Final

The assignment for this project was to combine elements from the work of the two artists we researched and put them into one piece. Adrianne Eliades worked a lot with cups and objects that are used everyday so I made a cup. Ibrahim Said used a lot of interesting patterns on his work and images of animals and so I combined these two things on the cup to combine the work of the two. I decided to make a regular mug style and then make three different ovals around the cup to put the animal scenes. In-between the ovals I made crosses, similar to the work of Said. In the ovals, I carved a scene with a lion, a snake and a scene with an elk. I used the carving tool to apply these edits to the surface, after I used the press to make a flat piece of clay. With that clay, I cut out a circle for the base and a rectangular cut for the sides that I attached to the base. I then made a coil and attached the handle to the cup. I used PC-30 Temmoku brown for the elk and the lion in this piece. I used SM-21 dark blue for the entire cup surrounding the ovals, SM-63 yellow for the sun in the oval scenes, PC-29 tourmaline green for the snake and the grass in the scenes and PC-23 indigo float blue for the background in the snake oval and the sky.

In this piece, I really worked on pattern to mimic the patterns of Said. Many of Said's patterns were balanced in his work and so I worked to balance my patterns also. This project evolved from a cup with a single oval with an elk in it to one with three ovals and the cross pattern around the outside. I believed that the original idea would be boring and bland and so I added this modifications to enhance the work.

The meaning of this artwork is to blend the ideas of the two artists. Both artists have influences on their cultures and so by blending ideas from their works into one piece, these influences are being continued in a way. This relates to my life as it is probably a cup that I will drink out of and I love animals in my artwork. I was really proud of the way the animal carvings turned out and the colors. I struggled again with the form of the cup and keeping up the symmetry among the crosses, but I overcame this with realizing that the symmetry wouldn't be perfect. I would take a little longer with the crosses and making the perfect ovals if I could improve anything in this work, but I was happy with the way this piece turned out and this was one of my favorite pieces I have created so far in Ceramics II.