Circle Craft 2010

If you’re in the Vancouver area from now until Sunday, please come down to the new convention centre and visit Darcy and myself in the Emily Carr ceramics department booth!

 

 

Student Art Sale

Thanks everyone who came out today to the Student Art Sale at Emily Carr University.  Your support is always more than appreciated!

It was exciting to see on Poppytalk my good friend Stephanie French’s ceramics and mine!  Thanks for the post!

The sale continues through the weekend: Saturday and Sunday from 12 – 5 – hope to see you there.

current endeavors…

Well, I’m going to keep this brief because I’m feeling the pressure already to be working on projects, but I wanted to update the blog with my most current work in the studio.  I decided after finishing the large lake-like  form that I really didn’t like it.  The ideas were still interesting to me, but I found myself very unimpressed with the form.  I might even go as far as saying I was repelled by it.  Funny how something in 2D becomes so incredibly different in 3D.

So – I decided to go with perhaps more simple, clean and refined forms.  They reminded a friend of river stones and I was happy with the reference – the idea of erosion was complimentary.  So – the two images I’ve posted are the “plate” and “bowl/cup” that will accompany the larger serving dish/water catchment.  I’m playing a bit with different slips, trying to create one which I can put coarse grog into to have the pieces feel a bit more earthy, but I’ve been having weird warping in the drying process.  I know, it seams like a contradiction.  I went from a more loose/organic form to a tighter one and now I want it to feel a bit more earthy.  I don’t really know how to explain this, but it’s something I’ve learned about my aesthetic likes while doing this project – I’m much more drawn to “tight” forms and “soft/organic” surfaces than the other way around.

inspiring text by Natasha Daintry

I recently came across a book titled “Breaking the Mold: New Approaches to Ceramics” by Black Dog Publishing.  Simply from the cover, I figured it would focus on contemporary ceramic artists working primarily with content, not function or craft, but I was very pleasantly surprised when I read Natasha Daintry’s opening essay “The Essential Vessel.”  From a book titled “New Approaches” I wasn’t expecting an essay which begins to question the things she does, but after reading it, it seems really important.  Breaking the mold can mean a range of things.  Not only breaking away from historical references, but ideas that have happened in the last 10 years, or even 5 (I’m thinking here of specifically the rejection of craft).  If I’m not making sense…..hopefully the text will and you’ll be as excited about it as I am.

Here’s what really caught me:

“Our culture places talking and thinking above all things, in fact equating thinking with being.

But what if you don’t buy the idea that thinking is everything? That there might be something in other states like sensing, doing and being?  Perhaps this way of looking at things might help open up the arena  again, loosen the grip on the crafts’ insecurity about whether or not it’s in the art camp.  I think that part of our problem is that it’s not easy to talk about sensing, doing and being.  They’re not concepts as such, neat little fixed shiny packages of ideas, but more existential states which shift and move as you inhabit them – more amorphous, like clay.”

You can find the whole article on her website.  Not surprisingly, her work is stunning….

http://www.natashadaintry.com/pages/publications.php

back at it….

I was a bit terrified to start my final year.  Not really sure what of specifically, but possibly just the pressure of being a fourth year student and the expectations that are associated with that.  After two full weeks back at school, I have to say I’m honestly feeling better about this year than any other.  I feel grounded with solid ideas, content and aesthetic choices that will hopefully produce interesting work.  I feel extremely lucky to be around very supportive people – not only professors, but friends who really understand what I’m searching for.  I’m still searching for the words that accurately and concisely articulate my current focus, but in a nutshell, this year I want to focus on functional ceramic objects that people will physically engage with.  I’m interested in the political choice to make objects by hand, rejecting the large scale manufacturing of objects from overseas, and valuing the slow, intellectual and skill based process of working on the wheel, hand building or with molds.  I think it’s a falsity to say making with molds isn’t making by hand and feel there is a significant difference between a small scale, domestic (almost – it’s the closest to Vancouver), mold-production line such as Heath Ceramics of 50 people ( http://www.heathceramics.com/go/heath/) and an overseas factory of thousands.  I also feel strongly about the thought and ideas that are present behind my work and feel that craft, art and design can come together to make something beautiful, intelligent and long lasting.

So….let’s get to the fun part now, shall we?  I’m taking two studio classes this semester, one is an open six credit class (self directed and I will be working with ceramics) and the other is a six credit model and mold making class.  For the later, I’ve started making my models and it’s quite exciting and frightening all at the same time.  I’ve really never worked large with ceramics before, or any medium for that matter, so I’m pretty anxious about this project.  Really though, there’s no better time to experiement.

This piece started with the idea of water.  I’ve been quite interested in natural cycles for a long time – water, rock, tides, forests, moon etc.  The idea for this piece is for it to act as a reservoir for rain water (it’s upside down as a model).  I have also made two sizes of smaller bowl/plate/cup forms which will work with the larger piece for people to ladle or scoop with.  Thoughts that I hope this piece brings up are: rainwater quality, water politics, ownership of natural resources, community, communal sharing of food etc.

I used a really basic way to make the form.  I started with an outline, actual size on paper and then transfered that onto the board I built on.  On my paper drawing, I then drew contour lines to visualize the 3D form.  I estimated a bit on the height and found it easier to decide once I started building.  It’s about 7″ deep at this point and about 3ft long.  I simply stacked foam on top of itself, duck taped it down and then worked with coils to fill in the gaps.  Wipe, wipe, smooth, smooth, rib, rib and there you have it.  I’m know waiting for the rain to come and for me to be at school to take these models outside to get rained on – hoping the texture will really add something.

I should wrap up this first post, but just wanted to show an artists work that I find really inspiring for this project: Canadian ceramic artist Steve Heinman.     Thanks for reading, stay tuned!

Wonderful weekend

I was lucky to spend this weekend doing wonderful things with friends.  On Saturday Tom and I headed up past Squamish to the Ashlu River for a night out of the city.  It was such a spectacular spot.  These trips, even short ones, really help me feel refreshed and re-energized.  Tom’s been working on his Truck’s deck for a while and has got a really good set up now for camping – everything lives in those two silver boxes with plenty of room to spare!  Good thing, considering we’d like to do a year long trip in the near future.

In the afternoon on Saturday, a good friend and I set about landscaping and planting my little plot in the back garden where we rent.  I’m so happy with how it looks – now it’s just up to the little plants to bring us some good eating!

Lastly, we had an amazingly delicious meal with good friends.  Beautiful nibbles of cheese, olives, bread and “meat ends” – thanks Tom!  Dinner was a beautiful beef roast on the BBQ, fresh greens salad with fennel, blood orange and blue cheese, pasta salad with olives, tomatoes, feta, chives etc, fresh home made bread  and topped beautifully with a cornmeal and pecan cake.  I was so proud of my bread, but have realized I still have more to learn!

Re:Vision DESIGN Award

I found it fitting that today, the day I decide to write my first posting with my new mission in mind, that I see this on the cover of Modern Painters.  This female duo has created dinnerware from local clays in the Netherlands.  Beautifully connected.

These two girls are incredibly inspiring – but I do wonder about some of the practicalities.  It’s a great idea – but am fearful it will end up in the wrong hands and everyone and their tractor will be digging up some poor farmers land.  Would like to know more about their plans – if they’re going to go into production or not.

http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/34349/revision-design-award/

forward thinking

As an artist, people always ask you “so – what’s your work about” or “why are you doing this/that” or better yet as an art student “what are you going to do when you graduate?”  Ah yes, the fantastic questions that can send a person into an entire life-time of anxiety and questioning.  Well – these certainly are some of the things that have been going through my head for the past few years and there haven’t been many solid answers….until a couple of weeks ago.  Don’t get too excited – I don’t have ALL the answers (what would I do with the rest of my life if I did!?) but I finally feel really grounded in what I’m doing.  I haven’t felt like this since coming to art school, so it’s a pretty big thing for me!

Connection to natural materials in everyday life, ethical responsibility, social responsibility, community, a handmade life, the slow food movement….the list continues.  These are all things that inform my work.  Ultimately, I made functional work because it can engage physically, emotionally and spiritually with the user.  Making work by hand today is a political stance against large scale factory production and all the values that go along with that mode of making.

I have decided to focus this blog as a diary about my life – as an artist, a potter, a designer, a craftsperson, a cook, a bread baker,a gardener, a partner, a dog owner, a friend, a daughter, a physical laborer, a hiker, a road tripper -well – as me.  This blog will be about the ways in which I hope to adapt my life to leave this planet better than I found it.  It will be a very honest and human approach to the world and how to navigate this crazy place we call home.

I hope you will follow me along and share your thoughts.  Love, Kelly

Glazed!

Feedback welcomed!

latest inspirations

So I’ve been searching more and more to find out how I feel about the making of more sculptural ceramics as opposed to more functional ceramics.  This images below are from the same throwing class I’m taking – the first from last year and the second from this year.  I’m finding moving into more sculptural work really interesting and especially using the wheel.  I find most people look at the forms and want to find function in them.  I feel there’s a trend for that a the school, that when people get on the wheel they think functional rather than thinking of the wheel as a tool for making (I’m just as guilty myself!).  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I do feel it limits the way people think about the wheel and wheel thrown objects.

I’ll update with an image so you can see when they come out of the glaze firing….hopefully all goes well

Here’s a short snippet of what’s been inspiring me lately….

Ellsworth Kelly

Lucie Rie and Hans Coper