Enjoy about 200 images without my yapping

AFO

AFO

I was perusing my iPhoto albums and realized I had a folder titled "Portfolio Pictures." I'm glad I looked, I had recently become certain that I hadn't done anything in the Art Foundation program here at VCU. While (for whatever reason) the photos absolutely *blow*, they do serve to remind me of some of the things I made my first semester in college.


These prayer flags (here seen bundled and ready to deliver, below seen "installed" on my dorm bed post) were for the final assignment in my "2-d/surface studio" with Gordon Stettinius (http://www.eyecaramba.com/). Gordon was a freakishly amazing person, his class really helped me understand a few integral facets of myself as an artist. As usual, these understandings have come years later... *digression* The assignment was to use an easily repeatable process to make something for everyone in the class. I have a couple wonderful pieces from my classmates, but my favorite is the photograph I chose of Gordon's. It is of the nude office clerks at the Whitetail nudist colony. :)

Blue is cyanotype using a transparency printed with the words "ars gratia artis" as the negative. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_for_art%27s_sake) Material is a cut up shirt sleeve, thanks dollar bin at Exile! (note that I am *wearing* a similar shirt...) :D

cyanotype = blueprint (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanotype)

I have no idea if this was actually for a project. I'm assuming it was, though I doubt whether it was hung like this for the critique - I believe this photo was taken in my room on Plum St. Anyway, fun facts: the skeleton is hot glue painted over with acrylic. I have absolutely no recollection of painting the panel to the right, it's clearly an aerial view of a town... There's a piece of transparency pinned to the top. I think this is the only decent photo in the bunch posted today, so it is helpful to enlarge.

I don't have much of an idea where the "prayer flags" came from, but I really enjoyed making them. I also owe Gordon a nice cyanotype print for giving me free chemicals! yay :)

So, while these aren't exactly high art, they and the other unposted photos are very helpful in reassuring me of my continued experimental nature - if not also my continued lack of ambition. I did direct a mini-photo shoot of myself that semester. I am extremely fond of a few of the end photos and my presentation of them, though Gordon did not share my excitement.

Metal Working November

VCU Metals recently had the privilege of being visited by none other than pewtersmith Fred Fenster. There was an awesome weekend long workshop involving raising and fabricating pewter, scoring and folding, and modifying tools to facilitate these activities. Fred Fenster taught metalsmithing to my own metalsmith professer, Susie Ganch, at The University of Wisconsin-Madison.



I started hammering freeform, mainly in the spherical depressions we use for sinking, but also a bit of air planishing to close the spiculum-like tip.

Quite a range of forms were produced.Played with the manual press after I couldn't work from the inside with my hammer, wedging the piece about on the platform and squishing it the tiniest bit. I had a surprising amount of control, this was my first time using the press.

Said spiculum-like tip. Closed up quite nicely, if I do say so myself -

And then I played with the torch. Pewter has an amazingly low melting temperature... I played gently with the flame at first, but then gave into my destructive side and really let loose with the heat. This melting was achieved with naught but a 00 acetylene tip! Such a tiny flame!

And lastly, the forever-present copper cup. Boring thing! No more attempts at minimalism for me until I've gotten more toward "ongepaotchket."

November out!

Oh, November

This month has gone by frighteningly quick.

The reappearance of a sketchbook/diary has made quite the positive impact on me. I've kept one for the last decade with more consistency than ANY thing else in my life (it seems). Perhaps I'll share sketches one day, I think that would be a great idea :)

Photographs are from November 6th. The first is of my apartment, the second two are from the deck.

As always, click to enlarge and click again to magnify. The last two should be fun larger :) enjoy!

Sample cup

Concrete bottom, Copper ring and cup, steel hardware



Samples, before bottom left was assembled to the above picture.


This is the sample cup for my final, late as of now :/ Extended brain farts interfere with schoolwork.

More metal work

Leaf is Copper, Coccoon brass. As always, click to see larger image.

This is from beginning Jewelry Spring 2009. It's a cocoon. wire used for rivets

Raising

A few shots from the metals studio. These vessels were raised (in the case of the one on the right, still being raised). Metalsmithing equates to fire (annealing), shiny (stakes), and hammering (a lot!). Obviously it is quite a joyful process. More about that later.

Words are material!

Some lines, anyway.

A Small Dark Bird
feet like a pair of gloves wrinkled by
wear, wrapped taught around brittle
bird bones.

Plm & Grv
trees once saplings are now old,
spread their branches out across the sidewalk and the street,
roots burrow in southern sync
wrinkled brick sidewalk, gentle vermilion waves.

(disjointed bricks that will trip yo ass up if you aren't careful...)

Alley
Water streams behind buildings
gives life to cold granite paved ground,

Isolated pools mention the past like dimwit oracles
seeing only the sky above.

Yellow orbs of reflected light brought down from
street lamps sparkle stupidly in
the dimples of every pockmarked
cobblestone, hemming the magic
mirrors on the alley floor.


-------

Have a good day :)


(edited 2011/3/27)

The Other Half

 





I definitely learned a lot in this Ceramics course, technically and otherwise.

Thank you

Final Ceramics Project

Ceramics Cont'd

My final project consisted mainly of me having an excuse to make random body parts. Here is a mandible. With an 19th century, Oscar Wilde inspired throat covering attached. Please forgive the wonky angles of the photos, I'm behind in my posting and plan to make amends after catching up!

Creepy hand, since shattered, attached in an ill-conceived manner to the main project itself. Post will follow with those photos.

Poor photo due to the heat of the kiln-room, carrying back the wreckage.

My pieces were laying on the second shelf up, Raphael had pieces on the shelves above that. I had cleared most of my body off of the kiln-shelf before snapping this picture, he had not - those are his exploded pieces. My prof. was aghast.

Judging from the background of this photograph, it is clear I had no intentions of sharing it, but here is the same iron, same stage (bone hard, ready to go off to the kiln for the second and final firing), but with comparison to the iron it mimics. You can tell I made mistakes, beginning with the misproportioned handle-bottom, I had to take out the ol' artistic license to fix proportions. I am unhappy with the height, as you can see, my piece has a much shorter nose than it should.


I have to agree with Jeannette, this will make a great flower pot! I have images of the iron after the glazing to be posted later.

Ceramics Summer 2009

Ceramics Summer Inro Class 2009

Measurements and drawings for scaling up an iron for the second project.
The assignment was to enlarge an object.

I enjoyed the drawing, but making the iron was much more of a learning experience than the creation of a piece with which I'd feel comfortable putting my name on without a disclaimer!

Here the iron is, I left the flat front (separate piece, separate drying time, smaller size than desired - oops!) of the iron without any glaze. There were no slips applied to either piece, the white color on the body of the iron is what the clear glaze looks like before firing.

Our first project for the class was to design a "tile" from clay and make a mold of it, to then reproduce it in whatever manner fit for our initial design. I was allowing myself a simple enough design with ample negative and positive spaces to play with after the mold was made. And so, many variations were made, different underglazes were applied, or not applied, and clear second-fire glaze was applied very selectively. Please enjoy!

Here is the mold, above, made from plaster.
The tiles sit in the background.

A tiny button, also pressed from the mold!

I was told that they looked like they had been washed upon the beach and found. I was flattered by the comment, as it was my essential aesthetic goal!

Cervix and nipple patterns, no doubt. Merely concentric circles before the pink underglaze was applied! No clear, second-fire glaze. I had another that I made quite similarly, mostly regarding the pattern, but compressed it more after removing it from the mold so that it was simply more compact. I glazed it heavily, and I must say I prefer the one pictured above ten-fold!


Lovely experimentation. I played with a few underglazes, slips really, mostly achieving different colors from mixing them on my tiny palette. You can see the shiny parts are where the true "glaze" was applied. Glaze has silica in it that melts onto your ceramic piece and essentially becomes a thin layer of glass. To put it simply, this is the same thing that happens with colored enamel on metal.

When asked if I am going to take a course with glass, blowing molding, whatever, I always say no! It would be too easy to fall in love, I already have too many interests! Glaze and enamel will have to be enough glass for me, for now anyway. :)