Hogging the spotlight

Creativity abounds in Liz Fox’s “Exploring Form & Surface,” now on display at the Newport Visual Arts Center. 

A section of the show is a collection of embellishment techniques on clay sample tiles, with examples of sgraffito, stamping, carving, block printing, mishima, stenciling, sprigging, piercing, resists, underglaze transfers, cuerda seca, mocha diffusion and majolica. At the conclusion of the show, Fox will donate the tiles to the center’s clay studio for permanent display as inspiration to students and as teaching references.

The display also includes hand-built forms, incorporating many of the techniques used in Fox’s tiles. She continues her explorative process of form in her platters, plates, mugs, sculptures, coat hangers and fonts. Her love for the natural world is evident in the plants and animals that are a constant theme in her forms and imagery, including squirrels, otters, giraffes, woodpeckers, polar bears and kelp. Most of the pieces are functional and built using slab or coil techniques and fired in an electric kiln, but she is always exploring new techniques.

Fox has lived on the Oregon Coast for most of her life and has had myriad careers since graduating with a Soil Science degree from OSU in 1980. Retiring as a high school librarian in 2020, she has been a full-time potter ever since, pursuing the interest she dabbled in for more than 40 years. She will be teaching two stamp carving workshops at the center in January.

“Exploring Form & Surface” will be on display through January 28 in the COVAS Showcase at the Newport Visual Arts Center, located at 777 NW Beach Drive and is open Wednesday through Saturday from noon to 4 pm. For more information, go to coastarts.org or call 541-265-6540.