Ceramic alchemy of Architectural forms to Art, Part 3 (Rick Kincheloe)

     Hello all. I've been busy at the LHUCA Clay Studio today working on my sculpture with the undulating surfaces and new form proposal for the next piece. As I promised Daniel, I will post my picture of the undulations on the top of my form. I took several pictures today/tonight and the best pic of the top undulating surfaces is the 1st pic. Where every intersection occurs at the structural ribs, the surface dips in elevation. The 2 high spots are in the middle right of the form and the center rear. I chose to accentuate the high curvature at the center rear to separate the left and right volumes/spheres in the piece. The front left region in the piece dips down unlike any other region on the top.

     The remaining 3 pics are preliminary sketches for my next sculptural form. I began with Sketch 1 with the accentuated gear forms on a radial axis, but the left portion was unresolved. In Sketch 2, I further developed the handle and curvilinear form adjacent to the handle. I still was not satisfied with the left portion of the piece, and I sought further design development. In Sketch 3, I found my final form design for this piece with the interconnections of the 2 curvilinear forms. There will be circles and rectangles cut into the top surfaces and the top and bottom surfaces will be impacted with forces that push through to the back side. Undulating surfaces will occur on both sides and I will celebrate conjoined spaces with f-holes (sound holes) on the top and bottom of center. I continue to investigate the push/pull of forms that affect the back side that are possibly created from the inside of the piece.

   

In progress: Ceramic Narrative & plaster press mold version 2.0

 

So after talking with Future about my idea for a ceramic tribute / reminder of the cost of the wars in Iraqi and Afghanistan, she mentioned I might make the work more personal. Future suggested my community or family and friends. This made me think about the work that Lynn is doing with the concept of home, and to an extent what others are doing with regards to identity and personal history with their work and research this semester.

I started digging into my own connections to service as well as family/ home identity. It started with looking at old pictures of my Grandfather in his commission uniform from WW2 as well as my Uncle’s father and the many images my Uncle has from his father’s extensive combat experience over the Pacific as a pilot.

As I was gathering all these images from my family, the e-mails and phone conversations lead to discussing plans for the holidays and I couldn’t help but think about my post in response to Lynn’s research about home. Specifically about my own interpretation of home as being a moment in time, such as cooking in the kitchen with the wonderful women of my family, and not a physical place. I started also gathering picture of my mom and aunts preparing holiday meals, my Grandmother holding the great grandchildren, family and friends gathered around a table talking and eating. 

I was still thinking about the episode of Craft in America with the Army Vet. Who imposed images of the military and war on his small cups and the idea still resonated, but I started thinking about how I might use my own family as the subject matter for the ceramic narrative for the class.

Press mold experiment didn’t work out on the first try. The plaster process went well I just picked a bad item to make a mold off, far too complex. I am going to give it another go over the Thanksgiving break.

Ceramic alchemy of Architectural forms to Art, Part 2 (Rick Kincheloe)

     Hello again everyone. As I continue to investigate shapes, forms, textures and juxtaposition of ideals in my ceramic sculptures, I have a few more pics to share from yesterday.

The 3 pics (although it may be difficult to tell from the photos) show the undulations in the top surface in my forms. I haven't yet decided if I'll make both sides (top and bottom) undulated because of the difficulties in firing with alternative firings (Raku). My initial piece was placed in the kiln flat on it's back which allowed all surfaces to give me the results I was after. If I undulate both sides, I will have difficulty in obtaining uniformity in the piece throughout. There is so much trial and error in these processes. I am anxious, yet nervous about possibilities of end result, but I know I must accept what the kiln gods will give me in return. So many things to affect outcomes: position in kiln, direction and flow of heat, kiln temperature(s), reaction of salts, thickness of foil and reaction of outside temperature when I remove the piece from the kiln to cool.

     Another point I'd like to discuss in this post is my musical influences that are a part of the design and aesthetic appeal of my ceramic forms. I talked briefly with my classmate and fellow technician David Bondt about my recent Batik that I completed for my Art 4362 class of which I am a TA. David recommended that I post my image (I hadn't thought of it initially) as a reference for musical influences in my work. The purpose of the Batik project was to work with the Estacado High School students in Shannon Walton's class to express imagery of "Hope and Recovery". The class images will be sewn together to create a quilt for the Women's Shelter here in Lubbock Texas. I chose to represent a guitar as a reflection of inspiration, calm and peaceful resolve amongst the trials that I am confronting and resolving in my life presently. I have great respect for many musical instruments of all kinds, but particularly banjos, guitars, ukele's, mandolins, violins and dulcimers. My 18" x 18" Batik was my first experience with Batik and will be cut to size for the quilt. I will be delighted to see the end result of the high school and Tech student's work.

Hearth, Fireplace, Altar: A Search for Home

Hearth, Fireplace, Altar: A Search for Home

Home

I have struggled with the idea of what home is and where are “safe places”.  Sit back for a second and think about your safe place—the image of a place you go if you are needed to calm.  My safe place used to be in a red rocker my dad made for me. It rocked at my kitchen table in the bay window alcove of my 1940s rock house. My climbing roses grew up the side of the house in thick twines of bark and fluffy petals.

All of my “safe” images and home involved the house I have lived in all of my adult life.  I brought my kids home to—the house in my childhood neighborhood, walking distance to my parents, and two of my uncles-one of these uncles lived in the “family home”. To me this was the only home I had known.  Home generally—my neighborhood, my family, and my home. My home was always open. It always smelled like food. There was always something to eat. People were always in my kitchen—all hours of the day.

I loved that part of my home but it wasn’t a happy home.  It is a paradox—all the appearance of happy but really not happy in the fundamentals.

Now, I am able to live a much more sincere existence but I still feel displaced.

I have been searching for meaning. My process for years has been to read a science book, an “out there” book and a spiritual book—when searching for meaning.  Generally, if all these diverse books have overlap on a subject, I figure there is truth somewhere in it.  I have been in my science book this term. I have been looking for what we really are in the United States, my home.  It helped me realize how truly part of an emerging demographic my kids are with an Italian grand mom and a first generation Japanese grand mom. There was a whole chapter on Hapa (halfs) in “The Next America” book I read for the semester. 

I have painted tornados, prickly pear, and bells this semester to symbolize home to me. For the final project, I looked at artists who loved to paint their homes. Of course, I looked at Bonnard and his love of his kitchen table, his cat, but mostly his bathtub. I settled on Vuillard, who loved his family, his interiors, and his pattern. 

Edouard Vuillard, Interieur a la Table à Ouvrage, 1893

Under sketch: Cal and Star

I haven’t gone back into to refine the pattern but this is the first intention. It is an image of my 14 year old, Cal-- his Beats on, in bed with his faithful border collie with him. He loves to play soccer and just made the JV team his freshman year. Cal ended up in ICU this week with a strange confluence of illnesses, which made it very difficult for him to breathe.

 It seems oddly prescient. I am uncertain what I am to learn from this but perhaps I should look more at my heart first and find my home based on what my heart says. I will paint my 16 year old, Ward next.

My take away from my Classmates: “creative path styles”

My take away from my Classmates: “creative path styles”

The path to creation is a circuitous one.

This semester, I have learned from my classmates, the beauty and variety of creativity. I have watched sparks of interest develop and morph and shoot new life in different directions.  Because of this rich and fertile creative ground, I have been an eyewitness to the creative process. In learning about the individual processes for each artist/teacher in the class. I wondered if there might be a way to identify “creative path” styles and if there might be a history we could look upon for a foundation.

Historic Potentials for Creative Path Styles

There is an order to making.  If we look at two creation texts Genesis and Greek myth of creation, we have different concepts of creation but they are similar in the key points. The similarity being that there is a process to making. The processes are different: one born out of order and one born out of chaos.  One with a single voice speaking, one with many influences.

In the very first chapter of Genesis (which means forming something), We have an orderly “step by step” instruction for creation. We have our values or light and dark pattern (“let there be light” and we separate it from darkness). We work on our big shapes first. We add variety (Sun and moon), line (firmament and earth), rhythm and texture. And we fill with interesting details.

After each step, we take a step back and evaluate and we take a break before we screw it up. It's a single creator.  We are the artists, sole and alone, and it can be lonely.

According to the Greeks, the universe was a mess of chaos. This mess formed night and the knowable place of death and darkness. Somehow from this dark unknowing sprang love.  Love begins to create order. Love creates light and day. Once light and day have been established earth appears. There are a lot of personalities involved in the Greek creation myth. It's a committee and often the committee doesn't get along well.  It doesn't work out too well for the original committee members who began the creative process.  Its become a community effort to create and ultimately all voices have a say. The voices may all be in the artist’s head. I know I talk to myself when I make stuff.

I think art-making falls in the spectrum with order on one end and chaos on the other.

Both result in beautiful work.

This class has been enlightening. There have been peeks at different artistic processes. I have seen many of you create in Junction, in medium ranging from beloved or unfamiliar.  It was a special moment in time to see the passion or that insight which draws us all to a particular form of art. I gained so much from watching each artist’s process of creation. Some moved out of something unknowable to create something warm and full of light and life and love. Some had an orderly process mapped out for the study and making of things.

 It’s all creation but so interesting to see the loveable warmth of fiber in Colleen—her work is whimsical and well crafted. It makes me feel like it is something very cosy, and instant favorite, a thing that became a memory, an heirloom, a tradition--the coveted object among every age.

Daniel’s door opening and closing, entrance or exit, showing a path or Daniel’s mysterious reminders left for passersby to become part of the art work and remember.

Andrea’s search for healing: Her tender surrender and sincere heart sketched on the canvas for the viewer to see that freedom and forgiveness are active verbs.

I have learned wonderful things from everyone in the class about their work and their process.

Ceramic alchemy of architecture into art: my personal histories

     In this blog submittal, I am including pictures to show progress on my clay forms that I’m working on at the LHUCA Clay Studio in Lubbock Texas.

     My clay sculptures will be a series similar in context to my initial sculpture entitled “Mandogino” that I exhibited at Urban Tech at my September show. I am interested and fascinated with deriving forms that display craftsmanship of materials and objects, and how those forms interact/intermingle with architectural ideals to create art through an architectural lens in epherical ways. Some architectural forms ie: cylinders, curvilinear forms, elegant arches and geometrical shapes will be fused together to create imagery beyond traditional architectural ideals beyond in art realms. In my work, there is a journey of personal introspection, musical influences that soothe my soul and elegant curvilinear forms and geometry that reflect the beauty found in architectural ideals represented in my artistic alchemy of histories past and present.

My progress over the last 3 weeks (Rick Kincheloe)

     Hello everyone. I have enjoyed reading about your achievements, contributions and artwork over the past 3 weeks. Thank You for your enlightening conversations. I have been delighted to read about your talented artistic endeavors. As for me, I’ve been MIA, swamped with research, writing, and all kinds of things and issues with my classwork and Technician duties here at the Texas Tech School of Art. Although I get depressed that I oftentimes can’t keep up at the levels I’d like (due to my high expectations), I must understand that it’s all in the learning curve of transitioning from practicing Architecture to creating and teaching Art.  Mind blown.

     It was so good to see friends, colleagues and faculty recently at the Alumni Reception November 7^th in San Antonio. Although I was unable to attend TAEA, I was able to reconnect with friends that have encouraged and reinforced my design ideals through art, and who have shared their and my art experiences together in interactive ways in my MAE program at TTU and Junction. The friendships that I’ve made and your support as I grow in my journey mean more to me than many of you may ever know. I was able to see Gail Stouffer albeit briefly when I returned her artwork to her at her Roadhouse Arts studio in Bulverde. Gail has some wonderful fused glass artwork in progress and her students are learning and creating some wonderful, creative fused glass artwork pieces. I hope in the near future I can further develop my interests in creating fused glass artwork.

     In the past 2 weeks, I’ve had 2 opportunities to give a brief clay throwing demo for Katy Ballard’s Art class. 3 students were able to make small bowls and the 4^th student worked with hand-built forms to make fish shaped trays. Although I was unable to view the student’s progress over time, I have taught these students how to understand and respect the ideals of working with clay. They have also learned the importance of taking care of the material (clay) to shape and sculpt it as they please but under limited time contexts. Clay is forgiviging, but within reason. They have learned that using slip will not correct all “shortcuts” that were not resolved from proper procedures done initially.

I am also working diligently on my clay work at the LHUCA Clay Studio and will post progress pics on my upcoming post shortly.

When I returned to Lubbock Saturday night November 8^th, I was able to attend the FTK Concert at Lubbock High School. This RaiderThon is a student organization founded in 2010 that fundraises yearly for the Childrens Miracle Network at University Medical Center here in Lubbock. The purpose of this fundraiser was entitled “For the Kids: Stand for those who can’t”. This event reminded me of Liz Reyes and her group that runs for those who can’t. At this event I also connected with Visual Studies undergrads Marten Ortiz and Noemi Hernandez, students in Andres Peralta’s Art 4362 class (Curriculum Theory and Instruction Methodology) of which I am a TA. I was invited by Noemi to attend the “Coffee for a Cause” fundraiser by the TTU Alpha Omega chapter to benefit the “Hope Worldwide International Day of Giving” at Escondido Theater at Texas Tech on November 15^th.

     Lastly, in my series of recent events, I had an opportunity to read a children’s book entitled “My Five Senses” by Aliki Brandenberg to 6 children (ages 1-3 years old) at the TTU Early Head Start Day Care Center in the Arnett Benson region of east Lubbock. This was an assignment for my College of Education class (EPSY 5323). I was unprepared how this event would affect me. The children listened intently to my every word and followed my hand gestures as I repeated the 5 senses as illustrated in the book one by one.

     Now that I’ve explained my whereabouts in the past few weeks, one of my submittals this week is to further elaborate on issues of special needs in the “Reading and Teaching Students with Special Needs through Art” book. In my reading, I found 5 ideals that are relevant to teaching students with learning disabilities. These ideals helped me to understand the array of issues in working with special needs children and young adults and to break down the challenges of creating art into manageable means for beneficial results. In no particular order, they are as follows:

·      Students with learning disabilities can be original and very creative, but they oftentimes have difficulties staying on task until completion.

·      Students with special needs can and do discover enjoyment by making Art, but are oftentimes confused by multiple directions or steps.

·      Students with learning disabilities can be very focused on projects that match their strengths and interests, but may choose to repeat successful activities rather than start new projects.

·      Students with special needs can be very sociable w/adults and peers, but may need reminders to follow class rules.

·      Students with learning disabilities can be very talented in some forms of Art (ie: One is Adam, One is Superman book), but have little interest in other Art forms.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004, identifies how to spot learning difficulties in children with specific criteria for Brain Injury, Dyslexia, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Limited English Proficiency (LEP) and learning styles, modalities and discrepancies. This act produced revolutionary changes as to how special needs individuals are evaluated, taught and placed into contexts with other students when teaching art today. Many of these ideals require patience and understanding from teachers to properly evaluate the challenges of working with special needs in our social contexts of teaching today.

     As I move into student teaching next semester (Elementary and High School levels), I am certain that I will need to be cognizant and considerate of the special needs ideals with the children and young adults that I will interact with. I hope to be as prepared as I can be in lieu of the circumstances that I will confront and hopefully resolve with patience, kindness and fortitude to overcome the challenges that special needs individuals require. We are all handicapped in our own ways, but it’s in how we overcome our challenges that define who we really are.