Hello Hello
2012
Hello Hello and Pad Pad, by Seattle artist Jeffry Mitchell, were made in Los Angeles for a solo exhibition titled Shamrock Edelweiss Seaweed at Ambach & Rice gallery. Mitchell hand-crafted these large-scale figures inspired by traditional Staffordshire dog figures, while borrowing an iridescent brown glaze reminiscent of Pennsylvania Dutch Pottery. The surfaces of both Hello Hello and Pad Pad are heavily worked with line drawings of various motifs, including flowers. Hello Hello and Pad Pad are two of the artist’s most ambitious works to date.
Since graduating with an MFA from Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia (1998), Jeffry Mitchell (born 1958) has not only become an important influence for a number of artists working in Seattle today, but in a career that spans more than twenty-five years, he has gained national recognition for his playful sculptures that subversively disguise deeper truths, probing notions of masculinity and sexuality as well as tradition and artistic influence.
Glazed earthenware
22 1/2 x 23 x 27 in. (57.2 x 58.4 x 68.6 cm)
Pedestal: 30 x 32 x 28 in. (76.2 x 81.3 x 71.1 cm)
Howard Kottler Endowment for Ceramic Art
2012.14.1
Provenance: The artist; Ambach & Rice Gallery, Los Angeles, California; purchase Seattle Art Museum, 2012
Photo: Courtesy of Jeffry Mitchell