Math, science, art intersect... more than you realize.

Are our aesthetics influenced by the expression of Fibonacci numbers or the lack thereof? This is a good example of why art is not a separate subject to be discarded. It's all inter-related or we, as humans, would not have expressed ourselves. Creativity is not an exclusive domain.

Output

Some of this, some of that...

Naughty Slit

     Some goings on here at the wee studio. Some of this will go into this weekend's wood-firing in Waco, some will go toward getting into an upcoming anagama firing at EKU if there is room. The sculptural work will be fired in the electric kiln later on with additional functional work.

evolve

     While some of my younger EKU colleagues are off at graduate school, I look at this time for me as my own "graduate" work. I see evolution and development, exploration and refinement.

Unwelcome. Surprise.

   Photographer Nathaniel Miller mentions in his interview with Frances Figart that he does not think of anything when he is photographing the moment. This statement got me thinking about my own process. I think I'll expand on this at a later time but it revolves around the zen process of creating.

Maternal Appetite

Chop wood, carry water.

Visions in Clay 2011

Well, I was lucky enough to get one of my pieces into a juried show in Stockton, CA at the LH Horton Jr. Gallery at San Joaquin Delta College, curated by Judith Schwartz, head of Sculpture and Craft Madia, professor of Art and Art Education at NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. The piece is Grounded Flight, below. I'm also lucky enough to be showing with fellow artists Lyndsey Fryman, Hunter Stamps and Gerard Justin Ferrari.

If you are around the Stockton, CA area from August 18 - Sept. 15th, stop by and check out the work!

Grounded Flight, 2010, Stoneware, mixed media

One More Thing: Mother Earth News et al.

Brown Ripple Vase; $75. Buy on Etsy and $60 will be donated via PayPal to the American Red Cross efforts to help the citizens of the Sendai area of Japan.

There have been such tragic events in Japan that break my heart, I am trying to sell this vase through my  Tea Horse Studio on Etsy. The price is $75 excluding shipping. I will be donating $60 of the sale to the American Red Cross toward the relief effort. This vase and donation was kindly featured in Mother Earth News on Wednesday. I am grateful for the mention. Etsy (and other groups like NCECA that are helping to coordinate and promote the "Handmade for Japan" campaign) also has many other handmade items where the proceeds will either be partially or completely donated to a relief agency to help with efforts in Japan. If you want to give towards that effort, buying a handmade item is a great way to do it as you get something human-made in return, a small reminder of the fragility of us.

BusyBeeBusyBeeBusyBee

Fall down go BOOM!

Been a little busy around here with lots of little things, nothing huge but enough to keep me from updating. First and foremost, the hormone thing. Ugh. What a week. Talk about hostility at inanimate objects flip-flopping to excessive emotionality! I keep looking up to see if there's a dark cloud above me. My Status Shrine is full of icons, and I'm going through chocolate at an amazing rate. How long is this supposed to last again? Two to nine years???

So there's that.

And then I've been getting busy with honing my business plan, getting tax info together, planning exhibitions for later this year hopefully, trying to coordinate a group show application for a regional gallery and working on brand identity. All necessary things but they are investments of time, energy and labor that pay off in the future and not income-generators right off the bat.

Then...

Impossible for me to talk without using my hands.

I did a small one-night show for a Gallery Hop in Richmond last week, followed by a talk in Winchester for the Winchester Art Guild. There I spoke about my career, work and specifically, my 35 Symptoms piece. The audience was small and all ladies so the subject matter went over really well. My buddy, Frances wants me to do more talks on the same subject. I just want to make pots! I also have one piece to deliver for a group show in Tennessee. Tennessee loves me.

And to that effect...

I have started on six new teapot ideas in various stages of construction and carving. Most of my work now involves altering and carving with involved textures created with tedious repetitious motions using wood and metal tools. It's a very zen thing for me. I know it's time-consuming but become mesmerized with it and I get the most beautiful patterns sometimes.

Next up...

Tomorrow in Richmond is the Empty Bowls event. 50 of my bowls will be available. I hope they were useful for the final count and that they get picked quickly. I hope to make it to EB. And then it's back to pots.

Oh, and the Bradford Pear tree blew down in a storm last night. The end.

Correction! Artist Talk, March 15th

I've been updated by the Art Guild that I'm due to talk next Tuesday, the 15th, not the 22nd as they previously informed me. Winchester Art Guild, March 15, 7pm, Winchester Public Library. Better get my stuff in gear!

CORRECTION! Upcoming Artist Talk, March 15

The 35 Symptoms; 2010; Clay, glazes, slips, mixed media


MARCH 15, 2011

I will be giving a short artist talk in Winchester, KY at the Public Library on March 15, 2011 at 7pm. This is being sponsored by the Winchester Art Guild and I thank them in advance. If you're in the area, come out and listen to me wax poetic about clay, art and menopause. If you're not in the area, check out your own local art organizations. They probably have some interesting things going on!

Empty Bowls I 2011

Well, things have been a little quiet here in the internet for me but busy as hell in the studio. Last week I wedged 50 ball of clay then threw, trimmed, packed and delivered 50 bowls in greenware to EKU for an upcoming Empty Bowls in Richmond, KY on March 25th or 26th, I believe.
     If you haven't heard of Empty Bowls, it's a great event of giving held in local communities all around the country in a mission to raise awareness and fight hunger in the United States. It involves, (usually), a partnership of potters donating handmade bowls and people donating food and cooking expertise. You pay a fee for any bowl you choose and get to fill your bowl with soup. The proceeds are then used in the fight against hunger. Here is a link to an overview. Keep your eyes peeled, you may have an Empty Bowls event in your community...

Gourds: New Bloom

New Bloom; 2011; Dyed hardshell gourd, gourd membrane, glass microbeads, milkweed pods, formed copper

This is the last of the gourd work recently completed. This piece is constructed from the top of a bottle-necked gourd and the inside membrane of various hardshell gourds. I find the inside material of gourds to be as fascinating as the outside shell. Sometimes it is unremarkable and porous, but other times it is papery and shimmery. The piece references a flower with a large "stamen and pistil" area comprised of milkweed pods. The feathery seeds have all since blown away.

Gourds: Nest Overflow

Nest Overflow; 2011; Dyed hardshell gourd, dyed toothpicks, silk, glass microbeads,Tamarisk branches, vines, pyrography, carved, assembled

Several years ago, I was visiting my friend, Robbin when she handed me this large gourd on her living room floor that was "over 50-years-old" or so she told me. She plopped in my arms and said, "Here. Do something with this." Well, Robbin, five years and one BFA later, here it is. I hope you like it. I doubt it's what you expected.
     This piece is a reflection on the material things or maybe non-material things that fill our lives and the near-to-bursting feeling it can create. The top is separated from the bottom like a hinged jaw. The toothpicks remind me of the baleen of a whale that takes in the thousands of krill to feed itself. The actual gourd is old and has split in some places as if it could not contain its insides. I expanded on that idea and it made me think about the lure of material goods and wealth we acquire over our lifetimes, the material "stuff" we fill our homes with in order to add value to ourselves. In some way, this piece could be seen as a celebration of good fortune but I think it should also make us question what really constitutes happiness and home, in the long run. How attached are we to our "stuff?" What do we give up to acquire material goods? How heavy a burden are our things? Do we compromise our decisions and our values in order to keep our things? All things to ponder, in my opinion.

Gourds: Control Freak

Control Freak; 2011; Hardshell gourd, dye ink, bronze spiculae, brass wire

This is the second gourd finished recently. For me this references the mother figure, specifically, or certainly a female figure, but every person has their own interpretation. Like a lobster trap, once you get in, you can't get out.

Gourds: Momma's Boy

Momma's Boy, 2011, Hardshell gourd, gourd seed, loofah, string, dyes, inks, copper banding

My BFA work in Metals centered around the combination of metal and gourds. I knew, because I have this weird fascination and obsession with gourds, that I wanted to combine gourds with the materials I was concentrating on in my degree program but I really expected to marry gourds and clay, not the metal.
     However, I found a conduit for my strong emotional response and reaction to my family situation at the time using the metal work to trap and encase the gourds I was drawn to. It was then that the gourds became the metaphor for the person, in particular, they often became the son. The metal became the mother figure. I explored the exploitation and power abuse of a parent to child in order to gain advantage in a divorce and custody situation. They addressed the parental alienation issues surrounding my husband's divorce and the effects on his young son.
     Time has passed and circumstances have changed. The power relationship between the mother and son has developed. The gourds still reference the human but now the mother/son elements are separating and have gained their own identities. A power struggle has developed as the child has matured into young adulthood. These new pieces address the elements in this. Metal still makes an appearance in these pieces but I am using it as support instead of a major element. I'm interested in exploring the gourd itself as a sculptural medium. More mixed media is being used, particularly natural elements. I've tried to make more use of gourd parts as sculptural elements when possible. The piece above, Momma's Boy, touches on the tangled, baggage-laden relationship of mother to son and the long-term issues that follow. The inside bowl of the main piece is covered with gourd seeds with the words: self, boy, man, mom, own, control and ... written on individual seeds. The "umbilical cord" penetrating the form and tangled inside is repurposed from the loofah gourds grown on my farm. This is one of four new pieces.

Off-topic: Change

© 2011 cynthia cusick

    The only constant is change. Cliché. But true. Another one: All change is painful. If you weren't in pain, you wouldn't be changing. Sounds like a recipe for constant suffering, right? Now you understand why Zen and Buddhism plays a part in my life. And a sense of humor. The concept of change is an integral part of my work and what motivates and interests me. 

     When I was in school at EKU, one of the inevitable themes and comments that students would make about their work, including me, was how the work symbolized or referenced "growth." This made sense to me because the process of going through an art program is, or should be, the inevitable growth of basic artistic skills into a deeper understanding of one's point of view and a maturation of the work that resulted from it. The obvious metaphor for 'growth' was that the work was botanical and organic in nature. That's also an element of my work but I use organic things for additional reasons, not solely or even most importantly, the metaphor of 'growth.' So the fact that so many students, and other artists from other media, reference growth in their work tells me it must be an important idea for many people. When I think of the process of growth, however, I see it as slightly different but complimentary to, and part of, change as a whole. Growth, I see as movement forward on the life/death/life cycle. Change can happen during growth but may not always contribute to growth itself. Change can move the process of growth forward but maybe, sometimes, it just moves it sideways. Perhaps change is something that happens on a meta-level, as in, contributing to growth in the life/death/life cycle, but it also happens on the local level, such as positioning the entity to better achieve growth.
     And of course, I'm relating this now to living organisms because of my other obsession which is the human part of the natural-world puzzle and our ever-increasing tendency to believe we are separate from it, but change also happens to non-living things. That's another philosophical question for another time.
     I want to get deeper into the facets of change itself, the markers, the indicators, the journey and the feeling when it happens. I find that change, as a process, is often invisible to the participant. We often don't realize change until we stop for a moment and reflect. It's then that we can observe and note the differences between then and now. Those differences mark time and change but do we really feel it in the moment? I think the evolutionary record of life on earth is a beautiful example of indicators of time and change that we can see happened but cannot directly feel as it happens.
     I always try to remember that change contains information. It's how scientists do their jobs. You try something, note the changes and analyze the information contained in the change from point A to point B. Change and the effects of time are our textbooks to ourselves and our experience. Observation of changes contains the information we need to solve the puzzle of ourselves but so often, we miss the message. As Uncle Frank used to say: OBSERVE!

Enlighten: Jessica Armstrong

     This is an introduction to and heads-up about my friend and former classmate from EKU, Jessica Armstrong. It will be redundant to say Jessica is "a little out there" as frankly, all my art friends and associates are like that. Let's say that Jessica is energetic, physically expressive and has a great sense of humor. What she also has is a wicked vision of metal in jewelry. Currently, she's working on her MFA in metalsmithing at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania. Not to be stopped, she also works in 2D in photography.

Here is a link to more images of her work. 

     Much of the work I was familiar with at EKU when were were in class under Felicia Szorad involved body wear and jewelry that was purposefully restrictive and uncomfortable. If you read her statement on the front page, it pretty much wraps up where she's coming from right now. After she gets out of school, she tells me she has plans for a blog to keep people updated on her work and possibly an Etsy site but right now, grad school is where she is focusing all her energy. Keep an eye out for her work in the coming years. Cheers to Jessica and continued great work in the future.

Progress report

I'm busy putting together some applications for shows and submissions. I'm wrapping up four gourd pieces. I have finished with an inventory of gourd badges that I will roll out on my Etsy site. Here's is an image of the direction my clay sculpture is taking. I am trying to morph the seed references into animal-like things. I would like to see the simple structures evolve into things that move so I've added the most basic things I can think of that differentiate animal from plant: an entrance hole and an exit hole and a way to become mobile. This is part of the progress:

Gourd [Curcurbitaceae]

     I use hard shell gourds in my work. I’ve been asked why. I ask myself why. I still can't fully explain it. I think that's a good thing. I am interested in the family of hard shell gourds, Old World Lagenaria siceraria, used for centuries in many world cultures for dipping, pouring, as containers, storage, carved bowls, and just plain decoration.

(Here’s a nice link to a summary and rundown about All Things Gourd.)

     Most people in my limited experience craft items like bottle gourds painted to look like Santa or a snowman. Much of the more sophisticated gourd artistry uses wood burning tools to burn in imagery and burr tools to carve in shapes and patterns. Mexican and Native American imagery and basket weaving techniques are very common. I’m not interested in any of that. 

     The bulk of the gourd carving and artistic work I have encountered uses the gourd as a canvas, that is, images, allegories, symbols are painted and carved onto the surface. The form of the gourds is rarely disturbed from its original shape, even those gourds that are carved. It’s as if the gourd itself is sacred and dictatorial. The artist, craftsperson or hobbyist can only approach it up to a certain level but the gourd maintains its identity as a gourd. Some of the work done this way can be very, very good. Much of it, however, is kitschy and tacky in my opinion. And too often, I find myself less than intrigued by the artwork displayed than the inevitable reaction of, “Oh look, a gourd.” The gourd stays separate from the art. I want to use the gourd as the art.

     I admire the more craft and traditional approaches to gourd work but I find those styles frustrating and limiting in my work. I look to use gourd forms as metaphors and abstractions. If you look at many of the shapes of hard shell gourds, they scream sexual forms. It’s so obvious but after people make the crude crack about the curve of the short handle dipper gourd or the bottle-necked gourd, they then set out to find a safer, more palatable, less offensive representation like… a long neck goose, or a literal reinterpretation of a whole human figure. When I work with whole forms of gourds, I either have to address a sexual identity question because it begs for it, or I have to dismantle the form and use the material for its other tactile and tangible qualities. 

     Hard shell gourds are light, carvable, accepting of glues, paints, inks and dyes. Left solid, they will float and bob. They burn out in a kiln, leaving cavities. They can be flat like mini-canvases or chopped into voluminous material. Cut strategically, a variety of curved planes are presented to the artist. A variety of textures, patterns and imperfections on the outside of the shell can also be utilized. The inside texture is inspirational on its own. To me, they need to be destroyed, used, cracked, carved, repurposed, trapped, combined with other media and turned inside out. They are a medium and sculptural tool. So far, whatever I've done with gourds, I feel like I'm not doing enough or I'm still limiting their use. For this reason, I'll probably continue to come back to them and try to integrate them into work whenever I need to take a break from other media. 

Crushed By Love, 2008

     Currently, I'm finishing up a boat load of badges carved from shell for the more functional, craft side of things. I'm also finishing up four sculptural pieces that are a continuation of the series that began with my BFA metal work on parent-child relationships and abuse issues. These start to break away from the relationship with the parent and begin to focus (hopefully) on the inner dialogue of the adolescent/young adult. When they're done, I'll post... Ciao for now.

Enlighten: The Beauty of Hand-Made

Thank god for modern inventions. I cannot imagine the cost and availability of everyday objects we use without modern manufacturing. Yes, there is an industrial cost to our environment and to our health in many instances, but really try to imagine what it would be like if everything you needed to enjoy your modern 2011 life, was hand-made. How much would that coffee-maker cost? Would it operate the same or would you be hand-grinding the beans? There are minuses to our modern manufacturing world, no doubt, but I, for one, appreciate the plusses that make mundane, daily life easier than the generation before us here in the Western World.

     Beyond the cost of environmental stress from modern manufacturing, what other minuses are we talking about? I think we lose the connection to our humanity because we become detached from the actual process, energy and effort it takes to make an object. We lose the experience of how complicated making any one thing can be. We become more and more separate from our beginning nature of homo sapien, and the basic tool making needed just to survive. In losing that, we lose our connection to nature, and the environment from which we evolved. Am I suggesting that we all ditch our cappuccino makers, grab a stone and rock and grind our own coffee beans to make our morning joe? Or carve out a hollow in some wood so we have a mug to drink it from? Not at all.

     I had a Krups cappucino maker for years that I’ve carted around with me but it’s been gathering dust because I broke the glass carafe that the coffee drips into which is also the measuring cup for the right amount of water. I left it in the back room, gathering dust because I just couldn’t bear to chuck something that was otherwise, fully functional but I also didn’t have the energy to hunt down the Krups site and find the right replacement carafe. So it sat. And I went cappucino-less for decades. But then some time, a few weeks ago, I thought, surely I can find the right vessel to use with the machine! And I did, a hand-made mug, thrown, carved, glazed and fired by a single person, just the right height to fit under the spout and just the right opening to fit the old carafe top that keeps the coffee from spitting out all over the place. Better yet, when the cappuccino is done, it’s already in the cup, no transferring from a carafe, no extra clean-up. And it’s a lovely cup. It’s become My Cappucino Mug.

Blue cereal bowl by me, My Cappucino Mug made by Melissa Zimmerman.

     One human being created this cup with her hands using basic principles that have existed for centuries. Using materials that come from the earth that we evolved from. In this one mug is the aptitude of an individual who had her hands on the clay, shaped it similar to, but not exactly like the next one she made. The form of this particular mug, the shape and placement of the handle, the carving motif, the glaze choices, the color palette, they all reflect on the individual person who created it. They are evidence of the spark that represents our connection to nature but also what makes us different from the rest of nature. Not just basic tool making and tool use, but sophisticated tool use without stepping into total machine manufacturing and thereby disconnecting us from nature. It’s not perfect, some lines are chunkier than others, some colors run into others. It shows variation and the mark of the hand which reminds us of our uniqueness.

     The beauty of hand-made items, whether they be mugs, body adornment like jewelry and accessories, furniture, art, sculpture, clothing, is that they can offer a connection to your fellow human being. They can offer an experience of human sophistication more directly connected to nature. They can offer a unique item that represents not just the individuality of the creator but also of the person who chose that item. They celebrate the ingenuity, effort and creativity, the spark of humanness.

     I encourage you to get out there are visit art fairs and craft fairs. If that’s not possible, there are a ton of internet venues to find hand-made items for sale. I use Etsy, based out of Brooklyn, and one of the first “hand-made-for-sale” sites. Many friends and associates of mine have also set up shop with Etsy like 

Starry Road Studio by Karen Totten , American Walkingstick by David Warner, and, previously mentioned, Lori Phillips Ceramics . But be warned, there are many items out there. A good way to get started hunting for cool things is to look through collections or curated lists called "treasuries" on Etsy, or, if you find work you like, check out who that artist likes on their favorite list.

     I'm surrounded in my home by manufactured goods and I love the standard of loving that comes with that, but I also appreciate the creativity and uniqueness represented by original, hand-made work. I hope you do, too.

Winter is loooooong

Scraps of gourds put to good use.

This weather in Kentucky is grating on me. It reminds me of some winters back in New York in the 70's. Long and snowy. Only, back then, I was in high school and enjoyed snow days. Now, not so much. Thankfully my studio is heated, albeit by kerosene heater, but heated nonetheless. I can't imagine how stressed and how far behind I would be if I were still working out of my kitchen. Not to mention the fact that since I have this completed space, I've attempted, and succeeded at "going to work" as opposed to doing errands and finding thousands of things to keep me from doing actual work. I'm not at the pace I'd like to be but it's a beginning and it feels good so far. What's the cliché? Rome wasn't built in a day. My goal from the beginning of this year, is to be committed and serious about my work and put aside the worry and procrastination of thinking that making art without financial profit right off the bat is a waste of my time. After all, I have a wonderful supportive husband who is 100% behind me and have an opportunity now to begin this career so now is the time.

Available soon for Valentines Day!

Long before I began work in clay, I drew, like most beginning artists. I don't draw seriously anymore, unless I'm sketching ideas for new pieces, but I do still doodle and mark things up. I think a lot of that influence comes from the old graffiti days back in NYC and in particular, working in NYC when Keith Haring was doing his thing, even before he became known, when you'd ride the subway and see the street art. The best street art, to me, is things with some spontaneity, humor and whimsy because often, on the street, on your commute, you only have a brief moment to take all the information in. [Here's a cool website of great street art from around the world. Awesome ideas!] You can't contemplate it like a painting in a museum, nor should you, in context, I think. Anyway, that kind of sketching/mark making/iconography cleaved well with the graphic design field I was in at the time. It all influenced me and I still need to do it. Right now, I'm satisfying that urge with gourd badges I'm making for an upcoming Etsy Store launch, this week (hopefully). I'm adapting that doodling onto gourd shell from gourds I've grown on the farm. In a later posting, I'll get into the Cult of The Gourd and my affinity for them but for now, I'm busy burning little doodles onto circles and squares of shell, painting and dying them and then attaching a pin on the back. Wearable doodles. Some sketches have proven to be typical of me and reference... well, the naughty bits.

Rest assured, I am still working in clay and have begun one form already. I'm also in the middle of getting bowls ready for an Empty Bowls charity event here in Richmond, KY coming up in March. The problem with working in clay that I have in the winter is the studio takes a little bit of time to warm up from the overnight cold of 50 degrees or less so there's not a whole lot of incentive to sink my hands into cold clay and water.

The other project that I'm wrapping up is four gourd art pieces. These are a bit of an extension from my previous gourd work. I don't gravitate to what passes for typical gourd art work, you know, painting a Santa Claus or snowman onto a gourd. That seems so... pedestrian. I'll get more in depth later on that one.

Just trying to keep busy...

Some days...

The 35 Symptoms, 2009-10; Stoneware, wood, mixed media

     Oh, some days are worse than others. But at least I know I'm not crazy. Working on a few things in the studio at the moment, about four gourd pieces and I've started on the old reliable pinch pots to get me back into clay. The thing I like about having a few projects going at once is that it compliments, nicely, the short attention span mode I can get into from time to time. Plus, when I hit a road block in solving a problem, it keeps me from fucking things up on a piece out of frustration. I have a collection of work over the years (non-clay) that is really nothing more that an "I'll get back to that" group although in some cases, it's been years. I suppose I hope I'll just grow to like something if I live with it long enough. Either  that or I'll finally get the urge to chuck it or recycle it.

     So today's symptoms on the Shrine are muscle tension, which the yoga should help with, joint pain (why? why not, my body says), itchy crawly skin, lack of libido (a frequent visitor), and body odor changes. I think I'll dress in a sack today.