The opening history timeline allows me to think that Dr Seuss partly was nurtured by the presence of Surrealism. I have nothing to prove this aside from a long held belief that nothing exists in a vacuum.
I am still thinking about my weekend visit with Salado Glassworks and Ro Shaw Clay. I continue to be impressed with how much work it takes to build an inventory, demonstrate processes, be the sales person and make new work. So for our extra question briefly describe the shop /store you would have for your work and how you would do the above mentioned tasks. I know a few of you talked about being teachers when I asked you to talk about yourself. If you choose to have a store focused on children's art that is OK, just answer the questions.
Remember that at least 2 of our responses to other student's post need be more than "I agree'...pretend you are in an actual class and we are having a discussion.
Me and Shelbi are opening a pottery studio later in life, just waiting on that sweet sweet TRS money. In all seriousness I want to have a small pottery business when I retire from teaching, I know I will need a supplemental income to go along with TRS and I would much rather sell my wares than work at a part time job. My family always wants me to start selling my work, and I've reached a point where I don't keep much of what I make. For now I enjoy giving it to friends and family, but I am starting to think about selling more of it, I have a few commissions right now from friends for some tableware sets so its a step in the right direction. The idea of having an actual store front is a bit intimidating, I know it is much more than throwing pots and selling them. I need to get to Salado and see Ro, he is a pleasure to be around.
ReplyDeleteAs for the question last week about how we would want ourselves and our work to be represented...
I would want to be remembered as a person who enjoyed the process and community just as much if not more than the outcomes of the work. Someone who took neither himself nor his art to seriously. Someone who made work purely for the joy it brought him and the joy of sharing his work. I'd want to be remembered for work that bridged the gap between functional wares and sculptural representations of place and memory. I'd want it to reference TTU and Junction, and I would want it to reference my close friendships that grew out of those experiences as a driving force for continued artistic and personal growth.
Daniel yes to the pottery studio. As much as I would like to hold out until retirement I will be hopefully starting mine within the next 5-10 years. I too need to go see Ro and his space. I will focus on doing that hopefully closer towards summer and then actually getting to work with him in summer session II.
DeleteI would have to agree with what you would want said about you. I think that's very accurate. It's not "just pots" to you (or me). We create pottery in order to create community. That my friend, is a beautiful thing!
Its nice to have someone else like you that can help you think through what you would really like to do. I love the thought of creating a pottery community!
DeleteDo not wait. Begin now. Maybe Ro could handle some pieces on commission? The pressure to have an inventory will help you make art weekly. Just a thought.
DeleteSo for our extra question briefly describe the shop /store you would have for your work and how you would do the above mentioned tasks.
ReplyDeleteI would sell "OUTSIDER ART WORK",specifically that of the mentally challenged,tormented souls and people who have suffered trauma, and use art to express their feelings and/or use art to help them recover and to heal.I would have the shop actually as a part of the healing facility sort of a gallery addendum to the place where people go to heal through art.I would focus on a different artist each month who would demonstrate through workshops their work and process and have videos playing to show the artists working also. I would have a small studio there also so I could make my own work which would relate to the theme,so I could work when the shop was not so buys. I would keep the prices all the same and under a certain amount so to make it easy to handle the money part...as long as there was some income to cover supplies and the cost of running the shop but I would supplement my income with gallery lectures,and teaching children's classes, relating to the topics.Of course,we all know that this would all be in a make believe world of my own.....not in the real world...
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DeleteSusan, I cannot remember; are you in Lubbock? A local homeless church here--Carpenters--does "outsider" art work with much of the homeless and it is amazing. I think you'd enjoy being a part of that :)
DeleteThank you,sounds great I will check it out next time I am in Lubbock,No I actually live in Central Texas not far from Austin
DeleteSusan, I love this idea. I think the DMA once had a show of work by special needs adults. I love my daughter's work... when she was in school, her Art 1 teacher had such a hard time with her and her IEP. She did not appreciate the work she did, could not meet her at her level. Thankfully some teachers in other classes did!
DeleteYou should post some of her art,if you felt like it;my brother in law created art,he was schizophrenic and actually had a tragic death... but I started a blog I hope to create art around his art,I call it Tom's World.I am really drawn to Outsider Art,it's uninhibited raw emotion....we think too much..it is difficult to paint that way for us
DeleteSusan, she also is bi0polar. When she was first diagnosed with a huge manic, her drawings were so different and amazing. I do not want the manic, but the art was pretty cool. Her work looks child-like, but she has a longer attention span and adds more details. I am currently embroidering one and will post a pic when finished!
DeleteI was literally just talking about this idea with someone yesterday. I would love to do the same. A quick side story I would like to share that happened to influence this idea of mine: there is an older gentleman who is a night custodian at the school I work at and one day he brought some of his artwork up to ask for advice. It surprised me because I had no idea he loved to draw. He had no formal art training but there was something so "raw" as someone above mentions. I gave him a big portfolio to keep his work in and gave him encouragement to keep making art. I think anyone and everyone should have connections to showing and sharing their art.
DeleteApril, thank you so much for sharing that story. I always felt so honored when fellow staff members would share their work with me. You no doubt made a positive impact on him & I applaud you!
DeleteWonderful story
DeleteI had the same experience with a fellow English teacher that was an amazing musician and when he best friend that played music with him died he was having a rough time playing any music at all, but while we were talking I noticed on his desk that was doodling a lot and I him if that was normal and he said that it only started after his friends death. I asked him if he would be open to doing assignments from me and he replies that he would. It was so much fun my students were instructing him, he would borrow supplies to try new drawings, he filled up 3 journals and got offers from a business to make some of them big to put in their offices. He is now happily making music again, but he calls it his "blue" period (because it helped him work through a lot of depression) was very successful for him.
DeleteA great idea! A wonderful resource for people who are in need of help and healing. I love the idea Susan! April. that story just makes me so happy! When I used to work at a book store I would have coworkers, whom were studying business, come to me and ask for drawing advice. It's a joyous feeling for people in whatever the community it may be to feel secure or confident enough to ask advice or even simply want a critique.
DeleteGood ideas everyone. Now we all need a business class!
DeleteFor a business card look at mop website for a unique square business card
DeleteJust sayin
This sounds so great and inviting!
DeleteIf I were to operate a store, I would want it to be an amalgamation between an art gallery, lifestyle store, education space, and youth outreach. The front of house would basically be a lifestyle store full of handmade items, t-shirts, prints, whatever, all made by local artists. I would keep a space for a featured artist which I would set up like a gallery with original works and corresponding products. The back would be a studio space where printing and making would occur. This space could be used to hold artist workshops. People could come and take classes from any of the local artists. I would also involve high school age aspiring artists. I would run it like an after school program once or twice a week. I would restrict it to students without the means to afford after school programs or extra classes. I would have the local artists I featured teach workshops to the students. If the store was a success, I could hire one or two of the students to help out, or hire them as assistants in making my own art. Basically, I would like it to be a community space. Sure, I would run it and sell my own products, but I would want it to be something for more than just my benefit, something that brought artists and the community together in a variety of ways.
ReplyDeleteI noticed an interesting, possible correlation. The book mentions how bright colors entered ceramics and glass in the depression (p.162). There were also bright colors in art and fashion during the economic downturn of the 80’s, and everything went retro-bright during the great recession. I wonder if moments of national economic insecurity lead to bright color palettes. Grunge came about in an era of economic stability. I wonder how much of an effect the economy has on our collective psyche and how that manifests itself in our popular culture.
I found the MOMA show making connections between modernist work and Aztec, Mayan, and Incan art very surprising (p 165). I would think at that time those connections would have been hidden or ignored. I like when museums make connections with the cultural traditions that influence art. The Seattle Art Museum is set up in this way to focus on connections over time periods.
My takeaway, and maybe it’s just because of the season, is that I wish the WPA were still around supporting artists. I wish the government were still in the business of supporting building and creation and striving to achieve glorious new heights scientifically, artistically, and intellectually. I wish the politicians running today were pointing to Mars and daring us to go there instead of pointing at each other’s shortcomings. I want to live in a country that dreams together aloud in daring new ways.
Justin - When I started working on my embroidery designs and teaching I found I had a similar experience to MOMA's making connections between two different regions - I loved my machine embroidery work and one of the students said I must of studied with this artist in England - I had never heard of her so I looked her up (this was in the beginning stages of the internet) and sure enough we had similar work - it was amazing to me her process versus mine and yet I had never been exposed to this method in a teaching setting - just was playing around with my machine and fabric. I'm sure we've all had similar experiences and from that I now get two British mags. that are on textile design and embroidery. Perhaps it has something to do with immigration of design and art, or maybe we can trace family lineage back to the same ancestors, Anyways - Im fascinated with that as well!
DeleteGail I want to get together with you and find out what kind of machine you use (or what kind would be the best for me) and the name of those publications from England!
DeleteKim - Creative Embroidery and Selveged - I'll bring copies this summer!
DeleteI love your store concept. And I second the need for a new version of the WPA. Think of all the incredible murals/fresco work that could be created. And what a great way to help with art classes in schools that do not have the money for a specialist.
DeleteAnd yes..anyone coming this summer bring some books or magazines that you want to share. We can set up a library in my room (even if you are in a studio class).
My husband and I have talked about opening an art studio/shop/bed and breakfast once the kids are grown and we have TONS of money from our public service careers...
ReplyDeleteI would like my "store" to be more of a bed and breakfast where we can build relationships with travelers. One of my favorite places to stay was at a place in Kitale, Kenya... and we have talked about opening something like this overseas. I would have a place to create art, hold women groups, etc... as well as display and market the works.
The colors there are amazing and what a wonderful story. Would love to here more and try to keep you encouraged in this direction!
DeleteI love this!Very simple idea, I would definitely would want to stay in a place like that in my travels.
DeleteI love the idea - if you need to "test" it out on clients - I'm in! - I love that it is different and a unique way of thinking about it but it captures the relationship - that craft seems to build on in community.
DeleteLove idea of B/B next to Justin's life style store!
Deletehow long were you living in Kenya,sounds wonderful
ReplyDeleteI didn't live there, just participated in a study abroad program for 3 months, then traveled around to see my then-future-husband's family. However, my husband grew up (not a national, though) in Kenya and Uganda until he was 18. It is wonderful. So green and beautiful, so many diverse people from many countries working together.
DeleteWow!
DeleteI looked up Cranbrook, and it is beautiful. What a history that place has! The same with Penland. I want to go to Penland sometime.....
ReplyDeleteIn Ceramics, the sculptures were ok, I guess I am not attracted to the glossy, stylized figurative sculptures. The pottery, omg! Loved Glen Lukens stuff. I loved the contrast between the unglazed and glazed portions of his work. Most of his work was a simple form to show off the glaze. I think his work had the first crackle glazes so far. I loved the idea of his "guess what" pieces!
Hasn't Fiesta ware been around for ever!!!! Almost 100 years, that is amazing.
The weaving and the glass connections - when an artist designed the work to be depicted in or on the piece, it kind of fell short. They were not taking into consideration the material, what it can do, how it can be stretched. I never thought of how you need a competency in the medium that will work with the image or design.
Takeaway, I loved Wharton Esherick and his work. Those stairs are awesome!!!
My own place.
I too would like a collective. I enjoy so many different media that I would want it all there, done in different ways by different people. Maybe a kind of Penland? No one buys my work, not complaining, just is not the saleable type, I guess, but I would probably buy everyone elses!!!!
I was given some modern day fiestaware dishes - but never really built on the whole theme - decided to put them in a garage sale - I was amazed at how many people came to the garage sale asking about my fiestaware from the ad I ran for the garage sale. It was 4 plates and they were the first thing to go - So they have a great appeal for people and I think they love the color - I don't think it created a "bomb of color" like the book suggested. (p 162)
DeleteI do believe California potteries created bombs of color (love that) when they started putting out house and garden ware in rich bright solid color glazes! I went to a Roundtop, Texas Antique Fair last year and when I saw the huge setup of tons of Fiestaware for sale it truly did look like explosions of color. Fantastic eye candy!
DeleteI was surprised to learn that Fiestaware came from West Virginia and the design was developed by Frederick Rhead who had lived in California at one time. (p 163) I am curious to know if the name, Fiestaware,actually has ANY relevance to California or to the Hispanic celebration of Fiesta because I've just spent the afternoon trying to find HOW the name Fiesta was chosen for Fiestaware. Anybody??
Chris I have been researching Cranbrook and found out that is right next door to where my son is going to school and have already discussed with my husband next time we go to get a tour!!! I'm so excited!
DeletePaula, yes I too was surprised that Homer Laughlin China Co is located in West Virginia. All along I had envisioned that Fiestaware was made in Cali. The bright colors really reminisce southern CA and it's Mexican influence. Took a quick look for where Fiesta got its name. Couldn't find much. Thinking that since "fiesta" means party and typical Mexican party colors are bold and bright, that this is where they were inspired from.
DeleteIn an NPR article I just read about Fiestaware, I found out that they release a new color every March. How fun! The article mentions that one year people were showing up wearing fuchsia as to try to cast their vote for the new color they wanted! Although the wares are classic and many love them, the simple act of releasing, or "unveiling" a new color as the article states, is a great way to keep their fan base interested year after year. On the article's link below, check out the photographs of the shop too. It's pretty cool to see mass production of Fiestaware in full swing on their "big, flat automatic" machine.
W.Va. Pottery Company Keeps Popular Fiesta Line Thriving - Oct 2014
http://www.npr.org/2014/10/16/354370783/w-va-pottery-company-keeps-popular-fiesta-line-alive-and-thriving
Every time someone mentions Fiestaware I think "it's radioactive!" I remember seeing that on a TV show at one point and thinking that people who make pottery must be really serious about it if they are willing to explore the use of radioactive material just to achieve a certain color of glaze. I'm sure that's not accurate, and I know I could google it, but it's actually more fun to think that all Fiestaware is radioactive and that there's some lurking in my attic somewhere, and that a squirrel might get in there somehow and turn into squirrel hulk.
DeleteWhat surprised me?All the separate programs for African Americans,Page 147-"There were separate programs for African Americans.Howard University housed a WPA ceramics program, and sculptor, Augusta Savage operated workshops or weaving pottery, and quilting at the Harlem Community Ar Center in New York"It also sort of surprised me that all the projects were not the same or i some kind of uniformed fashion,which is wonderful as I would have thought the opposite would have been true for government projects...
ReplyDeleteWhat impressed you?The uprisings and decorations and even paintings for each room in the vast lodge at Mount Hood(a really gorgeous pace by the way)and that Margery Smith directed this whole project which was beautifully done and with attention to such detail.
What are you taking away with you?I like he whole section also about Craft Goes to college on page 149,"Dozens of state colleges created programs for teachers of Industrial Arts and Home economics.And that ceramics was the most popular crafts subject in the 1930s. ......of course the section on Chicago and the Bauhaus is close to my heart as I grew up in Chicago and actually my father worked as an engineer at Illinois Institute of Technology Research Center in a building that where Mies Van der Rohe designed ..I TOOK A PRINTMAKING CLASS THERE ALSO...
"Philosophy behind it.
Beinahe nichts—almost nothing. Mies didn’t want these buildings to be self-consciously
architectural. Rather, he moves toward the absence of architecture—architecture as a
function of life. These buildings may seem forcibly barren until seen
as one unit within the campus context. Only then does the beauty of the full experience emerge.
Why it’s important.
Mies first developed his trademark corner in response to challenges created by fireproofing.
The skin’s corner bricks are stripped away revealing, at last, the true structural column.
At the same time, he reinforces the distinction between structure and skin while avoiding an
awkward junction of brick and steel at the corners."I will post a pic above..
Susan, I love that connection! Thanks for the picture and the additional information about the building. I went to Ohio State, where they had an historic ceramics department. Nope, never took a clay class. Sometimes we do not know what is in our own backyard, or we are (were) too young and stubborn to take advantage of it!! Glad you completed the connection full circle!
DeleteThe sad thing is the neighborhood there is awfully dangerous and run down but this beautiful and imp building stands there among the ruins of old buildings
DeleteWow Susan really have taken classes there what a memory this must have brought back for you! Then you can really to connect to our reading and thank you so much for revealing the how the "true structural column" was seen.
DeleteTo answer your question.
ReplyDeleteWould love to have a Gallery that is comfortable, but it has to be very sunny and open to other rooms. Maybe glass walls separating the rooms? Must have at least two studios for art classes (one kid friendly and another adult friendly)with concrete floors maybe even floor drains for spraying off. It would be great if one side of each studio could have a roll door (like a garage door) to the outside patio that over looks a gorgeous view of hill/mountains and/or forests. (or nature of some kind)(waterfalls in my dreams). Would need a modest office to take care of book keeping and sales, along with a great storage that my husband has already designed with sliding fencing floor to ceiling on rails so you can pull out a set of paintings or slide them back to store. Would also need an area for matting and framing art work (this might be part of the Gallery). Can you tell that I have thought of this?
Now remind me, what's your medium of emphasis for the most part? (I'll be honest I always think of sprayable floors for ceramics only)
DeleteI really like the idea of all of the natural lighting though, I live and breath by natural lighting, or at least light that mimics it (overhead lighting kills me.)
I would like a small storefront in a warm and inviting downtown tourist area where the streets are home to a bakery, coffee shops and lunch bistros. I would like it to be a corner shop with huge windows on both sides of street. I would like walls to be in the middle holding artwork that is functional and embraces the idea of embellishing our world from artists in the region. I would like to have classes towards the back on crafts: quilting, embroidery, ceramics and glass making and I would like for it to be open to all – with $ set aside for those who can’t afford, students will still be able to attend. I would love for this place to be a community center for hand crafted.
ReplyDeleteI think what surprises me from further reading of this book is my attitude towards hand crafted vs industrial design. I love reading about craft from the perspective of hand crafted versus the applied arts or industrial art. Hand crafted just seems to appeal to me. I think my take away with this is I should keep entering in juried shows where handcrafted is valued – on the gallery level as well as market place that celebrates the hand crafted. I feel I’ve been trying to mix both and it is exhausting. I was so excited when I realized Tech’s love of handcrafted – even down to the museum exhibiting Helenn Rumpel’s body of work last Oct.
What interest me this week are Joseph Albers and Annie Albers. I actually love his book and use his juxtaposition of color theory in my quilting work to audition my fabric. I loved his quote that all available material can be used to make art and there’s no hierarchy as long as used properly. I’ve never heard that but its great quote by him. Annie Albers – I love her books on design, “Annie Albers on Design” and “Selected Writings of Annie Albers” They are very intellectually written and I find her thoughts so insightful! The “Selected Writings” was taken from lectures she had given at the Bauhaus and translated to American Lang. Wish I could have met them both!
Bakery and lunch bistos. I will be visiting you a lot!!!!
DeleteAlso, Wharton Esherick's staircase was pretty amazing! I like his story too, that he switched to wood carving after he realized his talent instead of painting - I loved that he approached furniture as an artist. I think even more amazing is that after the rejection of painting he still continued with wood carving in a more expressive design aspect.
ReplyDeleteA few things in this chapter surprised me, but one that stuck with me is that "Women were typically paid ten to twelve cents an hour, while men earned twenty to twenty-five cents." Unbelievable at first but then I think about the current wage-gap (but so many stats I don't know which to believe) it is really not that hard to believe. In 1934 the Dept. of Labor showed that about 95% of the craftspeople in the Southern Highlands were women. So I suppose the weaver employers just wanted to save money on payroll??
ReplyDeleteImpressed: I always skimmed the surface on the WPA when it came to every history class I took, so reading about how the WPA really pushed for the arts was really impressive. Community art centers were set up with craft courses offered. Interesting that WPA craft projects after 1938 were required by law not to compete with manufactured products. Of course the business men want their hand in everything! They were "fearful that federally supported handmade goods could eat into their markets."
Take away: this all is still stewing in my mind so I will post later my take away thoughts. So much info to process...
Like Daniel said, I plan on opening my own clay studio. This is something I am aiming to do within the next 5 to 10 years. My storefront will be small and I will make the majority of my money from private lessons, renting wheel space, and selling clay and kiln space. I want my clay studio to be one of community. I want people to feel a shred of what I felt while I was in Junction. While I know I can never fully create something as beautiful as that, I am still wanting to take what I have learned there and apply it to my own space. In my time as a teacher I have had multiple people ask me where they can learn to throw pottery and I've found it's a bucket list item for many people. In addition to that I have noticed a shift in society pushing people towards picking up hobbies that are hands on. It's therapeutic for people. I want to bring all walks of life together in my clay studio. I want to give current potters a place to fire their pottery and gather around colleagues. I want to help people with mental and physical disabilities by putting mud in their hands and letting the medium work it's magic. Ultimately I want to wake up every day and play with mud. Will I sell my pottery, of course but my leading drive for a studio is not to sell pots but to create them while also creating a community.
ReplyDeleteShelby - I think that is one of the greatest gifts you can give a person with physical or mental disabilities - to pass pottery on or any type of craft making. To be unconditional in your inviting all to take a class and target audience is rare these days, seems like the love of money dictates so much. Why does it seem the "craft" arts tend to be more inviting to all and the "fine art's" work and community seems to discriminate - is it just me that thinks this?
DeleteThank you Gail,
DeleteI feel like craft arts, as we are learning, have always been open to the masses to learn. There's exclusivity that comes with "fine arts". Personally I think much of that dates back to the eras of art schools in Europe. You had to be apprentices, invited into schools or be a part of the elite to learn fine art techniques. The commoners were excluded from learning such skills. Crafts art stems from the working class so exclusion is less. That's just my opinion. Regardless I hope one day I can teach people to work with their hands and to create no matter what ability or class they come from.
Shelby! Have you been to the Clay Studio at LHUCA here in Lubbock? I love that place. That is exactly what you are talking about.
Delete"'craft' arts tend to be more inviting to all"...
DeleteGail, this is very true. Made me stop and go off on a thinking tangent about my art lessons that I teach my elementary kiddos. I have very affluent students who are very well versed in many techniques I teach already; and at the same time, I teach lower SES students that come from families that don't necessarily do "arts and crafts" at home on the weekend. Many times it is the case that the lower SES group also come to school with undiagnosed and/or untreated mental/learning disabilities. This particular group struggles so much with lessons like facial proportions, observational drawing, lighting/shadowing, anything more technical or math related, etc. However, they get very excited and happy when they can, essentially, make or "craft" something. So, in reference to what Gail had said above, ""craft" arts tend to be more inviting to all;" crafts really are inviting to all, and not only when speaking of money but in regards to abilities/disabilities. Really just makes me want to revamp all my lessons and throw out drawing techniques to avoid the crying, disappointment, struggle and shut-downs of some. Of course I won't but thinking along these lines opened my eyes to the value crafting has to my students who struggle with learning disabilities.
Wow - Jennifer - thanks for sharing! That is quite interesting and a powerful experience.
DeleteLets build our row of studios now!
DeleteThis is great and I love how the art education will still be a part of your gallery space.
I was most surprised at learning that the government had basically put all the California potteries out of business in the 1950's by making sure we did a lot of business with Japan and Germany and keeping them "on our side" against Russia. The best I can figure the U.S. Tarrif Policy mentioned on p. 163 came about along the same time as the United Nations created "The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was signed in 1947, is a multilateral agreement regulating trade among 153 countries. According to its preamble, the purpose of the GATT is the "substantial reduction of tariffs and other trade barriers and the elimination of preferences, on a reciprocal and mutually advantageous basis." " https://law.duke.edu/lib/researchguides/gatt/
ReplyDeleteSometimes I feel like a very small marble.
If I were ever to be involved in a store front business I like to imagine it would be like Penland in the sense that I would live and work in a community of artists. There would be a main gallery/store run co-op style as well as artists selling and teaching out of their studios however they wished. In my daydream it IS Penland and I am Cynthia Bringle.
ReplyDeleteI think you mentioned Round Top above - there is a copper and fiber art gallery called the Copper Shade Tree- its a great gallery to visit if you antiquing or eating pie at Royers!
DeleteMy shop/store would be very similar to what others say, a community place. It would be kind of a co-op place for other artists to have work for sale and offer workshops to a variety of adults and children. The shop would include a coffee shop inviting non-artists in the door to observe the artists creating, talking, and teaching art. In my dreams the landscape would be much prettier than Midland, Texas, but the outside would be a part of the experience, with kilns and work areas under the trees. Maybe a garden for people to participate if they want to dig in the dirt. Of course, my dogs would be welcome to roam and live music would be part of the ambiance.
ReplyDeleteI would say I was most surprised to read about the WPA art influence. On page 147, “ WPA funded more than 3,000 craft projects nationwide, and more than 600,00 people took WPA craft classes.” It has been a long time since I have studied American history and I had to do a little research on it. The program sounds like a great way to help the unemployed become employed. Also, “the WPA emphasized education, recreation, public works, and preservation.”
I was impressed with Maija Grotell. Her studies first at the Ateneum and then supporting herself by drawing for the National Museum and working as a textile designer while spending six years completing her graduate work in ceramics. I admire her way of teaching to promote individuality and continuing to be an artist as she taught. “Grotell for years would work all night and go home to bathe put on fresh clothes, and return before anyone arrived in the morning.” pg 160.
My take away: Yesterday I walked through the Hobby Lobby to buy art supplies for one of my classes and I started looking at the “crafts” for sale and observing the shoppers. I had just read earlier about how most potteries were driven out of business by foreign imports as a result of the U.S. tariff policy. The whole scene at Hobby Lobby forced me to think about the price of handmade versus the availability of affordable mass produced products and the irony of the finished mass produced crafts being for sale with the supplies to make handmade crafts.
Paige I understand about your thoughts on "Hobby Lobby" and its making me think how it has killed my selling of paintings or the price for my paintings.
ReplyDeleteI love Maija Grotell I am working through a very graphic or geometric time in my own artwork and when I was thinking of trying clay it was very daunting until I saw her work, then I looked her up and studies her a little more and now I think that I can try one like her style.
With wax resist on ceramics, you could create waterfalls similar to your batiks. I could see it now!
DeleteI just love love love distance learning. I feel like I am able to retain so much more information at my own pace. I would have missed so much if not due to our entries. I read the book very carefully and, at times, a little too slowly. It takes me the whole week with a couple hours each day. There are also times where I miss some things that I believe I read. This blog has really helped me with some of the things I might have missed. Like Maija Grotell for example. Remember reading about her. I remember her name but nothing really stuck out then to me. Until Kim's post. "Geometric and graphic" style?!? Right up my alley but, lo and behold, I missed it. Kim, thanks for pointing her out in your above response. I've bookmarked a couple of her pieces as well!
DeleteI think we have to think differently about selling our work,we just canot compare it to the Hobby Lobby thing..we cannot go there and think like that or we would stop creating ....after all we really do not make our artworks to sell that is just a side perk.We have a greater good as a reason to create.I am just sayin......
ReplyDeletePaige -I like the idea of the artist co-op...might borrow that and put in my "idea store". I think Hobby Lobby is a whole other agenda and target market...it does make me wonder if in their board room that sat around discussing how this store would serve both the artist and the buyer of craft, iron work and all you find in Hobby Lobby - both sides of the coin.
DeleteGo out into your neighborhoods and visit local art stores/galleries. Just for fun and research.
DeleteWhat surprised me? Was how I know or lived with some of this art. Like "Dinnerware in Seafoam" I know that I saw this pattern growing up in some of my neighborhood's home, hell I think that I ate off it. Plus the Fiesta pattern is everywhere.
ReplyDeleteMost impressed with Modern textile sections especially the weavers. That Hambridge helped form a whole community of "eight hundred acres along Betty's Creek in Georgia Rabun Gap area" pg. 166, they had a weaving shed and wove on Four-harness Berea looms (where do you even find these kinds of looms any more). I love the fact that I can connect a little because I am using my grandkids sheep's wool for my felting projects. I starting liking Dorothy Liebes last chapter now I fully appreciate her and especially that "she became a spokeswoman for the artist craftsman who could make a living from her work" this spoke volumns to me.
I am taking away from this chapter that I can paint on pottery like Viktor Schreskengost "Jazz Bowl", some ideas on how to make a living off of my art like Dorothy Liebes did with making things for movie sets, architecture, and interior designers. This chapter made me wish I was rich so I could try doing artwork like Wharton Esherick's "Staircase".
One idea has come to me after thinking about the kind of studio or store front that we would like is a traveling art studio. I am thinking of renovating an old, small travel trailer that set up like a small studio that I can not only do "Plein air" competitions out of, but set up in small areas and give lessons to the communities children or adults. Also use it to promote the act of art making! Just like food trucks that have become so popular. What do ya'll think?
Oh Kim - your idea - this past summer (after arriving home from Junction) someone in Victoria was selling their food truck and I thought what if you could buy that and renovate it so its a gallery on wheels for hand made crafts and just travel to fairs (ie Iowa State Fair) - isn't that crazy!
DeleteI loved that Jazz Bowl, too.
Also - you can buy looms at Hill Country Weavers in Austin on Congress St. - they are knitting and weaving. Ive never weaved and I'm afraid I'd get the strings tangled in the set up - it looks complicated!
Love the idea of an Art Truck. The professors at UTPB in Odessa have a mobile printmaking and clay studio that take around the state. And a number of years ago a group from Lubbock purchased a U Haul truck and made the walls like gallery walls for displaying art. They took it to Marfa for a few years.
DeleteIn the 30's or 40's there was a Train Car of artwork that traveled the state...so you have a great history to follow!
The Jazz Bowl is beautiful and truly expresses the feeling of the 20s nightlife. I researched to bowl to see the scale. I found a portrait of Viktor Schreckengost with the bowl. It is very large and looks brighter than the book image. I also found a picture of an imitation around 5’ tall and being pulled in the annual Cleveland parade, could be a fun class project! Schreckengost is impressive as an industrial designer too, “who created children’s pedal cars, the first cab-over engine truck, bicycles, riding mowers, and more.”
DeleteKim! Love this idea!!! Teaching classes out of it?! Very very awesome. DO IT!
DeleteGail - I remember seeing this weaving shop on Congress and forgot about it. Thank you for reminding me about it. It came about during the perfect time too now that I want to try my hand at weaving. Can't wait to stop in to explore!
This is AWESOME and inspiring. SO many visuals came to mind, parking the trailer at national parks etc and the lessons you could provide, Hard to be on the road, but able to go anywhere at any time to make a living from it.
DeleteThere's a screen-printing couple that has a trailer shop they set up next to food trucks at events. It's pretty cool. Although they don't do any work in the trailer. http://www.dowdystudio.com/
DeleteTwo ceramic artists that own a gallery in Aspen have an Airstream that travels with a ton of pottery. It is usually at the Aspen Farmer's Market, but also goes to NCECA, the ceramic educators conference.
DeleteSign me up for an airstream studio. And then let me drive it to Burning Man.
DeleteLight bulb. I would like to try out an art exchange. You can only buy art with other art. I just picture a customer pulling up to the shop on a bike with a sculpture in a basket on the front, and leaving with a framed oil painting under their arm, wrestling to carry it home on the bike. Preferably this would all take place from my new Airstream I just decided I needed.
DeleteSurprised: The extent to which the government supported the crafts and art during the Roosevelt administration really surprised me. The New Deal is always mentioned in history classes, and I can remember learning about it all the way back to 5th or 6th grade, but in my mind I’ve always associated it with big public works like dams and roadways. I also remember the seemingly endless permutations of the WPA and the APW and the PAW. Oh, and let’s not forget the WPA and the WPA and the WPA. I know that’s not at all accurate, but that’s what it seems like when you are a high school student trying to memorize acronyms and dates that all overlap and sound the same. I’m also surprised that I seem to harbor some resentment towards my high school history classes. Anyway, the government programs for works of art and public art work during the New Deal are news to me, though maybe they were mentioned and I just wasn’t paying attention. That’s very possible. 3,000 government funded crafts projects and 600,000 students taking crafts classes funded by the WPA. Very cool. I’m going to need to do some more research and see if projects and foundations like these continued after the New Deal up to the founding of the National Endowment of the Arts in 1965.
ReplyDeleteAlso, and I know this is pretty obvious, but I’m always a little taken aback whenever I read about just how much the Nazis set back culture in Europe. This time, reading about the Bauhaus and how the Nazis shut it down was what reminded me of how different everything could have been. I spent 3 years in Germany, and visited Weimar on a trip up to Berlin, and even though Weimar is considered a cultural epicenter in Germany, it seemed like most of the tourists there were more interested in the history of Weimar as the site of the first concentration camps and in visiting the nearby Buchenwald memorial than they were about the Bauhaus complex or Goethe’s house.
Impressed: Too much. Though I think I was most impressed with the work of Wharton Esherick, especially with his view of furniture as abstract forms rather than functional objects. I can’t wrap my head around that type of thinking, mostly because I’ve never really been able to understand sculpture. It has just never clicked with me. I can’t help but take sculpture very literally, maybe because a sculpture is a physical object and not an abstraction of an object like any 2D media is, so to be able to take such a common item as a piece of furniture and rethink it as an abstract form first, before thinking of it as a chair, is very impressive to me. I was also surprised, after looking up his works, that he didn’t use power tools for almost anything. Like the text says, he was progressive in his design and made a big impact, while being a “throwback” in every other aspect. That’s just cool. I also want that staircase on page 171 in my house. Like, now.
Take away: Surrealism. I love surrealism. Every time it’s mentioned I get pulled away on tangents and it takes forever to refocus my attention on what I’m supposed to be doing. I think one of my favorite paintings of all time is probably “The Listening Room” (and it’s in Houston at the Menil collection, it’s free to get in and I visit it every time I’m in town) by Magritte, who is also one of my favorite painters. Max Ernst, Dali, Tanguy…those 4 words took me 2 hours to write right there. Google is not my friend today. Freida Kahlo, even though she vehemently rejected being labeled as a surrealist. And not to mention all of the great photographers who were influenced by surrealism: Henri Cartier-Bresson (who considered himself a surrealist artist above being labeled as a photographer), Bill Brandt, Man Ray, Harry Callahan...and now I’ve pulled several other books from my shelf and haven’t even finished the chapter in the text yet. I had never really thought of the effects the surrealism movement had on design and in the world outside of the Art World though. That’s a new concept for me.
Tyler - I think I'm a little resentful to - I don't remember the WPA in the History books either. I too am fascinated with surrealism - I was at an opening exhibit of Kermit Oliver's at the Nave Museum - I found him to be the same only with a Tx historical, nature mystic to his work. He grew up in Refugio (30 mins from Victoria TX) "Eden" is my favorite of his work. He was easy to talk too as well and he had some great advice for me!
DeleteTyler, you made me laugh with "that’s what it seems like when you are a high school student trying to memorize acronyms and dates that all overlap and sound the same." So so very true.
DeleteThere are some great female Surrealists that ended up in Mexico escaping World War II that are hardly ever talked about, but are so great. Remedios Varo is one of my personal favorites, but there aren't many books about her out there.
DeleteJustin, thanks for the tip. I'm going to look her up for sure. I doubt the library here has anything, but I'll hopefully head to Houston this week and will dive down that rabbit hole while I'm there.
DeleteMy store: So, I saw a barn in Germany that was set up as a gallery/studio and I have been thinking about it ever since. It was a wide open space, with a loft above in the timber-frame rafters. The upper portion was a gallery and furniture was displayed there, in natural light coming in through the upper barn door of what I guess used to be a hay loft. The bottom floor was the work space/studio, which you had to walk through to get to the stairs to go up and see the finished pieces. From what I gathered, it was a community space, where different craftspeople, mostly cabinet makers and other woodworkers, would rent workspaces and be allowed to exhibit/sell their work. It was a very busy place, but that may have been because there was a fair going on in the town at the time. I want that. If I won the lottery, that’s the kind of space I would open immediately. I have no idea how to go about making money doing it though…which is why I would want a winning ticket first. For a sales team, I would copy the local junk/antique stores here in Wichita Falls and just have a single counter with a few people to work it and otherwise leave everything else up to the artists. If a customer is interested in a piece they can contact the artist directly or just go to the counter and ask for more info. A small portion of any sales would go to the space, and I would charge a rental fee for the studio/exhibit space, and the rest would go to the artist/craftsperson. An exception to that would be an event, like a gallery opening kind of thing, where I would invite artists who didn’t rent or work there to display work and throw a big party like most galleries do, and also charge too much and take too large a portion of the sales, also like most galleries do. I’m no business man though, and have no real head for this kind of stuff, so everything about the above might just be nonsense. I do have the name and sign all picked out though, I posted it already.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a dream, I love Germany and grew up there and can only imagine the feel and vibes of this place. I bet it is a beautiful, open European space similar to their homes and how they are set up.
DeleteMy shop/store would be very similar to what others say, a community place. It would be kind of a co-op place for other artists to have work for sale and offer workshops to a variety of adults and children. The shop would include a coffee shop inviting non-artists in the door to observe the artists creating, talking, and teaching art. In my dreams the landscape would be much prettier than Midland, Texas, but the outside would be a part of the experience, with kilns and work areas under the trees. Maybe a garden for people to participate if they want to dig in the dirt. Of course, my dogs would be welcome to roam and live music would be part of the ambiance.
ReplyDeleteI would say I was most surprised to read about the WPA art influence. On page 147, “ WPA funded more than 3,000 craft projects nationwide, and more than 600,00 people took WPA craft classes.” It has been a long time since I have studied American history and I had to do a little research on it. The program sounds like a great way to help the unemployed become employed. Also, “the WPA emphasized education, recreation, public works, and preservation.”
I was impressed with Maija Grotell. Her studies first at the Ateneum and then supporting herself by drawing for the National Museum and working as a textile designer while spending six years completing her graduate work in ceramics. I admire her way of teaching to promote individuality and continuing to be an artist as she taught. “Grotell for years would work all night and go home to bathe put on fresh clothes, and return before anyone arrived in the morning.” pg 160.
My take away: Yesterday I walked through the Hobby Lobby to buy art supplies for one of my classes and I started looking at the “crafts” for sale and observing the shoppers. I had just read earlier about how most potteries were driven out of business by foreign imports as a result of the U.S. tariff policy. The whole scene at Hobby Lobby forced me to think about the price of handmade versus the availability of affordable mass produced products and the irony of the finished mass produced crafts being for sale with the supplies to make handmade crafts.
Paige I never thought of that about Hobby Lobby,but you are right.
DeleteTyler, you have described a huge issue with most core classes, especially history...not enough knowledge about life during the time studied but MORE ART..art is a wonderful mirror of the times and a great way to show the expressions of the artist as well as the public within which the artist lives. One of the main reasons that cross curriculum classes have the possibility of being great.
DeleteHmm. I wonder how my post ended up on here twice on two separate days. Sorry about that.
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DeleteI have to be honest. I really never grasped any history in high school. I knew very little. I just couldn't get ahold of it. Text books, and words, and talking, and reading, and more words. I think most of the time I would blank out and just "appear" like I was paying attention so I could slide by with B's. This was the case until I took my first Art History course in my undergrad. The images, art, the stories, people's lives and how they were affected by worldly events, and how their art was affected opened my eyes and my love for history. I grabbed hold of that and ran, and now love history, especially art history.
DeleteFuture - is it possible to minor in art history in the MAE program? Been meaning to inquire.
Jennifer, I love art history and I had the same surprise! I knew of one program for modern artists to create art but I think that was during a different time and when we spoke about it in class, it was so brief, I really don't remember much detail about it and certainly didn't know that there were more programs in similar.
DeleteYou ask a great question! I would love to know if it is possible to minor in art history, which I believe it is, unfortunately all the art classes are offered in class during the morning when I teach class and not much offered during the summer :(
I like art history, but a lot of the books can be a little dry. Every once in a while I find a great book that is structured more narratively and a little more enjoyable to read. I really liked The Lost Battles: Leonardo, Michelangelo, and the Artistic Duel That Defined the Renaissance by Jonathan Jones. Right now I'm reading Andy Warhol's memoir which is basically a bunch of gossip about all the people involved in the art scene at that time. It's really a lot of fun.
DeleteJennifer, I have always enjoyed art history! The smaller the time frame covered, the better! I think the prof makes a big difference as well.
DeleteI am actually teaching Art History to the Military at Fort Hood and I have changed the class structure totally to engage the students.We have even rearranged the the physical classroom and it is not set up with myself lecturing with slides the whole time, at the front of the class I actually join the students, and we have discussion s and even create art relating to the topics and chapters and each student creates power points and presents an art video they make. It actually is anything but boring....
DeletePaige, I am right there with you on Hobby Lobby. I never quite understood why I detested the mass produced "crafts" and decor items there--and other similar stores...It just seemed like cheating. Cheating me, the consumer, as only buying the object and not the story or person's fingerprints behind. This book has only made me more aware of how much a person's fingerprints are left on an object of craft... and what is says about society/me when I don't value that.
DeleteSurprised:
ReplyDeleteI was surprised that I couldn’t find enough examples of the artists’ work in chapter 5 online, including Thelma Frazier Winter’s (specifically “Taming the Unicorn”) or Victor Schreckgost. These weren’t the only two that I found this to be true. I found that it was difficult to find an artists’ work grouped together, and only found individual pieces here and there. I wonder why this would be the case. Did any one else have the same experience?
Impressed:
ReplyDeleteMaija Grotell could throw 100 pounds of clay?! That is so impressive! Logistically, how does that even work?? Like, how did she get it on the wheel?? I just know that starting out, James had me split my clay up into little 1-pound balls. I couldn’t imagine 99 more on my wheel. I haven’t thrown probably more than 3-4ish pounds, so I have a hard time visualizing this. Need a better idea of the scale of this. Does anyone know an estimate of how much James would throw on average? Daniel, Shelbi, how much weight do you throw on average?
Carrying a 25 pound of clay(that is how they come when I order for my class from Dick Blick) is very hard for me to even pick up...lol..
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DeleteJames uses about 20 lbs of clay to make his large double walled pieces. Keep in mind that James can make 20 lbs of clay as tall or larger as a mortal human would need 40 lbs for.
DeleteWeight is determined by what I am making, cups and mugs are about .5 - 1 pound of clay. Bowls are a little more to allow a thicker base to trim a foot into. The large bottles and vases I make are usually about 10-15 lbs of clay.
Throwing large used to have a strong appeal to me, but as time has gone on it has kind of lost some luster. Dave Echols said if you can't make it good, make it big, if you can't make it big make it blue. While a 5 foot tall form is impressive in the skill it takes to maintain center and structural integrity, it begs the question, what the hell do you do with a 5 foot tall vase? In reality there is just as much challenge in making a really nice series of mugs as making one huge piece. It is kind of like driving a huge truck......
maybe...but..I am not so sure..but I am bias as I am making a very large clay painting or at least trying to...I cant help but work large...but sometimes a very small and intimate clay piece can and does have the impact as a large one
DeleteSusan I was talking about Wheel thrown forms. The few paintings I've seen that use clay I actually like a bit of size because texture is playing such a key role in a piece , or at least it should otherwise whats the point of using clay instead of something more traditional?
DeleteMargaret Boozer has really beautiful pieces that walk the line of painting and ceramic sculpture, I really like her work. I was exposed to Boozer during a trip to the San Angelo Museum of Art, and her textures are really beautiful.
Take Away:
ReplyDeleteReally liked how Glen Lukens left a part of his finished pieces unglazed. “He used earthenware and almost always left a portion bare – a treatment inspired by Native American pottery – to declare its earthy nature and to contrast with his applications of thick, syrupy, almost lickable glazes” (162). For my ceramics folks, in order to have a tumbler drinkable, does the entire vessel need to be glazed? Aside from the immediate area around the rim, could I essentially leave the outside bare and without glaze to still be food safe and utilitarian?
I also had taken note of Glen Lukens and his unglazed portions. I am drawn to the artist like Lukens, “ He liked the lack of control. All in all, he was an ‘innovator without precedent.’” When the glaze surprisingly cracked, he enhanced the piece by rubbing dark oxides into the cracks. I enjoyed reading about his “Guess What” pieces. The excitement of his students when he revealed the inside of the mold would be a great moment to witness.
DeleteAs far as drinking out of an unglazed cup on the outside, it might create a rough surface for your lip and it would absorb the moisture. I am not the true expert, Shelbi and Daniel? What about when Lukens treats his crackle with oxides, does it make that ceramic unsafe for food?
My bet is James can handle between 20- 30 pounds without issue.
DeleteFuture -
DeleteI agree.
Yes Paige! The "Guess What" pieces is something I took note of and really think will influence how I teach certain things in my clay classes now as far as philosophy that clay is not always 100% controllable. Students need to accept the beauty of this. Jen- I can't throw more than 3-4 lbs as well. I like to focus on decoration rather than size anyways. Mainly because I am weak . . .
DeleteI loved Glen Lukens work. I do not think those platters, etc., were meant to be used - just my opinion.
DeleteMy place:
ReplyDeleteLike Courtney, I dream of having a bed and breakfast one day, and this will be my studio, a place I can hold classes that focus on yoga and meditative art making, and where I can teach private art lessons. I would want my place to be comfortable for travelers even if it’s for a night but I would encourage and facilitate weekend to week-long art, mediation and yoga retreats for longer stays.
The structure will be a main house with a detached studio, and small handful one-bedroom cabins scattered throughout the property. Natural surroundings will be the focal point and most prominent feature of the space. I picture this in a green place, woods on the outskirts, a lake within view and mountains in the distance. Nature is the inspiration.
I imagine everything I have learned and love over my lifetime will be synthesized in its creation and people will desire to return for their yearly visits of renewal. I would also like to house artists in residence. Their studios would be open and they would hold occasional workshops.
My art would become the place itself. Nature’s textures brought inside as wall hangings. Paintings inspired by abstracted images of light and shadows. Incised pottery holding flowers will be used in the cabins for my visitors. Art and craft will be displayed and used throughout the property as its decoration and for utilitarian purposes. Guests will be able to purchase items they are attracted to.
This has been a dream of mine for a while now.
I want to visit already! I recently started getting into yoga (prenatal yoga) and have wondered why it took me so long to connect with my body in this way. Yoga is so artful and would be an awesome addition to a B&B.
DeleteI had a thought I wanted to share. I love how all the answers for everyone owning a shop is wanting to be very community based. It's awesome to see that. I don't know if it's just this week or what, but it seems that many people don't want to interact with others. It's always to themselves. (Which at times I can understand a day or two). But all the time? Anyway that's my little side note.
ReplyDeleteI, too would like to have a community based shop. In fact a simple coffee shop in a way. I know someone mentioned earlier to invite those who are not very art oriented to come enjoy such a place in hopes of taking and interest or appreciation. I would like it large and roomy to double as a gallery and also an opportunity for musicians to come play. An outside garden would be a necessity to provide more room for customers and even sculptures and outside performances.
Something I was surprised and impressed with was the Machine art. I found it very interesting that it claimed to be "anticraft". "Machine Art was emphatically anticraft. As Johnson put it in the catalog:'The craft spirit does not fit an age geared to machine technique. Machine-made imitations of craft objects are paradies, and the real handicrafts have lost their original vigor." p.153 I find it very interesting with this little portion in the chapter. I thought of how upset people were in ch.1 about the industrial age and how it stripped craft in the first place.
I like the idea too of a community based store that everyone keeps talking about. I had worked in retail for so long for clothing that I actually would love to sell clothing, like a boutique and support artists as well, some way, some how. I love the resale clothing store here called, Culture Clothing where they sale used clothing but also sale local artists jewelry and or body lotions and scents. They also display art works from local artists with prices around their walls. I would love to do something along that line. again, not a resale but a boutique and selling clothing from designers that are unfortunately not sold in any stores around.
Delete*extra question briefly describe the shop /store you would have for your work: I love the talk about the community based shopped, which is something that would be incorporated into my ideal shop/studio. I think I would love to have show space for the community, mainly artists who are underrepresented. I guess you could say "outsider art very welcome." I also am drawn to the idea of holding workshops and classes for the community for little-to-no-costs. That is where the whole finance thing comes into play. Perhaps a store front shop to sell goods? Noemi, I love the coffee shop aspect as well.
ReplyDeleteTo wrap up my Take-Away statement for this chapter: it actually relates to the funding/selling part of arts and crafts. I think it was interesting to see potteries going out of business around this time, and the market shifting to less-formal wares. I know the Depression had a lot to do with this but it points out supply and demand and sometimes working artists need to pay more attention to the markets than I thought. That isn't a priority of mine as of now, but when my body of work grows more and I feel more confident, marketing will be my next step.
What impressed me the most in this chapter were the many artists who persevered through the depression. One of the most telling bit of this I found was on pg 151 & refers to Cranbrook -"Through the 1930s and 1940s the workshops were opened and closed as economic conditioned dictated".
ReplyDeleteWhat I'm taking away with me is my new found knowledge of Viktor Schreckengost and his fantastic bowl- Jazz Bowl. I love how the design came from memories of his travels to Manhatten. That touches a special place in my heart since I enjoy creating art of my memories of places. I really wish I had known him & I think I would have had a crush on him had I met him.
The two artists that impressed me most in this chapter are 1)Industrial Designer Viktor Schreckengost with his beautiful Jazz Bowl AND his designs for dinnerware, bicycles, and children's pedal cars, radar recognition system for the U.S. Navy. I found a great article on him in American Craft Magazine June/July 2008. He was such a prolific designer. I love love love his children's pedal car and bicycle designs. 2) Maija Grotell, Ceramic Artist & Teacher - a fierce woman if there ever was one! One of my favorite pieces of hers can be found in an excerpt from the book - Maija Grotell: Works Which Grow From Belief by Jeff Schlanger and Toshiko Takaezu http://www.studiopotter.org/articles/art0006.htm
Bowl. Maija Grotell. 1956. 9x14". Copper blue pattern and interior on iron ground.
This article mentions she could throw 50 lbs of clay...
That bowl is really beautiful. The blues and greens contrasting against graphically oriented drip silhouettes. Do you think that the darker color was painted or actually dripped? Perhaps masked?
DeletePretty crazy to think this piece was a commission and Eleanor Roosevelt was the customer! I think this bowl is an awesome contrast to his sculptural/figurine work. The piece was engobed and glazed, and I love the effects he was able to create. Engobes are something I need to fiddle with. I think it would allow for a more drawing-like quality that I favor when it comes to decorating. Soooo funny you think you would have a crush on him hehe.....I think it would be fun to have my students decorate a bowl with memories from a place they have been. I think I will make this an assignment one of these days! Not many of my students have traveled outside of Lubbock, so I will have them choose their favorite place in Lubbock- it might be the park, the mall, a friend's house or their own backyard! Viktor Schreckengost has inspired me!
DeleteI too have visited Salado and Ro's Clay shop and loved the feel of people walking in and seeing it, but mostly I loved how the two mediums were close together. If I were to have some sort of future shop, I would love for it to be in a row of other artists and for it to be a working/living studio. Going around and being inspired for the art of others in all mediums as well as living as a community would be a dream. I recently shared a picture of a row of homes and thought of all of my Junction friends. I would love to have a small drawing studio as well as be able to create in the various choices that my friends would have then showcase all of it like an art trail.
ReplyDeleteJennifer - the entire tumbler does not have to be glazed. I would personally glaze the rim at the very least (along with the outside) as that is where the tender inside of your top lip rests. I'm experimenting with this right now. At the Tech clay lab we have this cone 10 clay called "Hair of the Dog" - ha! It's a sort of burnt yellow in plastic form but when you fire it without glaze it turns this matte bronze color. The large amount of iron can also cause blisters which isn't so nice but to me the stuff looks like it is carved rock. I'm making some chalices and going to put glaze on the inside and rim area only. I'm thinking they are going to look very medieval.
ReplyDeleteSounds awesome! Post a pic of it
DeleteSame, I'd like to see the results. If it has lots of Iron in the clay body it would look good in a atmospheric firing, especially with a Shino glaze.
DeleteJennifer - good questions on the "copper blue pattern and interior on iron ground" bowl by Maija Grotell
ReplyDeleteMy guess is the background is one of her iron oxide glazes. In the 1950s she was known to cut through her surface glaze to reveal the slip below. The iron oxide slip would encourage the green to come out of the blue glaze she had on top. I would love to take a look at her formulas!
Incredibly impressed with Esherick. Especially at a time where it appeared to be more of a simple industrial sense of art direction, his use of woodworking is stunning. I love the stairs and admire his inventive sense of creating it. "He showed that furniture can be expressive and can explore form in space" is true in describing how his art makes a space more appealing as well as provides function. Interested to see his locks and latches.
ReplyDeleteTaking away the inspired geometric forms of Haley in glass and the simplistic color tone. Very curious how these straight edges were created on the surface in all different directions. Cant wait to create again in glass in Lubbock this summer.
What surprised me:
ReplyDeleteI think I am more surprised with the schools opening across the nation, college level and the different studios being offered. Very interesting to also learn about the Public works of Art Project and the Federal Art Project and many of the other programs that allowed artists to be able to work.
What impressed me:
I loved the glass and ceramics section in this chapter, most particularly Thelma Frazier Winter. I love the piece on page 156. I think what I like most about this section is that for the most part non functional ceramic pieces are more elaborated and celebrated than before.
What I will take away:
I never thought about artists during the depression and we never spoke about it during art history so its nice and refreshing to learn more about that and see how the artists were able to still not only keep up with the motivation but were able to share their talent.
Extra Question:
What I had originally thought, back when I was so immersed in photography and I felt like I had more business then than I do now, (its been very slow!) I wanted a studio where half was a salon, for my sister, the cosmetologist. But now when I think of it, I wouldn’t want it to be so much like Glamour Shots. I would love something spunky with many props/backdrops like a swing for kids and gorgeous vintage furniture.
I was very interested in the section over "Crafts in the New Deal," I remember talking about art programs and artists being funded during the depression, the artist who usually comes to mind is Dorothea Lange, as I think she's one of the few we talked about in my survey classes. The League of New Hampshire Arts and Crafts, I found especially interesting, largely due to it's broad range of medium and it's place as "the new public face for crafts," which I would argue directly relates to many craft groups today.
ReplyDeleteI found Dorothy Liebe's quote surprising/interesting, she says, "Never was there more demand for artists to design, nor more facility in the machine world to carry out the designer's ideas. Since this Decorative Arts Exhibit is an artist's craftsman's show the stress is rather more on the hand technique, which in turn inspires and suggests future possibilities for the machine." In this way she seems invested in the craftsperson as artist and as innovator, however she also curates textiles designed of paintings that didn't show craft skill, but design capabilities.
I was very impressed with the metalsmith Peter Müller-Munk, his pieces (not just the ones in the book) are beautiful, and especially difficult to create. Though I am disappointed with how the book discussed the decline of silversmiths, but didn't give us any artists using alternatives. In times of high silver and gold prices jewelers have always found different materials to work in, not just manufacturers.
What I'm taking away from this chapter is the memory of what public programs do for the arts, but also what they do not. To me this is especially interesting to remember during this election season, but I will not go into that.
As for our bonus question this week, I have often thought of what I would do if I opened a shop. One of my first interactions with a "real jeweler" was with Harry Roa, the owner of the Ocean Lily Studio (http://www.oceanlilystudio.com/). He was a very nice man I met at the Fort Worth Arts Festival, he told me about his life starting out as an apprentice, never going to school, but how he grew to own a successful jewelry studio. I have a little experience in how to run a studio/shop, but that's due to running booths at local fairs. If I were to own my own dream studio, it would include a front shop for customers to look through the works. I'd like to have both my more commercial and more "artistic" peices for display, I would like to introduce the public to art jewelry as very little of my commercial stuff varies into the very commercial. I'd like a large window that looks into my studio space, and I'd like 2 studio spaces, one for myself and/or my employees, and another in which I teach some foundations jewelry courses. I would also require a photography space to photograph my pieces for exhibition and also for sale. My shop would require a number of well lit cases,and my studio would require at least the basic jewelry requirements, some nice perks would be a few kilns, a centrifugal caster, a die former and a lapidary. I would love a lot of natural lighting, and strategically placed speakers throughout the studio space. Also a coffeemaker, because what artist doesn't need that in the studio? And if there's a bakery near by you wouldn't hear me complaining. Preferably this space wouldn't be too far from my home, as I don't want to have any excuse not to be in my studio and or shop.
I was first exposed to Dorothea Lange in the 5th grade by one of my favorite art teachers, Ms. Delahunt. I will never forget that lady. She took me to the Dallas Museum of Art for the first time and bought me a book about Dorothea Lange. I asked my dad to take me downtown to the soup kitchen so I could take some photographs of people in poverty. That art teacher and Lange forever inspired me and how I look at the world around me. I look back and think of how silly it must of been to see a young 5th grade girl on the streets of downtown snapping photos of strangers.
ReplyDeleteReferring to the public programs you mention, I think it's funny that after the Timberline Lodge project in 1938, a law was set up to prevent competition with manufactured products. The business men seemed to get a little worried that their markets would be compromised. I am curious how this law effects today's society.
Also- I love that you mention a photography space in your ideal/dream studio. Recently my tattoo artist remodeled and added a mini photography studio set up which I thought was a genius idea! So simple to accommodate in any space and very smart.
Don't mind me, I'm just here harvesting future business ideas. I'm going to save this blog and refer to it later. I would also like to add that I will be brewing beer in my store, so I can serve it at the shows. As long as I'm going to sink money into this place I might as well spring for a giant stainless fermentation container
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