THE RESEARCH

I've been researching figurines on Royal Pottery Collection and have realized that I'm interested and relate more to the works by Lladro and Herend. I like the animal figurines that Herend has produced and the more recent works. I've been studying the way they depict birds and how they sculpt features and fur. I've come to realize that my approach of removing this detail is correct in accordance as to how contemporary figures are depicted. I have been looking at the proportions of the figurines of Lladro and the surface treatement of these figurines as it is an area I need to work on. I am constantly searching on how to decorate my ceramic work. Messein work is also interested, and the children figurines are interesting. I have learned much about gravity in smaller figures. I've moslty worked large and have learned how to overcome gravity when hanging a large wall piece, but now it is about how to balance a large, fat body on skinny legs. I see that figurines mostly always have something alongside their figure to help support them. I have changed my figure from standing to sitting to accomodate gravity.

Beginning of the Spring Semester

At the beginning of Fall 2009 I imagined a character of a jester. I dreamed of this character being mischievous and neither friend nor foe. Through the semester I worked my contemporary Jester into all my projects. I created a two foot wall piece of the Jester’s head eating a 21st century bird; I created a vase that incorporated the Jester chasing the bird with a net. All my work from that semester included the innocent bird and Jester in some way. This spring semester I am continuing my personal research of my two characters; The Jester and The Bird (the bird being the innocent enemy and temptation (consumption) of the Jester) I may also introduce my new character I’ve been doing an outline on: The Porn Star. I see this new character as a friend the Jester and I’ve had ideas of imitating Jeff Koon’s series ‘Made in Heaven’.

The first project will be a figurative sculpture, a darker version of my Jester. It will depict him trying to battle his negative thoughts of wanting to consume the bird. I will be working with Plainsman F100 (low fire clay) and will be either searching or trying to make a glaze for this piece. The glazing will be a bright red at the top and will melt into black at the bottom of the piece. I find these colors to represent anger and menace, two traits I hope to depict in this piece. I only want this to be two toned so that people will still look at the detailing of the piece and not get caught up on the intensity of the glazing. The Jester will be sitting on a half-wall, crouched over with his tongue out, holding the frantic bird (based on a Parrotlet) inches from his face, about to consume it. He will be on a plain square slab, like a plinth, as I am trying to re-imagine the figurine in a contemporary context. The piece will be very carved in style, with no surface texture. My intentions are that I re-imagine the jester and bring the old tradition into the 21st century. Thus I eliminated and changed a lot of the traditions of the King’s jester. Because I intend to have the viewer walk around the jester, I have decided to draw, with under glaze on the backs of both walls of the plinth. The taller wall with feature an image of a Casino (possibly River Rock as it is one of the main, local casinos) and the half wall will feature images of alcohol bottles- both referencing other ideas of what consumption is. I will use black engobe in a slip trailing method to draw these images.I plan on having him bisque fired by January 20th, and will glaze him the following day(s) and then will complete him in a lustre/over glaze firing. He will be completed for February 1st. I also hope to send this piece to Toronto for One-Of-A-Kind (another reason this is the first project).

The construction of my jester is completed, and many details are appearing. The third class will be dedicated to refining my jester, as well as drawing, using a slip trail technique, the casino and bottles on the backs of the walls with black engobe. I am leaving the sharp execution of details to leather hard as it is easier to work with, and still mendable should I make a mistake. I have been working with this particular clay for a while now and I understand how it works, when to work it and its strength. I find that the F100 clay without grog feel fine, but has a lot of strength and works like it has a lot of grog in it. Below is an image of my sketch of what I will be creating.

The Gallery is Set-Up

The Gallery is now set up on my sub domain. Please check it out and see what works I have produced from 2007-2010. There you will not only view my Ceramics works, but my sculptural works as well. They are not in chronological order, but are arranged in a way for you to compare and contrast my work. Please post your thoughts, I would love to read your own critique of my work.

A sample of what you will find:

End of The Year Giveaway -EXTENDED BY A MONTH!

Every blog has a giveaway. They are everywhere, being created and ending every minute, a winner every hour. I've only had one giveaway and two people were the lucky winners of a brand new ceramic pendant.

Now, I must take it to the next level... a Ceramic Tile. One of everyone's favorite: "Raven on a Branch" in a Dark Grey glaze. This 4 x 4 inch tile can be yours on December 15th by simply entering this giveaway.

This tile, valued at $18USD, can be yours. ENTER TODAY! Giveaway ends JANUARY 15th 2009.


To enter, simply leave a comment on THIS BLOG POST with your entries.

HOW TO ENTER: (after you do the following, place a comment (If on Etsy, Include your username so I can contact you if you win) on the blog post that you did it)

1 Entry - Follow my blog
1 Entry - Become a Fan of my Facebook Fan Page
1 Entry - Visit my shop and post the URL and NAME of your favorite Item.
1 Entry - Follow me on Twitter
3 Entries - Buy any 1 item from my shop
3 Entries - Grab my button off my blog's right sidebar and post the link to where it is
3 Entries - Do a Review with me for your shop (Not a feature)
5 Entries - Buy any 3 items from my shop
5 Entries - Purchase an Ad Space on my Blog
10 Entries Buy any 5 or more items from my shop
(NOTE, If you buy an item from my shop, please post that you did and/or the transaction URL.)

Merry Entering!

On JAN. 15th I will announce the winner on my blog and on this page. Shipping included in prize.


MORE INFORMATION ON THIS GIVEAWAY ON MY SUBDOMAIN

Art Utilizing P2P

What is Peer-to-Peer networking? Well instead of relying on one server to host information, files, images, documents, music, movies, and programs, we host our own then hook up to a network and share our files with everyone one in the network. Why does this benefit anyone? Well this then allows you to access thousands, even millions of files on computers. Not any files, just sharable files such as MP3s. You probubly have used one of these programs. Napster was the first real P2P networking site. It died after it became a great way for hackers to send out viruses and trojans as they would share their infectuatous files with everyone. Now a populer one is Limewire (though illegal to download un paid for music in the states, since I live in Canada I can get a lot of my music) though I perfer to use Frostwire because I find it to be much faster. Ares was a good one but a lot of down time. These file sharing systems are great because companies no longer have to host all this information. Instead they save money and in a sense, people donate space on their computers.

Most recently this P2P has become utilised on gaming systems. Sony and their Playstation 3 uses this networking to fold DNA and help scientist to find a cure for cancer. PS3 owners can enable their PS3 to donate space that will continually fold DNA and the information is automatically sent off to a higher power. Online play is really based on P2P as online games are millions of servers, and you join a server to join a game. Some servers, usually ranked, are hosted by PS3, but the majority is made up of players creating servers and hosting it on their own playstations. This saves Sony from using millions of their own playstations and hard drives to host games.

Now I think that it would be interesting for the art community to be able to have a P2P network. One where artists can share artist images of paintings, drawings, photos, film and sound to make it easier for us all to find countless sources for art. That way if you type in 'Van Gogh' you would get hundreds more and better quality images than google.

Communitcation Made Easy SOSC300

With the Internet, communication has been made easy for families, friends, and collegues. The internet has aloud us to create virtual communities that function similarly to colonies. Everyone in the communities respect one another (as you can easily remove yourself as a member and join a similar community- there are millions of them) creating a tight bond in the society. These communities are usually topic specific. My favorite at the moment is Etsy- a community requiring you to be a handmade artist. Many of the viewers of this blog are Etsians (a name created by the members to describe themselves as a part of the community) and can agree with me that Etsy artists have a strong bong and that they are always willing to help each other, especially through gift guides, features, giveaways, and reviews on each others blogs.

Virtual communities are making it easy for families to connect with each other through instant messaging, and posts on each other's member profiles. Mothers can check up on what their child is doing at college, and one can see what an old friend is doing with their career or life by visiting their profile. Instead of writing a snail mail letter, one can email or tweet their friends in 140 characters. If you havn't spoken to someone in a long time, how many more words do you really need to say? The new instant socializing tools encourage humans to communicate as it is easier to do so.

On the other hand, it is also easier to avoid comming in contact with a person in real, physical life. It has become incrediably easier to ignore someone, and message them once in a while on their Facebook page to make it seem as though you care. It was my birthday last month on the nineth and 20 people posted on my Facebook profile wall to wish me a Happy Birthday. Of those 20 people, all 20 of them were people whom I havn't seen in phsyical life in over a year- or even talked to via text or email. The people who I actually care about or care about me visited me on my birthday to give me an honest happy birthday. The virtual happy birthday is nothing more than a fake smile. That being said, if one of those people was a friend of mine, working in Africa, and didn't have access to a pay phone but had the internet instead, I would be estatic to recieve that wall post.

Virtual socializing is a double edged sword, one that creates a tight bond, one that allows you to easily network and meet amazing people on an international scale, and one that allows you to be every where and stay in contact with people you don't care about- creating a false relationship. I have to be honest and say that I am guilty of taking advantage of this sword, but don't we all? In the end, it is about you and how you feel, and tools like Facebook cater to this because you can post pictures of you wonderful like, compare them to pics of your friends (or not friends) and have a huge number of friends (though you won't talk to 80% of them). Doesn't it make you feel good to have a huge number of friends or followers? Yes. Social networking sites make us feel good because of this. It is a free, no postage, no long distance bill service that allows us to socialize and 'stay in touch'.

Art: The Rule Breaker to Cultural differences -SOCS300

Art is a method of going past cultural boundaries. With are you have no linguistic boundaries making it universal in language. You can bypass many social aspects as it is how the viewer interprets the piece that makes it contraversial or not. With art you can make political statements- freely. Art is a cultural statement and defines culture. It reflects a society's cultural practices and messages. My favorite line in Benkler's book, 'Wealth of Networks' is "Culture, in this framework, is not destiny. It does not predetermine who we are, or whate we can become or do, nor is it a fixed artifact. It is the product of a dynamic process of engagement among those who make up a culture." (Benkler, 282). I think that line is a true meaning of how we can understand our lives and how we proceed within our world.

The internet is a jambalaya of cultures and through selected mass media we can intertwine our cultures and learn about each other. We can spread our messages, religion, and art through mass media and can expect others to read and respond to it. To protect from loosing control of your art and cultural images, Creative Commons was created to liscence and protect our work. I advise that you CC any work that you post on the net as once it is released on to this malicious web, you have no control over someone else copying your ideas and cultural messages. Creative commons protects you and your work and the liscence will eliminate possibilities of your work being reproduced by someone other than you. Fortuantly if someone does copy it, your liscence can help it be eliminated and proove to all that you are the original producer of that work. Ideas and designs should be patinted as you do not need your genius being cheated from you. With the internet, word and images move quickly and spread like disease. Imagine a Creative Commons liscence as being a vaccine for a virus; it will prevent it from destroying you. Etsy artists should consider CCing their images and their work when listing their work in their shops to prevent other upcoming and uncreative artists from stealing your ideas, works, methods, proccesses, and image; more importantly your culture. CCing your work will prevent you from being upset that another seller cheated you and sold your idea and stole your customers. If you create a method and market it, it should be liscenced as yours. Do not allow yourself to be vunerable to people who are looking for an easy ride in life. Life is not easy and you work hard so make it known.