Re:Clay+m

Susan Budge Jeff Forster Zoe Gross

Kay Nguyen Robby Wood June Woest

is the first show after the hurricane Harvey of August, 2017
and the flood waters that affected much of southeast Texas. The six
ceramic artists in this exhibition have now returned to their studios and
resumed their work and teaching schedules. Interestingly, the final letter
“m” of the show title is a grapheme which also carries the meaning of
water. Our sincerest thanks and congratulations to Susan Budge of
Heidi Vaughn Gallery, Jeff Forster, Zoe Gross, Kay Nguyen, Robby Wood
and June Woest for sharing their personal visions and recent works with
our campus and community.
—Kristine Larson, LSCK Fine Art Gallery

Susan Budge................................................................4
Jeff Forster....................................................................8
Zoe Gross..................................................................12
Kay Nguyen...............................................................16
Robby Wood..............................................................20
June Woest.................................................................22

3

Susan Budge

Touching clay for the first time was my epiphany.
The physical, sensual, direct qualities of this material
have challenged me for the past forty years. I prefer
to work spontaneously in the studio in order to allow
subconscious thoughts to surface. Works containing
a realistic eye occurred due to the responsibility of
parenthood and the realization of the ever-watchful eye
of a child. They also reflect the notion of Kandinsky that:
“Everything has a secret soul, which is silent more often
than it speaks.” The cut forms incorporate a technique
that is challenging and meditative. I enjoy the use of paradox: balancing fragility and strength
through technique and material.
Biography

Susan Budge is an American born sculptor who lives and works in Houston. With clay as her
primary media, she employs the automatism of the surrealists, and a spiritual core, celebrating
modernist purity in three-dimensional form. She earned a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from Texas
Tech University, a Masters of Arts from University of Houston Clear Lake, and a Masters of
Fine Arts from University of Texas San Antonio. She was the Head of Ceramics at San Antonio
College for twenty years and continues teaching at the MFAH Glassell School of Art. In 2016
she started making sculptures in bronze. Her works are in museums, public collections and
private collections worldwide.

Museums that hold her work include: the Smithsonian, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Fuller
Craft Museum, the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, the San Antonio Museum of Art, the
San Angelo Museum of Art, the Art Museum at Northern Arizona State University, the Art
Museum of South Texas, and the New Orleans Museum of Art. 

Budge has completed public works for Brackenridge Park, South Texas Center for Blood and
Tissue, Lady Bird Johnson Park, University of Texas San Antonio, Tesoro, Project Control, San
Antonio Office of Cultural Affairs, Saks Fifth Avenue, Wyatt Energy, Houston, Five States
Energy Dallas and Lone Star College Kingwood. Her works are held in private collections in
Mexico, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and Greece.

4

Wood Ribs
12”x 8”x 4”

King
77”x 20”x 20”

Patina Mound Gold Bird
15”x 16”x 5” 24.5”x 9”x 4”

5

Grey Ribs Rose Ribs
41”x 19”x 9” 50”x 16”x 9”

Grey Diptych Not Pot
22”x 19”x 4” 21½ x 9 x 9 in.

6

Objects of Affection

Top Bottom
(1) Patina Eye Ball 5 x 5 x 5 in. (7) Bean 6 x 4 x 4 in.
(2) Gold Eye Pod 4 x 4 x 3 in. (8) Harp 8 x 5 x 3½ in.
(3) Interlock 7 x 5 x 5 in. (9) Woven Mirror Ball 7 x 5 x 5 in.
(4) Cut Bullet 5 x 4 x 7 in. (10) Wood-fired Drop 6½ x 4 x 4 in.
(5) Copper Drop 7 x 5 x 4 in. (11) Gunmetal Drop 7½ x 6 x 5 in.
(6) Split Pod 5 x 5 x 5 in.

7

Jeff Forster

Growing up in rural Minnesota offered me plentiful opportunities
to explore the bucolic terrain. Often my wanderings brought
me to piles of cast-off agricultural equipment and dilapidated
farm structures that dotted the landscape. As a child I enjoyed
speculating what these objects and structures might have been used
for and frequently I contemplated the people who had come before
me that might have used them.
Once I discovered ceramics, I was immediately drawn to its’
rich history. Objects that document, in many cases, cultures that
are now extinct. Additionally, clay in its unfired state takes on qualities of a living, breathing
material. By exploiting the qualities of clay and incorporating found objects and materials, I
reference notions of entropy, how our culture functions, and what things we may leave behind for
future generations to find. There is a tension between permanence and what is temporary.
Biography
Hailing from Minnesota Jeff received a B.A. from Saint John’s University and a M.F.A. from
Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. He has completed residencies at the Armory Art
Center in West Palm Beach Florida, Lone Star College-North Harris and the Houston Center for
Contemporary Craft where he was awarded the Helen Drutt Studio Fellowship. Most recently he
has completed a residency at Atelierhaus in Hilmsen Germany.
Jeff has exhibited nationally as well as internationally and has earned awards in a number of
these shows. Most notable are the Juror’s Choice Award in the “Crafting Content: Ceramic
Material Conceptual Object” exhibition and the Luis Jimenez Award for first place in the
“Sculpture on Campus Exhibition and Competition” at Southern Illinois University. In addition to
maintaining an active studio practice Jeff is the Department Head of Ceramics at the Museum of
Fine Arts Houston, Glassell School of Art.

8

Apparatus, 2018 Antiquated Apparatus, 2018
6”x 5”x 11” 26”x 19”x 29”

Implement, 2018 Detrital Plate, 2016
9”x 6”x 11” 22”x 5”x 23”

9

Fragment Red, 2017 Dilapidated Structure, 2016
8”x 15”x 3” 16”x 15”x 41”

Device, 2018 Implement ll, 2018
8”x 9”x 6” 13”x 6”x 14”

10

Device 975838, 2016
11”x 21”x 11”

Remnant, 2016
30”x 14”x 14”

11

Zoe Gross

I view my ceramic sculptures as creatures that dwell within the
subconscious realm between dreaming and waking. Their organic
forms reference animals without settling firmly on any one defined
point of reference. The surfaces and textures act as metaphors
for varying states of emotional vulnerability. For example, some
surfaces are porous and open, allowing the viewer to see in to
the rough insides of the objects. Other surfaces are so encrusted
with ornamental layers of texture and pattern that the underlying
form becomes obscured. When these surfaces are paired, they begin to suggest the dual nature
of these objects: open and closed, soft and hard, vulnerable and callous.

I investigate the overlap between craft, ornament, and the natural world. I am interested in
exploring some of my own, and perhaps other people’s, subconscious fears through my artwork.
The underlying structure of the sculptures are built through coiling and pinching. then the surfaces
are hand sculpted and carved. The surfaces of my sculptures are inspired by an array of textures
ranging from fungi, lace, corals, knit fabrics, and cellular division. The intricacy of the textures in
my ceramic sculptures provokes the desire to come in close to the artwork, while simultaneously
the patterns of clustered openings suggest decay.

Biography

Zoe Gross is a ceramic artist and educator originally from New York. She explores ideas of
intimacy, empathy, femininity, ornament and craft. Zoe’s artwork ranges from mixed media
installations to ceramic sculptures and works on paper. She is interested in exploring the creative
process through blending materials such as clay, fabric, paper, and found objects. Her work
explores ideas of intimacy, empathy, femininity, ornament, craft and the subtle taboos surrounding
those subjects. Zoe’s work is rooted in the implied similarities between cycles in nature and
the cycles inherent in the creative process. Her pieces grow and decay through layering,
disintegrating, adding and subtracting.

Zoe began working in clay at a young age and loves the medium for its immediacy and
complexity. She holds a Bachelor’s in Fine Art from Skidmore College and Master’s in Ceramics
from the Rhode Island School of Design. After graduating, Zoe completed a nine-month artist
residency at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Zoe currently lives in Houston, Texas
and teaches ceramics at the University of Houston.

12

Vesperine, 2019

Detail of Vesperine, 2019

Sylph, 2019 Detail of Sylph, 2019

13

Symplegma, 2019

Sibylline, 2019
14

Ebb/Flow, 2018

Hypnagog, 2018

15

Kay Nguyen

My work is about making connections between the physical
and the spiritual. The transformative characteristics of clay
parallel the nature of being human and are poetic reminders
of the human condition. The craft of clay allows me to connect
with the earth and create objects imbued with meaning and
love. Creating with clay is a means to experience stillness and
intellectual intensity and to connect with a higher source.

The pieces in this show are inspired by nature and ritual. The
oblong organic forms remind me of fallen leaves, light enough
to float but strong enough to not break as they fall to the ground. I try to create the feeling of
femininity and resilience that I admire in the leaves.

The other pieces in the show are made for meditation and inspired by ceremonies practiced in
various religions and indigenous cultures. Fire and smoke are often used for purification and
transformation, or as means to communicate with the spirit world. Native Americans use fire to
release negative emotions and burn herbs in a clay bowl to bring in positive emotions. The Vedic
tradition uses a burning ritual to pay homage and communicate with the divine, offering prayers
and reciting mantras as the fire burns. I see my bowls as forms for a sacred ritual
of self-empowerment.

I often use designs based on a stylized lotus. The lotus is symbolic of beauty arising from the
mud. I believe humans are blessed with the ability to transform and evolve. The eye represents
awareness and recognition of things that need to be changed for us to grow.
Biography

Kay Nguyen was born in Vietnam and arrived in the U.S. in 1975 at the age of eight.
She believes art is a tool of empowerment that provides spiritual energy to transcend one’s
experiences and gives voice to the intangible. Nguyen’s journey with clay began the age of
19 under the tutelage of Huey Beckham at University of Houston. She continued the craft by
working at a production pottery factory in Okinawa, Japan.

Nguyen apprenticed with master kiln builder, Frederick Olsen before graduate studies at Kent
State University. As an apprentice she lived in the mountains of the high desert of California,
which strengthened understanding of the connection between the physical aspects of creating
and spirituality. Nguyen lives in Houston and teaches at Lone Star College, North Harris.

16

Ritual Burning Bowl–Eye Design
2019
Terra Cotta
17½ x 3 in.

Footed Ritual Burning Bowl–Lotus Design
2019

Terra Cotta
12 x 12 x 8 in.

Ritual Burning Bowl–Lotus Design
2019

High-fired stoneware
16 x 16 x 2 in.

17

Leaf Form
2019

Stoneware
27 x 7 x 3 in.

18

Leaf Form-Green
2019

Stoneware
24 x 6 x 3 in.

19

Robby Wood

I enjoy drawing on pots. They provide me a three-dimensional
canvas on which to wrap a narrative. Sometimes they feel like
daydreams, and sometimes they feel like a vacation. Depicted on
these forms are fantasy landscapes which contain the essentials of
my desire, a few palm trees, some rolling hills, and every now and
then I get a wave or two.

I fire with wood because I like how the Flame interacts with the
work in both subtle and extreme ways often on the same piece.
Sometimes this playful interaction results in something wonderful.

Biography

Robby Wood is a ceramics professor at LSC-Montgomery College. He received his MFA in
ceramics from California State University Fullerton. Robby is a prolific potter who also performs
many demonstrations locally and abroad. He currently works from his studio in Pasadena, TX
and fires in his wood kiln in Weimer TX and with his friends. Robby can be reached at
[email protected] or on the beach.

Fat Glaze Bowl

20

Engobe

Nautilus #1
21

June Woest

My current sculptures are imaginary landscapes constructed
of slip cast clay forms and small mass-produced objects.
My inspiration for them are Scholar’s Rocks, naturally
occurring rocks found in remote places that were collected
by all classes during the Tang Dynasty. They were brought
to scholars to inspire their thinking and creativity, for
contemplation purposes. The rocks, too, were prominently
displayed in Chinese homes and gardens. When viewing my
sculptures, I want people to meditate on human nature, and
consider the hand that has constructed the environment in which we live today.

Biography

June Woest is a Houston-based visual artist and educator born in central Kansas. Her Kansas
heritage informs her interest of landscape as subject matter. She has an MFA in Drawing,
Painting, and Ceramics from the University of Houston and attended Fort Hays Kansas State
University for her undergraduate degree in Secondary Art Education. The content of her work
explores the patterns, conversations, and connections people have with everyday objects
and materials.

Woest’s environmental installation, Pharmacy Domesticus, was selected for SFA’s Mast
Arboretum, Sculpture for All, in 2014. Woest lectured at the Menil Collection in their
Artist’s Eye series in 2009. Borrowed Hands and Artificial Flowers was shown indoors at
the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, in 2006. Seed Rooms: East and West, was
exhibited at Central Fine Arts Gallery in 2007. She was a resident artist at the Jingdezhen
Ceramic Institute in 2004. Her works have been exhibited in Houston’s Big Show at
Lawndale Art Center and Houston’s Assistance League show. International group shows
include locations in Australia, Japan, China, and Copenhagen, Denmark.

Woest’s curatorial projects include RoadsignUSA, a 1950’s billboard inside Houston’s Loop
610 and Wedge Space at Houston Community College, Southeast. She was a founding
member of Municipal Dirt, a community of independent artists who curated temporary site-
specific exhibitions in Russ Pitman Park, in Bellaire, TX, for five years. She also led the HCC-
Southeast College artist in residence project, AIR, from 2010-2017 and continues to facilitate
artist projects on campus, where she is a Faculty Artist in the Visual Arts and Performance
Division.

22

Landscape 1: Snow Landscape 2: Trees
2019 2019

Slip cast clay, terra sigillata, Slip cast clay, terra sigillata,
frit particles, bowl brushed, frit particles, bowl brushes, metal wire,

metal wire, acrylic paint, acrylic paint, rubber band, epoxy.
rubber band, epoxy. 9 x 5½ in.
4½ x 6 x 5½ in.

Landscape 4: Moss Landscape 3: Grass
2019 2019

Slip cast clay, terra sigillata, Slip cast clay, terra sigillata,
flocked foam rocks, rubber tire tube, flocked foam, wood skewer,
squeeze toy, rubber kitchen sponge.
acrylic paint, epoxy.
10 x 10 x 3½ in. 3 x 5 x 6½ in.

23

Landscape 5: Ballpark Landscape 6:
2019 Pre Columbian Bobble-head

Slip cast clay, terra sigillata, green 2019
foam pad, acrylic paint, kitchen
sieve tool, screw, washer, epoxy. Slip cast clay, terra sigillata, flocked
5½ x 7 x 4 in. foam rocks, wood skewer, squeeze toy,

rubber kitchen sponge.
3 x 5 x 6½in.

Landscape 7: Labor Day Landscape 8: Sky
2019 2019

Slip cast clay, terra sigillata, rubber Slip cast clay, terra sigillata,
doll fragment, magnet, steel sculpture flocked foam rocks, rubber tire

tool, wooden clay tool, epoxy. tube, epoxy, acrylic paint.
5 x 6 in. 7 x 10 x 5½in.

24

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LoneStar.edu/Kingwood

Affirmative Action/EEO College

LSC-Kingwood Fine Art Gallery
20000 Kingwood Drive

Kingwood, TX 77339-3801
Phone 281.312.1534
LoneStar.edu/Kingwood