ceramics

A cycle of creative chaos

by frogpondsrock on April 24, 2012

in Arty stuff..,ceramics,Distractions galore!,potential insanity

I have never been a tidy person. I leave a trail of destruction behind me where ever I go. I have accepted this aspect of myself now at the grand old age of 46 and even though I make a token effort to limit my mess making in the house, it is a totally different matter in my studio. I totally destroy the studio when I am making the work and there is barely a surface left untouched. Once the work has been bisque fired, the studio becomes even more cluttered, as I do final stage decorations on pieces that couldn’t be decorated as I made them, either because they were too fragile unfired, or because I forgot about them and the clay had dried out too much to risk applying any underglaze colours.

In the studio I only have to answer to myself and now as we speak, I am at the pointy end of a making cycle. This table with the labelled clutter is actually my main large work table, I finish off my slip cast cups on one side and roll out large slabs of clay for platters on the other side, where that pesky bowl of rocks sits. At the moment the worktable is covered with stuff, that was essential in the making process, but now that I am about to glaze, it is all clutter that is in my way.

As long as there is a dinner plate sized space of clear table left to work on, I can still work happily enough, this photo shows me at the decoration stage of the work. I only have to decorate a few pieces as all the decoration and mark making is done as I am making the work. Once the work has progressed past the “leather hard” stage and onto the “too dry to do anything else”  stage, I have generally lost interest in it.

Now it is crunch time, my deadline is looming and both worktables need to be clutter free in order for me to glaze the work. I have to make some new glazes and my standard stock glazes which sit under the table in ten litre buckets all need to be stirred well and then thoroughly sieved. A very messy job.

The studio will be all sparkly and clean for about an hour today and then the process of creative destruction begins again as I make a hell of a mess glazing.

I have procrastinated enough dear internets, and will be (mostly) incommunicado for the rest of the day, as I knuckle down and get ready to fire this latest kiln load of work.

Also for those interested, here are the paint brushes that I make with my hair. I just sticky tape the hair onto a wooden skewer.

And here is a photo of the marks these paintbrushes make on the work.

{ 17 comments }

Snippets.

by frogpondsrock on April 17, 2012

in ceramics,Distractions galore!,Fun

A few years a go one of my girlfriends went to the Doctor because she thought she had Alzheimer’s. We were both very relieved when the doctor told her that if she was aware of her memory loss then it was most definitely not Alzheimer’s disease.

I have clung to that piece of information over the years as I regularly forget the names of common household items and rely on my children to fill in the blanks for me. I have included an example below.

Conversation with my son
Me: Where’s that thing?
David: What thing?
Me: That thing that squirts out light
David: The torch?
Me:  Yes.

I have forgotten the name of the tap, that thing, you know, you turn the handle and water comes out? Buttons, those things that are round and you poke them through holes in your clothes. I am sure that my loving children will be quick to add to the list of flippy things and oom chicky things that I regularly need them to find for me.

Apparently I have an elegant nose. I haven’t ever really paid any particular attention to my nose, it has just quietly been there, under the radar, doing its job for all these years. My favourite uncle complimented me on my elegant nose yesterday and the memory of that conversation had me smiling and proudly stroking my nose all day.

The Ceramics Triennale is in Adelaide from 28 Sept -1 Oct and I am trying madly to scrounge up the $44o registration fee. With a serious juggling of my budget I can manage the airfares and accommodation costs but the registration fee has put a bit of a stumbling block in my path. I think I will have to sit here for a bit stroking my elegant nose whilst I ponder whether the Triennale is a “must do” event or a just “wish I could go” event.

I have previously mentioned that  I have somehow managed to get myself onto this list. The first stage of the competition closes very soon and if you haven’t voted for me, as well as for the myriad of other lovely bloggers in the competition, I would really appreciate your vote, or even just a like on the facebook thingy over there will make me smile.

I did a huge cleanout of who I am following on twitter, it took me over an hour to manually unfollow a plethora of dead accounts, businesses, art site spammy links, as well as real people. If I have unfollowed you by mistake can you please tweet at me and I will follow you back.

I will leave you with a photo of a piece of work in progress. I am entering some work into the Rose Exhibition at the Art Society of Tasmania’s Lady Franklin Gallery at the end of this month. The theme is Picasso’s Rose Period and the exhibition is aiming to raise funds for the Cancer Council.

I have put my own slant on this theme and combined Picasso’s Rose Period Acrobats with the Cirque de soleil’s, Saltimbanco the combined imagery of the two have conspired to help me make three of these pieces. They are as yet unfinished but I hope you get the idea from this piece.

{ 7 comments }

The happy wanderer returns.

by frogpondsrock on March 7, 2012

in Arty stuff..,ceramics,friendship,Fun

Sometimes trying to think of a title is the hardest part of this whole blogging caper.

I am home from my epic road trip to Burnie, I have a zillion ideas for new work burbling away in my head and I reckon that I am going to be very busy. Very, very busy.

The Fired up Exhibition opening was a great success with numerous pieces of work (mine included) selling before we had even officially opened.

Here is an overview of the exhibition, these photos were taken by my friend, ceramist and photographer, Robin Roberts

The Burnie Coastal Art Group were wonderfully generous with their help and hospitality and If you live in the area I would highly recommend you join up.

Here are some photos of my work also taken by Robin Roberts. The rabbits and skulls are by Philadelphia Hanson-Viney

I would like to take a moment to thank Dawn Oakford for inviting me to be a part of fired up, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I cant wait to do it again. I would also like to thank the Burnie Coastal Art Group for being our very generous hosts.

If you are anywhere near Burnie between now and the 1st of April, you should pop into the gallery and have a look, it is a rather good exhibition, even if I do say so myself.

{ 9 comments }

Fired up, The journey begins.

by frogpondsrock on March 1, 2012

in ceramics

Today I leave for Burnie 325 ks away in the Northwest of the state. I don’t know if I will have access to the internet or not, as I will be using my portable Telstra plug in internet stick thingy and Telstra’s coverage in regional areas is a bit iffy at the best of times. We are staying up in the hills somewhere about twenty minutes out of Burnie and the bed and breakfast place looks quite nice.

So any Tasmanians out there reading, please come along to the Fired up Exhibition opening on Sunday the 4th of March at The Burnie Coastal Art Groups Gallery, 211 Mount Street, Upper Burnie.

The Exhibition runs from the 4th of March until the 1st of April and the gallery is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday from 10-3.

It would be lovely to see you at the opening on Sunday the 4th at 2pm. Consider yourselves invited and bring along a friend or three.

{ 8 comments }

“Fired Up” The exhibition.

by frogpondsrock on February 23, 2012

in Arty stuff..,ceramics,Hope,plastic pollution

In one weeks time I leave home to make the 325 kilometre (200 mile) road trip, up to Burnie in the North West of the state. I will be firing the kiln today and as per usual I am skating very close to the edge. One toss of the coin and all is well or all is lost. I am a gambler as well as an artist. But I am not gambling with games of chance, I am gambling with my own technical veracity and offering up a prayer to the kiln Gods at the same time. It is always all or nothing with me. I have back up work I can put in the exhibition if the firing is a disaster but the main body of work is in the kiln right now and I will not know until Sunday if it has been a success or not.

And this suits me, it suits how I work and it suits my personality.

This is the artist statement that I have decided to use, new readers can read the first draft here. I decided to go with this statement and to add the stories about the cigarette lighters and the Albatross to my canvas.

Fired up Kim Foale

My name is Kim Foale and I am a storyteller. In ages past we would have sat around the fire together and I would have woven a tale to suit the times.  In this second decade of the twenty first century my tale is one of anger, despair, inertia, and ultimately hope.

3.2 million pieces of plastic enter the world’s oceans every day and if I think too deeply about the  massive amount of plastic pollution slowly choking our oceans to death I am filled with anger and despair.

If I read the scientific data about mercury toxicity levels in seabirds, the rapidly accelerating rate of extinctions in Australia, the impact of climate change and the inertia of our leaders, I become overwhelmed  and gripped by inertia.

So I think instead of the immortal words of Samwise Gamgee in the film version of Lord of the Rings. When all looked to be lost, Samwise said, “There is always hope Mr Frodo, there is always hope.”

As an artist I take my inspiration where I can get it and I firmly believe that there is always hope.

I hope that when you look at my work and you read the story on my canvas, of the cigarette lighters and dead Albatross chicks, that you don’t walk away, but that you pick up a touchstone and decide that you can help. I hope that when you see the oiled bird bowl and the ceramic eggs that you decide to think about your own plastic consumption. I hope that when you see the photos of the plastic pollution that you will feel not despair, but determination that you can make a difference as well.

I hope that you decide as I have, that one person can save the planet.

So there you go my lovelies, I hope the Lord of the Rings reference isn’t too silly but that line in the film really did touch me. It was only a few weeks after Mum had died and David and I were having a LOTR movie marathon together, we were watching the DVD’s Mum had given Dave and when Sam told Frodo that there was always hope and they continued to climb the mountain I cried. I cried for my mum but mostly I cried for myself and for weeks afterwards I would whisper to myself in an atrocious accent, there is always hope Mr Frodo and I would just keep on putting one foot in front of the other.

Now I need to go and glaze the last few pieces and cram them into the kiln.

The edge, I am skating on it.

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