primalmommy on fri 6 jul 07
I have had a ton of responses, on and off list, making suggestions about
finding indigenous clay. I am so grateful! My printer is panting with
exhaustion and my folder runneth over.
Time is short, so I appreciate all the leads. While Tony Clennell is off
to Italy and China with his MFA, my own experience (half done already!)
has me on a slightly shorter leash.
I had forgotten how rested and restored I've been this summer until I
started making the long drive to EMU again for this intensive, three
week, three credit class called "sculpture and design in nature". Daily
classes go from 9 to 3, and we're getting a crash course in "earth
works", landscape art, site specific sculpture, etc.
We visited the sculptures at U of Michigan, including Maya Linn's Wave
Field, and got a virtual tour of the Meijer sculpture garden.
Powerpoint, videos, readings, discussions. Next week we have to give a
presentation on an artist. I didn't want to pick fom the list, asking
instead for permission to cover Laurie Spencer's big clay domes, though
I worry now that I won't find enough images or info. I can always walk
over to the Toledo Botanical Garden and photograph the one my kids like
to play in. I'd love to contact her in person but I suspect she's busy.
Then we have to present a proposal for the sculpture we each intend to
complete during the third week of class, in the woods near Lake Ann, up
north. We'll need details, sketches, scale models. Thus my inquiry. I
had such a great time building my clay-cob bread and pizza oven (pix on
my website) that I would like to do a sculpture using clay cob... if I
can find clay. I am told there is a small lake with a mucky bottom and
lots of lily pads, and in the past I have been able to wade in lakes and
ponds and find clay with my toes ;0) (I grew up amphibious and am not
leech-phobic.)
So while I AM interested in how local clays work in the kiln and as
glaze materials (in fact, I need to post a photo of my falls creek shino
with local clay instead of albany slip) -- I will be happy to just find
enough clay to stick some sand together and make cob. I am considering
firing it in place, just to see what happens; my bread oven gets pretty
hot and while it doesn't really vitrify, it certainly gets bone dry and
really hard.
Our sculptures are not required to last, and in fact it's more earth
friendly to let them weather away. I was sorely tempted to incorporate a
baking hearth into my oven, but my profs headed off any notion of
function from day one -- they want all choices made to be aesthetic
ones, and function presupposes too many details to suit them.
Anyway, I am doing as much research as I can now, because July 15-21
I'll be camping in the woods up north, trying to make art. God help me.
The profs were asked about a schedule and made it clear they only
expected us to work "during the daylight hours". It reminded me of David
Hendley's article, "Work Half a Day". (Where IS my new Clay Times,
anyway?)
So except for occasional lunches and crits with Diana, and plans to fire
the wood kiln, that's my academic adventure for the summer. I might sigh
after Italy or China, but I figure we can always bloom where we're
planted. Anyway a semester is too long to send my kids to grandma's.
Happy summer, everyone. Today Molly's 9, the raspberries are ripe and
the gooseberries almost gone, the bullfrogs croaking along the bike
trail. Jars of homemade jam are lining the kitchen windowsill, more
every day. The tomatoes are still small and green, the blueberries due
to be ripe for "u pick" in a week or so. The cicadas have started in the
treetops in late afternoon, which usually means summer is middle-aged.
Like me. I sat at my parent's cottage on the 4th, peeling the husks off
supper's sweet corn with my grandma, and realized we've been peeling
corn together every July since I was 6... and that's 40 years of sweet
corn.
The week of boy scout camp for my guys has come and gone, and so has the
weekend at girl scout camp. Now after this next week it's mom's turn to
get ready for "sculpture camp". I lie in bed at night thinking I should
pack my weed burner, I should batik some muslin and make hip new
curtains for the pop-up, I should make and glaze bowls for the 11
students to use while we're there.
In reality, I'll be lucky to pay my bills, find my car keys, and get out
the door with a toothbrush and both shoes on. The gap between what I
THINK I can do and what actually gets done is wider every day...
yours
Kelly in Ohio
(I'll post my foray into nature-sculpture on my blog when it's done... )
http://www.primalpotter.com
Click here for free information on nursing degrees, up to $150/hour
LCy32zD08kh6Zb3/>
_______________________________________________________________
Get the Free email that has everyone talking at http://www.mail2world.com
Unlimited Email Storage – POP3 – Calendar – SMS – Translator – Much More!
Laurie Spencer on wed 19 sep 07
Hey Kelly,
Hope your report went well. I didn't see your post until recently but if
you ever need any info or images on the domes I make just let me know. I
have a 7 year old now so I have scaled back my work in recent years. Maybe
I can get back into some larger stuff down the road.
Laurie Spencer
| |
|
