Empty Bowls is one of my favorite local charities to be involved with. If you don’t know, it is part of a national event, put on at various times across the country, and has a long history with the end goal to fight food insecurity. If you’re interested in how it came into being and how it has developed… look it up. I don’t need to type all that here.
Anyway… local potters create large bowls for the “collectors club” and the auction event (which are the large dollars portion of the fund raiser) and local artists are invited to paint these bowls with underglazes that turn out beautifully when fired. At least the ones that make it through the firing, not all do. (May they rest in peace, or should I say pieces.)
The community also gets involved by creating and painting smaller bowls at local pottery studios. The fish photo is an unfired bowl from last year painted on a community soup sized bowl. Nothing serious about this one! I didn’t get to see it fired which was such a bummer. I used some really bright colors which don’t show until fired. (I was hoping I could snag it, but someone beat me to it.)
This year, I’m working in the bowl room. We’ll see who gets there first!
Anyhow… as one of the many local artists here in McKinney, I’ve been painting bowls for the collectors club portion as well as the general admission portion for six years now. Thank you, thank you very much. I appreciate that you appreciate all we do, and how much we appreciate the people who turn out to support this. When it comes to the Empty Bowls event, it’s for sure a mutual appreciation thing.
Ok, this is getting too long. As you can see, for the Empty Bowls event this year, I created and painted a cow skull inside the bowl. It would have been a “longhorn” but it’s a bowl… I could only spread those beautiful bovine horns so far. Anyway, I think it is perfect for North Texas and all the longhorns (and shorthorns) in the area. When I took the photo, it hadn’t been fired yet so the colors are really dull. Sorry.
This Saturday is the big reveal reception. This is when the potters, artists, and potential buyers (i.e. the public) get to see all the finished collectors club and auction bowls. I can hardly wait! I wish you could be there. It’s always fabulous! I’ll have photos on my Facebook page next week, if you’re curious how it turned out.
KARREN CASE ART 