#emptybowls

Empty Bowls: I Love This Event

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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.

Empty Bowls Painting

/ karrencase / Leave a comment

photo of a colorful striped empty bowl

Colorful empty bowl

I’m going to my first Empty Bowls event tonight and I’m making myself nuts.  This event is not the big fundraiser, it’s one of the bowl painting events.  (Not “bowel” painting, which is what my husband thought I had written on the calendar.  Very funny that husband of mine.)  Anyway, THIS is why I’m bouncing off the walls.  WHAT am I going to paint?  What design am I going to do?  Floral?  Geometric?  Whimsy?  Nature?  WHAT!!!!  Every time I think I know, I change my mind.  Hence… going nuts!!!  It’s an unfinished ceramic bowl that needs to be painted and it’s going to be used in a fundraiser!  Along with several hundred other bowls.  But it’s going to be MY project and it’s going to be used in a fundraiser!!!

Now if you aren’t sure what Empty Bowls events are all about, let me tell you.

A Short History of Empty Bowls

Back in the early 1900’s in an attempt to do something about the poverty and hunger in their locale, John Hartom and Lisa Blackbarn came up with a novel idea.  John, being a ceramics teacher, got his students to create more than 100 bowls.  He and Lisa then put together a community event where people paid for the bowls and the money raised went to provide food for those who needed it.

Over the years, Empty Bowls has evolved into quite a fun family-friendly multi-event “event” as a way to provide funds to area food banks and/or homeless shelters.  Organizers work with both local artists and pottery artisans giving the public a chance to participate in more than one event leading up to the main fundraiser.  These events are of two types: creating the ceramic bowls or painting/decorating them. Once finished, and usually a couple of months down the road, the actual Empty Bowls fundraiser happens.  At the fundraiser, people donate money, get to choose their favorite empty bowl, and then have it filled with soup or some other food item as part of the event.  Often, the food item is provided by a local restaurant or well known chef from the community.  It’s a win-win for all.  You get to eat, have some fun, take home a hand crafted useful item and you’ve helped raise funds for the hungry.

Still Going Nuts About an Empty Bowl

I’ll be leaving soon. I have ideas running through my head.  I’ve sketched out some ideas.  I’ve looked at dozens of painted bowls for inspiration.  I still have no idea what I will do.  I guess it will hit me when I get there and the bowl “talks” to me.  I also guess that this year, I will be attending the actual fundraiser.  I need to see if my bowl finds a home.

Hope you find an event near you and plan to join in!

See ya!