Since KU...

Since graduating from The University of Kansas in May, I have been extremely busy.  After working with Israel Davis at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in June, I accepted a teaching position at South Carolina State University.  In my first year as an Assistant Professor of Ceramics, I have been trying to organize the ceramics studio, write curricula, and continue to make work.  The experience has been stressful, informative, and has really allowed me to grow as an educator.

In my first semester, I am teaching five classes; Ceramics I, Art Appreciation, 3D Design Fundamentals, Art Education Seminar I, and Art Education Seminar II.  With a wide variety of classes, I have had to fall back on all of the education that I have received, including my past experience as a public-school educator.  Prepping for this many classes has become a job of itself.  I am so thankful for my education from Truman State University in really preparing me to create curricula that are interdisciplinary and required me to take the beginning sections of all of the studios in Truman’s program. 

Also preparing me for my current position was all of the teaching and studio maintenance experience from the University of Kansas.  Working closely with the studio technician is something that allows me to do my job both as an educator and maintaining a ceramics studio, welding area, and a woodshop.  Go hang out with Joe at KU and you can learn a ton.

As far as my own work and research, I have been working on ideas of bringing the screen-printed imagery and process to the sculptural work similar to that of my thesis.  I am beginning to draw more and work some of that drawing on to my surfaces as well.  I am excited to get some of this work through the kilns and cannot wait to have more time dedicated to the studio as winter break approaches.

I have been lucky to have been selected in a few exhibitions but have neglected to share that information with the public.  At the beginning of the semester, I was part of the Kansas City Clay Guild’s Teabowl National, and The Almighty Cup Show at Gandee Gallery, in Fabius, New York.  Two of my sculptural pieces were selected for the Biennial Sculpture Exhibition at the Tryon Fine Arts Center in Tryon, North Carolina.  Below is a photo from the show in Tryon and shows the slaking qualities of, A Tall Drink .

A Tall Drink. stoneware, porcelain, water. 36” x 14” x 66”, 2017.

Currently and opening on Friday, December 1st, Remnants of Sunday Meals, will be on display as part of the Fine Contemporary Craft Exhibition at Artspace Gallery, in Raleigh, North Carolina.

As we move towards winter break, I plan to get a good amount of work completed, both pots and sculptural work.  I am also working a few proposals for exhibitions and applications for summer residencies.  I am looking forward to the next few months with great anticipation and will be sharing a good amount of images via Instagram.

Collaboration and Consulting with KU Architecture

In the past year, I have been lucky to be a consultant and collaborator on a few projects completed in the University of Kansas Architecture Department.  Things all started as a work trade situation with Professor Keith Van de Riet.  I was helping with some technical ceramic skills for the architecture students in his class and in return, I could sit in on some Rhino 3D tutorials.  After getting some basics, learning Rhino takes a bunch of practice.  As I was trying to get a bunch of work done on my thesis, I cannot say that I kept up with the architecture students.  I did, however, get a bunch out of teaching the students how to make plaster molds and advising them on how to make their models better for mold making.

A one part mold being made from CNC milled piece of foam

Students pressing clay into the molds

After the students pressed the molds, and they made a ton of tiles, each tile was fired and then assembled together.  This project was fantastic and the final outcome looked amazing.  An article about the project can be found HERE, it has all the names for credit on this project.  Another article can be found HERE.  Some final photos of the project are below.

In keeping with the technology and clay theme of this project, I invited the students into my studio to see my ceramic 3D printer.  In talking with Keith, his curiosity grew and he soon asked me to build him a 3D printer for his research, to further this project, and to have the tool over in KU Architecture.  With the skills that I learned from Bryan Czibesz in the summer of 2016, I built a printer with Keith yesterday and the completed all black design is pictured below.  Overall, I am kind of sad to be leaving KU just as I am finding some really interesting paths of collaborating and consulting.  As much as KU Art and KU Architecture and Design are divided, there are ways to work together and share the resources of both schools.  I am very glad that I was able to get this opportunity to not only share some ceramic techniques and skills but also to make connections and see ceramics working in a different capacity than I usually see or recognize. 

The all black color schemed 3D ceramic printer for Keith Van de Riet and KU Architecture

New Work and New Experiences

Hello Everyone,

I just spent a fantastic week at Arrowmont School of Art and Crafts, in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  I was there assisting a good friend, Israel Davis.  He was leading a workshop called Objects and Images.  In the workshop, participants created images from drawings and photos to put them in a screen printing matrix to transfer the images to clay in a couple different ways.

Israel is giving a demo on how to screen print onto newsprint with underglaze for a newprint transfer.

In his own work Israel screenprints directly onto clay with underglaze and also used newsprint transfers that have been screen printed.  The workshop was amazing and all of the participants seemed to get a ton of information amd inspiration out of the workshop.  I got a bunch out of it as well.

I met Israel at Anderson Ranch in 2015 and have stayed in contact.  I brought him as a visiting artist to the University of Kansas in early 2016 where he did a two day workshop alongside Bede Clarke.  From then on, I have just stayed in touch and talked with him about his work, life changes, his growing makers space, and his business, Funfalife.  I am so glad he asked me to assist him in this workshop at Arrowmont.  It was a great way to catch up and just enjoy his company.

Israel and Bede killing it in a demo for the students at the Univeraity of Kansas. 

During my time at Arrowmont, I was able to turn my brain on in a different way and think about pots again. It was nice and I ended up making quite a bit of work.  I value time like this a bunch, as it is a great way to reset,  especially after a thesis exhibition.  Below are some pots from my time and I will end this post with a little advice.  Keep in contact with people.  Between the time at Arrowmont helping Israel and another friend Rob Lugo doing a workshop at the same time, it is so important to make friendships and stay in contact.  I could and should do another post talking about how much help, how many critiques, and conversations I have had from and with Rob.