Journey

2011-07-12T21:51:00.000-04:00

Public Pools

I went to the local public pool this evening. I haven't been to pool in years. And for a very good reason.

I walk around the pool to the deep end, and the first thing I see is a young teenager sitting on a chair with people standing around her, she has somehow cut her foot. And she is bleeding, all over.

Ok, well, I get in the water anyway. And the first person to say something to me is a woman about my own age. She has been doing a few laps, but as I look at her I can't help but notice the smear of snot just under her nose. I am thinking I wish she would wipe that away, it is really hard to look at her. And then I thought, no, don't wipe it away... where would she put it?

There is chlorine in this pool... there is chlorine in this pool...

I stay in the pool, and when I accidentally get a mouthful of water I can't help thinking about kids, little kids, of which there are quite a few in the pool. It is a very busy evening. And we all know they don't want to take the time to get out of the pool when they have to pee.

About this time I notice there is something on my fingers... a long brown hair has gotten tangled in my hand and as I walk over to lay it on the edge of the pool, I see a pale white seed floating in the water, about the size of a sunflower seed. It has the look of a seed that didn't get digested.

It goes on the edge of the pool with the hair.

I no sooner swim a few laps myself when I collect another hair, a blond one this time. It goes on the edge of the pool too. I think to myself, just remember, don't step around here when you get out.

I only last about 45 minutes at the pool... it is just too disturbing all around.

I went home and took a shower.

2011-06-04T13:35:00.000-04:00

My Five Years Are Over!

Yes, it is! It is hard to process, but my schooling at The Corcoran College of Art & Design is finally done.

My last two classes were graded and I received an "A" in my Design Class and a "B+" in my Drawing Strategies class.

Along with my diploma, I got an official transcript with all my classes and grades listed.

Imagine my surprise when I noticed the only other "B" I had ever received, the one for the Jewelry class, had been changed to an "A". When and why is a mystery, but I am not complaining. I even went online to the Corcoran corcboard to see what my grade said there. Yes, it was changed there too.

Maybe if I wait another 6 months, that "B+" I got this semester in my Drawing Strategies class will miraculously change to an "A", too!

One can only hope!

So, that means that throughout my whole time at the Corcoran I have gotten all "A's", except for this one "B". Not too bad, considering the last time I ever got almost straight "A's" was, like, in third grade.

I will miss being at the Corcoran... great people and a great learning atmosphere.

2011-05-08T22:00:00.000-04:00

Drawing Strategies

Our last three classes are spent on one drawing. Mine will be fairly large at 36"x48", although there are no requirements in that respect. I have really enjoyed working with oil pastels, so I will continue with using that. My inspiration is hard to explain, but there is a figure behind a crumbling stone wall...

I started out covering the entire piece of drawing paper with a light wash of blue pastel instead of the oil pastels. Just to get something on the paper, so that I don't feel so overwhelmed by the large amount of paper to cover with the oil pastels.

I start with the wall, using an image I took of a crumbling stone wall taken while I was in Scotland last summer. And I want the majority of the drawing to have a blue cast.

The figure is put in after I get the outline of the stone wall done.

Now the background is a problem, I didn't really think about what that would look like.... but finally decide that I would like to feel the wind... and what would that look like?

Well, see for yourself...

This one has not been graded yet, as I will be turning it in tomorrow. But, I'm done.

Oh, I also created a bikini top to put on her when she is displayed at home...!

2011-05-08T21:29:00.001-04:00

School's Out for the Summer!

Or that should be "School's Out forEver!"

I finished up with my design class last week. Really enjoyed it over all, and learned so much, which I am really looking forward to using in all my future art endeavors.

About four weeks ago, we all watched a movie in class called Baraka.

It was a two hour movie with no dialog, or plot. But, an incredibly moving movie. It is a movie that defies description...

Our assignment with watching this movie was to use it

as an inspiration in creating a poster. The finished

poster was printed out at about 24"x36".

I really struggled with this project, not because I didn't

have any ideas, but because I had so much trouble

working with the software, Adobe Illustrator.

It didn't take me long to realize that Illustrator does not

work the same as Photoshop, which I know fairly well.

I finally called Antje over to explain how to use it, and

she gave me a ten minute lesson. Seemed fairly

simple, until I was left to work on my own. Even tho'

I got a quick and simple lesson, nothing seemed to do

what I wanted it to. I spent two hours and came up with

nothing I could use. I was so frustrated, and Antje

could tell. So I asked her if I could do this by hand since

I just couldn't get the hang of this program. She

hesitated for a moment, then agreed that I could do

that. I was so relieved...

But, when I got home I decided to give Illustrator

another try. I had an older version at home, and doing

it on the computer would be a whole lot easier than

trying to do it by hand.

So, I spent several hours experimenting, and finally

started to figure out how to use Illustrator. Without

the pressure of getting it done in class, it started to

come together quite well.

I was particularly intrigued with seeing the adobe

villages carved out of the sides of mountains. And

the trails of people and cars moving through the

streets, in constant motion.

So here is my artistic interpretation of those images...

And I got an "A" for my Baraka poster.

2011-04-20T22:47:00.003-04:00

Drawing Strategies

I am getting a slow start with this class. Our second class we meet at the National Gallery of Art where we are to find a spot in this huge building and draw with respect to perspective, alignment and measuring. I find a spot on a couch and work on a corner and then a view of the hallway. Later I move into the rotunda and sit on a very hard bench.

I've given this one two tries. Eh...

Good ol' Bob... always willing to sit for me!

Our next class is using wet media and we walk to a small park across Constitution Avenue... a 5 block walk. Again my work is Eh....

We continue to work on the figure... and as homework each week we are to work on the same thing. These next two are, of course, again of Bob. Such a trooper!

We now move on to wet media... I am using india ink in different strengths...

With this second drawing, the instructor comes up and says "Joyce, I didn't think you would be able to work with this..."

Gee, thanks.

Well, I admit, I am not very good at drawing... but, having taken the two other required drawing classes and using wet media in those... I already knew it wasn't easy to work with, or rather that I really couldn't control it all the time. So if I can't control it, then just let it do what it wants. And draw around it, so to speak. Let some of the wash be "outside of the lines".

Which is what I did... and I think this ends up starting to be the beginning of better work.

We then turn to using color... and color mixing.

Homework... taken from a DVD called Virtual Pose, but I am told it is not acceptable to use a two dimensional image to draw from. Where am I going to get someone to pose naked for me at home? Not very likely to happen, that's for sure!

We have a model in class... working on the color mixing...

Homework again... just wanted to play with using value instead of correct color. Didn't seem to do much for the instructor.

Homework... color mixing!

This one I am reminded again, that I need to form the face, express the contour of the cheeks, etc. I think by this time even the other students are becoming aware that I am not getting too many positive comments. Another student makes a point of complementing this drawing.

So far, this class has been something to just get through... I am not enjoying it one bit. I don't seem to get much encouragement from the instructor.

We move into using arbitrary color in a still life. All the students have brought in all kinds of fruits and vegetables and a huge display is set out. Way too much to draw, so I chose a small section to work on.

We are told to line up all our colors (using any medium that we want, I choose oil pastels) in their color families. I have around 48 colors, small little sticks... but a great color selection. We are to use our color in order, and we are given one minute to use that color then we are to put it down and go to the color next to the first one and so on. We draw for one hour this way. There is no time to plan, no time to think about what goes where.

I am finally having some fun! Surprisingly. And I am beginning to see that I work so much better when I am aware that I do not have a lot of control over the techniques or choices. I have to let it go.

I finally get a good comment from the instructor. This one I memorized... she said there were "wonderful and thrilling" colors used.

I have to admit, I was surprised with myself. I didn't quite get the cabbage finished, but the other fruits are beautiful.

The following week we continue to work with color and the figure.

I think I like using color....

Our next assignment is to bring in our own medium that we have made. And our own tools.

I made six different colors... using beets, spinach, mustard, blackberries, carrots, and tea. So that gives me maroon, green, yellow, purple, orange and brown.

My tools were made from pine needles, a zipper, cotton batting, a stick, hmmm... what else? I forget.

It ends up smelling quite interesting in the class this week. We have a young man as our model this week. I think I am a bit timid with this first drawing...

Although the colors are really interesting. I like the left knee.

The next one I am a bit more liberal with using the pulp and tea grounds.

The instructor like the textural effect it gives it.

When I got home I sprayed the heck out of it with a fixative, hoping that I could get it back in to class later so that the instructor can grade it. It seems to work.

We are starting to have more fun in the exploration of color and mediums. Or should I say, I am having more fun. Takes off some of the pressure to perform.

The next week we bring in a substrate other than paper. I brought in fabric, and a piece I made from sewing sections of a thin copper sheeting together.

With the fabric I use both pastels, and oil pastels. I am encouraged to finish up at home, to make the piece more cohesive.

Now, the metal piece... well, that was a bit hard to work with. The only thing that would show up was the oil pastels... but it ended up looking like a big mess as it was hard to see the colors or to even create some kind of recognizable image.

I finally realized that if I fill the whole thing with color, I could then scrape the oil pastel away to create the image.

It sorta worked.

For homework we are encouraged to work with a more sculptural form... so I created a corset and started drawing on it. I used markers, which were quite strong smelling, so I didn't get too far and ended up leaving a bit undone.

The next week we are working on a Kentridge-inspired project.This is what Wikipedia says about him-

William Kentridge (born 30 November 1954) is a South African artist best known for his animated films. These are constructed by filming a drawing, making erasures and changes, and filming it again. He continues this process meticulously, giving each change to the drawing a quarter of a second to two seconds' screen time. A single drawing will be altered and filmed this way until the end of a scene. These drawings are later displayed along with the films as finished pieces of art.

Kentridge would work on a piece, erase, draw, erase, and draw again. All the while taking photos of the process. We bring a camera in to class to do the same.

I have around 19 images of the process.

Really fascinating the way it all works. The model, a young woman, kept a pose for about ten minutes, then changed position. At which time we were to start drawing on top of what was there before, erasing if we wanted to, incorporating what was there if possible.

Now the model has changed her position, not too hard to draw over top of what was there...

She has changed her position yet again and is sitting down on a chair now. The change is not too hard to work with.

There is some kind of circular curtain hanging above her... not sure what that is all about, but we are told to include it in the drawings. Ok.

She has moved again, although not much, just now looking straight ahead.

Arggg! She has completely changed her pose and is now sitting on the table. This is a drastic change... I am not sure how this is going to work... but I just go ahead and start drawing on top of the first image.

Now I think it is time to start erasing....

Another change...

I am now trying to erase a bit more.

This is the last drawing, I got rid of most of that curtain thing...

All in all, I really enjoyed this process.

I was a bit scrunched up next to a cabinet while drawing this series, and the instructor felt that affected my perspective, I think she is right. Week 12 finds us drawing balloons... that are stuck up on the wall. Not too inspiring, but ok... and it was extremely hot in the room, the heat was still on and even with the open windows it was way too hot.

My balloons... I think I like working with color.

2011-04-20T08:31:00.000-04:00

Spring 2011

Two more classes, and this will be the end of my going back to school journey. And I really can't believe that five years have passed by since I took my first class at the Corcoran.

I discovered that I actually had two more required classes to take in order to graduate in May. A bit disappointed that I don't get to take some electives as I had a few I was really interested in taking.
So, I am taking Drawing Strategies and Design Concepts, both with instructors that I have had before, and loved having too. So this is a good thing, knowing I am taking some classes that will have great instructors.

Drawing Strategies

Description: Why do artists draw today? How are contemporary artists using drawing to conceptualize, to commemorate, to record, or to recall? Drawing is currently an end in itself, as well as a means to project the information that supports all art-making processes. Drawing can be imitative, descriptive, interpretive, and imaginative. The act of drawing can require only the most primitive of media-charcoal made from wood and fire, or pigment of earth mixed with water-and it can take advantage of technology such as photography and digital imaging. This course encourages your understanding of the basis of spatial perception; the value of immediacy in recording; your body's physical-action component in drawing; the rich trove of mark-making we can tap into. Students use a wide range of materials with a creative variety of substrates or surfaces. Projects are observation-based and expand through concept and narrative. All styles and techniques are appropriate for exploration and development. Where can you take drawing?

This is going to be a class that will push me to work in many different mediums, along with many different styles. I do not draw well, so this class offers the most stress for the semester. It is one of those things that you know is good for you as it makes you stretch and grow, but it is decidedly uncomfortable too.
We are using charcoal and the goal is to draw something that was given to us in a small paper bag.

The first class we were to go out and collect any thing we wanted to that would fit in a brown paper lunch bag, when we came back in we all took a different bag, and without looking at what was in the bag we had to put only our hands in and draw what we felt. Rather than drawing what we think the item is, we were to try to describe how the item felt, was it cold... and if so, how would you draw cold? We were to try different mark making marks to describe the item. Rough, soft, sharp, cold, warm, smooth, ridged, etc. I got a 1x6" block of wood, smooth on the top and rough on the edges, plus two small nails. It was interesting to see what everyone came up with.... mine was one that the other students commented on... so that was interesting, too.

Definitely a challenge to draw and not draw what you know it is, but to draw something else...

Design Concepts

This is a class I should have taken with the first several semesters, way back in 2006-7. But, for some reason it got overlooked until I went in to figure out my class schedule for my very last semester. Surprised me to find out that I still had two required classes left if I wanted to graduate. And I want to graduate.

On our first day we are told this class is to be "meditative".

I don't think so....

We are starting with the Gestalt principle of design which "Identifies four principles by which the organs of sight create or

der out of what would otherwise be optical chaos. According to gestalt, objects, shapes, figures, and qualities are related to one another perceptually by principles of..."

Proximity, Similarity, Continuance and Closure.

We are using InDesign software, and we set up a template that will be used for each exercise. There is an faint 8x8 inch square to use for our work and below it is a small label with the name of the principle we are working on and our name. Now all of this is strictly dictated by the instructor and we have to have the correct line size for the square and the correct font and font size. Or else.

Our first assignment is the Gestalt principle of Proximity. Here the principle is concerned with where items are placed. And within this principle are four other specific types of proximity... close edge, touch, overlap and combine.

Here are a few of my own examples...

2011-01-16T11:57:00.022-05:00

Ceramics

I have discovered that several of my posts have disappeared somehow. Mostly the ones containing my finished images of my ceramic pieces. Instead of trying to recreate whatever I had written, I am just going to post the photos.

My main project, this large pot, found a friend in the kiln. I am now calling it the "hitchhiker pot". Apparently the small pot some how fell over in the kiln before it was even fired, and once fired stayed connected to my pot. The general concensus was to leave it as it. Removing it could possible break the edge of my pot and definitely ruin the small pot. Also, found out who the owner of the small pot is, her name is Valerie. We are now related by pot.

The large pot above has what is called a waster still attached. It is a throw away part, created only to hold the pot as the bottom of the pot comes to a point. It also got sealed to the pot as the glaze dripped on to it and of course hardened when cooled. It was supposed to fit into this pot on the left. But even if I could separate the pot from the waster and put it in this other pot, it wouldn't work as the opening in the base pot is not circular anymore. Both pots are now sitting in my living room... maybe time to move them outside...permanently!

I am about to start the new (and my last!) semester but haven't even really finished up with a few of my ceramic pieces. They are still sitting in the glaze/kiln room. I went in to the Corcoran after Christmas and glazed the box, along with the vase. I put them on the kiln shelf, and hopefully by now they have been fired. I don't know if that has happened as the next time I went in I wasn't allowed in the glaze room. I was surprised, as Tamara had told me that I was on the list of students that had permission to work there.

I found Kat, the ceramics lab assistant and asked if she could unlock the door to the glaze hall...but she couldn't, as unfortunately I had been taken off the list. All because they discovered that only BFA students had insurance provided by the college that would be in effect over the winter break. And as I am an AFA student I was denied access.

I had gone in  to the National Geographic Museum to see the Gecko exhibition that morning... I kept getting posts on Facebook from NatGeo about the geckos and just wanted to try my hand at photographing the geckos. Very interesting process as of course they are enclosed in glass cases, so I had to work around glare, reflections and dirty glass to try to get some decent photos. Here are a few of my images...

But, back to the ceramics... so, I still have a few items to take care of when I get back to classes next week.
Here are a few images of the finished pieces..

So long Ceramics! Glad it is over......

Oh, and I got an "A" for my final grade.

2010-12-29T22:51:00.000-05:00

Jewelry

This class has been a big disappointment all the way around.

After making the ring out of copper, we are then to make the same ring shape out of silver. I adjust the shape a bit, making it a little bit smaller.

Here is the original copper ring, finished and polished.

And the silver ring on the right.

We had to pay for all the copper and silver we used. So this silver ring cost me over $13 to make, not too bad actually, but it is expensive considering I will never wear it.

Our last project for the class was to make a necklace out of unconventional items....no beads or metal. We also had to make our own jump rings for this project.

I ended up making four necklaces.

This is obviously made from buttons, but I used my own hand made jump rings. Weaved a strand of thread to make the cord the buttons are hanging from.

Went to Home Depot and bought some type of washer to make this necklace... again wove some yarns together for the cording.

I used corks with this one... colored them with a magic marker, used my Dremel drill as a drill press and drilled holes in the middle and then threaded variegated ribbon through them, created jump rings to attach them to the wooded rings.

This last one is made from rubber washers and buttons. Now with this one I ended up using store bought jump rings as I didn't have enough silver wire to make my own.

I planned an absence for the last class of the semester as we were going to go on a cruise (you are allowed two absences a semester without penalty), but unfortunately the instructor canceled the second to last class about two hours before class started. She had some car trouble that afternoon and didn't feel like coming in to class. So, I missed the last two classes, along with one other absence of my own, and another cancellation by the instructor earlier in the semester, I ended up missing a total of four classes out of fifteen.

In the five years I have been taking classes at the Corcoran College of Art & Design, I have never had an instructor cancel class. Not once. Yes, the school itself has cancelled class due to bad weather, but never an instructor.

Plus, the instructor was absent an additional two weeks due to a trip she took, but we did have a substitute (and it was my ceramic instructor!). So, out of a total 15 classes per semester, I saw our jewelry instructor 9 times. Nine times.

I don't feel like I learned very much in this class. The instructor seemed very indifferent about teaching, and in fact sat at a table most of the time with earphones in her ears listening to music. Oh, she answered questions if you asked, but never once got up and walked around the room to see how we were doing.

Like I said... a big disappointment.

She gave me "B" for my final grade. The first "B" I have gotten at the Corcoran.

2010-12-29T22:13:00.001-05:00

Ceramics

The semester has concluded, but I haven't been blogging...

So, the third ceramic project involved making a box using the slab method with three items to put in the box that have a special meaning to us.

To design the slab of clay we would be using to make the box, we first had to make a plaster mold using something to give it texture. I went outside and crossed the street to the Red Cross building where they have a lot of ground ivy growing. I collected a handful of assorted sized leaves and used them to create my plaster form. Using a sheet of plexiglass I molded the ivy leaves onto the plexiglass as they wouldn't lie flat. I then built a circular wall around the leaves with clay, poured in the plaster and let it set. It turned out fairly well... lots of definition in the leaf shapes. Bit of a job picking out all the ivy, though. Once the plaster mold dried I then laid a slab of clay over it, pressed it down and when pulled away it had a perfect impression of the ivy leaves. With this slab of formed clay I cut out sides for the box and the lid.

The clay sides were assembled into a box shape. I added a group of free standing ivy leaves to the top of the lid to be the handle of the lid.

This is the box after it was kiln fired.

The three items I chose to make to put in the box were very similar to what I had made last semester in the Sculptural Book class when I made some items to put in the paper lunchbox I had made.

I made a quilt...

Then used colored slip to paint it and glazed it with a cone 6 glaze called "fake ash".

It muted the colors a bit, but I like it.

The next item is a camera. Now here the glaze didn't do what I had expected it to... but it is still interesting.

And the last item is a mug... as a nice cup of tea is one of my favorite things.

This looks bigger than it really is, it is only about two inches high, as is the camera.

One other item I made was a vase out of leftover clay. I used a white slip on it before it was fired.

The semester is officially over, but I still have a few things to take care of in the ceramic studio.

2010-11-17T11:10:00.000-05:00

Ceramics

My two large pieces are done, they spent a long time drying and are now being fired.
When taking the "bulb" pot off of its base to turn it upside right, Tamara was with me, helping me hold it because at this point it is not only heavy, but unwieldy. That is when she discovered that I had used a round ceramic throwing bat (really just a flat round disc that you place your clay on when using the wheel) to build the clay up,to keep the opening of the pot circular and even until I got a good base to continue coiling the clay. I just forgot to remove it after I got going.
She was surprised to find it stuck in the opening of my pot when we turned it around.... and she gave me an odd look, then turned to another student near us and said she thought it was a brilliant idea and had to remember that the next time she was working on a project. Whew! Here I had a brief moment of panic what with the way she looked at me, thinking I was going to be in trouble somehow.

We are already on to our third project and I don't even have the first two completely done.

The second project is based on the word "set" in any of its definitions or connotations.
This project will allow us to work using the slab construction method.
A long list of definitions, and subtle connections was given to us. The first one that really jumped out at me was where set was used in reference to square dancing. As any particular dance movement is considered a set. Ok, what with me and my literal mind, I envisioned squares dancing.

Although, as you can see, they morphed into rectangles dancing.

I showed these drawings to Tamara, the instructor, and she sighed, wiped her brow, and said "This will be a challenge. But it can be done." Have to admit, that sent a small charge of fear through my heart!

I started working on this out of class time when I went in to the ceramic studio. Tamara had given us a great demonstration on preparing our slab of clay. The most useful idea I found was using two flat sticks on either side of your slab, allowing you to roll the clay to a uniform thickness. Brilliant!
I also adjusted my idea after I actually reread the assignment and discovered that it should also reflect a botanical theme.
So, I cut flowing leaf shapes out of my slab and started fitting them together in an upright manner. The clay is extremely soft so I used plaster molds to form and drape the clay to set the shapes and then set them in front of a fan for awhile.

After they started to firm up, I took one piece and cut a section out of it to mold it to the other piece. Still a challenge as it was hard to keep them in an upright position as I worked to join them.

Things are not working quite right. I eventually find some foam, prop the pieces on that and cover it all with plastic and store it until the next week. Only not realizing that leaving it on a slab of drywall board will absorb a lot of moisture, so that the next time I get back to it the pieces are way too dry.

As Tamara explains it.."never leave it on the drywall, unless you cover it with plastic first. The drywall will (now here you have to visualize her puckering her lips together and sucking in the air) pull all of the moisture out of the clay, never leave it on the drywall." I really like Tamara!

Well, now it is way too dry, so Tamara suggest I put some plastic under it, spray the clay with water, leave it sit, and repeat until the clay becomes workable again. I have done this three times, not workable yet. And I am getting discouraged.

I can't sleep, my mind keeps mulling over the project and other possibilities. I get up at 5am, go downstairs and sketch.

I decide to try another idea. So next time I go in for some studio work, I construct a shape similar to a pitcher plant, by using the cup template I had made earlier. I made two, and joined the two larger openings together so that the middle of my piece was wider than the top and bottom.

I made two more pieces, smaller in size, and joined all three shapes together to make a single piece. Added some texture and some curling leaf fronds around the three shapes. Photo to come soon!

And I am thinking I just may dispose of the first one... it is just not working.

2010-10-24T17:27:00.000-04:00

Jewelry

I am several weeks into the semester and not a happy camper. I am one of those people who like to see results more quickly and this just isn't cutting it!

After my first design was approved by the instructor, I started to work on it.

These are the two layers cut out.

Placed on top of each other, showing the finished look.

I have discovered that the placement of the cutouts has been difficult to draft properly. The design is drawn, copies made, and then glued down on rectangle of metal, and then using a hand saw, it is cut out following the lines. Afterwards the paper and glue is removed, which is done easily by burning it off with the gas torch.
Each layer is given a patina. The top layer is put in hot water and liver sulphur. Turns it a silver black within minutes. The bottom layer I put through a press with a piece of sanding paper to texture it, then carefully heated with the gas torch until it turns a shade of orange that I liked. The first attempt I did not like... easily fixed. Quench it in water, then put it in the heated pickling chemicals and it returns it to its previous state. The second try gives me a look that I will go with. Each piece has its edges filed as smoothly as possible.
Next, I will rivet the sections together. Now this is a surprise to me, I have visions of the kind of rivets you find in clothing... this is totally different, but amazing. I drill holes in both layers, and then rivet them together.

I am pausing here to comment on the class itself... there are several different classes held in this jewelry studio... and there are lots of supplies and tools provided for the students. Although we had to buy a $95 tool kit for the class, there are still many more tools to use. But the most aggravating aspect of this is that often something will be missing or broken. And this happens often especially with drill bits. It is essential that you drill a hole with the correct size drill bit, or you cannot use the corresponding size wire. The wire only comes in specific sizes. And there were no correct sizes, and here we are expected to rivet our pieces together. The instructor tells us to do the best we can, and I am a bit annoyed. There isn't much the instructor can do about this, other than request supplies, but the school is not that fast in replacing things. The following week, the instructor brings in a size 3/16 drill bit from her own supplies.
One.
And the student ahead of me breaks it.
I attempt to work with what is provided, but the results are not that good.

Back to the riveting... it is just done with a piece of wire. A tiny piece is cut, the ends are filed down so that it is perfectly flat on each end. It is placed in the drilled holes of each layer, and then hammered together, watching carefully that both the bottom and the top sides are equidistant on the wire. Eventually the wire is squished between the layers and held tight.

I rivet the center piece with a bit of success. The instructor comments that we are one of the best classes for learning how to rivet and getting good results on the first try.

I then ask the instructor if there are any tiny clamps available to hold the smallest pieces of my project together while I drill holes in them for the riveting. She says "just use your fingers to hold them together". I am thinking that isn't going to work very well... wouldn't the two pieces slip when trying to drill both at once? But I do as she says, and I am right, they slip. It is not aligned correctly and it shows. I rivet it anyway, just in case... awful!

The smaller section at the bottom has the tip riveted, but they layers do not match correctly.

As I am walking back to my work bench, I notice another student has taped her layers together with masking tape. Now why would the instructor not suggest that technique instead of using my fingers? Again, I am a bit annoyed.

I go home totally frustrated and starting to not like this class. I have decided the only way to be successful is to set myself up at home with the tools I need. I go buy myself some of my own drill bits and I am even wanting to buy a small drill press...but Home Depot doesn't have small ones. But an alert salesperson remarks that Dremel has a Dremel drill frame that allows your hand held drill to act as a drill press. Perfect! As I already have my own Dremel drill.

Although I end up using my Ryobi hand drill, it still works.

So I go home and redraw my design, opting for a totally new one.

This should be fairly easy, the center holes I will not cut out, instead I will drill a hole and use that to rivet the two sections together.

The top layer is put in liver sulphur to give it the dark patina, the five holes are riveted together.

I get to the last rivet and it will not work easily. The more I keep redoing it, the more the metal gets deformed around the holes and the harder it gets to make it work. I eventually get something that might past muster, take it up to the instructor to get her approval so that I can move on to the next stage.

"These rivets are bad." she says. Just like that. Ok, hmmm. She points out the one that I had been having difficulty with and says that one in particular needs to be redone. Well, the layers are firmly riveted together, how do you get the rivet out? She suggests I try sawing it apart. I do that.

But that one rivet section is so deformed by now, that there really is no hope for it. I put it away, pack up my supplies and head for home. But once I get home, I hammer the holes a bit, flatten the metal, try a rivet again and it holds tightly! The rivets on a whole are not done well, I admit, especially from the back.

As you can see, the back of it shows the rivets quite plainly. They should be flush with the metal and they are not. The one on the top right is correct, the rest need help!

And by this time I have started a whole new piece. But I add some design elements to it that will allow it to be riveted more securely... I know, I know, more rivets. But I practiced at home with some scrap metal and I think I am getting the hang of it.

Here is the revised design. I have been leaving it in ammonia vapor for the last three days, it is supposed to turn it a wonderful blue, but it is not working. As you can see, it is an olive green.

I think adding the extra bits on the ends will make it more secure when riveted to the bottom layer.

So this presents a problem, as the bottom layer has already been put in liver sulphur to turn it the silver black.

Not an adequate contrast, in my opinion.

Well, on to the next project, I will continue working with this at home and see what I can come up with.

Our next project is a ring. We are still working with copper while we are learning the techniques. But soon will be graduating to silver. We will now be shown how to solder two metals together.

Ten designs are required, one is chosen.
We measure our ring size, cut a strip of copper and curl it to make the ends meet. It has to be a tight meeting point, the solder fills it anyway.

There are three types of silver solder, hard, medium and soft.

The ring is soldered to a square of metal, another shape is is made of a strip of copper, place outside the ring and soldered, and then the outside extra metal is sawn off.

This is my basic ring shape, hole drilled to start cutting the middle out.

Next week I will be putting a "top" on this to close the ring up.

Another student complemented me on the shape of my ring.

But it is so nice to be able to do much of this at home.

2010-10-24T13:06:00.000-04:00

Ceramics

Four weeks into this project and my pots are not very tall... it is extremely time consuming to coil the clay and add it to the rim of the pot. Our class is actually a combined class of intermediate/advanced students and those, like me, who are taking it for the first time. So, I see one of the advanced students using a metal contraption, which I later learn is called an extruder, to make her coils. Put the clay in the tube, and push the handle down, voila! Long, snakey, tubes of clay. Way too easy, I'm thinking. But, no, we beginners are not supposed to use the extruder. We have to learn how to do it ourselves. Ok, I guess that is a good thing, but still, it takes so long! I find myself looking with longing at the extruder...

As the clay is added it

also has to be blended

with what is below it.

Around the fourth week, I seem to find that the techniques needed are starting to fall into place. All of a sudden my pot is rising to great heights, and I have to set it down on a stool so that I don't have to reach up, now it is lower than me. It is going much faster and in one class I have added over 12 inches to both pieces! I mentioned this to the instructor, she smiles and says this is very typical. Somehow, after several weeks we just get over the daunting aspect of the requirements of the projects. And I found myself being profoundly glad that we were forced to make something so big. It just made all that fear of not being able to do it go away, and now I am really looking forward to our next project... and making it big! Plus, she has told us we will be allowed to use the extruder! Yeah!

I have been going in on Saturdays to work, the extra hours are really needed. I think my project will end up well, but I have made such wide and round pieces that it may be taking me longer to finish my projects when compared to what others are making.

Finally set it in a bucket, as it comes to a point at the bottom.

Obviously, the inside of my pot.
The plastic is left around the rim to keep it moist, incase more clay is added.

My second piece, the "neck" stand for the first pot.

2010-10-24T11:41:00.000-04:00

Start of a New Semester

Sometimes it comes around just too fast. I am taking two courses this semester, Introduction to Hand Building/Ceramics and Jewelry 1. Both classes are on Thursdays, which means I only have to drive in one day a week, unless I go in for some lab time, which is likely.

Intro to Hand building

This is going to be a totally different experience from ceramics on the wheel. Our first assignment is to create two pieces simultaneously, each piece a minimum of 26 inches high. Yes, 26 inches! That is huge, especially when creating something in clay. We are then told you really have to make it 28-29 inches high... to take into account the shrinkage that happens when you fire the clay. This is daunting, have you ever really noticed how high that is? And to make two of them!

The technique used is that of coiling. The clay is rolled under your hands into a long strip of coil, then laid down on a base tray, and that is turn is set on top of a banding wheel, which allows you to turn the project as you are working on it.

Our instructor, Tamara, gives us two lists of words, one of body parts and the other of plant parts. Nothing like the word foot or hand, oh no, things like waist, thigh, neck, heel, limb. And then the other list had words like branch, bulb, leaf, vine, tuber, etc.

Well, I won't go in to the convoluted thought process that finally produced an idea, but let's just say it was excruciating. Things like neck... well, can it be a verb? Necking. Ok, maybe that will work.

I eventually decided (after seeing what some of the other students came up with) to create a base that that has undertones of a thick male neck. Not really too attractive, I think! But... oh, well.

Then second piece is a bulb shaped bowl which will sit in the base of the neck, I hope to eventually set this out in my flower garden as a garden ornament. I just hope I like it enough to want it somewhere where people will see it.
At the moment it is a scary proposition.

Remember, each of these pieces have to be 28-29 inches tall, both... not together.

We practice the art of coiling the second week, the third week we started on the actual project.

It took me about three hours to coil a pot around 10 inches high. Sigh.

Jewelry 1

Our first weeks assignment is to draw at least 10 designs for a broach or necklace. After a slow start I finally manage to get going and end up with over 20 ideas.

The goal Anya, our instructor, has given us is to learn how to use a hand saw, piercing and texturizing metal. We are to have two layers of metal, each to complement the other in some way.

My piece will have all those goals, and I have to say, sawing even copper (which is a fairly soft metal) is not as easy as it sounds. Cutting a straight line, or even a curve takes some practice.

We choose our design, and start work. My piece will be made from copper and will eventually have several holes cut out of it, the bottom layer will be a red patina made by heating the copper and on the top layer I will use liver of sulfur to make it black/grey.

Midway in the project and I don't like it too much. Hopefully when finished it will look better.

2010-09-10T15:57:00.003-04:00

Rock Music Hits The Dust!
My daughter, Megan, posted this on Facebook in August 2010
Too funny, just had to share....

2010-06-06T20:20:00.000-04:00

Our third and last project for the Sculptural Book class centered around a choice of two projects.

The first is "species, evolution, classifications"... a sculptural bookwork using movement mechanisms; armature-building with appropriate structural design and fabrications.

Or "systems, functions, transformations"... a sculptural bookwork exploring suspension of multiple elements and creative methods of attachment, consideration of spatial relationships; may include optional video, light or image projection, and/or sound.

I find myself wondering how much of what I choose to make is centered on the knowledge I have in gained in my sewing/quilting/textile background. I have never figured out if that is "legal", but I eventually decided that all the things we learn work together to build our techniques, styles and skills. And of course, I have to go with what I know now.

So, I chose the species, evolution, classifications project.

Our instructions say to "look at the work of kinetic sculptors, look at paper engineering (pop-up) works and related how-to books, look at interesting mechanisms around your home environment or in your everyday meanderings that could be adapted to a sculptural book. Look at the work of installation artists in every medium, as physical object, as suggested object, as virtual object."

We then had to sketch out our idea, create a mock-up to work out construction issues, and discuss the project with the instructor.

I got approval for my project... I went with the "species, evolution, classifications".

I started out with the idea of something that would swim out of the ocean and crawl up on land. I also wanted it to move, and to give it "chapters". So to mimic a book, I wanted it to be in sections.

I eventually settled on a combination of a fish evolving into an alligator... both have a similar back and forth movement while in the water, but still able to come up on land.

But I finally resolved my idea when I realized I didn't particularly want to make a personal statement with my idea, but rather ask a question of the viewer.

Is it evolution, is it creation, or is it both?

With this in mind, the whole project fell right in to place.

On the outside you see the fish evolving into the alligator, but when you look down the throat of the alligator, you are looking back in time to the point of creation, and so you see the hand of God (similar to the way Michelangelo painted it on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel) pointing to a light, the moment of creation.

Ok, the idea was good... the execution of it was one of the hardest things I have done in a long time.

I bought some fake alligator fabric, and then used some of my own hoard of fabrics to create the fish-alligator.

Creating the pattern for my project took me almost two weeks... but I finally got it.

The fish tail is made from freemotioned fabric (that is where you use the sewing machine to "paint" with thread).

It was then layered with fabric scales... moving from a fishy pink color through to reds and then to brown.
These scales were attached by using a thin sheet of fabric glue... looks like interfacing, but melts when heated so that it attached the scale to the base fabric of the fish.

I photographed Bob's arm as he was pointing. Then took this image into Photoshop and changed the perspective of the pointing hand so that it looked like it was stretching back in time.

After I made the whole thing, I then cut it up in to sections... that was really hard to do! I tried to persuade the instructor that it would "work" leaving it whole... but she really felt that by cutting it up into sections it would really move the piece beyond ordinary. She was right, of course.

Cutting it up into sections also allowed for movement within the sculpture. The sections were attached to it's neighbor by a two inch piece of black flat ribbon on both sides of the sculpture.

Each section was reinforced with a wire brace to help it to keep it's shape.

I then sewed a dark blue lining on each piece, and sewed by hand all the edges. A small LED light was placed in the tail section, with the hand pointing to it.

Then each one of these sections was attached by a rod which hung from a horizontal rod.

Body parts... the claws were made from polymer clay, shaped and then baked to harden them.

The teeth were also made in the same way.

Here it is finished and presented at our class critique.

I photoshopped out the rods here....

It was really hard to photograph the inside of the alligator... the eye sees so much more than the camera can see. But here is the hand of God pointing to the moment of creation.

Is it evolution, is it creation, or is it both?

You decide.

2010-06-05T09:59:00.001-04:00

The Sculptural Book

This class was one of my favorites so far in the four years that I have been taking classes at the Corcoran College of Art & Design.

Our second project centered around the key words:

food, survival, extremes

In this project we make our own plaster molds and then paper cast the mold to make our finished project.
My project became an old fashioned lunch box in which I would take all the most important things with me that I would not want to live without.

The making of the mold was a huge challenge, and I ended up remaking it several times before I got one that I could use.

Inside this lunchbox I put in a needlefelted sewing machine, a polymer clay camera, drawing of my husband Bob, a small quilt, a small tea mug with a tea bag and a small book with dust jacket.

All items in the lunchbox were completely made by me except for the mug. The needlefelted sewing machine was made on a small wire frame, wool added bit by bit and into the the sewing machine.

With the book I scanned some pages of one of my favorite books, Outlander, reduced the size of the pages, scanned and reduced the dust jacket and sewed it all together.

If you have good eyesight you can actually read each page.

I refashioned the tea bag and made it smaller, also scanned and reduced the image of the tag on the tea bag, and reduced it in size.

The small quilt speaks for itself. It's small.

And lastly, the polymer clay camera.

And here is a drawing I did of my most favorite person... the one whom I would take with me anywhere.(Although it was drawn several years ago, I actually caught the almost crossed eye... his signature expression found in most photographs of him. He does it just for fun. Ahem.)

Bob

Got an A- for the final grade. And that is because I left the paper cast white. I didn't realize we were to also put a patina on it until I reread the project guidelines, a half hour before the critique... no time to work on it by then.

2010-05-30T07:54:00.001-04:00

Ok, so, here I am sitting in the recliner, enjoying a showing of The Prestige, when I suddenly feel a splat of liquid on my arm. I look down and see a blotch of brown and I squeal out loud. Bob jumps up to see what is wrong. "What is it?" he asks, and I say "I don't know, but something wet just landed on me." He says he doesn't see anything.. and then says "Oh, here it is on the lamp."

A stinkbug.

Yes, I got peed on by a stinkbug.

The stinkbug is perched on the lamp directly above me, and as I glanced up to see Bob collecting it with a tissue, I notice that it's little butt is sticking out over the edge of the lamp's glass rim.

Geeze, will this never end?

2010-04-18T09:08:00.001-04:00

I am sitting on the couch eating my spaghetti dinner when I look down and notice that I have spilled some of the ground beef on my chest. I reach for it to pop it in my mouth when it starts walking across my shirt. Bob and Megan looked at me wondering what my outburst was all about and why I squealed, only did what any self respecting woman would do when confronted with a stinkbug that was almost eaten.

2010-04-17T09:45:00.001-04:00

The odd but increasingly familiar smell wafted up... I had just taken a bowl of melted butter out of the microwave and poured it in to the baking pan. I am making a pineapple upside down cake for my son's thirtieth birthday, his request.
I looked around to see where the smell was coming from, and with a sharp intake of breath, I saw the stinkbug lying upside down in the baking dish, his legs waving slowly in the air, coated in butter.
Did he go through the microwave with the butter, and just how in the heck did he get there?
I scooped him out, but he left a lingering scent behind. So there goes two sticks of butter into the garbage. I washed the baking dish THOROUGHLY and started over but by now I am a bit spooked.
Maybe I shouldn't be writing about this until after the cake is consumed. But I think writing is somewhat cathartic for me.
But still, I am close to getting paranoid.

2010-03-20T17:23:00.000-04:00

The best part of going to see the Terra Cotta Warriors was going into the photo booth with Laurie. That big bee was just about to get us... it was really scary!

2010-03-20T17:07:00.002-04:00

Design Class

The design class, in which we are using Photoshop and other software, has left me with a so-so attitude. It has been a bit frustrating, I love learning how to use Photoshop, but the instruction is lacking. We are left to work on our own for most of the four hour class. I could do that at home. There have been perhaps two demonstrations, each lasting no more than ten minutes. Asking a question does get some help, but it has been minimal.

Assignment #1 Altering our own photo

Anyway, our photo was taken at the first class and the assignment was to make it into a line drawing, put our names on it, print it out and hand it in to the instructor so that he has a visual of every student. Very simple to do.
Here is mine.
No big deal.

Assignment #2 Collage

Here we are to collect a group of photos and make a collage. All assignments are printed out and tacked to the wall of the classroom.

There are pink petals from a cone flower, I isolated the orange center of the cone flower and duplicated it five times, stretched it, skewed it... etc. And parts of an old photo of a boy and girl sitting on a stone wall.

It is ok, but I am not impressed with it....

Assignment #3 Merging

The next assignment is to merge two or more photos. Duplicated and flipped a photo of a window. Put two of photos behind the windows....

Assignment #4 Chimera

Collected images of all kinds of animals.
As I was working on this project, I asked a question of one of the assistants and as he was looking at my images he asked me if I got them off of the web... I said no, they are my own images. He was impressed. That's good!

I used the head of an ocelot, photo taken at the Nashville zoo. The body is of a duck as it was standing up fluffing his wings. The wings here are from a photo of an eagle, the arms are from the only image I got off of the web and the feet are from the ocelot, duplicated and flipped. I placed my chimera on the Seattle Space Needle, ready to devour the building.

Assignment #5 Transferring a head to another body.

Now, this assignment ended up being a huge challenge for me. As you will see...

Here are some of the original photos I used.

These are photos of my daughter, Megan. Who has been very patient with all the things her mother does with her photos. I do need to say here that I did not take these first two photos, they are professional photos taken for her modeling portfolio.

This is a photo I bought from iStockphoto. One comment the instructor made was to tell us to be careful about how the light is falling on the subjects. If you can get something that is similar it will be much easier. That is so true, because the images I first tried to use were mismatched and I was having a horrible time making it all work.

This is my first attempt, but I felt the eyes were too high up and the face color didn't quite match with the neck. Perhaps if I had worked with this a bit more it would have worked.
I went to the second image of Megan to try this next one.

Ok, in this one the face is better placed. I tipped it a bit, lowered the face within the hair. I left her own neck and part of her shirt with the image, but then the challenge became how to get the hair around the neck to look natural. It was almost impossible to separate out the hair. But I do like her with straight hair for a change! Except for the neck part, I think this one looks much more natural.

I didn't print this one out, so there is no image on the wall in the classroom. The instructor hasn't said anything and as long as he doesn't, I am not putting it up.

Assignment #6 Coloring a Black & White image

This image I turned into a black and white image to use for the assignment.

Here is the finished image, I chose to use color very lightly.

It was an interesting assignment.

But, like I said, this class is not what I expected, I can only hope it improves.

2010-03-18T11:39:00.004-04:00

The Sculptural Book

Out of a total of the first six classes, I only was able to attend two... one canceled due to the snowstorm of the century.. we got 38 inches and were stuck at home for about a week, and the other was a scheduled break by the college.

Because I started the class two weeks late, I was not required to make the trading card, but since I was stuck at home I did it anyway. I made a card pocket out of 3x5 card stock, printed an image on fabric and placed it on the top card, and then sewed the two cards together to make a pocket. This image was on the outside. And in case you can't read it here, this is what it says...

"There is no pleasure in having nothing to do...."

The next card is slightly smaller, also printed on fabric and glued to a single card. This one says...

"The fun is in having lots to do and not doing it!"

Then there is a ribbon attached to the inside of the pocket part and the card is slipped in to it with the ribbon sticking out enough that when you pull on it, it pulls the card out to finish the quote. I made eight of these, enough to give to each student in the class.

I was told I was an overachiever....

By the time I get back to class after all that snow, we are starting our first project. I have gone with the idea of a fish being hooked. On the back of the fish are the words "Chapter Four" to indicate the need to be hooked by the author by that time in order for me to want to finish the book.

I have split the book in half, making two lakes on either side. The left side has a boat made of twisted paper and a paper mache' fish. On the right is another paper mache' fish with a real fishing hook pulling it up out of the "water". I have also created a whimsical tree to balance to the project.

Cutting the lakes out was very time consuming, first tried it with an x-acto knife and when that got too boring, I eventually took a pair of scissors to it. That worked well as I was not going to glue the pages together and it certainly went much faster. The pages were colored with colored Conte' pencils, rubbing it to smooth and blend the colors.

The boat and both fishes are set on jewelry posts that are coming up through
the pages.

We had a critique with the whole class and I was able to record 16 minutes of it. Here is part of it...

LS- "Did she accomplish what she set out to do, and have the decisions she has made allowed her to convey what she wanted to convey. Or, have in any way has it impeded what she wanted to convey? Rather than "oooh, I really like that, or, that was good, oh that was successful, oh it really works", or other variations on that theme... we don't need to know that. We need to know what it is about, what questions it causes you to ask, about altered books, about sculpture. And since what we are doing is straddling those two distinct fields and creating some kind of synergy, we hope, then you can also address that. How is this feeding sculptural possibilities and how is it feeding altered book possibilities? Can you think of any artists that you looked at that you feel have been referenced in any important way? Do you see the influence of artists who are not book artists? Or even conceptual work? How does the piece that we are looking at fit into the larger umbrella of things that are being made?
This doesn't really leave any room for "oooh I like that, oooh that works".
OK, that's it. "

J- "But I think that it is also is still important to get that kind of feed back."

LS- "It is on a personal level. It definitely is. But on a level of trying to learn, it can sometimes impede your inquiry to have to satisfy the need we all have to hope that people respond favorably to what we have done. I think it would be most useful for Joyce and for your development of articulating ideas and observations, if you largely stay away from judgement and mostly get involved with discussion of points and that you are a little bit more removed from your own personal opinion."

L- "Well, it is very whimsical. I am very pleased that the clown fish is not the one that is getting snagged. (laughter) The depth you have created with the book and the rippling of the waves... to have the boat inset, is effective."

LS- "In what way? What if I say no it isn't? Defend your point. "

L- "It's effective because it is both art and water and it is excavated to the point where the bottom of the boat is at the bottom of the water. If you look from the very side of the book, that bottom part is immersed."

LS- "It is definitely giving us enough kind of clues that we are able to buy into that, the willing suspension of disbelief, the boat is in the water. Ok.

M- "So I see it as an illustration of story, maybe it is something the book is communicating, well actually that is a question I have about this book. Because this is a very whimsical scene with fishing, ships, fish, tree, but the text of the book... is it something about government? It says "Abe Lincoln in Illinois"... so I am wondering about how those two fit together. Was it intentional? Or the text is not really a part of the book?"

(At this point, I am keeping my mouth shut....)

LS- "Is there any other text that you see? If you look at it that way..."

M- "Oh, Chapter Four! "

L- "That would lead me to believe that since the fish says Chapter Four that it is something about the book."

(much whispering... can't really hear what they are saying here.)

LS- "I see (the words) Drama." (this word is on the top left side of the book)

J- "I mean I think that is something that I stick to, the title and the book subject are part of, and I don't think that is absolutely vital, but I don't know if that is going to be distracting? ( Talking about the Abe Lincoln in Illinois words on the top right page.) If looking at a book you are going to automatically know a narrative because books generally have a story narrative. So I think your mind is automatically going to look for text, and then consider the sculptural piece as illustrating the text, so, I think that could just be me as the viewer looking too far into it."

LS- "You're saying this is something the viewer is going to, a process the viewer is going to go through. They are going to notice the text, they are going to try to see if somehow it is going to relates to the formal qualities of the piece. Ok."

J- "I think the only thing that would bug me is the Abe Lincoln part, everything else...it doesn't really kinda, even looking at some of this I get a little old man in the sea-ish feel from it. And so there is Believe and Perseverance (more text that is visible on the pages of the book) which is a lot of what is happening here. But then I just want to see what's with the Abe Lincoln and all."
"As far as craft, I think the craft aspect of it is very successful. It's over the top successful!"

LS- "There are no craft distractions that make it hard for you to just look at it?"

J- "No, it makes like when L was saying you see the depth, you see the ripple, I think that really works for the overall theme of the piece."

LS- "I think Joyce went a bit counter to her natural instinct which is to have things quite neat and allowed the book more undulating than even maybe it naturally was. And in this case that feeds the sense of water, because water isn't just an entity, it has properties, and that's one of them."

J- "I do want to know how that fish is hooked. Is it on the hook? That's a little bit of magic. ( here he is laughing heartily!)

Joyce- "You have to wait until I am allowed to talk!"

LS- "Well, who else has observations about this? Anything you think you might want to say before we let Joyce back in (the conversation)?

K- "Well, I look at the title which is Abe Lincoln in Illinois, and I look at this fish and it reminds me of a clown fish, and of the ocean, so this makes me wonder if this is Abe Lincoln on a big big adventure..."

LS- "So we've talked about this being illustrative, talked about it having a sculptural undulation that reminds us of water, we've talked about the presence of text and how text may or may not impact what we are supposed to be seeing that is beyond anything illustrative. Does anyone else have any points about it? As far as like different ways that the book has been altered, or anything sculptural, just formal or design type of comments you might want to make?"

M- "She's used the book in many different ways, she has used excavating, she has used it more sculpturally by using glue and individual sheets here..."

LS- "That's paper mache' like..."

M- "Then there is some twisting, so I think there was a lot of play and creativity in your approach to the book as a material."

J- "I'm going to break the rules a little bit and say I like how she did the grass... because I remember the process as you were cutting the grass and how you folded it up and I thought "interesting". I like kinda how you edited it back and I think it is so successful because those kinds of reeds grow at the sides of the water, and just to know that it was cut and the pages were folded up, is really clever."

LS- "It is what you expect to see by the water, by the water side, unlike what was happening last week. Yeah, good point."

(Last week I had outlined the whole lake with paper that had been cut in small strips to imitate grass, wanting to get that feeling of reeds by the shore. But it was way too much, it was too feathery and not at all the way I wanted it to look. So I ripped it out and threw it away.)

LS- "Did you have anything you wanted to say? (referring to KK)

KK- "You all have used such fancy words..."

LS- "Well, you could speak Icelandic!"

KK- "I was just drawn to it the minute I saw it. When she talked about it last week, about water coloring it, hmmm... I thought "I don't know" in my head.. but I can say out loud that it is very successful, the coloring, it's attractive."

LS- "You can talk, Joyce!"

Joyce- "It's not watercolor, it is Conte pastel pencils. For me, and liking things neat, that probably worked better, because I am sure the water color would have just rippled it too much. Maybe that might have been a nice effect, but I wasn't willing to chance it when I had only one try at it."

LS- "And it is interesting, that the idea of using water color rippling the water is ironically not the effect you want to get. There is a lot of wax in Conte."

Joyce-"I used a blending stick to smooth and blend the colors."

LS- "And what else do you want us to know about this that we haven't been able to see?"

Joyce- "I was really curious if you all would come up with the story behind this, which you (referring to M) mentioned seeing the words "Chapter Four" on the fish... which is a big part of what I was going for. The part Abe Lincoln in Illinois was unfortunate, the words just happened to be there. Although I liked the Drama on the other side. So in the future, if that wasn't a part of it, it should have been something I covered up."

LS- "Or tore that page out..."

Joyce- "But, the next page has it too... So, you know, the fishing and the Chapter Four being hooked was an important concept of the story. When I like to read, I am always subconsciously looking for the chapter, or the place where the author of the book "hooks" me. If it hasn't hooked me by the third or fourth chapter, I put the book aside. (lot's of ahhh's here!) So that was the important thing for me, where do you get hooked in a book? I deliberately left the words "I Believe" on the bottom of the right side of the lake..."

J- "Because at this point you believe in the story."

Joyce- "Yes, when you are getting to the end...
I wasn't sure about the tree, it is a little bit more whimsical than the rest, the rest is a little more realistic, but I wasn't sure. I started to tear it out this morning but I thought, no, it might make more work for me to repair it than I was ready to put in to it at this late date."

LS- "How about a little comment on the tree then?"

J- "That actually is the hook for the piece in my mind. When you see it across the room and you think what the h... is that, I like it!" (laughter, as we are not supposed to say yet whether we like it or not)

LS- "At this point we have already said a lot, you can say if you like it now."

J- "I think when you see, without the tree, you wouldn't necessarily be drawn across a room to get to it. You see that tree and see something happening below the tree and I think that really hooks you and reels you in. "

M- "It creates an environment, too. Rather than just seeing these two things (boat and hooked fish) that are describing what you are trying to tell us about getting hooked, there is all the rest of the stuff in the book. And visually and compositionally it is more interesting to have this and it brings you down in to the book."

LS- "But the first thing you said was that it was whimsical, and that's probably, like you said, it is the first thing you see. It's an attention catcher. Formally it imitates a barbed hook. Were you thinking about that when you made it?"

Joyce- "The tree? No, I wasn't!"

LS- "But don't you agree that it does?"

Joyce- "Yes, I do."

LS- "Then we can call it a happy accident, or call it subconscious, but whatever, it is appropriate. Formally. It reinforces what the whole thing is about."

Joyce- "Late afternoon as I was finishing it up, my husband said he thought the tree distracts from it, and often there are times when he makes a comment like that that it makes me stop, makes me pause and rethink it, but I went ahead and left it in there anyway."

LS- "Well, why doesn't it distract too much from the piece? Does anybody feel like they have a reason?"

K- "It is simple. It only has one main branch, and I am assuming the little green things are the leaves, then you have got these apple like looking circurly forms and that's it."

LS- "That's one reason, it is pretty much a simple form. What else? If something distracts, then that means it overpowers, or takes too much attention. There is so much to weigh you down, to look, there is so much interest in the excavation, the texture in the boat and the action of the fish. But that little tree isn't powerful enough to actually take your attention fully away from those. I think it momentarily diverts your attention, but that is a good tension creator. You want to look at the book, you want to look at the tree and then back to the book. That is nice feeling, instead of just looking everywhere and leaving.
That's good, good discussion everyone."

J-(he just has to know...) "The fish, how is it hooked or is it...."

Joyce- "No, it is on a post that I created out of some jewelry findings. I made a little platform underneath the pages, and put the post up through and the fish on to the post so that it would stay there."

LS- "Good, so you used a lot of techniques that you already knew to get this thing together. Nice. Good."

And on to the critiques of every one else's projects. I am so glad I recorded this, hearing it again has been very helpful and insightful.

2010-03-07T14:41:00.002-05:00

Reflections

This is a class I am taking with a local photographer, Mary Louise Ravese. She came prepared with many reflective items, and had stations set up around the room where we could shoot as many photos as we wanted.

This first set of two photos are done with a glass tile set, set down on a light box and then a silver reflective vase on top. I found it very interesting how the tile twisted itself when reflected in the vase.

This next one is another silver vase, with flat sides but lots of indentations.

Next I am working with iridized water glass.

I found myself intrigued with the black line snaking up the glass... and realized it came from the large circular light reflector next to me. I liked it so much that I started to include that in some of my compositions.

The next image is a flower in the glass, a bit wavy, but I think still fairly recognizable.

I then tried a fake flower in the glass... wouldn't know it was fake, now would you? And here I am typing and for the life of me I can't even remember what the flower is called... sorry!

But, I like the way the colors have shaped themselves... perhaps if it wasn't touching the right edge it would be a bit more successful.

This last one is obvious... I just left the flower in the image along with the reflection.

The class was a good class, time of day was rough for me... but learned a lot.

2010-02-07T19:05:00.000-05:00

The Sculptural Book

"Oh, I am glad you came early" the instructor, Lynn Sures says to me. I was there 20 minutes early, but unknown to me as a class they had all agreed to start at 1pm instead of 1:30. This will actually help me as I have to get to another class in Herndon by 6pm and this gives me a half hour more to get there and hopefully be on time.
I am early to class which means I miss my lunch...
I think I am going to like this class... there are now 8 of us, two adult students and 6 young adults and they are all very nice and welcoming to me. I have signed up for this class late since I dropped the art history class, and I am already two weeks behind. After an introduction all around, Lynn sits down with me and goes over the syllabus, our first project is based on four words. Notation, persuasion, language and communication.

Altering a book can involve cutting, tearing, or otherwise removing elements of the book: twisting, folding, or in other ways changing the physical form: gluing pages together, attaching books together, and using other means of attachment to sublimate the book to a new structure. As an observer and participant in a global, national and local culture, address the topic in a work containing at least one altered book and appropriate mixed media elements to accomplish your objective.

This is the basic instructions for our assignment.

I have made lists of words that correlate with the four words in the assignment. A few end up jumping out at me. Lynn sits back down beside me to go over my ideas. I like the word "hook", which I have written under persuasion. That made me think about actually reading a book and how I wonder when the author will hook me with their story. If it hasn't happened by the third or fourth chapter, the book is history.
Another word, pull, has caught my interest... makes me think of a pulling on a doorknob.
Lynn says the book cover can then look like a door... I mention I have always liked screen doors with the curlicues in the corners, she say then cut it out and put actual screening behind the cover, and perhaps use fishing hooks to attach to the third chapter... all good ideas and it is making me think.
All in all, I have enjoyed the class and look forward to the next week.

Digital Art I for Fine Art & Photography

This class is so so for me. I am relearning Photoshop, which is nice, but I find myself floundering when it comes to design from the ground up. This past week we were to start with ten photos, whittle them down to three and use those three in a collage.
The class assistant came over to advise me on which photos to use, and he asked me if I got these ten images off of the internet, I said no, they were my own images. Saw a little flicker of surprise in his eyes. Guess he thought they were good images, so that made me feel good.
I did finally choose a photo of a window with a grate in it (took this photo in Guatemala) another photo of a pink spiky flower (taken in Seattle) and and image of a screen printing image I had used before.
It was ok... but I am not in love with it.

And it seems that each week we have to put a print of our work on the wall. It is hard to put them up there, I don't like it.

Oh, well.

2010-01-30T07:56:00.001-05:00

Spring 2010 and my New Classes

  My head snapped back and instantly woke me up, I took a quick look around the classroom to confirm that no one actually saw me dozing off. Hopefully not, as the room was fairly dark, but I did observe several others who WERE nodding off.
  I am thinking this is going to be a miserable class to get through this semester. I am in Contemporary Modern Art, it is the middle of the afternoon and so warm in this classroom that even the 18 year olds are complaining.
  We are in a long rectangle room, with the video we are to be watching coming from a TV mounted on a interior post on the long side of the room, which leaves very little viewing space for the desks that we are all scrunched into. All I can see is about two inches of the screen viewed from an acute angle. No wonder I nodded off.
  Oh, and the instructor got very little participation out of this class that first day, and I am reminded how amazed I was last semester at how that instructor got her whole class to participate. What is that difference? One of those subtle things that is hard to decipher.
  I just knew this was going to be one of the most difficult (notice I am being polite here by not saying boring, but...) classes I was ever going to take.

I had to get out of it. Somehow. Permanently.

After class I immediately headed over to the registrar's office and made an appointment to go over my schedule. Before the next class came around.

For the last four years while I have been attending classes here at the Corcoran College of Art & Design, scheduling has been fairly easy. But I was talking to a friend, Pru, who I have been seeing over the course of my education in different classes. She just happened to mention that the AFA requirement for Art History was three classes, didn't really matter what three, just three.

Ok, maybe then I could ask if that Art Appreciation credit that transfered from Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), and that has been sitting under my electives category for four years, could be moved up to the Art History category.

That was one of the first things I asked the advisor.
And just like that, he said, "Of course, that is no problem."

And I spent the last four years with this transfer credit sitting under my electives? And it is with a simple of course, that is no problem, it moves into the Art History requirements?

I felt like hugging the guy!

I refrained, but I did question him again, just to be sure he wasn't going to retract that statement and tell me I really did have to stay in that Contemporary Art class.

I found myself later that day dancing around our kitchen while singing " I don't have to take it!"
All the while giggling, too.

So, in its place I have signed up for a class called The Sculptural Book. I have unfortunately missed the first two classes already, but it sounds interesting. Luckily I have many of the supplies required, so I am off to a good start. I am really looking forward to the class.

So much better than dreading a class!

My other class for the semester is a Design class, fairly interesting so far, but my favorite part of the class is that the work is all done with Photoshop and other types of software. It is so good to get back in to working seriously with Photoshop, if you don't use it you lose it...

I would describe the instructor for this class as an old hippie... the first day in class he showed us a video compilation of his career, and even back then he was pushing the limits of what was culturally acceptable for the times.

The class is packed to the gills, and obviously the students love him as they keep signing up for the same class more than once.

Off to a good start. Finally.

2010-01-10T10:49:00.001-05:00

Arrived in Ixtapa, Mexico yesterday afternoon. Couldn't wait to get my socks off! The heat hit me as soon as I got off of the plane. It taxied up to the building, a set of stairs pushed up to the plane, and a long walk in to the airport.

I expected customs to be a bit more concerned about what I was carrying with me.... actually made it through with an American apple with me.

I thought it a bit odd that at the end of the process I was asked to push a red button on the counter, where above it was a glass that had etched on it two figures. Only got a quick glance at it, as I was not too interested in it until I realized that it had something to do with the red button I was asked to push.

I pushed the button, and one of the figures lit up with a green light.

And on I went.

I asked Gary, the husband of my friend Debra with whom I am staying, what that was all about. He said it was to determine who gets an additional search.

And they let a button determine that.

Well, I was just glad I didn't have to have it done, just because of the time... after being on airplanes for the past six hours and after all the waiting around I was ready to get "home" and relax.

And one of the first places Debra took me was to the pool, where we relaxed and read or dozed. Hard life, I tell you!

The evening was spent in Zihuatenao, the next town over at a lovely restaurant called Coconuts. I had coconut covered shrimp with a wonderful spicy mango salsa.

I left Debra & Gary watching TV later that night and headed off to bed... needed my sleep!

Waking up to the view was magical.

2010-01-04T17:19:00.000-05:00

Still a Straight "A" Student!

That's all I am writing here for this entry. The title says it all!

2009-12-19T09:45:00.000-05:00

Ongoing Stinkbug Adventures or Lack Thereof

Yes, I am happy to report that we actually lit another fire in the fireplace at the insistence of our son, Jared.

He has always loved playing with fire.

In a good way, of course. Perhaps it started early in his childhood, as one of his weekly chores was to take the paper trash outside and burn it in the burn barrel. In thinking back about it, that was always something that was done in my own family as I was growing up. Seemed a normal thing to do, and I was also becoming more aware of what we put in the land fills.

So Jared burned the trash every week. I actually don't think he ever complained about this chore. He just asked this week, where did we ever get the barrels that we used? Bob couldn't remember. But we used large 55 gallon barrels, somehow placed a wire rack one third of the way up on the inside, cut a square hole around the bottom edge and there you go. Fire gets oxygen and the ashes can be shoveled out.

I do still have a visual memory of him standing out there at the barrel, holding a long branch and poking at the fire every once and awhile.

He still loves fire. Anytime there is a campfire, you will always find him right there tending it. Even when most everyone else has drifted away to do something else. My most recent memory is of him out behind our current home coaxing a fire to grow in the fire pit, with drizzling rain trying to put it out. Everyone else had already moved in to the house, but not Jared. He was determined to get that fire going.

So, that takes us to this past Sunday... he really wanted a fire in the fireplace. He misses it, his own home does not have a fireplace. He goes out and brings in the fire wood, with my admonition to make sure he bangs the firewood on the ground... I don't want any stinkbugs brought in.

He didn't bang the wood.

I didn't say anything to him.

He builds a very nice fire, lights the paper under the wood and....

only ONE stinkbug falls down. I had visions of a repeat adventure...

Just doesn't seem fair.

So we had a very nice fire for the rest of the afternoon, and Jared got to enjoy taking care of it.

2009-12-10T20:34:00.001-05:00

Trimming A Pot

The pot is set upside down on the wheel.

Extra clay is used to attach the pot to the wheel.

The Pot is then trimmed around the edges.

The bottom is then trimmed on the inside.

And signed.

It is then set on the shelf to dry before being put in the kiln to bisque fire it.

A few of my pots ready to be taken in to the kiln room.

We are getting close to the end of the semester and I think there will be a few pots that will not get through the whole process.

So much for Christmas presents!

2009-12-10T17:51:00.000-05:00

This is hilarious!

I found this sign on the wall in the small student lounge, which is located under the stairs that come down from the main floor. There are three tables with chairs and a microwave and water fountain. The sign is posted on a section of wall that is not noticeable when you first walk in. So maybe it is tongue in cheek... either way it is great!

2009-12-04T08:51:00.004-05:00

I Must Be A Magnet

I am referring to bugs, creepy crawly things.

Again this morning I am enjoying my routine of a cup of tea while checking my email. I reach for a tissue as I have had a horrible, awful, really bad cold, and just as that tissue almost touches my nose I see from the corner of my eye a black spot on the tissue.

No, not a stinkbug this time. A wasp.

Yes, that is what I said, a wasp! In December, too. Shouldn't they be hibernating or something?

As I jerked my arm away and let out a yelp, Mya (our dog), came over to investigate. The wasp had fallen on the carpet but Mya wasn't very impressed by it and walked away. I scooped him up with the same tissue that he had been investigating and took him outside. Maybe the cold weather out there will make him do whatever wasps do during the winter months.

Just as long as he is not in my house.