Art in Ed

Shit Happens

Ok, not a very spiritual piece but it makes me laugh and I have to say I was really pleased when I saw how the whole thing came togther. She looks a little weird without the dog so when making her I held a virtual dog image in my head.

The image came to me after watching Reece Weatherspoon in Legally Blonde mincing along with those tight little skirts and her chihuahua. I was probably very annoyed with John Howard at the time because I fully intended to do a black and white stencil style drawing of him on the dog, intermingled with the spots. But there is no John Howard... couldn't do that to such a cute dog! But hold that thought!

If you want to see what she looked like before firing here is a pic. I am using Kean's Raku white clay which is very strong for building up, yet still much more manageable than terracota in terms of creating details. A lady just has to have eyelashes! I Bisque fire at 1000C and then paint with acrylics and use a matt varnish for the skin and a shiny one for the dress. I have been having some problems with some of the colours fading a bit more than others ( eg warm blue) after my pieces have sat in shop windows so now I am using up to 3 coats of varnish.

You will notice the expression on her face. It is that euw one that you might get after holding one doggie bag full of poo while watching your dog make another lot.

As I make my pieces I find my body and facial expressions mimick the piece. So for three hours while building the head I had that expression on my face... no doubt creating euw lines, rather than nice laughter ones. I kept thinking about what my mum always said when I was a kid.... watch out it will stick!

Then after all that hard work, when I came back the following session, I thought the head was too big and too ugly - a girl has to look pretty even when saying euw - so I took it off, collapsed it (pummelled it into a ball) and started again, so my poor face had to survive another few hours of different ways of euwing. From beginning to end it has taken me about 2 to 3 months. It will probably retail around $1100 + Australian.... but I am not wanting to put it out there until my next exhibition so I get to enjoy it for a while.

From my visual diary:

posted by Sue Stack @ 6:08 PM 0 comments

A cascade of ideas

It is hard to imagine that this ceramic sculpture, Mae Be Baby, would lead to anything deep. Surely it is a floozy piece? I created her on commission for an egragrious lady who is a fan of Marilyn Monroe and Mae West. My client dresses flamboyantly, 'out there' with black clothing and feathers in her hair, sizable cleavage showing, layered hemlines. And a shoe fetish.

Perhaps I have now caught it, or at least a foot fetish... more on that later.

So how to create a piece that expressed the essence of the client but also showed her depth and generous nature. As usual I write accompanying poetry to go with my pieces and in writing this one a key phrase stayed with me... beware of the surface dwellers.

It now is the title of my next exhibition and the ideas are beginning to flow.... themes to do with climate change and the fragile nature of the surface of our planet.... how much of the problem is caused by humans living shallowly. When we live deeply connected to ourselves, the universe, and to others we live more lightly and responsibly. I am interested in future studies, integral theory and consciousness development theories at the moment and this is also informing my thinking. Not that I have really changed that much... my previous two exhibitions also had very spiritual themes with my pieces being women who appear complete and in the flow... that is if they are not being satiric.

So as usual my ideas get too big for the exhibition room and me to do in the time frame.... perhaps I need a sculpture garden... and then please I need a group of students to create it (with their own ideas of course) and once I get thinking on that road I suddenly see how the whole thing can be made into wonderful integrated learning curriculum that links maths, science, history, art, technology, literature togeher in a rich learning context. OK . More on that later.

Meanwhile, I also have got interested in black and white as colours, whereas previously all my work has been full blast with colour. Interesting.

Mae be Baby

Mae be baby
I’ll let you into
my deepest secret.

But,
unravel it slowly,
and savour
the unfolding revelations
of each layer,
exposed

posted by Sue Stack @ 8:00 AM 0 comments