Story from my Childhood

When I was in 4th grade we did this project where everyone had to do a section of a city.  All 4th graders were going to do the same size section and then we would put it all together and have a massive city.  We were told the dimensions of the base and that we could make whatever we wanted on it out of whatever materials, it just had to be our block of the city.

Conceptually, this is a cool project.

I decided I was going to do my block with no help from my parents.  I also decided I was going to make it only using toothpicks, construction paper, tape and my only tools would be scissors.  Nothing else.  These were all materials I really liked when I was little (especially toothpicks and tape).  I made up new ways of combining toothpicks so that they would be flexible, one way was by stripping down the tape into small strips and individually connecting the toothpicks into a flexible horizontal surface.  I made houses, roads, fences, etc, on my little base that I was allotted.  I was pretty happy with it in the end.

However, when I took it to school I was dismayed.  It was pretty obvious that everyone else had a lot of "help" from their parents.  They made tall skyscrapers out of milk cartons and paper towel rolls, huge apartment buildings with shoeboxes, etc.  And here I had my little neighborhood made out of toothpicks and construction paper.

Not only was mine inferior to the others, but I received a pretty low grade on it.  I can't remember what the grade was or why, but I think I got a C like I didn't put in enough effort.  Except that I had spent hours working on it, coming up with building techniques - and I did it all by myself.

This is kind of how it always was with me in art classes in the lower grades.  One year I had to do a diorama, I think it was 5th grade, and I did mine on The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton.  (I was really into Michael Crichton in 5th and 6th grade)  I made mine out of a wooden cigar box that I had gotten from some carnival, which opened from the top and latched closed.  And inside I made a small town with no people, just a car and some trees and houses with dark windows, and maybe there was one dead person (ha!).  I thought I was being innovative for using something other than a shoebox to house the diorama, that played a part in telling the story (you could latch it closed like the quarantine area) as well as using a book that was by far above the 5th grade level.  I think I might have gotten a B.

I think it wasn't until high school that people understood what I was doing and started to get good grades in art classes.

Class updates!

Two things:

#1: I registered for my summer Intro to Art Therapy class, finally!

#2: I got into my top choice class, Painting/Drawing: Art & Spirituality!

I am ridiculously, stupidly excited for class next year.  Look at my schedule and tell me how awesome it is...

Tuesday

9am - noon: History and Theory of Art Therapy

This course introduces the art therapy student to the field's historical and theoretical aspects. The semester begins with investigations of historical events (e.g., 'outsider art', art education, the history of mental health care) that laid the groundwork for what would develop into the field of art therapy. Topics presented include early pioneers of the field and contemporary theorists who use art in psychotherapy and counseling.

1pm - 4pm: Counseling Techniques

This course addresses the integration of verbal and nonverbal counseling methods within the practice of art therapy. Empathic listening, assessment skills, and treatment planning are emphasized, along with ethical standards and cultural competence.

Thursday

9am - 4pm: Painting/Drawing: Art & Spirituality

This is a studio course with accompanying lectures working from a basis in the sacred, spiritual, and visionary traditions of art making. Its purpose is to assist and facilitate the students' encounters and explorations of these forms, whether representational or abstract, and to discuss the work created. This course consists of studio work, lectures, visiting artists, students' readings, visual research, journal work, and a final presentation.

Friday

9am - noon: Psychopathology

This course presents the central concepts of contemporary mental health diagnosis (DSM-IV). Emphasis is placed on etiology, terminology, and symptom profiles. This material provides art therapy students with a conceptual foundation shared by a variety of medical and mental health practitioners.

1pm - 4pm: Materials & Media in Art Therapy

This course is an examination of the qualities and properties of art materials, media, and processes, and their applications in the context of art therapy. Socially constructed understandings of the significance of materials and media, as well as the relevance of contemporary art practices to art therapy, are investigated through lecture, discussion, and experiential formats.

Every single class sounds interesting to me. :)

I remember looking at some grad programs before I decided on art therapy and there was always at least once class every semester that I didn't want to take.  JUST another confirmation that this is the right place for me.

The only problem I see here is that the Friday class ends kind of late, as there might be conflicts with Shabbat later on in the year.  When it starts getting dark at around 5pm I'm going to want to be home by 4!  I don't think this will be a big problem, though, I'm sure I could leave early if I had to.

Finished pieces: Vases

It's all over, class is done, final critique over, all done done done. I've taken some pictures of my finished pieces, so I'll post them all over the next few days.

Today's theme: Vases.

This vase was made using the coil method, where I made a bunch of little ropes of clay and kept wrapping it around.  After it was finished being constructed I smoothed it out into this.  When I glazed it, I used a white underglaze, did the rim in green and painted on some iron oxide for the brush strokes.

This vase was the first thing I made in this class besides the pinch pots.  I thought I'd lost it for a long time - I thought someone had broken it and didn't leave a note.  But then all of a sudden it showed up again, just in time to be glazed for the final firing.  This was made with one slab of clay rolled out and then pinched together in the middle.

This vase was the last thing I made in the class and I think it might be the best vase.  I like the design of it, how it is balanced with the wing.  It was glazed with all one glaze except for a stripe of iron oxide on the wing (which you can't really see in this light) but came out different colors, which is interesting, too.

This vase is my self portrait piece.  I think it came out reasonably well.  I didn't have a way of illustrating the nose ring so at the last minute I grabbed a shower curtain ring from the bathroom and brought it with me to class for the final critique.  I used two different Shino glazes but you can't really see it (one glaze was dripped on the rim, you can kind of see drip marks).

This vase had a lot of subtle texture on it that was lost when I glazed it with a glaze I was told would show off texture (I am pretty annoyed with it, without the texture it looks blah, like a boring pencil holder).  I'm displaying it with a random piece I made out of a scrap of clay, glazed with the same glaze.  I actually really like how that turned out haha.

This vase broke right before I glazed it but I was like, whatever, I am going to fire it anyway.  I used the same glaze as the wing vase above - you can see how this glaze kind of just does whatever it wants.

I think my work was obviously a huge step below most of the rest of the class.  Most people only produced 5-7 objects the whole semester but I kept on making new pieces instead of spending a lot of time on a few due to my impatient nature and my lack of confidence in three-dimensional construction abilities.  I say this without any hint of sadness, because I can admit that I'm not a sculpture person.  I take pride in my drawing, printmaking and painting skizills, so when I say my ceramics projects were not up to par with the class, I'm just stating my opinion and not complaining (just wanted to make that clear haha).

My strategy of just constantly producing did help me get some experience with the clay that others didn't, I think, because they were so focused on making the few pieces they had look good and I was focused on figuring out how to make things with clay.  I have done the same thing in every art class, pretty much, just moving quickly from piece to piece and not care too much how anything looks until I get good at the technique.  In my printmaking class my last year of school, I set a goal for myself of doing one completely new print every week on top of my goals of larger prints.  It was good because I learned some new techniques and got some new ideas by forcing myself to just keep producing.

More thoughts in my next post with more finished pieces :)

DONE (phew)

Today I had to go to the studio to finish all of my projects because unfortunately I will be rushing up to New York tomorrow.  I spent three (?) hours in the studio and I glazed 15 things.

Here's a shot of the shelf space I took up once I was done:

The front row are some of my favorites.  The left is a bowl I made in a mold, but it was off balance so it lies on its side.  At first I was disappointed but I glazed it in a way that will make it look cool (at least I think so).  It's got some fun jaggedy edges.  The middle is a fun, foldy balance vase that I have a close-up of below.  The right is my nose vase.  The front center is one of my lopsided bowls that I glazed and brushed some iron oxide on with a almost-completely-dead-this-is-the-only-use-it-has-left brush.

You can see I filled up half of two shelves - I have a lot more stuff behind the big things in the front (they had to be there because they were too tall for most shelves).

And here is a close-up of the foldy vase before I glazed it:

I made my best stuff in the last couple of weeks, when I was going in to crank out a bunch of new stuff right near the end of the semester (kind of like everyone else).

I'm glad that it's done.  I didn't really feel like glazing today but I'm glad that I don't have to do it another day.

Woo classes!!!

OK... so I haven't even registered for classes yet, I have a lot of things to think about before this, BUT.  Today I was looking at studio classes for my first semester in grad school.  I can take ONE studio class a semester, and I have to pick 4 or 5 and rank them in order or priority since I will be registering late (being a new student).

Here are my favorites so far:

Painting & Spirituality

(combines painting, journaling, spirituality, explorations in faith and painting, etc... SOUNDS AWESOME)

Woven Structure Basics

(yes, the LOOM)

Artists' Books

(as a person who collects interesting journals, I bet it would be fun to make my own)

Intro to Screenprinting

(because I have wanted to take this class ever since I started printmaking stuff like 6 years ago)

I think this is the order in which they are ranked as well.  I think the painting and spirituality class sounds perfect for me.  Hello?  JewishGalArt???

Choice Made!

I Made THINGS!

Yes!  Day #3 at the wheel has shown a dramatic increase in the thing-ness of what comes out!  LOOK!

Isn't it amazing?  They are pretty much in chronological order, so you can see at first I was still making wobbly cylinders, and then I made bowls, and then I made a PLATE!

Some close-ups:

The plate (above).  You can see it's actually quite thin!  Even though it's not perfect I think it's pretty amazing.  After I made it, I stood up and said out loud, "I made a plate!!!"  The other students in the studio weren't as excited as me, but whatever.  You can't tell from the photo but I would say it's about 6" diameter - pretty small.

This was probably the best bowl I made.  Assuming it survives the firing, it would be a good little serving bowl (it looks bigger in the photo than it really is).

A shot from above.  How pretty!

The instructor told us last class to think about the design of the objects and to really take advantage of the plasticity of the clay by making it into weird shapes and not just making boring round bowls and plates.  However, this is not the way that I work.  First, I try to do really well at the basics before I start messing with the shapes.  I feel like if you make it badly and then make a weird shape out of it, you're just covering up how badly you made it ... which is kind of obvious to me.  I saw some of the work done by people in the beginner's class, either my class or the other one, and they did shape it into interesting shapes, but the sides were so thick and uneven.  They looked all right but obviously not good bowls, just interesting ceramic pieces.  So my goal is to make good bowls, and maybe I will make interesting bowls once I learn how to make good ones.

I wish I had started learning the wheel earlier because honestly this is the most fun I've had in the class so far!

Marked Improvement

This afternoon in the studio was so successful I took pictures of what I made!

Day #2 at the wheel:

Look!  They have a real shape!  (The ridges are from my fingers)

I had some very helpful advice from other students that were there today doing their own work.  My teacher kept telling me to guide the clay, but today they told me to push it.  I know how to push things!  It was helpful thinking about pushing it rather than guiding it, because the clay really does seem to need to be pushed into place rather than simply told where to go.

These things aren't really useful but at least I made something.  I'm going to go back in on Sunday and Monday, I hope, since I really only have 2 weeks of working with wet clay left.

The WHEEL

Tonight was my first night trying to use the potter's wheel.  It is really, really hard.  I knew it would be hard.  Here are the strategies I implemented:

1. Brute force.  I tried to MAKE my clay go where it was supposed to go.  This of course did not work.
2. Cursing at the clay.  I thought, maybe I could insult it into submission.  This also did not work.
3. Whispering sweet nothings to the clay.  This actually did help.  I was able to do some of the preliminary work with the clay.  I was saying, "Okay clay, go up, go up into a cone.  What a good cone you've made.  Now let's go down, down into a plateau, very nice, good job.  Now back up, let's try the cone again."  It was like teaching a three year old... and that three year old was me.

Notwithstanding these successful strategies, everything I made tonight was terribly lopsided and collapsed.  I did manage to make bowl-like shapes, which I suppose is something to be proud of, even though the shapes were really only distant relatives of the bowl.  (I was trying to make a cylinder, our goal is making a cylinder first, then bowls, then plates!)

Also, I think I may have ruined the pants I was wearing tonight due to the massive amounts of clay that is now embedded in it.  I have to wait for them to dry and then I can shake it out over the shrubbery or something since it's just mud, basically.

So, long story short, I am going to have to go in to do a lot of practice.

Swirls

I took this today while walking on campus.  Sometimes I just see something interesting and I have to take a picture of it just in case!