Art of the Soul

The aim of art is to project an inner vision into the world, to state in aesthetic creation the deepest psychic and personal experiances of a human being. It is to enable those experiences to be intelligible and generally recognized within the total framwork of an ideal world.

-Bruce Lee (Tao of Jeet Kune Do)

Well I was going to another art dump, but I think from here on I'll be doing individual posts for each. Just because there aren't a lot of pieces left to show and mainly because of how beautifully they came out, they most definitely deserve their own time to shine. Also, now that I have all my pieces home, I'll be taking more professional shots of stuff I've already shown here for portfolio reasons. So that might be part 2 of the art dump. But for now I'll show one more just cause I've been wanting to show this for a long time now. This is by far my most favorite piece for SO many reasons. :)
I now present to you:
"Healing"

Now, because I've gotten a ridiculous amount of people not knowing what it was when they first saw it, I'll provide the sketch to just in case. (I'm sure you could have figured it out on your own, I just can't believe so many cant see it with out having to explain in detail....)
Sketch
And now the real thing.
Made from soft slab clay technique and red iron oxide and bernard stain. If you still can't see them, it's understandable, but just to point out, I didn't make this to be obvious. Mostly I just let my emotions pour out and let it naturally flow as I was constructing.
This piece alone helped me learn to be true to myself and my emotions. Never will I have to justify my work to anyone else again. In this case, I REALLY don't care 'cause this piece is personal and has deep meaning to me and the only other person in this world that truly understands me. I believe she also shares this passion to this piece too. This is a dedication to that. (btw, that sketch was drawn in our notbook)

-Chris

Holy sh!t Omg! I'm just in awe. Dude NEVER let anyone get to you about your art. You effin rock! I love watching your art blossom. You NEED to show more. I KNOW you have more. I'll start showing sketches mid-next week hopefully.

-Amy

Balance and Unity

Plan to tackle the difficult when it is easy.
Undertake the great when it is small.
Begin the most difficult task in the world when it is still easy.
Begin the greatest task in the world when it is still small.
That is how the Sage becomes great without striving.
-Master Lao Tzu

As you can see I'm finally taking on the task of balancing out the blogs layout. It'll probably keep changing from time to time till I find a layout that makes seance and looks good. I think I'm getting there though. I found some nice templates and will keep trading those out till I find one that works with the over all idea of this blog.

On a side note......
*sings* Schooooooools out for summer!.................Schooooooooools out for ever!
(ok, well, until August at least ^^;)
That's right! Finals week is over! *finally taking a breath*
After much stressing, last minute cramming and project making...........yeah I was still working on assignments up till the night before they were due. ^^;
Even though I said I wouldn't procrastinate.......I did it anyways. lol
Oh well fuck it, non of that matters anymore cause I aced my tests and passed my art classes with both B+ :D (my attendance prevented me from getting an A, I need to start working on being a morning person lol)
Sadly the semester is over. It figures when I finally started to hit my stride. But I have some thing interesting planned for the summer that will help keep those skills sharp so that next semester no one will be able to touch me. heh
So till the next post, I'll explain more a little later, PLUS another art dump (part two) of more finals projects and some older pieces I have yet to show. So check back soon!

-Chris

Our Beautiful mother.......

Gaia!
Believe it or not, but I had no help from Amy on this one. lol Now after you see this Amy, I'm sure you wish you had. lol I'm not a hippy, nor a neopegan but I do love my planet.....ok maybe just a little neohippy. lol My idea for this sculpture didn't come into mind till probably a day before I made it because I had so many other ideas first. For some reason this version felt right. I can't take all the credit though, as I was working on it many of my class mates would stop to look and throw out a few ideas here and there. Funny enough, I listened to them all and used everyone. lol So what you see now is proaably a colaboration of 4 different peoples input. I just constructed it using my inagination from that input and suprisingly it came out pretty darn good. Ahh, who am I kidding, this is my favorite piece I've made so far! haha Ok, time for some pictures............
I give you the process of making Gaia:
Applying the stain only on textured tree parts:I think she looks pretty good, lets get her fired!
After a week and a few days of firing..........
Tada!! Ain't see gorgeious?! Fucking LOVE how the stain enhances the textre on the roots and trunk.
I'm very happy that this came out better then I thought, not only did it prove to myself that I'm capabale of making such things, I also no longer have to be afraid of expressing myself and making the things I really want to make without judgment. This deffinatly has to be my breakout piece. Usually every artist has one, I just wasn't sure when mine would come or even IF it would come. haha Well beggars can't be choosers. hehe
That's it for Gaia, but I'll probably have an Art Dump part 2 comming up VERY soon. Damn, I just have too much crap to show, thank god this semester is over in 3 days. Which reminds me, I need to start studying for finals. lol

-Chris

tragically beautiful

I wanted to share a quote...

"Bad art is more tragically beautiful than good art 'cause it documents human failure." - Tristan Reveur

That is so me! My updates here are going to suffer a bit... It's because I'm fixing my failure as a housekeeper. I'm an artist! I don't have time to clean! hehe The mess itself is beautiful chaos! But of course with fam coming over.... but I making it very artsy I promise. When an artist decorates... they DECORATE. Oh what fun my fam is in store. Bwuahhaa!

~Amy

Art Dump part 1

Sorry, no clever title this time.......
By popular demand (or because Amy keeps chewing my ass about it) a run down of what I've been working on this semester in my hand-building class.
*warning, another long post*
Just to briefly explain what it is this class is about, this is the application of basic building techniques used in clay. For example, coil form, pinch form, hard slab and soft slab. With those, you can construct any type of sculpture of your choice. Now with that out of the way, let us begin......

Fluted Ramen bowl with design to hold chop sticks (sorry for the crappy photos^^;)
This bowl was made using the pinch form, basically it started from a ball of clay about the size of a lemon. With out getting into too much detail you keep pinching out the sides till you get the thickness of the walls and the over all shape that you desire. Also if you are wondering about the glaze, part of this class is to introduce you to glazing history/application/techniques. For this bowl I went with a glaze called "Flambe Blue". If I had better lighting you can see that from the bottom it's a dark blue that starts to fade into a brilliant purple at the rim. Inside I used a stain(bernard), which in hindsight, was a mistake. It did not combine well with the glaze thus came out dirty looking. Oh well, lesson learned. hehe

Round Ramen bowl with same chop stick design:
As with the Fluted bowl, that is was pinched out with the same size of clay ball. Obviously the only difference is the shape. The glaze on this is called "Breaking Blue". Probably my ALL time favorite glaze. Since it has a high concentration of iron in it, during the firing process, the extremely high temperatures of the kiln cause a reaction of the metals inside the glaze to separate. In this case the iron typically likes to separate usually making very intricate and unique designs on the clay body. Thus getting a multi-colored picece. Again I also experimented with a Bernard stain on the inside that looks like shit and will never be attempted again. lol
As you can see I'm not a potter and probably never will be, nothing against the art, it's a beautiful one, but it's something that really doesn't speak to me or helps me really express myself as an artist.
Now for one of my pride and joys.......

I'm sure you are probably wondering what in the hell this thing is. Or you might have already thought it was a vase of some sort. lol Actually you aren't to far from the truth on that. This is actually an African Udu drum, which were originally fashioned from water jugs. This larger one I made (also made a smaller one that's currently being fired) was constructed using the coil technique. I purposely choose an Udu for this assignment cause in Africa they actually used the same technique, plus I've always wanted one, being the percussionist that I am. :) BTW, it's also playable. If you have never heard one of these then you REALLY should. The sound that resonates from these vessels are truely one of a kind. Oh and on he outside I used Red Iron Oxide stain and Celedon glaze on the inside, also a combination I'll never use again.

Now finally onto some pieces that I'm really proud of (so far....)
Geometric Tea PotThis is a good example ofwhat happends when you don't properly bond sperate pices together when they are still wet. During the bisque firing the handle of the pot popped off, luckily for me it didn't explode into a million pices. So I'll take a broken handle. :D
Time to pick a glaze.Breaking Blue it is!
Glaze in bowl with test tile showing the result (hopfully lol). Time to get glazing!
Violla! And just like that, it's comeplete and ready to dry on the racks in queue from the next glaze firing. lol Ok so I might have skipped the application step, but you wouldn't have really missed much and I would rather have not gotten glaze all over the camera. It's quite messy. :)

But what I mean by so far is that, as you can see, I still have yet to see the turn out on the final glaze firing. As I'm sure you've gather from my comments on my previous peices, not always will something turn out they way you'd expect it too. So with these, they could be complete works of art, or complete shit.......
Let's hope for the former. lol
Anyways, this first group of photos was taken to chronicle the steps of glazing a bisqued fired clay body, to application of the glazes it's self. The tea pot was constructed using the hard slab technique.
I've very much looking forward to seing how this one comes out for various reasons. One, because if the many flaws in it, so I'm rather curious if it'll make it through the final firing. And two, my professor has already given me high praise on the design . I'd rather not dissapoint him beacuse of the shotty craftsmanship. If all else fails, I'll just make another one.....

Well, I WAS going to post some photos of my final piece. But because I think so much of it, it deserves it's own post, oh and cause it's getting late and I'm getting tired and about to do a face plant into my keyboard any second. lol So stay tuned!
Oh yeah, Happy Mothers Day!!! (especially to you Amy!) :D

-Chris

The curious life of Mr. Chris

Not bad on the Malificent, not bad at all. Trust me when I say that you aren't alone on the mouse drawing. I think most of my carpal tunnel came from years of PS abuse before I finally broke down and got a tablet. Those things are a life (and wrist) saver. lol

Well, I said I wasn't going to introduce myself, but with the direction of this post I don't see much of a way around it. Part of what this blog is about is to share with my partner in crime what I do with myself. This time around I'm going give a little tour of my school life. So sit back and enjoy the sights and sounds and probably some tastes.............of what I like to call a little place, college. O.o

I actually have MUCH to be thankful for, for how I developed into the person and artist I am today because of my professor and the awesome people I get to share a student studio space with.
Enough with the emotions, now to some, questionable pictures............
Welcome to room 213 student storageThis is the back storage room for students to store in progress or finished works for grading at the end of the semester. Thank god we get all semester to work on syllabus assignments.
This is my shelf o'Crap!

Next up is the Glazing room.....Soon I'll be putting up some posts about the process of glazing your works with all the details and what not. For now I'll just show you the racks of wares, some still naked and some in the queue waiting to get their turn in the Kiln.
Glaze solutions waiting to be placed on someones beautiful works. ;) I'll also later explain the glazes and how they are made, so stay tuned. And no, you really don't want to eat that oatmeal, it might taste a little metallic, oh and kill you. haha

Now on to the patio/kiln area.......
Say hello to "Monkeybird", err my professor named her, thats not my idea. lol She is kinda the classes mascott now that she decided to freakin nest RIGHT next to the kilns........she may have to be moved later of she will end up turned into fried chicken and couple of eggs sunnyside up.....
Pottery drying in the sun to make it in time for the last Bisque firing of the sememster, as you can tell a few lame asses waited till the last min. to finnish up their stuff. lol Ok, so I was one of them too.......The ladies(kilns). And yes they are considered female, for with out them our creations would not be birthed into this world for us to eternally keep our precious works. (thought you'd like that Aims) The green one is "Marry Jane" the first small grey one is "Lulu". She's a spunky little electric kiln, you never know what's she's gunna do half the time, lucky for me she never made any of my works explode. I can't remember the rest of their names, but I do know they are all gass kilns! ^^;
Ah, my buddy James loading up the kilns with my babies. :) This guy is probably the coolest lab tech ever. It helps to make friends with your techs for there will be lesser chances of them to "accedently" drop one of your pieces. :DInside the kiln.

Well I think that about rounds up the little tour hear. If any one is still around. I probably bored Amy to sleep....lol. I'd like to do more of these with some other places that are important to me. But like I said I'll deffinatly have more posts on my semester projects with more details.
But for now I'm running late, I have a BBQ to get too. :D And I still need to show and get to the store to pick up some snacky snacks! Ok till next time!
-Chris

Where Love Rules

My name means love for starters. Bwuahaha.

Love is all! Sorry anime flashback...

I suggest the background be something wicked. Maybe what's her face from Sleeping Beauty. The evil queen... can you do that? you are much better at the back ground stuff than I am so you're better suited. I just think her color scheme is awesome and her voice is just... wow. That's evil right there. A chaotic evil. Very perfect. I'll just pretend I know what I'm talking about... and sit back and critique you like I'm better or something. But you'll see I'm not good at drawing with a computer mouse. I don't have one of those fancy sketch pads, but I think Maleficent turned out rather well for being drawn via mouse. TYVM. That was not easy! maybe I should just stick to pencil sketches... ni?

~Amy

Welcome to the Chaos!

Well, I finally got it started. Not sure who all is going to be reading this, so I guess I'm just talking to you Amy. lol If I wasn't excited about this project three weeks ago, I definitely am now. I already have about four or more posts planned out, so uhh, be prepared for a blog explosion this week. haha Don't worry, if you feel that it's too much of my crap, we'll work out something so that we can stagger our posts. In case anyone else IS actually reading this, I'm not talking to myself or am talking to my split peronality....or am I? I mean that is kinda the theme of this blog. lol Actually this site is owned by two real seperate intities. The more you read the more you'll start to see the differences in our insanity. hah!

To offically welcome everyone else to this dark corner of the internet, here you will find a sloo of creativity that will come in many shapes and forms. If the randomness of our conversation in past are of any indication, you can expect a WIDE range of topics being covered......hmm something tells me that I'll have to eventually turn on the adult content filter.........
But for the time being we'll stick with art and whatever happens to cross our paths that day.
So Amy, if you'd like to say something, just edit this post and add your input or do what I already know you are going to do and make a new post. lol Btw, you'll start to notice fast, she doesn't listen to me much...
I'm not going to go into too much detail about myself now cause you'll get to know more about me through my posts, and if only Amy reads this, then this will be a window to my everyday life, which is the point of this project. :) Hope you enjoy!

Oh and soon, I'm going to making some custom changes to the background and what not, this place isn't crazy enough for me. If you have any ideas for a look let me know, or ideas for anythig else.

And now for the random picture of the day, "Tall guy on a small bike"