$588

Yesterday was my first payday as an artist.  It's been a while since I brought home a paycheck and this was a welcome surprise.

$288
First, taking care of old business.  Right before the holidays last December the Art Department opens its doors and hosts a sale of all our various work.  At that point 2 critical things had happened: I had just learned that we would be moving to California and I had reached a threshold in my tolerance for my mediocre ceramics.  I was no longer nostalgic about holding on to all of my learning pieces - all I saw were alot of things that did not need to follow me to CA.

So I boxed up a whole lot of stuff, priced it low, and crossed my fingers that I wouldn't have to take anything home.  I didn't really keep track of how many items I had listed or at what price.... I had no clue how much I was putting out there.  Cups - $5, Mugs - $10, Bowls - $10.  This was not nicely finished work, these were glaze tests and practice throwing cylinders.  The Ceramics Club gets 30% of the work, the artist 70%.  Poor bookkeeping or lack of funds in their account prevented me from getting my paycheck until yesterday.  I knew I didn't take a whole lot home... but I was shocked to learn how much I made.  $288!  All I could think was 'That's significant'.

$300
Every spring the USC Art Department hosts a student competition where both graduate and undergraduate submit pieces across all mediums to compete.  Each student is allowed 2 entries.  The show is first juried to see which pieces made the cut (eliminating about 50% of submittals), and then awards are given.  Several Honorable Mentions, then 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place awards for in 2 categories: undergraduate and graduate work.  Then one award is given to 'Best in Show' across all categories.  Cash prizes go along with each award.

I entered two pieces, both which were accepted in the show.  But I couldn't believe the news at the opening yesterday - that my Dress Form piece won 'Best in Show'.  The award was $300.  Woohoo!

From the Juror's Statement:
"The artists singled out for special recognition this year demonstrate a dedication to innovation in craft or content.  Their sincere engagement with the world through works of art is commendable and represents the highest calling of artists to make work that explores the many facets of our shared experience.  These works exhibit a undeniable ambition in their scope and execution.  To me, their merit was immediate and undeniable and I hope my small encouragement will help usher them to attempt even greater works in the future."

What timing - right as I'm trying to figure out whether or not I should look for a position as a Landscape Architect in CA.  I get this sign, this nudge.  A nudge that has absolutely nothing to do with money.  I was thinking this meant I should stick with art and try to go to Grad School.  I asked Matthew to interpret.  He said it means I should start selling my work.  I guess that's not a bad plan either.

More Photos  from the USC Student Art Competition.  The show will be up in the McMaster Gallery until March 25.

Samara, Subtractive Sculpture

This is our 'Subtractive Sculpture' project using mortar.  I colored mine, terra cotta.  We mixed up the mortar and let it set for a couple of days in a 5 gallon bucket.  When it is still wet, in the early stages, it can be manipulated a bit easier than when it has set up for a week.  So in the pictures above I am dividing my mortar into 3 slices.

The Samara is a form I have always been interested in.  A samara is the fruit, or seed, of a maple tree.  They hang like red tassels from their branches in the spring time.  It is just such an interesting shape... I thought I would study it through this sculpture.

This project was especially hard on my hands.  The mortar does terrible things to your skin, and the tools and muscle required to sculpt these forms are just tough and awkward.  We used rock hammers and chisels, files, and a threaded rod to slowly find our forms in the mortar.  It was my intention to have three samaras hanging together but early in the process I knocked one in half.  

Progress on the mortar forms

Similar to working with clay I find it such a mystery that my hands can create what my mind sees.  I'm not sure how exactly that happens... I am such a planner in my art typically.  And there is little planning that goes into these forms.  You just work and struggle to see and understand the piece, and slowly it appears.  

I drilled a whole at the top of the form.  I glued a wire loop, and then connected to two with a longer wrapped wire, so that they hang as a pair.  I hope to hang them like yard ornaments from the dogwood tree that overhangs my deck.  I like the way they came out and I wish I had time to make about 5 more, because I think it would be really cool to see them in aggregate.

Big Beech

A marathon weekend with power tools, grinding and sanding, then more time with the blow torch on the surfaces, and finally I'm finished with the relief.  I was really pleased with the wood burning technique.  I used the pen burning tool to articulate the branches.  I used the blow torch on the foliage.  The earlywood (lighter wood between growth rings) burns first which leaves the latewood rings lighter in contrast.  I used a 'Heartwood' stain after all the burning.

After I assembled the piece I wish I had paid more attention to the background and added some depth/variation to the sky... but I was exhausted with this project and ready to move on.  I learned alot about working with plywood and their layers.  I hope you too see the depth of the perspective, and get lost in the branches as they recede.  The project will be hanging on the wall outside the shop at USC for the rest of the semester.

Art 104: Crate

This assignment was loosely defined.  We were to design an object, or 'crate' that held or contained another common object.  The crate was to relate to the object it was holding in form and function.  This final project required that we construct our form out of wood.  Renee always encourages us to be playful... examples included a large toaster that held a slice of bread, or a large oreo that held inside it a box of oreos. 

I tend to avoid putting alot of work into something that doesn't have a function.  I was determined to make this project fun, beautiful, and practical.  My initial idea was to create a dress form that had compartments that held sewing notions.  I've been wanting to start playing around with clothing design and had been thinking of investing in a dress form for some time... if I made one myself then I knew the measurements would be pretty accurate. 

So, wood and the human form... The idea of using such a static material to create a form that is curvilinear with sinuous volumes would have been difficult for some.  But my mind instinctually went to the contour models we would make to describe the topographical shape of a landscape.  So I took all my measurements, an outline of my form, and went to work creating a construction detail and topo map of sorts, describing my torso.  How exhilarating to create a detail that I would be building.  (I showed my drawings to Renee and she didn't really understand what I was doing, or drawing, or how it was going to all come together.  I thought it was really interesting, all the different ways peoples minds work, and the methods we use to think about and describe things).

I was a little apprehensive about working with wood.  It all seemed rather straight-forward, but I didn't know the means of manipulating lumber... which saw would I use?  How would it handle precise curves?  How do I use the machines, and how would I be able to operate it accurately?  And how long would it take me to get all of this done??? 

Bought lumber (a soft blonde pine, 21/32" thick, laminated), drew my patterns (all which had been figured out, drawn on trash, and cut out) on the wood, and used the band saw(mostly) and jig saw (some) to cut out the pieces.  Actually neither were very difficult to operate.  But it was work... I spent 3 days of studio time just cutting out all of the pieces... all the time not knowing if my design would work and if everything would fit together as it should.  Finally, at the end of the third day, I fit it all together - it worked!  Though I needed to make some adjustments, it was so  encouraging to see it all come together.

Now for all the finishing touches.  I spent an entire day sanding all these pieces.  Then I spent another day staining: testing a variety of samples, debating the best combination, the applying it too all the pieces.   And at the last minute I decided to make a stand for the piece, so that it would actually function as a dress form and not just sit on my sewing table.

  

Front                                              Back

I used no nails.  The piece stands by itself with interlocking parts, but I used glue in a few key places to make it a bit more structurally sound.  Walnut stain was used for the vertical elements.  On the horizontal pieces I wanted a weathered, distressed raw look to the wood.  I found a recipe on line to achieve this, combining a clear water base stain with a bit of white flat paint and water.  I'm not thrilled with the way it came out, but it works.  The two center shelves pull out, inserted dowels hold spools of thread.

A few more details...

 

Looks pretty close to my proportions/dimensions, right?  (sorry I look so disheveled, I had just returned from my morning work out). 

This project really surprised me.  I wasn't excited about working with wood, and didn't think 3D design was something I was going to get into.  But wow - what fun!  So much problem-solving, which is what I love about design!  It was empowering to conquer a material that intimidated me so much.  And it is so satisfying when all the pieces of this puzzle come together the way you planned it.  Never in my work as a landscape architect did I have this sense of accomplishment.  Renee was really impressed with the way it all came together - and was also amazed at how differently we conceive, process, and build such pieces of art.  Her vote is that I pursue furniture design.  Another possibility to add to the list.  I was really hoping this class would help me narrow my focus, so that I could maybe cross this off the list of areas of art to pursue.  Instead, it just added another discipline.

Art 104: Enlarging a Common Object

What more is there to say?  Choose an ordinary, commonplace object, and enlarge 10-15x its original size. Meant to be and exploration of materials... half the trouble is the problem-solving exercise of how to construct your chosen object.

I chose a grapefruit!  It's hard to find a deeper meaning to another project that seems rather straight-forward.  But grapefruit are special.  They have always been present in my upbringing, thanks to this outstanding old citrus tree at the old farmhouse.  Nostalgia is all I can chalk this one up to:  picking the pale pink grapefruit from the tree with mom, eating them in the morning with dad.  Birds always trying to peck their way into the fruit, damaging the skin, never reaching the interior sweetness.  I always liked that the fruit were ugly, knowing that they would be rejected on a supermarket shelf.  Knowing that I was in on a great secret, a Tietje-ism that was quiet and special.


My primary materials were plaster wrap, fabric, and polyfill with a wire structure.  Among other things I think I was attracted to the geometry of the form, and the beautiful textures and colors.  My attachment to the sewing machine definitely helped with this project.  Alot of fun math involved in creating the pattern for the interior grapefruit structure.  The flesh of the grapefruit is a salmon-colored tulle with two different shades of opaque pink fabric below. 

Strangely, some of the most successful projects in the class were enlarged food.  It's just fun!  Renee couldn't stop giggling about the grapefruit.  An A+ project.  Even Matthew was game :).

Art 104: Balance and Tension

The realm of 3D design, form and sculpture, has been an area I have always wanted to explore.  Visually, it is not something I have been trained to analyze, break down, and understand.  Translating the 2D principles of line, positive and negative space, color and composition to the third dimension is not as easy or straight forward as it appears.  All good reasons to enroll in Art 104, 3D Design.

Our first project was to create a form comprised of geometric objects (rectilinear forms) that conveyed a sense of both balance and tension.  Our choice of materials was some sort of sturdy paper or board (matte board, chip board, poster board, ect.).  Color within the material was optional, only to be used only as a complement to the form.

It was a rather simple assignment... and those are often most confounding.  Sketching was where I started with this project, but it ultimately didn't inform my process as much as just building a study model with crude figures.  I settled on a form that I felt was rather organic in nature, comprised of a long narrow, central form (a stick or stem) with triangular forms radiating around it (leaves or flowers).  The tension and balance was easy to create, just in trying to arrange the triangles around the spine and getting the structure to stand.  The endless process of adding and subtracting, trial and error.

 

Here are all the elements made of chip board, taped along the central spine to figure out the best arrangement of the parts.

Somewhere at this stage a concept came to me... I began to see a larger meaning in this piece.  It is so mysterious how that happens!  I had probably been listening to too much NPR, and dwelling on this terrible oil spill in the gulf.  Color, a little acrylic paint, brought purpose to this sculpture.

The 'red stick', la baton rouge, representing Louisiana, my home.  And the blue triangles, water, coated and covered in oil.  Sticking and dripping, pulling down the red stick.  But also, it could be perceived that the water and oil are holding the red stick up, supporting it.  That is the contradiction of this tragedy... as much as we (Louisianians) would like to criminalize the oil industry it is also our blood and lifeline, a primary source of income for our community.

 

Concept is not something we've really been talking about in class.  Right now we are exploring form and for the sake of art and composition.  I was the only person in the class that had alot of thought or symbolism in the project.  We're not there yet in the class, and I jumped there because at LSU if it wasn't about something, then what was the point?  

I can just hear Frank, looking at a pile of geometric forms, saying 'So what?'.  And I can't help but make it about something.