kelleygv-blog

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ARROWMONT AND PENLAND: POST WORKSHOP ACTIVITY

I’ve finally finished my pieces from both Arrowmont and Penland!

After making a bunch of test tiles to test out different engobes, washes, and underglazes at verying temperatures (pictured at the end), I decided to finish these pieces at cone 5 with minimal cold finishing. I’m happy to say that, despite some pitfalls along the way, it was a success! I’ve discovered some very exciting things about how engobes and underglazes behave at midrange temperatures, as well as certain washes. My goal this summer was to explore different types of firings and different surfacing techniques, and I feel that I was successful. Applying various surfacing techniques to greenware and going higher in temperature are both things that I want to do more of in the future, as well as delving more into the wide world of slips, engobes, and terra sig. I also had a great deal of fun doing raku this summer, and would be interested in possibly doing more of that, as well.

Over all, having the opportunity to go to both Penland and Arrowmont this summer to work with Misty Gamble and Kensuke Yamada has been an incredibly enriching learning experience that I am grateful for. I look forward to taking what I learned in both workshops and adding them to my repertoire of techniques.

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PENLAND: DAY 13 (7/7/2017)

Today was my official last day at Penland and the last day of class. Kensuke got his full figure out of the kiln! It was very informative getting to watch him build it.

This morning was the show and tell show, where every student brought one or two pieces and set it up in the flex studio. There was so much awesome work! I feel very privileged to be able to be here with such a diverse array of artists.

I’ll miss you Penland! Until we meet again!

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PENLAND: DAY 11 (7/5/2017)

We went on a field trip to Cristina Cordova’s home studio today! It was just down the road from our classroom. Cristina is very kind, and it was great having a chance to talk to her about her methods of building and life as a professional artist.

I somehow managed to crank our two pieces in two days! They are a duo and meant to go together. I’ve been exploring using the hands a a more gestural element in my work during this workshop. I’m curious to see where it goes.

Tonight it didn’t rain so we got to see our 4th of July fireworks after all! It was slow at first, but the grand finale was spectacular. I’m pretty sure they just dumped the rest of their fireworks into the bonfire they had going on because it was quite explosive and dramatic, although beautiful.

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PENLAND: DAY 9 (7/3/2017)

Today was almost exclusively a studio work day (thankfully). We all have a lot to do, as wet clay deadlines are looming! Kensuke took some time to demo how he builds hands and feet and attaches them to his pieces.

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PENLAND: DAY 8 (7/2/2017)

Today Kensuke continued building up two child sized figures, bringing us over to occasionally take a look at how he was doing things. He picked two different standing positions to give us a wider breadth of understanding of how to execute different postures. 

Similar to Misty Gamble he made some little demo pieces of how to sculpt various facial features.

I finished sculpting and burnishing my pitfire piece and loaded it into a cone 020 bisque.

I rakued another piece today! This time I got to do the pulling myself. I‘m really excited with how it came out, although I’m not excited about the green hue of the skin.

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PENLAND: DAY 7 (7/1/2017)

Today Kensuke gave instruction on ways to start coil building a full figure in several positions, including standing, sitting, and kneeling. He drew diagrams on the board and did physical demos in front of the class. He also started to build two of his iconic swimmer kids to work on and use as a reference for instruction for the next few days as we embarked on our own figures.

I started a piece for our looming pitfire with the terra cotta that we mixed with our feet. I’ll be smoothing it out, applying terra sig on it, and burnishing it in the days to come.

Additionally tonight was open studio night for the artists in residence. There was a lot of interesting work to be seen, including that chair that conforms to your body when you sit in it.

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PENLAND: DAY 6 (6/30/2017)

Today Kensuke did some more demoing on how he surfaces his work, post bisque. He does a lot of layering of oxides and glazes over the colorful underglazes and patterns.

We did our first series of raku firings today, as well. Pictured is one of my classmates, Jesse Berlin, applying horsehair to his piece. I also rakued a piece, with exciting results. The hair came out silver!

I finished surfacing my most recent greenware piece using some of the techniques I learned from Dani and Kensuke. I haven’t yet decided if I’m going to soda fire or raku this piece. I’m getting really into the gestural suggestiveness of the disembodied hands!

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PENLAND: DAY 5 (6/29/2017)

Today was mostly a studio day so not too much to report, but I was very excited to help mix a batch of terra cotta with my feet. We’re going to be using the terra cotta to make pieces for a pitfire we will be doing next week. Additionally Kensuke and his assistants made some test tiles for our future raku firing.

The last photos are of the next piece I’m slated to finish. I may put it in the soda fire or may raku it.

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PENLAND: DAY 4 (6/28/2017)

Today one of the class assistants, Danielle Pugel, gave a demo and talk on surfacing greenware with Amaco underglazes. She previously worked for Amaco and is extremely knowledgeable about methods of application and the chemistry of the underglazes themselves. She demoed sgraffito, mishima, newsprint transfers, rice paper transfers, newsprint stencils, vinyl stencils, and wax resist. She also gave us a wealth of advice about application and maintenance of underglazes.

After the Amaco demo Kensuke gave a talk about surfacing work. He did some basic underglaze application on his work, but then started to get experimental, breaking rules left and right. He mixed majolica with white slip, and also used titanium white acrylic paint on his piece to see if the titanium would remain on the surface through the firing. He slapped clear glaze on the green surface of his work as well. 

Later in the day we walked over to the John and Robyn Horne Gallery on campus to see a ceramic show as well as some of Kensuke’s work. The ceramic show had work by Roberto Lugo, Kathy King, Lauren Gallaspy, Shalene Valenzuela, and others.

By the end of the day I was ready to put my first piece in the bisque. This piece is slated to be raku fired.

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PENLAND: DAY 2 (6/26/017)

Today we each had to give a very brief slide talk to the class about our work. It was amazing to realize what a dynamic and diverse group of artists I have in my class! Everyone’s style of work was vastly different and interesting.

After a discussion about how Kensuke brainstorms for a piece, he gave us our first assignment. We were given a wad of clay the size of two softballs, and told to make a dog on a turtle. Using only our hands. And without looking at references. It seemed silly, but was actually quite challenging! Everyone created something quite different. It was a fun creative exercise.

After that Kensuke did a demo on how he coil builds heads and torsos. He gave us handouts on skeletal and musculature anatomy, and also talked about texture and surfacing the clay to create a more dynamic piece. We were then let loose to start coil building our own heads and torsos. We all got about the the jaw line for the day.

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PENLAND: DAY 1 (6/25/2017)

Arrival day! Today I made it through the winding roads of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the secluded paradise that is Penland School of Craft. The photos above are of the view of the mountains over the meadow from the campus, and a shot of the ceramics studios. The lower floor of the building will be my studio home for the next two weeks as I take a workshop with figure sculptor Kensuke Yamada.

After orientation and dinner (and a much needed nap) we had our first class session. Kensuke walked us through what we will be doing for the next two weeks. Not only will we be doing raku, pitfire, and a soda fire, but we will also being going on two different field trips to various galleries in Bakersville and Ashville, as well as a couple of visits to clay studios and artist studios in the area. We will be paying a visit to both Lisa Clague and Cristina Cordova! It’s going to be a full two weeks.

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ARROWMONT: POST WORKSHOP ACTIVITY

After bringing home my piece from the Misty Gamble workshop I agonized over the details of it until I was ready to pop it in the kiln for a bisque. I even did a drawing of a victorian house in mishima on it’s back. However, despite being extremely careful and slow every step of the way, something in the piece was not structurally sound, and the head cracked off during the candling. It tumbled forward onto it’s face, crushing a plate beneath it. The nose was totally smashed in and the the hair was broken in several places.

I was not to be deterred! I pulled the whole thing out of the kiln and slowly rehydrated parts of it with white vinegar. I was able to resculpt the nose, put most of the hair back together, and reattach the head! Finally I was ready to try bisquing it again. I built an armature of bricks and clay around the face to support the head, and reloaded it into the kiln.

Success! It survived the bisque! There is cracking in parts of the neck, and the hair will have to be epoxied later, but I am astonished that I was able to pull of such a risky recovery.

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ARROWMONT: DAY 6 (5/26/2017)

Today was our last official day of instruction! Misty gave us a talk about surfacing work, as well as a slide lecture on several contemporary figurative artists. We then did the traditional studio clean-up, packed up our work, and said our good byes. The above photo is the class photo we took together.

Tomorrow is my seventh and last day at Arrowmont for this session.I will spend it eating a hearty breakfast and then hitting the road back to Gainesville. I am so glad to have had this opportunity to take this class with Misty Gamble, to have made so many great connections, and to bring what I learned back to my studio practice in graduate school at the University of Florida.

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ARROWMONT: DAY 4 (5/24/2017)

Today Misty gave two gestural hair demos; one a haircut from Mad Men, and another a long flowing pony tail. I then spent the rest of the day agonizing over proportion, expression, and anatomy. Misty sat down with me and moved some things around on my sculpture to give me some hands on feedback. She had me take photos of myself in the round to really be able to see the posture and expression of my piece. Towards the end of the day I was able to draw in a hair line in preparation for the hair I was going to put on as the next step.

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ARROWMONT: DAY 3 (5/23/2017)

Today Misty did demos going over anatomy of the face and how to sculpt a head and face. She focused on various intersections on the human face to take note of, as well as easy measurements to keep in mind while sculpting the face: ex) your face is the same length from chin to crown as it is from the tip of your nose to the back of your scull, your eyes are half way down your face, and your face is about five eyes wide at that point, etc.

After much troubleshooting I managed to hollow build past the neck and complete the head today. Initially the head was way too big and the neck was too long, but with much pleating, pinching, and cutting away of the clay in this soft state I was able to bring the head down to the same size as my own. To fix the neck I sliced the head off and cut a few inches off of the neck, reattaching it with much scoring and slipping. Finessing the size and proportions of the head, neck, and anatomy of the back was time consuming, but I was able to get to some facial features by the end of the night.

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ARROWMONT: DAY 2 (5/22/2017)

Today was our first full day of instruction. Misty focused on hollow building techniques, particularly what she refers to as her 9 Point Sequence:

Score

Slip

Compress

Wipe (excess slip)

Integrate - Score Angle

Coil

Sculpt

Coil

Sculpt

We also went over how we were going to start our figurative busts: with a footprint and an interior support wall. We then looked around the room to observe each other. Misty used her assistant, Kim, as a model to point out features we should notice on the figure as we finish up our maquettes and start building up our full size pieces. As reference for all of this Misty showed us a slide presentation of some of her grad school work in process. We both went to San Francisco State!

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ARROWMONT: DAY 1 (5/21/2017)

After an exhausting 9 hour drive from Gainesville, Florida to Gatlinburg, Tennessee I finally made it to Arrowmont! The photo is a view from the school looking out at the Great Smoky Mountains at sunset.

It was a bit harrowing navigating the busy tourist destination of Gatlinburg, and reception up here isn’t the best, but I eventually made my way to the school and got myself all checked in.

After a filling dinner and informative orientation, we started classes right away at 7:30pm. Misty Gamble didn’t waste time getting our hands in clay. After introductions and a brief lecture we started with looking at source material, sketching, and maquette making.