Ceramics, mixed media on display at local gallery

The functional ceramics of Scott Cooper and the mixed media work of John Ford will be exhibited at The Gallery, 109 E. Sixth St., until Friday. \nIn the front of The Gallery, the boutique shelves show some of Cooper's celadon and tea dust ceramics. In the upstairs loft, where the ceiling fans over the open area of the first floor are just above eye level, hang some of Ford's mixed media pieces. Each piece in The Gallery is well-lit either by natural lighting or by individual spotlights. \nCooper's ceramics have been a staple at the gallery for the past three years. His work is a mix of luminous celadon glazes, soda-fires etched with emphatically hand-drawn lines and thatched handles, black tea dust pieces with gold freckles and ash-scarred wood-fired pieces. \n"I try to focus on each piece being unique. It's more a quest than a product line," Cooper said. "I work more like a fine artist works. I don't go in assuming I know all the answers."\nThough he comes from a fine arts background, he is not preoccupied with classifying ceramics as a fine art.\n"There's been an awful lot of debate on differences between crafts and fine art, too much debate," Cooper said. "We have classifications like 'fine crafts.' It often comes down to a person trying to preserve their status."\nSome notables currently on display are a wood-fired vase ($50) on the side of the stairs and the tea dust teapot ($94) at the front.\nThis is the second two-man show at The Gallery for John Ford, a Nigerian-born, rural American-raised sculptor and print-maker. On display are some of Ford's flat graphic works. Covered in targets, squares and patterns, the work is "very interpretive, personalized," Ford said. \nHe said he believes in creating works where his personal feelings toward a piece meet somewhere with the perspective of the viewer.\nFrom a distance, his pieces turn into indiscernible patterns of square, colorized photographs, except for "The Flight of Black and Blue Jays" ($1,600), which arranges several photos into a J-shape. Up close, his work acts as a post-modern narrative. Historical and family photos are juxtaposed, moving the eye across scattered patterns and broken-up lines. His backgrounds resemble two-dimensional archaeological digs and blueprints, guiding the viewer's attention to the center of a target or from hash mark to hash mark. The lines of movement are, like all of Ford's work, very personalized and can start anywhere for any person.\nThe red, pink and blue filters on his photographs stand out from the canvas like a new $20 bill lying next to an old one, especially because Ford's print-making process creates colorization similar to European currency. The mind is often so used to seeing flat, conventional blueprints and graphs that the presence of non-parabolic patterns and off-beat colors puts perceived distance between Ford's pictures and his backdrop, like characters on a stage. The interpretive nature of Ford's work has his upbringing at heart.\n"What's been really formative has been the visual influences from my upbringing in rural America -- a lot of the handmade things like quilts and furniture," Ford said. "And in Nigeria, non-Western art and utilitarian objects."\nSome of notable pieces are the linear "Lament of the Waterboy" ($850) and the black-and-white "Boys and Girls" ($2,000), one of his most directive titles which guides the viewer's thought process across the criss-crossed pictures of men and women. \nAs seen with these two artists, The Gallery's, owner Rosemary Fraser, said she does not isolate The Gallery to any particular genre of work. Instead she has developed its style by working with the same artists over the course of many years.\n"If you come to this gallery to see so-and-so's work, we try to keep it," Fraser said. "We try to keep a stable of artists."\nFraser's exhibition openings tend to be large for a small gallery, with 60 to 100 people attending, and are well-stocked with Fraser's cooking.\n"I'm notably a wonderful cook," Fraser said.\nThe Ford and Cooper exhibition was garnished with salmon mousse, chicken liver pate, tarama salata (Greek salad) and roasted pepper with anchovies. Fraser has one employee who helps her run The Gallery, but she does all the cooking. The next opening is at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 7, and will feature Richard Aerni's "Pots et al" and Robert Kingsley's "Still Life etc." Normal gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday.\nFor more information on Scott Cooper see www.negentropic.com/clay.\n-- Contact staff writer Mike Carey at mecarey@indiana.edu.