Thank you!

Thank you for stopping by.  Unfortunately, this is not my website.  This is just a blog I kept for ceramics while I was in school.  I am currently working on a site where you can view and purchase my work, read my curriculum vitae, as well as contact me.  I am sorry for any inconvenience.  I really appreciate your interest. 

If you have any questions for me, feel free to contact Clifton Art Supply and Spot 5 Studios or e-mail the address found on the card that probably directed you here.  I would love to have you in my ceramics class at Spot 5.  I am very excited to be teaching and sharing my knowledge with you!

My job interview went pretty well.  I still have not heard from the owner for my second interview, but I know some people that work there.  I have on pretty good authority that I will definitely be getting the call.  I heard it is between me and Natalie, which is pretty intimidating.  We might end up working together. I want to prove that I can do this, but I am sure Natalie has a lot of experience she could share with me, which will be nice.  She is a very kind soul.
I got my wallpapering done last night.  The boards look really good... I just hope that paper is stuck on there really well.  I think I did a pretty good job for my first go at wallpaper.  I might use tape to put around the edges just to make sure they don't peel in transit.  My installation is going to be 8 feet tall, with one 8 foot long wall and a 12 foot wall.  I papered 5 8x4 panels.  I love the pattern.

Here is a photography project I've been working on.  I wanted to put a person in my installation. 

I was looking at the work of Jennifer Greenburg while I was thinking about this piece.  I really like the feel of her photography.  I keep going back to her and asking myself what I like about her work and what I don't like about her work.  This photo is a big inspiration.

Portfolio Preparation

I have been spending A LOT of time over the past few days preparing for my job interview tomorrow. I am so excited! I made my portfolio with some nice images of my work (both ceramic and printmaking), images of field experience, my resume, artist statement, and image list.  Thank you to Brian for all of your advice on helping to make it better.  I am so happy with it now.  I was feeling confident... until I found out Ian and Natalie have put in a CV for the same position. :(  I hope this information doesn't psych me out.  At least I have an interview.  I am hoping if I do a really good job with my demos and they are impressed with my portfolio I will have a good shot, and maybe won't feel the need to interview anyone else.  :)  Wishful thinking.  This is my dream job, and I would feel so much better about my life situation if I get it.  I would say wish me luck, but I don't need luck because I have skill and I am a hard worker.  :) Hah.

My BFA crit was last week.  I know it went well, but it left me with an unsettled feeling.  I got some differing opinions on what I should do for my show.  There are some things to think about.  But, overall, I want to stick with my original plan.  I am afraid if I scale back and go more minimal it will just look like I didn't go for it.  And you know, I gotta go for it.  If you're gonna do it, do it.

I fired 2 kilns this past week in preparation for my BFA crit on Wednesday.  I am so happy with this animal tree.  It is so much more successful than my previous ones.  I am glad I was finally able to make it work.  So, for my crit I will have this new one and my gold animal tree, the leaf plates in the bottom photo hung on the wall, the mantle I built with some stuff sitting on it, my 2 newest prints displayed with the ceramic objects like in my BA show, a shadowbox with ceramic objects in it, and a powerpoint with example photos from my installation on Pearl St and a pic of my BA show.
I ordered the wallpaper for my BFA show.  It was way more expensive than I planned, but I think I will be happy with it.  In the next 2 weeks I need to get the thin wood boards and apply the wallpaper and make a few bigger leaf plates with glass melted in them (similar to above).  The week before spring break I need to pack everything up and have it ready to go in a u-haul and take to IUS the day after I get back from New York.  I should be in good shape as long as the wallpaper arrives this week and I can successfully attach it to the boards so it's ready to go and hang on the walls in the gallery.
I hope all goes well.

Here is what I have so far for my card.  I am pretty happy with it.  Unfortunately all of the photos I took from my installation on Pearl St. are out of focus, so I set this up in my basement tonight and got some pretty sweet shots.  I used some techniques I learned about Photoshop from Photography class today to kind of blur parts of the photo and super sharpen the pieces I made.  I am pretty excited about it.  I really like the old wall and radiator in the piece.  I had a lot more little figurines in the curio cabinet, but the reflections in the mirror got too confusing, so I went with less.

I put two pieces in the cone 10 this past week.  Here they are glazed.  The owl doesn't look very good.  The glaze has bubbles in it.  I don't think it got hot enough.  I'm thinking I will try scraping off the crappy glaze and refiring it.  I also bisqued  many more little animals and made a mold for a much larger base.  I have kilns reserved this week so I can hopefully get a big animal tree done before my BFA crit next week. 

I have also been working on building my mantle for my BFA show.  I am very happy with the construction of it.  It looks great.  But, I have been working on staining it yesterday and today, which doesn't look how I had hoped.  The wood filler I used to cover my screws and cracks is not staining the same color as the wood, which looks really bad.  It has much lighter splotches all over it.  I stained it again tonight, and it seems to be looking better, though.  I need to see it in the daylight and put the polyurethane finish on.  I think I might need to rough it up a bit after it is finished so it will have an older feel to it. 

I know these pictures are horrible.  These are dark and sideways.

For my BFA crit next week I am going to show a powerpoint with images from my installation at Pearl St, the photo I took for my card, and a shot from my BA show.  In the Spacelab I am going to set up the mantle with stuff sitting on it, a shadow box with figurines in it, and my 2 newest prints displayed with the shelf and ceramic object.  I am also going to have the gold animal tree and the larger one I will complete this week.
Then after that I will keep working on little figurines and stacks, and I need to get together my wallpaper and figure out that situation for the show.  That is the biggest thing I need to work out still.

Photo Graphy

And another thing...

Snoop Bloggy Blog

I recently spent a lot of time on my BA show.  I made some nice prints.  I am very happy with the way the show turned out.  The opening was Tuesday.

Thursday and Friday I poured some of the new molds I recently purchased.  I need to get a lot of those rolling so I can make some bigger animal trees.  I am thinking if I start making the bases in two pieces then attaching them together post-fire the warping and leaning will be minimized.  I am just worried that they might now attach perfectly.  I made another base to try it out.  I might talk to Brian about that tomorrow.  I still need to go get a big cake stand to make a mold of.  I might do that tomorrow.
A lot of what I am planning on making this semester involved building things for my installation out of wood.  I am planning on hitting up Lowe's this Friday and getting the wood to build the mantle.  I need to make a calendar and plan out some deadlines in preparation for my BFA show.

I have also been working on my Thesis, which is going pretty well.  It is nice to sit and really think critically about my work.  I have also been spending some time working on my Photography project, which has been causing me some serious anxiety.  I feel like I am having a serious creative block, which is really negatively affecting my production of art.  I have been feeling I am in a bit of a rut for the past week or so.

Chris and I did our glaze tests today.

Here is some stuff I’ve been working on.  I have really been focusing on printmaking since my show opens next week.  I forgot to take photos of the two prints I am working on, but I am pretty close to having my Hootie Hoo monotype done and I started printing on my Me-Yow print today.  I got some wood for the other two shelves I need for the show.  I am hoping I can use the two that are already made from the Student Show for Philip’s piece.  I will make it work.  Being sick all last week really set me behind.  I have to print a layer every day this week to get done, and I am not going to be able to do the screenprint on top like I wanted, but it will look fine without it.  I would rather skip it than rush and mess up.  I got the Buddha done.  The gold looks nice.  I also refired the animal tree because a few of the animals fell off during firing.  One cat had too much glaze and slid, taking out a couple more.  It would have been pretty nice had that not happened.  The glaze looks nice on this one, but it is still pretty lop-sided, which I am not happy with.  I need to figure out a way to remedy this.  The lean just makes it look cheap and really takes the craftsmanship down to a level that I am not satisfied with. I have also been working on my thesis.  Writing it really got me thinking about my art and made me realize things about myself and my art that I had considered very much before.  I was really thinking on a higher plane.  I was considering some pretty interesting psychological points to my work.  I have also been learning some cool stuff about my camera which will really help with the documentation of my work and my gallery card.   

Here's what I've been working on...

 With my BA Printmaking show 2 weeks away, I have been spending a lot of time in the print shop.  It has been a nice respite from the ceramics studio.  Not that I do not want to be in the ceramics studio anymore, but it is a nice change of pace.  I do also really enjoy printmaking, and I have missed it.  I had hoped to be done with this by now, but I have come down with a cold, and have opted to rest instead of push myself and get more sick (like I usually do).  But, unfortunately not meeting my art goals makes me feel bad mentally, so it is a lose lose situation.  Assuming I do not feel worse tomorrow than I do now, I will run the first layer of black tomorrow night, then the second on Wednesday.  Hopefully that will finish this one up, then I will have the weekend and next week to do the other monotype I need done for the show.  I really hope I feel better tomorrow.  I can't have another day where I lay around and don't get much of anything done. 

Plus, I need to make the shelves for the ceramic pieces I am pairing with the prints.  I am going to put a couple of the owls featured in the monotype with this print, some porcelain kitties with the cat monotype I still need to make, some little cute kitschy things with "Getting Kitschy With It," and I am working on the below Buddha for my Buddah monotype.  I put some mason stain mixed with low-fire clear on it and fired it to cone 04.  There are little dots of mason stain chunks in it, which I am not too thrilled with.  But, the glaze did stick really well to the piece and it is nice and shiny.  If it weren't for the dots it would look really good.  I am going to do some nice gold detailing, which will make it look better.  I have actually fired this guy twice, and it does look a lot better now than it did the first time, but some of those damn dots won't go away.  They are smaller now though.  After the first firing, I scraped all the glaze with one of those kiln shelf scrapers to pop the bubbles, then washed out the powdered stain that was in the bubbles.  Then I put clear on top and refired with more clear on top (with a 30 minute hold).  They are smaller and smoother now.  I don't think I have this problem with my animal stacks... I did use the same kind of glaze.  I think it is because I splattered this on and brushed on most of the animals, which smoothed out the stain that was in little chunks.  But, I feel like I spattered it on the African Lady I glazed last semester and she has no chunks on her.  She was fired to cone 7, but I do not feel like that would have an effect on chunks of dry mason stain in glaze. 

This is the animal stack I am firing right now to cone 6.  I hope it doesn't lean as much as the first one I did.  The base is thicker and I tried to evenly put weight around the whole thing.  This is firing to 6, with the first at cone 7, so that might have a little effect.  I think the colors on this will look awesome if it fires well.  I am going to get a cake stand to make a mold of to make bigger stacks.  That will be so cool.  As soon as this come out of the kiln I am going to fire a luster, for the Buddha and maybe this stack if I think some luster would serve it well.

The first week of the last semester.

This week I have really been thinking about my two shows.  My BA show is the first week of February, and my BFA show is the week after spring break.  I had a talk with Brian regarding some questions/concerns I had, which was so helpful.  I have been working on a new print for my BA show (the last 2 photos).  I'm excited about it!  I ran another color, but forgot to photograph it.
This past week I did a little glazing, but decided to wait until tomorrow to fire my kiln because I had some stuff at home I wanted to bring in to test fire.  So, I am planning on firing an animal stack tomorrow.  And I am going to test fire a Buddha for the BA show to go with my Buddha print.  I am planning on firing a cone 6 and 018 this week.  I hope these Buddhas can fire to cone 6.  They might melt.  :) They might turn out really cool.
I also worked on the class test tiles.  I am looking forward to learning about glazes.
I bought a kiln today. And a bunch of awesome molds, a lot of which are cute little animals.