Week 4

The article title “Citizen Potter” was of particular interest because it seeks to validate ceramics as an art that has more to offer than aesthetics. It is rare to buy handmade in America compared to the plethora of commercial goods. Handmade has become a delicacy, which is far from the way it had been for thousands of years before the industrial revolution.

Week 3

Maxim Velcovsky does a great job of drawing connections from his own experiences and the art he is making. He discusses his idea of “freedom” as warped because it was focused on the commercialism of the western world, not on “democracy”. Velcovsky seems to address this problem in his artwork through his use of everyday commercially produced objects as subject matter.

Week 2

“Home cooking- as case for handmade tableware” is a great article because it parallels the experience of the maker of ceramics and the user. Both parties are enriched through the existence of the pot. Handmade pottery is unique from other art forms because it has the ability to penetrate all types of living situations, less unnoticed, than a painting might. Consequently, it can have a subtle and long lasting effect on the owner.

Project 2: Food as concept

Concept:
I have an interest in working with the concept of food. More specifically I am interested in the "cost" of food versus the "value" of food. In short, I believe food should be expensive because it is taxing on the environment to create and transport. It seems to me that we have gotten too far away from knowing the value of food because it is readily available to us and acquiring it is very far removed from the "work" we do each day. If I spend a day teaching art I can eat mashed potatoes in the evening. I recognize that there are a great number of individuals, artists included, that are working very hard to bring this issue back into our consciousness. I do not want to "complain" through my artwork but rather offer a solution. Creating functional objects that elevate food to the status of art might be one way to make sure I, or another user, doesn't forget the value of food.

Technical:
In order to capture the textures and irregularities of fruits and vegetable I will use the slip casting method to reproduce the forms for this project. Variety is important so I will create at least 4 molds of different items. I am choosing the objects based on physical appearance and significance to my diet. Example: Oranges and avocados do not grow in NY, Cantaloupe can but needs to be tended and apples are somewhat prevalent. I hope that this variety opens this work up to multiple interpretations.

Tyler Lotz' Statement

Historically, man’s relationship with nature has been one of intervention, marked by the human drive to tame its wildness, use its resources and shape it in its own image. My sculpture is a speculative response to the many ways in which we remake nature to suit our own purposes. It questions the assumption that “the artificial” could be an acceptable stand-in for “the real” in regards to human interaction with our natural world. This is examined through a multi-faceted lens that includes ideas like a longing for wilderness and my concern for the developing global environmental emergency.

I intend for my sculptures to have the sensibility of synthetic, fabricated and built objects and environments. Their materiality is at once natural and artificial, organic and manufactured. What is artificial would not simply be a binary for nature, but rather a man-made rendition of something that already exists or a simulation. Jean Baudrillard poses that the “real” no longer exists and that everything is now a simulation. So if nature is “real”, and if the “real” no longer exists, then must nature now be redefined?

Tyler Lotz: Sculptural

Judith Vanden Boom: Design

Activating, prototyping and rewiring conversations with material, people and contexts has become Judith’s fuel to stimulate new directions in design. Working with the diversity of hands and minds, to create deeper meaning in the design territories. Focussed on continuing the conversations that question, reveal and materialize a new connectivity through design tools.

Judith van den Boom (1977) born in Utrecht (NL) studied for her BA Product Design at Design Academy Eindhoven and Academy of Arts & Design in Arnhem, following design driven Master Applied Arts at Royal College of Art in London (UK). From here she build up her studio that is focussed on Work and Think Space, being active through material and social design related projects.

For Judith, design is not merely about creating products but about engaging and exploring the hinterland between designs function and work fields. Shaping with fragile materials and the different techniques and expectations one can have of material, are one of her languages to express her passion for the form and usage.

The studio work connects the idea of work & think space by active work around peoples design expectations, material and social expressions such as academic work, design experiments, local product projects and creating design that adds to stimulate a change. Change in usage, change in expectation, change in how we perceive our own context.

In the past, she was based in London and worked actively with others on creating changing design perspectives. From 2004 until present she had several extensive work experiences in China through residencies, social design projects and new ideas around manufacturing. Here she build up deeper conversations through working together that are continued in her practice Here she created work such as ceramic productions, documentation, photography and connections in bridging co-creative cultural networks.

Furthermore Judith exhibited throughout the last years internationally in design weeks, , solo shows, galleries and shops in; NY, London, Milan, Montreal, connected with publications in diverse international design magazines.

She is also an active design tutor connected to diverse academies and teaching with passion on new learning strategies with design students on design diversity and new personal development strategies, facilitating design workshops and initiating new study methods.

Judith Vanden Boom: Design

Knotted

Judith Vanden Boom: Design

Collaboration: Boom and Friends

Judith Vanden Boom: Design

Reposed Light

Judith Vanden Boom: Design

Porcelain Topographies

Judith Vanden Boom: Design

Dutch Disturbance

Link to Artist: Functional

http://thematicashley.blogspot.com/

Ceramics Design

I am interested in Chris Keenan as an artist because I have a respect for his approach to the process of making art. I can relate to the satisfaction he gets from seeing improvement in his own work. The multiples he creates eventually become one, completed work of art as they demonstrate achievement of his intended outcome. Keenan uses his sense of touch and intuition to create his artwork. His focus on the feel of the material during the process of creation is similar to Julian Stair’s consideration of sensory engagement. Stair’s work interests me because of the sheer size in which he works. I am intrigued by the challenge of making a vessel the size of a human.