The Merriest Part of Christmas

The merriest part of Christmas is usually the flood of reminders about the love and support I am so lucky to be surrounded by.

These works of art were made by the children I babysit, and are now two of the best cards I have ever received.

Take Two

I hate photographing my work. I'm still learning how to do it, and I imagine once I figure it out, it won't be such a chore. Any of you fellow artists know what I mean? In any case, I redid the photographs of Expectation, and I'd say with some success.

A little shout out to Andy Mangold, a tremendous artist and friend, for providing access to Photoshop and giving me some lessons on working with these raw images. You learn something new every day.

D.D.

As a birthday gift for my dad, I decided to preserve an artifact from some of the best memories with him. I took press molds off some Dunkin Donuts cups. I made these beauties out of stoneware, decorated with red iron oxide and celadon, and put them in the wood fire. I'm pretty thrilled with the results and I'm pretty sure my dad liked them too.

On Fire

This past November MICA Ceramics held our annual woodfire at Baltimore Clayworks, and I was able to buy a shelf and actually fill it. I don't do pottery very often, and most of what I do ends up being gifts or this year a lot ended up in MICA's Art Market (happening now, by the way). It's nice to switch it up in the studio sometimes, but I apparently can't resist making pottery sculptural. The mason jars and double bowls are fun to make.

You'll notice there's a mix of both wood and salt fired pieces. It's all quite new to me still, as I've only participated in 3 woodfires to date. I like both results, and I don't know that I could pick a favorite. The wood pieces have a rich color. The salt pieces come out with a really juicy surface. I glazed nearly exclusively with my blue-green celadon. I can't help myself sometimes; I love celadon, and I love it even more in the woodfire.

Our woodfire was an overall success. We had a good, even firing and a lot of fun in the process. Spending all night by a big hot kiln, throwing wood and salt in, builds a wonderful sense of community.

(The bottom two are planters. I recently started keeping plants, and I'm so excited I decided to go all out and make some beautiful pots for them. None have died in the three months I've been cultivating my "garden," and the fact they they are mostly types of cacti has absolutely everything to do with my success.)

Trial by Peers

It's been a busy time of year, but I'm happy to be posting once more because I've got another piece in a show. Remember my previous post "Expecting the Expecting"? I pushed it through the kilns and finished it in time to enter it in MICA's Juried Undergraduate Exhibition. She was selected and currently is on display through November 15th.

Here's hopin' the rest of my applications turn out so well...

Here are some slides of the same figure. They show the surface much better.

Pink Tank

Just wanted to show off the newest addition to my toolbox. All geared up and as protected from the ceramics studio as it can be, short of wrapping it in saran wrap of course. I'm just tickled pink with it.

Do Your Research

I'm currently taking a ceramics studio with the endlessly talented ceramist David East called Cut and Paste. One of our class assignments was to put together a show that responds to MICA's Mount Royal Station Building. We all did research and came up with sketches for the space. We ended up with a few collaborations and all unique pieces.

My piece titled Who's Here? Who's Not? deals with Baltimore's population history and "white flight." Mount Royal was a stop for B&O's luxury train line originally called Royal Blue. While the name changed several times throughout the years, the line still maintained a high class image. In the years the building functioned as a train station, the wealthy neighborhoods surrounding it that were originally white became integrated with immigrant and black residents. Many white families moved from the city in the the suburbs at rapid paces.

I overlaid a map of Baltimore from the time Mount Royal Station opened with a map of Baltimore land use at the time it stopped functioning as a train station. This is about as installation as I've gone with ceramics. I think I like it.

Or, as Patti might say, I've tidied up my point of view. I've got a new attitude!