images of my work

DINGDINGDING!

Here are all of my pieces laid out and explained. I feel like no one really understood my pieces during the last critique, especially after no rewriting my statement... that was a stupid decision. Anyways, here ya go...  (I dont have a closing paragraph yet...)

Relationships are a chain of random connections and interactions. Visually I see relationships as string of connections we make with other people. The interactions we have with those people determine the pliability between the two persons. I believe that we meet others randomly, wether you're introduced or just chatting in the grocery line. Relationships are a vital part of every ones life. 

I've decided to focus on the two extremes of a relationship, the ones we know and hold dear (or not so dear) and the unfamiliar or unpredictable ones. In my work I am focusing on the form of the heart to represent the individual person and how it can portray different aspects of relationships. I'm doing this by exploring the past, present and future of my own relationships and presenting them in a visual form. The past is explored through the collaboration piece with my dad, where he designed his own images that represent his memories of me as a child. I have placed them on my own ceramic pieces as a decal, therefore combining both of our artistic talents. The past will also be explored through "Ballot Box". With this interactive piece, an individual will remember a person who never treated them right. They can then write that persons name on the card and drop into the box, where it will fall to the bottom and shatter. This will represent letting go of those bad memories and moving on. The present is explored through the series "Specimens". Here, I am exploring my most recent and longest romantic relationship. The hearts represent the rough spots we went through. For me, making and showcasing these pieces is the way I am trying to let go of the past, stop dwelling on what had happened and focus on the here and now. The future is represented by the piece "It's like Electricity". Here, I have created a web of connections, representing how we meet people randomly. The casted wax hearts randomly light-up in what seems like an epileptic causing fashion. To me, this visually represents how I see relationships happen, as a random spark of electricity. This piece is designed to be a sped up representation of interactions. 

Internship!!

I got approved for an Internship at Theatre Memphis for next Semester!!!! YAAAAY!!!!!! :D :D :D

Re: Critique

The crit went very well for me on Wednesday. I got alot of great ideas from people and I really feel like I'm on track now. I am going to continue to make the hearts, but I am going to take the advice given to me and create hearts that  are certainly  not "okay". I did one today and I LOVE it. I was very surprised how fast I made it too, it makes me feel confident that I could make an entire set of them very easily. The process I went through really went exactly how I wanted it to and the result was gratifying. I have a few discrepancies about how I want them to be displayed. It would be nice to have them on the wall, so I drove two holes into the back of the piece for screw heads to go through. The pieces aren't very heavy, so I'm thinking this will work, but I want to be sure, I guess if anyone has suggestions lemme know :) Im still working on the lock and key piece. I think I am going to make my own chain out of different fabrics and hang the locks from them. Doing this will allow for the chain to be lighter, easier to hang and much more interesting. Each fabric would represent a time in my life and the lock/locks will be hung from it. Each fabric chain will connect with the next and will be continuous, some chains will be longer and others will be shorter to give the look of an actual time line. 

I got my glazes in today... totally weren't the colors I wanted. -sigh-.. they're velvet underglazes, so maybe I can try and mix them to make them darker, but yah, that kinda sucks. Ill never trust internet color swatches again damnit. Hopefully they'll darken up after being fired, but I dunno. Im going to order the lusters for the locks asap. Im thinking gold and silver. meh?

I went and looked at the 5 in 1 gallery last night and the place is huge. He priced us at $300 for a whole week. So if we all chipped in $30  bucks we could get the space. But, I've already written a proposal to ask the school to either sponsor the event or match us what we can raise. I turned in the letters to Paul in S.S., Kim Williams, and Syphne S. Hopefully our words will be heard and we'll get what we're asking for. We will still have to supply materials if anyone needed walls built and Michael Andrews (owner of the gallery) said he would built them for us if we bought the materials. I am going to talk to my father about printing flyers for us (nice ones!) that we can pass around the school and other places. No matter what, we should have a meeting very very soon to make sure everyone is on board with doing this and to get any answers or concerns addressed. Wednesday during lunch??

Guess thats all.. nightynight!

Finally some pics and other shit.

So I've been looking around the internet for inspiration and direction. I've realized that if I want these things to look the way I want, I may need to make molds of this stuff. [I would like to make a large crochet wire drapery.. hopefully it will look chainlinked. I would like to hang locks from the drapery. Some locks would be open some closed, some open with a key in them and some on the ground broken and shattered. I would like this piece to insinuate the action of making new relationships and "unlocking" the person the lock would represent or symbolize relationships that have yet to be made and others that have fallen apart. It would be nice to have something behind the tapestery on the wall that the viewer would see through it. I dunno what that could be.] SO, in order to make these locks quickly and accurately I think i'm going to need to make molds of them. I would like to use older looking padlocks and keys for aesthetic effect. I think I could make a double sided press mold for these, atleast with the keys I could. Guess it would depend on the size of the lock if I could make the press mold for it. hmm... anyways what do yall think about that? 

I found this artist @ Keiko Gallery.

His name is Yamanaka Kazuko and his tapestry is sort of what inpsired me for this piece. 

-I also think I need to buy one of these medical hearts and make a mold of it too. Thats gonna be a hardcore mold though. Wowie. 

-This is the lock I was thinking about purchasing to mold. Its really cheap (only 5 bucks with free shipping) and its plain and simple. Would a press mold work for the padlock, Leandra?

-I just thought this was cool. I definitely want to include some blood in my suspension piece. And it will be blood in a good way not in a terrible horror movie way either. 

In the beginning...

... I created this blog. Here I will write about the things I think, the things I see and the things that inspire me. It will mainly correlate to my ceramic class at school. Hooray for me, huh?

So, to begin this semester in ceramics I was beginning to look at myself as the subject of my pieces. I had a few moments recently that led me to look at who I really am and what I am to become. I played around with ideas about my sexual orientation. I realized that I should expand from just focusing on that one aspect of myself... I am many things and all make me who I am. Being a believer in nurture over nature I believe that all of my interactions with other people and the relationships that I did or did not form were and are partially responsible for who I am. I've decided to form my pieces around this idea of relationship and how I view them and use symbolism, interaction and illusions to speak about them.

Relationship - the way in which two or more concepts, objects or people are connected or the state of being connected. (from oxford american dictionary)

Synonyms- link, parallel, correspondance, alliance, bond, kinship, affinity, love, liaison, amour.

Reoccurring symbols I want to use - heart (human and inverted), locks, keys, chains, stitches/ing, breakage, interaction and motion. 

Materials - Each piece may hold mixed media components. Ceramic earthenware and glazes (mixed and commercial), wire, crochet wire, metal, embroidery floss, and other possible things. Who knows with sculpture right? 

So I hope thats a pretty good starting point. I will post pics of things tomorrow.