allisonhop

For the platter assignment I researched platters by Palissy.

http://www.palissy.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Palissy

Bernard Palissy (ca. 1510 - ca. 1589) was a French potter and craftsman.

He made molds of flora & fauna in order to incorporate them into his ceramic pieces.

Like Leonardo Da Vinci, his art was based in an active scientific investigation of the natural world.

From: http://www.strangescience.net/palissy.htm:

Palissy was among the first to argue for the organic origin of fossils.
He cast plants and animals from life. His searches for ceramic materials acquainted him with many kinds of fossils, and he saw that they were formed in much the same way as pottery.

And because there are also rocks filled with shells, even on the summits of high mountains, you must not think that these shells were formed, as some say, because Nature amuses itself with making something new. When I closely examined the shape of the rocks, I found that none of them can take the shape of a shell or other animal if the animal itself has not built its shape.

Leonardo da Vinci and his ilk—Francis Bacon, Nicolas Copernicus, Bernard Palissy—are heroes of scientific research, men who have "troubled the world's sleep" (Friedrich Hebbel).

I made plaster castings and traced the outline of this treestump.

Name: Allison Hopper
Class: Ceramics II
Level: Graduate
Major: Educational Communication and Technology

1.Your Art Background (Schools, Teachers, etc.):
I am an dilettante artist in most conceivable mediums. However I have no formal studio training. My BA is from Sarah Lawrence (1989.) My family goes to the Chautauqua Institute in the summer where I enjoy taking ceramics.

2. What artists do you like and/or dislike?
My roots are in the Arts & Crafts movement and Art Nouveau…Charles Rennie Mackintosh, William Morris, Louis Comfort Tiffany.

3. What are your strengths and weaknesses in your art making?
My stengths are my ecclectism and love of all mediums.
My weakness are lack of focus, impatience, and general art anxiety.

4. Do you think craft materials can express the social and cultural
backgrounds of the makers? Explain.
Yes, of course. The materials that artisans have access to reflect every aspect of the makers particular situation: her geographic local, her moment in history and her social standing.

5. Do you think there is art without craft? Can you make craft
without Art?
I believe it might be possible to create works of art that attempts to “obliterate” art, or that position themselves as “anti-art.” I believe it is possible to attempt this, however I do not believe it is possible to succeed at it.
Hmm…craft without art? I think this is a trick question!

6. Do you think a sense of History is essential and important to your
art? Explain.
It is to my art. Personal history (40yrs.) Western History (2000-5000 yrs.) Primate History (X million years.) The History of the Universe (14 billion years). The history of Science and Technology (ahh where does this start with the first carved flint or with the cotton gin?). My head is spinning with this stuff all day long!

7. What is content? Is content the same as subject matter?
Content can be any message that the “viewer” receives either consciously or unconsciously - regardless of the artists intentions or the intended subject matter.

8. Can Form be Content? If yes, explain how?
Sure, “the medium is the message”

9. Describe your work.
Most of my work is mosaic or collage style. I use a wide variety of glass pieces, little old antiques, and various historical images.

10. Why did you take this course?
For fun.

11. What do you specifically want to learn?
Basic ceramics skills necessary to make more “professional” work.

12. Do you like the ceramic art of any culture? If so, which culture?
Art Nouveau Tile Mosaics.

13. Do you already know what sculpture/objects you want to create
this semester, or would you rather have assignments that center
on a specific idea and technique?
Both.

14. Can you make a simple glaze? Do you want to learn or would you rather use prepared glazes?
Prepared glaze is fine.

15. Do you think you might ever teach using clay as an expressive
material?
No.

16. Can you make a plaster mold from an object? Would you like to?
No – but I would LOVE to learn.

17. Do you know how to fire the kiln? Would you like to?
No. No.

18. Is there anything else you want to tell me?
I really enjoyed the first class.

Influences:
This work reflects my current interest in patterns in nature.
I am interested in understanding natural forms, and how they express growth in nature.
In this piece I paid particular attention to:
The shape of the tree stump.
The pattern of the rings on the tree stump.
The forms of the individual mushrooms.

Mood:
This peice was created in a romantic, nostalgic palette.
The mushrooms represent a time of plenty, summer, rainfall.
The collection of mushrooms is meant to invoke time in the woods, leisure time, time spent "gathering."
The collection of mushrooms is slightly mysterious: What is their purpose?
Are they food? Are they poisonous? Are they being classified / Identified?

Emotional/Symbolic Resonances
The tree stump/mushrooms can be read as evocative of female/male shapes and energies.

Historical Influences
In preparing this piece I researched the french artist,

Palissy is collecting expensive, exotic flora and fauna. His platters are for the Aristocracy. They celebrate extremes of conspicuous consumption.
They are overflowing with "un-natural" abundance.

My platter is simpler. It is a collection of simple, everyday mushrooms.
It is about collection

Like Palissy's work this platter also express the joy of collecting things, the wonderous multitude of the natural world, and the human desire to "own" this multitude.

These mushrooms are no longer living/natural. They are diplayed on the trunk. They have been plucked from their homes and sacrified to become "object d'art."

19th Century Natural History Collections Versus 20th Century Consumerism
My western-eurpoean cultural heritage contains a deep need to collect, name and classifiy natural specimens. I am a product of this education...however I lack the fortitude to actually name and classify...in my life I often find myself unable to go beyond the first step - the step of compling a collection...the step of aquiring. It is so much easier to buy / collect /aquire then it is to sift through what one has and make some sense out of it.

What do you do after you have amassed a collection?
This collection of mushrooms says to me "what next?"
What do you mean to do with what you have?

Why This Piece is Not a Critique
I find the energy of critique is generally destructive and usually "reductive."
I find that political pieces are usually "preaching to the choir."
I don't like to be preached at.
I enjoy it when artists have something genuinely new to say as part of "their critiques" however I do not find myself in the lucky position.

I have nothing to say about the enviroment that hasn't been said ten thousand times already.

Of course, I also wrestle with the fear that I also have nothing to say about still life, or trees or mushrooms.

And so at this stage of my life I am taking a break from trying to saying anything with my art.

This is a quiet piece.

I created this shadow box in 2007 - on my 40th Birthday.
It incorporates glass miniatures into a 3-D environment.

This is a piece that I made in 2006.
It is mixed media collage.
I create these miniatures by attaching scanned art to the back of round pieces of glass.
The miniatures are set in plaster.

Pumpkin: Artist Statement
This assignment proliferated into three pumpkins.

PUMPKIN I - Representation
A replica of a pumpkin

The pumpkin vessel is my attempt to make peace with the transformations in my life over the last few years.

The pumpkin is solid and ordinary. It is simple, functional and homey.
The pumpkin is reproduced prolifically as a halloween cliche.
For this project I am wrestling with the the dilemna of representation - what is the point of
making a recognizable copy of anything?
What is the point of leading an "ordinary" life?

We live in a world of glut. I can have as many real pumpkins as I want. I can have digitally enhanced photo reproductions of pumpkins. I can have plastic toy pumpkins.I can have video animations of pumpkin characters. So why create another pumpkin? Why create another child? Why create another suburban house?

For most of my life I lived a bohemian east village existence. Last year I moved to a beautiful little town where I live in a storybook house. I have somehow aquired a devoted husband and a gaggle of (very quirky) stepchildren. I have stepped into the role of "suburban mother." The bell has chimed and I have turned back into a pumpkin.

For me, "Art" is rooted in the magic of the imagination that lets us transform a pumpkin into a carriage...and a carriage back into a pumpkin.

In my experience in seeking to create or experience the "unique" I have found that at the stroke of midnight most exquisite treasure usually transforms back into pumpkins.

So, I began this project seeking to encounter the pumpkin for it's own qualities - not asking it to perform the labor of becoming a carriage - but saying "hello, pumpkin. Who are you?"

The goal of my vessel is to contemplate the strength, beauty and integrity of an actual real life pumpkin.

PUMPKIN - II
Pumpkin Skirt over clunky round vessel

The pumpkin skirt is frilly and feminine. The shape works with the organic lines of the pumpkin and transforms them into a ballgown. The intention is for the skirt appear playful, effortless and floaty.

The skirt floats on top of a "primitive" round vessel.
The vessel is solid and heavy.

This piece expresses my experience of trying to be feminine while working with basically clunky material. This is a variation on the "cinderella" "pumpkin" theme.

PUMPKIN III
Multimedia sculpture.
Round vessel with multiple round windows.
The windows feature illustrations from Mother Goose by Blanche Fisher Wright (1916)
The vessel has a large top opening and a "mouth" opening.
Through these openings you can see inside the vessel.
The bottom of the vessel is littered with round cut-out objects.

The vessel is pumpkin shape.
This pumpkin is domesticated. It is a house with windows and a door.
It is missing it's top. This is me taking my hat off so you can see the inside of my brain.

I choose the Mother Goose Illustrations because these were among my favorite images childhood images. I used to spend many hours looking at this book and copying the illustrations. I wanted to be able to draw like this - but more - I wanted to be part of this world.

To create art is to create a world. These mother goose drawings are creating a nostalgic version of "old england." What world do I want to create with my art?

The round shapes at the bottom of the vessel are representative of the the stacks of round things that make up domestic life.
a pile of pumpkin (apples, onions), a pile of babies, a pile of coins, a pile of cookies, a pile of dirty dishes...the list goes on and on!

Artistic Influences:
Joseph Cornell - shadow boxes of found objects
Kara Walker - using traditional images with personal/social commentary.

My Mushroom Platter is based on this photograph:

Chautauqua, Summer 2003
It was very wet and rainy all summer.
There were mushrooms growing EVERYWHERE.