Painting Sensation: Sound

The painting class I'm taking is focused on engaging your senses to inform your work on a particular subject.  We are to learn to create atmosphere and color by reacting to sound, smell, touch, taste... not exclusively our vision.  Depending on one's aptitude, this can be quite a difficult task.  For the last few weeks we've been exploring sound and rhythm in our paintings.

To get us warmed up to working in this manner we completed several studies on bird calls (pictured above).  The first call was a cheerful song - the type that would wake you up in the morning.  The second was a barn owl, and the third call was low, hushed and quick.  We were instructed to first react to the sounds by mixing colors we would associate with the call.  Then develop a form that responded to the rhythms and tones we heard.  Creating the forms was the biggest challenge to me. I ended up describing the atmosphere of the places I would most likely encounter these birds (morning, night, and dusk).  It really does always come back to the landscape.

The final sound pieces was our reaction to a symphonic piece of music.  It was very eerie and left one with a question, a feeling of uncertainty.  I'm sure I've heard the music on a movie soundtrack before.  The music was much longer than a birdcall, and it had several movements.  This composition is also much larger than the studies.  Here I deliberately sketched out ambiguous forms before I began painting and then reacted to the music in color.  I must have had ceramics on the mind... I feel like I could sculpt these forms out of clay.

I'm quite sure none of these are successful and that this is not the method which I am meant to work.  I don't see music beyond a dim image of what the notes would look like on the page.  We had an assignment similar to this in third year landscape at LSU... we were to react to music in a 2D form and use that image as the basis for a design of a rooftop garden.  It was one of the few landscape projects which I was not proud of, one that I didn't succeed with.  I think I'm just too literal, and practical.  Too much freedom.

10 Bowls

10 (+ a couple extra) bowls, thrown, thin, and trimmed.  What a relief to work on a new form!  I really enjoyed the challenge of these bowls.  And I really like the product!  Nice, concise, economical forms.  We used three pounds of clay on each of these forms.  I experimented with tall bowls and wide, shallow bowls (which are quite tricky), but mostly worked wit the very practical, in-between shape.

In the past I actively avoided trimming my pieces.  Trimming is the process of shaping the foot of a vessel that is wheel-thrown.  One allows the clay to set up and reach the leather hard stage (where the clay is still malleable, but not so soft that you would ruin the piece if you picked it up).  Turn your piece over on the wheel, re-center it, attach with clay, and use sharp trimming tools to reduce excess clay from the piece and re-shape the foot.  I usually avoid this for a couple of reasons...
1. It usually takes longer to trim a piece than it does to just throw it on the wheel.
2. Re-centering your piece upside down on the wheel can be a very tricky process.  Not easily accomplished, requires alot of patience, and it often reveals whatever flaws exist in your piece (slightly off center pieces).
3.  It is easy to mess-up trimming.  You could accidently trim through the bottom of your piece, or trim it un even (the piece would wobble about an uneven foot) or nick it with your tool, or dig into too deep and knock it off center.

Despite all these draw-backs, I really liked it once I got use to the idea and learned a few techniques to help me control the process.  It's nice to be able to to further editing, to reduce the weight of the piece, and to get creative doing more sculpting.  Here are some images of my trimmed feet.

     

We also helped out with a bisqueware firing.  Check out the kiln, packed to the brim with the class's bowls and cylinders!

Printmaking: Monotype and Transfers

Our first printmaking project we focused on 2 processes:  monotype and transfer.  These images are a combination of the two processes.  Transfer is simple:  a line drawing is created using black ink, run a copy of the drawing in a copy machine.  Then you use the solvent 'Citrasolve' and the press to transfer the image to your high quality paper.  

Monotype was our first introduction to printmaking inks, which are thick and oil based and really sticky.  For the monotype process apply ink to a small sheet of plexiglass, lay the inked plexiglass face down on your paper and run it through the press.  The ink should be applied in a really thin coat.  

For this project we were required to create an series of three images that illustrated a sequence.  I chose to illustrate the process of decomposition of a leaf.  I wanted to zoom in and examine the vein structure of a leaf and how it breaks apart over time.  

I ran 3 versions of each image in the series.  The middle edition was the 'ghost' image, meaning with the monotype I didn't ink the plate again, I just ran it through the press to capture the ink remaining on the glass from the previous run.  I think I like these ghost images the best; it looks more natural and less fussed over.  There was quite a bit of experimentation across all 9 prints, trying to figure out the properties of these new materials and how to best use the processes.

The jury is still out on printmaking as an art form, and I must say, prospects are not looking good.  The associated processes are slow, and the ink is such a pain to work with and clean up.  I suppose I'm also getting frustrated with myself for not being more patient!  But I'll do my best to see it through the semester.

The following images are the ghosts that I liked best.

      

Sculpture Update

I really loved working with wood and all the associated power tools this summer so I enrolled in a sculpture class this semester.  Our first assignment is to create a relief wall hanging that has depth.  Still a couple of weeks til this project is due, but I wanted to give you a little progress report.


My concept is that of a tree, particularly the perspective created looking up through the canopy.  I've taken photos like this for years, and other artists have been mystified by this view too.  


Concept images:

  

photos taken at Congaree National Park last spring

Georgia O'Keefe's version

The ancient, mammoth beech tree our landscape class fell in love with our third year of school.  The project, and tree, were at Mary Brown Nature Preserve in South Louisiana.

This is my progress thus far.  Still have alot of work to do, spent alot of today grinding and sanding... but  it's taking shape :).  The challenge will be to make the trunk of the tree look continuous, and to make the canopy feel light and delicate.

Alla Prima Painting

"Alla Prima" painting method is when you methodically mix colors to reflect the colors you see in life.  Sounds simple, and obvious, right?  But this is not necessarily the way all people paint (remember the Venetian Process?).  Because color is so reactive, meaning that it changes depending on the other colors adjacent to it, this process can be quite repetitive, always remixing a color because what you have painted next to it has changed the painting.

So this was our first exercise in my painting class:  to paint the colors we see, as close as we can.  It was also an exercise in mixing neutral colors, paying attention to their temperature (warm or cool?).  The subject is nothing fancy, probably to help us let go of all pretense and focus on the neutrals, and the exercise of mixing color.  The photograph is not from the exact perspective from which I was painting, but you get the idea.  Also this photo makes the colors that I mixed look so far from where I should have been... but it all seemed closer to the mark when I was in the studio.  A really fun exercise - and really difficult - but I found the process very meditative.  I can't wait to really invest some time in a nice painting.

This semester uses oil paint exclusively and we will paint mostly on prepared cotton paper (Arches Stonehenge covered in a mid-tone rabbit skin glue).

10 Cylinders

I know it seems a bit repetitive for me, considering I made 100 cups last semester.  But I am determined to get some college-level instruction on how to throw well crafted pots.  So this semester I'm enrolled in the first ceramics throwing course.  And our first assignment: to throw 10 cylinders, at least 6" in height, from a pound and a half of clay.  I'm a little ahead of the game, so I just threw as many quality cylinders as I could, really trying to analyze this basic process, and helping my classmates out along the way.  

Today we had our critique.  I, like many potters, can get tripped up at my beginnings and endings.  So I really tried to focus on a sturdy lip (since I have a tendency to throw thin).  And I tried to pull more clay from the bottom, making uniformly thick walls.   I also had some problems with air in my clay... which really is a wedging issue.  

The dissection:

Not too bad.  Hopefully I'll sell all of these at the student ceramic sale at the end of the semester.  Lord knows I don't need any more cups!  Next assignment: 10 bowls of 3 lbs. of clay, trimmed.  I can't wait to do something new!