Pattern To Make A Gift Bag

Retired Syracuse University art professor David MacDonald, who has a solo show ...

As David MacDonald tells it, he has arrived at this point in life — as a potter and Syracuse University professor emeritus who is preparing for a solo exhibition at the Everson Museum of Art — by happenstance. His stories often begin with “now that’s a funny thing,” followed by the details of how he fortuitously backed into a life-changing opportunity.

MacDonald backs up to his beginning as an artist while cutting large blocks of porcelain into smaller blocks, which he pounds and shapes into balls resembling dough and places in a clear plastic bag. He wears a green Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania T-shirt, jeans, with a bundle of keys clipped onto a back loop, and a green apron. His wire-rimmed glasses perch midway on his nose just above the gray-to-white whiskers of his beard.

The artist, who is solid in stature at 66, negotiates tables — topped with his signature patterned plates, mounds of clay, books, sketches of patterns — in his studio. The two-story structure was built on a lot adjacent to his home in Syracuse.

MacDonald describes ceramics as “a slow meditative process.” At the moment, meditative has given way to the pressure to produce for his solo show, which opens Saturday. That morning he delivered more ceramic pieces, vertical forms, large vases and planters to Debora Ryan, senior curator at Everson. He leaves it up to Ryan to pick and choose what will be featured in his solo exhibition, “The Power of Pattern: New Work by David MacDonald.”

MacDonald’s first “backing into” moment occurred when he was a high school senior in Hackensack, N.J., who excelled in art and track and field. A family friend counseled him to scuttle plans for a factory job to pay for his part-time college studies. Instead, a call was placed, and MacDonald was accepted to Hampton Institute on an athletic scholarship. He continued his art studies, assuming he would major in painting. That changed when he took a ceramics course with professor Joseph Gillard.

Ceramics was so foreign to MacDonald that he looked up its definition in his Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, a high school graduation gift.

He found working with clay exhilarating because it was more physical than painting.

“At the time, I was an athlete. I was very athletic. I enjoyed using my body,” he says. “Ceramics just seemed a bit more fun than standing in front of an easel dabbing little bits of color, trying to create the illusion of space when I could make that volume in real life.” Ceramics also appealed to him because he could make things people could use, and it was accessible to the average person. He didn’t have to explain his ceramic forms. A vase, a cup, a bowl were obvious to all.

Housewarming Gift Kits - Home Design with Kevin Sharkey

Summer is a big season for moving, so you may have a few new faces on your block or in your building these next few months.

If you're like me and try to avoid the kitchen at all costs, housewarming gifts can be a challenge.

Instead delivering a basket of muffins or a pound cake, I create custom "housewarming kits" filled with the kinds of things that every new home should have. The best part is you can tailor the kits to fit the needs or personalities of the homeowner.

Here are my favorite housewarming kit ideas that will be welcomed by any new neighbor (and will last long after the last muffin is eaten).

Clean House Kit | 6/23/11 at 10:10 am