Art: Uptown newbie
This weekend more than 675 artists will fill the streets of Uptown and the shady vales of Powderhorn and Loring parks with an abundance of handmade goods, from clothing and photos to colorful leather bags and wooden kitchen utensils. The Uptown Art Fair alone attracts artists from 42 states plus Canada and Argentina. The events also feature musical performances, kids' activities, free transportation and enough food-on-a-stick to prime your stomach for the State Fair later this month.
From the artists' point-of-view, the weekend offers a chance to meet clients and collectors and show off new designs. We talked to a young Minnesota potter making his debut at Uptown this weekend. Andy Juelich fell in love with clay in the first ceramics class he took 10 years ago at Wayzata High School.
"There's something about the movement of the clay between your fingers, and the slow repetition, that is just a joy to create," he said, recalling that moment when he suddenly knew he wanted to be a potter.
Even in high school he jiggered his schedule so he could help out as a teaching assistant and spend an extra hour in the pottery room every day. At St. John's University in Collegeville he majored in ceramics and interned with master potter Richard Bresnahan, whose Japanese training and use of local clays and glaze materials deeply impressed Juelich.
After graduating in 2006, he stayed on for another year as Bresnahan's apprentice, honing his skills on the Karatsu pottery wheel, a traditional Japanese design that dates to the 7th century. Then he studied for nine months with a Pennsylvania craftsman who taught him to work with rattan and to make the intricate knots once used on whaling ships. He adapted those techniques to pottery, binding his stoneware teapots with beautifully woven and knotted cords and devising intricate rattan handles for pots and platters.
Finally this year, Juelich, now 25, was ready for his first art fair. He applied to several local shows and got into two: the Stone Arch Festival in June and Uptown. Preparation was demanding. Besides turning out about 2,000 pots ranging from tiny tea cups to 30-inch-tall vases, he had to invest in an exhibition tent and display stands, set up a web site (andyjuelich.com), print business and marketing cards, get a state tax ID number, open a business bank account, borrow a truck, and buy a lot of plastic totes and bubble wrap.
"There's a whole business side that was a new process for me," he said, adding that he is "kind of a shy person, so it's kind of nervous to be out there" selling things. Sales of about 75 items at the Stone Arch Festival boosted his confidence though and now he's "very excited" about Uptown.
