NCECA 2015: Providence

My goals this year were a bit different. Meet new people, get connections, figure out if this postbacc thing is right for me. I got to talk to lots of different people, which was a bit nerve-wracking for me. But when in this situation it's best to remember that other people are probably just as nervous, and clay people are generally super friendly and open to conversation. Here are a few highlights from my trip!

My bed/room mate, Eli!

Bought myself an Ayumi Horie mug <3

Our view of the capital building from the hotel.

Julia Galloway being an awesome woman. Her talk was very inspiring; she switches up her work quite often. Best quote from her that day was, "Cups are very intimate objects. Nothing touches your lips as often as a cup, even if you're very passionate."

These two photos were taken at my soon to be school, UMass Dartmouth. It's about 20 minutes from Providence so they had an open house sorta thing. I don't know who made the sculpture but the paintings are by Katie Wild. I LOVE her work. It's life size and sometimes on plexiglass.

And for my newest artist inspo, here's Kyungmin Park. To see someone doing figurative sculpture seems to be oddly rare right now. Not only is it figurative but she incorporates bright colors and motifs. It's nice to meet someone you can relate your work to. she was giving a demo on fingers and tongues and other body parts for the AMACO/Brent booth. Eli and I watched and listened for about an hour.

So funfact: Providences' bars and clubs close hella early (like 1am?) but on the last night we found a drag show/lgbt club that was poppin. 

Next year NCECA will be in Kansas City, and I cannot wait. it's a refreshing experience every time and I'm so lucky to have a conference like this in my field. I think I accomplished all of my objectives for this years conference :D

Emotimugs in progress!

Here's a few of the mugs I've made this semester! I'm not sure if you can possibly know the relief I have that the wet clay deadline has passed. For the university that I'm in, it basically means that all projects (ALL OF THEM) must be completed (DONE FINISHED FINITO) by this day so that it has enough time to go through the kilns. It's a high pressure situation, ya'll. It feels like my semester is already over!

I was able to make a about a dozen extra emotimugs, which are all thrown on the pottery wheel, trimmed, hand sculpted faces, and pulled handles (not seen because they're on the opposite side of the cups). The majority of them have gone through the kiln by now and are waiting to be glazed pretty colors. I know a few people saw my original set of five so I'm hoping they'll be popular at the pottery sale. Whatever doesn't sell will surely be up on my etsy; saving up for NCECA :)

Alt Groove links 10.15.13

Image via

• Hare Affairs is an art series of bunnies in different social, political, and cultural issues. Definitely check out his work! He's one of my inspirations for my own artwork.
• In case you haven't heard already, Banksy sold some stuff on the streets of NYC for $60 a piece. I wish I was able to buy one T_T
• What drink changes with the environment? Whiskey does!

"Yes Dear" in progress

This is the first sculpture for my first series of works. I feel like it's taking me  f o r e v e r  to finish, but I keep reminding myself it's because I'm still figuring out the process; not to mention it's a more difficult pose than the other pieces I have in mind. The idea behind this piece is basically a stab at male chauvinism. I don't know how else to articulate my ideas about it yet, but make of it what you will. I'm super stoked about it :)

 I started by building solid. It was the easiest way I could think and plan out the form but gravity was clearly plotting against me. One of my friends builds this way after gaining some tips from the NCECA video Beth Cavener Stichter made about her process.

At this point it's hollowed out and taking shape.

Here's where I'm at now! The body is mostly done. I've added legs and have been compressing and smoothing the outside with various ribs. I have to finish up the head and attach it, make a tale, sew an apron and decide on how to paint it after it's fired. I'm really hoping my professor is right when he said the process will go much quicker after this first one. I plan on having 8 to 12 of these little guys by next year. Yikes!

Pottery I show and tell!

Yay for pottery! This was such an amazing experience. I had a really awesome (and accomplished) professor who's body of work is similar to what I like, so I couldn't have been more privileged. It took me a while to get the hang of it but I was able to make a teapot by the end of the class :D Here's a few of my favorite pieces. I'm hoping to build on some of these ideas. 

I really wanted a jar that said ¡azucar! in honor of Celia Cruz and for the fact that my family simply doesn't have a sugar jar.

At NCECA I snagged a bunch of decals to see what they were all about. I like using them; hopefully I'll come up with an interesting set with the remainder of decals I have.

Chinese character for love, "ài." My friend Ninh was teaching me some of his brush stroke techniques.

This lil' dude is one of 5 mugs, all with different expressions. I really want to make a ton more of these!

My first cylinder >__>....

Poop pendants! Ok so it's not pottery but I'm still into jewelry.

I finished all of the assignments in class with enough time for my professor to teach me how to throw a teapot. I can strain my tea in it and everything! ^_^

Needless to say I'm looking forward to pottery II now that I know what I'm doing (sort of, haha). I experimented alot in this class, especially with the glazes. I'm a little bit bummed that I wont have easy access to a wheel for a couple of months but I just bought 25lbs of clay to play with over the summer, so I'll be making pinch pots and trays and other fun handbuilt things. You can check out the rest of my work from the class over on my facebook page.

NCECA Ramblings

NCECA (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) was everything I could have dreamed of and then some. I wasn't sure what I would get out of it from the get go, but I knew it could only benefit me. It took (very little) convincing from my peers/friends, but I'm incredibly glad they talked me into it.

As I mentioned in my last post, this trip is in a way "solidifying" my commitment to ceramics. Basically I've been so fickle with my major ever since I've started college. I knew I wanted to do art but had little formal experience with all the mediums. This seriously used to freak me out. When I found out I prefer three dimensional art wayyy more than 2D, I started to gain a little confidence. I realized that I REALLY love clay after my sculpture II class at my community college. This was my second class ever dealing with clay and the community college didn't have a kiln, so we casted and bondo-ed the final piece. (little story: my high school was fortunate enough to have the kiln explode my first semester there, closing school for 3 days. Thus, only 2D work was henceforth allowed) Now that I've moved on to a university with a kiln and chose ceramics (eventually) as my concentration, I feel like such a noob since there's so much to learn about clay and firing. NCECA was the crash course I desperately needed.

It opened my eyes to so many possibilities and venues to take my career and my work. It made me feel confident and apprehensive all at the same time. If anything I know what to tell my mom now every time she asks, "so what are you doing after you graduate?" I learned so much about tools, techniques, and the going-ons of the art world; which is still a bit foggy to me but I'll get it eventually. The crew that I went with were the best and made my trip that much more fun. On top of just being awesome, they answered all of my basic noobie questions like champs and just made me more excited about ceramics.

ANYWHOOZIES on to some pictures of work I drooled over!

This was the first piece I was immediately attracted to. Anastasie by Lisa Clague

Gleaming Antlers Once by Tomoko Nakazato. My first time chatting (sort of) all artsy type with an artist. My friend grabbed her attention and did most of the talking but still!

Ignited States of America by John Runnels. Made entirely of cigarette butts donated by his smoker friends. I got to meet him too; his studio is pretty awesome.

Some cups from the cup sale NCECA holds every conference. There was no name on the black and white cup but I wish there was 'cause I loved it.

The cup I donated to the cup sale. I didn't have too many great options to glaze but I was advised to enter anything just to get my name out there. Unfortunately I didn't get to attend the sale when things were available for purchase, but I hope it sold!

I got the chance to watch a pro, Gerit Grimm, work while talking about her career.

Then there was this guy at the Brent booth in the resource hall like what the hell.

Derailing a bit here but this was on the side of a building near the Mexican/Japanese fusion hotdog truck. It may not be a real Banksy but it was still exciting to see. Also Mexican + Japanese + hotdog = the most confused yet amazing thing I ever ate.

I order the Geisha.

 Not sure of the name for this piece but it was by Valerie Zimany. I stared at her work quite a bit and found my self visiting it over and over again.

My favorite set at La Masa. I just love the colors and the shape and the fact that theres a spoon.


So NCECA was awesome and I'm currently convinced that I should try and attend every conference from now on--at least until I'm a bit established. It'll be a fantastic way to see different parts of the country since it moves every year. Next one's in Milwaukee, see you there?

Drawing I Show and Tell

This is some of the work I did in my drawing class. Not all of the pieces are photographed yet, but here's what I got so far :) Everything is chronological. We started off the semester with boxes (not shown) and line drawings. Then we moved on to blocking the different areas of light and dark, followed by paper studies, followed by drapery studies, then facial features, and lastly models. then we did two still lives on grey paper for our final (one not shown...yet...). This was a tough class for me to commit to because I've taken drawing I a few semester back at a previous school, so it was easy to slack off. I thought that taking it again would be better for me because I wasn't confident in my drawing (I also was too lazy to fill out the paper work to transfer credits from yet another school, ha). I was fortunate enough to have a tough professor who was more confident in my abilities than I was and didn't let me get off easy. He really took his job seriously!

TTFN!<3
-Avé