This year at NCECA there were a multitude of artists that I learned from, whether it was lectures, or one on one talks, or just witnessing their work. Since I am so close to graduating and starting the next chapter in my artwork, I wanted to focus on hearing how certain artists got their start, what they worked on when they were in undergraduate and what was most beneficial to them. I wanted to get many opinions on grad school verses residency programs and post bacc opportunities.
NCECA chooses a collection of emerging artists every year to showcase, and they were all extremely inspiring to me. Lauren Gallaspy was one of the most influential when it came to her undeniable passion for her craft and work ethic in general. I have always been told that it takes a ton of time in the studio to make it in this world, but she took it to a new level that even I marveled at. Lauren is both a functional and a sculptural ceramic artist and both captivate me. They are very closely linked to the odd qualities and seeming awkwardness of Egon Schiele, one of my influences currently.
"My work is about that imbalance: the vulnerability of living things and the sometimes violent, sometimes pleasurable, almost always complex consequences that occur when bodies and objects in the world come into contact with one another. I use ornamentation, obsessive mark-making, and decorative imagery as a kind of devotional or transformational act, a way to render interior spaces and intense psychological experiences physically." -Lauren Gallaspy
One thing that I learned, that was very apparent, was the unrelenting drive she has, and how hard she had to work to get where she is now. I already knew that it takes a lot of time and effort, but she talk and our one on one conversation really drove it home for me. My goal is to become an "Emerging Artist" at an NCECA in a few years.
Lauren Gallaspy
Clay, Stain, Decals
Another emerging artist that I found moving was Lindsay Pichaske. She is a sculptural artist, mostly dealing with animals, but with a twist. Instead of using a regular glazing techniques, she goes outside the ceramic world using covering like rooster feathers, sequins, and blonde human hair. Her coverings take these already amazing animal renderings to the next level which abstracts them.
"What separates human from animal? What borders exist between real and imagined, beautiful and repugnant, animate and inanimate?
Through the act of making, I swim in and around these margins, exploring how slippery the answers to these questions are. I create animals that blur boundaries. They challenge the perceived order and comfortable classifications of life. These animals are tricksters; familiar but also alien, seductive but also scary, animal but also human, alive but also dead. In a world where petals mimic fur and hair impersonates bone, even materials upset their expected roles. These creatures are not to be trusted. Once we identify with them, we admit that perhaps the definitions they upturn are not so clearly defined as we think.
Material and process are the tangible means through which I contemplate the space between these opposing worlds. I sculpt and articulate animal forms to generate a semblance of life. The fleshy coverings are meticulously and lovingly applied, allowing me to both control and understand the figure as it comes into existence." -Lindsay Pichaske
From Lindsay, I learned that I need to take more risk with the surface of my pieces. Since they are raw figures, I can play around with different surface techniques and if it doesn't work, it is very easy to remove. When I talked to Lindsay about my work, she wanted to see some different materials coming from my figures, which excited me. I want to push forward with different mediums with my clay figures.
Lindsay Pichaske
Low-fire ceramic, 26190 sequins, paint, adhesive, steel bracket
Low-fire ceramic, rooster feathers, flocking, paint, adhesive
Low-fire ceramic, sunflower seeds, beet dye, acrylic paint
The one lecture that I found captivating above all others was Bonnie Kemske: Grounded Sensuality: Affective (Emotional) Ceramics. I walked into the lecture hall and was immediately taken to this place where I felt a sensual connection to my ceramic work. Bonnie's work revolves around the idea of having a deep, personal connection with clay objects as something to be loved. She would sit in the studio and hug a large balloon full of plaster until it set, then make a plaster mold of that piece, fill it with clay and it would create these amorphic shapes that, when fired, would become these pieces that yearned to be close to the body. They are heavy, which Bonnie says is a highly thought out result, because it makes the viewer/handler cradle the piece and hold it with a sense of fragility.
"As humans, we have a long history of engaging our sense of touch in ceramics, and we are never far from ceramic objects within our lives. We touch them daily, even if it is only to clutch our coffee mugs as we sit at the computer or lean against the edge of the sink as we go through our morning rituals. In fact, ceramics is an almost universal medium. This gives us an innate and intimate sensitivity to fired clay. We understand it; there is a sense of the familiar when we handle ceramic objects. This familiar quality lends itself to developing the sense of comfort and quiet excitement that I seek to elicit through my work.
Touch is the most direct and least analyzed of our senses; it is the grounding sense, the sense of tangibility that places us in the world. As the full proverb states, ‘Seeing is believing, but feeling is the truth.’ Yet, in our western culture a hegemony of vision often erodes our tactile sensitivities.
My sculptural work challenges the dominance of sight by more fully engaging the body’s sense of touch through physical interaction with the objects I create. The work is textured and invites the viewer to become the toucher." - Bonnie Kemske
I am combining the ideas from both Lindsay Pichaske and Bonnie Kemske to explore the world of textures more. I have in the past, but my pieces still didn't have the draw that I want the viewer to feel when they look at my work. I want them to want to touch my work, make it inviting and initiate a dialog between my pieces and the sensation of touch that the viewer experiences.
One artist that I came across was Carol Cook. She was showcased figurative artist, at a gallery opening for the University of Dallas. I was completely fascinated with the texture and surface treatment of her work. When I looked closely her work just melted away into these quick gesture lines combined with meticulous details to convey emotion and movement.
Carol Cook
"Housekeeping"" to Room 13"
Cone 04 clay, Engobes, Low Fire Glazes
Ovidio Giberga
"Prime"
Porcelain
Other work by Ovidio.
This piece tested my perception. It was interested how Colby Parsons isolated the projection to specific parts of the ceramic wall piece. I especially liked how different each projected clip was radically different.
Colby Parsons
"Bedroom Floor" 2012
Ceramics with Projection
This piece by Nicole Carew Merkens was probably one of my favorites among the gallery shows. I am in love with the surface treatment, the addition of wire and other misc objects.
"Psychic Energy,
Mental energy such as thinking, perceiving, and remembering.
Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 8th edition. © 2009, Elsevier.
Psychic Energy,
N, the subjective force responisble for causing change and motion in the nominal world. Also called mental energy.
Jonas: Mosby's Dictionary of Complementary and Alternative Medicine. © 2005, Elsevier.
This piece is entitled "She was a Sender". She is from a body of work called "The Psychic Energy Series". It is about the psychic energy and my fascination with the possible ability to mentally send thoughts, images, emotions thru the mind in psychic vibrations.
The wires in her hair help depict the brain waves she is sending out. Her hand to her forhead; for concentration on zoning-in on her subject. I believe everyone has the ability to either be a sender or receiver. She is a sender, I personally think I am a receiver. What are you?" - Nicole Carew Merkens
Nicole Carew Merkens
"She was a Sender"
Clay, Underglazes, Engobes, Wax, Wire
Walter McConnell was one of the lecturing/demonstrating artists that I truly loved. He is doing with his work, what I am just touching the surface of. He creates these masterpieces of intricate scenes and presents them in the raw state. I want to do this and now he has put this fire in my belly to make me succeed at this new raw work. I watched him create these enclosures for his work, that makes an air-tight case for these pieces to live and create condensation from the wetness of the clay.
Walter McConnell
Clay, Plastic, Plexi Glass, Wood
Gerit Grimm was also a lecturing/demonstrating artist that I watched. She was a co-lecturer with Walter McConnell and it was very interesting to see them both together. Gerit throws and alters to create figures. This was interesting for me because she was very meticulous about the proportions of each piece and that they were adjustable. This was very important to create a sense of freedom in their movements. I want to try this technique of having sections of a figure, then mix and matching each piece in order to make a whole. I haven't done this at the life-size scale, but I have learned how to with a smaller figure from Michelle Gregor. This is my goal for the immediate future.
This NCECA was the most beneficial conference I could have attended thus far because it has given me all the tools necessary for furthering my art work into the next chapter of my life.
