5/5/2011
Ryan LaBar, Program Director
The winter hibernation is over. The smell of soil, evergreens, and vegetation fill the air. With the introduction of Spring and life to the land comes life to the LH Project, as two new resident artists recently joined our family. Brain Kakas and Jason Segall are busy working in the studio.
Two new gas kilns are up in production at the resident house studio and with that, I have been busy creating work for a show at the Art Spirit Gallery in Coeur d'alene Idaho. The show will feature 19 artists working with clay, four of which are LH'rs! The show opens on Friday the 13th of May. We will be there and hope to see familiar faces in the crowd.
I will be updating this site more often, so stay tuned!
Also, check out the new pics in our permanent gallery!
11/20/2010
Ryan LaBar, Program Director
There is a light blanket of snow on the ground and I have just put in the steel order that begins the kiln building project for the resident house studio. The kiln will be a small gas kiln built within a steel frame. It is designed for easy test, community, and sculpture firings.
I am also putting together a show proposal for NCECA 2012 featuring works from a selected group of past residents.
My work is coming along slowly. I have been making elements to build my inventory, but am waiting to fire until the new kiln is built. I am excited to get things rolling here.
In early October, we had a wonderful summit here, moderated by Leslie Ferrin. We talked about the roles of residency programs and how we can facilitate a collaborative approach within our programs. The discussions were a great introduction for me, filling my head with ideas for the future of this organization.
I have recently returned from "Critical Sante Fe," where roles of the our discipline formed the foundation of discussions, filling our heads after three full days. I feel the conference was seminal to the development of a responsible discourse within our field. Many of the ideas presented at the conference paralleled much of what I believe.
This posting serves as a test, and I hope to continue these posts so they may evolve into a blog; however, one sided as it currently stands.
8/5/2010
Hello from The LH Project. Executive Director Jacob Hasslacher is not your author today
– or for the coming weeks. Instead
it’s me, Lauren Levato, 2010’s last LH resident of the year. I am an artist and writer from Chicago.
Since The LH Project was generous enough to invite me out to
work on my grand porcelain scheme, I want to also use my time here to document
the amazing people, great ideas, majestic landscape, and superb
facilities.
Tucked away at the end of a road in Joseph, Oregon, LH is
surrounded by the Wallowa Mountains, part of the Eagle Cap Wilderness. The LH compound, as we lovingly call
it, is on the east moraine of the mountains. Many creatures both wild and kept graze the compound – all
manner insects, chipmunks, pocket gophers, elk, deer, horses, eagles, hawks,
vultures and, most importantly, three fantastic dogs: Lola, Augi, and
Friedl. On the property there is a
greenhouse, four gardens, a gallery of work by previous residents, two wood
kilns, two large, one medium and two test electric kilns, a 1,200 sq. foot
studio for resident artists (from where you can also watch the horses, or bring
them carrots), a glaze room, slab roller, extruder, electric wheels and many
other ceramic gizmos and doodads.
The resident house is in the nearby town of Enterprise.
In other words: the place is fantastic. And for an artist, LH is nearly
incomparable. But it’s not really the facilities or scenery that make LH so
great. It’s the people that have
made the LH Project possible – Jacob Hasslacher and Chris Antemann. Without them, LH wouldn’t exist. So I’m going to gush about them for a
bit.
They both keep their studios on the compound. Jacob’s studio is the barn adjacent to
the wood kilns, across from the resident studio. Chris’s studio is between their house and the resident
studio. The atmosphere they have
created here is relaxed yet focused – the perfect place to experiment with
something new or buckle down and create an entire body of work.
I fall into the former category – the experimenter. Chris, in her very flattering way,
prefers to call me an “innovator.” And that sums up LH and its crew:
supportive, nurturing, visionary.
Coming up next, I’ll walk you through all the studio spaces
and the gallery, posting pictures as I go. I’ll be here through mid-August and by next week I should
have previews of my own project.
Jakob Haßlacher, Direktor and Founder
Director's Newsletter
— Jacob Haßlacher - July, 2010
We are very pleased to welcome the arrival of Ryan LaBar in September! He will be assuming the position of "Resident Director" and assisting me with running the day-to-day operations here at the LH Project. We all look very forward to working with Ryan and cain't wait until he gets his boots on compound ground.