FRANKENPOT..it lives!! (fyi...this is a metaphor)

 They say life is what happens while you are making other plans, well for me life is what interrupts me while I am working in the studio.  This is not a bad thing it is just the way it is. My life is very full and I am often called away from the studio for reasons beyond my control. Sometime these interruptions are good sometimes not.

       On Monday I began working on a slab built vessel.  My plan was to form the slabs into the various parts of the vessel (the foot, body, neck, lid) then assemble them after they dried for a bit. The end result would have few seams or joins, focusing on the textures and patterns on the slabs instead of how the pot was made. I made the slabs and wrapped them around the molds to let them set up a bit. I covered the clay parts expecting to work on them the next day when they would still be flexible so I could unwrap them from the molds and assemble the parts. Wrong, Life had an interruption in store for me.......

          I was awakened that night/early morning by the phone (never a good thing!) it was my Mother (definitely not good thing!) My stepfather had suffered a massive heart attack and was in the ICU at DHMC and she needed me.   My stepfather is my Mother's whole world and for many reasons I won't go into here the only Grandfather my children have ever known. He and my mother were one of the main reasons we moved back to New England six years ago.  Having lost my Father last year to Leukemia I just didn't know how I would cope if I lost my Stepfather also. I never had the opportunity to say goodbye to my Father or "I love you" one last time and will I regret that always.  So I rushed to pack a bag and made record time on the 2+ hour drive to NH to be with my Stepfather and Mother. Leaving all thoughts of studio work far behind.

       I will not go into all the details of what happened after I arrived. Most of you have been through similar situations so you know what those hours/days of waiting and worrying at a hospital are like. Besides, there wouldn't be room here to do so even if I wanted to and you really don't want to read about my personal life since this is in fact a blog about art (surprise!) After spending most of this week at the hospital my Stepfather has been allowed to go home. I am happy to say that his prognosis is good and with the proper lifestyle modification he should make a full recovery (Whew!).
     Now that I am finally back in my own home my thoughts return to art. I went out to the studio to see what was the status with my slab parts. Yep, they were dry, very very dry,  too dry to bend and too dry to get off the molds. In fact most of them had cracked as they dried and the clay shrunk! Zut alors,  what to do. Being one who does not give up on something once started I cut the parts off the molds and got to work. I began to slice the parts up and put the pieces back together the best I could,  joining the pieces on the inside with slip and coils. Starting with the foot, then the body, next was the neck and finally the lid and finial. It was very painstaking but I just kept on going, slipping, scoring, joining building the form up, checking the pot for balance as I went.  I began to think about how humans and clay pots are similar, the shared resilience and strength that is the core of both. Also how we name the parts of a pot after the parts of the body ie; neck, head, belly, shoulder, body, foot, lip, throat and so on.  Along the way this pot became something more than just a pot,  it is a testament to survival, to having something (someone) returned to you when you though it was lost. Although is was rough going I would not give up on Frankenpot,  this pot would live! And it does, as you can see from the images it is a bit wonky and has many seams. It is far from symmetrical but it is balanced and will not fall over. I have covered it with plastic and now it needs to dry slowly and evenly but with some care and patience it will be just fine!

Frankenpot, left side view

Frankenpot, right side view

Frankenpot, detail of neck

Frankenpot, detail of base and body join

Frankenpot, view from top

Frankenpot, detail of body and neck

Cylinder forms part 2

Four cylinder forms, glazed

 

Black Cylinder, with Blue cylinder in background

                      I have spent most of my studio time over the last few weeks glazing some of the various forms I have been working on this semester. These cylinder forms are the first ones out of the kiln so they are first to be posted about. Overall I am pleased with the way the layers of slips, underglazes and glazes work with the textural elements I have pressed into the forms. These vessels have a depth that a photo can not convey accurately. Although these forms are sort of a dead end for my AIB work I learned much from them and will continue to use what I learned and apply it to my future work. I may at some point revisit these forms since I am not one for saying never but for now my work is moving on and seemingly away from these cylinders.

Black cylinder, detail

Blue cylinder

Blue cylinder, detail

Sevres to Slabs and back again

Cut out parts of slabs

Using the Serves forms I had on hand I attached cut out parts from the slabs I have been using to make platters and vessels. I used cut outs in similar shapes as the on the historical vases. Since the  base forms were completely dried I used paper clay to adhere the wet slabs to the surface. I used a lot of slip and water to moisten the forms in the hopes that nothing will crack. After making the first form I started the second. This one is shown in the bottom two images. I am still working on it and have to add more orage slip to the paper clay.  It will be a while before either one is dry enough to fire and I know if this process works or not.

Slabs attached to Sevres form with paperclay

Yellow slip added to paperclay, front view

Yellow slip added to paperclay, side view

Form 2

Form 2, detail

Process

Earthenware slab with stamped pattern

Red Slip on Slab

Slab after being pressed into fire pit screen

Wood covered with slip

Slab after repeated pressings into slip covered wood

The second piece I worked on I used a stamp I made of an A10 Warthog airplane and pressed the slab  into the trees surrounding my studio as well as the side of my studio.

Stamped slab covered with blue slip

Slab being pressed into slip covered tree outside my studio

Slab after being peeled from tree showing the slip remaining on tree.

Slab on another tree

Slab after second tree pressing

Slab on exterior of studio

Slab after being pressed into side of studio

Slab wrapped around third tree

Peeling away slab from tree, showing texture

Third slab stamped and covered with slip

Slab after being pressed into slip covered vines and stone wall

Extension cord covered in slip

Slab after being pressed into extension cord 

I began by making a slabs that had very defined stamped patterns. I then covered the slabs with slip and pressed them repeatedly into various surfaces surrounding my studio. I began to wonder how many times I could press the slabs into things while still retaining some of the original design as well as the structural integrity of the slab. I found that even after multiple pressing some of the stamping was still visible.  Of course I could of just smashed the clay into these surfaces and obliterated the earlier patterns/ textures but my idea with this work is to show how everything that the slab came in contact with left it's mark, it's trace in the clay.

Cylinder Forms Part 1

Four Cylinder Forms

Cylinder forms 3&4

Cylinder forms 1&2

Along with the platter series I blogged about in my last post I am continuing with the cylinder forms I began earlier this semester. These are made from soft slabs of earthenware impressed with patterns and textures similar to the platter forms.  I am layering colored slips over the patterns creating more depth and layers to the surface. These are still very much a work in progress and I will update this blog as they get closer to completion.

Cylinder form 2 detail

Cylinder form 1(front) 2(back)

Detail of cylinder form 4

Traces

Traces, Platter form

This platter was created from a slab of clay with patterns pressed into the surface when the clay is soft. The shape is achieved by laying the still soft slab into a plaster mold. The mold I used is one that I made from my Great-Grandmothers china platter. This platter is both a treasured object and a huge bone of contention in my family. When my Great-Grandmother passed away everyone wanted it and since her Will did not name the platter specifically everyone felt they had a claim to it.  My mother is the one who ended up with the platter and I was allowed to borrow it so I could make a plaster mold of it.  I had planned on making a china platter for everyone in the family as a way to heal the rift that this object has caused. I have not given up on this idea but it seems right to use this form for my current work. Traces of my life embedded in my Great-Grandmother's platter.

Cuneiform.....

Terracotta slab experiments

Detail of slab

Terracotta slab rolled into a cylinder

Historical reference of a Cuneiform slab

Historial reference of a cuneiform cylinder

I have been thinking about where my work is heading and about putting meaning into it. This has led me to realize that as beautiful as the Sevres work is it is just not the right path for me. I feel that those types of forms are too similar to the work I was doing before I started the AIB program. One of the main reasons I decided to pursue my MFA was to break free from that and explore ceramics and other media. For the last year I have steered clear of clay until this current semester.  In order to use what I have learned and bring my ideas to life in clay I need to change directions from the Sevres vessels.

 I have always been drawn to the ancient world especially cuneiform writing. Deborah Davidson my advisor from last semester had suggested I look at this more closely but at the time I was not ready, now I am (thanks Deborah for the advice!). Using historical references of cuneiform tablets and cylinders I will incorporate my own "writing" into the clay.  I have begun this by experimenting with terracotta slabs and cylinders made by rolling some of the slabs up around a support. Theses pieces are far from complete but I feel good about this work and its relevance to my ideas.