Tag Archives: art

getting amped.

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tomorrow is j’s closing reception.  the show has been open all week.  if you haven’t seen it yet i would definitely recommend coming out tomorrow.

monday the show will come down and i’ll get down to the business of installing.  can’t say much at this point except that i am very appreciative of everyone who is helping everything along.  i am highly stressed!  but so much awesomeness is happening simultaneously.  i got a very exciting invitation to show in march as part of a four person show.

my brain is getting ready to explode, but in a good way, often.  just need to get through this week.

ok, here is a little preview from the kiln i just opened…

wall peice peeking out.

wall peice peeking out.

wall piece...

wall piece...

this one will hang...

this one will hang...

cha cha cha changes…

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i guess there always comes a time when you have to decide whether you are going to write about how great everything is or how things really are.  the thing is that things are not usually great with out some hiccups or horrible with out some bright spots.  the last month has been quite a lot of both.  it’s been awesome seeing friends prepare to exhibit, to see them succeed and move onto the next step in their careers.  it definitely makes me very excited for the next move i’ll make and for my upcoming show but it’s hard as well to see folks moving on.  it occured to me while wondering the streets of bowling green, ohio with j and s that this last year has definitely been a hey day.  these are the times you remember.  i’ve always felt confident that if you go after what you want the universe (or whatever) will sweep in and provide support, whether that means money,friends or public transportation.  and it certainly has.  what a great year with a great studio, great friends and roommates, great jobs, the list could go on and on.  great and comfortable.  then enter the last week.  studio is full of new people, everything at work is different and of course two of my favorite folks are gone.  thank goodness for j and n.p. and m and v.    it’s funny though because everyone is going through these changes alongside me but for some reason i’m balking.  i just don’t want to move right along to the next step.  i feel grumpy about music in the studio and and nervous about sharing the bathroom with some one new and possible less tolerant than s and i feel like i want to escape.  why the heck am i so full of all these super useful and rational feelings?

oh yeah!  i hate change.  i crave it but when it’s happening i hate it.  for awhile.  and then i get over it.  at least i think i do.  and i better get over it soon because i have about 700 things to do in the next month.  so check back in a month.  let’s see if the brattiness gets the best of me.

disparate worlds

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some installation pics of jamie bardsley and sarah tancred’s incredible show “disparate worlds”.  jamie is now settled in bowling green, ohio  and sarah is off to gainesville, florida tomorrow.  you go girls.  so honored to have experienced all this together.

installation1

installation2

all the fireworks in the air must of put the good stuff in.

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soda fire 2 004

soda fire 2 012

soda fire 2 013

soda fire 2 017

soda fire 2 023

soda fire 2 026

this little guy was refired.

this little guy was refired.

refire!

refire!

i had some cracks come up along the coil lines.  don’t know why since they aren’t going all the way through and i smoosh on both sides of my coils.  i don’t mind because they only come out after an atmospheric firing and i feel they are in line with the anphibian like skin.  the stress of the enviroment causing crackles and ruptures.  and they aren’t structural, i don’t think.  i’m going to experiment with bisquing a little higher and see if that helps.  one of the chicken butts had a long crack across it.  again it didn’t go through, but i didn’t like how wide it got.  too distracting.  the same peice had a big ol’ dry spot on the whole back side, so i refired it this week, again getting lots of juicy soda and carbon trapping and filling in that crack a little so it looks like a healing froggy scar.

it’s so fun firing this kiln up.  we’ve gotten the results we were after but it’s all a total learning experience and experiment to an extent.  were we firing this for the members we would have to back way off on the carbon trapping and the body reduction and also do a proper glaze reduction.  and though i was happy with the results from this load i found areas of the kiln i particularly loved so i’m going to have to work on refining the technique we’ve been using.

again, chistmas mentality took over (and the fact that j- is heading out in a few weeks) and we started scheming how we could fire it again before she leaves.  having someone to share the kiln with is good, make a little work, fire, fire, fire.  once she leaves i’ll have to put my nose to the grindstone to fill it.

j- is moving up to bowling green, ohio for grad school, which is were s- just got her bfa from, so in early august the three of us are going to head out on a short roadtrip to move j- up.  i have no connection to the area, just an extreme urge to TRAVEL.   we’re going to stop in on my friend k- in atlanta and mudfire.  from there we’ll stop in asheville, nc in hopes of checking out the highwater factory, odyssy center and maybe some local artists.

work for sale at st. pete clay.

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the garden and flower sale was a success.  everything ran smoothly and i even sold some of my work.  today was great as plenty of friendly faces came out to support the cause.  it’s so awesome to see people buying handmade (and hand grown) products.  with the economy continuing to tank i think it is our responsibility to keep buying handmade objects.  walmart may be able to sell everything under the sun cheaper than a bag of clay, but when walmart tanks too, where will we be?  let’s keep supporting each other, bartering and doing it ourselves!

planters with succulents (separated and rooted by my mom from her own collection of succulents) still available at st. pete clay for a limited time.  anyone interested in some free plants or trees for their yard should plan a visit to the gugliotti’s house in sarasota county.  my dad loves to share his plants.

flower pots 030

flower pots 033flower pots 027

hello weekend.

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first saturday a.i.r. day.  artists in residence are required to put in 1 work day per week and my day is now saturday.  everyday is different, depending on the flow of the week.  i thought i had a pretty busy day before (tuesday) but today was rough!  after cleaning toliets, dumping overflowing garbage, setting up a classroom area and loading two kilns we tore down a clay pit/structure?? made from cinder blocks and full of peter king clay.  here’s a “sculpture” i built with the blocks and the pile next to it is the clay we hauled over.  everything was heavy.  jr, the regular saturday guy was leaving me in the dust when it came to to shoveling clay but whatever, we got everything done and cleared up.

cinder block pyramid

cinder block pyramid

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.

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?