daaayyyyuuuummm.....

I'm practicing humiliation by putting this photo up for the world wide web to see.

I know... scary. I don't care. Oh and p.s. this is at the Lake Oswego Deno's Pizza

Marion Pollmann

I was going to post a blog about what I've been working on lately but I'm going to wait until I can get pictures of my stuff. So, for now, I wanted to tell everyone about a new artisit that has inspired me and given me new ideas for my concentration pieces.....

Her name is Marion Pollmann. She was born in Austria but moved to America in 1994. She now lives in Olympia, Washington.

     

She makes a lot of basket forms that I really like. I cant really figure out how she makes some of her pieces (if she extrudes thin coils of clay, rolls the coils, or uses a clay slurry) so I'm planning on contacting her to see what her technique is....

She spends time traveling throughout Europe and in the South Pacific. Her travels influence her work in interesting ways. Her vases are inspired by her earlier life in Europe where, she says, people give much more importance to flowers and vases in their homes. Time in Tahiti brought forth her ceramic baskets and two lines of dishes. I find it inspiring that she travels around the world to get inspiration for her pieces.

This is one of my favorite pieces by her... I really want to figure out how she makes it!!!

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: