Ceramics

I created two pieces for this project. The first piece (which I renamed after the critique) is entitled "Night Terrier". Throughout my life I have had the unfortunate (or fortunate) experience of night terrors. These very disturbing dreams have plagued me throughout most of my life and therefore, my art, has in many cases been a direct expression from them. I had a dream about a dog (who looked much like my own) running circles around me, and he had a house attached to his side. And, every time I tried to help him, he would bite me. This dream really haunted me, and I decided to make a piece about it. While I never intended for the viewer to experience what I did in making this, I think it might somehow stir up some kind of disturbing emotion within the viewer.

My sacred vessel is an urn. I have often thought about the strange ritual that is keeping an urn. I think about why it is so important to keep somebody's ashes in a container in their home. It is no longer that person, however, it is often so difficult to let somebody go, that in a sense, it still feels that you have that person with you. Also, I was thinking about a conversation I had with my mother. I don't exactly remember how it came to this, but eventually we were talking about being cremated versus being buried. Out of nowhere she says, "I'd rather be Cremated", as casually as if she had said "I think I'll have some tea". It really struck me and I have never been able to get that out of my mind.
My work is a kind of bust of a person, detached between the jaw and the rest of the head by a set of virtabrae. I have always been fascinated with bones and anatomy, and I am trying (in a lot of my work) to litereally stretch the figure beyond it's boundaries without appearing too cartoonish. I want my work to still maintain a sense of realisim without being too ridiculous to the point where it cannot be taken seriously. I also was trying to get the idea across of my hand being in the work by highlighting some of the parts where I attached the different sections of the sculpture. I thought that but highlighting the seams, I would be in a sense keeping the spiritual and emotional ideas maintained without denying the fact that I was using tangible and real materials to discuss these issues.

more to come...

I really enjoyed the Viola Frey exhibit at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery. Lately I have been feeling like much of art has gotten further away from the human figure, which has made gallery visits a bit disappointing for me. However, I was immediately interested in the shear size and bold determination of the large figure in the corner of the room. I am really interested in the way that Viola Frey is successfully able to make a connection between her two-dimensional work and the three-dimensional work. That connection is something that I strive for in my own work and it is really refreshing to see an artist who is able to make both forms of work equally as captivating.
Perhaps it was the colors, or maybe the subject matter being the human form, but there is something very classical and timeless about Viola Frey’s work. The bold forms and loud sometimes clashing colors seemed to give it a quality that reminded me of the work of Gauguin. The fact that Frey has so many monumental works on such a large scale made me consider a very interesting perspective on woman and ceramics. What I mean is, in the past, ceramics was considered a very safe activity to keep woman occupied and busy (for example, the original usage of china painting and such). However, Frey’s work is anything but safe. The sheer size of her vases and figures, and electric colors are a huge endeavor for anyone to undertake, and it’s very ironic that a woman does all this work!

My platter which is entitled, "Please Enjoy", has sinking or sloping movement about it. I wanted the head to appear as though it was dripping or oozing off of the table that it rests on. This dripping effect is also repeated in grotesque dripping of the mucus below the creature's nose. I wanted the color to be realistic to the flesh tones of a human, and I incorporated elements of grey, white, and blue to denote a feeling of death or rotting flesh. I used a swatch from a burlap bag to get a rough texture to again indicate a feeling of the viewer not wanting to touch the platter that they could eat off of in theory. In terms of scale, I wanted the head to be slightly smaller than human size, but the tongue to be exagerated and overpowering to make the viewer feel a sense of being overwhelmed.
The concept of this piece is related to rethinking the idea of eating off of something or using something in the traditional sense. Actually, the idea came from the fact that in my creative writing class, we were asked to write a poem from the perspective of an object. And, since I was already thinking about platters and plates for ceramics class, I wrote a poem from the perspective of a plate. I realized that the poem actually had a very sad and pathetic sort of tone to it. For some reason, I considered the plate as a used and abused object that felt worthless when the person was done using it, and it was left with the other crusty plates in the sink. So, I suppose that I wished to empower the plate and make the viewer feel a sense of weakness when confronted with the idea of eating off of my platter. The platter is definiately disgusting and I believed that by turning the tables on the viewer, it would make them reconsider how they use everyday objects.
I built this platter with slabs and this took a lot of restrain and patience compared to the way I usually work. SInce I tend to work rather large, I usually just sculpt and when everything is finished, I cut the piece down the middle, and hollow out the vessel. However, In this case, I believe I learned a lot and will use the slab technique again. While it is slightly more time consuming, I believe that in the end, the piece stayed in tact and was much easier to get into the kilm.
I am very much influenced by the work of Robert Arneson. I think that my platter does possess a sense of humor much like the work of Arneson. And, through Arneson's humor, if one chooses to investigate further, they will find that the ideas he talks about through that humor are actually extremely deep and very unique. I always and interested in artists who are able to utilize humor in an very intelligent and innovative way.

Name: Jamie Kates
Class: Projects in Ceramics
Level: II
Major: Studio Art

1.Your Art Background (Schools, Teachers, etc.): The Huntington School of Fine arts. Steinhardt School of Education (Rico Gatson, Aida Rulova, Jesse Brandsford, Nancy Barton, Hiroshi Sunari, Matt Nolan, Koya Abe, Peter Campus, Steven Curry)

2. What artists do you like and/or dislike? I like the work of Robert Arneson, Marina Abromovic, Donald Judd, Judy Chicago, and Banks Violette. I’m not sure of the artists I dislike but I guess I am not too fond of Andy Warhol.

3. What are your strengths and weaknesses in your art making? My weakness lies in the fact that I’m fairly unorganized. My inability to be really organized causes my artwork to look somewhat “messy” at the end on occasion. My strengths are in the fact that I am truly passionate about being an artist and this helps me stay very focused and motivated to always be creating.

4. Do you think craft materials can express the social and cultural
backgrounds of the makers? Explain. I believe that craft materials can express anything that the artist wishes, provided that the idea of the artist are presenting a new or truthful meaning.

5. Do you think there is art without craft? Can you make craft
without Art? I don’t believe a line exists between the two, the only difference I suppose lies in the intent of the maker or in some cases if a gallery is willing to pay money for it versus a store.

6. Do you think a sense of History is essential and important to your
art? Explain. I believe that my personal history has an affect on my artwork and is therefore important, but I have not yet found a place for general history of the world. I guess it’s something that is much bigger than I am and therefore it’s something that can be difficult to tackle.

7. What is content? Is content the same as subject matter? I think of the content as the ideas or meanings or connotations that surround a work of art. The subject matter is a little clearer sometimes and is more just straightforward in terms of what the work is about.

8. Can Form be Content? If yes, explain how? Form can be content because it can remind someone of something and that person’s own specific ideas they derive from just the form something takes, puts a work in a specific content.

9. Describe your work. My work is exaggerated and figurative.

10. Why did you take this course? I would like to ultimately be a working ceramicist.

11. What do you specifically want to learn? I want to learn everything I can, or more specifically I want to learn how to blur the line between functionality and conceptual art.

12. Do you like the ceramic art of any culture? If so, which culture? I have seen some work from Ukraine artists that interested me.

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? I have ideas of what I want to create but I am open to interesting assignments.

14. Can you make a simple glaze? Do you want to learn or would you rather use prepared glazes? I would like to learn how make a simple glaze.

15. Do you think you might ever teach using clay as an expressive
material? I for the past two summers I have been teaching sculpture at the hunting school of fine arts in long island.

16. Can you make a plaster mold from an object? Would you like to?
I am familiar with making plaster molds.
17. Do you know how to fire the kiln? Would you like to? Last year in Matt Nolan’s class we got an introduction on how to fire the kiln, but a refresher would be nice.