Stephanie Ratanas

The large ceramics studio at the Hyde Park Art Center is filled with just under two dozen people. They are gathered around two large tables, kneading and rolling large chunks of brown clay while periodically picking up a clay-caked beer bottle or cranberry vodka. Welcome to "Cocktails and Clay," a gathering the art center offers every second Friday of the month as an alternative to the Friday night bar scene---but without axing out the drinking, of course. Beginners and pros alike are invited to come to the art center to drink and build a clay sculpture around a chosen theme of the night. The event began about a year ago when the art center moved to its new facility.

"They wanted me to do something, and I was like, `Well, OK...but I'm going to need to drink,'" says Theaster Gates Jr., the instructor for the evening. Gates has chosen the theme of "urban circus" for tonight's session, after observing some police and car-driving citizen interaction on the way over. In the middle of the room on a table under the harsh florescent lights are the words "the urban circus" made with clay.

A group of eight or nine women are yelling and laughing loudly at each other as they create their urban-themed sculptures at a table in the back. They have come tonight from the south suburbs to celebrate a birthday.

"That is NOT urban, that's prehistoric," screams one of the women at her friend, who is constructing a lizard-like animal. Another one of the women is shaping a box with a money sign on the top, and across from her, her friend is molding an especially phallic-looking sculpture.

"Well...that is very urban," laughs Gates.

"We just wanted to play with some clay and have some cocktails," says Ella Huston. She is a first timer at "Cocktails and Clay" and heard about it through a mailing list. Others who are here tonight are seasoned regulars of the Hyde Park Art Center. Eleni Vryza is an artist who lives in Hyde Park and dabbles mainly in ceramics, painting and sculpture,

"I came to the opening [of the new location] a year ago and now I come whenever I can," she says.

There is a rush to finish the clay figures and drinks before the end of the session. A few more taunts and heavy critic remarks erupt from the table of the birthday partying women.

"Hey! How is your brontosaurus coming?"

(2007-05-18)

Also by Stephanie Ratanas

Banking on Comedy
Ever thought about what would happen if you deposited one of those checks you got in the junk mail, fully addressed and just so authentic-looking? Before you throw it in the trash with the direct-mail advertising and the Land's End catalogs, consider Patrick Combs, who dared to do such a thing
(2007-05-07)

Teacher Tussle
It's Friday night, and sixty-seventy college professors, students and high-school teachers sit patiently in folding chairs in UE Hall near Ashland and Ogden for the first screening of "Renaissance 2010: On the Frontlines." The film is an amateur documentary, made by teachers Jackson Potter of Englewood High School and Al Ramirez of Ruiz Elementary, who are also Chicago Teachers Union delegates
(2007-05-01)

Spit Take
On the first warm day in weeks, dozens of people crowd into the small Andersonville bookstore for "Sister Spit: The Next Generation," an event (originally conceived in the 1990s) that features a group of eight lesbian writers touring the country together in one van to share their stories of spontaneity, lust, resentment and humor
(2007-04-24)

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