by Carole Epp | May 28, 2007 | Uncategorized
I recently returned to my old stomping grounds where I studied for my undergrad to do a gas firing of some pieces for a sale next month. I seem to be endlessly drawn back to the aesthetics of reduction firing, even though I’m in love with the results of electric highfire. It’s always an interesting debate to get into with people as I still often find that the ceramics community has its own share of elitists who would have you believe that electric firing is easy. In the 4 years that this has been my focus I have found that it is anything but. And in arguably I think that each method of firing has it’s own perks and pitfalls, but none is easier than another, less labor intensive…maybe. But while the firing of a wood kiln for 6 days, plus chopping all of the wood is exhausting, there is a reward in that the atmosphere of the kiln plays such a great role in resulting finish and aesthetic of the work. On the other hand, it is true that all I have to do is program my digital electric to do as I wish and then I’m off to do other things, but I believe that the skill and knowledge required to make electric fired work beautiful is difficult. The results are more under your control and your responsibility. Nothing is a given, there are great predictable firings, and then there are those that go horribly wrong with no explanation. While I don’t look favorably on the labor of long hours of firing into the night, breathing carbon filled air, I find it equivalent to the hours in studio researching and testing glazes for electric. I once fought with a glaze for over 4 month to get it to perform just right.
Personally I’m a sucker for anything and everything clay based, and have no elitist notions of which firing aesthetic is better, but I do take offense to the snubbed nose attitude I’ve seen from other artists who think that electric fired is a sub-aesthetic.
On a different note though I had an interesting encounter with an old prof, actually the one who had taught me to throw years ago. While working in the glaze room, preparing for this gas firing, the subject turned to pricing and sales of work. I had recently seen some of this prof’s work for sale at a local gallery and had been shocked at the cheapness of the prices. Not to name names, but this is an artist of high standing in the Canadian community and I guess I had just expected higher prices. So standing there in the glaze room, I called him on it, and asked why? The response I got to this day troubles me. And admittedly I’m not sure if it was meant with sarcasm or not, one can only hope. When asked why he sold his work for so little, he replied, “I am but a laborer”. To me this is the epitome of what is wrong in the craft discipline – the artists themselves devaluing their own skills, knowledge, artistic vision, disciplined craftsmanship, and researched and developed aesthetic. A laborer…sigh. Why not a highly skilled laborer? “But a laborer”? It seemed so negative. I truly hope that it was a comment intended to be sarcastic otherwise as a young artist trying to make a living and challenge myself in the craft medium of ceramics, I have more opposition that I thought, the opposition not only being outside of the field, but from within.
by Carole Epp | May 18, 2007 | Uncategorized
Well it’s not like I didn’t get up early enough, it’s 9 in the morning and I’ve already spend an hour on-line reading blogs. But it definitely seems to be a lazy friday, I think another cup of tea will have to be in order to get me motivated and into the studio to deal with all of the backlog there. But here’s to the joys of working at home, the choice is mine as to whether or not to actually change out of my pyjamas before work. It’s sorta like in elementary school when you had dress up days and once in a while it was pyjama day…hmmm.
I guess I should grab my trusty sidekick Yarra and head off to work, she’ll likely sleep through it all under my chair while I throw, it’s good company, but the sort of company that makes you want a nap on the sunny part of the couch.
by Carole Epp | May 17, 2007 | Uncategorized
Icon, the architecture and design mag, published some interesting design projects in their November 06 issue. The subject – designers engaging with controversial topics such as war, terrorism, poverty, etc…
Beyond the interesting images of projects by a multitude of designers, there is an interesting text that accompanies. The article states that this focus towards more “darker issues” in design rather than mere functionality and fashion leads to the “descent from a noble cause into shallow sensationalism”.
I guess I would argue against the shallowness of making such needed and current commentary, as while inarguably it does sometimes rely on sensationalism, to me there is no greater noble cause than to wake the world up to what’s going on in society and throughout the world.
This is the work of Industreal (designers: Andersson Frida and James Steiner) called “Smokes Like a Chimney”. It’s an ashtray with a lid with bronchi-shaped tubes.
Dominic Wilcox created this “War Bowl” of melted plastic toy soldiers.
by Carole Epp | May 15, 2007 | Uncategorized
Here are a few new pieces off to Red Deer later today, so I just quickly took some digitals. They’re for a group show to be held at the Harris Waarke Gallery which will present the work of faculty from the Red Deer College Ceramics Department where I was the Visiting Artist last fall. Should be a great show including the work of Trudy Golley, Candice Ring, Brian McAuthur and Dawn Deterando.
They didn’t really know what was next.
They felt the tug of war.
4048 : 783,209
Alot of my figurative pieces in the past had dealt with violence and inequality, but for these ones I decided to make a more direct statement about the war. It’s hard though to make work about current events that are constantly changing and shifting in front of your eyes, and for a long time I had held off making this work as I didn’t want to make work that was hollow and simply jumping on the bandwagon of political art about the war which has been in fashion in the last few years, with some artists producing incredibly strong and powerful statements, while others arguably aiming to make confrontationally charged work that falls flat. I’m not quite satisfied with the development of the ideas in this work thus far, but who am i kidding, i never am. But it has been interesting to put the ideas into concrete form. What I wanted to discuss though was the inequality of the media representation of the dead count, the North Amercian or eurocentric overendulgence and valuing of one soldier loss over the countless Iraqi civilian and military loss, the political game at play which brings nations into the situation regardless of the views and stance of the people in their so-called democratic societies, and the fate of all those injured in battle, whether they be army personal or innocent civilians and the uncertain future that they face.
Hopefully in the near future i’ll be able to update with other images from the exhibition, so stay posted…
by Carole Epp | May 15, 2007 | Uncategorized
There’s not much better than escaping a cold and dark Canadian winter for sandy beaches of another country. It should almost be a yearly gift from our governement to restore community spirit and sanity. So when the opportunity presented itself to travel to the Dominican with family this year one could hardly pass up the chance. Of course for me no trip is complete without a bit of local culture, cuisine, and what else but some ceramics.
While we were emersed in the generousity of the Dominican people, some of us took a day trip into the Dominican Alps, passing through Santiago where we stopped to visit a local ceramics factory. I of course was the nerd of the group enjoying every second of it. The type of work produced was tourist goods, alot for the local tourist trade as well as some for export. We got to tour around everything from the clay pits to the kilns. Gotta love those huge walk in kilns which dwarf my own tiny electric back home.
The tasks were all divided between men and women, the men doing all the harder labour such as crushing and filtering the clay, throwing the pots and loading the kilns. The women’s roles centered around altering the thrown forms, making attachments and painting or glazing the wares, mind you not many of the pots had glaze, most were painted with acrylic washes as the main product of the buisness was planters and garden pots.
I was practically sitting on my hands not to jump on one of the kick wheels and have a try of the local clay which was a beautiful yellow ochre color and quite plastic. I think I could have been left behind here and lived my life quite happily.
This last picture I love of some of the women working in the painting studio.
