Piece of Pieces!

I finally had some success with this idea. I was in a hurry for my show, so I didn't get before shots. I still have the mold, so I will get some images of that for you later. I love the potential of this and will continue to explore in this direction.

MONSTERS!!!!

I came across this guy while doing research for John's class, and I thought I should share the them with you. The artist is Dave Devries. He takes kids drawings and paints realistic versions of them. Here is his website with more. http://www.themonsterengine.com/artwork

Work in Progress

A couple of pieces I'm working on for the show.

A Bit Smaller

Here are a couple of smaller pieces in progress for my upcoming show.

Do we know our own work?

At NCECA I attended a panel about the value of criticism. Several interesting things were said, but the one I want to focus on now is the idea that the art critic knows more about your work than you do. It was said that many artists think that critics feel that way.

The Critic on the panel responded that in some ways this can be true. The artist may have been moved or influenced by artistic movements, or social aspects that they weren't fully aware of, and that the trained critic may see connections to things that the artist didn't realize were included in the work. He also offered the disclaimer that the critic doesn't know art better than anyone else, but he does know his own understanding of art better than others know theirs.


As an artist I was unsure how to take this. I made the art. Could someone else understand it better than I? But then I thought about the growing pains I have gone through, and continue to go through, in understanding my work. Asking myself why I made something the way I did, and not being able to answer except to say - I liked it. Moving from making intuitively to making conscientiously is a step that many artists seem to struggle with, so is the notion that someone else may understand the intuition of the artist better than the artist so crazy? Thoughts?

NCECA and facing myself.

I am really glad I went on this trip to NCECA. In addition to enjoying a little sun for a change, I got to see a lot of great ceramics, and hear a couple of lectures.

There is one thing that jumped out at me this trip. I suck at finishing work. Like, REALLY, REALLY, SUCK! Looking at all the great pieces on display, I was struck by all the different and great finishes people had on their work. At first this really got me down a bit, what was I doing in grad school? How could my work ever compete? Now however, I feel energized to do something about it. Sadly, the rest of this semester will be largely devoted to finishing work for my show, so there wont be time for a lot of testing. Over the summer however, I vow to find and execute better ways to finish my pieces.