Artist-in-Residence Group

Right now at my internship I am running a group that is kind of in the "Artist-in-Residence" style of art therapy groups. I sit in the room and make art for two hours and invite people to come in from the drop-in space to join me.

Today in class we made art about a type of group that we run and then talked about it. I kind of like the art piece that came out of this process. So here is my representation of artist-in-residence art groups:


I'm the blue figure at the bottom of the blue circle creating/existing in the blue space. Potential group members are the other figures who pop in and out of the space. I made it as an interactive piece so the figures can actually pop in and out by pulling little tabs stuck to their feet.

Close-up of the figure of me and one representing a potential group member:


The cool thing about the artist-in-residence style of group is that it kind of opens up the art room to the participants, so maybe they will feel like they can come into the art room at other times to work even if you're not there. It rests firmly in the "art as therapy" end of the spectrum of art therapy.

Glazed and Fired

Ten pieces came back from the kiln this week!


Last Monday I went to the studio and spent three hours there, finishing some larger (wet) pieces and then glazing these ten things for this week's fire. I had no idea how they would come out. The dark brown is Temoku, the light brown is Gold Shino and the lighter white-ish color was supposed to be some type of blue.



Up close with Temoku and dripped over the blue... this is my favorite glaze design of the ten.



Close-up of some of the bowls. You can see on the left that I really soaked the bowl in the Shino, which is why it's all bubbly like that.



Close-up of the handle of the tea cup I made... it was my first handle. Other forays into handle-making haven't been much more successful.



A stack of all of the bowls with a pen for size comparison. JewishGuy says I should use an iPhone or an iPod, since that is the official size comparison object nowadays, but I needed to use this picture also for my grandma who has no idea what size an iPhone is.

Anyway, as you can tell these are pretty small bowls. One of these bowls is large enough to be a cereal bowl. My next batch should be much larger.

The Wheel Deal

Woo!


I'm actually making things! WHAAAAAAAT....


These last pieces are fresh off the wheel. My teacher told me to just leave the crap on the bottom until the piece is leather hard and then carve a nice bottom out. So these will sit here probably until Friday morning. The top ones I finished tonight.

YAY MAKING THINGS!

Self-care Stuffed Objects/Monsters

I started making felt stuffed objects/monsters in one of my classes as a self-care exercise. This was today's work:

From the front you can see a little pattern that, to me, symbolizes me with a bunch of pressure and stuff pushing down on me.


I decided to add cones to make it stand up like a table... no reason, just thought it would be interesting to sew on cones.


Then I turned it over and it kind of looks like a monster! One yellow eye, one peach eye, and an orange tail.


This monster is a little grouchy.

I love making these weird stuffed things! It's also fun to make sculptural pieces... this semester is all about the third dimension.

The Saga of the Mugs (aka JewishGuy is AWESOME)

Once upon a time, JewishGal and JewishGuy went to the Renegade Craft Fair. At the first booth they saw pottery (JewishGal's weakness at craft fairs) and there was this perfect mug. This mug that had a tree with a robin sitting in it: a Robin Mug. This was the perfect mug for JewishGal. She bought it. It was an expensive mug but it was immediately her favorite mug.

This mug was indirectly (or directly?) the inspiration for JewishGal & JewishGuy's wedding. JewishGal's name means "bird" and JewishGuy's name means "tree". The theme for the wedding ended up being birds in trees...


Soon after the wedding, JewishGuy went on a trip to Houston and JewishGal planned an elaborate surprise... she redid the kitchen, unpacked all the wedding pots and pans and reorganized the kitchen. This took a long time and she was very tired so she went to bed late, exhausted.

She woke in the morning. Her eyes bleary and her brain fuzzy, she began to prepare her daily tea. She of course used the robin mug. As she poured the boiling water into the mug, she missed and poured it right onto her hand. Her fingers uncontrollably opened and the mug fell to the floor, smashing to pieces. She cried, not about her burning finger (which she wrapped), but about the mug. She was afraid this was a bad sign. The robin mug was in shards. Sadly, she swept up the pieces and kept them together, not knowing what to do with them but not wanting to throw it away.

Months later, JewishGuy glued the mug together.



The plan now is to hold onto it, perhaps using it as a small pot for a flower or a plant.

But it could no longer be JewishGal's favorite mug. She went to the artist's etsy page but there were no more robin mugs for sale. She went to the Renegade Craft Fair two more times, but Jennie the Potter was not there.

JewishGal was very sad.

..................

Tomorrow is JewishGal & JewishGuy's 7 year anniversary (from when they began officially "dating" ... it's the anniversary of JewishGuy's first visit of many in their 2 1/2 year long-distance relationship before JewishGal moved to Houston). JewishGuy ruined the surprise by saying he had a present. JewishGal couldn't wait until February 1 for the present. So he brought it out...

It was FOUR NEW ROBIN MUGS.



(two pictured here, the other two are already dirty from this morning's coffee & tea. also pictured: kitty chest.)

JewishGuy commissioned them from Jennie the Potter!


They are a symbol of JewishGuy & JewishGal again :)



(and look, there are even little blue eggs - one mug has one egg and another mug has two eggs!)

Wheel Part 1: Flat Things

I won't make every day a part of my series of the wheel but I'm pretty excited about the results of my first day back on the wheel after two years' absence.


The first day of class was a full day of class. We spent the first two hours doing hand exercises with clay and the the last 4 hours at the wheel. Our assignment is by next week to have 6 flat things and 6 other things that are flat or not flat. So here you see three of my flat things and one bowl. Also, one of the flat things is supposed to be at least 7 inches in diameter, so you can see the top right one is my big flat thing.

I like that the assignment is really non-specific. Making "flat things" is easier than making plates or trivets or whatever, since there's no expectation of what it's supposed to look like. It's just supposed to be flat.

I'm going back in tomorrow to finish the assignment.

The Wheel Strikes Again

OKAY EVERYONE.

...

We're giving it another try. That's right: THE WHEEL.

This week I begin my last semester in grad school. I am taking my last studio class and I've decided that class will be "Ceramics: Multi-Level Throw" - ie: on the potter's wheel.

Last time I took a ceramics class there was a lot of frustration. I wrote about the different techniques I used at the wheel, I talked about hours at the wheel trying to make it work, and I showed you the lopsided dishes that came out of my efforts.

I wonder how this semester will go!

The Table

We always set the table after Shabbat starts and I never get a good picture of it. So here it is, our set table! We're having four people over tonight (one person is supposed to spend the night and come with us to shul tomorrow). When we have more than two guests we have to use the table cloth because we don't have enough place mats... it's okay, it's super fancy!

And to all those people who thought we wouldn't use our china... We use it every week! So there.

LEGO man

LEGO is sending me a kit they are developing that I think will be perfect for art therapy. I'm very excited to check it out!

For those who don't know, I'm doing my thesis on using LEGOs in a drop-in milieu to build connections with youth. 1) I'm not outgoing so the milieu is extremely intimidating to me, and 2) what's the point of being an art therapy intern in the milieu if I don't do anything art related?

When I start doing my thesis I will be making LEGO response art that I'll post here :)

The SNOT BUSTER.

JewishGuy got me a present and it is SO CUTE.


This is a DigiDude, he is a Snot Buster. I have to give him a name. Basically, it is an awesome little camera tripod that is on a keychain... so you can always have good pictures! And mine is awesomely topical, considering I have been sick for months now and could really use a snot buster.

DigiDudes are a collaborative design project created through quirky. It's a website where anyone can submit product designs or give their opinions about other designs and then vote on them. The winning designs will be manufactured! It's amazing how quickly things are made. It's almost like Threadless, but for non-Tshirts and more collaborative.