Some More 'Shrine' Progress

I finished the construction of the 'box' today and touched up all the black underglaze. This week I'll be underglazing the portrait and doing white underglaze detailing on the black parts, then it will be ready to fire.

Re: Shrines

Some work in progress shots of the first shrine I mentioned in my previous post. Next step is to carve out the 'frame' for the portrait that will be going on the inside back and to start creating some of the things to sit on the inside 'floor'.

Upcoming Work Brainstorm: Shrines

After having several meetings to discuss the marker portraits I was working on in relation to the tiles I have been doing for several years now I've worked out a new direction to go in to combine both of these sets of work. For a short period in my undergrad I was interested in the idea of shrines and decorated portraits and did a small set of screen prints/collages working along this line of thought. In retrospect they were not handled perfectly and eventually I set them aside not knowing where to take the idea. After the concept of shrines was recently brought I started rethinking the idea. I enjoy the notion of celebrating the usually put down, and that's something I've always striven for in my monster pieces. However my ceramic and marker portraits didn't quite hit the mark and I've been looking for a way to push them further. So I'm revisiting the idea of shrines with a combination of 3D and 2D.

I've already begun the construction of the first shrine, it's currently an open ceramic box that will eventually hang on a wall. I plan to decorate the outside of the piece with carving and underglaze details. The inside back of the piece will feature an underglazed portrait in the same style I have been doing my marker drawings. The inside walls will also be decorated via underglaze and carving. The inside 'floor' of the piece is still something I'm thinking about. I would like to include objects, both symbolic and literal, that match up with the subject of the shrine. I have yet to decide if these objects will also be ceramic or if I will create them in another media or get the actual physical objects I'd like to have displayed.

I'm super excited about this new line of thinking and I feel like it will give the subjects of my work more characterization and create a visually compelling piece that can be viewed from multiple perspectives. I also believe this will add an element of respect and, depending on what direction I take the work, saintliness.

I Found Some Old Art

I was going through my files deleting old work and things I no longer needed and found some old digital work from around a year and a half ago. I'm still fond of these so I decided to share them.

Sphinx

I just put a new tile into the kiln this afternoon and had a few process images I decided to share. When I work with tiles I begin by rolling a slab and then painting a layer of underglaze onto it. After the slab stiffens I trace an image onto it and begin carving, however for this tile before carving I attached all of the individual feathers (which were then underglazed and also carved). From this point I smooth out the surface with a mixture of water and brush and small carving tools. I then paint on the additional underglaze features and wait for it to be ready to load into the kiln. Bellow you can see the different between the carved tile, the fully decorated tile, and the original drawing I did.

finished carving

first round of underglazing pre-bisque

original sketch

For this tile I plan on adding additional under glaze one it's out of the kiln and re-firing it.

Decorated Cup

Some pre-firing pictures of a cup that I hand built and decorated. I purchased some new stamps (male sign, female sign, and question mark) while at NCECA and used this cup that already had built to test them out. The glaze around the rim fires to a metallic black and the inside is glazed with a gloss black, all of the outside decorations are done with underglaze.

NCECA 2015 Surface Decoration

This year was the first year I was able to attend NCECA, an annual ceramics conference, and I was introduced to some wonderful surface decoration while there. I was very interested in the multiple different techniques being showcased through demos, shows, and gallery booths. One artist who particularly caught my eye was Israel Davis, who was doing a demo for the speedball booth. Bellow you can see two examples from his demo. The way that he achieves his surface is by screen printing underglaze onto newsprint and transferring it onto leather hard greenware, the process was wonderful to watch and is definitely something I'll be trying in the future! I've included some images of other surface decoration that caught my eye while at NCECA below!

Brooke Noble

Israel Davis

Roberto Lugo

Ivan Carmona

Sara Morales-Morgan