Big day tomorrow...

HUGE.

 

Drawing to a Close

Here is what I have been working on for the majority of the semester in my internship with my ceramics professor, Holly Hanessian.  It is a catalogue of her works that we have been sending out to museums all across the United States.  

We worked on the complete package, including envelopes, stickers, mailing labels, and miniature business cards.  We had the book bound with a local printer and worked collaboratively on the layout.

 

Holly is so great. Please check out her work at www.hollyhanessian.com.

Schism

Here is another assignment for Pamela's class.  This was for the mixed media assignment, in which we were challenged to create a piece that was 50% ceramic, 50% mixed media. 

I have had this idea in my head for a while.  I picked up a Home Economics handbook from Good Cents that was from the 1950's, and with Mad Men always on my Netflix queue, I have had the idea of women's roles and the schism between the public and private spheres stuck in my head.  While flipping through the handbook, I was really interested in the words that they used to describe household chores and what they mean when taken out of context- rules, separate, beat, method... I took these words, along with others, and wanted to put them inside an icon of female craft- the embroidery hoop- and recreate the idea of sewing.

Originally, I was going to have all ceramic circles within the hoops, but I found that incorporating fabrics with traditional, soft patterns would compliment the ceramic slabs, which were worked to have a very subtle lace texture through acrylic paint.  I took the idea of female identity to the next level by incorporating the hair of myself and loved ones, as well as synthetic hair in slabs which needed a hefty amount of hair.

A detail with the braided hair of my sister and myself.

Human hair, thread, fabric.

Synthetic hair and fabric.

Thread and synthetic hair.

The hoops are 4.25" in diameter and 12.5" in diameter.

White earthenware, fabric, embroidery hoops, thread, synthetic hair, human hair.

Folklore of the Teeth

Here is a project that I was working on for my final assignment for advanced ceramics.  Lately I have been finding myself exploring folklore and old stories that I have been finding in old books from my favorite place in the world, Good Cents.  

There was a simple concept behind this piece, and that was to illustrate the cultural beliefs that people hold about teeth, including the power behind them, the practices of curing toothaches, and how one's future can be determined through teeth.  I illustrated text that I pulled from a very interesting book (that has been probably sitting for years in remote storage in the library) entitled Folklore of the Teeth by Leo Kanner, written in 1928.  I was also inspired by a new idea that is trending- teeth tattoos.

L to R: Traveler, Urine/Mother's Milk/Christ's Blood, Tethered, Heimdal, Fish Vesu, 
Cradle Ornamentation, Evil Eye, and Milk Tooth Exchange

Detail of Traveler.

 Each tooth varies in size, from around 2.5" in diameter to 6" in diameter.  They are drawn on with pen and colored pencils, and coated in a thin layer of white wax. 

I am thinking of how to display these in the future... maybe tight little boxes that they can fit snugly in.  I am also researching different types of malleable wax and rubber.

I will probably make some more of these as I can't keep my nose out of this book! What the heck are some of these people thinking?!

Damaged Goods

 

White earthenware (press molds and slip casting) and sand, 2012.

A progression through time, a lifelong struggle.

Final for Drawing II

Here's the final product for the project I've been working on for Chuck's class. The assignment was to draw two portraits of two people/icons/whatever... one you despise and one you love.

I honestly have no idea of how I came up with Sylvia Browne and Nostradamus, two psychics/mediums/whateva. I personally choose Sylvia over Nostradamus, despite all of the surrounding controversy, because even if she is faking it, she fakes happy endings. He certainly does not. My friends will be glad to hear I just admitted she is not real.

So as I said before, these were supposed to be in the style of Alphonse Mucha. The color palette is pretty muted, like his designs. Haven't quite gotten the hang of his portrayal of people though...

work in progress.

Figured I hadn't blogged anything in a while, since I've been so busy with school, haven't had time to play in the photo lab, and my digital camera's been busted...

Work in progress for Chuck's class. I'm so bad at procrastinating... well, wait. I'm good at procrastinating. We've had three weeks to do this and it's due Tuesday. Snacks and critique for the last two classes. I can't believe finals are next week!

I'll tell more about the assignment when I get final pictures up. These still have yet to be painted with watercolor. I was really inspired by Alphonse Mucha's style.

Hopefully these might be good enough to be in the running for stuff I'll enter in with my BFA application next semester. I want that degree so so badly.