Weekly bloggy boo for 12/13

So... This is my mom with our art poster. This week I've been finishing up my third project and I am delighted to say that my third project has been much better than my first two. Its safe to say that my first two pieces were pretty much pieces of poo. I'm glad that my artistic vision has been somewhat restored and now I'm looking forward to finishing up some more pieces. The piece I DO like is that of an obese woman. I'm not sure how I feel about the arms on the piece, but those can always be removed if necessary. I can't wait for winter break!! wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Proof!!

My picture of me giving one to my mom wont upload.. but this is at bellagios and i attached a bellagios magnet to our poster so i could hang it in the window.  :)

My ALMOST recovery

So I have been trying to come back from the destruction of what would have been my only concentration piece. Turns out it was for the better that it broke anyways because it was kinda looking like a POS. Anyways, I have this strange idea for a tube like form that i've been working on, and then I saw Amy Wiley working on these things she does in adv ceramics. They are like clay paintings but raised... idk they're really cool and I think i want to do something similar to that for my 3rd (or 4th) piece. Sooo... Friday I think im going to ask her how she does them because they are supaaa cool. Oh yeah, a picture of my piece will be up tomorrow

F. U. freezing temperatures........

So, as with many things in life... sometimes you take one step forward and 15 steps back. This has proved true with my concentration. I decided to be proactive and take my work home with me for the thanksgiving weekend (I predicted we wouldn't have school on tuesday). So i packed up all my stuff (My almost completed project, 1/2 bag of pendleton red, and 2 separate bags of scrap p-red) and put it in my car monday after school. I got home and rushed to work, forgetting what was in my car. The next day... woo! Snow day. I didn't go outside. Later that evening I remember something... "Oh em gee the clay is in my car!" So I rush outside to get it. Haha, its frozen. No worries, I'll just defrost it inside. BAD MOVE. As my clay defrosted, so did my project. Now all things clay are lumps of wet p-red. fml. It's all my fault and now we have school in 2 days and I have 0 projects.
La Nina=1
Lexie=0

concentrations..... part 2

So this week (and a little bit of last) I began working on my concnetration. My concentration is going to be forms inspired by the woman's body. I'm not into like sculpting all the parts and stuff, but I like the general shapes that they inspire. I have a picture of the first piece, and its going to be 2-2.5 feet tall. I'm VERY nervous to dive head first into my concentration, and I don't know why. Maybe I'm a commitment-phobe. Oh well, no going back now! I also have a kinda cool pic from the woodfire.

Wood Firing! And concentration..

So attached is a picture of the (finally) finished egghead!! I haven't decided if I want to put it in resin yet or not..... I guess I need to decide soon though haha. BUT I had a million ideas for concentrations and after discussing it with the class, and pondering it all weekend.... I finally decided on a concentration! Of course it's not one I thought of on my list, but nevertheless, I think it's great! I decided that I want to do forms inspired by the human body. I think it should be interesting to see what my hands can come up with. ALSO.. The woodfiring is this week! I'm really excited because I've never been to one before, and I can't wait to see how my stuff turns out.

PHOTO CONTEST

So the other day I saw a flyer/entry form for a photo contest. I asked Amy what she thought of a few of my photos before I entered them, and I guess I was just hoping for some feedback. attached are the 4 fan favorites, and my favorite (the buffalo). Take a peek and pleassseeee let me know if you think they're contest-worthy

Diane Lou... And the Egghead

So this week we got to work with our guest artist, Diane Lou. She creates artwork out of junk, to put it simply. When she was explaining to us how she created her work, and how it grew to have meaning, I was skeptical. She was telling how every piece evokes a different feeling in the viewer and most of the time, she is surprised by what her pieces turned out to be. I wont lie, I thought this would be a piece of cake. IT WAS NOT. it was hard for me to let go of all of my preconcieved notions about the items we use everyday, and put them together in a way that had meaning. I have the finished product (which took me almost the whole 6 hours) posted above. When I look at it, it reminds me of french culture. I don't know why.. it just does haha. ALSOO I have a picture of my stained and wired egghead sitting in the kiln, waiting to be fired. It looks pretty sweet, but i'm having a hard time deciding if I want to go through with my original plans of having it sit in resin. Anyways... family project. I don't want to talk about that..............

Finishing Family Ties... and the Egghead

 So I added pictures of my dad because they relate to my family project. I know I mentioned earlier that I wanted to show the relationship between him and his dad, so I've done that with two cone shaped objects. I won't be able to post on friday... so I'll get pictures up asap. But I decided to put these of my dad up so y'all could get the gist of my project. BUT I finally stained my head (and added wires to the mouth), and now it just has to wait to go in the kiln. It was difficult to stain because I wanted everything to go my way... when I realized that wasn't gonna happen, I just let it do what it wanted to. I'm hoping to toss in a couple test tiles to see how it'll turn out if I put clear glaze over the stain. But, we'll see.

Family Ties

So today when Amy told us about our new project I has the idea of showing the relationship between my grandfather and dad. The reason I want to show this relationship is because there is a lot of history behind them. I was thinking of having two objects (about the same size) and have one of them destroyed on the outside (my grandfather) and have the other one nice on the outside but have a hole in it where the same destruction leaks through (my dad). I guess I wanted to show that self destruction affects others, especially those close to you, without you ever knowing it. Then...... I finally got my shocking art piece to the greenware stage. My final theme is going to be abuse. I'm going to wire the mouth shut because most abused people don't have the chance to speak for themselves, and eventually i'm going to fill in the features with underglaze. It will be a floating head in resin (to mimic water) and also it will represent silence. As in the floating head will represent silence haha. Also it kinda looks like an egghead, but maybe thats just me? Oh well.

Racism in Lake O

So... Today I was at work when the phone rings. I answer it, saying what I'm supposed to say blah blah blah. Anyways the lady that called ordered a pizza and needed to give me her card number. I asked her for her name and she says "It's blah blah but that mexican man with the accent answered before so I don't think he got it right". Strike one. So I take her card number and enter it and all that jazz. Then I tell her how long it will be for her pizza to be delivered, and am about to hang up when she says "Ok great. Thanks you. You should tell your manager not to let those mexican men answer the phone because I can never understand their accents and they always get my address wrong". Strike two. In my book, you only need two strikes before you're out. It just made me so mad! All of the people who answer phones, regardless of race, speak great english! And for the record Francisco (The man who originally answered the phone) got her name and address 100% correct. It just makes me so mad because everyone is so nice and to single someone out because of the way they talk is just wrong! Gahhlhjsvc;qhVF;UHEVW. I didn't tell my manager because I didn't want to hurt anyones feelings if someone overheard the conversation. But f her anyways, she wasn't even nice about it. ANYWAYS, that gave me the idea to use racism in my project. I'm thinking of using a head (it doesn't have to be clay) and having it be white, then use another white instrument  to peel off layers from the head so it kinda looks like a cut. Inside the cut would be different layers of colors starting with white and going through a rainbow until it ended at brown or black. Any suggestions?

So this week we're supposed to make a piece of shocking artwork. I'm thinking of something along the lines of abuse, teenage pregnancy, or something to do with the Bible. (Not that those three have any direct relation in my mind). I posted a link to Elizabeth Hoff's website on my blog and under Sculpture 1, there is an image titled 'Secrets'. I really like that piece because it said so much. I also really liked the title of the work. Another artist, Si-La-Gi, has a piece titled 'America Settlement' that speaks to the obesity of our country. Right now I just have a bunch of ideas floating around my brain but hopefully I'll be able to snatch a few and bring them to  life.

Another view of my stick stream

Retreattttt

So.. Last weekend was our retreat at Menucha. Before we left, I was kind of nervous to see how things would go. Things were awkward at first, but eventually we all became a little more comfortable with each other. At the end of the retreat I got to know everyone better, and I think it's going to be fun having a family-type class. I really enjoyed out guest artist. Even though I didn't read the essay... I thought it made a good point with individualism vs. originality. I think that's going to be an idea I carry on throughout the year. My favorite part of the retreat was the Andy Goldsworthy inspired project. I think his stuff is pretty cool, but I think he is a little crazy.. Anyways, my project was a stick river coming out of a drain pipe I found while walking in the forest. Water is an element that inspires my thinking so I wanted to incorporate it somehow. I think I saw a group of sticks bundled on the path and it made me think to make some sort of stream out of them. I took one picture when I was almost done, but I later added giant green leaves around the edge of the stream for more contrast.   Alsooo... Menucha was really pretty :)