artist inspired

artist statement:

For this project, we were asked to research a ceramics artist that we found captivating, and then use inspiration from their work to create our pieces. We could create anything, but we could only use 3 pounds of clay. I ended up researching Maria Diletta Rindondi because I found her work truly incredible. The roots for her work are her time in nature and Australia. Since, I've been using the ocean as my inspiration for this semester I found this as a perfect artist to base my final semester one ceramics project on. Her work is incredibly detailed and often reminds of sea corals and sea anemones which is what I based my project on. I chose to use the inspiration of coral to create a multi tubular coral vase.

I mostly used slab techniques for this project, I used slabs for the tubular coral part by wrapping wooden dowels in newspaper and molding my clay around them. I also used a slab for the organic shaped base. Since her work is so incredibly detailed I wanted this to be my neatest project yet. I ensured they stayed as smooth as possible by using a flat metal tool to flatten out any punctures before I "scratch scratch water-attached" them together. Once everything had been put together I used a metal knife type tool to carve out my detail in the coral. It almost looked like strawberry seeds.

This was one of my favorite projects because I had the most freedom with it. Also, a lot of the time I come up with my greatest ideas for a project after I have already finished them. Yet, for this project I had a clear vision and sketch of what I wanted it to look like before I made it. I think the inspiration from the artist really helped with that. I am proud with my creativity in the project and I think it looks really unique! If I were to do it again, I would try to add more additions to it like a sea anemone.