Hi All,

My last ceramics class with Abby focused on figures. If anyone remembers my creepy mud people...haha. Anyway, I felt as if I did not "complete" my exploration with those figures, but at the same time I would like to approach them in a completely different way. Also, I have become very enthusiastic about textures, fabrics, and nostalgic antiques, such as old dolls and toys. It was really difficult to think of something that included all of these aspects, but that is when I came to a website dedicated to people that buy antique cameras, and develop the film. I apologize for the absolute hideous-ness of the website, but the idea is still there. The whole this is entitled "Lost Films", but I tend to see something else when looking in these photographs.

Website
http://westfordcomp.com/updated/found.htm
http://www.shorpy.com/ (another website that I have found imagery from)

In a sense, the people developing the old film are in a sense "bringing to life" the people of the past.. Some of them are really eerie, some are just regualr portraits, but there is an inherent sense of wonder that these people actually lived, whether it be 50 years ago or a 100 years ago, and have probably been forgotten since then. So, I would like to somehow use these phographs as a reference, and create figures that use space better than my previous works. My previous figures didn't enter the viewer's space at all, they were ultimately contained in their own organic forms. This time around I would like to somehow create an installation that interupts the veiwer's space, and once again bring these people back into life. They have now been brought back into a 2D perspective, but If they could enter the physical space of another person, that is one step closer.

Also, I am somewhat uncertain as to how I will construct these figures. I would like them to be slightly caricature-esque, and have a surrounding that matches their expression. Also, unlike my previous figures, I would like them to be moveable, instead of fused in one position. So, I have been researching doll construction and different methods of hinging arms and legs, so I will definitely be creating these people in pieces, and assembling them after they are fired.

God... God.... GOD GOD! GAWD!

So the major thing that I want to focus on this semester is the question, "What does God look like?" This is going to be an out there piece like most of mine, but I am kind of hesitant to bring a religious aspect to my work. Im still debating if this is going to be religious or spiritually geared because of the stigma attached to the word God. I think of the word very differently from the common/social definition of Americans which is basically Christian God. I don't really buy into the fact that there is one supreme being that should be worshiped but that we all just give the same entity different names or split it up into different aspects of personality.

I personally think that this entity whatever or whoever it may be is occurring in the form of a particle. Oh, how going to sleep brings weird ideas into my head. I was thinking about how people say that God is everything and a part of you and always there. The only way I think for that to be possible would be for God to occur in some kind of particle. So hence I am going to make it. Mostly consisting of hollow spheres that I am going to throw and then I want to incorporate other elements that I think kind of emulate God's structure. (Solar system, Atoms, ect.)

Here is a good article that I found that really demonstrates my concept of God:

http://www.freewebs.com/thegodparticle/

end...

$$$

So far, I'm learning how to convince people to give me money. I'm writing a research proposal with Abby for this coming summer. By the fall, hopefully, I will have built a website that has resources for women artists/designers here at UD.

perhaps I'll make a little claymation in the meantime.

At the end of last semester, I made a piece that I recently decided is/was an information superhighway. I want to start up again the way I ended with that...I have lots of pictures and information from that piece that I think will be really useful and remind me to focus on the action of making, not just idea generation.

Currently I am thinking through ideas on ways to collaborate what I am doing in sculpture with what I am doing in ceramics and in some way show the two together. So far it has turned out to be paper sculpture and ceramic coral type things that sort of echo each other in their squiggly type of shape. But of course before I actually start creating mass amount of coral looking things I need to make sure that the process I have thought up that includes fabric and Egyptian paste actually works. So hopefully by next week I will have something that looks like what I want and not some crumbling spheres that cut your hands when you touch them.

The projects I can't tell you about...

Hello all. Ok so here is how the semester is looking for me. Im graduating in May (eek)...so I have decided to continue what I was playing around with last semester, and just pushing it farther and into a much more complicated realm than it was before. For those of you who weren't around last semester...my projects were a series of little word game type things where you had to guess the phrase, pun, idiom, whatever from the little figures.

So now...I've worked out ways to make them much harder to figure out. I'm including more challenging phrases, interactive elements like various kinds of puzzles, and fun things like mondegreens. (how great of a word is that!?) The more I play around with them, the more ideas I come up with to make each one more elaborate. My goal is to just keep producing a mass amount of them, so we will see how many I get done. Just don't ask me what each things means while Im working on them in class, as many have already discovered, I wont tell you! You just have to wait until they are done to try and figure them out properly :) I'd post links of inspirations and whatnot....but really I dont have any,...i think of the phrases, and the images come directly out of my head. It has something to do with the strange combination of being a painter and an english dork. So yeah, thats about it. Hope everyone enjoys them, and if you have suggestions I'd be more than happy to hear them!

~Bethany

mapsnthings

last semester i started to explore clay as a medium to record. Recently I've been drawn towards researching maps--old maps/sea charts/body maps etc. etc. here's the crazy 'family map' that my uncle sent me:

file:///Users/emily/Desktop/clay%20interest/ppt%20images/family%20tree.tiff


I'm finding out that my creative process is slow, so for now i'm sitting and thinking really hard about how maps can be 3 dimensional. Also, I have this...thing...where i don't like to make clay emulate another material. for the time being, i'm trying to reconcile these ideas.

ps. i have yet to fire anything yet BUT i'm breaking that streak on Saturday when joe and i are firing my bed piece from last semester in the propane kiln outside. aren't you all going to miss joe? come! i think we're kicking off at 12. bed-firing party!

Canary Cop
Car Nap Coy
Cyan Copra
Car Canopy

Ok, what I want to do in ceramics

Alright, so I'm not totally sure what I want to do in ceramics. All I know is that I enjoy interactive pieces, took a lot of chandelier photos while in Paris and that I really enjoyed Jean Tinguely's Self Portrait that I saw at Centre Pompidou. Video I took of it can be seen here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=GMPLRm56_ZI

Ok, some images I showed in class.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/qberyl/France/IMG_0515.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/qberyl/France/IMG_0577.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/qberyl/France/IMG_0514.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/qberyl/France/IMG_1739.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/qberyl/France/IMG_1742.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/qberyl/France/IMG_1745.jpg

And my idea for now is dominoes. Which really has nothing to do with my images.

This semester I want to try and focus on the Maori culture of New Zealand. The thing that is most facsinating about their culture is that it relies heavily on folklore and myth. Everything in their culture tells a story and everything has meaning. The myth I want to focus on has to do with the story of creation. It is said that heaven and earth were once joined as Ranginui, the Sky Father, and Papatuanuku, the Earth Mother, who lay together in a tight embrace. They had many children who lived in the darkness between them. The children wished to live in the light and so separated their unwilling parents. And that is just part of the story I will leave you all with....




As a side project, I'm going to try and figure out how to print on ceramic. Most of the techniques are very tedious and time consuming and have a lot of chemicals involved which I have never heard of. So I think I'm just going to try the polaroid transfer. Although apparently polaroid is going out of business so we'll see how far this idea comes along.



And if all else fails, I will just stick to my theme of voyeurism and glow in the dark paint :)



-Kerri

it's hard being a vegetarian in Dallas

need I say more?
and there sure are a lot of artists looking for jobs and wearing black while doing it. otherwise I am keeping the faith.

Lets Get it Started... or Something.

Well to sit here and fully describe my plans for the installation I'm working on... that would take days and still not make any sense. So lets just sum it up with: a room that will act as a doorway into my head (figuratively speaking).

So lets just talk about this semester: I want to get the full-sized version of me rolling. Yet I need to research techniques for that first, so I am starting with the Abbott's. In other words I am making a bunch of ceramic bugs that will be displayed around the feet of the clay me. I'm really excited and hopefully as the semester goes on everyone will be able to grasp what I am going for a lot better. (Feel free to come talk to me one-on-one about my project).

Some people I have been looking at/ am inspired by/ just plain enjoy=

*Christie Minervini: So I saw this lady on HGTV... No lie. She makes these great polymer bug crafty gifts. Check her out at
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.galleryfifty.com/images/CMinervini.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.galleryfifty.com/about.asp&h=225&w=165&sz=11&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=GGSEGQsFqrk8wM:&tbnh=108&tbnw=79&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dchristie%2Bminervini%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DNO

Or Google her!

*Drew Ernst: Google him, he has OCD and, to say the least he is all about detail!

I don't know how to put pictures on here. I don't like computers... so yeah. That's about it for now. I like feedback, and I don't mind if you ask about my work. I am pretty sure that no one can figure anything out from what I just wrote. Which in a sense means you've figured me out, as well as my project ;). Now that we are all thoroughly confused I am goning to stop typing. ~Ash

Hi everyone, my ideas for this semester deal with light as a medium to be held. I will be working in the realm of functional thrown vessels. I'll also be experimenting with various firing techniques. These images are helping to think about the concepts of light, austerity and ultimately vantage point.

Hooray for ceramics Spring 08!

First let me tell you all that I am so happy Joe is still alive! Yayy!!

Second of all, for those of you who don't know me, I am the owner/creator of the massive brain and heart last semester. And I plan on making many more out of control objects that will have a future sitting in my room with all of my other pieces. I <3 Ceramics. 

Also, because Abby asked me to, I am making a post about how I am competing in Miss Delaware (again) this year and all of my adventures along the way. It is A LOT of hard work. I am very much trying to win the title of Miss Delaware this year, ultimately to compete for the title of Miss America. I am currently Miss Northern Delaware, and it is amazing. The platform which I am dedicated to is Making Blood Cancers a Priority. I am getting scholarship money for wearing a pretty crown and raising money for good causes. How awesome is that? I need to work on my interview skills, so for anyone who wants to quiz me...please feel free. I need to practice. Also, mark your calendars for June 13th and 14th at Dover Downs for the pageant....because I expect everyone to come and cheer me on...even those of you who I don't know.  www.missmidatlantic.org <---I'm on this website even though I'm not Miss MiAtlantic....don't ask. 

:-) 

Julia Fuller

hello everyone, hope all is well. i figured i would put a link to my website up on the blog so i can stay in contact with people and also get some feedback from you all. i am leaving in a week or so to go to kentucky for a month for a residency. after march i will be in vermont for another month at the vermont studio residency. i will keep a blog on my web site so feel free to comment and give me some thought and ideas. if not just send me an email to say hi. hope to talk to you all soon. Sorry but you have to type the link into your browser search, i'm sick of dealing with this damn website and this is the only way i know how to post the link.

http://web.mac.com/jnetta/iWeb/Site%202/Castle%20
Keep.html

well hello there! this semester i wanna make a big piece of bacon, to make a comment on body image and american obesity.




also i wanna make a landscape painting out of chewing gum... like pointillism...





i'm not sure what i want to do for the mini golf course but maybe something with my arrows




just for fun...

Let the Games Begin: Spring 2008

your 1st blog posting is due by 8PM February 21st. yes yes yes Abby will be in Dallas TX dodging cowboys and state-financed executioners (okay actually @ CAA) but oh the glories of the internet that allow her to connect via the world wide web with students back home in Delaware. Please post your plans for the semester with links to relevant resources, images, etc.