2024 Little Brown Jug + Dig Deeper (Troy, NY)

Margaret Boozer
Study for Troy, Uncle Sam and the Brickyard and Your Story/ My Story, 2022
fired brick clay, found brick + pipe shards from Sam Wilson brickyard site (Troy, NY), soil from the artist's yard (Brentwood, MD), steel
34" x 30" x 4"

This work is a study for a commission that was completed in in 2022.

In 2021, I was commissioned by a Troy family to make a piece of art for their home. My practice involves digging local clays, soils and other materials for site specific work. I knew about the Hudson Valley’s brickyard history, and my clients informed me that THE Uncle Sam (Sam Wilson) had lived in Troy, and he and his brother had owned a brickyard there. So, the concept began…

This study, Troy, Uncle Sam and the Brickyard, is made from fired clay from Uncle Sam’s homestead, not far from his brickyard site. Visiting the site to dig clay, we also found brick shards emerging from the ground. That inspired an idea to create a map of Troy made from the fired brick clay, broken into shards. In this study, the broken shards are presented as if emerging from the ground.

I was interested in the story of the early days of the United States, when it was more common to see the earth as raw material to be used for gain with not much thought of over using or depletion. I was also interested in the story of American exceptionalism where two brothers without much means could rent a piece of land, and with a shovel and some good clay, start to build wealth and opportunity for themselves. But it’s important to remember that story is created at the expense of the Indigenous people whose land the colonists stole.

Two years later, I added a second part to the title of this piece... I added Your Story/ My Story as I began to understand the ways in which I find myself in this narrative. Finding clay in the landscape is exciting, and I haven’t always asked permission before taking some back to the studio. That is a small act of colonialism…wanting something and just taking it. When I created the study, I joined the shards together with soil from my own yard in Maryland. So the shards are from Uncle Sam’s property, which is now RPI’s, and the soil is from my property. But then, how did we come to own those respective properties? Working on this piece and this larger exhibition have really become an opportunity to think more about how I might have a more responsible and reciprocal relationship with land, and how I might bring some of this relationship and thinking into my artistic practice.

Little Brown Jug + Dig Deeper:
[some] Art, Science and History of Troy Clay

September 27-November 16, 2024
The Arts Center of the Capital Region
265 River St, Troy, NY 12180

Clay and curiosity are at the center of this meandering exhibition connecting potters, soil scientists, artists, historians, engineers, curators, geologists, museums, glaze chemists and more.

Clays vary from location to location because of their unique geologic history…the rock that decomposed to create them, the impurities they accumulated as they traveled from their originating location to where they were deposited, the weathering they endured along the way.

Curiosity about Troy clay led four artists to step into the footsteps of Sam Wilson (The “Uncle Sam”) digging the clay that he and his brother Ebenezer dug to make some of the first bricks in colonial America.

It also led us to a collaborative experiment with a cousin of Albany Slip that became the Little Brown Jug project- an invitational pottery exhibit and opportunity to see this material in the hands of so many potters, on so many clay bodies, in so many firing conditions, telling so many stories.

Working on this exhibition has also made us curious to dig deeper into our own histories and making processes, to become more fully aware of the blessings and privilege that this material has afforded each of us, and to learn how to have a more reciprocal relationship with the land.

We are excited to connect with the New York State Museum and Chief Curator of History Jennifer Lemak for historic examples of New York stoneware featuring Albany slip from the Museum’s Adam Weitsman Collection. Dr. Lemak together with potter and former Studio Potter editor Mary Barringer will be the jurors for Little Brown Jug, selecting some pots at the end of the exhibition to travel back to the museum to be shown alongside their historic forebears.

The Little Brown Jug + Dig Deeper exhibit will include a range of programming for both professional and recreational audiences including opportunities to discuss ceramic history, to experiment with glaze chemistry, to make some pots, to fire a rocket kiln, to learn some geology and soil science, and to explore both practical and philosophical aspects of clay from the ground.

See exhibit and programming information at Arts Center of the Capital Region. Connect with the conversation, Little Brown Jug Project, on Instagram at @Schaghticoke_Slip

Little Brown Jug exhibiting ceramic artists:

Molly Adams, Cat Viera Akerman, Karen Arrington, Julia Bargo, Wesley Barnes, Margaret Boozer, Julie Boynton, Kendra Brown, Kate Childs Graham, a.k.a. KCG, Kelly Clendenin, Leah Cohen, Michael Corigliano, Michael Cummins, Connor Czora, Gina Mai Denn, Bianca Dupuis, Rachel Garrison, Bruce Gholson, Gina Mai Denn. Rebecca Gitter, Ian Hall-Hough, Joe Hicks, Mary Pat Hopper, Thomas Johnson, Lyla Kaplan, Patricia Keelen, Mariah Kitner, Laura Korch, Mary LaFleur, Pam Lau, Matt Levy, Tom Loggia, Levi Mahan, Robilee McIntyre, Karen Morgenstern, Rebecca Murtaugh, Lisa Orr, Alex Paton, Ryan Rakhshan, Loren Scherbak, Hitomi Shibata, Takuro Shibata, Hayley Cranberry Small, Riley Studebaker, Lou Thorne, Megan Van Wagoner

Jurors:

Dr. Jennifer Lemak, Chief Curator New York State Museum
Mary Barringer, ceramist + writer

organizers/ exhibiting artists:

Bianca Dupuis, Broken Mold Studio (Troy, NY)
Robilee McIntyre, FuzzyLightbulb Studio (Troy, NY),
Claire Sherwood, Visual Artist and K-8 Educator (Averill Park, NY)
Margaret Boozer, Red Dirt Studio and NYC Urban Soils Institute (Mount Rainier, MD)

collaborators and contributors:

P. Thomas Carroll, historian, formerly Troy, NY (now AZ!)
Kathy Sheehan, Executive Director, Hart Cluett Museum
Chris Kelly, historian, Schaghticoke, NY
Don Rittner, historian, archeologist, anthropologist, environmental activist, educator, author, film maker, Capital District, NY
Olga Vargas, USDA-NRCS, Greenwich, NY
Steve Carlisle, retired USDA-NRCS, Capital District, NY
Dr. Sarah Cadieux, Sr. Lecturer, Associate Director of Environmental Science, RPI
Ryan Rahkshan, glaze designer
Marina Tsaplina, Interdisciplinary EcoPuppetry Artist | Writer | Disability Culture Activist
RL Martens, ceramist + writer
Connor Czora, ceramist
Jeff Zamek, glaze wizard + ceramic consulting services
Shino Tanikawa, NYC Soil and Water Conservation District, Urban Soils Institute
Richard Shaw, Urban Soils Institute, retired USDA-NRCS
Dr. William Carty, ceramic engineering consultant, retired NY State College of Ceramics at Alfred University
Loren Michael Mortimer, PhD, Historian | Digital Humanist | Instructional Designer
and many more!

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2024 Little Brown Jug + Dig Deeper (Troy, NY)

Artist's notes

Let’s work together

Wanna join our crazy team?

Tags.

Recent Posts.

2024 Little Brown Jug + Dig Deeper (Troy, NY)

Artist's notes