Before and After: Firing the Glaze Furance



Before Firing

After coming back from Dallas

Reassembling

Experimenting with the tile saw

Moving on to the second try...



New Artist Statment for EAST 2011

So this is the 10th East Austin Studio Tour coming up, with that they are going to print artist statments on the artist's pages. Limited to 450 characters, so here is my new artist statment. 450 characters long.

There is an infinitesimally thin surface that separates two spaces; I love the idea of being in that threshold, perceiving the innate power of liminal space. This meditation drives my mind to break though finite limitations of perception. Utilizing a discovery based studio practice to mediate these ideas and visualizations, I merge my artistic themes with scientific research in such a way that both become more approachable for the viewing public.

Burner Test

As part of the ceramic furnace, I am making as much of the burner assembly out of clay as possible. I choose to throw the venturi and burner head as two separate sections and score/slip them together. Here are a couple of latest versions, on the right is the burner that I am testing in the youtube video.  

None of the burners that I have tested have been fired, and most have been wet when I was testing the shape. This has allowed me quick turn around in development as well as being able to modify the shape of the prototype during the testing. 

Working on the glaze furnace's crown.

A few weeks ago I bought a ceramic extruder, with the intention of extruding clay piping that would transport hot glass. That project spawned my current endeavor of building a glaze furnace as a performative object. Which started out as a cylinder of extruded hollow tubes, that I molded the tops into a dome for the structure.

I was concerned that the top of the glaze furnace would not be able to with stand the thermo stress of firing without cracking. So I decided to cut out tiles. This pattern I first encountered in art history, is from the roof of San Carlo of the Four Fountains in Rome.



Interior view of San Carlo of the Four Fountains dome. I love how the pattern is altered to create a  dramatic upward lift.  Image courtesy of wiki commons.



Since having the chance to see the church in person the pattern has reappeared in my work many times.  Always as an under current but definitely reoccurring. Here are the tiles cut out and rearranged.



The extruded sections are visible both on the interior of the cylinder as well as
cross sections.



A couple shots of replacing the tiles. Once I had a couple areas that spanned the arch, I could remove other tiles to test the fit. I am not sure how the history behind the pattern will play into the work. In a couple mental variations the religious architecture history plays an important role. In other drawings the tiles are a means to an end. I am sure that the end result will be some merger of ideas that I could not have conceived before I began the project.

The Open Studio

Sometimes I am confused.

In this case the vexxing issue is open studios. I like them don't get me wrong, I often lament that the artist that I would most eagerly peek into their studios are the ones that have closed doors. I long for the chance to see the nakedness inherent with their studios opened. Not to veiw their finished work, these artist are on veiw in the Musuems and Galleries I fequent. Nor do I wish to be trapped in a room with a salesman pushing his wares. I long for the pureity of a creative space that oozes the process that artists go through. Clean to messy, clottered to organized it doesn't matter the space is the process and the process is the artist. So I am confused, because the rawness I hope for when I do encountour open studios is plastered over, in favor of the bazaar.
So no bazaar here, this will be a depository for my studio process and discovery based studio process in general.