Sunday, November 25, 2012

Chicken or the Egg?

This piece was started towards the end of September when I was asked by the Crocker Art Museum to do a demonstration for their October Harvest Artmix event. I had found some interesting gourds, a pink pumpkin, a rubber chicken, and an egg, for props. It was shelved after I decided to focus on abstract forms. Even though it is not the direction I've chosen for my thesis, it is still about the clash of beauty and the grotesque, artifice and nature.

This is the first round of color before bisque firing. It is approximately 18"l x 16"w x 17"h.




Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Exhibition installed

Monday was the reception for my exhibition at the Kaneko Gallery, American River College Sacramento. Last Friday, not wanting to take risks with students bumping into ceramic works, we installed the majority of the pedestal pieces in two central islands. In addition there are two on pedestals against the wall and two hanging works. There was a large turnout of students during the reception and I had the opportunity to talk about my work and answer questions. I'll return on Dec. 3rd for a second reception and on the 4th to speak to a class. There are eleven ceramic pieces on view, six of which were created during the previous three semesters.

Meanwhile, I've made some additional small elements for the works already posted. The new longer artificial turf is supposed to arrive next week at long last after which I'll finally be able to have them professionally photographed. It has taken multiple phone calls and emails over a month for it to be delivered. I've started tracking down boxes for shipping the wood/steel bases. Unfortunately the quote for shipping tubes was prohibitively expensive. Last weekend I went to the Berkeley Art Museum and  Berkeley Art Center exhibitions. The Art Museum had large scale installations by the graffiti artist Barry McGee. I found several great resource books there as well. The Berkeley Art Center's "Local Treasure" was a powerful show of ceramic sculpture by Richard Shaw, Annabeth Rosen, Pete Voulkos, Stephen De Stabler, and Nancy Selvin.







Saturday, November 3, 2012

In the details

My current studio time is all about refinement and detail. Now that I've finished my research paper on Beauty and the Grotesque, I'll be fine tuning the work from this semester. I'm so glad Jann suggested I do something with the opening under the hanging form. I found small sewing pins and poked them through the artificial turf. This spiky bulge reflected in the mirror adds another layer of mystery and intrigue.
detail of reflection in mirror

larger detail

full view
Next I'll be cleaning polishing the steel elements in the pedestals. On the "Vagabond" piece, the slant has been corrected and welding is now tacked from below but the steel is very uneven with color. Jann also suggested I make the wood grain less visible so I'll be sanding and repainting the plywood surfaces as well. I am still waiting on the more realistic remnants from Turf Evolutions to complete the other works.

I've trimmed the base to a round on the wooden pedestal; the square form didn't seem to fit. There are now more piano wire "feelers" and I'll also make more "blobs" to hang off of the slats. I'll substitute the taller turf in the base when it arrives.