The latest activities & finished piece

Narcissus is completed.  Yesterday I dyed the doily and today the mirror appropriately cracked in the right place.  It's amazing how work is self directed.  The large kiln is cooling with the next batch of amorphous forms.  A flurry of glazing will take place soon so that I can meet with mentor Robert Ortbal on Monday. 

On Friday I visited SFMoMA to see highlights of the permanent collection, a selection of contemporary sculpture, and new ceramic work of Tiago Carneiro da Cunha (Brazilian) and Klara Kristalova (Swedish).  I found Tiago's primitive forms off-putting and high school like in form and glazing.  Kristalova's work was more powerful with historical reference and intriguing surface, but his forms are so bottom heavy and one gets overdosed with the dripping glaze that seems to melt along with the figures like fudge.  It is surprising to see this kind of work highlighted of all the ceramic sculpture being produced world wide.  That same day, I also went to the Berkeley Art Museum to see the Kurt Schwitters "Color and Collage" exhibit which is surprisingly the first solo museum exhibition of his work in the US in 25 years.  His "Mertz" assemblage pieces (begun in 1918) use found objects and include works on paper, painting, sculpture, installation, performance, writing, and sound, spurred artists such as Rauchenberg and Johns to incorporate collage in their paintings. 

update with glaze work

First revision on the comparative analysis is done!  I would love to send it in tomorrow.  We'll see.  Meanwhile all of the work from the first 2 1/2 months were unloaded on Saturday in time to meet with Robert Ortbal, my mentor.  His comments and criticisms are really helping me to think more about other possibilities.  It feels like I need to scrape away sediment that has settled in my brain.  We will be meeting again in just a few weeks so I will work like a fiend until then (after the paper is done).

The large cup is cooling after being fired to cone 010 for decals.  Next will come a silver luster.  Then a mirror will be cut to sit inside.  I still have to glue the large swan together and figure out how to crochet that large doily... The title may be "Narcissus."

 Here are the glaze results.  The first two "squiggles" are wall mounted.

 "Narcissus."  The cardboard is a placeholder for the mirror. Large doily still to come.

 Decals before firing.  I intend for them to melt into the surface and alter in color as per my test.

I still can't articulate why I feel compelled to make the inflatables out of clay rather than use the plastic form in my work.  It comes from my desire to do trompe l'oeil work.  Robert put them together like this. I do like them that way: one would sink and one would swim, but I can't see the substitution...

Summer is a going out...

What a relief that my last summer ceramics class at the Davis Art Center was Monday.  After teaching at least 5 classes/week, my teaching obligations will be much lighter from here on in.  I've got over a week break before the fall session starts up.  One daughter left to start graduate work in Toronto and I'm catching up with my second daughter who only just returned from Germany last week.  She hadn't been back home since January and returns to UPenn on the 4th of September.  All three of us will be graduating in the spring of '13! 

The kiln is on it's way up for the second glaze firing on my MFA work.  I see now that the last post didn't include the giant teacup (see below).  Everything needed more glaze work from the first go round.  The "squiggles" are more like flames (think Inferno) than water although the forms are derived from the stuff that flows from the "cups runneth over." Photos will follow after the kiln cools.  I had done lots of small tests before settling on the glaze for the cup but with three coats over the large cup surface, the glaze looked too splotchy.  Hopefully an extra coat will even things out although it is supposed to be runny.  I'll be trying a new technique with decals melted in rather than on the surface of the glaze.  Still lots to do: there may be a luster firing for a silver rim, a mirror to be cut, and doily to crochet (which I'm still practicing!) before this swan piece is finished.

It was great to be able to see Dali's watercolors of Dante's Devine Comedy at the Haggin Museum last week.  Rauchenberg also did an interpretation in print of the Inferno which I just learned is in the collection of the MIT List Visual Arts Center.

Meanwhile I've written half of the comparative analysis paper due Sept. 1.  I'm really enjoying the exploration of the two works I've chosen: Oppenheim's Object and Samaras' Book #4, both of which relate to my current work. 

I currently have ceramic work on view in two exhibitions – "Shattered," the 6th Annual National Multimedia show at MarinMOCA, Juror: Kenneth Baker, SF Chronicle Art Critic www.marinmoca.org, and "Visions in Clay 2011" at LH Horton Jr Gallery, Stockton, Juror: Judith Schwartz, Director of Sculpture and Craft Media at NYU www.deltacollege.edu/div/finearts/dept/dca/gallery/exhibit1/index.html  I'll also be participating in the Ceramics Annual of America at Fort Mason, SF in October ceramicsannual.org.

studio update

More glaze tests will be unloaded today to help determine direction for the large tea cup.  The swans have been under glazed and are drying.  I've enlarged my "squiggle" forms and could see them even larger still but need to consider how large they can ultimately get since their shapes are determined by my hand which obviously can't grow.  I'm working solid and then hollowing the forms which is a very different way of making shapes for me.  After these are glazed, I'll take stock in how to move them further.  Meanwhile I will continue to explore new territory. 

Thoughts on recent exhibitions

In addition to the amazing Stein Collection and the Picasso retrospective in San Francisco Museums, I accompanied a friend visiting from out of town to the Impressionist exhibitions at the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento: Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism, Transcending Vision–American Impressionism, Gardens and Grandeur–Porcelains and Paintings by Franz A. Bischoff.  It surprisingly lead me to consider other glaze treatments of the inside of the tea cup work in progress.  The exhibition of 3-D trompe l'oeil canvases of manufactured packaging by Daneil Douke was thought provoking.  He is essentially making mock up paintings which at a distance look real, but when you get up close, you can see the hand work.  This is similar to the effect of my ceramic trompe l'oeil pieces (without the narrative or scale twists).  He could easily have produced his work in a slicker fashion. The fact that the medium is paint on canvas, the viewer can see the stretcher bars by his leaving the back of the box open, and unevenness of hand lettering, Douke shows his desire to allow the viewer into the process.  He toys with deception while "challenging our assumptions about reality and artiface."

Work in Progress, July 24

One month's progress

It's been almost four weeks since my return from the first residency.  There never seems to be enough time for work and reading.  I'm teaching 5 days a week including Monday's from noon until 9 pm but my schedule will lighten up towards the end of August.  It is difficult to squeeze more into my already packed day but I am managing to make progress.

I started building a new large piece which although is not a complete departure, I am adding other materials (mirror and crochet) and expect to explore new glaze surfaces as well.  It is composed of a large grandmother's style tea cup which I searched antique and thrift stores for, and inflatable swans.  Originally it was going to have an adult swan floating on a mirror within the cup but I decided to knock the cup over and have the swan upside down with a turned neck, and a cygnet 'swimming' away from the cup.  All but the small swan has been constructed but fine detail work is still needed.  It will be a challenge to get the mirror to fit into the sides of the cup because it is not a perfect shape.  The original cardboard piece I made as a placeholder for the mirror lost it's structure from the moisture of the clay so I bought a piece of plexiglass which I hope won't be too difficult to cut and fit after the cup has shrunk in firing. After seeing the Impressionist shows at the Crocker Art Museum, I'm thinking about lining the inside of the cup with (glazed) clouds or shoreline.  There will be glaze tests ahead and I may try decals or China paint for the cup but expect to use underglaze to mimic the inflatables' plastic surface.  I would like to place the cup and swan on a large crocheted doily (which I will have to learn to make!). It has been extremely hot and dry in Davis which has caused some cracking issues with the clay, reminding me of my time at Anderson Ranch. 

Also during this time I made several small abstract forms that seem to flow from the "water" forms of the 'cups runneth' over work which I would like to build on a large scale.  I realize my building technique will have to change from slabs and coils to hollowed forms to accomplish this.  I'll be posting images of the work in progress including macquettes.