Making Things and ArtStart Install

Well, it has been almost a month since I have posted.  I've been in the studio vortex.  I am busy making things now.  No more molds, although I could probably make them endlessly. I spent a lot of time on this one, and it turned out to be a bit problematic, but I haven't had time to remake it.

I spent time putting up my show at ArtStart Rhinelander last week.

Topography, ceramic, wood, found objects, ink on paper 2014

It did slow me down, but the show was a great opportunity to set up this work. The front of the gallery has two works that explore the idea of landscape and out relationship to the natural world.  Most of the individual pieces and things that anyone could make, although I did start to get carried away after a while.

Passage, porcelain, wood, 2014

Passage reflects on my time in Alpena, Michigan in the wetland, Wildlife Preserve in the center of town.  I've been very interested in movement and shadow.

The back section of the gallery has two pieces that are about memory and how we create the past and mediate it through objects.  I love the idea of ceramic being a drawing material and that through the process of drawing we become more intimate with the images and objects that we take for granted.  Both works have the sense of the thing itself, the copy and sometimes, the copy of the copy.

Memory/ Nostalgia, porcelain, string, wood, found objects, 2014

I also find the machined image of the tree a very interesting idea.  I sometimes think about how this piece would be different with a material besides wood.

In this piece, I was interested in the contrast between the permanence of porcelain and the drawings.  I wanted to explore how we create our own identities through objects and perceptions of the past.  The drawings of objects are all images from my past.  My parents had a 1973 Fleetwood Cadillac.  We had so many of those telephones in our house.  The images of people are all from photographs.  Most of them are my relatives, but some are images from the internet.  I now have these photographs and am their keeper, but I wanted to explore how we create identity through this concept of ancestry.  None of the people in this piece are my blood relatives, since those are unknowable, but they still inform my identity even though they only connected to my by chance.

Simulacrum/ Personal History, porcelain, wood, found object, string, pencil on paper, 2014

I like the way that the object interact with the images.  I had some objects that I really love, like the porcelain axe, that were left out because they created too strong of a narrative implication.  I hope the work allows viewer to build their own narratives or connections with this work.

I have to run off.  Next post about the residency!

Mold Marathon

After my visit to the Pumpkin Patch on Saturday, I headed back to Kohler to get down to some mold making.  I decided that starting two more complicated molds at once was enough. 

Ready to pour plaster

Only 5 more sections to go

After about 10 hours I made 5 sections.  Two in the rabbit and three on the dog wolf.

Not pretty

Instead of going home I decided to power through this third section last night.  I am reminded of how ugly my molds are.  I still haven't figured out how I'm going to lift it to cast.

Here is the finished big mold.  We'll see how it holds up in the dryer. I'm going to finish the other one tomorrow.

Here is my piece out of the kiln and some test birds.  I have to admit that I accidentally sprayed clear on it instead of white.  I'm going to try and label my buckets before I spray this time. 

I finished another small piece tonight after I came back from teaching, but will post it up here tomorrow. 

First Piece and Other Stuff

I have been too tired to upload all of these, but I have made my first piece to send through the system.  It should be out tomorrow.

This is mainly a test.  I have made a few more small ones, but they are in the kiln already.  Here it is sprayed and loaded.

You can see SunKoo's tiles and Hilary's buoy's next to it.  I also drew on some forms.  Here they are with the 'small' tiles.

You can see SunKoo and Scott loading them into the kiln.  Can't wait to see the really big ones.

Now that I have some of the small molds done, I am working on some larger forms.  These are finished and sectioned off to start the process.

Can't wait to see what the fired ones look like.  Headed home for the Pumpkin Patch later, but hope to get one section of each poured before I leave.

Molds and Positives

I cleaned up my five molds and started on a new positive, the first in a series of 6.  I alson drove to DePere to teach my class today.  I've decided that 5 molds is too many at once.  I start to loose focus as the day wears on.

just started this positive

the five molds ready for the dryer

Kohler Day 2

Well, I have finished my second day and finished three molds.  Here are some images from today. These are Sun Koo's large tiles being poured. 

My first positives are ready and my molds complete after a long day.

positives

ready to pour plaster

side one finished

This whole process took 3 times longer than I thought, but that is too be expected.

finally cleaned up

ready to go again

 I finished around 8:30pm, but not before saving one of the molds from a blow out.  I think I'll still with the boards even if it wastes plaster. Nobody likes a blow out!  The mold survived and I even poured the third section before I went home.

Saved from a blow out

Until tomorrow. 

First Day at Kohler

Well today was my first day at Kohler.  As you can see my space is pretty much empty.  I'm working with SunKoo in the studio, that's his piece there, ready to be fired.  It is pretty great just being here.

 

View of my empty studio

Common area

As you can see some big molds are being cast.  I did some drawing and thinking today and made a few things to cast to take me through the process.

First positive!

Pretty cool being in the factory.  I remember my first trip to Kohler when I was an undergraduate at KCAI, so being here is really great.  Check out the factory.

Factory casting floor

I will try to post about my time and progress as the residency progresses

Studio Works!

I've been busy in the studio and getting ready to go to Kohler in a week and a half.  I'm trying to finish my work for an upcoming exhibition before I leave, so it has been a bit crazy.  You can check out the show at ArtStart in Rhinelander, WI starting November 30th.  Here is some of the work in progress.

Many thanks to Reid Schoonover and Pat for the use of the shop and their help in making the forms.  It never would have been level without your help!  The cookies were great too.

This is one of two free standing wooden forms.  The bells will balance from this piece and I should have some working wall pieces put together soon to test out the balance. 

I hope to have about a hundred bells.  They are found bells from the thrift store, their hand made replicas and cast multiples.  Some of these are complete and strung together, but some are yet to be fired.

This image shows bits and pieces of three pieces.  I feel like a frantic making machine and then I have to slow down and focus on drawing for a while.  Most of the drawings are from old family photographs and take a lot of drawing and redrawing over and over.  The images overlap with those of strangers and everyday objects that have some significance to the past of my memory.

I've been thinking about the images a lot and in a way am getting to know them through the process of drawing.  When I was sifting through the photos, my daughter would ask me who they were and then would ask if they were dead.  The images are recreating an untouchable past in some way.

Then the images are drawn on the porcelain forms with pencil and after that with glaze pencil before they are glazed.  I have some finished test pieces and there are three others in the kiln right now, but I haven't seen them. 

The forms make the images permanent and the idea sort of reminds me of the daguerreotypes sometimes affixed to headstones from the past.  More to come as I get them finished.  Hope to complete most of this by the end of next week to allow for some breathing room.

Iowa Collaborative Exhibition at Mt Mercy

I have finally prepared the images from the exhibition at Mt Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Craig and I are back in the studio preparing for exhibitions in November.

Topography, Gallery View

 We wanted to spread the flower and leaf forms throughout the gallery so that they became more of an environment and wanted to use a direct way of presenting them that wasn't too complicated. Craig and Andy set these up in the space leaving room for viewers to walk through them.

Topography, detail,  stoneware, wood, 2013

The wall installation, or Topography 2 includes hand pinched rods or leaves, objects and lattice like forms in porcelain.  When we were doing our residency in Alpena, MI, I was interested in the movement of the grasses and how they seemed to not only be different from moment to moment, but how they both hid and revealed other elements of the landscape.  The wetland was also surrounded by the city and the sounds of traffic or the glimpses of man made forms were ever present in the landscape as well.

Topography 2, porcelain, wood, copper wire, metal brackets, 2013

We toyed with different configurations for the installation and assemblage of this piece, but knew we wanted them to come out into space from the wall so that they could have subtle movement during the exhibition and that the shadows could become a part of the works themselves.

Topography 2, detail

This piece also allowed us to explore the idea of making something that is made from a series of forms anyone can make.  Although I've now gotten carried away with the cage-like forms.

We want to play around with the size and configuration of the piece, but right now there are four sections in the installation.

Marsh, is our series on the second wall.  They are forms containing cast found and natural images and pinched coils.

We are returning to Mt Mercy next week to give a lecture and photograph the work.  The block shapes below are made with the casting of natural forms we collected, mixed in with cast found objects.

 

The pieces are about the intersection of man and nature.

 

They are influenced by the marsh, the movement of the water and organic forms as well as the influence of the people on the land.  This is another piece that we are still playing with and hope to expand in a different configuration. 

We are also giving a talk about our work in the 2013 Wisconsin Triennial at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.  The talk is at 4:45pm, Monday, October 7th at Lawrence University, at the Wriston Art Center in the Wriston Auditorium, with a reception to follow.  Lawrence is in Appleton, Wisconsin. You can also check out the Events section of their site.  http://www.mmoca.org/2013-triennial/events

I hope to be able to update some more, but have been busy with school, Plato is up next, so I may be missing for a while.