Concentration Piece #1

       The time came and went for concentration piece!  I really wanted to incorporate the idea of industry and how much of our life involves industrial products. I just didn't know how to do it. I had to come up with at least 10 piece ideas in order for it to be a concentration, and my thoughts were kinda scattered. I did a lot of brainstorming and finally came up with an idea for my first piece: a steam punk egg.

I started on the wheel with Aluminum Hi-Fire clay, with not much of an idea of how to make an egg shape. Ms. Ferguson, however, did a demo and helped me learn how to make the form. It was really interesting for me, because the clay had to be completely be raised, closed off at the top, and sealed. Here's the part that really blew my mind--After the air had been completely sealed in, you use your hands and use the air inside to form the egg shape. It was really different for me and took a few tries, but I ended up making and trimming(on the wheel) two eggs.

Fun photo of Maria!!!

 

I decided to leave half of the egg in a very natural, organic state and went to work slicing the egg in half. The second half was the more complicated part. I wanted to have it look like it was in the middle of a machine, so therefore needed a lot of gears. I used circular cut-outs and a needle tool for some of the gears, and the other I tried to use gear stencils. The stencils were a little more difficult to use, because the clay would often crack when I tried to pop the gears out. I had some additive and some subtractive elements to make the gears seem more dimensional, and it turned out to be a delicate process. However the piece looked great before going into the kiln.

 

Sorry it's blurry!

Keeping with the theme, I did two separate glaze colors for each side. I put Cloud White on the unembellished part of the egg, and did Palladium on the side with the gears. On the inside, I put Iron Luster. After initial firing one of the small gears had popped off, so I had to glaze that separately. It turned out pretty nice, but I was surprised that the Cloud White turned out to be yellow. Overall it turned out pretty nice.

Reflection
I had a very hard time coming up with a good concentration. I debated between a variety of concentration, from fruit-inspired to a combination of animal parts with industry to an idea of doing a concentration all on eggs. This project was a safe piece, and one that could be used in a few of my ideas. Basically it bought me time some time before I decided on my concentration. Next time I need to spend more time preparing my ideas so that I don't feel like I'm rushing during class. Besides forming the egg, it was not that difficult of a piece for me to make. I'm a little disappointed that Cloud White turned out to be yellow and not the pristine white I was expecting, but it could have been a lot worse.

House Project

This project is not inspired by an artist, but more by the idea of home. Home--a universal place--means different things to different people, and can inspire a variation of feelings. Our mission was to take this very specific shape, and create our own spin on it. We had to choose one or two words we associate with home, and Focusing on lines, the primary visual element had to have a representation of home, and could be in any media.

Our inspiration:
  

THIS ONE IS MY FAVORITE!

 

A few ideas:

Media idea

Media idea

 

A few WORDS I associate with home: unattainable, childlike, wistful, faraway, our roots

Breath Piece #1,

         Finally uploading projects! For our first breadth piece, the Theresa Brooks project, I decided to do my organic piece of of a dimensional leaf. I used Aluminum Hi-Fire clay and started by making a bowl on the wheel. It took a few tries after not working with clay all summer! I then rolled out a slap and carefully cut away to make the shape at the top. 

Fun Photo of Peter!

                             

      Using simple scratch and attach methods, I combined the bowl and slap into one piece, and then I began finalizing the leaf shape. I pressed my fingers into the clay to make it more dimensional before starting my choice of texture. I choose to use a subtractive approach for my texture. Using a needle tool, I carved out holes and did indentations on my leaf shape. I had to be careful when I was punching out the holes because I didn't want to crack the dry clay.

       

After firing, I played around with which glazes to use. I was deciding between a metallic finish or a more organic finish and choose the more natural look. I like the idea of bringing out a blue undertone, and used a blue-gray underglaze in the holes and wiped away the rest. Instead of completely wiping away the glaze, I left a light amount sponged on the entire piece. I topped it off with Holly Green glaze. It came out of the kiln looking fantastic! The colors remind me of the rain forest, and really made it into the "Corroding Leaf" it is now.

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Reflection       

I spend a lot of time outside of class perfecting the look for my piece, because it had lots of details and am really proud of the result. Coming up with the shape and design wasn't very difficult, I think it took less than five minutes, but it did take some time to decide what texture I was doing. I spent a little too much time making a perfect bowl, forgetting that I would be completely reshaping it anyways. I felt I had a good time-line with the clay, I didn't feel that the clay was overly dry or wet when I was forming the holes, but I had to be really careful not to poke myself or crack the clay. Overall this project turned into a piece I ADORE, and got me off the a strong start in AP 3-D!

Theresa Brooks Texture Project

School has started and I'm really looking forward to the challenge of our new project. Inspired by Theresa Brooks, our goal is too create an organic, sculptural piece that pops with texture. The challenging part for me is that I have less than two weeks to complete this project, so hopefully my form doesn't take too long to complete! Here are a few pictures of our inspiration.
Theresa Brooks Pottery:
 

Texture ideas:
 
 


 

The things that make us proud

On this post I'd like to reflect on a few pieces that I DID, that just really made my feel proud. So many times I felt like I was staring at an empty sketchbook, trying to will ideas into my head, and yes I came up with a few good ones, but some stood out. One of the very first pages I like the best is because of the cleanliness of the lines, and I really got to try something new. I closed my eyes, grabbed a sharpie so I couldn't erase, and started drawing just--what seemed like-- random lines. Then I opened my eyes and let some creativity take over and turn it into a drawing of some unicorn-seal. I felt loose the whole time, and I felt the piece really had a sense of effortlessness that I can't easily capture. The other piece that I worked so hard on was one of my feet. I'm horrible--I mean absolutely HORRIBLE-- at drawing feet and I put so much effort into that thing that it actually doesn't matter that it doesn't look perfectly realistic. In that same drawing I was trying to capture the visual qualities of water that intrigued me that week when we were at the beach. However my quest for drawing water still is yet to be conquered.

Art from the Mass. and various trips

Before school starts up again, I wanted to take this post to reflect on some of the art work I SAW this summer. One good thing about the lacrosse tournaments this summer was that we were able to go to quite a few nice little towns. True the gas stations were sometimes a little sketchy, but it just made it more of an adventure. One of the weekends, my mother and I were up in Groton and then Peabody Mass., and we stopped to see a little part of the bay. There was a cutesy sized drawbridge and as walked along the see splash I saw a little sign off to the side advertising for artwork. I didn't realize until we got up close, but the shop was run out of a guy's house, and he was selling some of his mothers artwork. It was more of a modern style painting and printmaking that she did, with a very grim tone. The colors were mostly dull with a splash of red that spiced things up a little bit. Ironically, the first thing I thought of when I saw the pieces was of Doctor Boerth, my AP Lang teacher. The way the lines and the faces were portrayed reminded me a lot of the queer, old black and white films that we watched full of strange happenings. I will post a picture later of the piece by Coco Berkman that caught my eye. Unfortunately we were not able to stop by an art museum throughout our trip, but in Gatlinburg I got my family to go somewhere a little unique. The Salt and Pepper Shaker museum. Believe it or not, it has been featured on food network, and it was queer in a way that I was really able to enjoy the museum. The owner of all the shakers had a saying posted somewhere in the little museum; that she collects salt and pepper shakers because it astounds her how creative people can be with a simple ordinary object. It was nice to be reminded that creativity can blossom just as well and spectacularly in the small objects as the big things.

Summer Art Experience

So far throughout the summer it has been interesting to get back into sketching. I am not as bad as I last remembered, and I have improved a lot by remembering to stay loose. My favorite piece so far was one that only took me five minutes! I'm finding the most difficult part of drawing to be depicting textures, but I really enjoy shading pieces and experimenting with form. With my artwork I feel like I'm in currently in the experimental phase but I'm hoping to really be able to be able to express ideas about either the culture around us, or how we currently coexist with nature. I really want to highlight that while we are rushing around, we don't necessarily appreciate the little things. My thoughts for my concentration pieces right now are the industrial process, lanterns from various cultures, or different views within and of trees. I have not yet been able to visit any art museums, but I did find that my lacrosse coaches all had a little of an art background. They showed me some of their work and I was impressed with the craftsmanship of the paintings, as it is one of my least favorite mediums to work with. I'm looking forward to finishing up the Styrofoam cup project this week, and hopefully will not have to look at an exacto again for a long time. More updates to come!