Artist Research Project

For this project, we were first assigned to research 2 artists. The artists I chose were Courtney Murphy and Ursula Hargens. I chose these 2 artists because I liked the floral designs that they both had in their work. We had to create an artist research paper and a presentation to share our artists with the rest of the class. In the paper and the presentation, some background information was required, as well as compare and contrast and why we chose the artists. We were then assigned to make up a combination of what we like about our artists work and make something of our own. I really liked Courtney Murphy's simple designs, and I really liked Ursula Hargens' complex forms, so I think I will make a complex form with a simple, clean design. I decided on a vase. I began by making a small slab for the base of my vase. Next, I made coils and built up the vase. I had a little bit of a hard time making sure that it was symmetrical because it was really tall and skinny. To solve this problem, I made a mark at the bottom of the vase on the inside to make sure that I was centering the coils on the vase correctly. When I was finished constructing the vase it was bisque fired. After it was bisque fired, I started the glazing process. I started by painting the entire vase using a satin-matte white. Then, after I did 3 coats, I started my intricate design. I decided that I wanted to make it look like fairy lights all around the vase. I started by making small dots with the red and orange satin-matte glazes, then I used black satin-matte and connected the dots. I did this on the top and bottom of my vase. Then, I did the same thing with green and light green satin-matte glazes. After it was fired, I really liked how the colors came out. The white came out a little bit tan because of the color of the clay, but I liked how it kind of looked rustic. Overall, I am really satisfied with my vase.