Artist Inspired

Artist Statement

For this assignment, I started off by just scrolling through the Art Axis site for inspiration of what to make and which artist's work caught my attention to further research. I came across the artist Taylor Sijan, and was inspired not only by her neat pottery, in particular her tea pot forms and designs, but also her attitude toward creating, which embodies is fun, playfulness, intricacy, and functionality. After working very precisely and trying to get my pieces to look seamless and perfect throughout the entire creation process of the last couple of projects, I really wanted to embody Sijan's spirit and just create with the intention of making a functional tea pot but not worrying about or focusing on it being perfect. At the end, I did in fact come out with a pretty symmetrical, smooth form, but what was important to me was that it was not expected and not my focus while creating. In terms of the exterior decoration, I deviated very much from Sijan's glaze techniques, which are colorful, some detailed some loose, and containing plant motifs. Rather, I wanted to incorporate a very typical theme in my art, the female body, while also experimenting with a new glaze that I hadn't used before. With the design I also wanted to create a sense of unity, like I did with the two handles, by having the front of the body shown on one side of the pot and the back shown on the other.

Since we were in the midst of a clay shortage at the time of this project, there was a three pound limit to how much clay each individual could use, so after weighing my clay I started by rolling a circular slab base and lots of coils. By using slip and scratching the coils to the base and then on top of one another, I started to build upward. Since the inspiration I gained from my chosen artist was her loose yet aesthetically pleasing form and freeing attitude toward creating ceramics, which in short meant for me to not follow an exact plan but rather see where the clay and creative process would take me, I just continued to build and smooth the coils until I found a form I liked. Throughout the project, I had to wait for the clay to stiffen up enough to not collapse under its own weight, as well as to be able to thin out the walls and make it an overall nicer shaped form. I then pulled a handle, which after setting up I attached to my pot, as well as a spout made from a small slab. Realizing I still had plenty of clay left, I made a lid using a circular slab and a plate or bowl template in which the clay sat and was pulled downward to create a concave shape. I added a lip to the bottom of the lid so that it wouldn't slide off the pot and a handle on top to create unity to the one on the side of the tea pot. After bisque firing, I used a black glaze to paint on my chosen design, a woman laying on her side, on one side of the tea pot shown from the front on the other from the back, which I thought worked nicely with the flatter and longer form of the pot. I then added a clear glaze to seal everything off and glaze fired it.

The start of this project was all research based, as I wanted to find out more about my chosen artist, Taylor Sijan, and how she creates her pieces, in particular her tea pots. With inspiration from her forms and mentality, I sketched out several potential tea pot's, although I really wanted to just freely create without trying to match a specific picture or expectation. The actual making of the base form of the tea pot was where I was most inspired by Sijan, as it was just more enjoyable to create without trying to make it perfect, despite turning out quite consistent all around. Once the coils were all combined, it was fun and easy to experiment with the shape of the tea pot by simply pushing in or expanding the clay, so I simply continued with the process until I found a shape I liked. The same went for the handles and the spout, it was all about trying something, seeing how it worked with the base form, and adapting if necessary. In terms of design, I wanted to create unity between both of the handles as well as the glaze, in particular engaging both sides of the tea pot was something I thought I was able to achieve quite well. Overall, I am very happy with how this came out, in particular considering I wasn't sure in what direction it would go both in terms of the form and the design.