Sunday, June 22, 2014

500 Empty Bowls


 
bowl by Kenneth Chung

The best charity event I've ever been to was Saturday's 500 Empty Bowls, where one-of-a-kind, handmade ceramic bowls were going for $10 bucks each, with the money donated to feeding people in need. The metaphor serves the reality, which is nice, but that's not why I enjoyed it so much.


I planned to spend $10 but that was impossible because I had $20 in my pocket and it had to go. Every single bowl was beautiful, and they were all worth more than $10. (Don't need bowls? A handmade, one-of-a-kind ceramic bowl makes a great gift.) I bought two I loved, then ran into Pasadena Adjacent, who had alerted me to the event. She was practically forcing a bowl onto our mutual friend: "Take this one, this is a special glaze, it's really hard to do, this guy's so talented," etc.

bowl by ? Let me know if you know

Damn. I had already spent my $20. I wanted to keep the bowls I had and buy the special bowl. I told our friend I wanted the special bowl and I'd have to pay her later. No dice. She claimed it. Plus I didn't win the raffle. You'd think these setbacks would have ruined my fun, but I was in a souq of ceramics, ice cream, and people, with not a single pearl-bedraggled, evening-gowned matron in sight, and it was a blast.

Next year I'm going to bring a lot more money.

You can take classes in ceramics and other things at the Monrovia Community Adult School. Well worth a look.

17 comments:

William Kendall said...

Beautiful work in these examples, and it is a good cause.

Petrea Burchard said...

Thanks, William, I agree on both counts.

Bellis said...

I agree with everything you've said, this was the best fundraiser ever. Every bowl was beautiful, so it was really difficult to make a choice. I limited myself to three, but afterwards I almost turned the car round to get more. Where else can I buy a handcrafted artwork for $10? Especially a masterpiece by acclaimed artist Liz Garrison.

The organizers and artists were so nice - someone even held my dogs while I shopped - that I'm thinking of signing up for a pottery course. It looks such fun.

Petrea Burchard said...

It really does. And obviously a lot of people are enjoying it and doing good work there.

Anonymous said...

My Sierra Madre group always participated in this. Since I had no talent at the wheel, my brilliant instructor Bob would discreetly step in just as I was about to make a hash of things. (Nice photos)

Petrea Burchard said...

Is this the place, Karin?
http://creativeartsgroup.org/

Pasadena Adjacent said...

Glad you had a good time Petrea and thanks Bellis for the high praise. I do hope that should we pull a charity event again, it will be for our very own Marc Hoar (Face Book). He's awaiting a lung transplant with a 9month - 2yr survival rate without it. Helping our own first, was something that was common in the art world back in the era of AIDS.

Anyhow, my recommendation is that anyone interested in ceramics spend time at Creative Arts and learn from instructors that are hands on. Plus it has much better hours. Plus you can study with Leslie Plunkett scroll down under 'Ceramics and Sculpture' (a great teacher) who doesn't harbor the usual prejudices most ceramic labs do.

Later on, when you have some sense of what your doing and your still interested, then come by the Wheel House.

Margaret said...

I really wanted to go but we were busy. Lucky you. I'm jealous.

Petrea Burchard said...

I wonder about "taking care of our own," PA. Seems to have gone out of fashion. I hope Marc gets what he needs.

Margaret, you were busy with important things and I hope you enjoyed them.

Pasadena Adjacent said...

I do love those Kenneth Chung bowls. I had every intention of grabbing one. Been watching him make them for the last couple of months. I'm glad you saw their beauty without me prodding you.

Petrea Burchard said...

Prodding is good, though, PA. I think you were so right about the bowl that got away.

Unknown said...

I love bowls and these two are really nice. I'm sure I would have given my contribution to this great cause too.

Petrea Burchard said...

It was a wonderful event, JM. $10 is not that much around here, but a good organization can make it go far to help hungry people.

Ms M said...

Sounds like a wonderful event! We have something similar here that the Idaho Foodbank puts on the day after Thanksgiving.

Unknown said...

Hi, as Empty Bowls Monrovia director, I just wanted to thank you all for your kind feedback. I'm ecstatic that everyone enjoyed themselves and thought I'd let you know that we will be having a 2nd Empty Bowls. It will be Sat. June 27th, 2015 from 3pm to 6pm. Again it will be an ice cream social and the price of bowls will remain the same. The goal is 600 bowls and $6,000 this year and again will benefit Foothill Unity Center.

Petrea Burchard said...

Great news, Meaghan. I can't wait! It was just about the best event ever. In fact, I think you'll have a bigger crowd this time and you might need more than 3 hours!

Unknown said...

I hope we will! Here is the facebook event to share:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1410751879247426/1410754512580496/

Thank you again for your support!