ART MATTERS to Ellenville: Process Makes Perfect with Jeff Shapiro
Slowly, I inch my car down into the hollow of Jeff Shapiro’s secluded property in the lower Hudson Valley in New York State. Just minutes of scanning the site and I’m already on information overload. Following him from kiln to kiln to studio/ gallery, all stitched together by the trees, ceramics laden tables , pottery perched on nothing and well placed sculpture, finding myself a bit speechless, I considered, for a moment, a photo essay. His work didn’t seem to particularly embellish the landscape as much as embolden it – even the tiniest bowls. A few even seem to predate the forest. Jeff Shapiro is a maker of functional and sculptural objects, of shifting scale, which explore earthy matter and its potential. A walk through his gallery should confuse the mind looking for perfection, delight the one which is nourished by chaos, and enchant the viewer inclined towards Japanese traditional styles and forces of nature. For me, it was the dualities throughout his work, and the happenstance appearance of his surfaces, bubbling with craters, alien like textures, cracking and peeling, and miraculous colors. which suggests both Eastern and Western ideas, not entirely merging or contradictory, either. They are the singular works of Shapiro. Overarching the impact of this self-contained community belonging to Jeff and his family, is a meticulously maintained orderliness and a world shaped by his work’s demanding processes. As an owner of one of his pieces, the glazes, texture, color, shape, and, indeed, the intense process of firing his 20 foot anagama kiln, are integrally a part of the physical and tactical experience of my newly acquired tea bowl. And to bring me this experience, he has traveled extensively, worked relentlessly for a couple of decades, built kilns and created of all of his work which preceded my tea bowl, not to mention the numerous interventions in the clay during the stages of it’s making, which, now, contains my tea! Distractions to his demanding and productive lifestyle are discouraged, yet here we were, sitting leisurely at a long, well designed table, inside Shapiro’s Japanese influenced gallery and studio, with an overhanging light fixture, all of which were designed by local artists and woodworkers. We shared green tea, in the style of the Japanese Tea Ceremony. Relaxed and no longer short- circuited by irrelevancies to the task at hand, I asked a few questions to shed light on my obsession over why art matters. He told me of upcoming events, exhibitions, workshops, and commissions through 2008, starting with Firenza,, Italy, where he has built two kilns and the possibility of a student assisted mural, to Heidelberg, Germany, where he will participate in a group exhibition, to SOFA Chicago, as a featured artist for the gallery, La Coste, in Concord, MA. And more. Rather than produce a lengthy essay on Shapiro’s accomplishments, a cogent argument supporting the value of art to the fabric of our communities is somewhat about relaxing the boundaries of language or culturally determined definitions. “Beauty exists” says Shapiro. Then he repeated it again, and again. Between comments, such as, ”imperfections are, in essence, a beauty of their own” and “open eyes can make us (Westerners) better people”, Jeff Shapiro seems to value consciousness and it’s partner, expansiveness. He crosses boundaries in his works and flirts with uncertainties in the process. Like many artists from the Hudson Valley, Shapiro takes some of his cues from the local “scenery”, although he states, “most people don’t get what I am doing”, in reference to the “imperfections” in his work. But I think that most people do “get” Jeff Shapiro. Maybe it’s not what he intends or supposes, but his work is searching, and we all get that. His work details the alterations of time and timelessness and challenges our expectations. I think we get that, too. He supports a local community, through employment, commissions and wood firing workshops. We certainly get that. Jeff Shapiro’s works affirm years of experience with his craft, the wisdom accrued through persistence, and futuristically, his dreams. Maybe it’s the dreams that we don’t get, but, then again, the vessels and sculptures are graciously designed so as to include our own. To view works and access information about Jeff Shapiro visit his website at: www.jeffshapiroceramics.com. Judy Sigunick is a Cragsmoor based artist, whos works include public art and studio ceramics.
Slowly, I inch my car down into the hollow of Jeff Shapiro’s secluded property in the lower Hudson Valley in New York State. Just minutes of scanning the site and I’m already on information overload. Following him from kiln to kiln to studio/ gallery, all stitched together by the trees, ceramics laden tables , pottery perched on nothing and well placed sculpture, finding myself a bit speechless, I considered, for a moment, a photo essay. His work didn’t seem to particularly embellish the landscape as much as embolden it – even the tiniest bowls. A few even seem to predate the forest. Jeff Shapiro is a maker of functional and sculptural objects, of shifting scale, which explore earthy matter and its potential. A walk through his gallery should confuse the mind looking for perfection, delight the one which is nourished by chaos, and enchant the viewer inclined towards Japanese traditional styles and forces of nature. For me, it was the dualities throughout his work, and the happenstance appearance of his surfaces, bubbling with craters, alien like textures, cracking and peeling, and miraculous colors. which suggests both Eastern and Western ideas, not entirely merging or contradictory, either. They are the singular works of Shapiro. Overarching the impact of this self-contained community belonging to Jeff and his family, is a meticulously maintained orderliness and a world shaped by his work’s demanding processes. As an owner of one of his pieces, the glazes, texture, color, shape, and, indeed, the intense process of firing his 20 foot anagama kiln, are integrally a part of the physical and tactical experience of my newly acquired tea bowl. And to bring me this experience, he has traveled extensively, worked relentlessly for a couple of decades, built kilns and created of all of his work which preceded my tea bowl, not to mention the numerous interventions in the clay during the stages of it’s making, which, now, contains my tea! Distractions to his demanding and productive lifestyle are discouraged, yet here we were, sitting leisurely at a long, well designed table, inside Shapiro’s Japanese influenced gallery and studio, with an overhanging light fixture, all of which were designed by local artists and woodworkers. We shared green tea, in the style of the Japanese Tea Ceremony. Relaxed and no longer short- circuited by irrelevancies to the task at hand, I asked a few questions to shed light on my obsession over why art matters. He told me of upcoming events, exhibitions, workshops, and commissions through 2008, starting with Firenza,, Italy, where he has built two kilns and the possibility of a student assisted mural, to Heidelberg, Germany, where he will participate in a group exhibition, to SOFA Chicago, as a featured artist for the gallery, La Coste, in Concord, MA. And more. Rather than produce a lengthy essay on Shapiro’s accomplishments, a cogent argument supporting the value of art to the fabric of our communities is somewhat about relaxing the boundaries of language or culturally determined definitions. “Beauty exists” says Shapiro. Then he repeated it again, and again. Between comments, such as, ”imperfections are, in essence, a beauty of their own” and “open eyes can make us (Westerners) better people”, Jeff Shapiro seems to value consciousness and it’s partner, expansiveness. He crosses boundaries in his works and flirts with uncertainties in the process. Like many artists from the Hudson Valley, Shapiro takes some of his cues from the local “scenery”, although he states, “most people don’t get what I am doing”, in reference to the “imperfections” in his work. But I think that most people do “get” Jeff Shapiro. Maybe it’s not what he intends or supposes, but his work is searching, and we all get that. His work details the alterations of time and timelessness and challenges our expectations. I think we get that, too. He supports a local community, through employment, commissions and wood firing workshops. We certainly get that. Jeff Shapiro’s works affirm years of experience with his craft, the wisdom accrued through persistence, and futuristically, his dreams. Maybe it’s the dreams that we don’t get, but, then again, the vessels and sculptures are graciously designed so as to include our own. To view works and access information about Jeff Shapiro visit his website at: www.jeffshapiroceramics.com. Judy Sigunick is a Cragsmoor based artist, whos works include public art and studio ceramics. 
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