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!
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