Progress

I've been mad busy with all my studio work, which I've been trying to document as best I can.

Biggest news, I got my own bench space thanks to the object design department. Unfortunately, sculpture at Towson doesn't have the space for advanced undergraduate studios, so I have no consistent place to work. It was very nice of the jewelry ladies to offer me this space :)

I like the way they think in here. 

...

Here's a carved wooden body with holes for glass to fit. I'm in love with forstner bits.

The wood's been sanded super smooth and oiled up.

And the glass forms (from wooden molds) were epoxyed in.

Wooden molds for glass, you say? Why, yes. It's a process I'm still developing- lots of experiments to be had. There's alot of fire.

This is what it looks like once the glass has been annealed and cooled- it fits right back into its mold. The glass and the wood both become parts of the finished piece.

Only the top portion was for molding, the rest of the sculpture still needs to be laminated and carved. It'll eventually stand on three pointed legs as a tripod, glass and all.

...

Ceramics has me making a self portrait in stoneware,

which I decided to chop up.

Each portion of the face will be fired to cone 6, then mounted onto casters for gallery installation.

Somethin like this.

...

In other news, I have a piece showing at Gallery 788 in Baltimore next Thursday, Oct 10th. 

Opening runs from 6-10 and the show is open till Oct 31st.

788 Washington Blvd, Baltimore MD, 21230

Goo

Glassblowing last Friday, pictures by Brittany Winchester

TRIUMPH

Raw Forms

concepts in process

Ceremonial Vessel/ Reliquary for a Field

Stoneware flower pot

Long grass will grow up through the holes

Another walking landscape

Dirty business.

Animation 101

To Animate: To give life to; fill with life

1/ Aquire a lightbox. 

2/ Equip lightbox with a three prong registration peg.

3/ Draw some lines.

4/ Draw more lines on top of those lines.

5/ Draw more lines.

6/ Draw lots and lots of lines.

7/ Spray all the lines with fixatif so they don't move on you.

8/ Wear a respirator so you don't get blazing high on fixatif.

9/ Align and light the paper

10/ Take a picture (or two) of every single drawing

And voila! Animation!

Horror Vacui: The Fear of Empty Spaces

Total Drawings: 122

Shot in 2's; 244 frames per cycle

30 fps

3:4

Mountain's Foot

A week and a half into the semester, I've begun several new projects, which will maybe look something like this. Maybe. This is how many of my ideas start out, anyway.

Here's a sculpture I've just begun- It'll look something like my Walking Landscape, but it'll be more complex with two peaks and little blown glass atmospheres. 

These slices are all labeled so they go together in the correct order- they'll be glued one on top the other, then sanded down smooth with an angle grinder and rotary tool.

I have a proposition; rename the Towson Metals Club to 

The Rotary Club: Ladies Who Love Their Dremels.

These are all clamped down with glue, then they'll be glued to each other, then another few sets will be added to build up the mass of the piece. All the sharp edges will be knocked off, so it'll look like walking mountain. I haven't combined wood with glass before though, so that element is an experiment.

I'm trying to work green this semester. I've started over the summer with my new digital sketchbook, and I plan to continue by using sustainable materials and more efficient methods. This entire sculpture is made of reclaimed wood from the scrap pile, and the shapes are cut as close to one another as possible to eliminate as much waste material as possible. I'll see if I can donate the scraps to the Raku ceramics kids, maybe they can use it in their kilns.

...

Next week I'll have storyboards and some frames from my animation to share with you.

bethlehem

I've had a deliciously unproductive summer. I didn't make much art, didn't do much traveling, didn't go to many bars and clubs. I spent the majority of my time in my room, catching up on reading, meditating, practicing yoga, and playing the occasional video game (was anyone else disappointed with Dragon Age's ending?) However, I did manage to write a new song.

Songwriting is a funny thing for me. I either sit down and finish one from scratch, or I spend months upon months forcing lyric into time. This song is a bit of both. I first heard it in a dream, which is not uncommon for me- I've woken up to write several songs from dreams- but the only bit I could remember was its opening line, "In Bethlehem, New York." I figured this place that I've never visited or even heard of must hold some significance for me. I spent all of July trying to figure out the meaning of this "Bethlehem,"distinct from its holy cousin, and finally settled on its metaphorical nature. To me, Bethlehem is a place of quiet peace and humility, a place I've been striving to reach all summer. The rhythm of the chord changes match the rhythm of my breath as I meditate.

I can't say much else about this piece except for that little bit which got me started, though its meaning runs much deeper than that. I'd like to leave the rest for your own interpretation. Thanks for listening.





In Bethlehem, New York I laid a stoneto canonize this old forgotten mindthat once was something more productive.
In the letterbox, there's something growing sweet,and you've hidden it from me for all these years.And with all my love, I'll give it to the air.
In Salem side by side we lift the sunto turn it into something more completewith both our hearts, we'll give it to the air.

Agenda:

Classes start up again this Wednesday. This is my fifth fall semester at college. It doesn't really have that giddy first-day-of-school feeling; it's far more ominous than that. This fall I've decided to really push myself. Four 400 level classes, three of which are studios. A teaching assistantship. And a part time job.

Ceramic Sculpture

Advanced Independent Studio/Honors Thesis

Experimental Animation in Film

Media Production (budgeting, casting, schedules, pre-production)

Glassblowing (asst. teach)

Whew. Wish me luck.

Schools Kill Creativity

"Every education system on earth has the same hierarchy of subjects. Every one. Doesn't matter where you go. You'd think it would be otherwise, but it isn't. At the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and the bottom are the arts. Everywhere on Earth. And in pretty much every system too, there's a hierarchy within the arts. Art and music are normally given a higher status in schools than drama and dance. There isn't an education system on the planet that teaches dance every day to children the way we teach them mathematics. Why? Why not? I think this is rather important. I think math is very important, but so is dance. Children dance all the time if they're allowed to, we all do. We all have bodies, don't we? Did I miss a meeting? Truthfully, what happens is, as children grow up, we start to educate them progressively from the waist up. And then we focus on their heads. And slightly to one side."