Developing a Concept in Ceramic
With Animating Spaces Yeppoon and 'Through the Porthole' event only a matter of days away I thought I would let you in on a little secret…Sometimes 'Art Don't Work'.
Yes, that's right and all artists can relate to this, taking a project from an idea through to installation does not always run according to plan. In fact, there sometimes isn't even a plan at all - This is what makes an artist an artist. You start, you run into hurdles, your try something else and repeat this until it does work!
This particular artwork is the perfect example. It was one of the first works that I made for 'Through The Porthole' in early 2014 and finally, five months later I have just this morning unloaded a success from the kiln. The progression shows perfectly the stages that clay goes through, things that work, things that don't and of course the things that are sometimes out of one's control like cracking in the firing process.
But oh how good it feels when you open the kiln to find the work that finally worked like I did this morning!
Yes, that's right and all artists can relate to this, taking a project from an idea through to installation does not always run according to plan. In fact, there sometimes isn't even a plan at all - This is what makes an artist an artist. You start, you run into hurdles, your try something else and repeat this until it does work!
This particular artwork is the perfect example. It was one of the first works that I made for 'Through The Porthole' in early 2014 and finally, five months later I have just this morning unloaded a success from the kiln. The progression shows perfectly the stages that clay goes through, things that work, things that don't and of course the things that are sometimes out of one's control like cracking in the firing process.
But oh how good it feels when you open the kiln to find the work that finally worked like I did this morning!
 Attempt #1 cracked in the bisque firing. Once the clay has been fired to this point it can't be recycled so this has joined the countless other 'one's that didn't make it' in my studio garden. |  Attempt #2 cracked in the glaze firing. I experimented with some glaze colours on this attempt but decided the oxide effect looked better on it's own. |  The finished artwork, framed in it's stainless porthole. Worth every bit of blood, sweat and tears that have gone into it over the last five months. |
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