Week 5 - Adventure

I kicked off this week by traveling to Evansville, IN with Sarah E, GH, and Lilly to see Brian’s show at USI and visit Al Holen/tour their ceramics department. The trip was short, fun, and weirdly exhausting. It was great to see Al again (she is so kind, it fills my heart with joy), and seeing Brian’s work in a gallery context was super cool.

I was especially intrigued by the interaction of his bunker forms with the organic, somewhat chaotic collectives of wood pieces that they sat on, and I liked studying the surfaces of the different raw clay bodies and the natural looking variations caused by wood ash and flame.

I was specifically inspired by the one with the course grog/granite and sawdust/perlite burnouts (left picture), which I spoke to Brian briefly about and hope to try out with my own sculptures in the future. Brian’s work also got me thinking about how architecture becomes landscape as it weathers from the same elements that carve rock, and how landmarks lose and gain meaning with their inhabitants.

I didn’t get much studio time in this week, because my sweet mother drove down all the way to Montana to bring the rest of my belongings from Minnesota in a U-haul. She helped me move the rest of my stuff in and set up my room (finally!), and I’m feeling so much more settled and organized. We had a blast exploring a bit of Louisville together and enjoying yummy food and drinks. <3

damp zone, yee haw!

But I am nonetheless satisfied with what I did get done in the studio. I finished sculpting the big form I started a few weeks ago and rolled out a waster slab that I’ll transfer it onto, hopefully on Monday. I also converted half of my shelves into a damp zone, per Brian’s recommendation, so that I can more effectively slow dry my larger works. Sculpting my form, I felt very aligned with my intuition and present with the journey/paths the clay took me on. I’ve been embracing the elements of discovery, play, and adventure in my sculpting and that I really feel that I’ve been in conversation with the clay as I guide it in new directions. I love the surprises I find along the way and the secrets I reveal, and I feel good about the outcome of this sculpture in particular. Here’s to hoping it feels good about itself as well and doesn’t crack on me when I move it into the kiln. /:

Another thing I’ve been enjoying playing with is orientation and tension in how I display my sculptures. This one came out of the bisque after being fired on its side, along with a littler rock form I made for it to hopefully lean on. I wasn’t sure if it would actually balance, but I knew I’d somehow find a way for it to stand. To my surprise, I was able to balance it perfectly against the smaller form. It’s not gallery safe by any means, but this new element of play really excites me. I like when my sculptures don’t end in the greenware stage, and I like thinking about them as a flexible body of work, rather than standalone pedestal-bound objects.

I’m looking forward to getting some feedback during my crit on Monday on how others are receiving the forms I’ve made recently, with hopes of being launched off into new directions and on new tangents.

artists on my mind:

Rachel Heibel, Nicholas Devlin, Andy Goldsworthy

weekly gratitudes

~ my mom coming to visit & helping move the rest of my stuff in

~ my mom, in general <3

~ all settled in in my apartment and studio!

thinking about:

In addition to what I wrote about finding surprises and secrets as I intuitively engage in a journey with clay:

Sarah and I chilling at Letitia’s show

I loved Letitia Quesenberry’s installation show in the IUS gallery. Immersive art is so awesome, and it definitely re-ignited the spark in me for wanting to do another light/sound installation with my sculptures. Mainly, I loved how her work made me feel. Not think — feel. I want my work to bring people fully into their bodies and senses and for their thoughts to go silent, and that is what her work (and her means of presenting it) did for me.