Incising Study

Jennifer Weigand, Yellow and Blue, 2011. Photograph; 8 x 10".

Abstract art has been a way where I can release perfectionism while making art and practicing compositional elements. Through my photography and painting, I have been able to depict abstracted imagery found in nature, in what I informally call “hidden moments,” identified and found in reflections, light and shadows, and macro and micro imagery that usually go unnoticed. It never crossed my mind to meld abstract imagery and clay together until this course.

Newcomb Pottery, thrown by Joseph Meyer, 
decorated by Harriet Joor, Vase,
Chinaberry Design, 1902.

Frederick Hurten Rhead, Vase, 1911.

Early on in Makers, I discovered the beauty of incised vessels. Having never sought out historical references before in ceramic art, I found delight in the work of Frederick Hurten Rhead and the Newcomb potters. I appreciated their geometric design and patterning applications but I was attracted more to their motifs that had been solely abstracted from nature.

Ruth Duckworth, Earth, Water, and Sky, 1968.

Wayne Higby, Josiah's Canyon Winter, 1979.

Chapters later, I discovered yet another muse within Wayne Higby and Ruth Duckworth work. Higby highlighted important thought processes that I strongly connected with in a video I found titled “Infinite Place: The Ceramic Art of Wayne Higby.” Here, he describes the meditative process of creating and viewing his art. He states that his work creates “a quiet coherence” for himself and the viewer. This process of art speaks to my heart. On the other hand, in an online article titled “Clay as Architecture: The Wall Murals,” Duckworth showcased her abstraction skills in a large ceramic artwork. I didn’t realize how influential this mural would be until I produced my last incised study.

*These are not all of them.

I decided that since I didn’t have access to a potter’s wheel, I would roll slabs into vessels to provide me surfaces for my carving research. The “vessels” proved to be too inauthentic for me to work on given their uneven surfaces and unstable "tube" structure. I switched to using slabs and alternative tools to make my marks with the shapes and objects found around my classroom. This gave me ideas for my vessels I would eventually create and incise this summer but I still felt like I could do something more.  

The lack of a challenge left me desiring something different to come from my hand. In my frustrations, I easily fell back onto carving and imprinting imagery directly associated with nature. Imprinted sprigs of lavender, carved ocean waves and incised geometric designs began to pull me into a different direction that I didn’t want to go. I wanted mystery. I wanted my work to hold someone’s attention at least for a moment. I wanted there to be questions. I changed my direction once again in my studies, and strived to find something that was challenging and rhythmic in its creation, yet provoked thought in the viewing.

I resorted back to carving directly from nature. I began carving a canyon in one of my slabs. I started with the deepest space first and progressively moved forward in space making a shallow relief. I lost myself in its creation and it was a nice place to be; however, in the end, I only had a small relief carving of a canyon. I still needed more and pushed my incising studies till the last minute of our course.

As I was cleaning up my classroom, I stumbled upon a topographic map. I only just learned how to read topo maps last year on a backcountry hike in Big Bend National Park. Their design inspired an elementary art lesson where the students were to create an organic collage using radiating shapes to demonstrate their understanding of these maps. I proceeded to carve a small section of it in a slab. Carving this captured me and I learned what I needed to do to make my last study more successful.

Jennifer Weigand, Marufo Vega, 2016. Greenware study; 5 x 6".

I am pleased with the result of my last study during this research series. It met all my criteria in creating a piece: challenging and rhythmic, yet still provokes contemplation as I feel it embraces abstract qualities. In creating this final carving relief, I learned that some of the best practices were to begin carving on almost leather hard clay; be aware of how many layers I needed to carve; and have a brush available to remove shavings. I am not only glad I didn’t spend time in the clay studio figuring it out, but very happy that I didn’t practice my incising on vessels that I would have thrown on the wheel. In the end, I probably wouldn’t have practiced many of this. I am wondering, however, how a lot of these imprints, carvings and incised imagery will transfer to a 3-dimensional form.   

I look forward to implementing what I learned in my ceramic course this summer. I plan to bring along topographic maps of different places I’ve explored and hope that the design will continue to represent an abstract design on my vessels. I also would like to experiment removing the thinnest section to create a negative shape that exposes the inside of the vessel.

Works Cited

Clay as Architecture: The Wall Murals. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Web. 7 May 2016.

Infinite Place: The Ceramic Art of Wayne Higby. Memorial Art Gallery. Web. 7 May 2016.

Koplos, Janet, and Bruce Metcalf. Makers: A History of American Studio Craft. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina, 2010. Print.