Drawing with Clay
with Kristen Morgin / September 2021
About the Studio Session
This studio session will be an adventure in drawing. Participants will use clay as a medium to draw with (on clay, paper, walls, wood, in nature, in midair, as dust, etc.) or to draw upon (with ceramic materials, other clays, graphite, ink, ballpoint pen, paint, chalk, charcoal, by means of etching or carving the surface, dry-erase or Sharpie on glazed ceramic, clay slip on glazed ceramic, etc.).
The idea here is to explore uncharted territory in drawing as well as unconventional uses of clay. Explorations will include making permanent and impermanent drawings and drawing with traditional means and made-up techniques.
For most participants, we will also stay up late together (this session meets from 10pm-12:30am PST). The particular quiet and solitude of late evening and early morning hours can heighten one’s focus (due to the lack of distractions) while at the same time render one apt to be less rational and more able to work from one’s subconscious thoughts (due to the lack of sleep and probable high doses of caffeine).
About the Lead Artist
Kristen L. Morgin was born in 1968 in Brunswick, GA. She is the eldest daughter of Lowell and Lucille Morgin. Morgin earned a BA degree from California State University, Hayward. She earned a MFA degree with an emphasis in ceramics from Alfred University in 1997. Morgin has held positions as an artist, a gallery docent, a children’s playhouse set painter, a secretary in an auto glass shop, and as a professor of art. She has taught at California State University Long Beach, University of Georgia, UCLA, and California State University Northridge. She is known for her unfired clay sculptures. Her artistic practice has included aspects of sculpture, painting, illustration and drawing. Her artwork has been widely exhibited. Her artwork is in many private collections and the permanent collections of SFMOMA, the Hammer Museum, the Orange County Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She currently resides in Gardena, California.