art every day

Art Every Day 2.0 | Ceramic Bottle Sculpture 7 of 7

Finally able to give back again, fruit appears. 

The journey of this little tree and its seed has come full circle.

 

I loooove pears, something about the shapes, colors, varieties, love.  Also my wonderful friends' parents threw M- and I an ammmazing engagement party, and the invitations and little favors said "Aren't they a great pair?" with of course pears.  Lots of wine and pears. Lots of wine. and pears.

 

 

 

 

I love the way the blue really melts into the background.

 

 

I'm really happy with how this bottle turned out, the colors are just as brilliant as when I put them on, the glaze is crazed and beautiful, and the white, unglazed, slipped areas are pristine. 

This project was a real learning experience for me.  I handbuilt each ceramic bottle, and then the idea of turning them into a narrative was challenging and fun.

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You can see the first ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the second ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the third ceramic bottle in there series here.

You can see the fourth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the fifth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the sixth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the seventh ceramic bottle in the series here.

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What did you make today?

Art Every Day 2.0 | Ceramic Bottle Sculpture 6 of 7

Take some rain, add a little sunshine, and what do you get?  A flowering tree.

 

 

As excited as I was to see this bottle after the firing, I was a little disappointed in the end.  The watercolor underglazes really disappeared more than on some of the other bottles.  I really like how the watercolor underglazes looked and how easy they were to work with, but the results were spotty at best.

 

 

 

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You can see the first ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the second ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the third ceramic bottle in there series here.

You can see the fourth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the fifth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the sixth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the seventh ceramic bottle in the series here.

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What did you make today?

 

Art Every Day 2.0 | Ceramic Bottle Sculpture 5 of 7

Sun after the rain, growth begins, ceramic bottle

 

 

Loooove that gooey, drippy, glaze on the front of the tree trunk there!

 

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You can see the first ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the second ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the third ceramic bottle in there series here.

You can see the fourth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the fifth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the sixth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the seventh ceramic bottle in the series here.

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What did you make today?

Art Every Day 2.0 | Ceramic Bottle Sculpture 4 of 7

parting clouds after the storm-- this may be my favorite.

 

 

 

 

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You can see the first ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the second ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the third ceramic bottle in there series here.

You can see the fourth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the fifth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the sixth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the seventh ceramic bottle in the series here.

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What did you make today?

Art Every Day 2.0 | Ceramic Bottle Sculpture 3 of 7

This is the third of seven ceramic bottles I made last semester. 

The project was a sculptural narrative.

"Crying" ceramic bottle.

 

 

 

 

I just love the juciness of the glaze on this bottle, the bit of running some of the water droplets are doing, and the awesome craze in the clear glaze.

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You can see the first ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the second ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the third ceramic bottle in there series here.

You can see the fourth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the fifth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the sixth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the seventh ceramic bottle in the series here.

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What Did You Make Today?

Art Every Day 2.0 | Ceramic Bottle Sculpture 2 of 7

This is the second of seven ceramic bottles I made last semester. 

The project was a sculptural narrative.

This is the trauma.

 

 

The tree has been chopped down.  All that remains is a seed...of hope.

 

 

Please excuse the broken axe.  During transit from school to home the axe handle snapped off.  I haven't gotten to fix it yet.

 

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You can see the first ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the second ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the third ceramic bottle in there series here.

You can see the fourth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the fifth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the sixth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the seventh ceramic bottle in the series here.

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What did you make today?

Art Every Day 2.0 | Ceramic Bottle Sculpture 1 of 7

Over the next week or so I'd like to show you the ceramic bottle sculptures I made last semester.  We had to do a narrative sculpture.  I decided to do a series involving trauma, rebirth and healing.

Here is the first of seven ceramic bottles.

 

 

I chose the shape of a bottle, because it is a vessel that refernces the human form.  I hand built the bottles and tried to give them a child-like quality to them, kind of like a story book feel.

 

 

The bottles were slipped white, then I used watercolor underglazes, and hand dipped with clear glaze.  I was a little disappointed with the colors, I did a few tests and liked the results, but in the end the colors came out a lot less vibrant than my tests.

 

 

 

While these ceramic bottles were being hand dipped I left part of the base free of glaze.  I love the difference in texture, gloss, and even color.

 

I'd love to hear your thoughts!  These are from my second ceramic class ever, so I'm proud I was able to complete a narrative in an effective way, still working on my technical skills and craftmanship.

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You can see the first ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the second ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the third ceramic bottle in there series here.

You can see the fourth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the fifth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the sixth ceramic bottle in the series here.

You can see the seventh ceramic bottle in the series here.

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What Did You Make Today?

 

Art Every Day 2.0 | Mini Self Portrait in Clay

I thought I would start to share some of the things I made in my ceramics class last semester.  I was desperately bogged down with three studio classes at once PLUS life.  I commend anyone who can do all of that with ease and grace, it ain't me.

This is just one small piece of a much larger work.  I did a series of shrines for my final project, each of them personal, intimate, and all about my journey in life.

She is only about 4.5 inches tall, and I haven't unpacked her base yet, a tower of wood blocks that adds about 5 inches.  See the holes in the hand area? Yeah.  The hands I made to be attached with wire were lost in the kiln somehow, some way.  I need to think of a creative solution.

How cute is that little side bun?!  I love the way I feel when I wear my hair that way so I thought it would be a nice detail for the mini-me.

I bound her in a cloth tape measure because no matter how confident I am, no matter what kind of talk I give myself, or energy I put out in the universe, I still feel bound by society because of my size.

I know, I know, I need to get over it, and I am working on it in a couple of ways, one: focusing on health, not size, and two: working on listening to my body, NOT everything else!

 

I'm so excited to shart sharing these things I've made again, I look forward to hearing from you!

 

Ceramic Bits Art Every Day 348

This is a picture of a piece of a sculpture from another student in my class.  She worked on the torso for 4 and a half weeks, just to have it explode in the kiln.

I was devastated for her, and can only imagine the anguish she felt.

Although it was broken it is still beautiful and I took a bunch of pictures of it, check out the amazing texture she painstakingly covered it with. 

 

Ceramic Feather Finale Art Every Day 329-331

Feathers finished!

What began as the idea of a peacock has morphed into something else.  Something flowing, lovely, and whimsical.  Exactly what it should be for now.

At it's largest points it is 7.5 feetX 4.5feet.

I'm really pleased with this piece, and have some plans to ammend it so that I can have it outside, make it more site-specific, and generally versatile.  Do you see those shadows in the bottom picture?  LOVE those! 

One of my friends in the class said something the other day that resonated with me.  She was talking about control, or the lack of control when it comes to art.  For four and a half weeks I tried to control the outcome of this piece, and continually felt defeated instead of delighted.  As soon as I STOPPED and just slept on it I was able to come up with an interesting piece of work.

I can't even begin to tell you how helpful my husband was during this...from bringing me lunch, supplies, and encouragement to driving around town helping me pick up the final pieces needed to complete this--the NIGHT BEFORE it was due--and sawing the wood platform, legs and supports at about 10:30 at night (sorry neighbors) in 103 degree weather.  All of this without a complaint.

Love.

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BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!

We--the Large Sculpture in Ceramics class at UMW, Professor and visiting cuban artist Carlos Enrique Prado have been invited to show our work at LibertyTown in August on First Friday!!

When?  5p-9p, Friday August 5, 2011 

Where? LibertyTown

916 Liberty St, Fredericksburg, VA 22401

 

Please join us, and bring a friend!