Downtown Cincinnati Structure/Detail Studies

“Tyler Davidson Fountain (The Lady)”

Werner Reiterer, 21c Chandelier

Decorative Piece

Cincinnati Contemporary Art Museum

Downward view from Carew Tower

View of down town Cincinnati, Ohio

Plaster Project: Non-representational with Void

I do not like wire. I can’t seem to get it to cooperate. I don’t know if it is because I’m not patient enough or if it because I just haven’t had much practice with it, but making a wire frame for my piece was the most difficult part. I went through several different frames to increase the size and try to adjust my techniques, but in the end… I really just prayed that the plaster would do most of the work. I guess one positive thing I could say about the wire was that it created a biomorphic, unsymmetrical kind of appearance which gave my final piece a very interesting shape. I decided my voids would be shown through the spaces between the “legs.” Though most people designed theirs to be more like a “hole” through their piece, I was thinking more about negative space and how it shapes the sculpture as a whole. Void, defined by google, is an unfulfilled space. So I also incorporated a small dip in the center of my piece to evoke the feeling of emptiness. Most people commented on how or what they would fill the space with.

Though wire doesn’t seem to be my thing, plaster was a totally different story. I loved the entire process! Learning how to make the right amount of plaster at the right consistency kept my attention and forced me to really focus on how I was going to smooth this thing out. I found a couple different strategies. First, I discovered if I started out with thin plaster, I could quickly dunk my burlap in and make a general “skin” around the wire frame. Then as it hardened, I just dove my hands into the bucket and started piling it on. After one layer of burlap and many layers of plaster, I eventually covered the entire piece. Though it wasn’t the prettiest, I at least had the entire thing molded out and covered.

My final step was to smooth it out. I knew I wanted it to be smooth, though near the end of the process I started considering other texture ideas. I used a rasp to smooth out the big chunks. After carving away at it for a while, I made my own personal plaster mixture that was SUPER thin. This filled in some of the cracks I over-grated and helped smooth out any little imperfection. After doing this about three or four times, I let my piece dry over the weekend. Then before bringing it to class, I gave it a finally sanding to get it as smooth as possible. Though there were a few spots I could have smoothed out a little more, I think my final piece was pretty good! I was really pleased with the outcome and am interested in making another! I also may try hanging it on a wall; maybe making similar pieces of different sizes and shapes and displaying them all together… like little amoebas clustered together.

[New final photo coming soon!]

Ceramics from Islam

Islamic potters are known for their use of white and blue color schemes as well as luxurious metallic sheen. European  ceramics original inspiration and technical knowledge comes from Islamic countries. According to Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Arts, success of the Islamic art is based off of “a love of colour, a taste of geometry and pattern, and the ability to adopt and adapt.”

Landscapes in south-west Iran supply pomegranate groves with colors of scarlet flowers and rose. In avoidance of human imagery due to religious reasons, “geometric and floral designs flourished in a way unknown in the icon-oriented Christian world.” It is thought that Islamic culture does not receive enough acknowledgment for originating and inspiring the works of Europe and Asia.

As the Islamic world “acted as a middleman” in major trade routes of the world, the European searched for Oriental silks and spices. In using their ability to “adopt and adapt” to the demands of the Europeans. Islamic and Asian potters began to play off one another’s ideas to appeal to the European traders.

“The skill of the Islamic potter now lies in the way he adopted the Chinese model, and adapted it to his own taste.”

White tin-glaze was soon created by the Iraqi potters, and Chinese white porcelains led to the development of stone-paste bodies to try and mimic the translucency of the Chinese imports. With the addition of color and arabesque design, the resulting innovations now created their own unique style with a specifically Islamic character. 

“It is a matter of great urgency, in these days of international, inter-racial, and inter-religious tension, that Islamic artistic and cultural traditions should be understood and appreciated in non-Islamic areas of the world. It is the hope that this will introduce the works of the great craftsman potters of the Islamic past, and that through understanding and appreciation of their unique contribution to the history of the world ceramics there will grow a much deeper respect for the Islamic world as a whole.”

 Dish with poly-chrome glazing , Presented by the American Research Center in Egypt, 1974

Two different traditions of glazing were inherited: a glaze fluxed with soda or potash, called an alkaline glaze, and a glaze fluxed with lead-oxide, called a lead glaze.

A new period of experimentation was under way. For this piece, different glazes – green, brown and yellow – have been used to portray a highly stylized peacock. Although the design itself is remarkably sophisticated, it is evident that the experimental phase is not yet complete. Alongside the decorated areas, the potter has left parts of the bowl surface completely un-glazed.

 Jug with epigraph decoration, Bequeathed by Professor A. H. Sayce, 1935.

After initially using the stone-paste body to imitate the white Chinese porcelains, the Islamic potter in his accustomed way started to add color. First he added a single color to the glaze – cobalt for blue, manganese for purple, or copper for turquoise. In a lead glaze copper turns green, but in the alkaline glazes used on stone-paste, it turns turquoise, and it is this turquoise which has been the hall-mark of Persian ceramics and tiled domes ever since its introduction in the eleventh – twelfth century. The design on the jug is calligraphic. The words and letters had a holiness of their own.

Bowl with radial design and drop-shaped cartouches (1638), Gift of Gerald Reitlinger, 1978.

As figurative decoration declines, the commonest designs are now geometric with a variety of arabesque patterns used as fillers.  This piece has a ‘Maltese’ cross which is emphasized visually by its color, by its wide, white border, and by the wide, white surround to the pear-shaped cartouches in each of its arms.  The primary cross-shape is emphasized by its pointed arms, and by the use of the same arabesque design as a filler for each of them. The four secondary arms have square ends and the designs used as fillers alternate, two and two. The result is that although the bowl is decorated with an eight-point radial design, the eye reads it as a cross.

Jug with flowers against a fish-scale background, Bequeathed by C. D. E. Fortnum, 1899. 

 The appearance of recognizable species of flowers on Iznik ceramics was due to the rise to eminence of one particular artist, Kara Memi, at the court of Suleyman the Magnificent. Kara Memi transformed Ottoman illumination by introducing naturalistic flowers, such as tulips, roses, hyacinths and carnations, to replace the traditional, stylized, Islamic floral motifs and arabesques.

Although some traditional elements were still retained, the naturalistic flower designs clearly captured the imagination of the Iznik potters. First making their appearance in the 1540’s, they were accompanied by a new color scheme. To the blue and turquoise of the preceding decade were added a soft sage-green, a manganese-purple, and a soft greenish-black for outlines. Experiments were made with coloring the background, and a fish-scale pattern introduced to help alleviate the monotony of a large area of single color.

Resource: http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/collection/7/674/676

“Line” Design Project: Construction Day

So after frantically trying to gather all my materials, I finally began and nearly finished creating my art piece! This work is totally interactive and the pipes slide in and out so anyone can create their own version. In the photo below, it is missing one tube because it cracked. It will soon be replaced and the entire box will be filled. It was a long, cold day in my garage but with some help from my dad, I completed the construction! Now all I have to do is clean it up and decide on whether I should paint or stain it tomorrow.

Though the design is somewhat simple, making this piece took a lot more consideration than I originally thought. Because I had rendered it out on SolidWorks, it was already scaled out. But because I was using a 1/8 circular saw blade, the loss of 1/8 of material had to be taken into account for the measurements of all of the cuts I made. So if a plank was supposed to be 11.5 inches, I had to add .125 when I measured, knowing that the .125 would be removed in the cutting process. I also had to take into consideration that I did not want the pipes TOO tightly packed so they could easily slide around one another, so I left a small space inside the frame (meaning I made the bottom and top horizontal pieces of wood a tad bit longer than necessary.)  Since it had to fit six pipes across, I measured the diameter of the pipes, multiplied by six, added .125 for material loss, and another small fraction for the extra space.

Another measurement I made included the exact diameter and length of each pipe because though they were supposed to all be the same, there are always going to be some small variation in size. Because my smallest pipe was  almost a half inch smaller than all of the other ones, I had to base our final cut length of pipe off of the smallest pipe.  I only had enough pipes to make the EXACT amount of tubes, so it was crucial I use the pipes in the most efficient way.

(Almost) Finished Piece

Materials

Safety First!

Full Length Pipes and Circular Saw

Pipes

Wood Planks

Cutting the Pipes

The Wooden Frame

Constructing the Wooden Frame

Math

Measuring Pipes

“Line” Design Process: Step 2 (Stick Studies)

I will refer to these art studies as my mixed medium “stick” studies. After spending some time on these small structures, I brainstormed with Joe and came up with a new idea to help inspire my final project. I am very intrigued by the work of Giuseppe Penone and his tree carvings. Discussing relief sculpture in class and observing Giuseppe’s carving techniques, I would love to create some kind of subtraction sculpture. For my next post, I will show my design process in using layers of cardboard to create some kind of relief carving.

Though the following studies don’t quite relate to this idea, I still learned a lot from working with line and forming segments to create these pieces. Other than the wire, all the materials used were straight which was a good and bad thing for me. The good thing was it insured my clear use of line and allowed me to challenge myself to create unique designs with nothing but straight lines. It was also hard because I felt I couldn’t explore different techniques of making sculptures, such as carving and molding.

I was really inspired by Mark Di Suvero, Tara Donovan, and Nils Udo.

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Activating Space

Activating Space

Activating Space

Activating Space

Activating Space

Volume

Volume

Volume

“Line” Design Process: Step 1

This project is all about the LINE. I must create 8 small 3D studies of line sculptures, 4 using volume and the other 4 “activating space.” Then out of these 8 studies, I must pick the best and make a much larger version with whatever material I choose.

In the beginning of my design process, I started by playing around with some magnetic toys to get my mind used to seeing lines in 3D. Though fun, these were a bit hard to maneuver and get too creative with.  Little did I know what I liked even LESS was what I tried next.. wire. Not only did my pieces start coming out sloppy and bent but my fingers became extremely sore and greasy.
I later decided to go for a different strategy… Popsicle sticks and a hot-glue gun. I found this was a much easier way for me to get creative without getting too sloppy or sore. My inspiration for this first piece came from the artist Nils Udo who was known for his giant nest earth structures. His work can be seen on my previous post. As I began to layer the sticks, I decided to keep layering and layering until the nest turned into a more 3 dimensional vessel with a volume inside.

Nils Udo (Research)

Nils Udo is a Bavarian artist that has been working with nature as his main inspiration since 1972. Though he originally began by painting nature, Nils Udo eventually turned to creating site-specific pieces using natural materials. His artworks have appeared all over the world, including Europe, Japan, Israel, India and Mexico.

“By elevating the natural space to a work of art, I had opened myself to reality, to the liveliness of nature – I had overcome the gap between art and life. The roundabout way of two-dimensional abstraction in painting had been overcome. Henceforth my pictures were no longer painted, but planted, watered, mowed, or fenced.”

Bindweed flowers held in their journey on a stream by a stick dam. Reunion, Indian Ocean, 1990

He works on site using found berries, leaves, sticks, the movement of water, and the growth of plants. Each piece is in response to the landscape and materials he finds around him. Nil Udo uses many different ways to create line, whether it be the materials he uses, the placement, or implied lines.

Lava flames–flowers & lava flow, Reunion, IndiaNest in red clay, Clemson College, 2005

Dune Edge: pampas grass, sand, wind –Namibia, 2001STONE-TIME-MAN:  quartzite monolith weighing about 150 tons, fir trunks blown over in storm, Forest Sculpture trail, Wittgenstein-Sauerland, Bad Berleberg, Germany, 2001Robinia Leaf Swing: robinia leaf halved, ash twigs, Valle de Sella, Italy,1992

Willow Nest: pollarded willow, hay, fern stalks, poppy petals, Marchiennes Forest, France, 1994

Nils Udo talks about the rhythm of nature in his art, which correlates with his use of line, circles, and patterns.

The Nest: earth, stones, silver birch, grass; Lineberg Heath,Germany, 1978

“I associated my existence with the cycles of nature, with the circulation of life. Henceforth my life and work proceeded under the guidance and in keeping with the rhythms of nature. Sensations are omnipresent. I just need to pick them up and release them from their anonymity. Utopias are under every rock, on every leaf, behind every tree, in the clouds and in the wind. The sun’s course on the days of equinox; the tiny habitat of a beetle on a lime leaf; the pointed maple’s red fire; the scent of herbs in a wooded gorge; a frog’s croak in the duckweed; the primrose’s perfume on the banks of a mountain creek; animal traces in the snow; the remaining trajectory of a bird darting through the woods; a gust of wind in a tree; the dancing of light on leaves; the endlessly complex relationship of branch to branch, twig to twig, leaf to leaf.”

Waterhouse: spruce trunks, birch branches, willow switches and sod on tidal flats– Waddensee mudflats, Holland, 1982

I find Nils Udo’s work to be very inspirational. His techniques and statements about his own work show there are a lot more to site-specific art and installations than just the final piece. It takes a lot of pre-planning and patience to reach his final goals. While his use of line and volume is apparent, Udo’s work is influential to more than just my next project (based on lines.) His reflections and explanations about his work show how every part of the work was planned out and given meaning. He also has a varied use of media and was able to transition from painting to earth sculptures on a much larger scale. His transformation is something he is very aware of, and has documented not only the change within his art, but within his mind as he views the world.

http://www.morning-earth.org/ARTISTNATURALISTS/AN_Nils_Udo.html