Artists of Inspiration

I've been busy working on applications and re working and editing statements left and right.  I hope I'm headed towards the end of the editing process!  

Since I've been on the computer more so this month and less time at the studio I thought I'd share some artists of inspiration for me that I look at.  

Nina Rizzo has been an artist that I've been looking at for a long time.  I'm more interested in her earlier works on panel (probably because of the architecture and blocks of color), but I really enjoy her compositions and the weight of the imagery.  

Joe Pintz is a ceramic artist that I've started to look at more recently.  I enjoy his simple structures and the roughness of his pieces.  They feel very raw and inviting to me.  

This may be my last post before the new year, so happy holidays and see you next year!

oh hey guys!

Here's a look at a little creamer sugar set I made!  I'm excited how well the entire piece fits as a whole.

I have a tray in the works that is 5 times the size of this particular tray.  I'm really excited to see how it turns out.  I feel like I'm pushing myself with my forms and surfaces even more.

Grad School applications are in process!  Yay!  It's a lot of work but I'm glad the initial "getting things started" is done.

I've been thinking a lot about my opposing interests between work that I'm attracted to and my own work.  I enjoy simple designs and simple glazes yet my work has a lot going on throughout the pieces.  Just interested in why that's so.  We'll see where this goes from here.  

It's only just begun!

With the completion of the Resident Artist Show at Odyssey, Collect(ive) Components, my ideas for new work has expanded to multiple exciting possibilities!  I am understanding my sculptural work more thoroughly, feeling more confident with hand building techniques, and realizing there are more surfaces and possibilities out there for ceramic sculpture beyond what you find in the glaze lab.  (Not to say I should ignore that option now.  I'm just realizing all the new possibilities!)  And I feel even more confident with my pots and their surfaces than I've ever felt before!  So exciting!

Now that the show is complete, along with the studio stroll and Southern Highlands , I need to get going on applications!  As many know, that's a whole other job in itself.  But I know how to do it now and how to approach it.   Not so scary this time around....but still pretty intense.  

In addition to those shows this fall, I am also in the Charlie Cummings Cup Show!  Check out my work (page nine or select my name in the filter by artist button) along with many other amazing artists!    It's a great show and it seems to be going great.

Here are some images of the Resident Show that is still up.  Please come be Odyssey before January 2nd to see our work.  I think it's worth the trip!

Preview from the front of the Gallery

Our collective cup shelf on the bottom

Collective work window

My installation piece: Form-Scape (clay, paint, paper, and pen)

Mellie's piece on the wall with my and Elaine's cups 

Top Shelf: Ashely's Cups and Elaine's Ewers

Bottom Shelf:  My trays and Mellie's Arches

View from the back of the gallery 

(Andrew's jars in the middle and Bailey's plate installation in the far corner.)

Did October even happen?

Wow! I've been so busy with finishing my kids class, beginning wheel class, working on our Resident Artist Show (yay!), Southern Highlands Craft Show work, and Studio stroll work.  Crazy!  On TOP of that, I got into Crimson Laurel Gallery (what's up!!!) and need to start making more work for them.  Which is FINE by me.  But anyways, here's some new work. I'll write more soon!

Fall and days off go well together

I got a day off today by surprise (a happy one at that!) and decided to take advantage of the beautiful day that was given to me with all the extra time!

I went on a beautiful hike with a friend off of the Blue Ridge Parkway and went to a waterfall and sat at the top of it discussing art and enjoying the sounds and smells of nature.  It was a quite needed time of reflection and being surrounded by beauty.  Look at this awesome tree we saw along the way!

Now I'm headed to the studio to work on some pieces for our show coming up!  (pieces like the one below!)  I'm starting to love coil building more than I ever thought I would. 

Gettin' to the drawing board

Here's a new image that I will be drawing and painting shortly!

I'm excited to be back to paper and working in a new medium for a little bit.
These ideas will be transformed into clay soon helping me to create and realize new forms and new color combinations. I love the simplified shapes that I can find and adding them up to create the form and object it actually is.  What is it about that simplicity that is so appealing to me?

I have also started to hand build these forms which is a new experience and adventure that has only been a great eye opener to the possibilities I have with these ideas of structure, simplicity, and bold colors.  I will post some new images of work in progress soon.

I will leave you with this triptych boat drawing I did in Homer, AK that has influenced me and inspired me this summer.  Thanks for the beauty, Alaska!

    

New Jar!

Pretty excited with this image and this pot.

I hope you agree!

Slowly but Surely

I have been wanting to start a new website and have a better record of my work yet I've had a few obstacles this summer that has prevented me from doing that.  

This blog will act as an in between for everyone wanting to stay connected with my work.

Any suggestions for a resource I can use to show my work more efficiently  and effectively please let me know!  I don't understand website building or more complicated blog building very well.

Here are a few more images of new pots and a new drawing.

yellow creamer sugar set

landscape with stripes

Here's to new beginnings.

new work, new ideas, new processes

Welcome to my new blog!  I am a ceramic artist living in Asheville, NC, currently a resident artist at the Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts.  After graduating from Alfred University in 2008 with a BFA in ceramics and painting, I have traveled to Portland, Maine, Fort Collins, Colorado, and now Asheville, North Carolina.  I can't complain about the beautiful and wonderful places my ceramic adventure has taken me.  Every place brings new ideas and excitement to my life, my work, and my goals as an artist.  

My goal with this blog is to stay more current and active with in the ceramic and art community.  I hope to stay up to date with sharing my own work as well as keeping in touch with what is happening in the world outside my own studio practice.  

After a jam packed, uplifting, eye opening, warm, beautiful, and hectic summer, I am ready to get things moving and to get work through the kiln or on paper, keeping my ideas new and fresh.  I hope that this may be a source for me to fall back to stay active and connected to the art and ideas beyond my own.