Residency: Week 9

On Monday, I intended to have a nice long day at the studio but I woke up feeling like I needed inspo after learning how to throw bottle neck vessels. So I decided to take myself on an Artist Date :)

A sweet friend gifted a membership to The Met Museum at the start of my residency because he knows how beneficial it is for my brain - I finally carved out time to go! It’s hard for me to feel okay taking time off from creating at the studio, but it’s necessary for my mind/body. I mainly focused on observing forms with taller necks, lids, and relief carving. I spent time sketching ancient Greek and ancient Chinese (Jingdezhen ware) pieces from about 10am - 4pm. Not even halfway through, I hit the last page of my sketchbook - doom. Luckily The Met sells a small variety of sketchbooks in their giftshop, and a friend from afar gifted an emergency replacement. For the last hour or so I allowed myself to go off on a tangent to admire work by Monet and Van Gogh. I took a brief wander through the Krasner and Pollock exhibit. I would like to go back with the same focus to observe Japanese and Korean ceramics, and ancient Egyptian relief carving (for the 392873th time - I just love it).

At the studio, I sucked it up and glaze tested several pieces. I feel ….hopeful, but not confident lol I also started relief carving one of the larger composites with a seaweed motif using handmade tools from Jingdezhen. I also threw lil moon jar glaze testers in the main clay body I will be using for my final project, and played with a fun idea practising/incorporating bottle necks.

On Friday, I went to the Brooklyn Museum - specifically for the Iris van Herpen performance! This is meaningful to me because I was selected to exhibit my relief carved cold processed soaps in the same show as Casey Curran in Seattle a couple years ago - check out his incredible handmade whale sculpture, Leviathon. He creates exquisitely beautiful kinetic art, and collaborated with Iris van Herpen. I also took time to observe Japanese and Korean ceramics. Museum fatigue is very real and I was not able to view the ancient Egyptian and Assyrian exhibit.