Train Kiln Preparations and Silverfish.

I've been painting these silverfish. I decided to paint these silverfish while thinking about site specificity. I have about 15 more to make before I'm finished. They will be crawling up the pillars at the Mammoth where we are having a BFA off campus show in December. The interesting thing about silverfish is that they shed their exoskeletons several times throughout their lives. When they shed this skin it can ruin clothes and clothing. They are gross little things. I want to sculpt a silverfish and then cover it with tinted glue and peel it off to leave in a pile at the base of the pillar on the floor.

Today we split wood in preparation for our firing this weekend. We are ready for firing after splitting the wood and repairing the kiln.

This is about half of the wood that we split today.

Today was my first time using a wood splitter. It was much better than using an axe.

At the end of the day I was ready for my pajamas, slippers and some hot tea.

Earnest Bowls and Leaving the Walls Behind

      Ian Shelley and I had a good chat on what an earnest wood fire bowl looks like. So I spent the six hours of my class time this week trying to make one. I paid a lot of attention to the relationship of the rim to the foot and also the throwing lines that I left on the side.

     I gave up on white stone ware and half porcelain/half stoneware and tried using gold art alone. It is the best that I have used so far. It is smooth but holds up well. It feels a little stiff at first but I really haven't felt as comfortable with any of the other three clay bodies I've used this semester.

 A new glaze recipe that I tried out didn't turn out so hot. The pitcher on the left turned bright dark red in the thicker areas. It is a half porcelain clay. I was expecting that color but a little more on the purple side. The little shape on the right turned green with hints of purple. It is made from a white stoneware recipe.

    This picture isn't very good. I am going to take some photos with a nice camera tomorrow and hopefully replace these. The important part is that my paintings stopped using the wall this week. The figures are hanging from the ceiling ant the walls and floor are made from foam. It only took 44 hours to make it happen. There is another piece that is mostly completed but this one took the most work.

     The figure on the right isn't quite where I want him because I am limited by the dropped ceiling at school. There will eventually be a rug that spill out of the dark carpet and breaks up the line across the bottom as well.

     There will be quarter round on both sides of the carpet at the bottom and the one that is there needs stained.

     Those are the only two things that I have planned to do. I'm finally almost finished with it!!

A lot of projects at once....

I have been working on cutting out silverfish. They are gross little bugs that shed their exoskeleton several times throughout their lifetimes. I want to do about double the amount that I have here. At the BFA show I want these to be on the floor and crawling up a post at the Mammoth. I have been thinking a lot about site specificity after we have decided where to have our show. 

 

 

I have also been working on my video about time. I used my Go Pro to film my drive, bike ride and walk down the same stretch of road. I was thinking about re-filming this video because of the camera being shaky. After critique I realized that it might be nice to keep the movement of the camera. I want it to show the difference in the movement of the different modes of travel. I don't want it to look like I just drove at three different speeds. I also think that if I re-filmed this I might be too aware of what the video will look like. I like that this video is raw and filmed in a way that I didn't know what it would look like.

I'm close to finishing this painting. I just need to darken the shadow around the waist so that it has more dimension. The eyebrows, beard and hair also need more glazes. They are a little flat at this point.

Benin Hip Masks and Poncho's Disapproval

     I have spent most of my week researching this hip mask from Benin. It is a representation of Queen Idia. I have been researching it for a power point presentation that I will be doing about the assosciations that the people of Benin, Africa made between the Portuguese and the African Lung Fish.  Both had the ability to live on land and water and they also believed that they both had the ability to return from the dead.
     Although it has been interesting, I am looking forward to having time to paint and work in ceramics after this is over. This class is sucking up a lot of my studio time.

Poncho also gave me this look to let me know he did not approve of the attention that my textbooks were getting.

 This week I am going to film a video that will also be a representation of our perception of time. I am going to drive, ride my bike and walk down the same street. I will be filming this with my husband's Go Pro. I thought it would be funny to re-purpose a camera made to catch high speed action to film an art project. The three videos I will film will be displayed next to each other vertically.

     I have decided to film it on the end of Frankfort Avenue. It is quiet and has quite few interesting focal points. A giant sign for the impound lot, a rock/gravel distribution place, a faded billboard for the future site of a botanical garden, rail road track, overpass, boat showroom, a new building for condos (that now blocks the view of the river) and  this giant facade that is in the middle of the road. I think it will also serve as a reference to time. I just need to wake up early enough one morning when there aren't many cars on the road so that I can walk down it. 

     My stack of ceramic pieces is getting larger. I am going to continue to make these throughout the semester. I excited about where they are going and that the idea seems to grow and change every week. I want to have about 200 of these forms. I hope to get them more varied in size and shape.

     Instead of hoping that I will mess up and they will fall while I am building them, I think that I am going to try not to let them fall until I can knock them over. I might use a wrecking ball made out of ceramics to do this with. I'm still thinking about that though.