work on its way

green orb with piano wires

broken mound, in kiln before glaze firing

 

concentric circle mound, in kiln for glaze firing

spiral mound, in kiln for glaze firing

greenware

As above, 1st glaze firing, side view

another view

greenware

As above, 1st glaze firing

finished work

refired from first set of squashed pots

In this next phase of work since meeting with Jim Melchert mid February, there are four mounds and three sets of squashed pots in the works.  Since most of the pieces are still in progress, needing further color work, this is how they appear to date.  The intention is for the green orb to be on the floor but since I haven't moved it over to the installation space (which still needs wall board put up and painted), please excuse the patched paper background.  It looks better on white than the tile floor.  Last night, just as I was finished glazing the mound with swirls on an electric potter's wheel, I put my foot down on the pedal and it went flying like a saucer!  Yup, big mistake.  I'll just have to continue glaze work and piece it together later.  There are three holes for piano wire extensions. 
       Jim and I have been discussing the use of circles/mounds with the implication that they read as portals and/or eruption.  A black circle indicates a hole when placed on the ground, or wall for that matter.  I'd like the mounds to appear to rise up from the earth.  The spiral mound will have both piano wires and astro-turf.  The glaze before firing doesn't represent the true colors. The pink and blue center squashed pots will be refired at a high temperature.  The white matt glaze is too flat, the black should have appeared like gun metal, and the pink is uneven.  If I fire the red glazed pots higher to improve the white matt, I'll loose the red glaze.  These pots will become part of my experiment to project words.  I envision them on (clean) black circles, not wheel bats as photographed.  Once this group of works is complete, I need to focus on my installation space and just play with the forms and how they are perceived in their environment.  I've got a mini projector but still need to figure out how to use it!

Jim also asked me to do drawings of some of the forms I made last semester.  My first attempts are quite academic; it wasn't not easy at that.  Maybe next I'll enlarge and focus on one part.  Not sure what the direction is here.