Time's Up!

So I have been back in the good old U of K now for a week and it is back to the usual ways. I know I still have some USA updates to do but this week has been seriously manic. I just filled in my feedback form and project evaluation for the Arts Council England* and it always strikes me that when you are in school 2,000 word essays seem like such an uphill battle, but as an adult with an actual experience to write about it seems like barely a sentence.

Anyway, this was just a quick check in, thought I would share with you a picture of one of my day to day experiences, in particular a workshop with my 50+ Lunch Group's craft class. They were the first group I had after getting back and got the full benefit of my new artistic joie de vivre as they painted all the pieces they made in previous sessions. See, you're never too old to pick up clay work!!

So yes, I would like to say I will be back in the swing of things again soon but I am going on holiday next week so I will probably be just as random and erratic with posting as ever... but lets face it... thats half the fun!!

*Again, I would seriously recommend those of an artistic persuasion to check out their site and look at funding for the arts, they are an amazing organisation. 

Newtown # 09: Cristina Cordova

Here we are, at the final installment of the CSULB period. As far as grande finale's go, Cristina Cordova is an excellent one.

Cristina's work quite heavily features themes of Catholicism and her upbringing in Puerto Rico. However she doesn’t want to be labeled a Puerto Rican artist – or a woman artist, or any type of artist, other than a compelling one – she does believe authenticity can come only from a deeply personal place.

One of the main things that attracts me to Cristina's work is her surfaces. Unlike some of the other ceramicist I have encountered during this program, she predominantly uses fired colourings, such as glaze to achieve the finishes. These are then treated after firing to produce an eerily waxy and aged surface which adds a constructed history and provenance to the pieces, giving a sense that they could have been renovated from some tiny chapel in the middle of nowhere.

Cristina's upbringing clearly has a bearing on her style, however her own ideas and interactions put a new slant on the subject matter.

"Somewhere along the way, I realized these [devotional icons] weren't made by God. Someone had a hand in them along the way." -Christina Cordova

It was very interesting hearing her talk about this upbringing and some of the reasons the figurative has featured in her work as it was very similar to the themes I picked up from seeing her work beforehand.

So Cristina was the last one of the visiting artists for the CSULB course and as I said previously she was the perfect artist to wrap up with, and as such I thought I would do something slightly different and include a section where she could talk about herself. 

By searching youtube...

I will do some sort of conclusion over the next few days, but that is that! My mind is well and truly blown and my own work is going to change dramatically over the next few months. Who knows... maybe I should do a "Newtown: Update" in a few months to check in!!

Ciao!

Newtown # 08: Beth Cavener Stichter

Sorry there is such a delay on this post, I have a confession.

Beth Cavener Stichter is one of my favourite artists of all time, and definitely my favourite ceramicist, so basically I wasn't down with trying to write about her when I was so sleep deprived that I was basically at the stage I could essentially only be "she is good."

She's not good, she is absolutely phenomenal.

First things first, I need to comment on the scale of the pieces, just to put them into context... these are not figurines or even life-sized sculptures, they are massive works that fill huge spaces, or cover in the corner trying not to be seen despite their enormity.

Now that we have covered the scale lets talk about the subject matter. These animals are not animals. I know that sounds like a very contradictory modern art type statement, but what I mean by that is the animals are actually all portraits of very specific people. If you look closely, many of the animals have human anatomy, such as collar bones, which accentuates the gestures and physiognomy to create multi-layer poses expressing deep seated emotions.

Time for confession number two...

I may or may not have travelled all the way to Long Beach primarily to see BCS work. Did I mention I love her work? I really, really love it.

BCS sculpts her pieces out of solid clay using a pipe armature. The pieces are then hollowed out and reassembled. There is a lot more on her website about her processes so I do not want to repeat it when you can read it in her own words. 

Beth has been a massive influence on my work and to see her work in the studio was intensely inspiring. Her obsessive approach to her work means that she can only produce a few pieces a year but that they are to a ridiculously high standard. There's not so much I can say about Beth's work without becoming totally deep and fawning, so I suggest you just go to her website and check her out, she is truly an amazing artist and her pieces speak for themselves. It is really interesting to see the human condition played out using animals as the subjects.

I also love Beth's attention to detail, precision with specific materials, and her scientific background really shows through in her chemical knowledge of all the materials she uses, from the clay bodies and how they react in firings, right through to the specific types of glues and paints she uses.

It has been really inspiring to see how other interests feed back into your art. I think it may be time to bring some of my writing and stage design back into my work. Is the world ready for promenade theatre with ceramic sculptures as the actors? Only one way to find out...

Oh and in case I didn't mention it, I REALLY LOVE Beth Cavener Stichter's work.

Newtown # 07: Tip Toland

Ok so lets start this with a confession.

There are a lot of amazing artists lecturing at this course, some of which I wasn't aware of their work before hearing they were lecturing here, some of which have been my idols for a while. Because of this I obviously came with a sense of who I was looking forward to hearing lecture most. Sadly the three ones that I am most excited about are one after another lecture day wise, which means that my the end of Tuesday my fragile little ceramic brain will have been blown. Today (technically yesterday) was Tip Toland, hyper realists extraordinaire, tomorrow (technically today) is Beth Cevener Stichter, who is my idol... I can't think about this one too much or my mind will blow early, and finally on Tuesday (technically... no wait, still Tuesday) it is Cristina Cordova, who is far more difficult to describe but we shall get to her later with great excitement!

But yes that was just to put the next few days into context regarding my excitement levels!

Anyway, let's begin...

Tip Toland is amazing. I could actually leave this entry here and everything would be accurate. Tip's work is, double scale, hyper realistic, and totally hand built. I have been fortunate enough to be working in the same room as Tip this week and to watch her process is phenomenal. I have always had a very stylised approach to my work but her work has such a penetrating emotional context that I just want to go home and make children as realistically as I can.

Did I mention all her work is ceramic and hand built?

SHE BUILDS THESE WITH HER HANDS.

It goes without saying that Tip is a master of the gesture and anatomy and this radiates through as she does ballet stances as she moves around and you start to wonder if every movement is carefully orchestrates when you are so aware of their connotations. One of the most successful aspects of Tip's work is this knowledge of the human form. As she says herself; the more you know about anatomy, the more you know how you can play around and tweak it. I may be paraphrasing slightly there, but that was essentially the point!

Tip's work deals with mortality fairly frequently, but in such a beautiful and serene way that it takes so much of the fear and anxiety of the inevitable process away. These pieces are unapologetic about their vulnerabilities, normal people engaging in the most normal of acts and basic human emotions. Not forced smiles or macho bravado, because trust me, Tip can tell the difference. On top of all this she is such a wonderfully warm and kind human being with a sweet, infectious energy and personality that it is impossible not to fall in love with her. They say never meet your idols as they will always disappoint, but I have been pretty lucky in my life so far, and this lecture will be one I am still talking about in decades, many people in the audience were even brought to tears.

So yes, that is day one of my three favourites... I may have lots the ability to formulate coherent sentences by the end of day three!

Newtown # 06: Matt Wedel

Yes, that is indeed a giant gold baby, what of it?

This is just one of many baby boys that Matt Wedel uses in his work. They are generally rather simply detailed, huge and glazed or lustred in wild colours. I think I may need to come back to this entry in a few days as I'm pretty sure my mind has literally been blown today.

Matt produces these huge pieces at such a prolific rate that he is working on up to a dozen pieces simultaneously, circling the area and doing a couple of inches on each, working the way up and gradually constructing a world around him. We had the privilege of watching him work today and I have never seen a ceramicist that works with such an obsessive driving force.

Matt's work has wonderful implied narratives that run through his work, however it is really hard at this stage to get past his amazing building technique and glazing methods. The colours of his glazes are absolutely amazing and although they look good in photographs they are nothing compared to what they look like in person.

There is a very childlike element to Matt's work which may be one of the reasons I am so drawn to it. The pieces look almost like discarded toys that have evolved and developed into massive creatures. The main thing I have taken from today is that it is becoming clear to me from this program that I need to make my work a lot bigger for my own sanity, and that I need to be freer with the surface qualities and not restrict myself to my own tried and tested methods. Matt was the straw that broke my back (in a good way) over this!

Also he makes pieces with painfully intricate sculpted patterns, which is always a win as far as I am concerned.

Newtown # 05: Tae-Hoon Kim

I'm actually keeping up to date! A blog that is on the correct day, what a novel experience!

This is mostly because I left the studio "early" tonight so managed to get back to the hotel room for the far more reasonable time of twenty past midnight. Its practically the middle of the day, right?

Today we had a lecture from another Korean artist, Tae-Hoon Kim. This is one of the lectures that I was looking forward to from the outset as his lecture was listed as "Humor" and I tend to employ a degree of humour to provide a sort of buffer zone in my work.

The photos I saw in advance of Tae-Hoon's work made me think of some sort of figurines of anime characters but with a vaguely post-apocalyptic (for want of a better word of which I am sure there are dozens), however I was expecting his work to be far more jovial than it turned out to be. For example, when one of the first slides he showed us was a black and white photo of a pair of conjoined twins born in (and subsequently tested on) in the USSR, it was clear that all presumptions would have to be left at the door.

Tae-Hoon's work focuses on some pretty intense and deep thinking, the conjoined twins being only one example of this. He covered discussion about the conflict between the fetuses of twins and the struggle for life. These concepts then translate through to the visual language, and all of a sudden a cute looking piece of a character struggling to lift its own head because there is another head attached to it takes on an entirely new, slightly unsettling tone.

When asked about whether he used anime or cartoons as references he explained quite simply that visually he is far more inspired by David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky, and from now having seen his work "irl" so to speak, as well as seeing many more photos of it, I can believe this whole heartedly. One of the beautiful things about this body of work is that they clearly appeal to human nature. To most people they are probably not "creepy." However through my personal filter, which actively seeks out the strange and unusual, there is a distinct undertone.

But really, isn't that one of the things that great art is supposed to do, bring something out in us that already exists and extrapolate it to the front of our mind?

Either way, it is too late for such deep questions. As is becoming almost a tradition, I have been writing right up until going to bed. Its now 1:25am and I need to sign off!

I apologise for keeping all these entries relatively short, but if anyone is interested in me covering any of these artists in more detail when I'm not on such a tight deadline, let me know!

Newtown # 04: Chris Miles

Ah, a man with a name close to my heart.

So today(although today is now yesterday technically)'s visiting artist was Chris Miles. I will be absolutely honest, when I saw Chris' work on the list of tutors, it was probably the work I was least excited about. This is mostly because I almost live in this bubble where I love work that produces a narrative for me and from the photos I just wasn't picking that up from his work.

Which is why it is so ironic that his lecture was actually the most inspiring so far.

I now want to make weird industrial detritus balls with eerie children and crazed animals hanging off them at jaunty angles.

SO, lets get down to the nitty gritty here. Chris' work is not my usual cup of tea. I usually like work that has the promise or implication of a narrative or mythology that is pretty readily accessible or has visual elements which at least give the illusion of this. This body of work however, is far more abstract than I am used to engaging with. I was actually hesitant about posting pictures of his work because, and you need to trust me on this, his pieces look out of this world in person. As "objects." in the traditional sense of the word these works are totally fascinating. They are generally fairly large scale and stand on poles that hold them at a height which is usually around head height. Chris has loosely put the pieces into groups depending on their physical characteristics, and the groups have such wonderful genus names as "Noggins" and "Gnarls."

I do not want to seem like a complete flake again, but Chris is very particular about his working process, and people seeing his works-in-progress, so I really want to respect that and not go into too much technical detail here, however so many elements relate directly to my own work. For example he talked about being happy with simply his hands and a knife... which is pretty much my standard toolbox (ok so maybe include my trusty Tiranti wax modeling tool and maybe a kidney or two, but the sentiment remains...). He also does amazing things involving baby proofing foam (last seen in my Nan's house circa. 2000ce.) and a type of swim float that I now know Americans refer to as a "noodle" apparently. These methods are amazing, but I'm really not sure how much I can say over them.

ANYWAY, I cant finish this blog without mentioning Chris' AWESOME glazes. Some of the colours are simply phenomenal and actually may well provoke me into trying more of it on my won work!

Anyway as those of you who follow the blog will know, I have eeb flighting lack of sleep over the last few days, and tonight is the night I am going to win that battle.... despite it being an automatic failure at 3am...

I feel the need to write more about Chris so there may be more following in a few weeks when I can manage to keep both eyes open simultaneously.... wish I was joking..... totally not.

Newtown # 03: Myungjin Kim

MJ!! So I am running massively late! YESTERDAY'S tutor was the Korean artist Myungjin Kim, also affectionately known as MJ (as in out of the Spiderman movies "because Myungjin is too hard to pronounce." True story.)

So MJ makes had the double benefit of not only being a massive personality but also makes pieces that have some of the most intricate surface patterns I have ever seen done by hand.

I am essentially going to keep this short as MJ's work mostly explains itself visually. The main thing that needs to be said about her work is that she has developed an amazing method of coil building using porcelain.... which involves wet strips of flannel towels.

I could tell you about it, but apparently its a Kim family secret so... y'know... not going to.

The surface decoration is mostly made by a coating of black slip applied at the leather hard stage which is then carved back into using various tools to produce a wonderfully crisp design. Although Mj has said she is trying to move into more graphical and less overly decorative styles I think the existing work makes her stand out so I am genuinely intrigued to see how the work progresses in the future. Incidentally the colour is then added in during a second firing using a watered down version of my beloved and trusty favourite material; underglaze!

Again I am sadly going to have to keep this relatively short as it turns out that my body is kind of heavily reliant on this "sleep" stuff, so going to hit the sack before I have to get up and do more work tomorrow.

NB: By "hitting the sack" I actually mean that I am going to do my blog entry on Chris Miles to that I am up to date. Double entry whammy, eh?!

Newtown # 02: Gerit Grimm

So I'm running slightly behind schedule today as yesterday I was working until 1AM in the studio. I have learned that not only does this course like up to its monicker of "Work Intensive," but also that I am getting older and physically I need to sleep occasionally, so lets all just pretend for the sake of argument that this is backdated by a day!

"Todays" lecturer was Gerit Grimm. I had not actually heard of Gerit until I saw the list of artists teaching on the program, but she has a truly interesting approach to figurative sculpture, but I'm jumping the gun here.

Gerit was raised in the area formerly known as East Germany. She is an adorably sweet lady with a cheeky Germanic element to her personality and while in E. Germany she trained as a production potter. This has fed back into her work insomuch as she produces wonderful responses to figurines using wheel thrown elements.

Gerit has recently been working on a body of work currently on display at the Long Beach Museum of Art that is a response to the Museum's Staffordshire Figurine Collection. This is something that is close to my heart, being something of a Staffordshire figurine myself, and most definitely being a fellow Stoke-on-Trent export. This body of Gerit's work are all made from one type of clay which is put through a reduction firing to produce a wonderfully rich chocolately colour. The pieces have the effect of looking as though they are still in the state of being wet clay, however they are fired up to stoneware. Although I do not ever throw myself, it was fascinating to watch her process and hear about the technical considerations such as the migration of the various elements. 

One of the running themes I am noticing from the lecturing artists is that you cannot always micromanage clay sculpture and you have to be willing to just accept that things like cracks and slumping is part and parcel of the medium, which is actually surprisingly relieving and empowering.

The sculptures range in size from about 36 inches tall to more than life size, with my personal favourites being those that are somewhere in the middle scale-wise. I don't want to go on too much about Gerit today as I am going to go view her show in a few days and then I will talk more about the work again, so for now I shall sign off, although my next entry will hopefully be tonight to get me back on track!

Newtown # 01: SunKoo Yuh

Today was the first official day of the course I am on, Work Intensive III: Figurative. I will post a few pictures of my work as it develops, however I also want to focus on the visiting artist we have each day.

Today the first speaker was SunKoo Yuh, an artist who I wasn’t familiar with until recently, which is clearly a travesty.

SunKoo’s work is very different to what you would usually expect from figurative ceramics. They display a kaleidoscope of culture through a riot of colourful dripping and bleeding glazes. To me they are reminiscent of a modern day version of the kind of beautiful statues you would find peering out of overgrown vines in some lost Asian temple. The main reason for this is how overgrown they feel to begin with. This is not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination; the fact that SunKoo’s pieces display such an intense collection of varying characters means that from whatever angle you look at them from you can take an entirely different interpretation on the piece. Looking at one of his creations from one angle you may see a leering pig sticking its snout out menacingly, whereas from another angle it may be a muscle man flexing in speedos.

The main “theme” of the work is that of the Mundane. He observes the intricacies and subtleties of day-to-day life to create a pseudo-diary of the elements going on around him and this freedom of understanding means that the viewer is free to draw their own conclusions and parallels from the work through their own subconscious filters even more so than usually happens with art.

As a ceramicist one of the main things I have learned today is that even the best of us end up with cracks in our work occasionally, and on those occasions a combination of filler and the expression “the cracks are just part of my process” is both your friend, and your get-out clause. However, on a serious note the idea that as a three dimensional artist you should be producing work that is interesting from all angles is both absurdly obvious and completely counter-intuitive to what I think is a lot of people’s views on sculpting is. This is absolutely a concept that will stick with me and will hopefully develop my own thinking processes and work (which incidentally currently an albino alligator, but shh…)

Tomorrow the artist is Gerrit Grim, who makes incredible large scale figurative sculptures using wheel-thrown elements.