All Entries in the "Ceramic" Category
yoshi aoki’s mixed media sculpture and a giveaway winner
Most artists create a design based on the material they work with – glass, ceramic, metal, paper. Yoshi Aoki turns that idea upside down by coming up with a design first and then choosing the materials to create it. Working out of a studio in his Oregon garage, Aoki strives to “capture the essence of nature in abstract ways.” I think Aoki’s sculptures would translate well into jewelry, don’t you?
Gravity, steel, raku-fired ceramic
Raku Scape, steel, raku-fired ceramic
Vine, steel, dyed maple
Where It Grows, steel, raku-fired ceramic
Willcox Update and a Giveaway Winner
Many, many thanks to all who made a donation to help Kimberly Willcox rebuild her studio – although my giveaway has ended, donations are still being accepted and I encourage you to continue to spread the word through your blogs, Facebook and Twitter activity – maybe even think about hosting your own giveaway to help Kimberly.
DAM has more than 4,000 daily readers – imagine if everyone gave just one dollar…or two. It would add up quickly to a significant amount of help. If 50 of you set up your own giveaway…if 100 of you spread the word to your own circle of readers and friends. Just something to think about.
I spoke to Kimberly yesterday – she was busy sculpting face molds in polymer clay as all of her molds were lost in the fire (the faces are then cast in bronze). She is literally starting from the beginning again and is overwhelmed (in a good way) by the support DAM readers have shown her over the last few days. Kimberly left this comment on the post about her studio fire:
“Dear fellow artists, friends and Susan…I am so touched by the support and kindness you are showering me with during this difficult time. In the wildest dreams of my creative soul I never visualized myself in this predicament. The vast hole of black charred emptiness will find light…in time…I will rise like a phoenix from the ashes! Thank you…from the bottom of my heart and soul” Kimberly Willcox
For those who have asked if her sculptures are available for sale, the answer is YES! To inquire about prices and to purchase, you can contact Kimberly directly at kimberlywillcoxart@gmail.com
Here’s the link to my original post and you can make a donation here.
And now…on to the winner!
Congratulations to Annie Hooten!
Annie please send me an email with your address and I will ship your prize package.
Happy Monday!
stephanie craig’s ceramic collections
In 2009 Stephanie Craig was one of sixteen emerging artists featured in Ceramics Monthly - and her art was chosen as the cover image – no small feat. The Ohio artist, who often collaborates with ceramist husband Todd Leech, has several series – including Specimen Collections, which explores “the human impulse to collect, sort and organize ideas and objects.”
Super Seeds, ceramic
Supervision, ceramic, wood, felt
Hydra Specimen, ceramic
Hydra Specimen is reminiscent of Grant Diffendaffer’s recursive beads – maybe it’s time for Grant to go big? And I would love to see Stephanie translate a few of her specimens into jewelry!
Secrets, collaboration with Todd Leech
Capsula, ceramic, from the Fossilized Memories series
Capsula, detail
dryden wells’ ceramic multiples imply movement
I continue to be drawn to sculpture, wall art, tiles and jewelry made with multiples. There is something about a repetitive form that feels familiar, soothing – almost meditative.
Movement Stack 1, earthenware, slipcast, 5″ x 7″ x 5″
Dryden Wells, who holds a BFA in ceramics and an MFA in ceramics and sculpture, uses multiples and fragments “to create objects that imply movement or the evidence of it.” Organic. Interesting. Cohesive.
Read about his time living and working in China here.
Movement Stack 3, earthenware, slipcast, 15″ x 6″ x 8
Movement Stack 8, earthenware, slipcast, 5″ x 11″ x 8″
renee rouillier’s sculptures elicit unease
Originally from upstate New York, Renee Rouillier now creates her figurative, narrative sculpture from a studio in South Carolina, influenced by the natural world and the “interrelatedness of all life forms with their surroundings.” Rouillier’s work is haunting, thought provoking, poignant. I’m a new fan – you can find more images of Rouillier’s work on crafthaus and Southern Artistry. I would love to see a website devoted to the artist’s work – her narratives about each of the sculptures are as intriguing as the work itself.
Inner Potential
Inner Potential, detail
“In this sculpture the birds are entrapped signifying unreached potential or the inability or lack of opportunity to become our true self.”
Frailties of Humanness
In Your Words
“Based on historical ventriloquist puppet forms symbolizing much of what you are told you have said or done, is not actually your words, but others.”
Silent Conversations
Inner Flight
“I believe as artists, we do not flourish in a vacuum, but it is our supports, teachers, peers, friends and environment that provide the framework for our growth; and it is our persistence, passion, and energy that help us succeed.”
Find more photos like this on crafthaus
“It is vital that my work goes beyond appearance. Even though craftsmanship is of utmost concern, the most important factor of my art is to initially attract the viewer, prompting a question or disquieting concern. I want my art to elicit an unease, an emergence of old beliefs that need evaluation, a connection with issues that may be difficult but need addressing, or a new awareness.”
barbara sorensen’s looming stoneware sculptures
Nationally recognized for her large-scale geological forms in clay, resins and metals, Barbara Sorensen’s hand built structures emulate the shape of the earth’s crust, with textures and surface treatments that lead you to think they could have been part of a massive archeological dig in a remote corner of the world.
Barbara Sorensen standing with Shield 40
Sorensen travels extensively and has studied with several renowned artists, including Rudy Autio, who described the work as “looming forms…balanced ambiguously, challenging gravity in defiance of an uneasy truce with nature…”
Canyons, 9′ x 11′ x 10′, stoneware and stones
Canyons, detail
“Most of my forms relate to the notion of the vessel which I feel represents containers of our spirits as metaphors for our bodies. It teaches me that there is a rhythm to life, an ebb and flow with ourselves and others as we continue to move inward and outward while maintaining a sense of forward momentum.”
Siren X, 76″ x 27″ x 15″ + 18″ base, stoneware
Shield de Pyrenees, Collection of Neiman Marcus
21″ x 22″ x 4″, stoneware and stones
Torso W4-05, 48 ” x 23″ x 16″ including base, stoneware
“I build in layers, stacking and joining the clay as I move upward to create layers of antiquity, layers of time, and layers of myself. Petrified ghosts and seas of ancient years are recorded as the process drapes the landscape. I let the sculpture lead me where it should go.”
keri straka: nesting, growth and intimacy
Ceramic artist Keri Straka explores the relationships of nesting, growth and intimacy. The work touched something in me as I continue my own personal reflections on the same themes, particularly the Infectious Embellishments Series, from her Large Works collection (#2 is pictured below).
Sponge, 4″ x 5″ x 4″
An assistant professor of art/ceramics at Framingham State College, Straka uses saturated colors and surface embellishments to imply protection. “I am looking for the push & pull relationship found with a seductive yet slightly menacing or decayed surface. The relationship of various parts of the forms, suggest nesting, growth and the nature of parasitic relationships.”
Infectious Embellishment #2, 62″ x 12″ x 12″
The artist, who holds a BFA from Western Washington University and an MFA from Mass Art, uses the coil and pinch method for constructing the hollow forms, which are fired multiple times as she builds up the surface treatment and saturated colors.
Longing, 12″ x 11″
“I am interested in pushing the relatedness of the human body and the natural world, as one entity. I am drawn to the poetic resonance of connecting human tissue and form to biological and geological forces.”
marina bychkova: doll sculpture
Marina Bychkova’s porcelain, ball jointed dolls are more than just dolls. They are sculptures, statements, haunting reminders that beauty takes on many different forms.
Cinderella
carved sterling silver corset, shoes and hair ornaments,
Indian Sari skirt, natural silk fiber hair
Captain Nemo’s Daughter
The Vancouver artist was born in Russia and moved with her parents to Canada when she was 14 years old. She has been making dolls since the age of 6, passionate about creating dolls that bear no resemblance to the vanilla-bland mass produced dolls on the market.
Lolita
24k gold plated corset and bra, 24k plated bronze stilletos,
stockings and fan embroidered with applique designs,
pearls, Ruby and 24k gold plated beads
Her skills are impressive: sewing, beading, porcelain, silversmithing, painting, metal, construction – she also makes all of the doll accessories. Take your time on Bychkova’s website and discover a treasure trove of information about dolls, the process – which includes models and molds made from Super Sculpey – and a great tip for making the articulated joints pose perfectly.
For the Costumed collection, the artist makes each gown, a time consuming practice, considering that one takes between 150-350 hours to complete. She embroiders beads and gemstones into the gowns, making every costume a true masterpiece. In the Tattooed collection the porcelain is engraved with a needle while still raw and then china paint is rubbed into the grooves after the doll is fired, creating magnificent ‘tattoos’.
Anna Karenina Survives the Train
“I’m interested in juxtaposing binary opposites within my dolls: beauty and ugliness, love and violence, eroticism and repulsion. Giving dolls attributes that are not traditionally associated with dolls, gives them an existence beyond the realm of toys to which they have been confined for centuries.”
Bychkova’s dolls range in price from $6,000 – $33,000.
Read an interview with the artist on Pop Culture of Destruction
Her Deviant Art page
More images on Flickr
lisa robbins’ ceramic seeds, pods and gestators
We are still without internet service – did you know that Barnes and Noble has free WiFi? I didn’t! Hopefully we will have things sorted out tomorrow. Until then I am learning to embrace my internet-less life – sorta! Here’s a quick post (free WiFi but no electric outlets means my battery is draining fast).
One more ceramic artist for you this week – enjoy Toronto based Lisa Robbins’ take on seeds, gestators and mature pods. Otherworldly and a bit on the wild side they have people appeal to me. I want to name them – don’t they look like friendly little creatures who want to come for a visit and stay awhile?
judit varga’s ceramic circles and squares
Yesterday a storm swiftly blew through the Hudson Valley, leaving us without internet and phone service and this morning, finding an internet connection proved to be a little trickier than expected. After a couple of false starts, I meandered across the river and down the road to write today’s post. I must really love you. Yup. I do.
Judit Varga prefers a low tech approach to clay, using a minimum of tools. “Low tech is satisfying” she says, “It’s just me and the clay with a minimum between us.” Varga, who grew up in Hungary where she completed an MFA in Ceramics, immigrated to the United States shortly after graduation and put her art aside while her children were small.
What is it about circles, squares and knots that is so satisfying? Varga’s interpretation feels rustic and sophisticated at the same time, her choice of colors soothing – I want to crawl inside of Cocoon, and Inside Out? It is calling me…inside out…mmmm.
Connected Circles, semi-porcelain, 14×14x9
Twisted Lines #3, stoneware, porcelain, 18×16x6
Inside Out, semi-porcelain, 18×13x13
Blue Circles #9, semi-porcelain, 18×18x4
Blue Cocoon, semi-porcelain, 10×7x7
“I work in a quiet solitude in my small basement studio and find this peaceful loneliness a perfect stage for my play with clay. In the silence sometimes there is a moment of harmony when the clay and I understand each other perfectly, we know exactly what the other one wants to do. Those are the moments that I long for and this longing draws me back to the studio to open up a new bag of clay and start again.” Judit Varga
Read an article about the artist in Home & Design
ann van hoey’s ceramic serenity
It’s Friday and I’m craving serenity, calm and minimalism. Ceramic artist Ann Van Hoey’s latest work fits today’s criteria. Van Hoey cuts thin semi circles of wet clay, joining them together to form a basic bowl shape before she begins the transformation.
Watch the video below to see how she brings a bowl from its original state to the origami-inspired earthenware sculpture that has become her signature.
“Ann Van Hoey uses the three-dimensional world to explore bold encounters between the circle and the square, the triangle, the straight line and the point, taking care to reconcile their divergences.” From the artist’s website
