Beth Tarkington: Freedom is found in cylinder-shaped ceramics

KAREN ROSEN/AJC (ENLARGE)

Marietta artist Ricky Frank makes enamelled jewelry and has been interested in the craft since he was in the fourth grade

KAREN ROSEN/AJC (ENLARGE)

Marietta's Beth Tarkington is a former high school art teacher who is now a ceramic artist.

KAREN ROSEN /AJC (ENLARGE)

Timothy Sullivan, who left his computer job to take up pottery full-time, does a lot of work with glazes.

Beth Tarkington doesn't put her work on a pedestal. Her work is the pedestal.

She began making cylindrical ceramics after a request to make something with a garden theme.

"I love the tall, lean form," Tarkington said. The shape also lends itself to the tall and leggy female figures she likes to paint.

"It's a way for me of creating a canvas," Tarkington said. "There's a lot of space on one of these to do a lot of drawing and painting."

She fashions the clay by hand instead of using a wheel and believes any bumps or imperfections add to the appeal. "I'm not a potter; I'm a ceramic artist," said Tarkington, who paints with stains, oxides, underglazes and makes her own liquid clay called slips.

This life suits Tarkington better than her post-collegiate career as an interior designer for commercial banks. She would sit in meetings wearing a business suit and carrying a clutch purse when, she said, "All I wanted to do was stand on a street corner and sell my paintings."

• Favorite piece: As one of 70 artists asked to interpret "Tzedakah," the Hebrew word representing giving, she made a pedestal with a shallow bowl at the top and 40 coins with words such as "patience" and "wisdom." "Someone told me, 'Some people don't have stuff to give.' I said, 'Everyone can give something.'" Visitors to her home often change the coins in the bowl.

• Best advice received: "Be a clay artist who draws and paints."

• Studio muse: Cali, her golden retriever.

• Why she paints wagons on her work: "I heard someone say that he felt like all adults pull little red wagons around behind them with all their stuff in them. That resonated with me." One piece — "My sister, my friend, myself, my gift to you" — has a woman pulling a wagon with the sun, the moon and the stars. "I tell the story about the red wagon," Tarkington said, "and everybody nods."

• Medium: Ceramic art

• Age: 53

• What she's working on: Pedestals and teapots.

• Price range: $200-$1,000

• Before becoming a full-time artist: Graduated from Georgia with a degree in interior design and briefly worked in that field before becoming an art teacher at Henderson High School for 16 years. Acclaimed painter Ridley Howard was one of her students.

• She says: "I'm a narrative artist. I tell stories with the clay. The figures and the landscapes speak to everybody. ... I have worried over the course of doing this that maybe it's all too personal, but it's universal. There are universal symbols, themes and emotions that we all run through. It really means a lot to me to connect with people."

• http://www.bethtarkington.com

IF YOU GO

• What: Largest juried show in the Southeast with more than 200 artists from across the country, including 10 based in Georgia. Crafts include handmade jewelry, pottery, clothing, furniture, home décor.

• When: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunday.

• Where: Cobb Galleria Centre, off U.S. 41 at I-285.

• Price: $12 for one day; $18 for a two-day pass; children 12 and under admitted free. • Information and to purchase tickets online: www.craftcouncil.org.

PREVIEW

• What: American Craft Council's Opening Night Preview Party

• When: Tonight from 6-9 p.m.

• Where: Cobb Galleria

• Who: The evening will honor Renée and Philip Moulthrop.

• Proceeds: Will benefit Boys and Girls Club of Metro Atlanta's art and cultural enrichment programs.

• Cost: Tickets are $75 and can be purchased at www.youthartconnection.org.

——————————

Timothy Sullivan: No more make-or-break tasks

You could say Timothy Sullivan's first 18 months working full-time in pottery were make or break. Mostly break.

"I threw away almost everything I made," he said. "It was just constant baking, breaking. It drove my wife absolutely crazy."

No matter how flawed the piece was, Sullivan smashed it before getting rid of it.

"Oh yeah," he said. "You don't want that stuff out in the world."

Now he's pleased enough with his pottery to let his pieces go.

"I think you can be happy with it, but I don't think you can fall in love with your own work," Sullivan said. "That's a self-destructive process. End points aren't nearly as interesting as the steps along the way."

That includes an unusual approach to glazing. Sullivan draws with glaze (glass put on top of clay), which gives it a three-dimensional or photographic aspect. He also uses many different glazes.

"I think the attraction of hand-made objects is not just that they're made by hand, but they have some sort of driving force behind the making of them," Sullivan said. "What I found out pretty early on was I couldn't guess what people want. ... I've come to the conclusion that what people are really interested in is the passion that you bring to it."

• Favorite piece: A plate with an inventive glazing technique. "The plate itself wasn't very interesting," he said, "but it led to things that were."

• Best advice: "Do something nobody else is willing to do."

• Critiques by college classmates: "It's a bloodsport," he said. "It would get pretty intense and pretty personal."

• Good company: Sullivan said arts and crafts shows have a higher level of fulfillment than corporate situations. "When someone walks up to you and sees your work and writes you a personal check and takes it home with them," he said, "that's pretty meaningful."

• Medium: Ceramics

• Age: 57

• What he's working on: Mainly vases, teapots and boxes.

• Price range: $200-$1,000

• Before becoming a full-time artist: He received degrees in ceramics: undergraduate from Carnegie Mellon, master's degree from the Art Institute of Chicago. He worked as a typewriter repairman, then went into computers and IT.

• He says: "I'd always really liked pottery even though it was not very high up on the pecking order of desirable things in the arts. I just enjoyed it and I liked the challenge of it. I liked the tradition of it. ... I like working as a craftsman. I like the term craftsman. It implies a thought and sense of finesse and nuance."

• http://www.creeksidepottery.net

——————————

Ricky Frank: A decision to be an 'affluent artist'

Growing up in New York, Ricky Frank had a part-time job working for his father in the electronics industry. He'd sit in his basement listening to the Beatles, tiny tweezers in each hand, bending wires on a thermocoupler.

"I could do it better and faster than anyone in his business," Frank said, "and my mom would come down the stairs and yell at my dad saying, 'You're spoiling him. He's never going to get a job.' "

After graduating from Emory with a psychology degree, Frank didn't know what to do with his life. He turned to his hobbies, pulling out the kiln he got in the fourth grade.

His dexterity has served him well in cloisonne, where he bends wire and then fills the spaces by painting layers of glass.

He specializes in jewelry because it's easier to sell than wall pieces. And, Frank said, "Jewelry was a good way to meet girls back in my early 20s."

He eventually returned to college to become a sports psychologist, but wound up being his only patient. He applied the principles of goal-setting and visualization to his art.

"I made a decision in my life," Frank said, "that I was going to change my self-image from starving artist to affluent artist."

• Favorite piece: In 1995, a face painting on a cloisonne enamel pin was chosen "Best of Show" in a sidewalk festival in Winter Park, Fla. The $9,000 prize, Frank said, "gave me instant credibility with all the artists, changed the amount of money I had in my life ... and gave me a lot of confidence." The pin is in a Winter Park museum.

• Spreading good cheer: Frank wants people to feel happy when they wear his jewelry. "The best compliment to me is when a customer comes up to me and says, 'Ricky, whenever I'm feeling down, I get a piece of your jewelry and put it on.' It reminds me of why I'm doing this."

• Medium: Enamels

• Age: 53

• What he's working on: Jewelry

• Price range: $200-$7,000

• Before becoming a full-time artist: He graduated from Emory, where he played soccer, was a soccer coach, then got a master's degree in psychology.

• He says: "I taught myself jewelry skills, but I still see myself as a painter in glass. For me, it's like a feeling of transporting myself into it. I kind of liken it to going snorkeling, because the light's coming through the water, bouncing off all these fish and sea life, and you're in it. That's what it feels like to me when I'm working, so it's really fun."

• www.rickyfrank.com

——————————

AMERICAN CRAFT SHOW: IF YOU GO

• What: Largest juried show in the Southeast, with more than 200 artists from across the country

• When: Friday 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

• Where: Cobb Galleria Centre

• Price: $12 for one day; $18 for a two-day pass; children 12 and under admitted free.

• Information and to purchase tickets online: http://www.craftcouncil.org.

——————————

CANTON

Cherokee Community Chorale

Accompanied by members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the chorale presents its 20th anniversary concert. The Reinhardt College Choir also will perform. 3 p.m. Sunday. $12; $10 advance. Canton First United Methodist Church, 930 Lower Scott Mill Road, Canton. 770-823-3558, cherokeechorale.org.

VININGS

'In the Upper Room'

A contemporary unfolding of energy, rhythm and dance. Performed by the Atlanta Ballet. 7:30 p.m. today; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday. $16-$86. Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. 770-916-2800, 404-249-6400, www.cobbenergycentre.com.

DOUGLASVILLE

The Mad Hatter's Tea Party

Introduction to the literary classic "Alice in Wonderland" along with sing-a-longs, storytelling, flamingo croquet, tea. 10 a.m., 1 p.m. March 15. $25 first child and adult, $15 for each additional child, $5 each additional adult. Douglasville Cultural Arts Center, 8652 Campbellton St., Douglasville. 770-949-2787, www.artsdouglas.org.