Dutch artist: Paula Bastiaansen

Coral Vessel 8X6X6

Object 2, 2011 H 50 cm

Object, 2009 50 cm

Object, 2010 60 cm

Movement is central to Bastiaanssen's work. Bastiaansen has explored the many problems associated with the use of porcelain. This might be of some interest to Maeve, Zarah or Danielle as her chosen medium is porcelain.

Rebecca Nelemans, an Art Historian, captures the essence of Paula Bastiaansen’s work with the following words:
‘This tactile seduction is swept away by the awareness that any touch would be too rude, too brute for this egg-shell-thin object.
It is exactly that fragility that heightens the spectator’s feeling that he is catching a glimpse of infinity.’ (source: http://www.paulabastiaansen.com/work/unica/unica.html)

Below is a link to a piece I wrote before Christmas about Dutch artist Paula Bastiaansen's work before Christmas.



http://robertdelaneyceramics.wordpress.com/2013/11/07/paula-bastiaansens-work-with-porcelain/

Work in Progress: Autumnal Waters

My work with clay lately has focused on the transition of time. The piece I am working is a rusted cog enveloped in a whirl of water. The idea is that the cog symbolises time, the rust on the cog symbolizes the passing of time and the water which  surrounds the cog creates a continuity between time and the passing of time.

My source piece for this project: a cog

Movement is an important aspect my piece. I want to create a sense of movement and flow to mimic the continuity between time and the passing of time. It was hard to try and mimic the idea of water and the continuity of time into clay.  Dutch artist Paula Bastiaansen work captures movement effortlessly and elegantly.  Her works helped me to convey the movement of water in my project.

 The colour of the glazes I used give an aged look to the piece. The glaze I chose for the cog give a aged, torn, bent and rusted look to the cog. I choose autumnal colours for the glazes. There is a matt like finish to the glazes. I plan on experimenting more with the glazes for the water of my piece.

Autumnal Waters

I chose the title ‘Autumnal Waters’ for this piece. Changes in seasons marks the passing of time. The colours of this piece are autumnal. Water is the link in my piece between the past and the present. I feel the title captures the essence of this project.

Susan Meyer: Plato's Retreat

Plato's Retreat

Susan Meyer is a Denver based ceramic artist. Meyers  Plato’s Retreat is influenced by Brutalist architecture and Corbusier’s machine for living.  This piece has both sculpture and video.

Her work is geometric, similar to modernist architecture.

Architecture and nature are side by side. The piece echoes a sense of abandonment and of not belonging. You feel as if people had lived there and left a foot print of their presence.

There is beauty in the harness of the piece. Light strokes of colour and green trees bring life to Meyer’s work.

‘Alluding to landscape, architecture and folly, Meyer creates visually and metaphorically rich sculptural works that reflect the fluctuations of our culture’ (http://www.artaxis.org/statements/meyer-susan.pdf). 

Below is other examples of Meyer's work

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'Dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants': learning from other artists.

Amy gave an insight into artist Kristin Schimik. Schimik work focuses on the transformation of clay through time. This is relevant to my work in the sense that my work focuses on the transformation of a piece over time. In my work the rust on the cog shows this transformation.

Kristin Schimik

Amy also talked of Japanese born artist Shoji Satake. Nature is central to his work just as nature has always been central to my work with clay. 

Shoji Satake

Novie Trump an artist that Dominic explored the cycles of life in his work. He explained how Trump crafts 'intimate narratives that explore the cycles of life in nature'. The title of the piece that I am working on at the moment is called "Autumnal Waters". Autumn to me is symbolic of a cycle of life. I like also how there is movement in Trumps piece by the way the ceramic pieces hang by a thread in the image above. Movement features in my work through the use of water as a link between the old and the new, as a marking of time.

Novie Trump. 

Erica Iman, an artist featured on Saoirse's blog mimics the processes of nature. I find it interesting the way Iman pieces seem to almost be eroded by time. This would be relevant to my work.

Erica Iman

Molly featured the artist J.J Mc Cracken on her blog. She writes how Mc Craken's work focuses 'on the living experience - making and consuming, loss and the passage of time. Again the passage of time is of interest to my work and how other artists convey the passage of time. 

J.J. MC Cracken

  

Heather Nameth Bren: Defying the Boundaries of Clay

Heather Nameth Bren is a ceramic artist who questions ceramics itself and it's boundaries. She describes her work as a 'collision of formalism and abstrast expressionism' (www.heathernamethbren.com).

Bren finds inspiration for her work from ceramic artist Peter Voulkos and ceramic sculpturer Robert Amesen.  Voulkos explore forms in his work and this exploration of form is also evident in Bren's work.

Bren questions the value of ceramic art and what makes a piece more valuable than another piece of more beautiful.

My current body of work, non object of little value explore biases and hierarchies in life that are parrelled in clay art. In such an object-dominant utilitarian field. I question the preconceived notions and boundaries that are placed on and accepted by ceramics and art. (www.heathernamethbren.com)
 

Her work is fearless. She does not concern herself with value and beauty. Bren uses 'the body and the vessel as inspiration'. She brings new life to old pieces whether it's using a cast off scrap clay or re-glazing an old piece.

In her artist's statement she describes her technique for creating pieces as: 'many of my ceramic forms are a result of large sweeping gestures or aggressive slamming and jamming.' (www.heathernamethbren.com) This technique seems to bring about a sense of movement in her work. Some of Bren's work looks like it's about to fall off it's display.

Bren finds similarities and links between clay and painting. Colour is central to her work. And like her technique in moulding the clay into shape, colour creates a flow and movement her in piece. Colour also creates texture in her work as she layers colour onto her ceramic pieces. The layered painting style gives almost a tactile nature to her work. You almost want to touch it.

Bren has a particular interest in the ceramics movement in California:

I continue to engage the driving force behind the ceramic movement in California in the 50s: studying not the field but its limits, and defining these limits for the purpose of extending them' (Brian O'Doherty, Inside the White Cube).

I find Bren's work intriguing. There is a nice flow or movement in her work. Her use of colour and pattern are unique and interesting. I find it interesting how she reuses and recyle materials in her pieces. This is something that I would like to explore in my own work. I like how Bren is consciously trying to bring something new to ceramics and to clay.