A Current Version of My Artist’s Statement and a Few Points of Visual Reference

Artist’s Statement

There are inevitable gaps in our understanding of each other. Language is our sometimes-successful attempt to bridge that gap. However, since language can’t fully communicate and often confuses, language is, paradoxically, both a connection and a barrier. I make ceramic works that reference functionality, written language, systems, and natural forms. Using coats of glaze, I create layers of writing, spaces, faded words, and patterns. The layering, melting, and decorative arrangements of words render the language illegible or obscured in places. The forms themselves hint at a mysterious hidden volume or reveal layers at their edges.

I feel that humans are sometimes more honest and meaningful when they write because they aren’t physically confronted with the evidence of the other. The pressures to written communication are felt but they are less overt and the sense of intimacy and privacy in writing and reading remains. Written language is somewhat insidious in that it seemingly speaks only to you.

I want the texts to have layers, both literally and figuratively, to be discovered over time, imagined in some places, where the meaning has been lost or distorted beyond recognition. Functional objects offer ideal circumstances for the discovery of these layers and secrets. Through use and play, through the simple act of tactile exploration, users know an object over time, comprehending, imagining, uncovering. All art can be known and discovered over time, but functional objects, however fantastically decorative, are mundane; they are just as insidious as the written word in that they are both highly charged and commonplace.

 

My current project, my thesis show, is informed by an ancient form of time keeping called a water clock, as well as communal tables. 

 

Radio Interview on NET 91.1

Congratulations to one of SUNY New Paltz’s brilliant alums, Bri Murphy! Check it out!

The Beginning of the End

Semester Plan of Action/Proposal

Themes and Concepts

I want to create a work that speaks both to the romantic fantasies associated with the craft of pottery, as well as to the realities of labor. One of the central motifs of the pottery profession is a romantic view of the communal table. Pottery is, when defined by many contemporary potters’ statements, about sharing, about joyful gatherings with communities, about connections between user and maker. In many ways, these notions are romantic fallacies. Platters in museums do not participate in joyous feasts. Expensive sets are brought out for only the most formal occasions. For the most part, to those who buy these objects, the joyous everyday is not for art pottery. But, fallacy or not, they speak to the intentions and romantic ideals of the pottery discipline.

This romantic fantasy of the communal table is a cultural touchstone for more than the pottery community. Western culture, indeed, many cultures, hold a romantic ideal of the family table. This ideal is pervasive in literature, art, and all forms of commerciality: entertainment, advertising, etc. Judy Chicago referenced the dinner party in her work The Dinner Party, as a connection to traditionally feminine craft as well as consumption.

The main device of my installation will be modeled after ancient water clocks, which told time with vessels and water. Vessel forms will be placed in a pool of water, into which they will slowly sink as they fill. This is a representation of accumulation—the accumulation of time, of labor, of words and meaning, and of memory.

 

Display Methods

This project is a gallery installation. I want to use the Dorsky Museum to provide a foil for relational objects by placing them in a constructed setting that mimics the artifice of some social interactions.

There will be two tables. On table will be set, the surface crowded with functional forms, part elaborately set tea party, part hoarder’s table overrun with a proliferation of forms. The structures of the objects themselves will mimic the layering of the forms and surfaces. The groupings and forms will suggest the breakdown, entropy of human interaction, and at the same time, the wild profusion and fertility of connection, the miracle of the persistent romance to the contrary that makes any communication at all possible.

The second table will actually be a table-like pool of water, in which the forms from the first table will be floated, until they finally sink to the bottom, accumulating masses and layers of forms that will sit below the surface of the water. Some vessels will not sink and will remain floating.

Surface decoration of the vessels will include written texts. Using coats of glaze, I create layers of writing, spaces, faded words, and patterns. I want the texts to have layers, both literally and figuratively, to be discovered over time, imagined in some places, where the meaning has been lost or distorted beyond recognition. Functional objects offer ideal circumstances for the discovery of these layers and secrets.

All art can be known and discovered over time, but functional objects, however fantastically decorative, are mundane; they are just as insidious as the written word in that they are both highly charged and commonplace. Pottery represents communal, empathic, relational objects. Their pervasive, pedestrian nature allows them to be as accessible as the written word in our modern world.

 

Link

http://www.trueactivist.com/gab_gallery/go-ahead-and-grab-it-its-only-2200-degrees/

These thermal tiles, designed for space travel, can be touched by bare hands at 2200 degrees Fahrenheit! 

a tavola

In our Design and Production class, we are working with a local restaurant to design tableware, barware, and accessories. a tavola is a really interesting little restaurant, with a rustic Italian menu, expertly mixed old-fashioned drinks, a local farm to table philosophy, and a casual but intimate atmosphere. Excited by a tumbler that I picked up at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia this summer (I’ve been meaning to post about that cup–I’ve fallen in love with it), I chose to design barware. I really wanted to translate traditional glass barware into ceramic form. In my once and future life, I worked as a wine buyer at a beer, wine, and liquor store. I also tended bar on and off for years. Because of this, I am very familiar with the intricacies and rituals of wine, beer, and liquor tasting. In my opinion, there is no reason to exclude ceramic as a viable material from which to enjoy wine and spirits. There are considerations, sure. The rim should be thin or smoothly contoured or both. The color of the glaze on the inside of the cup, while it doesn’t have to be white, should be luminous, bright enough to reflect light back through a liquid, illuminating the color of the wine or spirit. I drink wine from a cup that Rebecca made all the time. I am constantly admiring the way the celadon interior glows through the wine. The weight of the cup should be balanced. It can be weighty but it must be satisfying to hold, not difficult or precariously balanced. Sadly, from our initial interview, I could tell that the client really wanted mugs. That may or may not be because pottery and mugs are synonymous sometimes.

We have been designing, ideating, and refining for weeks now. Our second visit with Nathan and Derek (the owner/chef and bar manager respectively) was this past Friday. We showed them some tangible, material examples of our more fully realized designs and asked for their feedback. I stupidly chose to pursue more than one design, making my life a little harder. But I am stubbornly holding onto the idea of classic cocktail glasses in ceramic form, so I am going to continue making the tumblers below, despite the fact that Derek and Nathan want mugs, in case they see some merit in them when I am finished. I’m making mugs too. Cups are my favorite form, after all.

The first picture is my very first design, a mug that is shaped like a hoof. The second version of that design morphed into a very traditional teacup that has a hoof-shaped foot, which fits into a hoof-shaped imprint in the saucer. The original sketch has an ornate blue and brown pattern. I have to work on a different, more subtle pattern but I will still use blues and browns. The tumbler is in bisque form but I am very happy with the mishima (slip-inlay) technique so far. It’s not practical for production but I think that I just wanted to do it to prove that I still can. The last design is another cup and saucer set, this one with botanical and biological diagrams. Both saucers are currently cooling in a kiln.

The Mystery of the Missing Meaningless Message

I have been searching for more on the practice of inscribing nonsensical or asemic calligraphy onto pottery. The example that I have of that practice came from our visit to the Smithsonian museums in DC last year. A fellow grad student at the time was studying Islamic ceramics as an independent study and we were looking through the galleries devoted to this area of study. Separately and then together, we read the information card explaining that the calligraphy said nothing and was meant for an illiterate population, discussed the implications, marveled over the meaning that must have been ascribed to those meaningless marks. And now I can find nothing on the production of such vessels. Do I seriously have to travel back to DC to find this pot? For now, I am going to contact the Smithsonian branch (The Freer Gallery?) responsible for curating this collection and request some information.

I did come up with more background on historical inscriptions on pottery. The following examples are among the oldest and stem from Islamic and Greek cultures.

Pots with inscriptions, such as this one pictured here and in a previous post, are commonly referred to as epigraphic ware. There are examples in Islamic lusterware, Samanid, and Seljuk pottery. Samanid pottery was inscribed with proverbs and morals. Seljuk ceramics came later and focused almost exclusively on poetry, specifically love poetry.  A typical inscription reads as follows:

            In the world of love, grief is no less than joy:

            Whoever is not glad to grieve, is not happy;

            However wide the wilderness of calamity may be

            I have seen that, for the foot of love, it is not even a step

What does love poetry have to do with pottery? To me it speaks to the poignancy of everyday objects, to the wish to have these words always with, perhaps even on the lips of, the beloved, to be forever within reach of the heart in need of those words. Fired and permanent, fragile and precious, held close to life in use, the immortal sonnet made material again. 

There are also examples of Greek inscriptions on pottery that indicate some sort of erotic love but have not been satisfactorily explained by historians and anthropologists. Inscriptions on these pots compliment a specific person on their sexual attractiveness, usually by saying simply “X is beautiful,” where the word “kalos” or “kale” meaning “beautiful” carries an erotic connotation.

 

So, even though I am distractedly more interested in the asemic examples of calligraphy in these traditions, I am very much intrigued at the choice of message for inscription on pottery. It seems that dishware, pots, and vessels have been used as records and tokens of love for longer than jewelry or adornment. Though both forms would eventually serve as material for messages of love, domestic pottery seems to have come first, or at least simultaneously. To me, that implies that adornment was, at first, status-oriented alone and that lovers and teachers held more domestic intentions for their words of love and morality. Or were these pots prominently displayed, like hunters display heads on plaques, their tender or self-righteous words held out as evidence of one’s desirability and morality? Could the greek pots be nothing more than notches on a bedpost? And still, what an odd place to put those notches. 

 

Jose Parla: Palimpsests and Street Art

This gallery contains 8 photos.

Jose Parla is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. His paintings and drawings layer asemic and semantic script. Some of the script on bottom layers bleed through to top layers. He has also ventured into the ceramic medium. His work … Continue reading →

Haystack Art Schools Collaborative 2013

This gallery contains 19 photos.

Two weeks ago, Chris, Sabina, and I took a trip up the coast to Haystack Mountain School of Craft for a conference. The conference was called the Eastern Art School Collaborative and gathered between seventy to eighty students and faculty … Continue reading →

Statement of Action

Writing on Pots

Through layering, obscuring, juxtaposing, and repeating script, I create patterns of words in ceramic glaze that offer, as all language offers, the chance for connection. The distortion and disorientation of the text mimics the real but imagined nature of expression. There is an integrity to the handwritten word, the connection to human presence being so clearly expressed in the evidence of the hand. The intimacy of the act of reading allows us to feel an internal connection. Though that integrity and intimacy can be exploited, I am more interested in the tantalizing promise of these (missed?) connections, in the projections, the empathy. However imaginary, however fleeting, empathy is most vital to our existence.

As usual, I can communicate this better in writing, when I don’t feel the awkward weight of human presence, of the other. Maybe that’s what I get from writing. I feel that humans are sometimes more honest and meaningful when they write because they don’t have to deal with societal pressures. There are pressures to written communication and, often, these are felt but the sense of intimacy and privacy in writing and reading remains. This is actually the very aspect that can be exploited by propaganda, both personal and commercial. Written language is somewhat insidious in that it seemingly speaks only to you.

asemic script/automatic writing

I want the text to have layers, both literally and figuratively, to be discovered over time, imagined in some places, where the meaning has been lost or distorted beyond recognition. Functional objects, in this case, pots, offer ideal circumstances for the discovery of these layers and secrets. Through use and play, through the simple act of tactile exploration, users know an object over time, comprehending, imagining, uncovering. All art can be known and discovered over time, but functional objects, however fantastically decorative, are mundane; they are just as insidious as the written word in that they are both highly charged and commonplace.

a pattern made out of “me” and “you”

a narrative form

First Soda Firing of the Semester (Fall 2013)

We fired the soda kiln for the first time this semester, “we” meaning Chris, Sabina, Rey, Ashleigh, Teal, and me. I decided to use both a sprayed solution as well as packets of dry mix as a delivery method for the soda. I wanted to clearly see the difference between the two delivery methods, so we only used this method in one port of the kiln. The solution consisted of 2 lbs of soda ash per gallon of hot water. For the packets, I wrapped a mixture of soda ash, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda,) calcium carbonate, sawdust, and water in newspaper.

The “plaster method” A paste mixed from calcium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, soda ash, sawdust, and water

rolling the mixture into little packets

We loaded the kiln after class (and late into the night) on Wednesday, September 11^th. The first attempt at firing ended just after 5 am on Thursday, when the kiln was around 1000 degrees. I had peered into the top spy to find that the cone pack had fallen. Not only would a fallen cone pack hinder my ability to judge temperature inside the kiln, but it would also eventually melt onto either the shelves or somebody’s pieces, depending on how far the debris had scattered.

So we shut the kiln down and waited for a moment in our busy schedules when we could dismantle and rebuild the wall. That day ended up being Tuesday, September 17th, firing into Wednesday the eighteenth. We lit the pilots on the newly bricked kiln at 8 pm on Tuesday. The kiln fired slowly and we didn’t introduce soda into the kiln until 8 pm on Wednesday. Although this seems a normal firing time for this kiln (at least, that’s how long it has taken in the past,) I hope to cut the next cone ten firing time by a couple hours.

The kiln went through some heavy body reduction, causing it to soot, blackening the bricks above any spies, ports, or cracks.

Everybody took his or her turn spraying soda solution into the kiln. We began this when cone nine was down on the bottom and soft on the top. Last time, we’d had some trouble with the sprayer tube clogging due to the soda solution cooling, which has the effect of lowering the saturation point of the water, resulting in the formation of chunks that lodge themselves in the tube. We fought this by keeping the sprayer reservoir in a tub of hot water. This time, no clogs. Good thing too, because we didn’t have a turkey baster on hand.

Me, spraying soda solution into a port

Rey takes a turn

Chris gives it a go

In all, the soda introduction lasted about an hour. We shut the kiln down at 10:30 pm, with cone ten soft on top and cone eleven soft on the bottom.

Oh yeah, and we took a little break for some salsa dancing in between sprays.

Chris gives us a little instruction on salsa. Ashleigh’s got it down!

Unloading didn’t take place until five days later, after Chris, Sabina, and I returned from our trip to Maine (more on that later.) Most of us were very happy with our results. The heavy reduction created some interesting variations of soft grays on some of the bare clay yet wasn’t so heavy as to burn out the copper reds. The kiln was not tightly packed, but evenly distributed for the most part.

the kiln right before we tore it apart

most of my pieces

Later, I’ll post more on some of my test results. I had some exciting clay body tests and a couple interesting glaze tests. But for now, I’ll simply comment on a few conclusions reached from this first firing:

The packets seem to be the least desirable method of soda introduction. They are more clumsy to add and don’t fully combust upon entry. If they are used in the future, they should only be introduced through low ports, behind the bagwall, so that they don’t make a mess of the shelves. Spraying is an easy, relatively clean method in comparison.

Next time we will pack the kiln more tightly in an attempt to evenly distribute heat, pressure, and soda. And also, maybe a little lighter on the reduction. All in all, a fine first firing with a fun crew!