Look at these beauties

These little ceramic bas reliefs are responsible for the majority of the work of our sculpture class this semester. We are collaborating with Ferris' Card-Riley Wildlife Center to create touchable displays for the museum. It has been quite a journey and a huge learning experience for all of us. It's a good thing we had excellent help  and advice along the way. Below are a few of them up close, right before they were bisque fired. The students are currently working on the glazes. Stay tuned for the color versions.

 

Symmetry

When I sat down to work on this today (can you believe it? In the middle of the week!), it was the first time I was satisfied with what I was starting with. And then...when I started to work on the pots, I saw another error. I think I have it now. I know I've said that about three times in a row now. But this time, I think I'm close.

 

Tiny steps

Everything in this image now has more than one layer of paint. I think that is progress. Also, I cheated on the ellipses. One of my professors at Kendall told me once that I should follow the perspective rules, but in the end, sometimes you have to cheat to make it look good. I did that in this image. I'm not telling where. If you can see it, good for you.

   One of the reasons I post progress shots is that it helps me to see mistakes and what to do next. Thanks to this, my path is clear. I think it means that posting is part of my process. Who would have thought.
 

Looking for a title

I just entered this little drawing for an exhibition in Berlin. I would love to be accepted into it. If it does get in, I'm going to need a title. I wasn't thinking about this when I made the drawing, but now it reminds me of all the refugees in the world, on the move and looking for a safe landing. Maybe it could be just that; Safe Landing. 
 

Small fixes for the last time (I hope)

 I made a correction on the big square, and I’m sure I will continue to suffer over ellipses, but I’m going for it.

Perspective tweak

And... as soon as I posted the last version, I changed it again. I am a Prisoner of Linear Perspective.

I'm using 3 vanishing points in this one; two for the squares and one for the pots. There are two more pots to go, but they won't be upright and will be pretty small, so I'm saving them for later. The string is my makeshift straightedge. The VP's are too far away for any of my straightedges, so I have a good length of flexible cord that I tape to the VP I am using at the moment. Then I stretch it to the place it needs to go and use a white charcoal pencil to mark out the lines. We'll see how this looks to me in the morning.

 

Pretty close

 I think the squares and pots are pretty close to correct. I’m sure I will keep adjusting until the cows come home, but I’m going to jump in and start building layers now.

Practice

My students have been working on a ceramics bas relief from imagery they took from Ferris' natural history museum, the Card-Riley Center. The pieces will be displayed along with their original source animal/plant/fish, as touchable art. I've done some work with ceramic clay before, but it has been a longgg time. As a refresher, I made this little  piece loosely based on an image I took under a pier in San Diego. Or it could have been La Jolla. I'm surprised at the level of detail you can get with this type of clay.

    The student's work looks great, and the next step for us, after the bisque firing, is to paint on the glazes. I wish I had a little more time and patience to fuss with this one, but I reckon it will do as a place to experiment with the glazes.

 

Begin again

The squares are still a little wonky (this is what happens if you abandon the traditional grid and you are no M.C.Escher), and there are many elements and layers to go, but this is the image that got me back to the studio. I hope it works out. I have two others that are languishing, unfinished. I would just as soon not have a third.

 

After skiing dream