About the RCS Project Award

The “Get a Leg Up” RCS Project Awards are open to alumni (past assistants) of Rat City Studios. The mission of these awards is to offer annually gifted support and to give alumni a leg up in their endeavors as artists. These awards are also intended to be a way of keeping in touch with the goals of alumni, as well as to honor the legacy of mentors. The three awards below are described and each recipient for the award follows.

There are more details on the Award Webpage. And if you would like to consider matching one of these awards or starting your own through RCS, your support will make a lasting impact on the next generation of artists!

Living the Dream – $1000

Earning a living as an artist is not always that dreamy. In fact, it is downright challenging. The bills add up, tools are expensive, time is precious. This grant is given by an Anonymous Donor. They want to help one of you keep, keeping on in your path. They especially want to encourage those earning a living from their work. In your application, show how you are putting your work into the world!

Awarded to Rickie Barnett - https://twoheadeddiver.com/

Artist Statement: My work is an internal look at the preeminent issues of being bound to loved ones and the effects it has on one’s own mental state of being. I work figuratively creating characters based on the struggle of balancing relationships, placing them in an open narrative where they can revisit emotions experienced but not quite understood. I strive to provide a sympathetic relation to the narrative in the restlessness of living in one’s headspace, an effort to stay honest with myself and my loved ones. The continual self-assessment within our interactions bears fruit which nourishes the bond and eases vulnerability, harvesting growth.

Bio: Rickie Barnett grew up in the Northern California city of Redding. He attended California State University, Chico, receiving a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in painting and ceramics. After Graduating in the fall of 2013 he took up a year-long position as an Artist in Residence at Taos Clay Studio in Taos, NM. He then moved to Seattle for a long term position as a Studio Assistant to Deborah Schwartzkopf at Rat City Studios. In 2016, he moved to North Carolina, to become a studio assistant to ceramic sculptors, Cristina Cordova and Jeannine Marchand. His work has been shown nationally. Currently, he lives near Penland School of Craft, where he works out of his home studio, in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.

Project: Over this last year I have had the pleasure of seeing a tremendous shift in my career and I am proud to say that I have primarily supported myself off of art, over the last 10 months. With this new surge of activity in the studio, it has become extremely clear that my studio must become more organized. The funds of this fellowship will go towards updating the studio with equipment to aid in the growth of the work output. I am currently working with minimal space to make work, but receiving this grant will allow me to update the configuration of the studio, to have a more economic flow and to streamline the making process - allowing more time dedicated to the creative steps in making. Equipment such as appropriate shelving, work tables, chop saw and table saw will all be greatly beneficial to the growing output of this work. My studio currently feels tight and chaotic with limited storage space constructed with found lumber and acquired tables that take up more space than is necessary. Upgrading the studio with new shelving and work tables would afford me the appropriate storage and workspace to keep a steady flow of work organized. My budget includes four new units; A new work table that is taller for working standing up, a cart for kiln furniture, shelving for glaze buckets and dry materials, and a large shelving unit for storing and drying work. With a table saw and chop saw I would have the means to build and customize the studio furniture to suit the space and workload best. These tools will also help with ongoing work such as building frames for paintings and hanging structures for wall sculptures, along with crates for shipping finished works.

Kris Bliss Memorial Award: Follow Your Bliss $500

(1950-2016) Kris Bliss was a wholesale potter from Anchorage, Alaska for many years. She changed the path of many young potters as they came to work with her as studio assistants. She offered them the chance to see the ins and outs of maintaining a career as a production potter. Kris nurtured the dreams and skills of those who came to work for her with supportive attention and her own passion for making. Her role model gave them skills and a  network to grow and begin to develop their own studio practice. To learn more about Kris, visit the linked article by Jen Allen.

Awarded to Jake Fetterman - http://www.jakefetterman.com/

Artist Statement: I am interested in how my relationship with a space can be changed or tarnished by a memory or series of events. I question how my queerness, inheritance, and upbringing has affected my understanding and relationship to what constitutes a home, sanctuary, or utopia. Through the creation of lived-in spaces and possessions, I examine how places and objects are containers for memory. I want to highlight the strange dichotomy that exists between the rawness, discomfort, reality, and beauty of these moments.

Bio: Jake Fetterman grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where he spent his time working on an organic farm, playing in the woods, and making things. His love of handmade things, storytelling, experimentation, and interpersonal relationships pushes him to be a maker. Jake Fetterman attained his BFA in sculpture from Western Washington University in 2015, a post-bac at CU Boulder in 2017-2019, and is currently a graduate candidate at UW Seattle 3D4M program expecting to graduate in 2021.

Project: Graduate school is a time for experimentation with materials, processes, and ideas. I get the most excited about my work when I throw myself into situations and processes where I am not comfortable and have to constantly problem solve. In the last year, I have expanded my practice to include video, sound, and performance. I have always struggled with social anxiety, and putting myself into the forefront of an audience's attention has always been difficult.

Private/Public(beautification), is a series of videos and sculptures exploring my relationship to private and public space, and the different ways that I present myself depending on the situation I am in. The rituals that are associated with getting ready to transition from a private space to a public space vary, and are inherently unique. I am interested in exploring the rituals of others to understand my own personal rituals. Through the use of interview within the person's private space, photography of the objects and space involved with rituals, and recreation of objects and space, I want to further examine the division of private and public space and the variation that occurs in how I present myself and act within each space.

Being in graduate school, and living in Seattle are two factors that cause a financial strain causing me to not be as experimental as I would like with my work. This grant would help me with material costs such as clay, glaze, and other materials for the still lives/recreation of people’s/personal space, and props for performance/video work. Allowing me to be able to make more experimental decisions and push my work to a place that I might not normally go.

Ella Graf Memorial Award: Create Your Dream – $500

Ella Graf was a hard-working dreamer. She immigrated to the US shortly after WWII with her family. Academic education was not available to her and much of what she learned, she figured out by observing others, and through trial and error. She raised her family, using creativity to solve problems. She was an avid supporter of learning and constant individual growth. She was always in movement – gardening, cooking and creating handiwork for family and friends.

Awarded to Eliane Medina - http://elianemedina.com/

Artist Statement: My functional pottery is an exploration of humankind. Much like relationships between people, my pots become more familiar over time. I make pieces that are meant to be held and felt, with both the hands and lips. In this work, I aim to push back against society’s definition of perfection and highlight the less noted intimacies of life. I strive to create work that resonates with all walks of life, simply because of being human. It is a reminder that we are all different, we are all odd, and in those ways, we are all very much the same.

Bio: Eliane Medina grew up in Auburn, Washington, taking her first pottery class at Green River Community College in 2012. She received her BFA from Central Washington University in 2016. Eliane worked in Seattle as an assistant and studio manager to Deborah Schwartzkopf at Rat City Studios from June 2017-August 2019. During that time she taught several ceramics classes to adults and children in the Seattle area. Eliane currently lives in Ystad, Sweden, where her mother is originally from. She teaches a children’s pottery class and is working to make artistic connections, continue to create art, and expand her teaching career.

Project: Sharing a meal with friends and family brings people together and creates a sense of community. My mother is from the Skåne region in Sweden and I grew up in Washington State, the USA with her, my Mexican-American father, and younger brother. I have visited Skåne several times over the years, but have not had much opportunity to grow close with the family I have in the area. I have now been living in Ystad, Sweden since August 2019. I’ve attended family events and begun to get to know the members on this side of my family. However, I realize it will take quite a bit more time before I no longer feel like an outsider. Therefore, I am proposing this project of creating tableware for 35 people, which is about how many individuals my Swedish family is made up of, who will then keep their personal dishes.

This set will combine my current ceramic style with traditional Swedish imagery. I will focus on patterns and textures present in dishes, textiles, and traditional clothing. I am aiming to create a feeling of comfort and familiarity in the effort to strike up conversation and share stories. It will include two plates, a tumbler, snaps glass and coffee mug for everyone, along with serving dishes, a butter dish, beverage pitchers, a sugar jar, creamer, and vase centerpiece.

A studio in Lund, Sweden offers studio rental in four-month increments, which is the time I have budgeted for to make these pieces. I plan to hold a family meal in the beginning of August, giving me mid-February through March to make specific plans and designs and gather materials, and April through July to work in the studio. The meal will be held at a family member’s home or public park. Attendees are encouraged to bring or help make a Swedish dish to share, and I will also offer some Mexican foods, bringing another culture that represents me into the event.

Overall, this project will help me gain skills, promote myself in a new country, and most of all bring me closer to my family.