Pete Pinnell on fine art that functions 26 June 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Art, Art education, Art for art's sake, Art vs Craft, Ceramics, Craft, Handmade.1 comment so far
Pete Pinnell was one of my professors at the University of Nebraska, one of three very strong individuals in a fantastic ceramics program. The following video (external link) is a stellar talk about fine art and function.
Pete is a very good speaker and draws a number of simple but very powerful metaphors as he discusses cups, drinking vessels, in this video. Below I’ve paraphrased some of the portions that really caught my attention:
Art acknowledges and actually talks about life, but there is one great taboo still in the art world, and that is that art still does not take part in life. Art thinks about life, but it does so from the role of the critic, from the observer, from the outsider. I like to joke that art will peek in our windows and rummage through our closets but it won’t sit down at the dinner table with us.
The fine arts world has chosen to forgo touch, but it’s a very powerful means of human expression.
Does having to deal with function limit creativity?
A little bit of dissonance is really required to have something that will hold our attention for a longer period of time.
For the most part I think he hits the nail squarely on the head, but I’d love to hear other’s responses to this 30 minute talk.
New Work: Supercell sketch 20 June 2009
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This one is also from 2008. The smoke didn’t take all that well but it’s a nice little piece regardless. At one point I thought of attaching this (and the cumulus tower from yesterday) to a carved wooden base, but decided they are finished they way they are.
New Work: Cumulus 19 June 2009
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This one is from 2008. I like the coloring on this Texas White clay body that I’ve come to love.
New Work: Arkansas series 18 June 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Art, Ceramics, Found objects, Sculpture.3 comments
From left to right, smoked dogwood buds with a red underglaze, smoked raintree pods and dirt from my front yard fired to cone 04. The boxes were salvaged from an optometrist’s office.
New Work: Fluffy clouds 17 June 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Art, Ceramics, Sculpture.3 comments
What do you see in this collection of fluffy ceramic clouds?
New work: Sombrero storm 16 June 2009
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We leave for Florida today for a family reunion. Posting some images of new works while we’re gone. This storm was inspired by a Florida photograph found on Flickr. The smoke did incredible things on this sculpture’s surface. I used in part a manila envelope padded with shredded newspaper during the smoking.
Successful firing 10 June 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Art, Ceramics, In the studio, Sculpture.2 comments
Looks like a pretty successful firing yesterday by my terms. No explosions or severe splintering, although there are a number of what I figured to be inevitable hairline cracks in the fluffy clouds. All in all I don’t think they are as bad off as I expected though, and I’m already thinking through ways to keep this from happening in the future.
A couple of the sculptural storms actually faired very well in comparison to my expectations. I used reclaim clay that was mostly Steve’s White, a low-fire body that is basically free of anything resembling grog.
Later this week, maybe even this afternoon, I plan to begin smoke-firing them. I don’t feel like I have the time to attempt this in a barrel as I’d like to this week, so for the time being the smoke will continue to be electric.
Amy Smith platter 5 June 2009
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Came across this Amy Smith platter earlier this week and wanted to share it. There’s no date on this piece, but it’s quite similar to what she was doing as a grad student that I loved so much.
Wish I had $300 to spend on it. See more of her works at the Modern Arts Midwest gallery.
Dating Ceramics: Ancient clay has an internal clock 28 May 2009
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Ancient clay has an internal clock according to an interesting BBC article.
Radiocarbon dating, used for bone or wood, cannot be used for ceramic material because it does not contain carbon.
Their new rehydroxylation dating method, reported in Proceedings of the Royal Society A, measures the amount of water the material has “recombined with”.
Based on my somewhat cursory observations as a non-scientist, radiocarbon dating has some issues to begin with, but that’s beside the point. As a ceramic artist the article intrigues me. Tests with this method so far seem to be very accurate, unless the building ever experienced a fire. In such a case the brick’s internal clock reverts to zero. Makes perfect sense; the fire drives all of the reincorporated moisture out of the brick, just like the kiln did originally.
Clay crafting videos 20 May 2009
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A couple of videos just for fun. I’ve mentioned Eva Funderburgh on the blog before; I’m quite fascinated with her little beasts and hope to own one some day. After encountering a somewhat expected technical issue in my own ceramic sculptures, I went back and watched one of Eva’s time-lapse videos. I just learned of Ayumi Horie last week thanks to Twitter. Her dry throwing technique is something I definitely want to try — if I ever actually get back into throwing.
Time lapse showing Eva Funderburgh hand-building one of her beasts
Dry throwing technique of potter Ayumi Horie
