Artist Residency @ Corning Fine Arts

Corning Center For the Fine Arts

         I arrived in Corning, IA on Monday November 5th.  I am four hours west of Davenport, so I am pretty close to Omaha, Nebraska. This is the tiniest town I have ever been too, and everyone is friendly so far.  I think I will be very happy here because it is alot less hectic than Davenport. I quit my job to come here for three months and be a Resident Artist at the Corning Center for the Fine Arts.  It is a small art center with a rather large gallery, and a small pottery studio.  There is a clay room with a wedging table, clay sink, and work table.  In the adjacent room are 5 electric wheels and a Skutt programmable kiln.
      I am also the December artist in the gallery, so I will be putting up a show and hosting an opening reception starting the 2nd Saturday in December.

Why I chose Corning to do a Residency:

+A non intimidating environment for emerging artists, I didn't feel the pressure to compete
+there are two apartments aboive the art center, for the resident artist ( small fee) fully furnished
+I like the flexiibly of being able to choose 3 months, because I had enough finances to provide for three months of living, so I am able dedicate myself 100% to the artwork.

        For the past 2 years I have been sculpting Iowa, for the past month or so I have had the strong desire to draw and since I have been away from the studio for a few months that itch to make was driving me insane.  The drive from davenport to iowa took me about 4 hours, and the more you drive the more rural it becomes.  Snapping some cell phone pictures while I was driving, I was struck with the thought of building large amphoras and historical vase shapes and drawing these images of a road and the surroundings.

Flocked and glittered Christmas Ornaments

 I have two versions so far, one is heavily carved the other lightly scrached with a needles tool.  the clay is a cone 6-10 b-mix, I am going to bsique fire them and then use undergalze pencils before applying a clear glaze to certain sections and maybe a little bit of colored glaze.  Then finally luster them.  I bought lusters right after graduation and never had the opportunity to use them at Mississippi Mud Studios. I have a large jar of mother of pearl luster and  the smallest vile of gold.  I am thinking about getting some silver luster as well.
I have also started taking my mountain form and opening it up as a bottle and drawing my recent sculptures on them.  This is a brown stoneware with a white slip painted on and then carved through.

more to come i promise.

hollie