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Growth within
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InspirationMy inspiration for this piece is an artist by the name of Egon Schiele, his surrealist style immediately caught my attention. I was drawn to it due to the illusion that takes place. At first glance, the face appears to have many wrinkles but when you look more closely at what is really going on in the picture, you see the small human figures crawling over one another. The overall image in the end was not only interesting, but I also liked that the piece was open for interpretation for anyone that saw it; it can be understood in many different ways. It also inspired me because I knew that I wanted to make a brain, from far away the people looked like the lines that you'd see in a brain and that is what intrigued me to use this as inspiration even more.
MeaningThe brain/mind is scared because it holds knowledge and thoughts. Without knowledge, humans wouldn't survive in everyday society. With knowledge, comes thoughts and opinions of what people like and dislike. And with there thoughts and opinions comes judgement of people around them as well as society telling them what they should and should not be. People around us ultimately mold us into the people that we are. Well people around us such as our parents have their thoughts and opinions that we grow up around, in seeing what they like and dislike for the 18+ years that we live in their households, it molds our own thoughts and opinions to be similar to theirs because that is what is normal to us. The same type of thing can happen with older siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and any other person that is around us for a majority of our lifetimes. The person that we grow to become is a combination of all of the other people in our lives. The mind is something sacred and makes us who we are, the brain is the vessel that holds we are and without the brain, we'd be nothing.
SketchesI didn't know where to start when it came to sketching out this piece because of all of the figures that I wanted to incorporate. I simply began to make very rough sketches of what I wanted because that was easier than sitting and trying to sketch every detail, because a sketch is simply to plan. I think that in the end, it worked out.
Making ClayFor this project, it was required that I make my own clay. The teacher already had a bucket of soft mushy clay that could not be used at all, a bucket of clay dust to make the clay thicker, and the pug mill all set up. I had to remove the sponges from inside of the pug mill that kept the clay moist preventing the machine from being clogged with hard clay. Once I removed them, I put the very soft clay into the pug mill along with powder to thicken it, and closed the top which then began to grind and blend the clay together in order to make clay that I was actually able to work with. It came out of the whole nearer to the bottom as you can see in the photo above which is almost exact to the one that I used. When I finished, I put the sponges back inside and covered it with plastic to keep the clay moisturized inside of the pug mill.
SculptingI printed out photos of the thing that I wanted (as a reference) to create which was a brain made out of people crawling over one another. I had all intentions of creating what I set out to do, however I did not like what I was doing. My forms for the bodies were not coming out the way that I wanted so I decided to change my entire idea and aesthetic. I went on to create a regular brain with the lines instead of creating it out of people. When I hollowed out the middle of the brain (to prevent the piece from exploding inside of the kiln when fired due to air bubbles), I decided to leave the brain open in order for it to hold something inside because the entire of point of the project was to create a vessel. I began to think of meaning and I had thought of something new to create inside of the brain that would be fired in the kiln.
New IdeaI attempted to finish the initial idea that I had come up with, unfortunately I was not able to accomplish what I wanted. I wanted to create the lines of the brain with human forms to seem as if they are crawling over one another. However, time was not on my side in this case and I had to change my entire idea in order to finish the piece. I ultimately decided to make a realistic looking brain, although it looks very easy to do, it wasn't.
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New Meaning "A pretty face can capture my attention but only a beautiful mind can hold it."
The official meaning of the piece is that although a brain is not so beautiful on the outside, the mind has the ability to be the most beautiful thing. Outer beauty can only hold the attention of someone for so long, being able to interact with that person on a deeper level is crucial to being interesting period. A real marriage couldn't stand simply on looks, but the beauty of the mind is what keeps people attached. A brain is a scared thing and the mind is equally as scared (if not more).
FiringBefore firingThe general meaning of my piece did not change, however the overall look did. Instead of doing the human forms, I made a realistic brain with simple lines. I had to score the clay by taking a tool with a point and scratching lines into it (but not too deep) in order to give the clay friction to make the separate pieces stick together. I also scored the smaller rounder piece, once I scored both pieces, I had to put water on them (which is called 'slipping'). Once I did that, I simply started to randomly put pieces that I rolled out to be round onto the main piece of clay that I molded. The photos below are what my piece looked out after it dried out and was in the bisque state. Although it's not very visible in the pictures below, my piece had cracked on the inside which frightened me because I thought that it might blow up in the kiln.
After firingThankfully, my piece held up in the kiln very well and I was very happy with the end result. although the cracks were very visible. they were on the inside of the pieces so I didn't have to worry about them too much. The color changed when it was fired which was a good thing because the white was a good base to glaze off of.
GlazeI used a few different tones of red and brown in order to make the brain look as realistic as possible, I used the wiping method to give it a washed look. I would paint a layer of one color, then take a damp sponge and wipe some of the glaze off, leaving it mostly in the crevices in order to give the piece dimension. As you can see, I built up the layers off color on the piece by simply painting and wiping after every color that I decided to put on. The most difficult part about glaze is that after it is fired, the color can change completely so it's always a surprise and I was anxious to see the final result.
Firing after glazeWell I was disappointed when I saw my piece to say the least. The inside of it (that black color) was supposed to be gold when it fired, so I wasn't to pleased about that. But the outside came out great, it really had the hues of a realistic brain which I loved. Once I got over the fact that the inside was black, I decided to put white flowers on the inside because a found object was required and also because it gave off the true meaning of beauty inside of what is not normally beautiful. It added so much more to my piece, and I was happy about that.
ReflectionOverall, this piece came out to be amazing and more meaningful than I had originally planned it to be. I didn't like that I had to change my idea but at the same time I am happy that I made it more simple because the simplicity worked in my favor (in the case of the meaning of the overall piece). If I could change one thing about my piece, it would be the glazing process, I'd probably add one final layer of one of the colors to make the piece a bit darker, but other than that, I fell in love with the final result.
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