30 days project: day 30

day 30
Today is the last day of this project.
Today is the last official day of my first semester of graduate school at Ohio State.
Today is a Tuesday and I do not like Tuesdays.
Today I hated Tuesdays.
Today I wonder what is art?
Why am I making art?
For what purpose?
What is art?
Why is it art?
What can be art?
Who is art?
Is art a thing? Is art a person? Is art a body?
Is my life art?
Was my life art before I called it art?
When does something become art?
Who decided what art is?
Is there a place for art?
Can art be everywhere?
Is it possible to be art?

What if making art is my life and my life is art. How can I tell the difference?
What if it were my life and not art, then what would it be?
Is it art because I made it?
What makes it art?
Is it art because it was video tapped?
Would it be art if it was not documented?
What if I spun myself dizzy at the bus stop today, is that art?
Is it art if someone saw me do it?
Would it be art if no one saw me do it?
Who decides if it is art?
What if the spinning made me dizzy and sick and I had to sit down, is that art?
What if I got off the bus early because I couldn't take it any more.
What if I crossed the street and got myself one chocolate covered strawberry and I cut it in four pieces and ate it, is that art?

Does the viewer matter in art?
If I make something and no one ever sees it but I made it is it art?
What if I do something and no one ever sees it is that still art?
Does the viewer make it art? Or does the artist make it art? Or does that art make it art?

Today I decided I would make art like I did everyday for the past 30 days but today I will not document it. I want to know if it is still art. And to be honest I am not sure. All these things I have done the past 30 days these explorations and experiments. I would never have done them if not for this project. So now I am trying to connect what I have done with these explorations and find my own studio practice. I know I can not go back to where I started but where do I go. What do I make? Do I make anything? Am I the art? Is my body the art? And what will its purpose be?

If I know one thing I know that I have always lived to make a difference in the lives of others. I was drawn to a profession of teaching because I love people and there is something really significant to me in making connections with people. I also love ceramics. I love clay and I have since childhood. Clay has the ability to transform, to move, to bend, and it connects me with the earth. It only seemed natural for me to follow this love for people and clay. I think with out knowing it my choice to be a vessel maker comes from my desire to connect with people. I always envision my pieces used and in the home. Until last year, I do not think I ever considered them anywhere else. I also love movement and I think movement and clay have always been connected but how can I make that connection even more direct now that I have discovered so much about movement and my own body. Oh, where to begin.

I am clearly as ever, confused.

I am going to end this 30 days project with these ceramic vessels.

30 days project: day 29

day 29: hang tight

I have been thinking some more about the recent exploration of weightlessness. As a child I remember feeling weightless and the effects of gravity at the same time when I would play on the monkey bars. I enjoyed hanging, swinging, sliding, moving, and climbing through the playground. So today I will hang.

The video is also available on vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/user10590472/videos

It is official I am teaching next semseter!

30 days project: day 28

day 28: body interaction

It is hard to believe it is already day 28 each day comes and goes faster then I expect.

Each day has started with some anxiety and anticipation of what it will bring and what I will make. And yet as a few days pass from the last I can reflect back on what caused me anxiety with more clarity in what I was doing. I wonder why I can't have that in the moments of making?

Today, I finish a project that has been working its way out of my mind for a while. It involves lots of feet and human interaction.

A big thank you to Josh, Ashley, and the other unknown participants! 

30 days project: day 27

day 27: balance

Today, I knew I needed to make something in clay and so I did. I am beginning to miss clay. I wanted to find homes for these little pieces outside but its dark now so I found a place for them inside. Enjoy!

30 days project: day 26

day 26: the walk

Today, I did something that needed to be done. I dread the bus, actually I hate the bus. I don't like hating and I sure don't hate much but the bus has been a source of some serious anxiety for me. And for the first time in this project I used something that made me unhappy as a gateway to making my piece. I have been thinking about the time, the distance, and the people with whom I cross when I go to work. I decided to walk to work and record each step as well as the time. I also made note of the different people and what they were doing. I saw two people talking to themselves. I saw many people walking but more then I had expected were running. I did not see many on bikes and most of the people I saw were in cars. One man said hi to me and another asked me to take his photograph. I only had to stop at three intersections and I walked at a rather fast speed beating the projected arrival time of 1 hour and 4 minutes by 12 minutes. I left Hopkins hall at 11:50 AM and arrived at UAS at 12:42 walking for a total of 52 minutes. It might also be interesting that I left UAS at 6:20 I only wanted for the bus for 12 minutes a record really that arrived at 6:32 and I exited the bus at 7:00 and arrived at my residence at 7:04. The trip home taking a total of 42 minutes.

This trip on foot was so important for me as a person. It gave me some kind of peace over each place that my foot rested on. I had a comfort in my location once I arrived that I had never had before. Thank goodness for a beautiful November day and a good friend who carried my backpack to work for me! Thank you Gun Young!

The plan.

                        

A few video stills.

The video is available on vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/user10590472/videos

30 days project: day 25

day 25: restricted movement

Today I am trying to finish up my artist statement. I feel constricted and forced to sit at a computer all day when I would rather be moving. So here it is and I am not moving.

Thankfully, Noah my little brother came to save me. And movement comes easy for a five year old. 

Thank you Noah.

Artist Statement

The body is in motion jumping, moving, flipping and transforming from one space to the next. It is my body, your body, and the bodies of the world that come together in motion. I see making in movement and I see beyond the making to a function within the world. When I make functional vessels for example, I envision them in the hand of the user. I consider the comfort and ease in which these vessels are used. My recent work has been an exploration of movement, balance, space, and human interaction. Similar to my vessels this recent exploration makes clear the importance of the connection to people within my work. This connection to the body is important as it can move, react, hold, and touch.

I am interested in how the body moves and reacts creating lines, shapes and patterns that form my constructed reality. Primarily my work is started on the wheel and is altered using hand-building techniques such as cutting, reassembling, and applied decoration. I want my forms to visually push, jump, and maneuver from one space to the next. I consider the surface of these forms to accentuate movement and energy. I am exploring line as a record of movement. My work draws from recollections of flipping, twisting, jumping, and propelling through space. I translate these ideas into functional vessels focusing on form, surface, pattern and color. My interest in the vessel lies in its ability to contain and as the body does and the easy to which it can connect physically to the user.

To complete my work it must be experienced, touched, or used. I believe that touch is the most intimate of experiences. Touch means that I am connecting myself directly to others, even if the connection is not physical. The moment one of my cups reaches its user’s lips I have made a connection with that person because that cup was my creation.

What brings people together? As an artist, one of my goals is to bring people together, creating shared experiences. These experiences can vary from using my handmade vessels to organizing a group of people to put their feet in slip and experience the connection to the material, the ground, and the other bodies within the space. The interaction is what brings the work to its full fruition. I want my art to make you move, bring you joy, and connect you with others.

30 days project: day 24

day 24: movement and the wall

After what felt like a failure with one of my first projects this semester I decided something needed to change and I began this 30 days of art. When I arrived to graduate school I had so many ideas floating around in my head but where to start? What was really the most important? I decided to focus my  interest in what the wall had to offer me as a canvas of sorts. I created these pieces while I learned new techniques on the CNC and in mold making. But after it was all over there was something missing something that had been missing from the very beginning. I will admit it was a time of transition and I had to start somewhere but when I looked at my finished project I could not help but feel disappointed. Not in my lack of effort or even in the beauty of the piece but that it was not speaking to me in the way I had envisioned. So here it is day 24 and I am trying it again. Bringing the wall back.

Today I went on a field trip with my class to the Orton Hall the oldest building on campus. Orton Hall has a deep ceramics history and today it houses the geology museum.

Lots of minerals and rocks, the original ceramics building behind Orton Hall and our wonderful guide Dale! 

30 days project: day 23

day 23: have HOPE in a hula hoop

Today, Tuesday every Tuesday is the busiest day of my week. Tuesday's get me all stressed out and when I started this project twenty three days ago, Tuesdays were my worst enemy and I guess they still are. I only have a few hours in the morning to complete my project. And when things don't work out because usually they won't I become quite a mess. Today, in the midst of cleaning up the CNC with all the pieces that I had spent hours cutting and had no time to put together. My professor Rebecca walked in and asked what I was going to do with the pieces. Well I have a plan but I have no time and I expressed my frustration. She told me to make a video, to set a time frame, to make something at work. I had all the excuses in the world. But something clicked and I learned a valuable lesson today. No matter how stressed you are the ideas are still there in your head they have not gone anywhere just take a moment to listen to them. Some people say stress makes a person more creative well I think that is crazy. I am always creative and Tuesday stress does not make creating an easy thing for me. But I worked through it and well here it is! Thank you to everyone who encouraged me today, I guess we all need a little boost sometimes.
                           

I hula hooped for approximately eight minutes. I would have gone longer but the camera ran out of space. What is interesting about the hula hoop is that you do the same movement over and over and over again. But then something happens and you have to change your movement to compensate for the alteration. I love hula hooping I plan on getting one of my own soon. Maybe I will even get two and see if I can get others to hula hoop with me.

This is what I was busy with this morning on the CNC, more to come tomorrow!

Tonight was also my last night of my first year seminar class with Ann Hamilton and Michael Mercil. I am sad it is all coming to a close so soon.

30 days project: day 22

day 22: cartwheeling

Today I went outside, it is a nice day I was comfortable in a sweatshirt. I stood outside for eight minutes and asked the people passing by to do cartwheels with me. I had a total of four participants but others stopped and considered my offer. I found males are much less likely to participate. On two occasions when a group approached that included both male and females the females would participate while the males stood back. I also taught someone how to do a cartwheel today!

You can also view my videos on Vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/user10590472/videos

I feel somewhat refreshed that today was absolutely not about the product it was about the act and the interaction. The only people who will understand the full extent of this piece were those that were there and participated or even those who watched from the side.

30 days project: day 21

day 21: slip and touch

My initial idea for today was to cover myself in slip. To let my body move and feel the substance on me. After I though about it and realized I would have no way to get home and no cloths to change into. I began to think about how I could get others to expereince this feeling with me and with some restriction. So I set out to find some volunteers to put there feet in slip. My instructions were as follows: barefoot place your feet in the container of slip and move in whatever way you feel comfortable. After it was all over I had myself some cleaning to do!

The End.

Thank you Thank you to everyone who participated!