ceramics

Peering into the darkness

by frogpondsrock on June 7, 2010

in ceramics,environmental stuff,Grief,headfuck,Love and Loss

The images of the oiled birds weigh heavily on my spirit.

The ancient trees cry out to my soul as they are cut down.

Once the ocean is dead what will become of us?

I am hurtling towards the last of my year of firsts and I miss my mother desperately.

I can feel the weight of depression heavy in my chest, a hard lump underneath my breastbone and I can taste its sour flavour at the back of my throat. I can feel it clutching at me at the edges of my mind.

As the heaviness threatens to drag me down, I could easily leap into the darkness and stay there submerged in my own sorrow but I don’t have the time to linger on self absorption, I have wasted enough time already.

A cup was stuck in the mould and I ripped it in my impatience. As I smoothed the jagged edges and altered its shape I became lost in the moment and a series has been born.

I will be exhibiting in the Tasmanian Ceramics Association’s annual exhibition in August, the theme of the exhibition is the seven deadly sins. I cant decide between greed, pride or sloth as my sin of choice, either way this cup and its resemblance to a jagged tree stump will be my interpretation of the brief.

Our sloth, our laziness, our apathy in the face of a world on the brink of catastrophe. Our pride, our vanity, our overriding arrogance that we can control nature and bend to the earth to our will is uppermost in my mind. The essence of our destuctive human natures will be represented in these forms.

They wont be blue like the picture above as I need something harsher than that to get the idea out of my head. Blood and ashes, graffiti and despair. There wont be any hope in these pieces at all, as they will contain my anger but maybe it is better to have my anger contained in these vessels. We will see.

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Thinking in public.

by frogpondsrock on May 29, 2010

in Arty stuff..,ceramics,dragons,environmental stuff,On my soapbox,real life

Yesterday was my last class with Dr Christl Berg. I cant remember the exact title of the class but in a nutshell Christl’s class was all about developing ourselves as artists as well as  learning to look at art critically. It was a valuable experience as we had lots of presentations from established artists describing their own art practices.

Our last presentation yesterday was from visual artist, Glen Dunn and I had a lightbulb moment during his presentation when Glen said,”That in essence, artists are thinking in public.” I realised that is what I am doing, I am thinking in public, I am having a public conversation with you. I know it looks glaringly obvious but I hadnt actually thought about it that way before. A couple of pieces of the puzzle clicked loudly into place yesterday and my mind is buzzing.

My proposal for the sculpture trail has been accepted by the friends of Chauncy Vale committee and I am really excited and terrified at the same time. Now I have to do more than actually think about making the eggs, I have to produce them. Eeek.

Just to add more excitement and terror to the mix, yesterday Glen also suggested that I should film the whole process. I was going to photo document everything  anyway but making a short film has captured my imagination. I have absolutely no idea how I am going to go about it at all but the thought of making a film is really exciting.

Now back to the idea of thinking in public. I hadn’t really thought much about the oil spill in the gulf of Mexico other than general, “gosh that’s awful”  type of thoughts until I followed a link on twitter to the Boston.com’s Big Picture, News stories in photographs and the images truly brought home to me the devastating impact of this massive environmental disaster.

The dragon eggs are a very public thought. The dead albatross bowls are very public thoughts. And now I want to make a couple of oily dragonfly plates. This dragonfly is trying to clean itself while it is perched on an oil soaked blade of grass. I cant get the idea out of my head that to the executives of companies like BP and Monsanto we are as worthless to them as insects.That the destruction of our environments dont matter as long as they get their fat paychecks and the shareholders get theirs.

How can BP compensate the world for the loss of a dragonfly? How much is a dragonfly worth?

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Another Artist’s statement.

by frogpondsrock on May 10, 2010

in ceramics,environmental stuff

I have to write another Artist’s statement for a catalogue that some graphic design students are doing as a project. So my lovelies I am going to write it here and I would like your feedback. This particular artist’s statement is going to be in a catalogue with some photos of my  shells which are part of the Boganvillainy installation.

I am a ceramic artist, writer, photographer and dreamer. I live in rural Tasmania, my home is surrounded by tall eucalypts and fragrant silver wattles. Wallabies eat my grass and possums raid my garden. Wedge tailed eagles soar overhead and Tasmanian devils squabble in the gullies of a night time.

As I stand outside enjoying the autumn sunlight I hear distant voices which are quickly followed by the harsh roar of a chainsaw. The crashing fall of an ancient tree destroys the silence.

This is Tasmania and I am Tasmanian.

I watch as ancient forests are destroyed and turned into woodchips. I watch as the people that protest this destruction are vilified and their reputations attacked. I watch as the young people that venture into the forests to protest against this destruction are attacked and despised

I watch and I despair.

In order to control that despair, I make. I pour that emotional energy into the clay and see where my anguish leads me.

I am a ceramic artist and when my hands are filled with clay, I am able for a short time to forget my despair and shame, that I am a silent witness to the destruction of Tasmania’s spiritual heart.

The thought of ancient forests being turned into woodchips chills me to the core of my being. What madness is this, that we have become so anaesthetised in our lives that we squander so lightly our grandchildren’s legacy?

In this beautiful island state of Tasmania so many gifts of nature are taken for granted. Native animals lie dead on the side of the road, victims of our haste. Ancient forests are turned into paper, waterways are poisoned, beauty is destroyed. All victims of our greed.

If I allow myself to think too deeply about our poisoned waterways and smoking forests, I will be paralyzed with grief. As my tears mix with the clay and the forms come to life before me, the despair loosens its grip on my soul and I allow myself to hope

The shells that are featured here were made in direct response to the proposed  Gunns pulp mill. The shells are slip cast stoneware. Three shells are featured here, one pristine, one altered and one destroyed. We are attracted to beauty and once we hold that beauty in our hands we need to change that beauty to fit our own needs and ultimately we destroy that which first attracted us.


So that is what I have sent off.

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Dragon eggs, and an art swap.

by frogpondsrock on May 5, 2010

in Arty stuff..,ceramics,dragons

Time is getting away from me. It is racing away at an alarmingly fast pace and it feels like there just aren’t enough hours in the day. I have been in touch with the trustees of the Chauncy Vale wildlife sanctuary and they are still very keen for me to make great piles of dragon eggs and leave them all about the place. I have asked a couple of other ceramic artists if they would like to display their work at Chauncy Vale next year and luckily for me they have agreed. Yay.

I have to write up a brief proposal before the committee meets later on this month, so that they have something on paper and then it is really time to get serious about making.

My initial idea was to slipcast the dragon eggs but I had a bit of trouble making the model. One clay model looked like a giant pod thing, another looked like a tic tac. I was finding it quite hard to get the shape that I wanted and the fact that it is absolute chaos in the studio at the moment wasn’t doing my head space any favours. I thought about casting a football and then modifying the mould to make it more egg like but it was just all too hard.

In the end I asked David for a condom and we filled that with plaster and then I gently shaped the wet plaster until I had an egg shape that I was happy with.

I am in two minds whether to leave the imperfections in the model or not. I am not sure. I think it adds character to the piece but whether I want fifty eggs with the identical marks is another matter totally.

Once I had overcome the initial hurdle of making a prototype egg everything started to fall into place. I dug out a bag of really gutsy, grogged clay and made two hand built eggs.

I made these by making two pinch pots and then joining them together and shaping them into an egg shape. I textured the eggs by rolling a rock over them and I have also pressed a piece of bracken fern into one egg as I am experimenting with trying to get a fossilized look. These two took about forty minutes each to make and I don’t think I will be able to make more than two or three at a time as my wrist was really aching afterwards. Now that I have made the first clay eggs the ideas are racing through my head and I feel like I have a bit of  forward momentum now.

On twitter yesterday I saw an interesting tweet talking about an Art Swap.So I clicked over for a bit of a look and the idea has captured my imagination. Here is the opening blurb on the web page.

Artists:

On Twitter, I am promoting an art swap as a way for artists to share with and collect from their peers.

As artists, we often appreciate other artists’ work, but do not actively collect.

This is a way for us to give to others and collect beautiful art at the same time.

This is a way to inspire others… to build our community worldwide… and encourage others to create.

I joined up immediately and here is the link to ART SWAP if any artists out there are interested.

So that is where I am at with the Dragon Eggs at the moment and as I was wandering around outside yesterday the ducks were following me hoping for a snack. This one was even smiling for the camera.

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Coming out in a small community.

by frogpondsrock on April 30, 2010

in Arty stuff..,ceramics,Ehlers Danlos Syndrome,Family,potential insanity

When my children were small I dreaded going to the local primary school. I used to have to take deep breaths as I walked through the school gates, past the icy stares of the reebok squad and the condescending nods of the glitterati girls. It really felt like I was walking through a gauntlet of disdain and disapproval because I was the one who lived an alternate lifestyle.

When David saw me at school he would launch himself at me and I used to have to brace myself so that the force of his hug didn’t knock me over. Then together, we would walk out the school gates holding hands, swinging our arms and smiling to each other. Away from the horror that was a small town primary school full of prejudices.

We were that family. When everyone around us was building McMansions and driving the latest cars. We were building our house room by room from recycled materials. The fact that we had an outside toilet was a major talking point and my children were teased mercilessly by the children of relatives as well as the children of the school establishment. People that had never been to my home would tell stories in lurid detail of the wild drug orgies we participated in and the squalor in which we lived. The fact that we had few visitors and that alcohol was the only drug I used was quite beside the point.

At a time in Australia when people were encouraged to buy buy buy and credit was king. We stayed debt free and went without. The spouse was labelled a dole bludger because he was unable to work due to the pain of his Ehlers Danlos. We didn’t know it was EDS then we just thought he was broken and that his constant pain was due to a very serious motorcycle accident he had been involved in, in 1992 and then compounded by the injuries received when he was shot in a hunting accident in 1993. The label of dole bludger is a horrible one to carry though and living below the poverty line makes you appreciate the things you have.

If people were happy to make snap judgements based on the way I looked I was also more than happy to encourage their misunderstandings by dressing differently and not explaining myself or my motives.

Now that I am a bit more grown up I am ready to start to explain myself a bit. I look at the glitterati girls and they are still desperately holding onto their fragile crowns, their makeup is getting thicker as they try to hold back  the years and I find it hard to imagine that these women’s gossip and innuendo once made my life difficult.

I am ready to step out into the light of my small community and announce that here I am, I am an artist.

Members of the Greater Green Ponds branch of  Tasmanian Regional Arts are building up a collection of art and craft created in the Southern Midlands area. Their plan is to acquire works and lease them for display in public and private spaces through out the Southern Midlands.

I am going to ring them up today and offer to donate Boganvillainy to their collection.

I am a bit nervous, but it certainly isn’t as daunting as walking through those school gates were a few years ago.

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