October Recap
- Norah Kate Art
- Oct 30, 2024
- 3 min read
Hello everyone! Happy spooky season! So much has happened thes month in my personal life any my art life and I'm so excited to share! Thanks to everyone who checked out the last post and helpfully answered my poll at the end. Stay tuned for more fun questions a the end of this one!
Firstly, and probably most boringly for you all who are here for the art stuff, I found my wedding dress. It was an amazing experience and the consultant who helped me find my dress, was one of my clemson friends sisters. What are the odds of that? I think its these little moments of community that are my favorite thing about life on earth.
I also wrapped up my first class with the City of Clemson Art center. It was my first time teaching a full blown class by myself and I had such a fun time. I got so lucky to be with an amazing group of students, who worked hard and didn't let the clay intimidate them. This is a video of the work before its final firing but I'm truly just so proud. Its hard to know where to start when it comes to teaching, but I decided to run it like a mini version of my first ceramics class, shoutout to John Cummings, and I think my students learned a lot.
If you as an artist have the opportunity to teach anywhere, take it. I think it shows you so much about what you don't know and also a lot about what you do. Don't let the imposter syndrome get you, it is so worth it to share and the world needs your knowledge!
I also began working on making my mini croc molds. The community really rallied around me in my time of need to make this happen. The day that crocs collaborated with Mcdonalds to make these mini keychains avaliable in their happy meals, half of the people in my life made sure I knew. Family and studio members donated to the cause so that I could get my hands on a few of them to make molds of.
The actual process of making the molds was very simple, at least in comparison to making the full sized croc, becasue the mold only required 2 parts. I have begun production on these little guys and can't wait to have them available. I'll make sure to update this page so you can check them out as soon as they are!
In other ceramic news, this new body of work came out of the kiln. I ended the spring semester by doing a lot of reflecting on my previous work and what I want to say. I found that the common theme in all of my art was always an element of experimentation and a heavy focus on the process. I found my footing in art by making collages, mixed media peices full of ink, trash, and old books. I used anthing I could get my hands on to just make. I wanted to bring this love of making and spontenaity back into my ceramic work.
For some reason I decided slipcasting was the way to do it. Slipcasting and moldmaking is normally considered very technical and precise. Maybe my tendancy to just try and disrupt things is what drew me to it or maybe it was just the idea of making things fast. I love the thought of having a library of mold pieces with different textures and items to quickly pull from to make work.
I love how the forms come out. I love how you can never get the same cup twice, which is antithetical to the purpose of slipcasting. However, the glaze on this first batch isn't hitting the spot. I'm going to attempt to refire them in an atmospheric environment, either the wood kiln or the soda kiln, to see if I like the results better. This method will be almost innaccesible to me once I am out of school, but the work demands what the work demands. Stay tuned to see how these evolve!
I also finally finished this painting! I feel really proud of it and I'm also so happy that it is over. I can't wait to move away from still lifes, as we begin to make more conceptual work in the class.
Thank you for listening to my rambling! I am going to continue to make these recaps once a month, but if there is anything you would like to know more about, please feel free to reach out to me. I would love to answer your question, and can happily make other blog posts with technical info for you all! Anyway, now its time for the poll. (Speaking of polls, I better see you all out there voting. For democracy!)
Are you dressing up for Halloween?
yes and my costume is cooler than yours
no because dressing up is for babies
it depends on if I fall into a candy coma first
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