As an artist I have to write lots of artist statements. I am always so grateful for you my dear internets, because each and every artist statement I write I always treat as if I am writing to you. I generally give my artist statement a trial run here on the blog to see how it reads and more importantly to see how you react to it and to ask your opinion on my words.

Some artists statements are so convoluted and so wanky and I become so baffled by them, that I stop reading after the first sentence because they have boggled my mind. I know that in their first year at Art School, students are taught the common  language of art which ostensibly makes it easy to have a conversation across all disciplines.

But Oh My Word internet, for us common folk that are reading these statements at an exhibition,sometimes the statement is less a statement and more an incomprehensible puzzle that makes me feel quite the dullard.

But I digress. This post is about MY artist statement and mine are never ever wanky. (Ever.)

I woke up this morning around 6 and being a Saturday, I thought I would stay in bed and snooze for a bit longer. But my brain was awake and filled with words all busting with impatience and clamouring to be put onto a a page with their friends. So here we are again internet it is just you and I in the early morning, you and I and my words.

Oh and by the way, David’s first day at school went well. He didn’t go to school for his second day though and yesterday he broke up with his girlfriend again. So he is home for the moment and will most definitely be going to school for his third day because muggins here, will be bloody well driving him the 50 ks to school.

Now what were we doing? Oh that’s right Artist statements.

Here we go then, tell me what you think of this one.

Fired Up, Kim Foale

I was invited to be part of this exhibition because I am “fired up” about what I do. I am passionate about my work and if you are here today at the opening please feel free to ask me any questions that you may have and I will try very hard not to talk your ears off. I am the one with the purple hair and stripy socks. If you missed the opening and would like to talk to me, my cards are here, shoot me an email and we can have a yak.

 3.2 million items of Plastic Pollution enter the world’s oceans every day. Plastic bottle tops, helium balloon clips and cigarette lighters are common ingredients, found in this deadly plastic soup. If I think too deeply about the implications of that amount of pollution clogging up the already messy ocean, I could become paralysed with despair and inertia.

So I don’t think about the vast amount of plastic that is thrown away every day. I think about small bits of plastic that I can actually do something about. I think about bottle tops and cigarette lighters.

Disposable cigarette lighters by their very nature are designed to be thrown away. The cigarette lighters that are glued onto my canvas were removed from the stomachs of dead Laysan Albatross chicks on the Kure Atoll in Hawaii in 2009. These cigarette lighters were  floating on top of the oceans and the adult Laysan Albatross collected them in their search for food and fed them to their chicks. Eventually the Laysan Albatross chicks stomachs were filled with plastic pollution and they died from starvation.

I often use plastic pollution that has been removed from dead sea birds in my work. I painted this canvas using a cigarette lighter as a palette knife and the primary colours used are the bright colours of everyday plastics. I used the same cigarette lighters to make marks in the Southern Ice touchstones that fill the “dead albatross bowl”. The touchstones whilst beautiful are a poignant reminder that we are filling our oceans with plastic pollution. I hope that their small beauty will inspire you to think about small ways that you can help as well.

I also used plastic bottle tops and other small items found on the beach to make marks in the clay. The black eggs are a reminder that if we don’t act soon, all that will be left of our seabirds are photographs and trays of hollow eggs in dusty museum cases.

One person can make a difference.

********************

After I wrote this I went back and read the guidelines for my artist statement and it is supposed to be only 150 words. I have 462 words.

Bugger.

I will cull it tomorrow.

My words are tired now.

Thank you for listening.

New work by Kim Foale and Philadelphia Hanson-Viney

These next images were very hurriedly taken in my studio last night. They give you an idea of the work, that will be on display in the Off Centre Micro Gallery from today the 12th of January until Wednesday the 8th of February.

Now I have to race up to the studio, wrap the pots up and transport them all into the city, where Philly and I will set them up in situ in the gallery later on this morning. I will take photos of the work in the Micro Gallery and do an edit of this post this afternoon. Wish me luck internet.

]]> http://frogpondsrock.com/2012/01/frenetica/feed/ 26 http://frogpondsrock.com/2011/11/how-to-make-a-dead-albatross-bowl-the-sketch-book-project-2012/ http://frogpondsrock.com/2011/11/how-to-make-a-dead-albatross-bowl-the-sketch-book-project-2012/#comments Tue, 29 Nov 2011 21:40:47 +0000 frogpondsrock http://frogpondsrock.com/?p=6968

In 2009 I discovered Chris Jordan’s Photographs of the dead albatross chicks on Midway atoll.

I was so struck by the images of the dead Albatross that I had to make something in response. Something that would raise awareness about the terrible plastic pollution problem as well as salve my own conscience.

I made a dead albatross bowl.

Two weeks after the bowl was completed Chris Jordan was scheduled to speak at the university of Hobart and I went along to hear him talk about Plastic Pollution.

At the end of Chris Jordan’s talk I went up to him and gave him an image of the dead albatross bowl along with a cover letter explaining how his photographs had impacted my own Artistic practice.

There were a few people talking with him about Plastic Pollution and I struck up a conversation with a young woman with a Canadian accent. In the car park later on this young woman and her friend were leaving and on impulse I jumped out of the car and gave them an image of my dead albatross bowl as well.

That impulse resulted in a new friendship with that young woman who just happened to be a very well respected Scientist Dr Jennifer Lavers.

Jenn gives me plastic that has been inside our seabirds here in Australia and the simple fact of being able to hold a piece of plastic in my hands that has contributed towards the death of a bird inspires me to keep on making, even when the end product might not be pleasing.

This brings me back to a side project I am working on, The Sketch Book Project 2012. Small sketch books were sent out to artists all over the world and we each got to choose a theme for our book. I chose “Fill me with Stories” and I thought I would tell the story of how I work, with the main story in the book dealing with Plastic Pollution as well as showing “How to make a dead Albatross Bowl”

I really dislike blank pages as I don’t think there is anything quite as scary as a crisp white piece of paper. So my first job was to quickly colour in all the pages using poster paint, as it was all I had to hand.

I also painted some pages with slip, using Tasmanian Clay that I had dug out of the ground myself.

Once I got into the swing of things with the poster paint I started to have fun, as I thought about Australia and bushfires and our deadly impact on the planet.

All I have to do now is add in some photos, showing how to make a dead albatross bowl as well as some some text. Spray on some sealant and post it off to America by the Jan 31st deadline and tadaa I am done.

Dr Jenn Lavers has invited me along today to film the necropsy of some Short Tailed Shearwater chicks, known locally as mutton birds. There is a very good chance these Short Tailed Shearwater chicks will sadly be full of plastic pollution. There will be another photographer in attendance as well as some year twelve science students and the lab will be quite crowded. I will be filming the process as well as taking  photos. There are a number of birds to be dissected so I should be able to get some workable vision.

As a Tasmanian woman Mutton birds featured prominently in my childhood as we always made the annual trek to Bruny island in mutton bird season to capture as many of these fat little birds as our licences would allow.

I can remember being awestruck as a child when at dusk the sky was filled with massive great flocks of  adult Shearwaters returning to their burrows to feed their young.

As the great rookeries were depleted by the annual slaughter, the mutton birds dug deeper burrows in an attempt to protect their chicks and the fisheries dept. closed a lot of the popular rookeries due to over hunting. We stopped going “down to Bruny” when I was about twelve years old and sadly I know that I will never see the sky filled with as many Shearwaters ever again.

I am a bit nervous about todays project, which falls squarely in the category of, “I have no idea what I am doing but I have to be doing something and something is much better than nothing.”  I think it is probably because this project is important to me. Plastic pollution and the effect our plastic waste has on the marine environment, especially seabirds is one of the major recurring themes in my work and I can see that from todays filming I will have enough material to keep me busy for quite some time.

If you are interested here is Dr Jenn Lavers website.

Here is a link to the dead albatross bowls I have made  in response to the plastic pollution in the Pacific Gyre.

Here is the link the Oiled bird bowls I made in response to the BP’s oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico

Here is a link to a quick little sketch I made on Saturday as well.

And finally a link to some work in progress using samples plastic pollution recovered from the stomachs of dead seabirds.

Phew.

Wish me luck and good filming.

One of the hardest things for me to accept at the recent Aussie blogger’s conference, was having to drink out of a plastic water bottle all weekend. I forgot to pack my stainless steel water bottle and I felt uncomfortable using the plastic, even though I re-used the same plastic bottle and brought it home with me, it still grated.

My lovely Scientist friend Dr Jenn Lavers, came to visit me in the Off Centre Gallery on Saturday and she gave me a bag of plastic that had been recovered from the stomachs of dead shearwater chicks. I kept the bag on the desk all day and had lots of interesting conversations about plastic pollution with a variety of people. Some people even went so far as to walk out of the gallery and hunt up their friends and partners and bring them back into the shop.

We all commented on the irony of the plastic pollution being displayed in a plastic snap lock bag. This plastic that you can see in the photo below came out of the stomachs of three of our Australian Flesh Footed Shearwaters on Lord Howe Island.

That is a  lot of fucking plastic.

As a Scientist, Jenn either removes the plastic from the dead birds, or she forces the chicks to vomit up the plastic.

This plastic came from dead birds.

The plastic industry would like this Plastic Pollution to be called marine debris as that sounds nicer.

I want you all to remember that when the words marine debris are used, it really is Plastic Pollution and we can’t just gloss over this tragedy that is happening right under our own noses.

The level of micro plastic in the worlds oceans out numbers plankton by a staggering 6-1

Six to fucking one.

Because plastic is a resin it attracts all the toxins in our oceans to itself and becomes a deadly poison pill, chocker block full of DDT and every other chemical nasty that you can possibly imagine. This deadly poison pill is being ingested at the foundation level of the food chain and ultimately is poisoning all the creatures that live in the ocean.

I could dig up miles and miles of data for you and pepper it all through this post but that would take the rest of the day.

These couple of links are pretty interesting and will send you off on any number of directions.

Pete at Midway

Midway Journey

The Plastic pollution is a global problem and we will never remove all this pollution from our oceans but we can certainly stop more going in.

Chris Jordan has done a wonderful job of raising awareness of the enormity of the plastic pollution in the pacific gyre and the plight of the albatross that breed on the Midway Atolls.

I want to concentrate on the plastic pollution that is a bit closer to home.

If you drive along the highway and notice the plastic on the side of the road and then you think that there is a pretty good chance of that plastic going into the ocean there is a real risk of feeling overwhelmed.

So just remember that from little things big things grow and each of us has enormous influence within our own circle of family and friends, colleagues, school associates, etc etc.

I have started to do what I can do within my sphere of influence by writing out my thoughts on this blog and by making some more “dead bird bowls”

I initially made the dead albatross bowls in response to Chris Jordan’s photos of the dead albatross chicks on Midway atoll. I then made the oiled bird bowl in response to the  oil catastrophe in the gulf of Mexico.

I am now making some more bird bowls in response to the deadly bag of plastic I have at home.

Here are some photos to show you where I am at, the quality of the photos is a bit dodgy because I get so immersed in the making of the work that the photos are always an after thought. Sorry about that.

And once again just for luck, the plastic itself.

When I returned to ceramics after a break of nearly twenty years, I became obsessed with perfectly formed objects. I lusted after Korean celadon tea cups and Japanese woodfired tea bowls. The perfection of Les Blakeborough’s porcelain made my soul shiver and Gwyn Hannsen Piggot’s still life arrangements were to die for.

In my first year of ceramic study I only kept one piece of work and I was incredibly hard on myself. I set my standards so high that I was destined to fail. I don’t know if this was a subconsciuos act of sabatoge or not, though I suspect it probably was. At the end of my second year of study I had relaxed a bit and was starting to produce work that had potential.

The last three years have been incredibly difficult as well as incredibly rewarding. I have learned to relax and  I have stopped being so hyper critical of my own work. Stopping drinking has been the catalyst for this new kindness to myself as has the support of you my internetz.Through your eyes I have been able to view myself as a bonafide artist, though I still have moments when I am sure someone is going to look at my work and say that isn’t good enough you aren’t an artist at all.

I have come to a place where I am happy with myself and with my work. I have stopped fighting my nature and my ceramics have improved because of it.

So instead of trying to make delicate teacups that look capable of floating off the table. I am making work that soothes my soul. The dead albatross bowls and handbuilt platters make my heart sing. My slipcast work satisfies my longing for beauty and elegance though they will never be perfectly formed and will always look very hand made. My catch cry of late has become if you want perfection go and buy it from the kitchen section of a large department store.

Now I am making ceramic rocks. These rock bowls are a beginning of a ceramic exploration of ideas. I am trying to get an earthy, natural feel balanced with a crisp inner beauty. The outside surface will remain matte and rock-like whilst the inside should be lovely and shiny and crystalline.

These bowls are in the kiln at the moment and I will get to see whether they have worked or not on Wednesday. They are very heavy and I will have to work on that as they will cost a fortune to ship. It would be like I was trying to post a brick.

So this is where I am at, at the moment. I still haven’t started on the dragon eggs yet, though I have started an extensive programme of glaze testing. I am planning on using the Easter break to make the dragon egg mould as well as a number of other projects I have on the go.

The first dead albatross bowl is out of the kiln and here it is tadaaa!

This is the bowl that I made in response to this photo, taken on Midway atoll by Chris Jordan.

As I was working I only had  a vague idea of how I was going to glaze the bowl, because at the time the making of the bowl was paramount. Everything else was secondary. I am learning to think about glazing as I am working with the raw clay but it is hard to think that far ahead, as the making consumes me.

Once I had finished the bowl, I began to think about glazes and the overall effect that I was after. I initially decided I wanted a shiny glaze over the bird  which would highlight the plastic and I wanted a duller matt blaze over the background for extra contrast and to sort of imitate a sandy beach.

I roughly painted a Ruth Langman clear glaze* over the albatross when the pot was dry and this was fired to bisque.I changed my mind about the matt glaze for the background and decided to go with a shiny, honey coloured, sort of crackley glaze I have called Shannon’s Special* The bowl was then fired in oxidation to 1280° celcius

As a prototype bowl I am thrilled to bits with this piece, it has given me a lot to think about.I have another dead albatross bowl in the kiln at the moment, that has been glazed wholly with Shannon’s Special. I am really looking forward to seeing it on Friday.

If you are interested in seeing how I made the dead albatross bowl, I have published  step by step photos here.

*Ruth Langman

silica                                         31

Kaolin                                       10

Neophyline syenite                    30

gerstley borate                          21

wollastonite                                 8

*Shannon’s Special

Potash feldspar          50

Ball clay                      25

Whiting                        25

Rutile                              3

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Chris Jordan’s albatross photographs. I sent an email off to him asking for permission to reproduce one of his images here but I haven’t received a reply so if you click on his name you will go straight to the images of the dead albatross chicks.

I  planned to take photos of all the steps involved in making the bowl. Once I started to work I got so caught up with the making that I kept on forgetting to take the shots. I would glance up in the middle of adding something to the bowl and see the camera and think,”shit I forgot the photos” and quickly snap away.

I rolled out some clay. It is exactly the same as rolling out pastry except if you nibble bits of the edges it tastes like mud.

I rolled out another thin sheet of clay and then cut out an albatross shaped piece of clay.

I then started to paint the albatross with black and white slip. Slip is liquid clay. You can buy slip from the clay shop. I make my own slip from white clay and add body stains to make all the colours except black. To make black slip I make up a black oxide mix which is 3% black iron oxide, 2% manganese,2% cobalt oxide and 2% nickel oxide. I then add a couple of teaspoons of this mix to half a cup or so of slip. It should fire to a lovely dark charcoal colour (fingers crossed).

I then pressed shapes into the belly of the albatross for texture and to highlight the foreign nature of the plastic.

I decorated the shapes with commercial underglaze colour as well as coloured slip.

I now carefully picked it up and  plonked it on top of a hump mould and hoped like hell that it wouldn’t rip too much, as the clay was really thin.

Now I needed to add another layer of clay to make the pot a bit thicker. So I rolled out some more clay, painted it with some slip so that it would stick and then added it to the bowl. I squashed the new layer of clay down with a rolling pin and then smacked it with a piece of driftwood planking until I was happy with the shape and the texture.

I then painted this layer with black slip.

I still had the pieces of clay leftover from when I had cut out the albatross shape. So I painted them with a slip I had made from local clay gathered from the side of the road, it fires to orange. So I stuck them onto the bowl as well.

I covered them with clingwrap so that they wouldn’t dry out any more and then I squished it all together with the rolling pin.

Once I was happy that everything was all squished together. I took off the clingwrap and gave it a bit of a bash with the driftwood paddle.

I left it on the mould until it had dried out to not quite leather hard. I am an impatient potter and all the time I had been making the bowl, I didn’t have a clue how the albatross inside the bowl had fared.I didn’t know if it had ripped or distorted and I was itching to find out. So as soon as the bowl could be flipped off the mould and still retain a bowl like shape, I turned it over.

And here is the dead albatross.

It took me all morning to make one bowl and the whole process from start to finish was very satisfying. I don’t feel quite so helpless in the face of the enormity of the tragedy of the albatrosses. I have since made another albatoss bowl and I am hoping like mad that I will be happy enough with them to put them in the exhibition.

* edited:- You can see photos of the fired bowl here.