Almost done!

As the greenware stage for my family project is coming to a close, I am now left with a few uncertainties and questions. I cut my vase like form into five pieces in a sort of unsemetrical pattern. This worked out well, excpet the slurry created from the vinager and wetting of each piece caused the cracks I was trying to create to fill in. I dug them out with a needle tool to make them a bit more visible, and now I am just hoping that they will become more prominent once it is fired. This is my main uncertainty. The question I have now is what glaze/firing tecnique should I use in order to make the cracks convey the message I want. The picture above is a bowl created by Jeff Campana, the artist whose idea I am trying to emulate. This project was fun to create because it allowed me to portray a message about family while also finally being able to use clay, which is my preferred material. I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

Stomach Acheee

I am making some good progress on my family related piece. I have decided to cut it into separate parts and then score them back together. I think this will work out well as the cracks will represent the message and theme that I want. I am really looking forward to doing this, however I have been out of commision with a stomach condition and probably wont be at school for the rest of the week. This has caused me to have concern about meeting the deadline, but at this point I can only do the best I can.

Decent Progress!

 Ive just finished attaching most of my slabs together, and should have the form completed by next class. I am still unsure of what to do for the top as well as how to implement my cracking idea to represent the message I am sending about my family. The form will look somewhat like the picture above. I am still debating whether to add the top slab or not. My original plan was to finish the form first, then see what to do next. However, the form almost complete and I am still unsure what do to. Ahh project stress!

Family Project

I have been rather unsure on what I am going to do for my family project. My original idea was to make a vase-like form out of slabs and then cut it into 5 different pieces. These pieces would then be stacked on top of each other and form a unit. This would represent how my divided family can still come together to form something decent. However, I realize that the firing process for this multiple-pieced structure would be rather difficult, and it would be tough for all the the pieces to fit together afterwards. I also would want to raku or cone 10 fire it, making that process difficult as well. Now, I have decided to go ahead with making my vase form with the plan to give it a cracking texture. I will also cut a few major cracks into it. While the piece in this state will be extremely fragile during the greenware stage, I feel that it will be fine once it is bisque fired. The picture above is an example of the type of form that I want to create, but is not close to exact and has nothing further to do with my project. In other words, much of this project is still in progress. As new ideas come to me, they will be incorperated into my project. I expect the final product to turn out much different than my plans now, and it is that idea that excites me.

Shocking Art COMPLETED

Today, I spent all of my early release period finishing this project. I really liked the idea of the picture from my last post to draw my image of George W. Bush in sharpie, so I did that. I also decided on using the Texas flag as the background because I believe that many mistakes that Bush made had to do with him attempting to run America like it was Texas. After painting the rest black to symbolize the error that he made, I placed a broken light bulb. My original plan was to attempt to crack just the top half of the light bulb, however this proved to be impossible. Despite that setback, I am pleased with the way the lightbulb looks on the final piece.

Overall, I ended up being quite happy with my finished product. At first, I had no ideas at all about what I could do. I also figured that I would greatly struggle based on the fact that I started too late to use clay. However, after collaborating with some of my classmates, the idea began to blossom and continued to do so as I worked. With that being said, I feel that this is the best non-clay piece I have ever completed and feel that the message is strong enough, yet open to interpretation. Therefore, I feel that I accomplished my goals for this project.

Shocking Art Piece

Currently, I am brainstorming ideas for my "Shocking Art" piece that we are assigned to make by the end of the month. The first step to my brainstorming process was to figure out which concept of controversy that I wanted to emulate. After playing with many different ideas, I settled on making a statement about the concept of "power". To do this, I decided to use a power outlet to symbolize my message. The picture above is one that I found online that was titled "Powerful Family". While this is not the idea that I am pursuing, the materials and basic ideas were similar to mine. I will place a picture of a powerful figure on the outlet and have cords traveling out of the outlet. This is the basic idea that I am trying to work with, but a few intangibles still remain. I am not sure which political, religious, or just powerful-in-general figure I will place on the outlet. It is also undecided if the cords will connect to anything or if I will leave it open to interpretation. With all of this in mind, it will be interesting to see how everything turns out.

This piece has been extremely interesting to brainstorm for. There are alot of controversial ideas and values that can be shown through art. However, it was important that I find a message that I truly stood behind and believed in. Many parts of my idea may be changed when it is all set and done. These are extremely common dilemmas for an artist, and I am excited to tackle this and other future challenges.

First Official Post

This summer, my main goal as an artist was to get better at the concept of sculpture. I wanted to take a break from the use of clay and attempt to use other tools to make art. After a few trips to Michael's and a some other stores, I was able to acquire the materials I needed to begin to sculpt. The picture you see above contains two of the four pieces I completed this summer. On the left, there is a black die made using popsicle sticks, spray on adhesive, sand, and paper. On the right, there is a cactus made using foil and plaster bandages mounted on a bed of popsicle sticks. The die was much more difficult to make than I thought (the sand and paper wouldnt stick to the wood using the adhesive), but I was somewhat suprised with the finished product. The cactus was extremely fun to make, as plaster bandages have always been one of my favorite sculpture tools. The other two projects that I made included a florecent silver duct tape vase and another plaster scultpture of a tree. Creating all of my summer artwork was fun and I really enjoyed it.

Although I was extremely disappointed that I could not attend the retreat, I am really excited to bond with my classmates and create lots of quality artwork over the year. When I signed up for this class, I knew it would be a challenge and stressful at times. However, I feel that I am ready to take on the work load and the challenges that lie ahead. Once completed, my hard work should result in a fun and enriching experience that I will remember for a long time.