artist profile: Jocelyn Reid

by | Mar 10, 2013 | call for entry, emerging artist, job posting, monday morning eye candy, movie day, residency opportunity, show us your influences, technical tuesday

 
 

I just stumbled across the work of Jocelyn Reid on instagram and just had to share it with you all. Jocelyn is a fourth year ceramics major at ACAD.  Her Sandbox exhibition is up until the 15th so if you’re in the area please make the time to stop by and have a play.

Jocelyn writes; “Sandbox is an installation of ceramic sculptures that all feature
removable and interchangeable parts. Because of this, I am inviting all
viewers and spectators to interact, and essentially play with all of the
different works. By engaging this sense of touch and discovery, all
people have the option to transition to a very basic level of play while
in contact with the pieces in the Sandbox. In this way, each person can
become a kind of performer. The forms are inspired by references from
both manufactured and organic forms, and this parallel gives way to
other contradictory ideas – most prominently, adulthood vs. childhood,
and familiarity vs. foreignness. Most importantly, the Sandbox is a
place for exploration of the sculptures, and of each persons own self.”


ARTIST STATEMENT

In the ceramic sculptures I
create, I put organic matter and manufactured objects on equal footing
with one another. By mixing these two contradictory things, the line
between them is blurred. Everyday objects transform into something
foreign and living, just as the natural matter that I reference becomes
hard and substantial. By referencing these two components and mixing
them together, controlled becomes uncontrolled, and vice versa.

The
constant presence of manufactured objects in the natural world inspires
me and informs my sculptures. Nature has become the best and most
special of all fads – an excursion into the wilderness is never without a
sleek camera to document the experience. We keep plants in our houses
and offices, own cabins in the middle of secluded forests, and build
buildings in the image of bee hives and birds nests. The same thing that
inspires wonder and interaction in nature is akin to that which sends
people to line up for hours on end to buy the newest offering from
Apple. That thing is a feeling of seduction, discovery, and play. I
believe this mix of sentiments can be found in everyday life. We rarely
consider the things that we use daily until they’re taken out of our
routine. By melding these ordinary forms with unpredictable organic
ones, I create something familiar yet foreign that inspires a need to
touch and interact.

This tactile interaction with the piece
creates a completely different experience for the viewer, simply because
the work engages a sense other than sight – touch. By allowing the
audience this alternate form of connecting with the work, they can go
past the role of simply being an observer and become a performer.
Although my sculptures can be experienced through sight, they are not
complete and successful until the viewer makes the decision to reach out
and interact with the piece. The recognition of a part on a sculpture
is met with discovering another part that is new and alien – my
intention is that this feeling of exploration can apply to all ages and
types of people. This is how the audience can become performers. By
being seduced by the sculptures, and making the decision to touch them,
every person, no matter who they are, can transition to a very basic
level of play.
All of these intangible ideas find a home for
themselves in my sculptures. Adulthood mixes with childhood, familiar
meets foreign, and the traditional rules about keeping a safe distance
from a work of art become broken. The results are engrossing assemblages
of ceramic parts. Where on one side there is velvety-smooth porcelain,
the piece nesting on top of it has boisterous rubber coating running
down the side. Where one part is sided by creamy balloon-black flocking,
a spiky removable piece is slippery with gold spray paint. Where one
piece tugs on a memory of a familiar shiny bike chain, the idea is
interrupted by another shape that seems to be something vital and spongy
pulled off of the ocean floor.

Marion Nicoll GalleryAlberta College of Art + Design
1407-14th Avenue N.W.
Calgary Alberta
Phone | 403.283.7655
Web | marionnicollgallery.wordpress.com

Guest post: Damien Jones

by | Feb 7, 2013 | Uncategorized

Hello Musings About Mud, I wanted to say hello to you and thank
Carole for bringing me on to guest blog! My name is Damien Jones, and
I’m a ceramics artist based in Oakland. I wanted to team up with Carole
since she has a great blog on all things pottery and ceramics and share
my work and vision with you.
I’m currently in
the first week of my indiegogo campaign where I’m trying to raise
$30,000 so I can put a 15 foot public sculpture outside of the American
Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, CA. 
I’d love
to share this campaign with you! Please check out my Fertilitree
sculpture I will be creating once funded and all of the seeds of the
Fertilitree available for a pledge. It would be great to have this
campaign shared amongst your peers if you see fit! Every little bit
counts!
Here’s the link! bit.ly/YzIxfO And here’s some more detail on my vision and my work as an artist if you feel like reading on…
FertiliTree – a 15′ Ceramic Sculpture for the American Museum of Ceramic Art, crowdfunded thru Indiegogo

Damien
Jones has developed a unique construction process for monumental
sculptures, which involves constructing large slab-formed hollow
highfired ceramic sections (3-4′ tall), then stacking them onsite and
filling them with concrete.  This yields extremely durable public art
pieces, and can be used to create sculptures 50-100′ tall, at a fraction
of the cost of other public art methods.  He’s completed a few public
monuments up to 10′ tall, but trying to land larger projects has been
fruitless, due to the low number of projects that come available each
year, and the extreme competition for them, with hundreds of artists
applying for each project.

After applying unsuccessfully for dozens of public art calls, he
decided to take matters into his own hands.  When he found out about the
American Museum of Ceramic Art’s new facility in Pomona, he offerred to
create a monumental sculpture for them, and to crowdfund it thru
Indiegogo.com.  Pomona is the Roman goddess of the orchard, of
fertility, so the sculpture will be called FertiliTree — a woman
growing from a tree trunk — as a
celebration of Femininity and Fertility.  He’s attempting to raise $30K
for this project, and has developed a new line of Seeds, to acknowledge
donors for their contributions. 

Once this project is complete
he hopes it will help open many more doors to creating larger public
works.  Since this technique is so inexpensive, durable and versatile,
it has the potential to usher in far more art into our world than we
currently enjoy.  He says “Public art makes a place feel loved and cared
for, transforming the
cities we live in from primarily functional, utilitarian spaces to
places of genuine beauty, inspiration, and joy, which our world could
sure use a lot more of!” 

Have a look at his campaign, and
consider donating and spreading the word to support this wonderful and
ambitious project!  Post it on your FB wall, if you like:    bit.ly/YzIxfO

He’s set up a FB group to support and track the project, so please join that if you’re interested: http://www.facebook.com/groups/FertilitreeCampaign/  
Also, if you become part of their campaign team you can win free
artwork, plus a $100 gift card from the company of your choice.