Friday, August 5, 2016

Comme Ci, Comme Ca

The bowls I was going to make, turned into compotes...

Because I was skipping Open Studios this year, I had high aims for experimentation this summer. Did I meet my goals? Well, sorta.

My classroom is going to enter an exhibition that happens at the end of October. This exhibition is held at the Pajaro Valley Arts Council Gallery annually. Groups from the local community are invited to build altars to celebrate "Dia De Los Muertos". We are going to build an ofrenda, or altar, dedicated to loved ones, human or animal, who have passed away. Each student is going to make two small busts. And, then they will write a paragraph about one or both of their loved ones. In July, I worked on some component parts of the ofrenda. I made experimental busts of different sizes, so that I could learn how to fire them. There are 30 students in my class, so that will be 60 small busts. I will also be contributing some busts. There will be vases with flowers. So, much of that work is complete, which will cause less of a mad scramble in October.

One thing that I learned about my work, is that I'm loving coiling right now. I've always kind of considered myself to be a slab hand builder. Slabs are my preference. But, there were many projects this summer which allowed me to use coils for construction purposes. I like to not see the coils too much, so I bought a special rib that smooths out the clay after joining the coils with a serrated rib.

During the past few months, I didn't make a huge quantity of work, and there is no consistent theme or style. I just took the time to play around. Weirdly, I didn't stamp my name on many of the experiments that I made. I've always hated claiming work (even back when I was a painter, I never signed my work). I just like doing.


I did a bit of visual research...



No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.