Category Archives: studio

summer time in the studio.

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our a.i.r. studios are burning up about now.  st. pete clay is housed in a big red brick train station from the 1920’s.  up front where the member studios, retail galleries and highwater clay are housed is air conditioned but walking back through the building, once you hit the kiln room, it’s nothing but toasty. i spent most of the day at the studio today but after an hour or so i had to run out for beverages.  using my sweet rolling sculpture stands i moved everything up front.  when sabo left to go back to alaska his space transitioned into a small work area for classes or overheated a.i.r.s so that’s where i set up.  went and got some vitamin water and um, regular water and got back to work.

it was great to spend the whole day working in the studio.  right now is kind of a transitional time.  during this residency i have worked really hard to “be around” as much as possible and not take this time or space for granted.  i had a really good job situation, working part time with benefits at my main job and part time at creative clay but recently, due to the crazy economy, i had to go full time to keep my benifits.  not that i’m complaining.  i am definitely thankful that there was a position for me to transition into.  now i have the task ahead of me to continue to be around and continue learning with less time.  i know this summer will be tough, and i’ll struggle to keep my nose to the grindstone.  so far though, being at work more has made me feel more motivated to get into the studio in the time i do have.

i’m preparing for my end of residency show.  it’s not officially scheduled yet but will be in early fall, september or so.  hard to believe i’ve been at this 9 monthes.  i have learned so much, made a lot of work and done a few shows.  by the time i put that solo show up, fill up a whole gallery with shit i made, i think i will be pretty satisfied with my experience.

i’m also putting together some little guys for the annual flower and garden sale next next weekend.  my  parents are obsessed with gardening so they separated out some baby succulent plants for me to make some pots for.  i’m not much of a vessel maker but hopefully they’ll be sweet.

drawing for new sculptures

drawing for new sculptures

first one

first one

succulent planters-before:

085

stay tuned for the after….

blog wish list

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things i wish i had some spare minutes for/coming up on pickled eggplant:

post pics of the egg plate i made my mom for her birthday/easter.

post about salting the  kiln the egg plate was in.

make the “opportunistic bacteria” plates for a third time and have them work.

post pics of the soda fired microbes.

post official pics of the showtel 7  “microcosmic exploration” installation by sue stevens and me.

crazy days

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i’ve had lots to post about but nothing but technological difficulties.  i bought a camera a month or so ago and it seems to be malfuctioning, actually it won’t even turn on.  am i cursed with all things electronic?  and in addition my laptop seems to be on it’s last breath.  i’m going to have to give in and get a new one soon.

but anyway, lots of stuff has been going on.  preparation for showtel 7 has been underway.  all my little microbes got finished up.  i ended up soda firing them and was pleased with the results.

working with the kiln tech to check my work i sorta kinda “solo” fired the minnasota flattop and the soda kiln sunday.  rudy, the flattop was done in a sweet 12 hours but our new soda takes a little longer.  we had it done in 16 which is about average.  hopefully as it gets fired more and we get to know it better  the average time will decrease a little bit.

our kiln tech is a really great teacher and i’ve learned a buttload from him over the course of my residency.  the soda kiln is a nice size to fill a load of my work and and fire solo, or to split with another resident.  after finishing up sunday evening, i was already amped to start making work for the next one.

i’m getting really interested in the soda finish i’ve been getting on raw porcelain.  i love the gray color and peach blushing that is typical of a soda fire, but for my work, the clean orange peel sheen is the best.  especially when you get the little gray squiggles.  i have so much detail in the form that putting glaze over it always seems like a bummer, but the soda sheen just coats it nicely, finishing it off.  we’ve been firing to about cone 10 each firing, but next time, when i can fill the kiln or split it with j who also uses porcelain i’d like to push it to cone 11 or 12 and really max on the soda.

anyway, tuesday we were able to unload.  everything came out great and is headed down to west palm with me today.  showtel 7 is saturday.  if you happen to be in the area, come on out!

microbes pre-fire.  will post fired pictures and installation shots asap.

monster pile

monster pile

monster egg sac

monster egg sac

top of monster

top of monster

monster detail

monster detail

worm

worm

new work

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i have been absent from this blog, but still working on stuff in the studio.  learning about the soda kiln and preparing for a show in west palm beach.  i have the opportunity to work with curator kara walker tome and to participate once again in the showtel installation show.  this year i’m collaborating with a good friend of mine sue stevens (www.suestevensart.com).

here are some images of the “fanciful microbes” i’m creating for our installation.  we’ll be working on a miniture scale for this peice.

monster!

monster!

ufo type monster

ufo type monster

belly of monster

belly of monster

made of highwater p10 porcelain.  haven’t decided yet if i will soda fire or gas fire these montsers.  tpictures of it’s friends to follow.

opportunistic bacteria plates

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below is an image of the bacteria plates i was working on for a doctor i work with.  i had scavenged some underglazes that were getting trashed at the studio to use for the color. i covered them with underglaze while leather hard and sgraffito’ed the image.   i once fired them, putting clear glaze on top of the underglaze while everything was still bone dry.  unfortunately when they came out of the kiln chunks of underglaze were flaking off.  i thought it might be because i had once fired them?? so i remade them, but this time bisqued the underglaze on, THEN clear glazed and glaze fired.  same problem.  any idea what the problem could be?  i’m stumped.  i decided to get rid of these underglazes and go with something new.  news to follow.

virus plates

virus plates

firing rudy

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i don’t know how i got through school with out ever firing a gas kiln, but i did.  now, looking back, i think it’s too bad.  but a big goal for me this year is to increase my technical skill and build on the firings i did in japan.

atmospheric finishes and high firing may not come into play in my work naturally.   i’m a form girl.  i work hard on intricate surfaces, smooth or textured, small details repeated, layers built up.  i enjoy a plain finish that lets the form speak but i certainly don’t want what i do to be dictated by my lack of technical skill.

r told me how he became kiln tech.  he said he wanted to know how everything worked.  didn’t want to leave his pot’s surface up to chance so he asked tons of questions, followed people as they fired, read past logs and one day the kiln tech left and, having never fired a kiln solo, he was the new kiln tech.

tuesday r had rudy, our minnesota flat top, loaded and the salt kiln cranking. under r’s tutelage i lit the pilot’s and we agreed to meet at 10 pm to fire.  before i left i got to test my skill by putting the salt kiln into body reduction and taking out right before leaving for the day.  went home for 2 hours of sleep then back to the studio.

we started doing turn ups, me checking with r while he worked on a stalling salt kiln outside.  i glazed, filled an electric kiln and continued turning rudy up.  near dawn we put rudy into body reduction, and headed outside to finally salt the salt kiln.  i felt really lucky to do the salting since i hadn’t endured through the rest of the firing.  as the salt spilled into the kiln, crackling in the heat, violet, lavender and sunshine flames and white smoke poured from the ports.  it was freaking glorious.

finally around 6 am i left to get some sleep before glaze reduction and before having to start work at creative clay.  unfortunately rudy wasn’t ready in time so i had to miss the end of the firing, but next time.  i saw the work which came out of both kilns today and i felt kind of connected to it.

*presents* and sexually transmitted infections

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matt long and his students were visiting in january and they tore down and rebuilt our soda kiln.  today r, our lovely kiln tech was putting the finishing touches on the burners.  he and b have been working hard on it and i’m hoping we’ll fire it up this week.  i’d like to get the garlic in if possible.  i think that it would look super in a soda fire.

recently i have been interested in jason briggs’ work.  actually i fell in love with it when i saw it in the exhibition “biomimicry” at the 2004 NCECA.  it was totally awe inspiring.  it was one of the pieces which i looked at and saw in it so much visual language that i wish i could speak.  if you know what i mean.  it seemed perfect, more exquisite than is possible to make by hand.

recently i googled his website (why had this never occurred to me??) and was delighted with what i found.  his site has lots of information and images as well as a image loop showing a piece from start to finish.  in lieu of seeing briggs demo in person, i was pretty satisfied by viewing his site.  it’s here.

seeing the progression of his work and reading about his process really gave me a different perspective on atmospheric firings.  i guess i think of them in a rustic kind of way.  though i see the amazing way they work out for other folks i hadn’t really thought they were right for my work.  his chicken skin speckaly, bumpily blushes really turned that thinking around and has given me a fresh perspective on atmospheric firings.  yeah!

this week i finished a set of slab plates with sgraffito.  they are for a doctor at work and they feature a stylized pneumocystis pneumoniea (sp??) carving.  i had a mishap with one and had set it aside and today i went at it with the carving tool and fashioned a  “syphilis” plate, the first in what promises to be an exciting series.  next up, chlamydia, gonnorhea and trichamonis. note, i am only featuring curable infections.  non-curable infections are way too much of a bummer.

be productive, b-e productive

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today was a great work day at the studio.  right now i’m obsessed with slump molds.  i’ve been using some i borrowed from b to make my wall pieces and had been meaning to pour my own for a month or so now and today i powered through three of each size.  i also rolled slabs for all the slump molds i already have (also did this yesterday) and now i have 7 slumped slabs ready to build wall pieces from.  friday night i got a few more wall pieces out of a bisque fire and my collection of bisqued wall pieces in growing.  i need to glaze these puppies and get them up on my etsy site asap (but trying to quiet the internal critic, it’ll get done).  once i get the photos done i can get them up on my retail shelf at the clay co and hopefully make some cash.

anyway, i also worked on a little birthday present project for my brother.  he requested a garlic shaped wall hanging with the words “garlic isn’t a spice, it’s a vegetable.” inscribed.  today i rolled out some luscious porcelain which i trimmed into a stylized head of garlic embellished with some simple lines.  i had intended to stamp the words (with stamps also borrowed from b right into the garlic but i stamped up some scraps to start blocking out the words and it looked so cute that i decided to stamp the phrase out on little slabs of clay which i attached separately to the garlic.

while this garlic isn’t cutting edge art but i have to say i really enjoyed getting a request and executing  it.  kitch is so satisfying!  sometimes it can feel so difficult to make what’s in your head come out of the clay.  it feels like doing some kind of math problem but there are no signs for multiply or subtract.  like j said one night when she was working on her coils and i was working on my belly buttons “you just have to roll them until they’re right.”  i think folks who are really successful have found a systematic way to extract their visions and that i’m still very green artistically, working intuitively but needing to move to the next step.  i’ve always had this fascination with idiot savants though so maybe that’s what i’m going for……

ideas for my next body of work are congealing and i think i will start posting pictures again soon.

p.s. just a note on new year’s resolutions i haven’t failed at:   today from about 4-6 pm i took a break to bike up the pinellas trail a bit with k.  we’ve been trying to go every week and it’s really delightful.  we’re doing 6-10 miles in a couple of hours, which isn’t too bad for beginners (of course there are a lot of hard core bikers on the trail, flying by us and i did get yelled at the first day for meandering over into the passing lane while chatting with k and m-“trail! trail! heh heh) and we’re improving!  and it feels great!  physical activity just can not be beat!

lazy lazy but thinking…

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this has been a month of gathering.  i’ve continued work on my wall pieces at a snail’s pace, but taken time a few evenings each week to flip through books and websites, researching for my next body of work.  i selected a few books from my shelf: college biology text, microscopic photography, louise bourgios exhibition catalogue as well as the global feminisms catologue and a contemporary art text, also from college.  i learned a few things.  almost every page of the global feminisms catalogue features figuritive art.  robert arneson was a pop artists working directly with clay in the 60’s.  jason briggs’ work is freaking amazing and i wish i could see him demonstrate.  i remembered how very attractive eva hesse’s forms and materials are.  reading the abc’s of louise bourgeios presents art about you familial obsessions as rather favorable, i mean, since i’m obsessed with it anyway.

i guess in a way family is biological.  the way we are tied to people genetically is disturbing and uncomfortable.  the way we are tied to people who do not share dna with us is biological as well.  maybe this is why the figure factors so prominently in feminist work, or, you know, art in general, because people are obsessed with other people, the way they shape up, nurture us (which could be a good thing or a bad thing), mess with us, etc.

it’s like you spend the first half of your life figuring out why things are the way they are and then the second half realizing that it doesn’t matter because you just have to play the hand your dealt regardless of why…

but i’m not sure where this leaves me.  there is a lot going on in my brain but it hasn’t puked itself out yet into images to be assembled.

a problem i had with the garden path was that it was too pretty.  working in such a rapid way allowed the process to become more important than the concept.  i’m not very prolific generally and maybe that’s why.  the process is important, it’s the fun and the flow of the peice but the process is not the point.  the process is a tool which allows the peice to make it’s point.

i could make a sign that says “the world is fucked up” or “i’ll vacuum my uterus if i want to” or “racists are so lame and boring” but that wouldn’t be very much fun would it?

new year, new life.

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today is 2009.  it’s been a long year.  i started the year in tokyo, with a long term romantic partner and a job at rbr art center and even though things seemed to be in place i wasn’t happy, one year later, here i am, working at a great job and creative clay, partnerless, in residence at st. pete clay and feeling pretty good.  (i don’t miss tokyo or rbr, but i certainly miss my former partner masa, who is the best person you could ever meet.  geography is a harsh factor sometimes)  but it just goes to show you that life isn’t perfect and pretty all the time, sometimes you have to give up something you like the best for things to move forward. 

finally, after of a week of turtle life i moved my stuff into the new place with the help of my brother.  i’ll be living with on of the girls from the studio in a big place (a couple of blocks away from the old).  we’ll each be on a different side of the house with the kitchen and living room in between and we even have our own bathrooms.  A LOT more space then my little garage apartment! 

speaking of turtles, this month i’ve been working at a turtle’s pace in the studio.  i’ve completed another set of wall hangings, but that’s about it.

so new year, new life and more time in the studio starting now with the help of my favorite christmas gift, the hand built sculpture stands from my brother.  he built three, sized so that they nest together when not in use.  (pictures coming soon).

and of course some obligatory new year’s resolutions:

1.  get my etsy shop up.

2.  start taking some yoga classes or JAZZERCISE!

3.  if it’s in st. pete, bike there ALWAYS and bike the pinellas trail.

happy new year and akemashite omedetou!