June 2011: Scot Cameron-Bell & Bonnie Taylor Talbot

Scot Cameron-Bell has aptly titled her show “Pots Bigger Than My Head.” She has deliberately gone big. “Every artist gets into a comfort zone with their work. Throughout my travels in Asia, I would see huge storage jars holding pickles and other assorted items just standing by a front door. The jars were dramatic in stature plus being utilitarian. I became a large jar potter wannabe. So, last summer I participated in a workshop entitled “Throwing Giant Pots.” I was challenged to enlarge my work from 6 inch vases to 25 inch vases. Working in this size was a hoot. Imagine the “Hulk” syndrome without having to become angry to increase in size. I did have to gain muscle to move my jars around the studio, trying not to drop them.” Her vessels are deliberately altered by stretching to cause cracks the clay to create a soft, aged, and weathered appearance. Scot does not use glaze. Her intense colors are under glazes that are stained with oxides to appear as if buried and aged for centuries.. According to Scott the best part about size was the amount of surface to decorate. Influenced by the elaborately decorated tiles and carpets during her recent travels to Morocco and Turkey, “I can now decorate to my hearts content.”

Bonnie Taylor Talbot is a painter of color and whimsy. Her paintings are vibrant, yet subtle: colorful and happy. Words and phrases appear throughout her work. She says her favorite parts of a painting are the ribbons of color between the objects and the hand stamped phrases. Bonnie’s art is about the fairy-tale nature of the ordinary. Her paintings deal with beauty and magic. Welcome to the place where the commonplace meets the enchanting, where sunflowers speak Italian and you can have your cake and eat it too, everyday. She paints Parisian wrought iron grates with oversized blooms, perfume bottles, park chairs and pears that are just plain 'ripe, plump and juicy'.  Her dresses often hang from clotheslines and chandeliers while chickens seem to dance off the canvas.  She is especially fond of tiaras and that “touch of royalty” in otherwise common objects. For the past 15 years she's been painting and perfecting her unique voice. Her paintings are delightful. They're colorful, and full of her own brand of humor. She frequently travels to France and Italy, taking her paints and canvasses along, returning to her Portland Oregon studio full of new ideas!