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Okay, so I lied about the temperature of my studio in my last post...it has actually been 47 degrees in there. I finally broke down and turned on my kiln (with out firing anything) to help cut the cold. My fingers get really mad at me when I work in the cold. They swell and my knuckles ache and well it can't be good for me. Who says I don't suffer for my Art ;)I am posting this preliminary drawing, with some trepidation, of a piece I am about to start. My intention is to have it be two 17" platters, side by side, to make one unit. I was taught in school, that drawings should always accompany the work. Which when making in ceramics, is not always the first inclination. One usually just wants to go straight to work with the clay. The habit was instilled in me and I am thankful for it.
I started the drawing with many ideas and had put in many elements, my usual flowers, etc. and then erased them as I felt they detracted from the piece. I also felt I was leaning too heavily on what I know works and I was not pushing myself. I was using that imagery as a crutch. When I removed all the extra embellishments from the drawing I realised that the simplicity and starkness (the feeling) of the drawing was what I wanted to convey with the the piece. So I have left in unadorned. Now to attempt it with the clay. A completely different challenge. I have anticipatory concerns about what could happen once I start trying to execute the piece. One of my concerns is that it will look trite, contrived, that the medium will scream utility and the sense of the piece will be lost. My gut feeling is that it can work though. The utility aspect is good and sincerely nothing to be ashamed of and can be exploited but needs to be done in a subtle manner. Ahh yes, subtlety, such a difficult thing to achieve in Art. To know when (and how) to be loud by being quiet. I am liking this challenge and really enjoying thinking about my work in this way. Don't worry, the pretty flowers and other pieces are still happening while I am working away on these more serious pieces. More on that later...for now I am letting myself be inspired by the arctic temperatures of my studio.
Folks, it's fa fa freezing here. Yes, I do live in San Francisco and you are right, I have absolutely nothing to whine about when it comes to weather. Still it is very cold here, it dipped under 32 degrees last night and much lower in areas surrounding San Francisco. I hear the North East of the United States is having it's warmest winter on record according to my dear friend, finder of back roads and keeper of miscellaneous weather facts, M.C. Why am I talking about the weather you may wonder? Well as I mentioned before I am preparing work for my show at Xen Gallery in February and some of my new work has a lot to do with the weather and how the change is affecting climates which in turn is affecting wild life. Think polar bears. It is not like me to use my work as a platform to talk about global warming. I usually don't go for the big statement or the political and I am not trying to spread world peace with my work. I make my work from a very personal place. Beauty has a lot to do with it. I like beautiful things and I am not ashamed of making beautiful things. I love nature. I find people fascinating. I find life often has quiet, small stories with bigger meanings woven into our everyday activities. I take all of this information and translate it into my own visual vocabulary and record it on my work. Kinda simple, huh? So what has changed? I am asking myself this very question as I work. I haven't quite come to any final conclusions yet and it is challenging for me to talk about it, much less write about it. I am very excited about this new direction with my work but also feeling a little unsure. It is like making a speech in a language you just learned. I know I'll be saying a lot of sentences backwards and certain common expressions may sound awkward. None the less, I can't wait to start showing you what I have been up to. Images will be coming soon.
To keep me in check and to help me experience the full effect of our unusually cold temperatures I have been making the work in my very cold studio that does not have warm running water. The thermometer inside the studio has been reading 51 degrees this past week. There you will find me bundled up, five layers deep in clothing, etching away and thinking about the plight of the polar bear. 
Today was productive. My studio is starting to feel a little like the Arc. There are birds, whales and bears, some in pairs, some all alone and some mixed together. Here is the first of the polar bear pieces. It was quite difficult to get a shot of the polar bear where she did not look distorted and stumpy.
and here another view. Sometimes I think filming my pieces spinning might be a good idea. It is a difficult to capture the three dimensional quality of the bowls with the drawings moving around them. Here is my attempt at a 360 view.
Bowl dimensions; 10"x 10"x 5"
