Artist strives to show world something different By SARA ANSPACH She makes a careful hypothesis, designs an experiment, scrutinizes her' data and sometimes reaches a brilliant conclusion. Janka McClatchey couldbe considered a scientist. She is also a chemist. The rows and rows of dust-covered bottles lining the shelves of her studio contain chemicals she mixes and matches to create unique glazes. 'The function of an artist is to show you something you haven't seen before.' -Janka McClatchey, Ann Arbor Street Art Fair exhibitor McClatchey is a master craf- tswoman, too. Her steady, clay-stained hands can shape a bowl on the potter's wheel in the time it takes most people to thread a needle. "The function of an artist," explains McClatchey as she plops a lump of clay on the wheel, "is to show you something you haven't seen before." The most fitting description of Mc- Clatchey, then, is "artist"-by her own definition. At the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair McClatchey hopes to show the wandering crowds something a little different from the other artists. She will be demonstrating porcelain slip- casting, a technique in which porcelain slip is poured, allowed to harden,:and then lifted and shaped to create in- tricate forms. In her booth McClatchey will sell stoneware, earthenware and porcelain pieces. Most are one-of-a kind pieces made with McClatchey's "trying for something different" techniques. "I am fascinated with glazes," said the soft-spoken woman as she showed how she mixed molecular formulas to make original glazes. She experiments with gold and persian lusters which give her work a metalic quality. These works appear irridescent when held in the sfinlight. Patterns, such as the inside of seed pods, green peppers and walnuts, in nature provide inspiration for McClat- chey's sculptures. Looking to the natural world for ideas lends an "organic sense" to some of her pieces, she said. For example, one of the works she'll be showing at the art fair is a distorted sphere of porcelain, with a slit into the top. Peering inside, an observer sees miniature coral like flowers "growing" toward the opening. "It's like an unreal world," said Mc- Claltchey. Sometimes her work "looks like it evolved somewhere else," she said. Slip cast porcelain sculptural forms, like those McClatchey is exhibiting in the fair, often have this eerie "other world" effect. She creates this by jux- Doily Photo by LISA KLAUSNER ANN ARBOR Street Fair exhibitor Janka McClatchey enjoys the peaceful view from the window of her studio as she fashions a bowl from fresh clay. taposing thick and thin forms of tran- new idea she is testing. Sometimes slucent porcelain together into a fragile these experiments are lost, but often network in her sculptures. she is surprised at the results which McClatchey has tried glazing her come out of the kiln. porcelain pieces with a high tem- McClatchey, who exhibits her work in perature technique called Raku. galleries and in two other shows says Striving for something different, the ar- the Art Fair audience can give her tist says she has had several successes renewed faith in her work. "You're even though it is "theoretically im- dealing with people who see something possible" for a thin substance like por- of what you saw in your work," she celain to survive the quick firing and said. high temperatures of Raku. "An artist can't work in a vacuum," McClatchey says almost every set of she added. "Audience reaction is so pieces she puts in the kiln contains a important." 'U' STAFFER SHOOTS WITH 19-YEAR-OLD CAMERA: Travel scenery fills photog's gallery By MARJORIE BOHN Armed with the camera he bought as a high school graduation gift for himself 19 years ago, Walter Pinkus travels around the country snapping pictures of cross-continental scenery while on vacation. When he returns to Ann Arbor and his job as an electronic equipment designer for the University Space Research Program, the photographer develops, mounts and frames his pic- tures in preparation for the 18 art fairs he exhibits at annually. Photographs of mountains, beaches and other scenes line Pinkus' booth on East University during this summer's art fair. "The best sellers tend to be scenery shots with a graphic impact," he said. "Pictures that draw a person into it." He noted that pictures of children do not sell well. "People don't buy cute pictures with kids in them," he said. "They take a good look at them, then take their kids out and take their own picture." Photography has been almost a lifelong hobby for Pinkus. "I received a little box camera when I was about six. Ever' since then I've enjoyed photography," he said. ' His 'hobby' turned into a lucrative project when Pinkus began exhibiting in the art fair. "I started in the Ann Ar- bor Fair by adding four of my pictures to another guy's booth," said Pinkus. "One of them sold and I got myself a booth the next year." He then joined the Doly Photo by LISA KLAUSI4ER University Artist and Craftsmen Guild Pinkus to guarantee he would have a spot in each year's fair. .WhenWhe-patiipates an -fairs- Michigan, _Wisconsin and Canada, Pinkus earns an average of $12.00 on each sale. The prints in his booth on East University will be selling for Iprices ranging from $4.50 to $42 during the next four days. Working in the fairs has fascinated him. "Half the fun of selling at the fairs is watching the people and listening to their comments," he said. 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