Springing into action

Today was the second day of school for the semester! I spent an hour or so at home with a glass of OJ and the world wide web. I was researching contemporary book artists and printmakers. I was also looking up some general information on some of my most recent interests. Last night I created a general outline for my semester to get my brain flowing toward my proposal for both printmaking and ceramics. The lovely Brian Harper, my ceramics professor, has many links on claybucket.com to help get the electromagnetism of the brain firing. I chose five of his projects to complete this semester: mixed media, no base, one source, duality, and bifurcate. These will be explained more as I progress through the semester. As for printmaking, I have a lot of ideas, and I am still sorting through all of these. My main focus is circles and/or spheres.
Today at school I mapped out a loose plan for a color separation monotype. I started a collagraph, using gesso on a canvas board that I will use as a print matrix. I also revisited the paper nests that I was making last spring, except this time I made a sphere. I mostly did it for fun just to see if it would work the same way, and in fact it did. they are surprisingly stable and they are fun to play with. They almost remind me of maps of communication or flight patterns; connections from one point to another.
I also started to bind a journal that I am calling my "feelings" journal. this is a personal project that has nothing to do with school. There are no rules with what I can put into this journal. The basic idea is to ALWAYS have it handy, so whenever I am feeling some kind of strong emotion that I can just pull it out and make marks in it that correlate with my current emotion. I can put any thing from words, to color, to lines, shapes, general mark making, anything that helps me express the emotion I am feeling. I am showing the lower level printmaking students how to start binding a journal tomorrow morning, so this will be a good example of a journal "in process." Pictures coming soon, stay tuned.

Waiting to get burnt

Some of my first bowls to be fired. There are more pictures to come. I'll be working on the surface of my wet bowls tomorrow.

Not so centered

Learning to throw on the wheel is difficult. Of course the first one I made actually had a form. Every one since then got destroyed. Unfortunately I've been sick the past three days. I'm hoping to make up some practice time this weekend.
No pictures yet. Maybe I'll make something awesome this weekend.

Frozen

I lucked out this morning with the huge snowflakes. Although my boyfriend isn't the best photographer we got a couple good pictures.
Mulling through thoughts gave me the idea to do a series of four photos, one for each season. Lucille I got the hard one out of the way, winter.
So I've been thinking about what I want to say with this first picture tht will hopefully carry through to the other three. Duality. The balance between comfort and uncomfortable. Technology versus nature. What is the essence of nature through the human body? Is building something so common as a nest able to connect to the the technologic world we live in. I used no tools to create the nest, just my body. I presented only my body with the nest But I used technology to document the nest. I also used it to present the nest anywhere, the Internet and as a two dimensional document.
More duality: the security within the nest while being vulnerable in the nude in the freezing cold. I felt that there was no other way to present my body naturally then the way I came into this world, relating my nest to the womb and comfort of childhood. A nest is a place to secure the young from predators (luckily none came in the woods during the photo shoot) the nest is a place to not only protect the young but yourself and partner. It is a dwelling, a home. I do not feel insecure in my nest or in the way I am presenting myself to the class as vulnerable and cold. Deep down it was a warm confidence boosting experience.
I have become grounded and solidified. I am protected and safe. I will further this exploration. A good friend, Daniel Frank, is going to help with some long exposures and more fun photography experiences.

Sneak peek

Lots of height and breadth was added today. I'm excited to do the finishing touches before Thursday and prepare how I am going to show the great creation.
Sneak peak pics below.

It doesn't seem like I am getting enough done. Craziness was abundant last week. Car got towed, my grandmother was in the hospital. So that set me back a little. Someone was fired from work and so I had to work all weekend because there is only three of us and the other two people almost overtime every week. Luckily today I don't have Anne's class and can work later than normal. Here is a picture of last weeks progress.

More nesting

Catching up with the print side of things: at crit Brian Jones said my work still doesn't have a connective thread and that my work still looks experimental. So I have to go big. I must have 4 large works by next critique.
I have been making paper nests the past two days. It's hard to get started but once you're about halfway done it starts to come together. Kind of frustrating because it constantly falls apart because I am not using any type of adhesive. I am afraid that the look too much like baskets with the torn paper because I can't tear strips of paper much smaller and I am literally weaving it all together. I am hoping the strips I cut with the paper cutter will work better. They are skinner and feel more rigid. I want to place a stone in the nest correlated with the chakra that I am making the nest for. This is based upon color therapy mostly. Pics below.
While taking a break from making paper nests I came across the idea to combine nests into the theme of meditation. I'm in visioning a birds eye view (aerial) of a nest. I want them to be large scale and printed on both sides. I want to do one of every color, referencing the chakras. After I print them I want to cut them out so that they are circular in nature, inspired by the concept of a mandala.
Pic of Carl Sagan for moral support.