Final critique

I must say that critique day was quite long and by the end of it I was really ready to go home, but I think overall this was a good way to do the critique. Although if we have more students than we did this semester in the future I do recommend that we separate the crit into two days.

During my critique I talked about how my idea for the styrofoam cups was transforming into something other than just useful cups. During my last BFA critique it was brought up that the idea for the styrofoam cups was taking a step backwards from the work that I have previously done. I was suprised by this comment but after thinking about it I would agree with it. but I feel that this idea just hasn't evolved into what it is suppose to be. So I am going to continue to push this idea so that it is not a step back but a few steps forward. It is just not there yet.

During my critique we also talked about going to the landfill and really looking around and taking it all in. And over the break I plan to do just that. I am very excited to see where all of the waste that we get rid of goes, and how it is disposed of. I work as a "custodial artist" so I see the waste that people throw away everyday and just how much recyclable material goes to the landfill everyday. But that is just a few companies and i think that this trip will really open up my eyes to just how much recyclable materials go to the landfill.

I have found that i am very attracted to this idea of white trash and large amounts of it, and the fact that it is porcelain and sort of this precious sort of "trash". I plan to continue to explore this idea from now until my senior show. By sticking with this idea for a longer period of time I hope to answer the questions that i have the most trouble with...Why? and what is the big concept behind the work? I really just need to learn how to talk about my work.

The comment that Chris had about weather all of these porcelain bottles would be considered trash was very interesting to me and I still find myself asking and thinking about this question, and I am still unsure. But it did have me thinking about other ways to display this trash in other environments. I really want to fill the front pond at IUS with them.

I have many ideas for all of this trash, but I think that one of the main things that I need to do is think about why. Is it about the trash, is it about recycling, is it about the landfill, is it about the future with all of this trash? I am just not sure yet.

White trash

I'm pretty sure that this week couldn't have gotten any busier. I had lectures, critiques, test, art shows and sales. busy busy... Anyway, besides all of this I managed to come in for a bit on Friday and make some cups and bottles. I am very pleased with the way that the bottles are coming out of the molds. The labels look really realistic, almost like the real glass bottles were spray painted. It was really nice to come into the studio and actually have time to work for a decent amount of time, and with the break coming up i am really hoping to get a lot more work done.
Until next time...

Making molds

This week was a really busy one. I had paintings to work on, molds to make, and symposiums to attend. this week I have started to make some molds of bottles. These will be the first of many different items that I am going to cast. I want to make a bunch of different molds of items that we throw away everyday. These items will be put together into an installation called white trash. This project could take me quite awhile to do.
I have also made a challenge for myself to make 200 cups for the guests at my wedding in May. I had wanted to do this for a little but, but when we were at the lectures at UK and they were talking about the process of throwing a large number of items and how this makes you appreciate the clay and makes you learn a lot about it and processes, it seems all the more appropriate to do something like this.

This week unfortunately I have been a bit under the weather and haven't had the chance to do as much ceramics work as I would have hoped to. I did make a new mold of some medium size cups and have thought about what I want to work on in the future. I have been thinking about doing a space lab show with my cups and a few other items (milk jugs, soda bottles, clothes...)that get thrown away. Like I said previously I want to throw these items into a trashcan and then remove the can leaving only the items, in the shape of the can. i still have a few more molds to make before i can get started on this project.
Sorry, I don't have any pictures this week. but there will be more to come later.
there was also the day of the dead show this week and it turned out very good. I got a lot of compliments on my skeleton babies and on my Madonna's, which I found very refreshing and exciting. Positive feedback is really the best motivator.

Raku, Dia de los muertos,BFA crit

This week was a very busy one. I had some trials and tribulations when it came to firing the glaze on my styrofoam cups, I had my BFA critique and we had another raku party. My critique went really well and it made me think about where my work is going and where I want it to go. We also talked about how i seem to jump around from semester to semester with the projects that i do, instead of sticking with one "theme" throughout. I don't feel that a theme has to be the same object though. I feel that my theme is about people and the way that my work and the objects that I make affect them, and can affect their lives.
The work in the pictures this week are from the raku firing. I am super pleased with the way that they came out. the three madonna's are for the day of the dead show that is going up at IUS this week. I spent quite a bit of time glazing them and it paid off. I made all of their exposed skin look like skeletons for the day of the dead.

After Jonathan's critique I have been thinking a lot about our conversation of having an idea and running with it instead of trying to do two or three different things and not being very far along on any of them because you have too many projects going on at once. So with this in mind I have decided to hold off on the lightning bolt idea. Although I really like the idea I have too many irons in the fire so to speak. I really want to continue to throw and make improvements in that area. I have also gotten into to styrofoam cups and have quite a few ideas for those. This week has been an extremely busy one and unfortunetly i did not have much time to work on my ceramics, but here is what I have. A few of my cups were bisque fired this week so I had the chance to start glazing them. Some of them I am going to leave the brite white that they are, others i am going to use as sort of a canvas for splattering glaze on. I am painting like this in my painting class that I am taking so why not incorporate it into my ceramics? The styrofoam cups are the perfect white canvas for the job, and splatters always give me this urban/graffiti feeling. Styrofoam cups can be seen all over the city streets and so can graffiti, if this makes any since??? If not, I just wanted to do it. :) Anyway, keeping with the environmental theme that I talked about last week I have had a few other ideas for that such as putting dates on a large number of cups to represent the large number of years that it takes a styrofoam cup to decompose. I also had the idea to get a trash can and fill the inside with the cups, remove the trash can, and have all of these squished cups in the form of the can. I have not started on either of these ideas yet but they could be in the works very soon. That's all I have for now.

White Trash

This week I tried to throw some things but it didn't really work out so great because I was sick and the mood just wasn't there. But I did make some of my styrofoam cups and I am really liking the way that they are coming out. Once they are fired they will be brite white like styrofoam cups are. Since my critique I have been trying to think of different things that I can do with them. So here are a few of those ideas... I have manipulated some of the cups so that they fit your hand and look worn and beaten. I am also trying to think about environmental issues and and some different ways to express this. The "Don't be trashy" cup with the trash can on the front of it and the Clock cup that reads "Time" are one example of this. These are fun objects and vessels so I am trying to play off of this and make them fun and funny. There will be a lot more ideas to come so stay tuned :)

Raku

So, the Dirt Bags had a Space Lab show last week and I had the chance to display my Raku babies. I really liked how they looked on the wall. When I started looking at them I thought that it seemed like they had their own personality. They are cohesive as a group, but they are just as powerful on their own. They are creepy but still cool. I have hundreds of these ceramic baby dolls so I have been transforming them into different works. Everything that I have done with them so far has been pretty successful in it's own way, so Im excited to see where else they take me.

Skeletons, Styrofoam and Glaze

Well, this week was veryfunand eventful. The Dirt Bags had their first official Raku party which was a blast. My skeleton babies that I made for the day of the dead Alter turned out great. They are so creepy and cool and I think that they are perfect for the occasion. They look so dirty and burned like they just rose from the dead. I really love them.

My styrofoam cups are turning out good and are full of fun possibilities. Like I said from my critique write up I want to alter the cups in ways that you would treat a regular styrofoam cup. I also want to put screen printed images on them

Last weekend our pieces came out of theas well. I have made a new mold of two larger cups.

gas kiln and with them came a few suprises. This was the first time that I had a large quantity of pieces in the kiln so getting to see them after the firing was like Christmas

morning. There were quite a few pieces that came out just the way that I thought they would, but there were also pieces where the glaze did not come out anything like they were supposed to. It is possible that the glazes did not get hot enough so we are going to refire those pieces

and see if they come out any better. If not we may have to re mix some of the glazes.

That's all I have for this week...until next time.

I just had to share this one.

crit

So, this week I had my first critique in ceramics class, and I think that it went really well. Everyone had quite a few good things to say, and good suggestions and comments too. I showed quite a few different things that I have been working on and I think the styrofoam cups had the most impact. Chris said something about maybe thinking about what kids do with styrofoam cups and incorporating that into the cups. And Sue said that maybe I should bite them and leave bite marks in them. I thought that these were great ideas. I already started writing words into the cups, but these ideas really will push the work further. I was also thinking about tearing the cups, poking holes into them, and using screen printing to add graphic images to them. I really like the way that these cups are turning out, they have a lot of detail and look like real styrofoam cups would. It doesn't take long for a styrofoam cup to get banged up and these cups look just like that. They are fun to look at and fun to make and I imagine they will be fun to drink out of as well.. Which makes me happy.

I have also been working on my throwing technique, and experimenting with screen printing. The next step for both of these is going to be incorporating the two together. I really want to keep doing both of these.

I didn't get a whole lot of feedback on my lightning bolt idea, because it is so early into the project there isn't much to critique yet, but I think that the finished product is going to be a really cool site to see. This project could take me awhile to get finished because there are a lot of things that I have never done before, so there will be quite a bit of experimenting ahead.

I have a lot of work ahead of me but I am very excited to jump into it.

Feeling the Burn

This week a few of us in the upper level ceramics class took on the fun task of rakuing. None of us had ever done it before so getting started was an adventure. The first few firings didn't turn out quite like we had anticipated, we had to figure out how long to leave the pieces in the heat and how quickly they needed to go into the trash cans, but we finally figured it out and some nice pieces came out of it. As you can see from the pictures we have a pretty nice set up...haha. I had a blast doing it and really like how most of my pieces came out. The art of raku is a very stop, go go go type of process which I find myself very into. The gratification is a lot faster than with firing in an electric or gas kiln. It is exciting to find out what your pieces are going to look like too. It's like Christmas morning except we are burning the paper and the pine needles before we get to open our presents. I also really like the photo where we are intensely looking at the pieces :) that picture makes me laugh. Our art club at school "the dirt bags" are going to have a raku potluck party this Thursday so I will have more pictures of rakued art next week.

Alrighty... This week I have FINALLY made a mold of styrofoam cups. I have tried and tried to do this to no avail but the third time really is the charm I suppose. The first times that I tried to make these molds I was doing it the hard way, rightside up with nothing holding it down...not the best way. Then my professor comes in and suggests filling the cups with plaster and turning them upside down...That's why he is the professor, because it worked. I have made more lightning bolts this week, and i will eventually make molds of them and cast them in translucent slip. I have never tried the translucent slip so I am pretty excited to see how they turn out. The plan for these is to have a show with lots of suspended lightning bolts with a light in each one. The lights will be off in the room and all you will see is little blinks of lightning bolts...Im really excited about this idea! :)

9910

Alrighty, as of this past week I have gotten my screen printed cups and plate made and bisque fired. I have also gotten all of my wheel thrown pieces bisque fired and they are all ready to be glazed. I plan to continue to throw and make more utilitarian pieces as well as make new screens to print and transfer images onto my ceramic pieces. For the future I also have this plan to make quite a few lightning bolts like the one in the above picture. I am going to make molds of them and try to cast a large number of them for a show in the space lab. I am also looking forward to the raku firing that is in the works for the future.
I also thought that I would include the painting that i am working on for painting class right now. It is just about finished, with just a few minor things that i need to touch up. the project was to choose an image that shows reflection. Without choosing something that is too obviously reflective I chose paint this picture of a payphone that I took last semester in photography class. I really like this subject matter because it is almost extinct in our society today.
This is all that I have for this week...until next time.

Sweet Stuff

Here is an update of what I have been slaving over for the past week...haha. I have been trying to throw alot more than I have in the past because I think that it will be a valuable skill to have, since more people have a use for a bowl rather than a ceramic banana or a butchered baby. Anyway, now that I have been practicing I am finding the throwing experience to be a lot more fun because I am getting better at it. I am starting to throw bigger stuff and throwing the smaller stuff is becoming much easier.
I have also been working on making these bananas with gold and silver accents "rot" on them for Brian Jones, a teacher here on campus, and his wife. They started a scholar ship in honor and memory of their daughter and I was the luck recipient, so I figured as a token of my appreciation I would make something meaningful, other than the card that they make you give.
The last picture is just some fun stuff that I have been making. The bugs are screen printed onto paper and then transferred onto the bowl. This one was just a test to see if it would work and because it does I think I will be continuing to explore doing this more. The other is just drizzles of slip into the cup, I just thought it might be cool to try..it looks like white chocolate so it can't be bad.
That's all for this week!

Screen Printing on Clay

Here are a few images of the work that I have just started working on for the fall semester. I am screen printing onto clay slabs, adding slip and underglazes for some extra color and eventually these slabs will become cups. I have been thinking about doing this for a while ever since Israel Davis came and did a demonstration on screen printing, and now I am finally doing it. Hopefully the next post will be of the cups that I have created from these slabs. They are going to be kind of rugged and imperfect looking, with lots of their own character and personality. I really want to make alot of cool cups this semester so I think that this is the perfect start.
We also have this really cool table outside that is really great to work on, so I am hoping that we will get to keep it out there.

Just a fun photo before the serious stuff begins.

Im Back

Heres to keeping up with my blog all semester long and hopefully far into the future. In the weeks...months....years to come i will be posting and updating my blog. Most of my posts will be of my artwork and the progress of it but there will probably be a few pictures of my dog or just things that i find interesting or funny thrown in as well. Hope you like what you see!