Think Rodin's "The Thinker," but female, buttery soft and earth-toned. Liz Bryant's sculptures of crouching women bring a modern update to the pensive figure. Spending 200 hours or more on each piece, Bryant hand-builds bodies out of brown clay, then collages colorful found images in patches on the sculpture's surface. An opening reception Friday night for her latest body of work promises to be a down-home affair with free food and drink, including brandied apple omelets flambé (a vast improvement, dare we say, over the typical art party cheese cubes). During a two-day workshop on Saturday and Sunday, Bryant schools fellow sculptors in the art of form building and how to identify and solve the weight stresses of large-scale clay sculpture. Fragments of Memory: New Figurative Sculpture by Liz Bryant, June 1-16 (opening reception 7-9 p.m. Fri., June 1, free admission), demonstration workshop June 2-3 ($115 general/$95 students and members), regular hours 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat., St. Petersburg Clay Company, historic Seaboard Train Station, 420 22nd Ave. S., St. Petersburg, 727-896-2529, stpeteclay.com.
