Summer 2011

Summer is winding down, and it has been more productive than I thought it would be, considering I work a bajillion hours at my job and it is hot as hell inside and out at the garden center.

I managed to finally finish a piece that I started a year ago when I moved here.  I entered it into two shows, got rejected from one, and accepted into the other.  The show that it will be in is called River2River, and it is part of the Iowa Clay Conference this fall, from September 16-18, 2011 in Cedar Rapids, IA.

I am pretty stoked about this conference, because I probably can't afford to go to Seattle for this year's NCECA conference.  I don't know if it is the first Iowa Clay Conference but it features artists from the Midwest region with a keynote address by Clary Illian, and demos and slide lectures by Brad Schweiger, Pete Pinnell, Jen Rogers and Susannah Biondo-Gemme.

There also is a Pre-Conference Soda Firing with Brad Schweiger that I signed up for. I don't know how many people are doing the firing but I know that it is full, so I am excited to meet people and see what people are making.  I am still under the impression that most of the ceramic work in Iowa is all atmospherically fired pots, so I am hoping to figure why people love to make them so much or prove my theory wrong.  It is most likely that my work is what does not fit in here, but I had that going for me in Hartford too, so I am prepared to feel uncomfortable.

Here is the schedule for the soda fire:
" You will discuss glazes and techniques with Brad Thursday morning and get your work glazed.  Thursday, prior to loading, he will have a couple 20-30 minute presentations about both historical and contemporary practices in soda to show you.
Thursday afternoon you will load the kiln and start it, candling it overnight.
Friday morning, the kiln will be turned up and Brad may have another presentation or may do a demo for you in the morning while the kiln is bumped up.
·     Once the kiln is in “cruise” mode, arrangements have been made for you to visit Clary Illian’s Studio, AKAR Gallery, and possibly the permanent ceramics collection at the U of Iowa.

·         You will return to the kiln to fire it off and add the soda. 

The kiln will be unloaded Sunday during the conference and be put out for everybody else to ooh and ahhh over."

  To the workshop I have to bring approximately 1.5 to 2 cubic feet of bisque-fired CONE 10 work, which is currently being made and/or drying.  I am excited for my first workshop out of HAS and would like to thank my momma for her monetary contribution to this activity as well as conference fees and my hotel.

Mississippi Mud Studios

Since my appendectomy almost 6 six weeks ago, I had only been to the studio once to pick up my pieces from the wood fire.  :( I have been working on a piece at home and have plans to enter a few shows this summer. I signed up for the Iowa Clay Conference which is in September. Go here to find out about the conference.  I recently purchased a Canon Rebel SLR camera package, so I thought I should post some pictures I took with it.  Below are pics of Mississippi Mud Studios, the ceramics studio I belong too. I cant wait to finish the piece I am working on and am very nervous, but I will post pictures of that shortly.

Electrostatic Flocking Applicator

Okay so I was on www.craftflocking.com getting ready to order some flock, when this new fancy and affordable Static Stick appeared on their webpage.  only $119.95.  I am very pleased with the results, it takes only a few minutes to get professional surface. You just have to take your time, and be careful where you apply the glue.  If the glue gets on an area where you don't want flocking, you need to wipe it off immediately.  Once the flocking is applied, it is extremely difficult to take off, especially on a wood fired surface because it is so rough (or at least mine are).   What I like about this applicator the most is that you can either use the AC adapter or a 9 volt battery.  The battery part would be excellent for demos, since the cord is only 4 ft long.

here are the specs courtesy of craftflocking.com:

13.5(bat) to 18 Kilavolts electrostatic field.
Self Standing for easy loading.
See through applicator cup.
Copper Charging plate to induce static charge in flock material.
Works with Flocking Fibers as well as model scenic grasses from Notch™ and Woodland Scenics™ materials as well as many more!
Screw on cap.
The static stick can be powered by a 9 volt battery or a wall adapter.
110VAC US Wall power adapter included.
Hi-Power transformer custom manufactured for this product.

The package arrives and Daisy investigates.

Scooter's Static Stick

1lb Green Flocking

Getting Started. 

Unscrew mesh screen and add the flocking

Attached to the yellow wire is a T-pin, you take the t-pin and touch it to the glue on your surface.  Then you hold the Static Stick upside down and push and hold the red button down on the side of the stick.  This negatively charges the flock particles

bought this at hobby lobby,  dries to a clear matte.

Adamah fired mountains, pre flocking

wood fired mountains #2

green flocking applied to 4 sides of 5 in wood fired mountain

green flocking on backside of little mountain

Instructions that came with the Static Stick

 I will post more pictures of the mountains as I work on them.  If you have any questions about the Static Stick leave a comment or shoot me an email.

Hollie

One Year as A Post-Undergrad

It has been almost exactly a year since I graduated from UHA. So far I have moved halfway across the country, moved in with Zach, got a full-time job at a garden center and became a member at Mississippi Mud Studios. I was accepted into a juried show and won an honorable mention, got a cat named Daisy, gone home for a funeral, went to NCECA in Tampa,  had my ruptured appendix removed, and participated in an Adamah firing in Dodgeville, Wisconsin.

Zach will be halfway done with Palmer College of Chiropractic in almost a month.  He has four trimesters left, and probably a Study Abroad tucked in there somewhere.  Then to the East Coast!

I am working on finishing the body of work I started in August and applying for a few shows and a residency. An affordable electrostatic flocking applicator just entered the craft flocking market, which would yield professional flocking results.  With an electrostatic applicator, the flock particles would be negatively charged, and attracted to the adhesive, so they would stand on their ends instead of lying flat on their sides, like with the shaker or puff method.  Thank god and I hope this thing works, because the squeeze bottle method makes your hand hurt.

NCECA was a great time, it was refreshing to be back in your own world, when everyday life can suck the fun out of art, or suck the art out of art or the life out of art ya know.   Plus it always rules to see Walter and Diane in the same day.

The woodfire I recently had work is located at:   bethelhorizons.org 

My Studio Space

Shelves and my green wall

Mountains in Progress

Mountains in Progress

Land Sculptures- bisque

Newsies, Fresh and Fetish

I have been MIA on here, but my camera cord arrived yesterday from PA, so I am able to upload some new pics.  

Here is the cow, bone dry, waiting to be bisqued.  If she survives, then she will be wood fired and attended too accordingly.

The blue guy is a new series of 'dinosaurs' that I am flocking and lustering.  They are about the idea of a widdler and everything animate having said widdler. 

Also for some more fun are some scenes from the most recent woodfire at Hartford Art School.  A few of my peers and I somehow managed to have a successful wood fire (i am still in awe, we stalled for hours, and I thought it was a lost cause).  So that having gone extremely well, and after getting some well deserved sleep last week, two of my fellow seniors and I are planning the next woodfire for April 10th. Chop Chop...

Remember if your widdler is small, it will grow soon. 

-hollie

Milk Shall Flow into Eager Mouths Opened

Here are some juicy excerpts from my latest read, The Sexual Enlightenment of Children by Sigmund Freud

an extremely brief introductory background: Hans is a little boy that is studied by his father and recorded by Freud. Here we learn of Hans sexual growth and development, and carefree attitude toward his "widdler" and "widdling".  Widdler is not the original word of Hans, but offered as a translation from the original German.  Hans called it his wiwimacher.  Would that be weewee maker in english? Oh boys.

Page 49, The Sexual Enlightenment of Children

Hans: "Mamma, have you got a widdler too?"

Mother: "Of course. Why?"

Hans: "I was only just thinking."

At the same age he went into a cow-shed once and saw a cow being milked. "Oh, look!" he said, "there's milk coming out of its widdler!"

I once put forward the view that there was no need to be much horrified in finding in a woman the idea of sucking at the male organ.  This repulsive propensity, I argued, had a most innocent origin, since it was derived from sucking at the mother's breast; and in this connection I went on, the udder of a cow plays an apt part as an intermediate image, being in its nature a mamma and in its shape and position a penis. 

This idea is a genius explanation.  Does mother nature becomes the scapegoat for all women's and men's naughty little desires, or is there truth and relativity in his theory? I think it takes an exaggerated logical approach, but I am a sucker for sexual critical analysis especially in adolescence. whatever that means.

this little old book that is falling apart has given me a blossom of ideas for some smaller sculptures. I will post pics as they come to completion.

Onward! To the Start of the Last!

With winter break gone, classes start on Wednesday. Driving back to CT Tuesday.  Big plans to wrap up senior year, final projects, thesis exhibition, applications, graduation, Iowa. Going out with a bang, fingers crossed.

 Currently: Finishing flocking the crib for Smoke Before Fire.  Creating new  male dino/horses.  I might luster the genitalia and flock them picture book colors, perhaps add whiskers and underbelly fur.  For scale, I'm thinking pet size, so you just have to touch and caress.

Just ordered more flocking from www.craftflocking.com

Got a lot more colors, even some flitter! (flocking plus glitter)

Winter break was pretty good, caught up on reading, bought some books. Currently reading Becoming Judy Chicago by Gail Levin, The Sexual Enlightenment of Children by Freud, and Modern Man in Search of a Soul by Carl Jung.

I got a lot of thinking done that I had held off for a while, decided not to apply to a special student/fifth year program. Instead I'm taking off for Iowa the first week in July.

Internships I have applied to: Figge Art Museum

Places I want to apply: Prairie Center for the Arts, Corning Center for the Fine Arts, Downtown Davenport Residency Program

Studio where I will do ceramics in Iowa: Dubuque Center for the Arts

-hollie