Post Post-Bac Life
I told myself I would keep blogging even after my time as a post-bacc at IUS, so here goes. I think the only people who read these besides my professor are my mom and grandparents, so shout out to y’all. Love you <3
These blogs have been really helpful in tracking my progress and holding myself accountable to the goals and plans I set in the studio. They’ve become an archive of notes and images that I can easily access and have proven to be a great tool. Plus, they force me to put my thoughts into words, which is becoming more and more difficult as I don’t have a regular writing practice. I won’t blog weekly, but will try to stay relatively consistent with them.
A lot has happened this past month, both good and bad. I moved out of my old apartment at the end of April and spent all of May petsitting for various friends and couch surfing. Living without a home base was very challenging; I’d essentially been without a steady home since I left on my big road trip at the end of March. I’m extremely grateful to have always had a bed to sleep in thanks to my incredible friends and community, but not having a home of my own definitely wore on my body and mind. One thing I’ve learned about myself in all the long hours solo-driving and the following month and a half house-hopping, is that I really like my solitude, and with that, my own space to recharge. I worked full time in May, and without a stable home, that shit was extra exhausting. I can put on a social mask, but I really prefer to be alone.
Here are some of the babies I took care of <3 (:
Oh yeah and I got robbed. I accidentally left my truck unlocked and was stupidly storing my cash savings in there, and they took all my money and several bags. I lost some things that were very valuable to me, including a portion of my pup’s ashes, a full journal, sketchbook, and other irreplaceable things with sentimental value. It could’ve been a lot worse. There were a lot of things I’d been storing in my truck that weren’t in there that night. If anything, this was a big lesson in privilege; my family and friends helped me get back on my feet financially within a day. I still am having trouble wrapping my head around how generous and caring my community is. I am indebted to so many. I am grateful beyond words.
And then after I got robbed, I wiped out running and got injured, and then sick, and blah blah blah woe is me. Life really hit me hard that week. And because of that, I didn’t get all I wanted to get done in the studio before I had to leave for my summer internship. I had to spend all the time I had packing up my studio and organizing all my stuff in storage. That’s still not done, but damn, I’m proud of myself for doing what I could. I haven’t had any help with this move and it’s been a lot, but I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel…
My last blog, I’d left off with photos of the soda Grace loaded. That firing went alright… but I accidentally overfired it to ^11. I underestimated the rate of the climb and it hit temperature way sooner than expected, but the results were decent. I ended up spraying a third of the soda (2.5 lb total) at (past) temperature, then immediately cut the gas and beginning to stoke. I sprayed another third after ~half an hour of stoking, then the rest a bit later. For some reason, this firing was very oxidized. I think I had too much airflow and maybe didn’t hit body reduction hard enough.
So I wouldn’t consider this firing a success, which is kinda a bummer for my last soda at IUS. But I was really pleased with how my sculpture turned out with the glaze/slip I scrapped together using soil from AZ and UT and wood ash. The mug I refired also turned out favorable, but I refired it again in Christopher’s soda this past week because unfortunately a flake of kiln wall landed in it. The bowl I refired turned out alright, but again, way too oxidized. Meh.
The little clay tests I threw in there were informative. Except the three that exploded because I’m stupid and put them in wet. So more testing to do, but so far I like S1 and S2 the best. S1 is the only dark body I was testing, and I don’t love working with red clay but maybe adding a little newman red into a lighter body could be a good way to go. S2 is nice because of how simple the recipe is (tile 6 kaolin, g-200 minspar, molochite, xx saggar + grog) - depending on the other test results, I could see it being a good base for further experimentation. I’m trying to develop a lighter sculpting stoneware body with good variation and flashing in wood/soda firings.
This is the clay I collected along the highway in California, in a redwood forest. It’s beautiful at ^11.
One of the interns here makes his clay from reclaim stoneware mixed with wild clay, and I’m going to play around with that with my own clays this summer. That might be the direction I go this next year, rather than trying to develop a clay entirely from scratch. TBD.
That leads me to my final critique at IUS, which honestly was more of a final show-and-tell than a cohesive installation. It was more for me than anyone else. I wanted to display my clay/local materials tests in a nice, organized way way and show some of the paintings I made during my residency in January.
The paintings are about as effective as the photographs I put up on the wall. Meh. Clay is my medium of expression.
Putting together my monolith was a struggle (and workout), but I was able to get it to balance with just one small wooden dowel for support. I need to spend some time constructing better supports/stabilizing mechanism before it’s gallery ready, but it stood as is for a week without falling, so that’s something! I experimented with installing my most recent sculpture upside down and suspended, but I don’t think it worked well in the space. I’d like to try installing that one as a wall piece as well. The monolith was meant to be 3 parts but I’ve put a pin in that plan. I’ve said this before, but the lesson from this project was that I need to leave more room for play and flexibility in connection points with my stacking sculptures. I need to build more evenly (weight wise) and create more opportunities for balancing pieces in multiple orientations.
The two medium sized sculptures I made earlier in the semester were a relatively successful test in this theory but I honestly hate those forms and am abandoning them at IUS for the time being. They are bad forms. There are details in them that are strong, but as forms, they just don’t work. When I start sculpting non-functional work again, my goals are to sketch or make macquettes of the form before beginning the sculpture, and then stick to them. The bigger forms work because they’re big and tall and impressive. But I need to get simpler and more intentional with my silhouettes, rather than focusing on intuitive details and losing the plot of the piece in large. I hate these but I’m putting these photos here to remind myself of my flop.
Phew okay, all caught up on the IUS stuff!
After working my last bar shift and saying goodbye to all my Louisville friends, I drove to Touchstone Center for Crafts last Monday to begin my summer internship. This past week, I’ve been settling in here. Workshops don’t start for another week, so I’ve been using the time to move in, orient myself with the campus and studio, help get the studio in shape for the months ahead, and exhale. I’m still working on exhaling. My body is just now exiting the fight-or-flight mode it’s been in the past few months from all the stress with moving and not having a stable home. Here, I have my own cabin and a great spot in the back room of the ceramics studio overlooking the creek. The campus is gorgeous; I am so happy to be living in nature.
I’m working on some sculptural vases now and just threw a batch of cups/vessels to sculpt over the next couple weeks. I plan to start a sculpture soon too. The first ceramics workshop is a plaster mold making class, and the other intern and I will be alternating assisting with that and a glass workshop. I’m excited to venture some new mediums and techniques this summer. The blacksmithing studio here is very impressive. I feel lucky to only have to work 20 hours a week, and am hopeful that I’ll find a healthy balance between my intern work, studio practice, and nature/exercise/self care time. Everyone here is really cool, and I’m looking forward to connecting with lots of professional artists and students from all different disciplines over the summer. I’m starting to feel at home here already and am so grateful to have landed this opportunity. It’s such a big change from my life in Kentuckiana. But I think it’ll be a great segue to my residency at Cobb Mountain.
I’ve got lots I want and need to do this summer (including picking up and moving my massive sculpture up from Wheeling, WV, yikes) and am kinda overwhelmed when I think about it all at once. But also, I have all summer, and I have this blog to hold me accountable. And things feel a lot better and much more aligned now that I’m not juggling bar jobs with studio work.
Thanks for reading. (: