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Qotw: Do You Like Other Forms Of Art And Is There A Cross Over To Your Ceramic Work?


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This week from Rakuku:

 

"Do you work in other forms of art like painting, drawing or whatever? How much cross over is there to your ceramic work?"  

 

 

I will go little further, and ask. . . Do you actively participate in other forms of art? Does your participation in these other forms of art bleed into your Ceramic work? How?
 
 
 
 
 
best,
Pres
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Once upon a time I did a woodturning with both wood and alabaster. It looked good but there were problems with the stone. I've been thinking how I could do the same by combining glazed ceramics and wood. I have a couple of ideas that I need to play around with to see how it comes out.

 

Problem #1: Different expansion rates especially since wood moves seasonally.

 

I paint and carve and tried my hand on that with clay.

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Absolutely not.  I have no art in me.  I can't paint or draw a straight line, my sculptures are rarely recognised for what I think they are, and I dont really like to look at most art.

 

Having said that, I can and do sew, knit, crochet, build Lego models, paint fences or window frames, draw money out of the bank.........

 

I've also tried wood-turning (too physical on my neck/shoulder), carving (boring), weaving cane and fabrics (too slow).

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Photography was my first love. I've been at it for around 60 years...(I started when I was 9)...and have moved from amateur to Pro to semi-pro and now very involved enthusiast. With the onset of digital and Photoshop I can be as creative as I want to be. Ceramics has just barely replaced photography in my realm of interest. I've been involved with the clay arts for not quite 10 years so I am still at the lower end of the learning curve. The only time there is a crossover is when I shoot photos of my work, and that is mostly record shots of my glazed pieces before and after firing so I can see what happens to the glaze after the brushed piece is fired. I'm thinking that, in time, I would like to put together a compilation of these photos and call the book "Glaze FX". â€‹I have a good selection of books on glazing, but I find it rare for there to be a description of what specific glaze to use, how to place it, and what the final outcome will probably​ be.

The book may be a fantasy at this point, but it is something to strive for in my ceramic work.

JohnnyK

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I was doing a lot of sumi ink painting for a while. I never got any good at it, didn't practice enough or have a teacher. Kind of got out of it, but I should get back into it. It is highly enjoyable. I tried incorporating the sumi stuff into my ceramics, but I was never good enough to like the paintings on my pots. There are some people who translate that skill to pottery well. 

 

cherryvases.jpg

 

Credit to Jesus Minguez III (http://potterjesus.blogspot.fr/2007/01/finished-sumi-decorated-pots.html) , thanks Sputty. 

 

I used to paint & draw when I was a kid. Now I mostly just use chalk to draw art on my back patio with my son. Ceramics to me is the ultimate art. Its beauty in an object you can hold, interact with and use every day. It is best art I have ever been a part of. I have tried all sorts of stuff. 

 

My wife quilts and I love that too. It is amazing how she can turn little cuts of fabric into beautiful masterpieces. 

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Underwater photography has been a serious hobby since 1983. I had to start another business for that income back in the 80's. That business has morphed to a diving /photo business/fishing/boating/travel business

.Now since digital made everyone a photographer the business has changed to next to nothing as far a photo sales goes.

At one time I sold photos to calendar companies now that is all gone .

Having this business has helped with my ceramics business as some years the dive business makes a loss.

I also do topside photos as well all thru that time and have been thru all the top Nikon gear many times over from manual lens to auto focus from top film cameras to Digital.-this has made taking pottery work photos a breeze.

I have a lot invested in Nikon lens still.They keep good value.Bought a few new ones this year for my Indonesia dive /Cambodia trip.

Taking fish photos also made me want to know fish species and I have a large library of fish books with bleed into making ceramic fish wall art-I still make ceramic fish for art shows.

Since art school I stopped painting and never was any good at drawing so thats a weak spot for me still.

I visualize well and for me that takes up the drawing slack.

I also make ceramic sculpture to a small degree and always have since art school in the 70's

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As all of you know by now, I was an art teacher for 36 years. During that time, and during my several college courses, I have tried many different media. A large amount of my tiem in college was spent on drawing, printmaking, painting, watercolor, and jewelry both in undergrad and grad classes. I had two undergrad ceramics classes, and several in grad school at Penn State. So I have work hanging around and elsewhere in watercolor, printmaking, and acrylic. The main motivation behind much of this was college requirement in undergraduate work where there were requirements in both the arts and the crafts. Neither were looked at as lesser by the faculty. At the same time this caused me to be exposed to a wider variety of media than some get in undergrad work. My graduate work was started without being in a degree program, where I took courses to further my interests and improve on my weaknesses. Later I found that I was interested in a MS as an MFA in my geographical area required two years of residency. The MAed at Penn State was heavily grounded in pedagogy, little in media. I preferred more media, so transferred back to my undergrad school and finished the MSed there.

 

I still work in pen and ink, watercolor, and acrylic, mostly for myself. I do a lot of photography, but am only an amateur that understand f-stops, depth of field, shutter speeds and other manual settings quite well and understand how they effect the digital side of photography. I have posted some online at dpreview, and placed in competition. Over the years, the watercolor has bled into the pottery, as larger pots have been used as a canvas for painting ideas involving texture, color and semi abstract representation of landscape and seascape. 

 

Presently, I am more involved with the textural surface in ceramic, preferring to press/stamp imagery into the pot, then distorting it with the expansion of the form.

 

 

best,

Pres

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Much cross over, always.

 

Still working that unfinished Selfie from a Community Challenge ages ago. I've broken it up and am putting it back together but haven't found what I want yet.

 

Old lino block I did years ago. Photo I took on Staten Island Ferry long ago. Oil crayon drawing (I cut things up a lot.) Manipulated photo. More recent stuff is buried deep and I physically can't get to it.  Used to love collaborations with other artists that were small installations of clay and other media-paint and metal, usually-I miss that. I'm trying to focus, and keep to a single discipline, and not go too far afield with embellishments-tho I will probably never stop putting glitter on clay LOL.

 

post-63409-0-47136900-1492547218_thumb.jpgpost-63409-0-87542200-1492547224_thumb.jpgpost-63409-0-45008600-1492547236_thumb.jpgpost-63409-0-61570100-1492547246_thumb.jpgpost-63409-0-33111100-1492547252_thumb.jpg

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I consider myself an oil painter and I've done quite a lot of it, however my main talent probably lies in drawing. At one time I was successful enough as a botanical watercolorist to trade them to my dentist in lieu of paying my bill. Also I've written a few unpublished short stories, design houses and gardens strictly as a hobby, and have gotten rather good at landscape photography merely as an adjunct to building a file of things to paint. My artistic interest tends toward science fiction and using my experiences and imagination to depict the future in various artistic media. Also, at the moment I'm focused on art jewelry with strong post-apocalyptic themes, using "permanent" materials including pottery.

Ann Charcoal Drawing circa 2008 Or 2009


Lake Abert squiggle edit 5 31 14 191

Fantasy cacti panting

 

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Cooking (started at age six)

 

Sewing and crochet (age eight)

 

Making my own sewing patterns and handmade dolls and clothes (age twelve) 

 

Quilting, watercolors, beaded jewelry, embroidery as a teenager (only ever dabbled in any of those)

 

Photography (age twenty)

 

Period costumes (early twenties)

Ceramics (age twenty-nine)

 

I find that these pastimes bleed over in many ways in my ceramic work. I especially love textured and embroidered fabrics, and I texture my pottery with designs that are similar at times to eastern European folk embroidery. Understanding watercolors and experience with baking helps to some extent to accept the unpredictable qualities of glaze; sewing helped me to quickly grasp three dimensional design; photography is quite a useful skill to have when selling work online; and I'm used to working with my hands in many different ways. 

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designing and building houses is lots of fun.  last one was in 2005.  unfortunately, i lent the profit to a builder who was cheated by the buyer of a house he built for her.  i will never see my money again.  

 

it is still fun to design practical houses on paper.  it is amazing to me how few houses have been really thought about before the first spot of concrete is poured.  everything is built as though it will be immediately next to its twin so no windows on the sides.  Heavens!   someone might look inside!!!    and placement on the lot is about how far back from the street the front door will be.  and all along the street the doors are on the same plane.  sigh...........................

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Yappy- you got some talent going on.

 

I dabbled with oil paints for awhile until I realized that I had no talent. Give me a saw, nails, and a hammer and I can create many things. I do collect art however, Dale Gallon being one of my favorites. I am coming to find my talent is in clay chemistry. Still working on clay and slip recipes that add the color and effect with just a coat of clear glaze. Slowly but surely learning to throw, getting comfortable with it. So in a sense of the word my craft as a developer is spilling over into developing clay bodies.

 

Nerd

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The idea of thinking of myself as an artist is very strange since I've had no training in any of the arts that I do. I've always thought of myself more as a logical linear left brain thinker. However, as I've gotten into doing ceramics, welded art and photography, I am a bit startled that some of my stuff actually looks pretty good. Though I make no attempt to sell my work, people actually asked me if I'd like to sell this or that..... strange.

 

I found a lot of the patterns that I've developed in welding transfer nicely to ceramics. Colors and shapes from photography also transfer well to ceramics. Contures in ceramics transfer to contures in welding.  Ceramics is by far the most difficult of my three hobbies.

 

All three arts depend on a different aesthetic, so it's a bit of a head shift when I go from one to the other.

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I had a certain level of rendering ability ground into me the first 2 years of art school, but anything 2 dimensional remains an awkward medium at best. Drawing often feels like I'm trying to write something down with my off hand, with the paper on a table behind me. I keep a sketchbook, but it's not a thing of loveliness.

I like knitting, especially in the round. It can stave off the irritability for a time if I can't touch clay. I can see the structure in the repetitive, circular motions, and it twigs my brain somewhat. The end result still relates to the body, and really it's a much slower method of making a pot, but with yarn.

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designing and building houses is lots of fun.  last one was in 2005.  unfortunately, i lent the profit to a builder who was cheated by the buyer of a house he built for her.  i will never see my money again.  

 

it is still fun to design practical houses on paper.  it is amazing to me how few houses have been really thought about before the first spot of concrete is poured.  everything is built as though it will be immediately next to its twin so no windows on the sides.  Heavens!   someone might look inside!!!    and placement on the lot is about how far back from the street the front door will be.  and all along the street the doors are on the same plane.  sigh...........................

 

I despise thoughtless house design especially because with just a little consideration and creativity it is SO EASY to make a more functional and more attractive home. A hobby of mine is mentally redesigning homes and yards. :) 

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I had a certain level of rendering ability ground into me the first 2 years of art school, but anything 2 dimensional remains an awkward medium at best. Drawing often feels like I'm trying to write something down with my off hand, with the paper on a table behind me. I keep a sketchbook, but it's not a thing of loveliness.

 

Two dimensional work always leaves me feeling (NO PUN INTENDED) flat and disappointed. Love the sculptural aspects of working in clay. :) 

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