PUSHING THE ENVELOPE

To date, I have not been very successful making big pieces. Anything taller than 27 inches must be sculpted in two pieces that will fire separately and then stack. The engineering is tricky...and I have to make it up as I go along. 

I have big two pieces on my table right now and they challenge me to use everything I have learned. If I fail, the clay will be recycled and I will consider the time well spent because (as I have heard quoted) your failures teach you more than your successes. But there is a still small voice inside me that says "please let it work".

PALO ALTO SHOW

This past weekend was the annual Palo Alto Clay and Glass show. Thank you to all who visited me.

 The work of finishing the new pieces, building foam lined boxes for transport, and finally setting up the booth payed off for me when I saw my biggest and best on display. I liked watching people as they moved past my booth. My work has no neutral observers. It's either completely off their radar (they are looking for that perfect casserole dish) or it stops them dead in their tracks. The emotional quality I have worked so hard to foster seems to grab and hold the viewer.  

REACHING

I have been doing some risky pieces lately. I only try to do them because the same image keeps showing up on my sketchbook. OK, OK...I'l do it. Somehow the impossible becomes possible. I find a way to balance the piece and give it strength. The one on my table right now scares me. Every addition of clay to the structure seems fated to disaster, but somehow it works. I have to trust that the image came to me for a reason and that the energy will somehow fulfill itself through me.

ART vs CRAFT

As I look for shows to enter, I steer clear of the ones labeled "craft". Is it a fair assumption that my work will not be understood by jurors with a craft background? Is form only understood when there is a function?

Earlier this year I had two pieces in the Mesa Contemporary Craft Show and one of them won a jurors award. On the strength of that success, I entered the RAC Innovations in Contemporary Craft and was rejected.  I know there is no formulae for what any given judge on any given day will choose, but I do ponder the Art vs Craft conundrum.

BAD BLOGGER

I have had the nagging feeling that it's been a long time since I posted on my blogsite. When I checked in I saw the evidence of how long it's been. The entry about building in sections showed the headless piece I was working on at the time. that pice is finished, fired, photographed and entered in a show.What I learned about this piece is that in adding the heads, I changed the nature of it. the single slab that holds the mask-like faces created a bond between the figures. The clay continues to inform me and impose it's will.

27 INCHES

27 inches is the height (and width) of my kiln. To build larger than that, I must find artful ways to add a layer that can be fired separately from it's base. It's a skill I Haven't yet fully mastered, so I have been making pieces that fit in the kiln...a weak premise for creating art.

My new device (a bead dangling from a light fixture) tells me when I am approaching the 27 inch mark. I can, then, decide how to section the piece. It looks like this one will have removable heads.

SUNLESS TANNING

Once in a while a piece will come out of the oxide firing with a mottled surface. I find this distracting so I will use whatever is at hand to smooth out that appearance. I have let go of the idea that only fired effects are valid. For me, the final appearance is more important than how I got there.