HM.

What is your soul animal?

What song would play if you could choose it every time you walked into a room?

What is your favorite article of clothing?

What is your favorite thing to clean?

What do you do when you are depressed?

What color do you own the most?

What is your favorite smell?

What's one thing that stranger's do that grosses you out?

Where do you want to be when you don't want to be where you are?

Inspirs

Pity This Busy Monster, Manunkind

pity this busy monster, manunkind,

not. Progress is a comfortable disease:
your victum(death and life safely beyond)

plays with the bigness of his littleness
-electrons deify one razorblade
into a mountainrange; lenses extend

unwish through curving wherewhen until unwish
returns on its unself.

A world of made
is not a world of born-pity poor flesh

and trees,poor stars and stones,but never this
fine specimen of hypermagical

ultraomnipotence. We doctors know

a hopeless case if-listen: there's a hell
of a good universe next door; let's go

- e. e. cummings

You And I Are Disappearing--Bjorn Hakansson

The cry I bring down from the hills
belongs to a girl still burning
inside my head. At daybreak

she burns like a piece of paper.

She burns like foxfire
in a thigh-shaped valley.
A skirt of flames
dances around her
at dusk.

We stand with our hands

hanging at our sides,
while she burns

like a sack of dry ice.

She burns like oil on water.
She burns like a cattail torch
dipped in gasoline.
She glows like the fat tip
of a banker's cigar,

silent as quicksilver.

A tiger under a rainbow
at nightfall.
She burns like a shot glass of vodka.
She burns like a field of poppies
at the edge of a rain forest.
She rises like dragonsmoke
to my nostrils.
She burns like a burning bush
driven by a godawful wind.

-Yusef Komunyakaa

This Little Piggy went to The Metropolitan Museum

I just saw a commercial for the "Cheltenham Mall" -shout out to all old Tyler inhabitants. Anyway let's get down to busyness. I went to the Met this past Saturday with my Impressionism class. The Impressionist movement is one of my favorites and the work in France shortly made after that period is probably my second favorite. Needless to say I was actually pumped to see some hundred year old paintings. Here are a few documents of the trip. I'm only uploading images that inform my work currently.

My interest in pattern, specifically the paisley and filigree type floral patterns is an aesthetic that is integral in all visual things I am drawn to. I never really knew why I loved Mucha and Klimt, or why my favorite pattern was paisley and why I loved henna tattoos. After working through this lace extravaganza, I still have not figured out why these patterns are like math equations in my head. But they are what I like and now I realize it is an aesthetic that spans everything in my life. Something for me to investigate further...

Holy Shit.

http://www.ceramicstoday.com/articles/onggi2.htm

Article Heo Jin Kyu Korean folk potter Photos courtesy Dan Gallaway. Heo Jin Kyu is an onggi potter and is a member the Ulsan Onggi Association. His works are fired in gas, oil, or “noboragama” kiln to 1260°C (cone 8) with an ash glaze. The “noboragama” kiln is fired for 15 days. All of the pots are made for sale. Wood being stored to dry and await firing. A “Noboragama” kiln which, when filled fired for 15 days. Finished work from varies potters from the Ulsan Onggi Association. Hand made tools used to make the jars Heo Jin Kyu begins by making a slab from a coil. It is put firmly on the wheel and is thinned. The slab is hammered down with a wooden tool to thin and shaped what will be the base of the pot. With the same wood tool he smoothes the foundation and cuts it to the desired size. The initial coil is attached to the base with a downward turning motion with the hand. This motion simultaneously compacts the clay and removes any air that is trapped in side the clay. Making sure that the first coil is attached properly to the base is vital, because it must be able to support all the clay that is attached above it. The base also needs to be firmly attached that the pot does not become loose and off center. More coils are added in the same manner as the first one The seems of the coils are sealed using his finger so that air does not get trapped which would result in the pot exploding in the kiln. The process is continued until the desired height for the first segment is reached. A wooden paddle on the outside and a wooden anvil on the inside are paddled against the clay walls to shape and compress the clay. The tools have small grooves carved into them that help release the paddle from the clay and also help to further make sure that no air is trapped in the walls of the pot. Looking down in the pot. Once the paddling has been complete, the paddle is turned to the smooth side and the pot is paddled once more to remove the texture. Two medal ribs are used to remove all texture from the inside and outside of the jar. To ensure total control of the spinning jar throwing is done from top to bottom. When the first segment is completed, the second part is the begun the same way as the very first coil. An open can containing fire is hung inside of the jar. Since the jar is so large the bottom portion of the pot cannot support the weight of the upper part. Fire is introduced so that the lower portion can become stiffer and support the added weight. Coils are then added to the desired height The final coil is made much thicker than all the rest. This is done so that the potter can flip the rim from the inside of the pot to the outside of the pot while remaining strong. The body of the jar is paddled once more to remove air and compress the clay. As a result of the jar’s large size a wooden tool is need so that the potter can reach into the jar. The wooded tool acts just as the potter’s arm and hand would. The only time water is added to the clay is when the rim is to be made. The water softens the clay enough so that the potter can flip the rim from the inside to the outside of the jar. Moving the clay from the inside to the outside to form the rim Final shaping of the rim is done with the fingers and a piece of leather. The jar is removed from the wheel with a canvas sheet. This technique ensures that the shape of the jar remains the same during the removal.

Lacy Business

Piper Shepard doing some cut gessoed muslin

probably one of the best pieces I saw all of NCECA

(*probably because it's just like my porcelian projects)

This is hung at the Crane, but the rest of the images are some other stuff she's done, and I love her for it. Everything is hand cut.

Her labor is inspiring.