Tag Archives: studio

studio shots

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school is in full effect and it was a great first week back.  i’m really amped about all my classes.  they are all studio courses (ceramics seminar, sculpture seminar and performance and installation a.k.a. intervention).

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i had a great meeting with my professor to talk about my research plan for the semester.  as mentioned earlier i’m planning to tackle philosophy of aesthetics and beauty.  i also plan to explore the idea of wonder and how it relates to art and science.  i’m getting really excited to read about what all of these great thinkers believe and eventually be able to articulate my own position.

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for my intervention course i’m going to be working collaboratively on several projects, one of which we hope to be able to share with people at nceca…..will keep you posted.

as for sculpture seminar, which is focusing on relational aesthetics, i’m not sure quite what i’ll be tackling.  i’m interested in challenging myself to work outside of the ceramic medium and….. i signed up for a february 1st crit so…….i’m going to get cracking!

surgery

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before

 

 

during

 

during....

 

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after

 

i’ve never been the kind of person to look inside things, take them apart or try to fix them.  but over the last few months i’ve been following our studio tech around trying to pick up some skills in the electric kiln department.  it’s kind of fun, he’s a really good teacher and it’s starting to make sense.

notes from the studio.

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sorry for the rough pics.  they are from my phone.  anyway, i’m still plugging away in the studio.  the trip to florida, and working quite a bit has been keeping me away more than i would like, but that’s the way it goes. in addition to my regular job i’ve been doing something really fun and educational assisting a local artist.  so far we’ve installed a piece at the nceca invitiational and pulled some stuff out of storage, organized and packed up work.  it’s a really wonderful experience.  i’m learning a lot just seeing how she does things.

i’ve got some aps in the works, and a few deadlines coming up.  like every other  ceramic artist at the moment, i’m scurrying to finish up aps and wondering what i’ll be doing next fall.

in the studio i’ve been amassing some work, but i’m still really struggling with how to finish it.  i haven’t even bisqued any large sculptures yet.  i’m waiting for them to get super bone dry, but i’ve been keeping plastic on them for weeks.  i’m afraid to keep them uncovered and risk cracking.  and since i don’t know exactly how i’ll finish them i need them to be perfectly smooth.  ehhhhh, finished work…..sometime….eventually…….:-)

new sculpture in progress….

studio mate e. with her giant math mold……

talking about working

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well, the big challenge of my new studio life is all this talking.  for me, talking, speculation, thinking out loud, comes naturally.  but i usually just try to keep my mouth shut when it comes to my work.  on the one hand, i’m not so confident talking about my work.  on the other, i do think there is a bit of fantasy in my work and i don’t want to give people words to hinge their interpretation on.

it’s about nature, and the nature of things.  ehhhhhh, blehh.

maybe this is something i should continue writing about.  we’ll see.  anyway, here are some shots red sent me of the shot glasses i made for the anagama firing before leaving florida.  hopefully soon i’ll get to post shots of all the lovely shot glasses i receive!

thanks red, for the sweet shots!

getting shit done.

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it’s true, getting adjusted to a new space kind of sucks.  you don’t know where anything is, perhaps like me you didn’t get to bring all your favorite blue plastic and chunks of old foam mattresses.  anyway, the point is i feel all awkward in a studio at the beginning.  oh, and the clay situation is different (as it turns out better) BUT then i finally just dig in and make something.  something that i’m excited about and then i remember why i’m there.

i mean, nothing beats that feeling of satisfaction.  i don’t know if it’s just having brought to fruition this image from inside of you or the point when you start to get totally warmed up and loose and the clay and your hands kind of start to do their own thing but it’s good stuff.

anyway, here’s a pic from my phone.  i’ll post some later today when it’s finished.

ice cold.

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adjusting to northern temperatures.  and being a sort-of student.

got warmed up making some small wall pieces.

during our studio meeting g.m. decided it would be fun to cut them up and stick them together.  it was kind of bizarre to see someone esle making stuff out of my work.

cell division.

northern studio, check out the boots on the bottom and the pile of winter clothes up top.

first work of 2010

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am i turning over a new leaf?  no, not really, but i did delve into the new year making some functional work.  the residents at st. pete clay (and a few others) are doing a shot glass exchange.  i’m running around with a chicken with my head cut off with moving preparation and working as much as possible but i took a few hours on jan. 3rd to make some shot glasses.  you can’t really tell from the images but they are just a little bigger than a large shot glass.  i had to bring my operation inside to the kitchen counter because it was absolutely TOO cold to work outside.

the cups are currently roasting away in the annual anagama firing at the clay company.  visiting artists don reitz, matt long and john ballisteri are captaining the firing.  i was disappointed to have to be so much less involved than last year, but thems the breaks.  i signed up for a stoking shift on saturday with some of my favorite girls (wilson, marlena) and we were kicking it old skool around the anagama.  i have no idea what the p10 porcelain will look like wood fired, but hopfully it will be nice.  i even lined them with shop clear.  i felt like a real potter!

actually the kiln won’t be opened until after my departure for philadlephia, but i’ll happily await my first mail in philadlephia: a package of shot glasses from every resident 🙂

i have another shift coming up tuesday night which promises to busy and HOT and side-stoke-tastic.

it’s a bit of a bummer to be on the periphery of this exciting event, but what a nice way to say good bye!

snaps

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my clay co shelf near entrance...

back shelf/tide pool.

today i unpacked the work i’d taken with me to “eclectic and then some”.  since most of the smallies had just come out of the kiln they hadn’t made it to the shelf before heading over to gulfport.  these are some quick snaps, but you get the idea of my shelf space at the clay co.  i am really loving the pieces all together like this.

john cage says “Rule 8: Do not try to create and analyze at the same time. They are different
processes.”   gettting a look at everything together, the low fire wall pieces i made about a year ago and the small ones which i made a couple of weeks ago really get’s my brain going.  the collection in the second picture feels like a display case of a natural history museum.  shells?  fossils?  an aquarium?  this is the kind of situation i would like to put people in.  and then they realize they can take a little piece of the display home with them.

welcome to my collection of specimens…

it’s 6:35 in the morning

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i’m blogging from st. pete clay.   firing the soda for one of the owners.  very exciting to have the internet while firing.

it’s actually not that hot yet today and there is not a swarm of mosquitos surrounding me which is a change from the norm.  i guess fall is really here.  needless to say, the first squeaks of fall  in florida do not prompt sweaters and jeans, just less sweat overall.

firing the soda

firing the soda