SI #8, NYC

'Nature's Renovation', Stoneware clay, 8" x 6" x 2"

Essential Question: Can one image capture a weekend?

Ideas: Nature reclaiming the city

Materials: Stoneware clay, underglaze, low fire glaze

Processes: Slab built form, sculpted+attached+carved details to show plants taking over, stained, glazed

References: Personal Travel Photos, imagination

Reflection on Work

I think that one image can capture a feeling, or a moment, but not a whole weekend. I think that my piece captures a desire to want more nature and to encourage it to grow back and be so resilient. However, that is not the only thing I was thinking about or noticing that weekend. I was looking at lots of art, toying with different ideas, thinking about food (a lot), and taking in the millions of things happening at once. 

The most difficult part of this project was all of the detail. Adding the leaves and flowers took so long and was such a delicate process. I carefully attached each one and took care to keep everything wet, then dry very slowly. When it was time to glaze, I had to take great care to go around the details and paint the tiniest parts very different colors from what was immediately around it. I took my time doing this, and I think it came out well. I think the strongest part of this piece is the detail, for the reasons I just mentioned. They turned out well because of the care I took to keep them in order. 

For this piece, my inspiration was the nature creeping back into the city, both in real life and in murals or paintings. I wanted to express the feeling of nature reclaiming the city, and showing that it is a good and wanted thing by the artist. I tried to convey this with lighter colors of nature and no harsh lines or structures throughout the parts that are nature. I think i was mostly successful in this, I think most people could pick up on an idea similar to that when looking at it.

Visual Art Journal