"Remember they are people too."

"I've been in sunny California for about a month now. Day to day I feel like I am exploring not only my new surroundings, but the different aspects of what I can only refer to as "me." This experience of branching-out is so multi-faceted, I'm dissappointed in my lack of attention to documenting the process, but I can confidently say that the progress I feel I've made in self-exploration has been significant. Fall semester approaches..."

I wrote that about a month ago and never followed up to post from the draft I had started. Sorry readers. The title is a quote from a friend of mine, reminding me to be confident in my new surroundings and to remember that I have things to offer out here too. Time seems to be passing quickly as every moment and new experience blends into this mysterious composition that I just so happen to be a part of. And here I am, still afloat, surviving in the Inland Empire of Southern California. I've been terrible about blogging since I arrived.  Post-panic attack this morning and some tears of frustration later, I'm here, calmer than earlier, in-tune and ready to give the day another shot. Ready to share some of the things I have been working on as a more organized recollection of events and stories to tell. This may be a long blog, so I'll push "save" often. Buckle in and please feel free to take breaks.

I am currently enrolled in four classes: College Algebra, which I will not be posting any work from (you're welcome), Contemporary Art Theory and Criticism, Drawing I, and Ceramics I. The instructors at the CSU-SB campus are phenomenal; each has has an incredibly interesting bio and collection of work to share. I will see what I can do to dig up more information on each of them at a later date.

Ceramics has really caught me by surprise. I have no prior experience working with clay and only several discouraging "learning attempts" working with three-dimensional forms. I took a 3-D design class at the University of Kansas when I was 18 years-old and have dreaded sculpture and 3-D design ever since. Something about it was very frustrating for me at the time. I couldn't grasp the concepts and felt discouraged. I had done so well in the first design class that I took that I wasn't prepared to be so...bad at something. I had great control with a paintbrush but my sculptures never seemed to come together. Looking back, it wasn't that I was bad at it, I just had no experience at pushing my designs or developing my ideas. I think when you're younger, you're more likely to believe that you should take your first idea and run with it. Given some major life experience, you become more aware that often the best solution doesn't become apparent until you have dug and made mistakes and taken a lot of wrong turns. Not to say that is always the case, but a good idea often has room for improvement. Sarah really helped me realize that this last semester. Sometimes you're going to make work that doesn't turn out the way you'd hoped (see my first glazing experiment below) and sometimes your mistakes become happy accidents that result in really phenomenal pieces. Overall maybe my self-comfort levels have grown and  I don't feel so burdened by potential mishap. I'm glad I was able to revisit college. I feel as though I have a lot more to give it back this time. I am in the middle of a love affair with clay. I find myself spending all of the free time that I can in the studio and love the creative possibilities of working with this medium. I have literally been dreaming about it and ponder the work throughout my day. After my experience at KU, I hadn't really seen that coming.


Our first project was to make two hand-built mugs. Mine turned out pretty so-so. The texture I added wasn't very successful and I got a little too ambitious with their shape, but I'm happy with the result of my first attempt. I know that there will be many mugs to come and these will only be the equivalent of baby pictures in the photo-album of my work.

After our mugs were prepared for their first firing, we moved onto another project. Our assignment was to research masks of various cultures and choose a style that we felt a connection to. We would then create a design that somehow combined modern influence with the culture of our choosing. I chose to start with Balinese Batik masks as premise for my design. The masks reminded me of flash tattoo drawings which often have bold outlines and stippling similar to the dots on these ancient pieces. The Batik masks often have very detailed headdresses adorned with jewels and blossoms, similar to flash drawings of gypsy women. I've always had an affinity for this style of tattoo, but always felt like it would be silly to get one of my own. I like the drawings, but I'm at a tattoo-standstill currently, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to explore the designs without adding any other drawings to my body. Currently, my piece for this project is ready for final decoration. I will be painting the woman's face and headdress with acrylics and she will be complete. Below you will see a progression of this design's process.

Example of Balinese Batik mask (okokchina.com)

Flash Tattoo drawing of gypsy woman profile

Preliminary sketch of design for mask project

First stage of hand-building mask

Green-ware stage of mask

Mask with underglaze detail

Mask with clear glaze after final firing.

I am very pleased with the way this project is developing. I had a small hiccup while carving out the back of the mask. The area around the left eye was damaged as my tool carved through the back. The underglaze shading on the cheeks did not blend as well as I had hoped it would, but now I know just how much those colors really pop once you glaze the piece. I hope once I add the details with acrylic, the damage will be less noticeable. 

For our next project, we began designing hand-built coil pots. Originally we were instructed to create a design using similar methods as the mask project, but after I got about half-way up the height of my building, I had a long chat with my professor about some of the art we found inspirational. I brought up Andy Goldsworthy during our conversation, and after talking a little bit about the work of his that I have seen and then a little bit about how much I miss the trees in Kansas during autumn, my assignment was redirected. My professor challenged me to create a work meant for outdoor installation, and I decided my old pot wasn't going to cut it. I failed to take a picture before recycling the clay to start on my new design because I was so excited to get started. I envisioned my pot hanging in one of the maple trees outside of the ceramics studio. I wanted the body of the pot to have both negative and positive space so that it the leaves and body of the tree could be seen through the sides of the pot. I have a fondness for acorns thanks to Piper, my Wichita roommate and designed my pot to have a similar shape. I started by building three coil pieces that would connect around a mold to form the body of the pot:

After some dillagent searching for the perfect mold, the kitchenaid mixing bowl from my roommates well-stocked kitchen helped my pot begin to take shape. I patched and connected all of the pots week spots and left it out to shrink and dry and moved onto tackling the pot's lid.

I wanted to create my own texture for the top of the piece. My idea was to create a slab that resembled the bark of a tree without using the imprint of the bark. I then built the clay strips around a plaster mold to build a bowl that would rest over the top of the coil pot. The result looks pretty gnarly.

After the body of the pot dried enough to remove from the pot, I snapped a few more photos:

While I was on campus writing this entry, the body of the piece was pulled out of the kiln. It was mistakenly put into a kiln with too high of a temperature to allow the clay to shrink without cracking, so  I now have about 8 pieces to fuze together in the last firing. Or I'll be starting over...but I think I was onto something that could turn into a successful design.

Here are some pictures of work I have done outside of class for fun:

More later. I am very excited about all of the projects I have coming up this semester and can't wait to share them as I go. Thanks for reading!