I fired the kiln yesterday, a very full load and a combination of functional and sculptural wares. I’m not sure how much I’ll end up liking by the time finishes are applied. I had some problems with the terra sig flaking off of a number of the pieces. I’m guessing this was on account of the very tight surface of the clay, Steve’s White, I’ve been using. This occurred on all of the 10 cups in the firing which I had high hopes for. I’ll redo them in a few weeks, after which time I hope to have built my very own kickwheel.

I’ve been thinking about building a wheel for a while now, but couldn’t figure out how to make the flywheel. For some reason I assumed these were fabricated out of stone. I finally found some instructions online, from 1970, saying to cast it out of concrete. Why I didn’t think of this earlier is beyond me; just last month I cast a small base of concrete for a future wood sculpture.

I also retain high hopes for these little guys:

They will be glazed on the bottom (not in the photo) and smoked on their sides. I don’t yet know exactly how they will be displayed, but they are intended to hang from something, somewhere. I call them funnels only because I followed them up with some tornadic forms — although neither of the forms were consciously meant to represent tornadoes when I began them, curiously enough.

Some mild frustration beset me this afternoon as I unloaded the kiln and commenced work on some line blends. This relates back to the very limited time I have to be pursuing ceramics, although I have more hours now than six months ago. When I graduated with my BFA in studio art, I figured I’d make a living as a graphic artist. Actually pursuing sculpture or pottery as a career wasn’t on my radar. Over the last couple of years I’ve warmed, perhaps I’ve been divinely wooed into considering this more.

But it’s a tricky step of faith, living off of proceeds from your artwork — when you’ve never really sold any of it up to now. My ideal life at this point in time would be to work half-time for the mission mobilizing ministry I’ve been with for almost five years now (I’m really enjoying the new project we’re working on), and be half-time in pursuing ceramics. I don’t know how this can happen financially though.

One idea that’s worth looking into a little further attempts to combine and monetize both my and my wife’s creative interests. This notion involves some kind of storefront, will probably require start-up capital we don’t have and would only work financially in the long-term if we were able to live and work out of the same space.

We’ll see where that goes, if anywhere.

It’s still storm season, although the more severe (read “interesting, beautiful, thrilling, where-I-wanna-be”) thunderstorms are up north this time of year in my native Nebraska. I’ve taken a number of photographs this Spring of cloud forms as they pass by, and am also mulling over a couple of new thoughts with respect to their influence in my artwork.

My first observation is pretty simple. It is a comparison between my material of choice, clay, and the material of the storms and clouds I so often choose to represent. The finished ceramic product is very hard, more or less a rock. Clouds possess a volumetric and spatial presence, but are “wispy” as my wife suggested yesterday. They are atmospheric, per se, as opposed to solid. Regardless of this stark contrast, wet clay may be the best material (that I can think of) for molding the nebulous nature of thunderstorms. Stone and wood are harder to cajole into such organic forms, and with clay an artist can model almost as quickly as a summer tempest pops up through the heat and humidity.

Observation number two. I’ve focused, with good reason, on the dramatic forms and colors of the storm clouds themselves. Recently more of my attention is being drawn to the space in between the bottom of the thunderstorm, with a commonly flat appearance, and the horizon. The characteristics of this defined space are a new fascination for me. It’s an enormous space, hard to discern when you’re in the midst of the squall. The colors contained in this environment seem to penetrate the air; they take on a tactile quality. The observed “room” is huge, the size of a city, but only able to be comprehended from a significant distance — to the point the powerful storm becomes an icon instead of a threat.

I don’t know where these new thoughts will lead, but I’m eager to find out. I’ve begun with some sketches to further this novel surveillance and hope I can act on them in the next few months.

While cruising the internet for some low-fire glaze recipes, I found a website called GlazeMixer.com. This is a great idea, or at least it seems so to ceramic artists like myself who want to mix their own glazes but don’t have the room for so many raw materials, their proper storage and needed ventilation.

The glaze-based community is the pet project of Ryan LaPine and his wife. Both are potters, and Ryan is also a software engineer. This website is a way for him to combine his computer skills with his interest in ceramic arts. LaPine and his wife live in Cardiff, California.

GlazeMixer allows you to enter and save glaze recipes upon creating a basic account. After adding a recipe to your profile, you can order the glaze in dry or liquid form:

You can save your glaze recipes online and retrieve them anywhere that you have access to the internet.

When you save a recipe, it becomes part of your personal glaze recipe list. From this list, you can select glazes that you want. Glaze Mixer will mix them for you and ship them to your door!

Glaze Mixer gives you the freedom to use hundreds of raw materials in your glaze recipes. You are no longer limited by the ingredients that you stock and you no longer have to buy expensive materials that you rarely use.

Glaze Mixer also helps you avoid the messes and dangers of mixing your own ceramic glaze recipes.

Users can also peruse the community section, a section of the website with 29 pages of public recipes. These are also available for purchase from Glaze Mixer. When you buy someone else’s glaze, they get a 10% commission.

I’m not all that fond of the design and navigation of the website. It’s clean, but it looks too much at first glance like a domain registered just to paste ads upon. Most disappointing is the simplistic search for the Community Recipes page. You can choose low, mid or high-fire, or from salt, soda, wood or ash, but you can’t search by colors or finishes. The site navigation also needs a little work.

Nonetheless, this could still become a very useful resource for me. I’d be interested to hear from any users of the the website, as to their experiences in adding recipes and ordering glaze.

* Update: I entered a few recipes and ordered a couple of those. They didn’t have frit 3289 which was in two of the recipes I wanted to enter, but there is a form to request they stock additional materials. I checked daily to see the progress of my order, although this part of the website was not updated. It is supposed to let you know when things are mixed and when they are shipped. Regardless, I received my order 8 days from when it was placed using the least expensive shipping method.

The gentleman running my local clay supply outpost, Flat Rock Clay, knew of GlazeMixer.com and agreed that it’s a great idea. However, he had concerns that it wouldn’t last, since such businesses are supposed to obtain specific licenses in order to sell what can be toxic raw materials. To his knowledge, Glaze mixer didn’t have such a license.

Yesterday I also decided I should be tracking with a few ceramic blogs, so I nosed around for these via Google as well. I already read Conscious, and occasionally organized, ramblings written by a ceramics professor at Wheaton University in Illinois.

In the midst of looking for other such blogs I found Emily Murphy’s blog. Murphy authored four posts specifically about other clay blogs:

Tour of blogs about pottery & ceramics
Tour of blogs about pottery & ceramics (Part 2)
Tour of blogs about pottery & ceramics (Part 3)
A semi-complete tour of ceramics blogs (Part 4)

Parts one through three are easier to stomach. The lists are shorter and include a brief description with photo. Part four is just one looooong list. I’ve looked through each post, but up to this point haven’t come across any new reading material just yet. I’m searching specifically for blogs that talk about, at least some of the time, sculptural ceramics as opposed to just pottery. A few have been interesting regardless. One posted a number of glaze recipes; another talked about barrel firing. But up to this point, no current, regularly posted on site appears to deal mostly with sculptural work.

I’ll keep looking. As I recall, Murphy lists in all 63 different websites. I might have opened twelve of them so far. I’ll add too that Emily’s own blog, while focusing (from what I tell at a quick glance) on pots, is as interesting as any of them. From what I can tell she lives in Colorado and does a lot of soda firing. Her finishes are wonderful, and there is a section in her gallery called “wall pieces.” The link to that page is broken, but I found a recent post with new work including some of these hanging sculptures.

I’ve spent a lot of the evening nosing around the internet looking for good ways to market the small sculptures I’ve been finishing in the last month. Without much success, I might add. I don’t need much in a website, but the top results in Google for the search terms that seem best to me are terrible. Maybe I’ll enlist the help of a friend and devise something simple. I’m not in a great hurry, but I need to start thinking about it.

During this search tonight I landed on Etsy, which I’ve known about and actually used in a very cursory manner. Looking for other ceramic artists, I found an Etsy user called Stepanka. This New York City artist handbuilds with porcelain, which is something I don’t come across very often. Her small works, most of which she refers to as “wall pillows,” are soda fired. I really like the end result. If I ever get the chance again I’ll be using porcelain in salt or soda firings in this way.

Something about these hold my attention. I like the contrast, the finish and the delicate yet lighthearted line work.

That’s about all I know of her. The one sentence in her Etsy profile doesn’t say much, and there are no outside links I can find either. Thought I’d share one of her works though. The above work is titled “Standing by the lake” and measures 3.75 x 2.75 x 1.5 inches.

I ended the Semantic shakedown with a paragraph noting that “I’ve come to realize that part of the misunderstanding between Jones and I lies in the very different physical qualities and historical aspects of the media we work in.” Of course, he may not think this, but he doesn’t have to for it to be true on my end.

As I thought about this more, I devised a graph that elaborates on one part of these differences, their relationship to function, or craft.

This image makes use, in part, of my own knowledge of historical aspects of these art forms. This chart is by no means concrete or comprehensive, but it helped me along in my consideration of differing baselines among artists.

With respect to historical qualities
Painting is usually the finest of the fine arts in the context of the art world. Sculpture may be more elite, in a sense, but I’ve put it closer to “Craft” on the above graph because it isn’t usually as accessible to the general public as works that hang on a wall. Further, some of the materials used in sculpture are more closely tied to functional applications.

Ceramics is farther down the the list, being strongly rooted in the crafts. Sure, clay has been used as a sculptural medium for millennia, but when people think of it they think of thrown vessels: Water pots, beer steins and rice bowls. I am undoubtedly drawn towards clay over paint, to three-dimensional media over two-dimensional (which is why, when I do dabble with the brush — or knife, as it were — and board, my strokes emulate those of Wayne Thiebaud). The history that comes along with my three-dimensional media of choice, clay, absolutely plays a role in how I approach my work and think about the arts.

With respect to physical qualities
It goes without saying that paint and clay are very different materials. The differing palpable qualities of common artistic media, I’ve realized this week, probably play a significant role in an artist’s work and philosophy. Yes, I’ve used a brush and canvas, but I’m naturally drawn to three-dimensional materials such as clay and wood. Something in my brain is predisposed to working with my hands in this way, working around a medium.

Another observation, carving on wood or modeling clay us usually a more physical act than mixing and applying paint. When I’m working with clay I’m kneading, pounding and rolling before getting into the details. Cajoling blocks of wood or stone into new forms is even more muscular. This is part of what I enjoy about these media though. I’ve always been a pretty active bloke, and these kinds of physical exertion are more important after sitting behind a desk at my “day job.”

Process over product
One final note which may be a bit tangential to baselines, but is in my notes.

I first heard the phrase “Process over product” some 10 years ago as an art student. Where it was cited back then, the quote was attributed to da Vinci. It resonated with me immediately. Perhaps this was, at least in part, related to my position as a student, where part of the job of learning in the arts is exploring a variety of media. But the desire to see how things work, to see how far I can push something and to explore new techniques sticks with me.

This is not to say that I’m uninterested in the finished product. I am very interested in creating bodies of work that are significant in relationship to my own personal and artistic philosophies. But if I have to throw a few things in the garbage along the way I’m not going to cry about it. I value the process.

In essence, two-dimensional and three-dimensional artists probably work from very different physical and mental baselines. Each media, if an artist works mainly with a particular one, contains a unique history as well as modern connotative “baggage,” so to speak, that influences how an artist approaches his or her pieces. This may be conscious or subconscious; it may bear a positive or negative result in a painting or print or sculpture.

But it’s there.

I’ve been working on this response for three days now, without much formulative success as time went on. So I’m just going going to spill it. This will be the first of at least three parts.

Timothy Jones, of Old World Swine, and I are back in the throes of our spirited and friendly banter on the respective merits of representational and non-representational artwork. Earlier this week he pointed out the problems with Guy Kemper’s glass installations in a rip-roaring post titled Aesthetic Escalator, which he followed up with Aesthetic Esclator, the Sequal, commenting on my comment where I stated that “I personally fail to see how fruit in a bowl is more engaging than certain abstract works.” Through the course of our discourse we’ve both acknowledged our own inability to completely comprehend this dichotomy, although in a comment this week Jones declares he now firmly believes that abstract art equals decorative art.

I don’t know precisely what he means by decorative art. Wikipedia suggests the traditional understanding includes ceramics, wood, glass, metal and textiles. The fine arts, in contrast, are painting, drawing, photography (this is a real surprise to me) and “large-scale” sculpture.

The Old World Swine author used the phrase “fine art” as well during in our bloggy discussion this week. I’ve used this term in the past, although I shy away from it anymore if I can help it. Reading Wikipedia’s brief article on fine art is a good way to understand the problems with this phrase. Jones uses the phrase in the most traditional sense, and is probably using it to refer to “the purity of the discipline” per Wikipedia. He also uses the term to segregate classical techniques from modern (non-representational) if I understand correctly. There remain, however, numerous other connotative understandings of the phrase. This makes conversations like these more arduous than they need to be.

I strive, whenever I can, for clear communication. I like words to mean specific things so that our intentions and ideas can be clearly conveyed. I learned, however, in my singular college level linguistics course that American English is probably the shiftiest of all modern languages. Our culture is more than eager to learn and employ new words, and change the meaning of older ones. Take, for instance, the recent changes in how so many people use the word “pimp.” I’ll point out lastly that I occasionally mis-read some of Jones’ posts, my own fault, on account of his use of the phrase “non-objective.” I didn’t know this term until I met Tim; it essentially means the same thing as non-representational, a phrase I’m very familiar with.

I’ve come to realize that another part of the misunderstanding between Jones and I lies in the very different physical qualities and historical aspects of the media we work in. Yes, we’re both talking about our art, but our baselines are probably very different. Beside the realism vs. abstract discussion, I’m equally fascinated and entrenched with the art vs. craft debates. This is inherent when working with clay. Ceramics boasts a long and wonderful history with both functional and sculptural works, but this functional aspect is something that’s pretty much foreign to certain media, notably paint, and to a lesser degree sculpture.

More from Jones and my banter about “realism” and “abstraction:”

Continuing conversation on abstraction
Abstract appreciation
More on realism and abstraction
Follow Up: JBU Gallery St. Francis Benefit

This is a bit different wall-hanging. I like it, but am not exactly excited about it’s similarity to the cliched images of a sun. The circle is roughly eight inches in circumference. The center is a brownstone clay with terra sig and a celadon glaze.

I finished up a number of small works this weekend. Here’s a gallery of the works; as before, click on the thumbnails for larger images.

I’m satisfied with the way most of these turned out. I’ve been waffling on how to mount and present these small ceramic works since firing them. Part of me wants them to stand alone — and some of them will — but at the same time a number of them just don’t seem comfortable or finished to me by themselves. This may also be a subconscious desire to mix media. Contrast is a significant interest of mine and I do this in part through the mixing of media.

The one small piece, it’s about 5-6 inches tall, that I’m not sure of is the orange one mounted on a rock that I found in an alley. On the two darkest wall-hung works the thickly applied acrylic paint on the board bubbled as it dried. I usually do this with oils and have no problem. I used acrylic from my small box of paints because it dries so much more quickly and the colors were more like what I was after.

To reiterate, these forms are inspired by my years of observing storm clouds on the prairie. I’m also working with an idea of creating a modern icon, an idea that’s been simmering in my mind in some form or fashion for nearly a decade now but has yet to put down roots. Thirdly, as always, I’m aiming for what seems to me beautiful forms and surfaces. I don’t feel the need to infuse meaning, symbolism, irony — although these are all good things — into every sculpture.

I’m jonesing to actually go photographing storms. There have been a few decent ones nearby in the last week, but I was without a car and there are just so few good places in these hills and trees to observe them. I’d like to do some ink and brush drawings en plein air as well if I can catch a good thunderstorm this summer, and being able to sculpt while watching one would be even better.

We’ll see if I can make that happen.

I smoked a few pieces this afternoon, or at least tried to, in the kiln since I don’t have my little brick unit put together in the backyard yet. I finished two of them.

I’m using the gallery here and it’s still not working properly. Click on the thumbnails, and then click on the images again to see the photos which actually did upload correctly. I hope they get the bugs worked out of this feature soon, because it really is a nice little tool.

Each terra-sigged ceramic element is about the size of a fist, the orange work being larger than the other. The wood in the hanging elements is myrtle wood, which my brother brought back from his honeymoon in southern Oregon. I finished the myrtle with beeswax, giving it a wonderful sheen.

The orange piece looks a lot like a heart. I’m not terribly fond of the glaze, but it works here. The red inside the small “cave” is an underglaze.

The beige piece is glazed inside the small “cave,” and set in that glaze is a sapphire cabochon. Its edges are also glazed, and as you can see in the detail the smoking process attached itself to the glaze, to my surprise, and now looks a lot like something that came out of a wood firing. A happy little accident.