metal Sculptor

A student and a professional both create stunning vessels.

Didem Mert

In this past year as an undergraduate I’ve begun to take my knowledge as a ceramic sculptor and fuse it with my fascination of the intimate relationship between functional objects and the user.  Using the wheel as a tool, I throw elements of the form I intend to create, and attach them to handbuilt elements. The handbuilt counterparts are created using slabs, coils, and ceramic molds. My work often includes the addition of small pieces of scrap stained glass. The glass is inlayed into the clay, when leather hard, and after bisque is then wood fired. The glass reacts with the glazes and gives an added layer of depth, color, and visual interest. The work is then wood fired in a kiln I participated in building over last summer at Gil Stengel and Yuki Muroe’s ranch. The work is fired using scrap pine, from a local stair manufacturer, for about 40 hours with the addition of salt in the catenary arch chamber with some blow-back of salt in the barrel arch wood chamber. Wood firing provides the organic forms, a sensual feeling through the way ash and salt catches on the surfaces producing different textures.

Swell

Biography: Didem Mert was born and raised in Cincinnati, OH. She is currently working on receiving her BFA (ceramics) from Northern Kentucky University. Her work has been exhibited nationally in places such as Terra Incognito in Oak Park, IL; LUX Center for the Arts in Lincoln, NE; The Cincinnati Women’s Art Club in Cincinnati, OH; Brazee Street Studios in Cincinnati, OH; Funke Fired Arts in Cincinnati, OH; The Southgate House gallery in Newport, KY; Summerfair’s Emerging Artists Juried Exhibition 2013 in Cincinnati, OH; and at Northern Kentucky University’s gallery in Highland Heights, KY.  Didem has received a full-in-state tuition scholarship from Northern Kentucky University for the years of 2010-2011, 2011-2012, 2012-2013, and 2013-2014 based on the work she created while attending the university.  Didem will graduate from Northern Kentucky University in the spring of 2014. She has been working at Funke Fired Arts, one of the largest public ceramic studios in the country, in Cincinnati, OH for the past five years where she is currently teaching.

Jonathan Brown

I enjoy exploring relationships between interior and exterior space as well as relationships between “modern” sculptural forms and organic forms.

Major influences on my work include a fascination with interior spaces and exterior form stemming from a love of “old school” Ocean Liners.  Also influencing my work are memories from living abroad as a youth, a sense of the theatrical, a love of old films, things one might find on a long walk in the countryside or coast such as jagged cliffs, grottos and ruins, and the modern sculpture movements of the early to mid 20th century.
I strive to create small worlds out of metals such as silver, brass, bronze, and nickel.  In creating these works, I intend to present alternative realities or possibilities by representing fictive worlds.  Their meaning is implied but not specified, leaving others to interpret the meaning on their own terms.  These works also address one’s sense of memory, whether it is real or perceived.

Jonathan Leo Brown lives and works in the Phoenix Valley Metropolitan area.  He is currently teaching classes in Metalworking and Jewelry at a variety of local Phoenix Valley Art Centers as well as for Central Arizona College. 

He received a Masters of Fine Arts in Metalworking from Arizona State University in 2008.

Empress Abandoned