Artist Watch: Lanzarin Antonio

Hey bloggers.....
So when I was trying to find artists that did work similar to what I want my concentration to be, I came across a couple of artists that made basket forms. One artist in particular was this guy named Lanzarin Antonio. He makes ceramic baskets, but not in the way I had originally planned on making mine.

He makes his out of coils and strips of slab clay. Looking at his work made me reconsider what I wanted my perameters to be for my concentration. Originally, I was planning on making the baskets strictly out of clay slurry. But now that I'm thinking about what I want to do more, I'm kind of considering making my concentration a more borad genre of "baskets". Let me know what you think!

I Think My Concentration Will Be.........

BASKETS!!!! Baskets made of clay. I started doing these towards the end of last year. They're really fun to make but the problem is that they are SO DELICATE. last year only like 50% of the ones I made actually survived through glazeware. So I would probably have to make a lot of them since half of them will break. I want to experiment more with shape and pattern of the lines and also the shape of the basket itself. I also want to try different clays/glazes (raku?!?). This is going to be very interesting....

TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!!

Concentrating......

So over the past week we've had to come up with 25 concentration ideas. The we had to narrow it down to 5 ideas. And then we had to pick 2... all in just a week. In my PERSONAL opinion, I don't think concentrations are a good idea and I really don't like the concept of it. I get that the college board wants to see that we are able to focus on just one theme and create art pieces based on that theme. But, as an artist, I feel like we shouldnt be so limited. Concentrations just stress me out. I like being able to do what I feel like doing. If I were rebellious enough I probably just wouldn't do a concentration. But I'm not a rebel. And I want to submit a portfolio. And get a good score on that portfolio. So I guess I'm going to do a concentration.....

Question O' the Day......

What happens when you trap a group of high school art students in a room full of junk for SIX HOURS?

Why, they make art OF COURSE. duhhhhh. Well, this is what happened to me. On tuesday. In the ceramics room. For six hours. On tuesday. For six hours. In the ceramics room.....

I know it sounds like I'm complaining but it was actually a really rewarding experience and it was really fun. I got my "creative juices" flowing FO SHO.

Diane Lou, our guest artist, was SO helpful and SO nice. She brought a bunch of her own junk, which was really great because I dont think we would have had enough to work with if he hadn't. But this is what I made:

This was the first time I have ever really worked with multimedia (I don't know why) and I really like the result of my project. I dont know what I'm going to call it yet. Also, I feel like it's too simple. My classmates said it doesnt need anything else but I feel like it needs something on the sides. Any suggestions? Or should I just leave it like it is? HELPPPPP

Family

For those of you who don't know, over the summer my dad and I adopetd two little girls who have been living with us for about a year as foster children. They eventually went up for adoption, AND WE ADOPTED THEM!! Having them as part of my family has COMPLETELY changed my life for the better.

So, when we were assigned to do a clay sculpture centered around an aspect of the family, I naturally thought of my two new sisters. What I decided to do for my project was to sculpt four hollow, basic figures. Two will be small and made out of raku clay and the other two are larger and I'm hoping to have them be a darker matte color. Theres nothing very intricate or special about the actual design of the figures but I hope that what will make this project special is the contrast of metallic raku of the smaller figures to the matte glaze of the larger figures. The smaller raku figures represent my new sisters. The sculpture is meant to symbolize that they are a part of my family now (same figure shape) but are very different and have completely changed the loves of both my dad and I. I'm still in the process of making them, but hopefully they will turn out!

While I was sculpting the smaller figures, Amy noted on how my sculptures looked like the work of Katy McFadden, a local sculptor. Here is one of her works, located by Lake Oswego City Hall:

Exploding Fetus.....

I had FINALLY finished my fetus sculpture after hours of work I put into it. It was fired this weekend. I came into the studio on Monday to check on it.... and here is what I found:



The head of the fetus had exploded in half and somewhere in the process the entire head had fallen off of the body alotgether, taking the poor fetus's left arm off with it.

It was a SAD SAD SAD sight. Luckily, I refrained from tears. But words cannot describe how dissapointed I was. And the worst part is that it was all my stupid fault!!!!!!! I thought I had created a hole in the head through the open mouth of the fetus. But apparently, the hole had not gone all the way through. It was SO frustrating.

HOWEVER, this experience did not prove to be an entirely negative one. In one of my first blogs, I stated that, as an artist, you are bound to fail at some point. I would consider "exploding fetus" to be an epic fail on my part. The key in failing is learning to deal with the failure and move on. Life is not perfect. You can't expect everything you do to be 100% successful. So, when you enconter a dissapointment, learn to make the best out of it and see the positive aspects of it.

Luckily, with Amy's help (I LOVE YOU AMY), I am currently in "exploding fetus repair" mode. I managed to glue all the pieces back together. Today, I filled the cracks with wood putty. Tomorrow, I am going to sand down the seams to make them smooth and then cover the fetus with a primer that will hopefully conceal it's flaws. Next week, I'm going to paint the fetus rather than applying underglaze and firing it. PROBLEM SOLVED.

I've now realized that troubleshooting is something I'm going to have to get extremely good at if I want to continue making art......

Shocking Art: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

The fetus, while in the womb, is considered to be one of the most vulnerable and feeble organisms. At the time, it has no control over its destiny, it cannot make choices for itself; it cannot talk, cry, or even move. It is completely dependant on the mother to nourish and protect it.

So what happens if the mother is involved in a car collison, and the baby dies? Is it the mother's fault? Most certainly not. It was not intentional. But neither is sipping a glass of wine during the first few weeks of pregnancy, before the mother even knows she is pregnant. Even worse, some mothers choose to neglect their maternal duties alltogether and consume alcohol on a regular basis during their pregnancy. While one act is intentional and the other is not, they are both damaging to the long-term well-being of the fetus.

In our society, the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy is considered an act of horror. Yet, every year in the United States, over 40,000 babies are born with fetal alcohol effects.

My adopted sister, Cheyenne, was one of those unlucky 40,000 babies whose lives have been changed forever due to the effects of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. That's why I chose to have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome be the theme of my "shocking art" piece. This one really hits home for me....

What I did for the project was I sculpted a fetus out of clay, trying to keep it looking as life-like as possible. There are some "deformities" but I think these add to the overall effect and message that this sculpture has. I made the "belly button" larger than normal so I could fit a tube in it and attatch the other end of the tube to a wine bottle. This portrays the umbilical cord literally connecting the baby to the alcohol (which is basically what is happening when the mother consumes alcohol).

Fetal alcohol syndrome is something I feel SO strongly about. It makes me so angry because that one stupid decision made by the mother will effect the child for its whole life. My sister Cheyenne will never be able to have a family of her own. She will never be able to even live by herself.  She will always have to have someone to look after her. She will never be able to drive. She will never have as many friends as she would like. She will never make it past fifth grade math (even though she is currently in 7th grade). It killed her when she realized that even her younger sister is able to pick up on things better than she can. She will NEVER be able to lead a normal life. At first glance, people might mistake her for just being plain stupid. BUT SHE REALLY ISNT. She has the same emotional maturity of any girl her age. She just doesn't have any cognitive abilities. She can't make connections between different concepts. She has a very hard time remembering sequences. She's very forgetful.

And yet, she is one of the sweetest, most loving girls you will ever meet. She LOVES kids and is great with them. There is not a mean bone in her body. I could go on and on about the tragedy of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. But I won't. Words honestly can't describe the feelings I have towards it and the sympathy I have for my sister. There is no cure to this disease. It can only be prevented.

here is a link about fetal alcohol syndrome if you want to learn more:
http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/brain/fas.html