This quarter I want to try and separate my rambling on the "Fired Clay" blog from my class assignments. This should make it easier for Rachel to follow my posts and not confuse the other ceramics students with "other things" such as spinning yarn, making signs, finding big trees, photos, the william O. Douglas Trail, Poems about nhilism, and etc,,, or is it dualism?
Anyway, "Clayforms" will be display my school assignments and "firedclay will be my" rambling blog.
Well, this quarter I plan to continue to work with slab clay construction, in many of it's unique forms. I think Rachel may call this "hand building". But first let's talk about the books I read over Winter Break. I was in the YVCC library the last week of school before Christmas to see if my library card would work without it issuing me a bill, or notifying my parents. Back in the 738 books I found a promising looking ceramic book titled, "Casas Grandes and the Ceramic Art of the Ancient Southwest". This is an amazing picture book, with some so-so text about the old pots that archaeologists dug up 90 miles south of the MEXICAN border at Casas Grandes. I will post a review of this book on "Fired Clay" so if you are really interested in this book, flip over to my other blog and see what it's all about. Otherwise, ignore this paragraph!!
This quarter my "Ceramics study" projects include
1. Work on an earthenware finish which will enhance the "JG" clay forms I created fall/11
2. Continue to work with slips and low fire glazes to complete the sculptures I started fall/11
3. I want to make three or four coil jars approximately 10" X 10" for the summer "mighty Tieton "10x10" show. I would like to experiment with Southwest Poly chrome surface covering. Polychrome is a style of abstract designs based on black line over white slip, and red patterns. This should be a good experiment in working with slips, stains, and earthenware glazes. I look forward to this project.
4. I will be working with Kleiber Porcelain to make about 20 small cups and bowls. I want to continue to experiment with glaze combinations, specifically: Temoku under celedon and Faffy Copper Red. I want to use the shop Temoku to have that rich break between brown and black which makes this glaze so appealing.
5. I want to create several porcelain presentation bowls approximately 10 inches in diameter.
6. I want to make a couple more T-pots in both Kleiber porcelain and JG earthenware clays.
7. I want to get some existing pots from fall/11 ready for the spring raku firing, including a t-pot, cups and such. I experimented over the christmas break and feel that though earthenware cups are not microwave-able, they are fantastic cups. That is, as long as you don't carry over foul chemical tastes from the Raku process. I hope to do t his by utilizing organic leaves instead of commercial shredded papers.
8. I want to create a couple of forms for the spring smoke firing effort. I would like to intensify the blacks that are available with this style of surface treatment.
ALSO: I have started two articles which I will probably not finish, but I'll keep working on them. these are things that have came up in class discussions, that I thought about, and that I wanted to delve further in. Rachel, any ideas:
1: "Gender, Cultural Identity and matriculation". This was started when a student said they wanted to channel their femanine side in Ceramics whereas I think of Ceramics as a meta subject, more meta than "a". It seems that there is no reason, today, for gender or cultural identity to have a constraining part of the Ceramics classroom experience and it should in fact, be positive for those considerations for All sexes, considering traditions, demographics, and law. Everyone has their own story, but they all come down to the fact that any student can express their own gender roles or cultural identity through ceramics and there are no constraints other than artistic. The ceramics tradition(s) have gender models for all genders, we have striking cultural accomplishments in the history of ceramics by all cultures, and we have a progressive classroom atmosphere. But how do we say that in a 3 page essay?? Is it really time to visit the writing workshop,,, I think not, we just need an advanced ceramics discussion on this interesting subject.
and 2. "The study of art and the integration of the community". I have attended five art schools, maybe more (I forgot, some illegally, and some in my mind) but I have told several friends that YVCC is the best art department I have attended. The reason for this is that the ciriculum forces art students to integrate into the community because they are so much in it anyway. Larson Gallery (on campus and a "join institution), of course, draws students into the art community, but they reach beyond simple student shows. I find it would be very difficult not to be influenced by their shows, programs, and functions (read openings) in an informal way. The greater Yakima community reaches out toward the local art students. Well, maybe not a 5 page essay, but an interesting discussion.
And so closes Post #1 for Winter 12 quarter. I hope you come back every week and see what's up in the Ceramics classroom blogs, or better yet, drop by and SEE what's going on, AND, keep tuned to the spring Larson ceramics show titled "From the Ground up".
Post #1, more like 7 posts rolled into one. Since today's a snow day, I can finally read the whole thing through and think about it.
ReplyDeleteI have at least two or three separate responses I want to give. So, in retaliation for your excessively long post with multiple points, you will be forced to read an excessively long comment with multiple points.
First things first, to your long lists of quarterly goals, may I humbly submit two I have been trying to push you towards for at least a couple quarters. I think you know where I am going: your drums. Specifically, the surfaces of your drums.
You just shared 3 pictures of other folks' pots each with its own, very different, surface treatment. (antique red--maybe burnished terra sigillata?, painted black--hard to see in pic, and low fire majolica or underglazes).
Whether you pick a glaze or a slip or a terra sig or a smoke firing, or carve or paint or sculpt or impress your surface, I think you need to make a decision. Your recent drums have been raw bisque with a scraped and paddled surface. I still don't think it is enough--and I don't think it is complementing the function and sound of the drums themselves. IMHO (but you've already heard it from me).
Second things second, regarding gender in clay. It is a complicated issue. I think its complicated in any field or discipline, but I know clay, so I'm familiar with those complications.
Historically, in different places in the world clay has been mens work or womens work. strictly divided, but not always the same way. As I learned it, clay started as women's work when the goal was creating functional utilitarian vessels.
Clay, like other craft media, is an interruptible medium. If you are coil-building or paddling your pot, you can take a break to feed the kids or stir the soup or whatever you need to do. The clay can wait and you can come back to it. If you're out hunting (or working away from home), you're away from the clay too long.
Wheel pottery, on the other hand, is not interruptible. You need to just sit and thrown, you can't really take a break anytime to go feed the kids. As I learned it, clay has often become men's work when it is attached to prestige (or does that work the other way around?). If you're making a $2000 chawan (tea ceremony tea cup) in Japan, you're hot stuff. This is your job. Mama's at home watching the kids and cooking the rice.
I'm being flip and reductive of history, but I think there is a bit of truth in there somewhere.
In my personal experience, beginnig clay classes were often filled with a 50/50 or 60/40 mix of women and men (respectively). But at the higher levels, the gender of the faculty, advanced students and graduate students seemed to impact the gender of the continuing students. At Madison guys seemed to continue to advanced levels in greater numbers than women, though women made up more of the beginning levels. The faculty were and had been exclusively men for some time until my third year.
I don't remember much disparity at my small college, but at neighboring University of Iowa, Men taught, men fired the big kilns, male grad students lifted the big clay and male grad students ostracized the few female grad students who made an attempt.
My experience is anecdotal, but try to list the top ceramic artists of the last 50-100 years. How many are men? How many of the older ones are men?
It applies to artists as well, and its the same problem, I think. Grandma and Aunt Bertha paint ceramics at the local ceramic center (and take water color classes, too) but men become the Bernard Leaches and the Peter Voulkoses (and the Jackson Pollocks and the Damien Hirsts).
so, what I'm sayin is I think there's material there.
I was going to have a third point, but I've been writing for weeks and I can't even remember what your second question was at the end. I'll try later.
Thank you for your comments, they make it worth it to write excessively long posts. I need to take a few more photos for post #3 and #4 but basically I've been experimenting with slips and low fire surface treatments and am getting close to making a move. I started two red clay jars yesterday and they will be smaller than before (for the Tieton 10X10). I plan to do some sort of polychrome on them, plus more burnishing.
ReplyDeleteI do agree, the "pink" bisque dakota doesn't do it. I did smoke fire one red slipcovered jar, but I haven't brought it in since I treated it with wax. I know my work progresses slowly, but I am heading in the directions you discuss.
The gender discussion was just that. I was hoping to grasp onto a thesis but didn't really find it. Your discussion helps to see how others fit into this idea. I think first of all there are gender and cultural patterns that relate to fired clay. If anything, I think I was trying to find a thesis that says; "of all the artistic mediums any one, no matter the gender of culture, should be able to find inspiration, inclusion in the traditions of the ceramic arts. I suppose if a male student takes ceramics to channel his femanine side, it 's working for him as much as it might work for a female to feel she is working in a man's field, but for myself, I feel fine being an old white guy and have no end to the traditions I can borrow and feel at home with"... Well, I still don't have a thesis, but perhaps it's developing. What about a pannel?