Artist Inspired Project

In Process Photos

Artist Statement:

For this project, I had to pick an artist, research that artist, and make a piece inspired by that artist. I chose Gabo Martinez as my artist to research because her work really stood out to me. She is inspired by her hometown in Mexico and she incorporates Mexican culture into all of her work. What stood out to me the most about her work was the bright colors and the unique patterns that she carves into each piece. I wanted to create a piece that had a bright color glaze and the technique of the curvy pattern that she uses in some of her pieces. I also had to keep in mind that we were only allowed four pounds of clay to create our project. I decided to use the coil technique to make my vessel because I thought it would allow me to get the shape and height that I wanted for this piece. After I had completed all of my research and drew out my sketch, I began to create my project. The first step was to get my four pounds of clay. once I had my chunk, I immediately began to roll out coils. The shape of my vessel goes straight up until the end, where it comes in a little. This made it so it wasn't too hard to form the shape with coils because all it needed to do was go straight up, with all the same size coils. I stacked coils after coils on top of each other, smoothing both the inside and outside as I went. When I was finally done with the basic shape of my vessel, it was time to carve. My sketch really helped guide me on what and where to carve. I had to be very careful not to mess up and make the curvy lines clean. Throughout this whole process of creating my vessel, I had to make sure my chunk of clay was well protected and didn't dry out. To do this, I would make sure to spray down my area and keep the bag closed while I worked. When I was done carving, I let my vessel out to dry until it was bone dry. Once it was bone dry, I was able to go in and clean up the carved parts so that there were fewer lumps and bumps. This surprisingly took me a while because it was hard to get into some of the nooks and crannies. My last step was glazing. I chose a bright blue glaze because it reminded me of the vibrant glazes that Gabo Martinez uses. The glazing took me a while because I had to be very careful not to get glaze where the clay was carved and to do this, I had to use. a very tiny brush. The tools I used the most to create this piece were the serrated smoothing tool and the regular smoothing tool to smooth out my coils, the carving tool to carve out my design, and the wooden smoothing tool which fit perfectly for touching up the carvings.

In the end, I really like how my project turned out. The carving reminds me a lot of Gabo Martinez, yet it was a design that I made myself. I also learned a lot about how important it is to take care of your clay and not waste it. I ended up having some leftover clay from my four-pound chunk. I think my project evolved the most when I glazed it. I think this because the glaze really brought out the carved design and it made it look really cool. I think the hardest part may have been either smoothing out the coils or when I had to be really careful when carving out my design. I am very happy with my final product and I am glad that I found and learned more about Gabo Martinez.