Juliane's Work

Plate 1Squiggly Plate (no title yet...)

Tie



Unequal


(Intended display of Unequal - plates side by side)

To Have or Have Not (Installation)


Exploring different arrangements....


Hello everyone! A lot of these images are works in progress. Nonetheless, it would be helpful to have your feedback.

I use the plate forms to "frame" their contents and tell a story. "Plate 1" (untitled) will have gold luster painted inside the ball that has been cut to reveal the interior. "Squiggly Plate" is particularly interesting to me as I am moving the forms off the plate. I imagine the creation of a whole army of forms wanting to get onto a plate (which excites me because I love making multiples)!

"Unequal" carries out my original intent in throwing plates that look alike. By setting two similar plates next to each other, I wanted the viewer to be aware of the difference in serving size (or to be able to look at a freshly presented plate in comparison with one that shows traces of a meal).

"To Have or Have Not": These photos show different arrangements of an installation piece. I am still trying to figure out the spacing. I have a thought about putting the bowl full of knot-like forms near the edge of the table and stringing together the pieces so that they look like they are spilling over the edge. What arrangements do you care for the most/least?

I am using food as a metaphor for the feelings of fullness or emptiness that one can experience in his/her relationships with other people.

candice's pots

Hi beautiful lovely ladies, well here I am in all my glory. Again it was so awesome to meet you all in Pittsburg, I felt like I had made a wonderful connection with you all! So lets see...... The first pots at the top are my newer wood fired series. The teapot and cups are a dry-thrown technique that I learned in Ayumi's workshop last summer at Haystack. I am incorporating a lot of the dry thrown into my work right now; trying to find the balance of organic and refined to go into the wood kiln. I am developing my color palette so eventually I will have a fair amount of color demonstrated.

The Platter is one of my favorites. I am incorporating a lot of birds into my work lately also. I love Bernard slip in the salt because it bleeds and gives a little softness to it all.

I LOVE to make jars. I love to make sets of things. These are a little rough around the edges and the lighting is horrible but a good example of what I am working on. I make a lot of these in cone 6 with runny glazes that come out pretty nice and sell pretty well.

These funny little gourd-shaped jars are my favorite jars to make right now. These are cone 6 with vintage decals. This is a stock shape I make right now and I find they are versatile when decorating.

I make these nesting flowers bowls that I really enjoy. As a potter I really enjoy making my objects fit together well. I feel that I lean towards the vintage style but with a contemporary flair. I am not going to post an artist statement right now because I still pulled in too many directions, part of the reason I thought a formal education was a great idea. I can say for sure that I love pottery with all my heart!

monica's pre-nceca post

the first two images of beakers are an idea in process. the three teapots are in various stages: the first finished, i was looking for degrees of white. the second teapot is hand built from thrown parts. the third train-style teapot is hardly functional but again looking at new shapes and idea. we obviously are all very busy, am sure i will get plenty of feedback at the show so no pressure to comment.

Kip III: Lowfire Adventures

Hi ladies… Here is what I’ve been up to for the past while. I think I’m ready to say I’ve embraced the low fire direction. Most of the developments you see here feel like movement toward a more coherent body of pots, and it would be great to get any advice as these ideas coalesce in my work and into an artist statement (hopefully by NCECA!!).

Below you will find a list of things I am pursuing and why they are feeling important to me. It’s not an artist statement yet but some of the elements are there.

-Drawing on functional pots is currently a large component of how I’m approaching clay. As I sketch, there is ample time think about what I am illustrating, how I am grouping imagery and what those image combinations come together to express. Because this work is utilitarian I hope the user will continue to contemplate the ideas and the way their meanings change over time. I feel like this fits well into the “constant conversation” framework.

-I like how the drawings essentially become etched in stone once they are fired: little moments of history in a permanent, physical form.

-I’m intrigued by the sides pots have and the impact one side can have on another. The potential to pull a person in with cheerful color (someday soon!) and innocuous ideas, only to show a darker, sarcastic side of the (seemingly) innocent has me thinking a lot. The way that mixing and matching the same group of images can evoke vastly different ideas and feelings is something I’m pursuing as well.

-I’ve been looking at and thinking about graphic novels and zines. I like the method of progressing a storyline with visual frames, and how only through use and handling of these pots is the full story revealed. I’m thinking about working in a series of cups, where it takes multiple pieces to complete an idea or thought.

-Finally, there is the glazing – my great nemesis! But, I have a goal in mind now, which makes things feel more manageable. I know some of you are familiar with Ursula Hargins work – I am really interested in her glaze palate and that of Bernadette Curran as well. I particularly like the way Ursula lays down bright colors that drip and run outside the lines of her drawings. I’m starting to go in that direction, but am still struggling to get the finish I want. I started with following clear glaze:

Frit 3195 - 90%
OM 4 - 10%

But, I’ve had some shivering in areas, and a lot of bubbling over the areas with mason stains. I did some line blends, but I think I need to increase the expansion even more than I did in the blends (I never hit a point of crazing…). I’ve also used a water blue glaze from Julia Galloway and all Frit 3110 with mason stains and all 3195 with MS, too (see Test Cup). I’ve had a little luck with the latter three, but none are really running as much as I’d hoped… any ideas (I’m thinking I should introduce some 3134 for starters)??

Thanks for looking ladies…

What's for Dinner? (view 1)

What's for Dinner (view 2)

What's for Dinner (view 3)

What's for Dinner? (detail)

Gas Cup

Gas Cup (view 2)

Oil Cup

Oil Cup (view 2)

Turbine Tumbler

Pipeline Cup

Wall Tile (6 x 6)

Test Cup

Test Tiles 1

Test Tiles 2

Test Tiles 3

Megan: February 2008

These first three are slip cast and salt fired.

Untitled, press molded, reduction fired

Table Press molded and handbuilt, wood/soda fired

Seabirds Press molded and handbuilt, wood fired
Rocker, Same as above
World Below, Press molded, soda fired
Cushion, wood/soda fired

Artist Statement

Drawing inspiration from natural, created, and imaginary landscapes, my artwork investigates the physical and emotional interactions between inner and outer spaces.

My work embodies my contradictory desires for freedom and structure. Thus far, adulthood has proved to be a balancing act between my need for autonomy, adventure and possibility, and my longings for community, comfort and nurturance. The result has been an uneasy truce in which home is a fluid concept, and I find comfort equally in the arms of a friend and in the wide expanse of the sky.

The instability and transience of my life have created an appreciation of structure and order, which I impose on my work through geometric form and patterns. The confluence of domestic and natural imagery reflects my uneasy relationship with feminine domesticity, as well as my reverence for the natural world. Windows and fences are dominant images in my work; they serve as boundary and opening, simultaneously inviting and gated. A window references insight and a yearning for new vistas; a fence provides both security and limitation. By creating interior spaces that are inaccessible, I explore the elusiveness of intimacy while also invoking feelings of curiosity and wonder.

I aim to define a personal vision of home through my artwork, and to create spaces that provide challenge, intrigue and solace. I aspire to a better understanding of the inner workings of my consciousness and my surroundings.

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Hi everyone,

Here's what I've been up to for the past few months. The majority of my time has been spent on the sculptural work, but I also have been enjoying playing with the slipcast pieces.

I just moved to Sacramento, and am embarking on a semester as a special student at Sac State. I would love your comments on these pieces, and also your thoughts on directions for the months to come. As well, I welcome your ideas about which pieces to bring to NCECA. Thanks for your time; see you in PA!!!

Martina Round Three

Hey,

So here is what little I’ve been up to. The mugs are tests of decoration ideas. The batter bowl was the first attempt to move the decoration inside and out with the same freedom of some of the mugs and large test tiles (no photos). The gravy boat was a bit of fun I hope to revisit and the platters are what I’m up to now. They’re quite large – 21” long. The surfaces since these have become more unified. The rough piped edge on the one I want to play with more. I’m making some new molds in varying sizes. I toyed with majolica a little last term, but I missed the depth of the slipped surface under the colored glazes.
The artist statement is just a little revamped. I look forward to comments and see most of you soon.

martina
hard to tell, but piped edge

only an exercise - made in one sitting handle and all
small bowl, thrown foot

white slip, coloured glazes and photocopy transfer
coloured slips and glazes
coloured slips, glazes and glaze pencil


I aim to contain in my pots the softness and subtle irregularity that serve to emphasize the handmade object in today’s machine made world.
I’m searching for forms, decoration and glazes that maintain some of the dynamic crispness that I love while instilling the vitality of the touch of the maker.

In this spirit, I have begun to explore looser thrown and handbuilt forms, less defined decoration and satin glazes to invite the touch. I am learning it is contrary to my nature to allow glazes to run, lines to blur and edges to wobble. It takes me greater concentration to bring an irregular pot into being than a tight one.

As I delve deeper into the overlapping of slip and glaze decoration in various colors and surfaces, my ideas continue to evolve. The brightness of opaque green against the shimmer of transparent amber and what they both do differently over a colored slip allows the mind to wander. They evoke the boundary between a field and the path, or the sky and the skyline. Inspiration for decoration is drawn from my new surroundings in Halifax Nova Scotia. New forms and an expanding palette are influenced by the geometry of the dockyard and the colors of containers on ships going by.

Function beyond utility remains central to my work. By creating a piece that is both unique and useful, I hope to remind people of the value and inherent qualities of human touch.

Kristin Pavelka's work

Cups and Saucers--The foot was added and thrown at leatherhard stage. There's a small impression on top of the saucer for the cup to sit. Underside of saucer is trimmed with a small footring and left unglazed so it's the same color as the bottom of the foot...the beautiful brick red.

Teapot--this pot showcases and idea that I'm most excited about...breaking up the space to allow other imagery or memories to surface. In this case, the handle and the upper part of the teapot come together to form a chopper-type form. I also enjoy the idea of layering plain and patterned areas. I have taken this idea little further, although not shown, with a cup in which the line dividing the pattern from plain has been carved a bit to create more dimension for the plain. This handle is hollow.

Quonset Butter Dish-- For a while I would decorate the inside of this dish with matching patterns from the outside, but it was becoming too labor intensive. Now both top and bottom are lined with yellow. Terra sigillata on the roof and base of the dish.

Santoku Spreaders--I've been having fun with utensils...spoons, cake trowels and these. Realistically they probably wouldn't be usable unless they were spreading something really soft such as jam or dips, but as an object, they fascinate me. The handles are hollow, red terra sigillata is on the top part of the handle.

Tidbit Plates--I think of these as "swatches" of pattern. The backside has a small trimmed foot and is unglazed. Around the back rim a little white slip is exposed from underneath the glaze on most.

All work is earthenware, slipped, sgraffito, and layers of different colored glaze. Fired to cone 04.
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Hello and thanks for taking a little time to view and comment on my work. This work is fairly current, and because I am at a crossroad with this line, it will be a great time to get some feedback. Below is my most recently written artist statement, but I wouldn't say it's completely true to what I've most recently been thinking about, including some of the work that is posted, but it will give you a bit of background. So this doesn't become a point on which everyone comments, it's not so important for the pots to reference body, as stated in the statement. Rather the body was a jumping off point for the beginnings of this work and has since strayed. Yeah, the statement needs major updating.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I make functional candy-like glazed earthenware pottery. For me, the making of a pot becomes a celebration of it as an object, as it transcends beyond the everyday kitchen dish and becomes something with more meaning and warmth.

Recently I was diagnosed with a condition that is a precursor for diabetes and was instructed to watch my intake of foods rich in fat and sugar. Since then, many of my pots reference sweets and fatty food through function, form, or surface. They also reference the body. A swelling belly of a pot becomes a full gut, a fat rim being pinched is a lovehandle. I touch the clay in a similar way to how I treat my own body: pinching, pulling, and poking. The evidence of the hand is vital and is seen in aspects of the forming of the pot as well as in the glazing. By confronting these unhealthy foods via art making, my cravings are somewhat satisfied.

Although issues about my health are at the core of the meaning behind my work, I was born a collector and have various interests in objects from primitive wooden tools of the early 20th century to Scandinavian design and kitsch objects of the mid-20th century. I have developed a love for historical ceramics, responding to the fresh handling of the clay in wares from Medieval England and the depth and richness of the surface of the sgraffito wares of 13th century Iran and Iraq. Architecture has been a big influence on my work through both form and details, and my color palette borrows from food and decorative style of Martha Stewart.

Pattern has come to be an important part of my work. I develop my patterns in an orderly manner by use of a grid system, doodling simple shapes that I encounter in everyday life such as those found within a concrete block wall or bird footprints in the snow. By drawing and exaggerating these shapes in different orientations within the grid I am able to come up with endless possibilities for pattern, often starting to refer to something other than the original inspiration.

A balance exists between the rough clay surface and the shiny, colorful glazes, as well as pattern and open space. I want them to look full both with and without food.
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Thanks