Monday, January 18, 2010

Trying to Stay Shiny with Shinies



Suffice to say, today has been a bit dreary...still smartin' from losing Scruff. I keep expecting to see his happy little eyes peering at me in the anticipation of being scooped up and cuddled. But I've been distracting myself by cleaning the office and studio, both of which bore a disturbing resemblance to EPA Superfund sites. Walking into clean work rooms always cheers me up and gets me eager to ruin them again.

But on a happy note, I was delighted to pull those two Brownies from Maury this morning to find they weren't "FAILS." Joanie and Lesli have taught me well if I can hit close to my mark -- all by myself -- right outta the gate. Thanks gals!

And I won't beat around the bush -- this media intimidates me. I'm so used to cold-painting in which you can correct every mistake and change your mind a thousand times. You also get to see exactly what you're doing. Yet ceramics has a mind all its own. While you can amass a kind of mental library on what to expect with enough experience, the fact is that the media is unpredictable. An infinite number of inconceivable variables play in every fire, which makes this media both magical and maddening at the same time. In the truest sense, you work according to the media's mercurial
rules -- it doesn't bend to yours.

But what is art without danger? As an artist, I'm a firm believer that I need to push myself to the brink of disaster with every piece, t
o dive screaming into the void of uncertainty. Otherwise I'm simply rehashing. And boy, if there ever is a media that can shove me off that precipice -- boot kick me off -- it's ceramics! So here are my latest pieces from that primal artistic shriek...


You can see more photos of Cupcake here.


You can see more photos of Cookie here.

As you may know, this little donkey foal was designed to be a companion for my lightbreed foal, Pixie. So in that context, "Brownie" is in keeping with the sprite concept since a brownie is a sturdy kind of fairy. However, I decided to take a spin on the meaning of that word with these ceramic pieces (because they are "baked" in a kiln) and so I chose names within the treat concept of "brownie," thus Cookie and Cupcake were born (cuz Cupcake has frosting!). I have one more bisque Brownie here that Joanie put together for me, and I may start work on him this week, too...I'm on a roll! But Joanie was kind enough to make a mold of him for me, though I don't know when I'll get to whipping up more since there are so many other projects screaming for completion.

Anyway, both will go up onto Auction Barn soon, but I'm not sure which will go first. Stay tuned! Now...back to shoveling out the studio...

"I live with the certainty of the uncertainty happening in my Art." ~ Derek A. Fitz Simons


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