Mixed Media at Heart

I think I am a mixed media artist at heart. I am also a collector of things and it felt good to use some of the things I have collected over the years. Some of the things I used for "Crow Spirit" I have had for more than 20 years. The clay part has been hanging around waiting for me to have time to finish it. My life is truly out of balance so I decided to stop doing for others and take time for me. I am so glad that I did because I really love how it turned out and I feel lighter, happier.

I am putting this in the ClaySpace Ceramic Arts Center's Holiday Open House that is happening this weekend. Not sure I am quite ready to see it go but cash is needed to continue my newest vice--clay. I also donated on of my journals for the raffle. Last year my journal raised the most money. There is stiff competition this year. However, I am happy to support the arts and my community this way.

60 Days of Crows/Birds?

For anyone who has ever read my blog, you know i have a fascination for birds and crows in particular.  Kimberly Baxter Packwood just suggested a 60-dat crow/bird challenge. Not sure I can do 60 days. We shall see. Here is my latest bird sculpture fresh out of the kiln! I love the texture created by the grog in the clay. It also reflects my interest lately of cracks and altars. Guess I was combining all my interests in one. Of course, this was suppose to be an assignment about crisp, straight edges. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow and know that your teacher just has to understand. Now to figure out something to put into the altar part. Any suggestions? Anyone up to a 60-day bird/crow challenge?

More Clay Dyeing

I am looking forward to clay dyeing aprons which are suppose to be arriving on Friday. Guess you know what I will be doing this weekend! This piece was dyed with a brown stoneware clay. At first, I was underwhelmed, but the more I look at it, the more potential I see.  The next clay will be a black clay. Although, it does not turn black until high fired so this should be an interesting experiment. Definitely fun without a lot of work!

Clay Dyed Fabric: The Journey to Get All My "Vices" in One Room

As many of you know, I took up ceramics in September 2013 as a way of getting outside my comfort zone. For the last six months, I have been experimenting with different types of clay which. has created small amounts of clay being leftover. What to do? Since I am also trying to get all my "vices" in one room, I decided to try dyeing with the leftover bits of clay. This is my first attempt and I have to say, I'm hooked! I used PFD fabric and terra cotta clay to create this piece. I want to thank Kimberly Baxter Packwood for sharing on her website how to do it. The next clay that I am going to try is a brown stoneware from California. This is just too much fun and I can't wait to use the fabric.

In Search of Lost Time

Time flames like a paraffin stove / and what burns are the minutes I live.
                     ― Irving Layton, The Selected Poems


While creating my second altar, I thought it might be more accurate to call them shrines. When I looked up shrine in the dictionary, the definition was "altar." I think I like the word shrine better. This particular one deals with Robert Field, my father's legal guardian and his marriage late in life (he was nearly 60) to Rachel Knuth (she was 52 or 53 when they married). Ken worried that I am using "real objects" and won't I miss them when my shrines sell. They are just things. Most were things that I retrieved out of the trash when my dad was cleaning out their house. Things are not memories. Things aren't people. If someone purchases my shrines, to me it means the things have found a new home.

Next I am thinking about changing the title of "Secrets" to "In Search of Lost Time." As I go through all the things that I have collected from family members over the years, I keep thinking "if I only knew." So many questions will go unanswered.

Secrets One

Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination or forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. - August Wilson

I marvel at how the universe can sometimes make it impossible for you to look away. That is my reality. My dad is dying and not in a nice way but slow and painful way. My friend, Ken Maloney, has asked me to join him in a show at ClaySpace that focuses on where we grew up. So to deal with all the issues/demons, I am making art. I decided to do a series of alters which I am calling "Secrets." This one is "Secrets One: The Adopted Grandmother." The alters are made from clay and the contents are from different people in my life growing up. Now that I have finished the first one based on my adopted grandma Rachel, I am anxious to continue. The healing has hopefully began.

Green Man

Maybe because as a child my dad made leprechauns real that the Green Man--the mystical spirit who stands for Nature in it most wild and untamed form, a man with leaves for hair, who dwells deep within the forest appeals so much to me. To date, he is also the largest clay mask I have made. He is nearly 24 inches tall by 20 inches wide. Whether he is completely done is uncertain. I need to live with him for a few days, but I did want to share. I know that tomorrow I see if I can tone down the shininess of the glazes that I used. And yes, each leaf is two layers fused together and stitched. Overall, I am happy. Much happier than my attempt many years ago at making a quilted one. That said, I still like my journal sized Green Man which hangs in my studio.

Clay and Fiber: More In Common Than You Think

In September 2012, I decided to move outside of my comfort zone and take a pottery/ceramics class. In addition to learning the art which I have truly come to love, I began studying the history and the work of ceramic artists. I discovered that the historical flow of knowledge and influence began in China then moved to Korea and finally to Japan. I choose to spend some time studying Japanese ceramics because I could more easily find translations and information. As I studied, I was struck by the many similarities between ceramics and quilts. There is the art vs. craft debate. Despite names like “bowl,” “jar,” or “vessel,” that imply some sort of practical function, pieces are created with the idea that personal fulfillment and self-expression are often more important than practical utility and commercial success. There is also the tension between the traditionalists and those who breaking away from tradition.  And finally, there is the educated vs the self taught debate.  It is my hope that this provides food for thought.

Kishi Eiko (1948-) took archeology and anthropology courses in college, studied dyeing and painting and art history before taking up clay. She has no formal ties to a ceramic tradition. This independence has enabled her to develop a unique style. She uses a technique of her own invention, which she calls “color inlay” and usually works on two pieces at a time for months at a time. This piece took three months to make. “It is only in making my work that I understand where the piece is going.”

Katsumata Chieko’s (1950-) work reflects a distinctive ceramic education. All her formal training took place in France, where she traveled with a plan to study industrial design. A meeting with Texas-born potter Fance Franck inspired her to pursue a ceramic career.  Her love of ancient artifacts bearing the marks of time owes something to the sixteen-century Japanese tea-ceremony masters and the aesthetic of wabi sabi. Yet Katsumata uses colors that are far removed from those traditional Japanese ceramics. “I am attracted to things…that convey the passing of time.”

Yabe Makoto (1947-2005) lived and worked full-time outside of Japan. He began studying ceramics at 18 and completed his training at twenty-four, following a four-year apprenticeship with Shikokai, a small avant-garde group. He moved to Massachusetts in 1977 and remained in the U.S. until his death. Yabe experimented with the demanding nerikomi marbling technique that originated in Tang-dynasty China ((618-907). His work reflects the struggle between functionality and expression. “Mostly, it doesn’t come out as I expected!”

A great book to lean more about contemporary Japanese ceramics is Contemporary Clay: Japanese Ceramics for the New Century by Joe Earle (2005, MFA Publications). I look forward to your thoughts.

Stepping Out of My Comfort Zone

You must do the thing you think you cannot do. -Eleanor Roosevelt

If someone had told me that a year after taking my first pottery/ceramics class that I would be creating sculpture, I would have looked at the person like he/she were crazy. It is still a work in progress but I wanted to share with you what I have been working on for the last two months. I think I have convinced my teacher that I don't need three detailed drawings to create. 

There will be a broken heart hanging inside the hole and a white crow on the shoulder. It is two pieces and will be epoxy together once it is all done. There are wings too. They are on the shelf waiting to be fired. They are bird like instead of angel like.) It was created in two pieces (newspaper separating them right now) so it will fit in the kiln. 

The piece is autobiographical. It deals with a lifetime of not being seen or heard by people who claim to love me. It also deals with coming to terms with life and finding flight. It has been an interesting experience and I will be creating another sculpture that deals with loss. 

Why clay? It is just another tactile experience, another creative outlet. I think pottery and quilts have more in common than one would think. There is the kaleidoscope of forms, colors, textures, sizes and function. There is traditional and contemporary. All I know is playing in the mud feeds my artistic soul. 

What feeds your artistic soul?

Gathering Grief

I took a chance with the clay part of "Gathering Grief" and it worked! I used a mason stain because I did not want the piece to be shiny or have a solid color. I am not sure I could have made another piece if it had not turned out. I had not seen anyone use mason stains at ClaySpace so I had no idea what it would look like once it came out of the kiln. I just trusted the universe.

There has been a lot of loss this summer so I thought creating this piece would be easy. It has not. The quilt part is still giving me fits. Since I want to enter this in a gallery show, the fast approaching deadline should help me get focused and push through too may ideas! How do you deal with too many ideas?

Pushing the Limits of My Comfort Zone

I continue to push the limits of my comfort zone. First, I have been writing again. Real Simple magazine is having their sixth annual Life Lesson Essay Contest. You are to answer the question, "What is the bravest thing you have ever done?" I am writing about my first trip to Georgia. People have continually told me that I need to write a book on my adventures. This is helping me decide if this is something I can and want to do. Vote is still out. And no, it won't be determined by whether or not my essay is chosen. I know that it's a long shot if for no other reason than the confusion over the country.

I've been doing a lot of cleaning. My husband was teasing me about my "productive procrastination" until he read "The problem with writing was expressed well by the writer, Ernest Hemingway. A reporter once asked Ernest Hemingway what he did first when he was beginning a new book. Hemingway responded "First I defrost the refrigerator.""

I am also continuing to challenge myself with clay. My morning walks are usually along the DuPage River. For several days, I spent time watching an egret fish which became my inspiration. Since I am also trying to combine fiber with the clay as often as I can, I made the wings and other details out of fiber then added other fun items I had hanging around. The beak got broken along the way (this happens when so many different people are involved in the process) so the rope and hanging crystal hide the break. Now you know a secret. Shh. Don't tell.

He was created in four pieces because he would be too large otherwise to fit in the kiln. And because my friend Marti will remind me if I don't share, he is 30 inches tall. I guessed on the shrinkage (the clay I use shrinks by 12%) and was floored that he fit back together! The planets must have been aligned!

The poem "Egret" by Mary Oliver is carved into the blue box that he stands on. This remains one of my favorite pieces.  He sits in my family room.  I keep hoping inspiration will strike again and I can create something similar.

How are you pushing the limits of your comfort zone?

Gathering Stillness

What does gathering stillness look like to you? It took me a while to figure it out and while doing so I created a huge mess in my studio and went for lots of walks around the block. It wasn't until I started playing with lines and circles on a piece of paper that my idea came together.

The circles are dupioni silk that I dyed. The large one is hand appliqued, the smaller ones are fused. About half way through cutting out the circles, I had a "what was I thinking" moment. I am happy I kept cutting them out. The quilt is 27" w x 44" h. It will slightly overlap when sewed to the clay part.

I have also dipped the clay piece in the indigo vat a couple more times to get her bluer. In the photograph, she is sitting on a piece of light brown raw silk that I over dyed. I can't believe that I was able to make the silk such a great color blue without doing anything to it. It was dipped twice.

The next step will be sewing the quilt onto the clay piece then seeing if it can hang for a wall. I am also going to create a stand because it might be too difficult to hang in the gallery.

"Gathering Grief" is next. The clay part is dry enough to to be fired in the kiln. I have an idea for the quilt and am anxious to get working on it. The head part came out larger. Sculpting it was much more difficult than I thought it would be. Looking forward to also creating "Gathering Joy." What are you gathering in your life?

This is also my Off the Wall Fridays post. I do love seeing what other people have done with their week.

Getting All My Vices in One Room: Gathering

Last September, I took up pottery/ceramics to overcome a bad past experience and to push my comfort zone. The story begins while I was living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in the mid-1980s, I took a ceramics class at Louisiana State University. I had always loved and collected pottery so I thought I would give it another try (a class in high school was my first but only involved hand building). The teacher was not the most encouraging person on the planet. We used kick wheels and she did not embrace the philosophy that everyone is built differently and needs to figure out what works for them. She was more "my way or the highway" kind of teacher. She actually told me that I was not cut out for clay. I was young and believed her. Fortunately, she did not kill my love of clay. Taking pottery up again is helping me slay yet another dragon of my past.

I have been trying to figure out how to combine my love of quilts with my rediscovered love of clay. If someone had told me that I would be sculpting faces, I would have told them that they were crazy and yet, here I am. This is the first of my series. It's called "Gathering Stillness" because it is something I am trying to accomplish. Today I dyed the clay with indigo and the look is just about what I wanted. Tomorrow I will dip her again in the vat to see if I can get her a little more blue. And yes, I know that potters use glazes but who made up those rules? I finished the quilt that I will attach (the holes at the bottom) tonight and will share soon. Next is "Gathering Grief" then "Gathering Joy." I am so excited that I can hardly sleep. I love this new direction!

Update: I thought I would just answer questions here in case others are interested.

-I choose to do scarification because it has always fascinated me and I wanted to show that we all have scars.

-I choose to dye her because I was looking for an effect that I did not think I could get from glazes or oxides. I tested a feather I made first. I love how it turned out.

-This was my third attempt. The first one the top of the head shattered. The second one the entire head exploded in the kiln. With help from Jon, we figured out that it was the newspaper I was using. It was holding moisture. I almost gave up but the idea kept me moving forward.

This is my Off the Wall Friday post.