A few years ago I was walking around downtown Milwaukee checking out some galleries when I came across some of the most beautiful ceramics I have seen in a really long time. I love ceramic art. The medium is so versatile. When done well it has a life and presence that painting or other mediums cannot achieve. I was captivated by the artist’s work. I glanced at the placard to see the piece’s title and saw the artist’s name, Shannon Sullivan. Wait… I went to college with a Shannon who was a ceramicist. I even have one of her pieces in my office. I went home and did a little Googling to find out that it was indeed the same Shannon Sullivan. She was a great ceramicist in college but her work now is truely spectacular.     Her work really captures the strength of ceramics. Her shapes are captivating and interesting, especially the way...

  Many years ago I was able to go to New York’s PS1 gallery. PS1 was an old school building that had been converted into a gallery and it displayed the works of contemporary artists who were groundbreaking and new. One of the rooms was made into an aviary containing small birds that flew around the room freely. The room had grass and small ponds as well as small trees for the birds to occupy. Just below the ceiling hung fine wires that the birds would land upon generating sound. The random movements of the birds created sounds that were sometimes melodic and often chaotic. There was no barrier or netting between the viewer and the birds so they would react and fly around in response to the room’s inhabitants. Someone startled a large group of birds that were on the grass pecking at seed and they flew to the wires above, creating a cacophony of sound that resembled an...