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. 

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

Big Molds at Kohler

Today I headed down to the basement at the factory to watch SunKoo create some very big tile molds.  I have been finishing up a series of positives so that they are all ready to go tomorrow.

 I already poured my first three molds and will have a crazy mold making day tomorrow.

positives

This is how the mold looked when we got down there.  Side one poured. Scott helping to take it apart.  Thanks to great Kohler associates.

It takes a forklift to take the plaster off the positive.

There was actual steam coming off this section

side one.  cleaning up

The positive is back in.  Hilary cleaning up the mold.

Ready to pour section 2

SunKoo adding a crazy amount of plaster.

 I did finish all of my work in preparation for tomorrow.  Hannah and Craig came and we went to the John Michael Kohler Art Center.  We got to see the art car bus.

Craig and Hannah headed up top

We also got to watch Newark, NJ artist Kevin Sampson making a boat in the artery. You can read more about his work by clicking the link.  A large series of his sculptures are on view in the current exhibition, This Must Be the Place.

Kevin Sampson at work

More kid stuff and then dinner at the artist's house.  Big day 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.

Installing the Show!

This past weekend Craig, Hannah and I were in Cedar Rapids to install our show at Mt Mercy University.  Thanks to Andy and Heidi for all their help and hospitality.

Andy helping with the floor piece

The show is open now and though I wasn't able to take any finished photos, I have posted some                     installation shots. 

Thank you student workers!

There will be an Artist's Lecture at 4pm, October 11 and a Reception from 5-7pm the same evening at the Janalyn Hanson White Gallery at Mt Mercy.

These took up most of the time

Porcelain rods or 'leaves', cages and objects

The first in a set of 4

The work is up now and as soon as I get some finished images I will post them.  Thanks to everyone for their help.