Statement

Art is a funny thing. On one hand, by making, you are saying something. On the other hand, the environment, composed of objects, materials, content, people, evoke something else. What making means to me is to be doing just that: making. There’s a self-trust that I have gained since I began making art only a couple of years ago. This funny thing does a lot of things, but most of all, it makes me happy. I am interested in negotiating all types of forms of communication. If communication is presented in a form, how far must it go to be abstracted? How hard must someone work to understand it? Maybe trust in the inevitable is the most understood?

For my thesis in Ohio University’s ceramics department, I have focused on a way of making that is as much un-mediated as possible. A pretty simple process lends itself to seeing new things appear. A few sticks are put together and somehow it reminds me of a tomato, a few more remind me of the sun, some over there remind me of a ramp. I see things in the objects that I see around me. My goal is to see something in the work that exists nowhere else.

glass at hocking

Working with glass for the first time was rather enjoyable. At the start of the semester when we were being first introduced to it I was mildly worried. I thought maybe I would bleed a lot but in the end I didn’t bleed at all. Learning about the different types of glass was very interesting and helps me understand the material a little better. Being an interior architecture major we work with glass a lot in our designs. This experience I think has now given me a new outlook on glass and it abilities. The different techniques were also very fun to learn. My favorite had to be the glass mold blowing. That process really helped me understand what it takes to get different forms and pieces of art. I think glass is a medium that takes a lot of time to do and understand fully. Flat glass work was fairly easy to get a hold on and understand. The more I did it the better I got at cutting the glass and the faster I could get done with a piece. All together this glass experience was very enjoyable and I would love to learn more about it and maybe even a few more techniques. -Alex K-

My Glass Experience at Hocking (Petersilge)

My experience with glass was love at first sight. Prior to this class, I had seen my sister work with it before in the reenactment village where she works, and always wanted to try it for myself. The moment my hands touched the first shards of Bullseye that we worked with, I immediately felt a connection. I couldn’t put it down, so I spent much of my time at Hocking completely immersed in working with it, obsessing over every little detail. I couldn’t get enough of it. I wanted my pieces to get to the next level. I have always had an affinity for engraving (hence the printmaking major), so the fusing project was a great way for me to start out, combing scraffito techniques with the mosaic quality of glass shards.

The challenge for me came in trying to predict what the frit would do. Hardly a coincidence, I noticed a strong similarity to the process of developing glaze recipes. I wish we had made test tiles of the frit to see how it would behave, as it caused me to have to re-fire my piece multiple times to get the line work outlined correctly. Even that turned into an engaging, problem solving experience for me. Through multiple firings, I was able to accomplish the line quality I desired, while also capturing the piece in the color hues I was searching for.

I know that this will not be the last time I work with glass. Next year I will be in graduate school at Kent, whose facilities I can utilize as well as the University of Akron, where my friends frequent the glass studio. This experience has opened up so many venues for my work to take, and I can’t wait to see where it goes. 

Glass

Working with glass was something I was looking forward too for a while.  Once I got comfortable with the tools and glass it came rather easily.

I thought that there were many disadvantages to this experience.  Being that it was in Hocking, it was very difficult to get out there, once for class and outside of class, and I believe that it did not help my work.  I also think that there were too many people for the amount of machines that are in the room.  Maybe if it were in OU it would be better so that more people could get into the use the machines more often as well as at different times so that it was not as crowded.

However, I think that it was a good learning experience.  I think that the process was cool to learn and to watch. But, it would be nice to have been able to do the processes rather than just watch.  It was fun to use the tools that we were aloud to after the glass cooled down.  I think future classes should continue to do this and hopefully the weather will not get in the way as much so it will be a smother process.

Fiber Game

Artists using traditional process to create sculptural work, first show how an artists it is important to understand the root of sculpturing work, which gives there art meaning and story for the journey of their work. It also indicates appreciation of other artists who started the traditional process and the respect of keeping their methods alive at the same time taking advantage of that knowledge to incorporate in their own work in interesting methods.

Sculpturing with fiber requires skill, mostly wrap and weft used in weaving; advancing the skill of weaving into 3 dimensional craft is very entertaining and interesting. Although the process practiced is craft, which is a hand-exercised skill, it produces amazing artwork using a material  (fiber) that is broad and could be manipulated creatively.

The knowledge learned from weaving shows any material could be creatively used to fulfill the craft of weaving. The materials could range from, straws, ribbons, paper, garbage bags, newspaper, cables, and cardboard, wire, wood, hair and more. With the wide range of materials it gives and artist the opportunity to work broadly in creating all kinds of thought-provoking artwork.

 The work can become evolving tapestry, in different scales. I think artist are taking advantage of weaving since it’s a very traditional process and bring the unimaginable to life. They are making it physical and giving it meaning, connection, this is taking craft to the next level instead of functional, it is visual appreciated with words, vision and touch of texture and feel.

This is what are is about and therefore evolving craft into remarkable art to tell a story makes it valuable and encouraging for the generations following to take advantage of the knowledge and skills, using them to make better art through craft.

Glass Experience

My experience of working with glass clearly made me think of it as a very distinctive material compared to any other materials I have used ion my projects.  I really enjoyed the experience of working with glass because, it gave me the opportunity to be creative and be able to imagine beyond one different state of matter, which is glass can be transformed in to liquid and solid, this alteration makes the experience of working with glass easy and effective.

I was fortunate to work with glass in liquid form and solid form and I would admit it is easier to work with glass in its liquid state. When glass is solid it is a fragile material but it’s not easy to sculpture it takes time and more practice to learn the process skillfully, once one is comfortable it becomes enlightening and the results are worth the hard work.

I also enjoyed the fact I could manipulate glass into different objects and color; the best part is the effect of fully transparency. It was easy to clean and just enjoy the process with out much fear of making mistakes with the material. It was also interesting how glass came indifferent shapes and forms and made it interesting to manipulate.

As much as I praise and adore glass as a material, its unfortunate I didn’t get to learn more about it or I was as well skilled into using the material therefor the work wasn’t perfect, but Its nerve racking that it is a fragile material and very delicately handled since it could be hazardous.

Working with glass

I really enjoyed working with glass this semester. It was a great experience to be thrown into a
medium that you are not used to working with. Though with the first project i was kind of lost and hesitant to work with glass as a material. The mold blowing project helped me better understand the limits and advantages that glass can have. One advantage of working with glass, for me, was because I use glass alot within my thesis, and being able to utilize and create with the actual substance allowed me to further develope my thesis work. However working with the hocking glass department also presented its challenges. Working with a large class did not allow a lot of room for individual time with the mold blowing project. The glass taking so long to prep and blow the mold only allowed for each piece to be blown a couple times. For further projects with glass I would like to include color glass within my mold blown object as well. -T.m.