gave an art poster to my step-dad! (he's with LeafGuard Gutters)

candles!

so for my 3rd project i met a set of candles. i threw them on the wheel, just simple mug shapes without handles obviously. theyre each a little different, size and shape wise, but i tied them together with a design consisting of some type of lines on the surface and glazed them jade green! i like the way they turned out. in the picture here, i havent put the wicks in yet. I'm doing that tomorrow. I actually have 4 projects done and one more in the process. I have two pieces uploaded to scholastic, i have 2 jugs of eggnog in my fridge for friday, and the stress is finally being lifted off my shoulders as im finishing up this last blog....phew! :D

Empty Bowls!

sorry its late...i had absolutely no time to do it

sketches and epiphanies!

when i was working on one of my projects today i just started to think about something. Sketching is cool sometimes to organize your thoughts and to plan out the steps of a certain project. for instance, one of my projects for this month is a bathroom set (toothbrush holder, soap dish, and tissue box cover,) and i decided to sketch out a few different designs to put on them, along with steps of what i would do each day, so i could estimate how long it would take me. Well my other project is a set of vases. i had a couple sketches but this is the part where i think sketching can be thrown out the window. its a great feeling when something you envision comes to life, literally, through a sketch, but i think its an even more awesome feeling when youre working on your project and you get a sudden epiphany, a sudden cool idea that pops into your head. which is exactly what happened to me! i was just working on my vases when i got a little frustrated that i couldnt keep them centered. but then when i was finished i looked at it and thought the way that it was off-center looked kinda cool, kind of unconventional and a little modern and spunky? if you may. so i dramatized that by paddling one side of each of my pots to make them all off center in the same corresponding way. the flat side from the paddle is gonna have a flower design on it. anyways, that was my epiphany, that was my project, and these are my thoughts of the day. (:

next project.....

I have pretty much finished my cups to the greenware stage so now im moving onto the next prject.....hmmm. I was thinking something like a little bathroom set would be cool. it would include a toothbrush holder, a soap dish and maybe a tissue box cover or a paper cup holder (paper cups that you use to rinse after you brush your teeth.) OR maybe a couple vases.....i dont know, give me more ideas!the pictures are just for a reference.

my leaf mugs in progress!

This is MY leaf mug I have been working on....I'm gonna make another oneto have a set, Im pretty excited about it!

Behind -_-

So I'm kinda freakin out today cuz im wayy behind. I have barely started my first project due at the end of the month. but i think its gonna be a mug with leaf's either etched or sculpted onto the sides, and maybe flowers too? originally i was gonna do petals comning off the rim but....i just realized that wouldnt make sense because then you couldnt drink out of it....? so i dont know. I just trimmed the mug today and it's a little crappy cuz i havent trimmed since summer but....i think it will be cool. not sure what im gonna do for my 2nd project though......... The picture is not my mug but i found it online and it has a similar idea with the layered 3D leaves on the bottom.

Coincentration Ideas

I have figured out my concentration. (I think.) It is: Functional Pottery with surfaces that are inspired by the Earth. Here are some images that inspire me....

butterflies, daisies and dirt, oh my!

a couple ideas for my concentration- outdoor nature. im a girl who loves flowers and butterflies and such. i think theyre pretty, what can i say? I was thinking about doing a nature-inspired concentration. but im not quite sure how to put this in more specific words. I wanna be able to make flowered designs on my vases, but also maybe make planters or bird feeders, or maybe even hand-built sculptures of bugs or birds. is this possible to do all of this in one concentration? ideas? this is a link to a website i found full of pottery, mostly thrown, with plant designs on them. http://www.bungalowpros.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=24

AP ART.

(on the left is a couple things i made in ceramics in 7th grade. a pinch pot jack-o-lantern and a rattle. on the right is my latest project, finished to the greenware stage.)
so i would just like to take this time to reflect on my year so far. (since my project updates are getting a little repetitive.) When the year began I was a little skeptical about this class. I thought it would be super tough and stressful and I thought that I would possibly start seeing Amy in a different light, judging from our very first critique and how harsh she was. (hahah.)I was afraid that I might get kicked out or fail because the deadlines were so strict and short! However, none of this is true. I have seen an improvement in myself, artistically, just in the first 2 months! It's forcing me to come in nearly everyday- sometimes more than once-but I love it! I love how my sketches are literally coming to life and I love the sense of teamwork and community that we are building in the class. And I love the challenge! Not to mention, I am in fact seeing Amy in a different light but thats because I realize more and more how lucky I am to have her as a teacher, and to be in this class. I know it will get more stressful, but...... bring it on baby.

Family of Boxes, halfway done!

This is just an update on my Family of Boxes project. Can anyone guess who these boxes are representing? Answer- My mom, and my brother. 2 more are coming: one for me and one for my dad. and if i can, im gonna try to do some more. but they might not be before the 29th. ANYWAYS.... The bow on my mom's pot is bugging me a little bit because it is not perfect and it is supposed to be representing her desire to be/look perfect (going with her personality)... so im not sure what to do. I am gonna clean it up a little bt once its a little bit drier, but if for some reason it doesnt look like i want it to, does anyone have any suggestions for alternatives to the bow? (I've never done anything like that before so i wasnt really sure how to go about it, but i just used a coil.) and in case someone was wondering whats up with the lid of my mom's pot, i actually messed it up. I attached a slab to a thrown pot and then i started to cut off the top with a cheese slicer but didnt realize how wet the clay was in the inside still and i ended up doing it way too fast and messed up. but then i realized... my mom is NOT perfect. in fact she's a little nuts. she just likes to pretend shes perfect. so i went ahead and worked with my mistake to show that. and then tied it together with a little bow. well anyways, here are my first 2 boxes, basically done. and ps- the whole sarah davis bottom thing has officially stuck with me. i hate trimming and i think this looks better anyways.

A Family of Boxes (in Progress....)

i started my family project last week. and so far its coming along great. my only concern is that i wont be able to finish these in time for the deadline. but i will try my best. This box here is almost finished. it represents my brother. my brother is kinda a jagged-edge guy. He loves metal music, which i don't understand. and he loves video games and tv shows with crude humor and he teaches himself the guitar. I decided to portray him through the shape of the box, kind of a crooked organic, yet geometrical shape. I'm gonna glaze it black and white and for the decoration, im carving tiger striped-looking triangles into the main form. I like how its turning out, and the other ones are coming along nicely as well...

a family of boxes

This week I have started my "family" project. it is going to be a family of boxes! My last project made me really fascinated with boxes and left my mind tingling with all sorts of ideas and sketches of different kinds of boxes i could make. This picture is of two boxes i found on the internet that i really liked because of the creative lids, handles, and textures. this is what i want to achieve. not this exactly, but the same sort of elements.
each box in my family of boxes is going to represent one of my family members. however, since i have like ten family members due to a stupid divorce, im gonna make my mom, dad, and first brother essential, and then as i move into the half siblings and step parents, i will try my best to finish them on time, but not hurt myself doing it. I'm really excited to start this project, and i have lots of sketches!

PS--

sorry my blogs are so long!

PSS-- this is not my weekly blog post amy, its the one below.

;)

Project Update!

I have almost finished my projects. My Sarah-inspired pieces are bisque fired and i think I'm gonna wait until november to wood-fire it. I decided this not only because i love the wood-fired look, but also because, the more and more i look at it, the more i think it looks like a cupcake. and this is sort of bothering me for some reason. I like the feminine look of my pieces but i think this one is almost TOO feminine. it just screams "A GIRL MADE THIS" everytime you look at it. The wood fired look might make people think otherwise when they look at it. i dont know, maybe im just being too critical of it. but i don't want to make pieces that look like they should go in a little girls room, so im gonna go with a rustic look for the glaze instead of a colorful look like someone might expect me to.
As for the shocking art piece, I am done with it, i just need to find a way to mount it onto its base. I made a baby doll look really slutty and kinda r-rated. She has skanky clothes, a stuffed bra, which i intentionally made obvious, and sloppy makeup. Im gonna put a cigarette in her mouth if i can find access to one, and i am setting up a little group of action figures/ken doll wanna-bes that are gonna be kinda checking her out in the background. one of them is gonna be holding a condom behind his back. I like the fact that it's making a statement on kids growing up too fast and it's made out of toys. i think it will make people really look at it and make their own assumption on what that means for them. I'm pretty happy about how my projects turned out. I will post pictures when they're done.

Making Progress....

Here is my newest project, drying and then ready to be bisque-fired. I'm actually QUITE pleased with the way it turned out. i am a huge fan of very organic figures such as this one, and i guess you could say my style is a little organic and feminine, almost scrap-booky, for lack of a better word. and thanks to sarah, our guest artist, i was inspired to complete that look with the rounded feet at the bottom. she also gave me the idea for the lid, which i made by attaching a slab to the top of the conjoined thrown tubes, and then cut off with toggle cutters. then i attached a coil to the inside and kind of pulled and pushed it to make a seat for the lid. and i added a little of my own style to it with the handle, which i tried to also keep very organic and feminine. And to tie it all together, and also add an element of 3D design....I carved in the stripes with a ruler and a trimming tool. Im super excited for this one.
As for the "shocking art" project, i decided to go with the theme that kids are growing up too fast these days, mostly girls. I bought a doll from value village today and am planning to make a little slutty outfit for it. im gonna have some toilet paper sticking out to show that she stuffed her bra, then maybe some high heels and makeup. the doll has a complete baby face, so the young age is still apparent. im gonna somehow mount it onto a board of somekind. and behind the doll, i will mount some action-figure guys of various sizes kind of checking her out.....(the action figure guys, although smaller in actual size, are obviously older.) i think this is gonna be kind of a challenging project for me for a few different reasons. i have to make the clothes, find some way to mount the dolls. and adjust their positions to show some emotion/attitude, and then try to keep their pose that way. However, I'm excited to go start it, which is what im gonna do after im done writing my blog. :)

Shocking Art

We got assigned a project called "Shocking art" this past week. It is supposed to be a 3D piece that is controversial or "shocking." I've been struggling with different ideas and images but i have come down to a couple topics. the first one is young love. like way-too-young love. i have a couple sketches and ideas for materials. the first is a sculpture of a boy and a girl kissing. a boy and a girl that are like 10-12 years old. the boy would be made out of/covered in condom wrappers and/or cigarette boxes to show his influence and drive to becoming so sexual at a young age....which is his desire to be "cool." the girl would be wrapped in magazine ads from cosmo, seventeen, playboy etc. to show her influence from the media and from other these other "sexy" things which created her desire to be hot and sexy. this is one idea to present the idea of kids growing up too fast these days. the only thing thats stopping me from doing that is that im wondering what i would make the sculpture out of (underneath the magazine ads, condoms, etc.) and also, it might be difficult to show their age.
Another topic im considering is the idea in psychology that children have a kind of unspoken secret sexual attraction to their parent of the opposite sex. so the piece would be a sculpture of a woman breast feeding her 1-year old son, and her sons hand is fondling her other breast while feeding from the other. a couple things I'm not sure about for this idea is...will it be school-appropriate? (a really annoying obstacle,) and....what will i make it out of. i have never tried making figures out of clay before but my only problem with that is that it is due on the 30th so that may not be enough time to make it out of clay. i think the 2nd idea is my favorite though. give me feedback!!!

AP 3D RETREAT!

I would say the biggest thing I have gained from this retreat, (and I'm sure everyone else would agree,) was a good relationship with everyone else in the class. I feel like we are all together on the same page now and after our bonding time, not ONE person feels left out or alone. And my favorite thing about that was that we didn't need Amy or any other adult to oversee our activities to make sure everyone was involved. (Referring to our game after she went to sleep.) I guess that should come naturally, but being in a high-school community full of cliques your whole life, makes that kind of a rare thing. But I felt like we all really enjoyed each other and made some great memories. And as far as an art class/group goes, i think that is very important. we are going to need to be very honest with each other while at the same time, not being afraid to hurt each other's feelings, or take something that someone else said offensively. We also need to be confident enough in front of each other to be able to say any ideas or thoughts that come to mind, and also trusting enough to take some of these inputs into action. Nonetheless, we're off to an amazing start.
Art-wise, i feel like i have gained a lot of inspiration and motivation from this retreat, especially the guest Artist who came to visit. I had some things in common with her; for instance, she hates trimming. so she gave me a lot of cool ideas to work from for alternatives to trimming. I think it's very helpful and motivating to watch guest artists every once in a while because, every time i have, it has made me feel a little better about my art work when i hear about the problems they encounter as professional potters, which are usually ones that i encounter as well, and get very frustrated with. So it makes me a little less stressed out about it. Over all, the retreat was a complete success and made for a great time and a great start to the year. I'm super excited for this class!

andy goldsworthy-inspired sculpture #3

my third miniature sculpture was made of wildflowers and berries. it only took about 5 minutes to make.(besides picking the berries and flowers). i think its cute but the leaf on the top of the picture, in the berries bugs me everytime i look at it. for some reason i didnt notice that when i took the picture. i like the location of this one though because of the contrast between the rocks and the flowers. and i like the simplicity of it as well.

Andy Goldsworthy-inspired sculpture #2

My main Andy Goldsworthy-inspired sculpture was this one above. most of the time it took to make it was from picking berries, gathering rocks and pulling grass. i like the way it turned out. it turned out almost exactly how i envisioned it and drew it in my sketchbook. however, if i could change something about it, it would be where i made it. i didnt think about the location too much but now im realizing that it could've made a difference.

Andy Goldsworthy sculpture #1

This was one of my first little sculptures inspired by Andy Goldsworthy. It was made of twigs and berries. it was orginally supposed to be bigger but i had a problem trying to get the berries to support the twigs, and then when i tried to use smaller twigs, the twigs themselves weren't strong enough to support the berries. so i made it as tall as i could.