So I figured that I would kill some time before leaving to get some lunch and check if I got into BFA (eek!) and put down in words a post that I have been formulating for some time in my head.
For Holly's class, we did a contemporary ceramics project that had to be based off of a modern ceramist's work. I was sniffing around Artaxis when I came across Kate MacDowell, a ceramist who primarily works in porcelain hand-built sculptures. When I looked on her website, I found that the symbols she works with (skulls, birds, nests, fetuses, organs, and insects) were ones that I have dealt with in my own work. BUT, there was one piece that stuck out more than anything:
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| Entangled, 12.5"x10"x4.5", hand-built porcelain and cone 6 glazes, June 2010 |
If you have been following my blog along, you will see that this bears a strong, and I mean STRONG, resemblance to one of my pieces:
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| Anatomical Heart Octopus, Micron pen and ebony pencil on watercolor paper, February 2010 |
And I knew right then, I had found my art soul mate. Everyone talks about an artist that has strongly influenced their work. I had something similar, though I had never really felt a connection to any artist. I literally stared at Entangled for fifteen minutes on my couch. The fact that two people can come up with ideas like this independently baffles me. Never in my life had I seen anything like this before I drew it for Chuck's class. It kind of reminds me of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace and their ideas of natural selection and such.
Anyway, I obviously sent Kate some fan mail and she sent me back a lovely note answering a few questions I had about how she started to get into ceramics. She has only been at it for four years! Kind of gives me hope, haha.
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