Sunday, October 28, 2007
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Mel's Late Summer Post II
Here is a new version of my artist statement, based on writing exercises and megan's super helpful comment.
My current studio work is a response to my search for a connection to a new landscape and environment. In the past, I made pots from local clay and fired mainly with wood and those pots were descriptive of the land from which they came. A rocky Maine coastline, a tangled California mountainside, and a bald North Carolina hill bore natural, earth-toned pots, with deep, yet simple surfaces. Here in central Pennsylvania, the earth in my small, square garden is tinged red. Instead of raw, rough clay dug from the ground, smooth clay with a uniform consistency feels more natural in a town where the commercial has overcome the local and the landscape is less dramatic and wild. I am interested in finding tension between the more austere, rough, physical pots that I have studied in the past and the intimacy of the pinching and line quality I am developing now.
Drawing on my faith in the innate intelligence of the motion of making, I allow momentum and intuition to guide my studio practice. My work is a balance between this action and instinct, with room for daydreams. Confident and lively movements are juxtaposed with affectionate attention to surface pattern and detail. The imagery reflects my current thoughts on the domestication of life, animals, and land. Characters are whimsical, but sometimes sad or lonely. Animals might be caged or freed by the form, and the surface landscape speaks both of cultivated earth and open horizons. Throughout the entire pot, I seek to balance comfort with adventure, structure with romance and possibility.
My current studio work is a response to my search for a connection to a new landscape and environment. In the past, I made pots from local clay and fired mainly with wood and those pots were descriptive of the land from which they came. A rocky Maine coastline, a tangled California mountainside, and a bald North Carolina hill bore natural, earth-toned pots, with deep, yet simple surfaces. Here in central Pennsylvania, the earth in my small, square garden is tinged red. Instead of raw, rough clay dug from the ground, smooth clay with a uniform consistency feels more natural in a town where the commercial has overcome the local and the landscape is less dramatic and wild. I am interested in finding tension between the more austere, rough, physical pots that I have studied in the past and the intimacy of the pinching and line quality I am developing now.
Drawing on my faith in the innate intelligence of the motion of making, I allow momentum and intuition to guide my studio practice. My work is a balance between this action and instinct, with room for daydreams. Confident and lively movements are juxtaposed with affectionate attention to surface pattern and detail. The imagery reflects my current thoughts on the domestication of life, animals, and land. Characters are whimsical, but sometimes sad or lonely. Animals might be caged or freed by the form, and the surface landscape speaks both of cultivated earth and open horizons. Throughout the entire pot, I seek to balance comfort with adventure, structure with romance and possibility.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Mel's Late Summer Post
hey everybody,
hope you’re all enjoying the beginnings of fall! i'm going to post images from the early summer, the pots i made at anderson ranch. (sorry megan- you've seen these already). i don't have any images of what i made at haystack or what i’m doing now, and would like to complete some thoughts before i start putting those pots up. next time. i will say that i'm currently using this same basic decorating method, but with some improvements that come with more practice. i'm also making more complicated forms- pedestalled serving bowls and trays, teapots, and some stranger things too. its all sort of an expansion and variation on the theme you see here.
also, i'm not including a new version of the artist statement. i haven't rewritten it since the last round, but have been doing a lot of writing exercises. here are some of the things that have been recurring, and perhaps those of you who know me well will have something to say about them. i really hope so, anyway. :)
1. why am i driven to paint more domesticated animals, be they chickens or magpies? first of all, the animals themselves contain beautiful and hilarious lines. i enjoy drawing them. but there is something else, something i am really trying to articulate. it has something to do with how people interact with them (in real life, not on the pots), and how we both (humans and these animals) affect one another daily. but there is also something else, something more vague. it involves the confluence of nostalgia and possibility. i spent some time on a farm as a kid, and for some reason everything i came across while i was there really resonated with me. there are specific places and animals there that i often think about. for example, the green, rolling hills lined with white fencing and spotted with sheep used to give me a feeling that, ever since, i have searched for. the image itself is romantic and peaceful, and at the same time it fills me with an urge to run through this never-ending, beautiful landscape, to see what is over the next hill. its as if the romance and nostalgia of the past and the hopeful possibility of the future both exist in one moment. i think the chickens and cows somehow represent that feeling for me. does this make sense to anyone? if so, how can i articulate this? i KNOW its important.
2. gender. i love to make strong pots, and to be strong physically. i move the clay quickly and aggressively, kind of like a man. since i've moved away from the woodfire, i have begun pinching and painting, which feel very delicate and feminine to me. i'm using lavendar and pink. i like the tension between the decoration and the forms, in general. do you?
3. can a pot be both adventurous and comfortable? that is what i want to make.
4. where i am in this moment. the taming of my life and human life in general, as well as animals, and land.
thanks, ladies!
hope you’re all enjoying the beginnings of fall! i'm going to post images from the early summer, the pots i made at anderson ranch. (sorry megan- you've seen these already). i don't have any images of what i made at haystack or what i’m doing now, and would like to complete some thoughts before i start putting those pots up. next time. i will say that i'm currently using this same basic decorating method, but with some improvements that come with more practice. i'm also making more complicated forms- pedestalled serving bowls and trays, teapots, and some stranger things too. its all sort of an expansion and variation on the theme you see here.
also, i'm not including a new version of the artist statement. i haven't rewritten it since the last round, but have been doing a lot of writing exercises. here are some of the things that have been recurring, and perhaps those of you who know me well will have something to say about them. i really hope so, anyway. :)
1. why am i driven to paint more domesticated animals, be they chickens or magpies? first of all, the animals themselves contain beautiful and hilarious lines. i enjoy drawing them. but there is something else, something i am really trying to articulate. it has something to do with how people interact with them (in real life, not on the pots), and how we both (humans and these animals) affect one another daily. but there is also something else, something more vague. it involves the confluence of nostalgia and possibility. i spent some time on a farm as a kid, and for some reason everything i came across while i was there really resonated with me. there are specific places and animals there that i often think about. for example, the green, rolling hills lined with white fencing and spotted with sheep used to give me a feeling that, ever since, i have searched for. the image itself is romantic and peaceful, and at the same time it fills me with an urge to run through this never-ending, beautiful landscape, to see what is over the next hill. its as if the romance and nostalgia of the past and the hopeful possibility of the future both exist in one moment. i think the chickens and cows somehow represent that feeling for me. does this make sense to anyone? if so, how can i articulate this? i KNOW its important.
2. gender. i love to make strong pots, and to be strong physically. i move the clay quickly and aggressively, kind of like a man. since i've moved away from the woodfire, i have begun pinching and painting, which feel very delicate and feminine to me. i'm using lavendar and pink. i like the tension between the decoration and the forms, in general. do you?
3. can a pot be both adventurous and comfortable? that is what i want to make.
4. where i am in this moment. the taming of my life and human life in general, as well as animals, and land.
thanks, ladies!
Thursday, September 13, 2007
hi megan, monica responding: the first piece left me with not much of a reaction. i liked the way the white cups really stood out agianist the wood fired frame, but not much feeling in it (for me!) the second piece gave me a definite feeling each time i visited your images. I felt like the base acted as an island that the cups where stranded on. the positioning of the cups left me with image of them speaking to each other but across a great distance. (reading to much in?) the third piece had a boat feeling , and the cups where on a voyage. the 4th piece had a brigde look to me. i like the crisscross lines that add some sharpness. I was instantly WOWED by the tiles because of the pillowyness/the look of something trapped air?/something forcing outword movement. I like the housepaint feel of the glaze, but couldn't help but drool over the beautiful wood fired effects of the last two. megan-i tryed to respond to your work beyond just function, form and finish and look at what i saw in your work. Your statement really seemed to speak directly to who you are and what your work and you are searching for.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Megan 9/2007
Artist Statement
I am a journeyer seeking a place that feels like home. I find glimpses in the expanse of the sky, the embrace of a friend and in the structure of geometric form.
My artwork explores concepts of community and mobility. For me, these ideas open a conversation about tension and opposition. The rich possibilities of the open road contrast with the soft comfort of home. Instability creates a desire for order.
The goal of my artwork is to consider the reconciliation of contradictions. My work opens the door to balancing freedom with belonging.
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