Projects for the future. Works to honor the past.

Cast attempt round 2.

So I attempted to case a few of my daughers toys but the shapes were to complex to work with press molds, but I might give them a go slip molds. I will have to research more on them, but doing press molds twice now has taken the fear out of me with regards to plaster. For my second attempted I was literally wondering around my home looking for items that carried significance and memories. Last semester I made a wheel thrown vessel that I weaved a basket around. I wrote a paper called Earth and Fire : Armor for my Memories about the piece and its relation to my experience of Junction. I ran across a spear head and some reeds I collected last summer in Junction and I thought here was something with personal significance, something that reminds me of community and long lasting friendships. Items that spoke to my soul about a place I will remember for the rest of my life, Junction, Tx.

 

Here are some photos of what followed.

Basically you get your items and press them half way into a base of clay, then wrap some sheet metal flashing around it to create a container for the plaster. Mix plaster with water, 1 part plaster 2 parts water. I guesstamated until I reached a thick milk shake like liquid. Then pour plaster into the flashing container and let set up 48 hours. You can then remove the flashing and clay to reveal your items incased in plaster half way. I watched a lot of videos and some mentioned coating your items in oil before casting so they released from the plaster. I used veggie oil, it worked great.

Then you can either use the one sided press mold or keep the metal flashing wrapped around the plaster, remove the clay but leave the items, add pour plaster again. This would give you two plaster molds, if you do this be sure to put in some impressions on the sides of your items to help align the two plaster molds. You can see these in the photo; I used the handle of a trimming tool.

The final image is my reed stick and my spear head press molded into terra-cotta. I want to use the spear head as a relief detail this summer in Junction on my wheel thrown work. I want to try to weave a nest with the reed sticks. I am excited to have some new things to try in the studio come summer.

 

I also revisited a process I learned in undergrad but never really used.

 

Acrylic media photo transfer. I had wanted to make something big and powerful about the cost of war, but after talking with Future and reading everyone else’s work I decided what made the work I saw on Craft in America so powerful wasn't its scale or the statement, it was because the work was deeply personal to the Artist. So I started looking at service members from my own family. I focused on my Grand Daddy Jack and my Uncles Father James E. Mills, but airmen during WW2. I transferred images of the plane they flew, the crews they worked with, and the pictures of the two young men when they received their commissions. I originally made a bowl to put the images on, as well as variation on a bottle form I have been making since last year. The curve of the bowl didn't lend itself to the process but the straight walls of the bottles worked much better. Here are images of the process. Basically you get a gloss or matte medium that you brush over an ink jet color image. After about 8 or 9 coats what you have is a film of clear dried medium over the image, you then soak in water and rub off the paper pulp. The image transfers to the medium and you end up with a semi opaque film with the image on it, you can then paste this to just about anything with the same medium.

 

That is my Grand Daddy Jack, he passed away today. It has been really hard working on this but I couldn't help but think about Andrea's work and it's healing power. I have spent a lot of the past few days reflecting on my time with my Grand Dad, and it is amazing to think about what a blessed 89 years he had and how thankful I am for my time with him.

 

 

I need to find more images of the bombers to fill up the back, and given the timing of Jacks passing I think I am going to glaze the bisque ware piece and do a collage of my grandfather at various stages of his life and give it to my mom, then make two more and give them to my aunts. The bottom image is a mock up, I am still playing with arrangement. Once the final composition is done, I will go over the whole thing with gloss media.

I can't thank everyone enough for the wonderful influence the blog has had on my work. I started getting images of my grandfather before his heart attack last week and it seems like devine inspiration given the timing. I feel blessed to have been able to share the semester with you all.

Thank you everyone!

It has been a really interesting semester reading everyone’s post about the wide range of subjects and media. I think that seeing everyone start in such seemingly different places, yet begin to see all of our subject matter connect, in ways small and large, has been a truly unique learning experience. Seeing everyone research topics ranging from home, identity, community, family, and personal history, demographics, healing, remembering, and honoring, all come together has made me realize that at its core the process of creating is really about a shared human experience. All of these topics overlap because they are all fundamentally human experiences. Obviously they have manifested themselves in a wide variety of manners as represented by our different medias and methods. Yet I think it isn’t hard to find similarities between Martha’s beautiful cast glass pieces and Lynn’s search for home, between David’s doors of community and acceptance, and Andrea’s work about healing and honoring American service men.

I have especially enjoyed seeing all of Carleen’s work with her school and community. Seeing her dedication to her students and campus was a real breath of fresh air, and helped remind me to brush off the hardships of teaching and focus on the good during what has turned out to be a very difficult semester of teaching. I am really envious of the number of workshops Carleen was able to go to, as well as seeing Rick work at the LUCHA clay studio. I don’t mind working in my classroom, and really I am lucky to have a wheel and a kiln at my disposal, but I think working alone just isn’t the same. I blame the amazing community atmosphere in Junction for ruining a solitary studio experience for me.

I had planned on visiting a variety of museum programs but was only able to take in a couple, along with some museum related workshops at TAEA. Seeing Pam write about her trips and memories of museums and galleries in NYC such as the MOMA as well as her bookmaking classes also game me encouragement and really helped push me to finally attend the TAEA conference. Of course the chance to see old friends in San Antonio isn’t really that hard of a sell.

While it has been a good experience overall, I think there are things I miss from a more traditional research class. Last spring I really enjoyed taking Futures class on traditional craft because it was so wonderful meeting everyone in person Thursday nights and seeing how different people would select different aspects of the same readings. We were all on different topics so those opportunities weren’t as available. It was also really difficult to sum up the readings, especially the museum theory works, in a way that shed light on the subject without becoming an overwhelming amount of info to post on the blog.

I think it might have been interesting if we had taken a few weeks at some point to assign a reading for the week to see how others responded to what we had already researched. I think that might have given us all a deeper understanding of one another as well as the different research. We could all pick the best of what we had covered, so everyone would be exposed to the most important and relevant research from our wide breath of work.

I have come away with some great insight into topics I never would have looked into as a result of being exposed to everyone’s work, and for that I am deeply grateful. I’ve got some great ideas for my own work and I don’t think I would have found new direction without my research and the research of everyone on the blog. Like I said before, all of our work crosses over and interacts with one another. I think that is the biggest lesson, that we are all connected and in many ways our creative endeavors are never that different at the core.

To my online community

Sometimes I wonder what would a door look like (done in Junction) with this particular community of online bloggers with all your immense talent! I envision all the mediums that would contribute to the image and I am sure when finished, it would be a true spectacle to behold.

 Rick, thank you for sharing your journey that took me from the world of architecture to art education. It has inspired me to think about how architecture design can be used to bring community together or inhibit it. I also began to think about how our own school of art

Could benefit architecturally with a structure designed to promote an atmosphere of collaboration and community. Maybe the merger of these two fine gifts could change our whole perspective of what it means to “educate” someone? Maybe this type of “education” could stop school violence?

Lynn, thank you for sharing your ideas of home. This topic has taken me back to my own childhood experience and what “home” has represented for me. The idea of home has always lead me back to my Oma and Opa’s house. I can still hear and smell the aroma of fresh bread, quiet conversation and the voice of “Paul Harvey” on the radio. The time spent with my Oma has been some of my most cherished memories of “Home.” As the one year anniversary of her death approaches, I am flooded with both gratitude and grief over her loss. My Oma taught me so much about love and acceptance that she gave my heart a true “Home” and I will carry her memory in it always. Honestly, I am finding that I am grieving her more now than when she died. I feel this is where “healing through arts” (Andrea) can take place if I choose to take this “creative path” (Lynn). Here is a photo with my Oma “Sophia” and I at our last visit. I also would like to share my painting that I called “Sacred Journey Home” inspired by my Oma’s last days on this earth.

Daniel, I really found myself interested in the post about the printmaking from the Inuit people of Cape Dorset, Baffin Island. Your post leads me to visit the TTU museum and look up more about the artist Kenojuak Ashevak. Being a proud Canadian, I love to see the First Nations artwork appropriately appreciated and not exploited. Seeing this incredible artwork displayed gave me a renewed awareness of the struggles of the first peoples of North America. Since my research has been on community, it would further interest me to do research on this and their social practices as a cohesive group. I felt we received a glimpse of this by studying the works of Julia Parker from our weaving class spring semester. Thanks again Daniel for “weaving” all this valuable learning together!

Everyone in this blog has contributed to my learning experience; however, these are those that resonated the most during this semester. Thank you all for your wonderful contributions to this online community and have a blessed Christmas!

Ceramic alchemy of Architecture forms to Art (part 4) Rick Kincheloe

     Hello everyone. Crazy busy for me until the very end. So much I want to do, and only so much time.

 I placed the top on my other piece yesterday and was able to attach the handle from the underside today. I was about ready to flip my piece onto foam and work the other side. However, LHUCA was very crowded tonight and there were small children nearby where I was working. I think tonight was the last class for the night class that meets on Tuesdays, Thursdays. I chose not to flip my piece until there aren't children present and I have plenty of room to work without possibility of incident. I have my next form and slabs complete, just need to wait now until Saturday for assembly (LHUCA is closed tomorrow in preparation for 1st Friday Art Trail tomorrow).

I have posted several progress pics and still working on cleaning edges, smoothing the undulations and reshaping forms slightly. While I was working on the ribs for the interior, the top shrunk slightly (even though I kept the form wet with paper towels for evaporation). So, when it came time to attach the top, I had to roll coils to fuse the forms together to accommodate for the shrinkage. Pics show progress of joining forms. I will cut and attach my top forms differently from now on as I learned from this one. I spent far more time on undulating the ribs in the regions I wanted, thus the top began to dry slightly.

I was able to visit with James Watkins the other day about incorporating my wheel-thrown forms into my sculptures. He recommended that I do preliminary drawings to express connections of the 2 forms together. I will do so ASAP.
I intend to do several of my pieces via Alternative Firings (Aluminum Foil Saggar), but I'd also like to experiment with other controlled glazes. The last 2 pics posted are of a piece (wings) that a woman architecture student did for James Watkins' class this semester. It was done Raku w/Blue Hawaiian glaze. I will experiment with this process as I like how the blues, greens, charcoal (from carbon) and copper colors fuse together unexpectedly. I particularly like the copper fused with the blues and carbon areas mixed throughout the piece.

Community Door Project

Over thanksgiving I spent my time working and praying with a community of monks in New Mexico that I have known personally for over 10 years. The community door that was chosen had been used for almost 50 years at the monastery. A local black smith and friend of the monks made the doorknob and locks. I really appreciated the craftsmanship that went into the doors around the monastery, which are all one of a kind.

Brother Francis was the artist monk whom I worked with on the “Door Project,” He shared with me the series of ideas they had for the side of door that represented being outside community. The final image selected was that of the devil over looking a city street at night. The devil representing all that is evil and destructive to community. Brother Francis describes the devil looking upon the city looking for the weak soul to take advantage of. This spiritual take on the evils of the world made me think of all that there is that inhibits the growth of community, may it be greed, addictions, the list can go on.

What I gained through working with community and the door project is the realization that doing meaningful art is a huge catalyst that forms deeper relationships. This “artistic socialization” through collaborative creative expression truly brings a sense of belonging even if there maybe a certain amount of tension involved with “strong wills.” I find that I am just scratching the surface of all that will be discovered in the dynamics of community and collaborative art. What I have learned through this project thus far is that the “key” to my own personal door is the recognition that acceptance is pinnacle to my own emotional growth. I found that I must first accept myself for who I am with all my strengths and weakness along with fully offering my gifts to those in need. I also have humbly recognized that I need community may it be my family, special needs friends, a religious order, artist community or my students. Having a young child, also reminds of the African truth that it does take a village to raise a child. I want to belong to a community that is life giving not just for me but also for Liam who represents another generation either lost or gained.

Healing through Art

This semester has taken me on a whirl wind I was not expecting! Going back to last year, I was working on a series of artwork of healing through pain, suffering, and hurt. Then in May when everything in my life turned upside down, when my boyfriend of 4 years decided he no longer wanted to be a part of my life to finding out he later found someone else. To for the first time in my life feeling completely free and loving the freedom Junction brought, to dating and winding up engaged and ending it in a matter of 2 months when I felt smothered and more like a possession then a person. Realizing this is not for me and I need to be alone to really find myself. This past summer into this semester has been crazy fast and overwhelming all at the same time. Those doors that have closed have opened up so many doors I could never have dreamt of! For the first time in my life I put ME first! ME! What a concept! I focused first on forgiving and truly worked through the process I never thought possible. To forgive my son’s father, an emotionally and verbally abusive man, who hurt me and my son in so many, many way was, for me, a pure miracle. I, for the first time gave everything to God. For me to relinquish control and let go is something incredibly hard to do, but has been truly amazing! My artworks, techniques, style, have surpassed what I thought I could do. The pieces started to flow from me, I found myself painting vessels. After creating on stage at church for the 4^th anniversary, I felt so humbled and I feel that’s when my life truly changed. We are all vessels. Forgiveness happened. I truly let go and let God. The opportunities are endless and I realized I put limitations on myself. My artwork has taken off and not only have I brought healing to myself but I am now bringing healing to others through the crosses I have been painting.

A former student of mine, Bryan, had asked me to paint on a cross he made and covered with his brother’s letters he wrote while in Iraq serving. I painted an American Flag, dog tags, boots and a helmet. Just from posting it on Facebook, I have had so many orders for crosses. This has been a tremendous opportunity for me and Bryan. Bryan suffers from severe depression, anxiety, is on all sorts of meds that make him shake, paranoid, etc. He used to sleep 23 hours a day, was a hermit and would barely get out of bed. He came down this past summer and spent 3 weeks with me and my family and did a lot of healing. Now that he has crosses to make for me to paint (we split what we make from the crosses) he is up early, working, he makes his own crosses, helps his dad, he might take 2 naps a day, and has made massive improvements, is happy and feels like he has purpose again. Along with these crosses bringing healing to Bryan, it is also healing those families we are making the crosses for.

So many of you have touched my life and my research I had no idea. At the beginning of the semester I really felt lost. I felt like I was on the wrong path, doing the wrong research and really questioned what I was doing. But watching each of you grow, change ideas, the Doors, Daniel work through his process, Lynn and trying to find home, Pamela and all her adventures, have finally worked its way in and I know I am on the right path. I did not get to all the books I had planned on this semester, but I feel I am right where I am supposed to be and I know that this type of work takes time and is not something that can be rushed. I do plan on reading (hopefully) over Christmas break a few books on working on my relationship with my son. I know he has so many issues he deals with and it is important that I focus on our relationship and building a strong foundation because I am his home. The foundation is the most important part and I need that door or window when opens them, to stay open for as long as possible and to set the table where he is always able to confide in me and that I am his safe place.

As far as I have come in such a short amount of time, and the healing I have done, has been amazing. I have never felt so FREE, so right where I need to be, calm, at peace, and just down right HAPPY in my life! There are so many things to come and I know there will always be valleys before the mountain tops but I know I am on the right path and excited for the adventures ahead and to continue the research I am working on!

                                          the first cross that Bryan had me paint for his brother

the vessel I made during the 4th anniversary church service. 

one of the crosses that Bryan makes

vessels

                                                                      vessels

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.