studio update

Heading into the last week of September.  I've started up fall classes at the Davis Art Center and expect to begin teaching at Esparto Elementary School next month.  With Robert Ortball's suggestion, I had a wall built so I can display my works that need to be hung.  It was quite the project; a wooden frame on wheels (which I found from an old desk while just cleaning up the studio) with wall boards and particle board between.  After painting the wall, I grouped the last batch of ceramic forms to create an installation.  A kiln is cooling with several more works including a pound or so of "pinches", a circular mound with protruding bubbles, and another cell structure.  Then I hand built another large cup, threw the saucer from a slab, and proceeded to run it over tonight.  I will mimic a willow ware pattern but am not sure what will spill out of it yet - maybe some rubber ducks.

3rd Mentor Meeting

It was just two weeks since my last meeting with Robert Orbal.  He suggested I go into a frenzy and scheduled another review for yesterday.  That is not a lot of time considering the work needs to dry, be twice fired in a kiln that takes 3 days from start to finish, and a second glaze firing in two smaller kilns for the majority of work!  What a frenetic pace it was!  I unloaded the final kilns in the morning and headed out to CSUS where Robert teaches and there were some gallery walls for me to hang the pieces. 

Robert didn't feel that this work is more than just an exercise although I do see a number of them as finished, even if small.  The only piece that stood out for him was the red "blood cell" one. Truthfully I don't feel as passionate or attached to these pieces as when I am constructing one of my narrative works because they originate from a strong experience or emotion.  What I have gained is the experience of creating works based on form and color, not plotted out in advance, and mixing in other media.  I experimented with firing in metal wire, rods, and screws and a few pieces have astro-turf glued on.  I have played with using foam insulation as well.  Mentioning that my work has a Baroque connection, Robert said it seemed more Rococo.  I do see a connection to the flowing drapery, figures, and esthetic of painters such as Carracci, Rubens, and Caravaggio.  The goal will be to find a way to draw from both ways of working to reach new ground. Unfortunately, I left feeling downbeat.

We have another meeting planned for mid-October. A few pieces are being sent through the kiln again.  My studio is so cluttered; how I wish for a bigger space.  Today I went down to the local hardware store and arranged for a moveable wall to be made so I can step back from my work and view  it properly, even if it means opening the garage door and moving out on to the driveway.  At least I should have a few more months of sunshine in CA.  After my new wall is in place, I plan on spending some more time grouping these works as installations before plotting my next path. 


Most pieces wall mount and vary in size from 8 to 15" with some smaller segments thrown in.  (Sorry, color is not great.)

 

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.