Wrapping it all up!

Friday was spent getting ready for the art show. Helping people mat work, placing and moving pottery and grabbing appetizers from the dining hall. It was an exhausting and busy day. I also explained my art installation to my tennis team...great preparation for my plans this week, telling Daisy what it all means and working on a video with Ethney for my environmental concentration capstone project. This week was, again, very successful. I finished my installation, wrote a detailed installation statement and video taped/edited peoples reactions to my installation into a 10 minute video. I learned how to mat studio art work and helped many people finish off their art for the term. And I did my final round(s) of glazing for my time here a Proctor. There were no breaks this week, even though the vast bulk of my work and hours were already done. There is always more to do, at least when you're Frances O'Gorman. For now here is my own video, for those of you dying to know "what is means" this may help without me personally explaining everything to you.  *May 24, 2015 - 10:30 pm*  What it all means. Deciphering an installation.

Writing. Editing. Glazing.

The day was spent doing the three things listed above. After a beautiful night sleeping at Mud Pond, I hiked down ready to edit some more video footage and continue to write, write, write. I have finished my installation statement which I am very glad to be done with. All the video footage I have right now is put together, but I am hoping to get more in the next few days. This afternoon, I finished up my glazing for the year...unbelievable! Tomorrow I will put together my table at the art show, work on getting more video and my self evaluation. Oh, and of course go to Polar Swim!!

What Does It All Mean?

This is the question of the week. Today I continued to work on my installation write up, which is very difficult because there are so many details to recount. Then I met with Tom Morgan to talk about Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas for my literature independent, but most of our time was spent looking at my installation and him trying to figure out what it all means. Luckily I caught this entire reaction on video. After lunch I worked on my portfolio online, adding my photography and then I transferred the video footage to my computer. After watching all the footage, I began to put it together. It is fascinating to connect the reactions together, the video is not done yet, but my goal is be able to show it to people who want to know the meaning. Because when you put everyone's reactions together it is also clear what I see in the installation.  *May 20, 2015 - 6:50pm*

A Rainy Tuesday Morning and A Sunny Tuesday Afternoon

This morning I awoke at Mud Pond to excessive rain (6:09am) and in a sleepy has of annoyance recorded a brief video highlighting my thoughts on the situation (below). After waiting in my tent until 7:45am, the rain finally slowed down enough for me to hike back to campus, with out a rain jacket, relatively dry. My day was spent figuring out what I am going to write for my installation explanation and how I am going to explain my thoughts to the rest of the world...scary! I got off to a good start and also compiled my materials list (which is excessively long). This afternoon, I went to the tech office to borrow a video camera from Jim, so that I can record peoples reaction to my installation - my very favorite part of this entire project! Photos of the installation below!

A Marvelous MONDAY

Wow. Lots of work accomplished today! In fact besides the written component, my installation is complete. Everything came together today and the result is, in my opinion magical. Of course there will probably a few things I will tweak and add throughout the week, but my main goal is to focus on my written statements and notes. This will probably be the most difficult part of the project for me, as the power and presence of the installation cannot really be put into words. Stop by and see it for yourself! Tonight I sleep up at the Mud Pond Shelter...Hooray! *May 18, 2015 - 4:45pm*

Weekly Reflection

My plan and vision for the installation has changed quite a bit this week, but I have been pleasantly surprised with the outcome. Hanging up the fabric for the "sky" was a real turning point, softening and creating a space of my own. The most frustrating part of my week was figuring out where the tiles were going to go and struggling to get them in and out of the wall. Although the result was distinctly different from what I had envisioned, in the end I am much happier with how it looks. Once I had decided to change my plan for the tiles, I then was faced with a new problem: what to do with a large empty wall. My first idea was to hang fabric strips which I made and hung up, but after hanging the ceiling fabric up the space felt so different that I decided to change my plan for that wall completely. Instead I continued my paper theme from the back wall, and continued to collage away. So far the result is lovely, but I am not done yet! On the agenda for this week: finish collage on left wall, finish up gluing toilet (gravity is both natural and frustrating), finish up floor displays, sweep, spot paint floor, arrange sitting area, set up "mailbox", collect notes for "mailbox", come up with a title/put title somewhere, and write up what it is all about! Ahh so close, yet so far away!

A New Sky. Oh Me, Oh My.

This morning I was scheduled to meet with two english teachers (Peter and Tom). Both ditched me, but despite this misfortune I was able to carry on. I used this newly acquired time to tie my fabric strips together and hang them up. At first I really liked this affect, but once I hung up my fabric sky, it just didn't feel right. So I got my sky all situated perfectly, took down the other fabric and began to tear up more paper for my new collage idea. Accordingly, the rest of the day was (mostly) spent tearing up books. This evening, I got down to business and began the glueing process. Boy, I have gone through a lot of glue in the past two weeks. Results are pictured below, for full affect stop by and step into a new world.

*May 15, 2015 - 10:00pm*

A Tree and a Tiled Wall

The big feat for the day was finishing the tree. This took most of the morning, but it came out much better than I expected and completes that corner. My fabric arrived today and I am very excited to put it up first thing tomorrow, once I get my hands on some tacks. I also put up the majority of the tiles and am just waiting for the final two to come out of the glaze kiln tomorrow. The toilet is starting to re-crack, in the areas I anticipated, so I will be putting on a new layer of clay in the next few days. I also collected clothing for the bottom of Eco Dorm's free clothing bin (aka freeco), that I have cut up into long strips and begun to tie together. These will hang on the left wall and will mimic the shape of mountains or stalactites. Lots of things to be finished up tomorrow, but I can sense that it will all be coming together soon.

Throwin', Trimmin' and Plannin' a Wall

Much throwing was done today...eight bowls. A very therapeutic experience. Kate and I started to brainstorm ideas for my now empty and very large wall. Update on the tiles: I have moved them to the small wall, the ones that are still in the kiln will be put up tomorrow. They fill that wall much better and are more of a cohesive unit. In other news, the toilet continues to dry - much slower this time, but the crackling is appearing, which has a pleasing affect. The blue fabric should arrive tomorrow, which once up will really draw the space together. This evening I trimmed all the bowls I made this morning and a vase from the other day, very rewarding work. Sometimes you just need to throw and trim a bunch of stuff to make your day better and get you back in the groove. Below is the finished video that Grace Hovem created of me for her journalism class last Saturday...Enjoy!


saturday am w Frances from Grace Hovem on Vimeo.
*May 13, 2015 - 8:50pm*

When Your Vision Turns to S***

Thoughts for today mostly include bad words and a general sense of repulsion. The tiles don't screw into the wall easily. Once they're up, this look horrible. I quite literally want to smash all of them except maybe two. That means I want to smash 93.1% of the work I spent the last three weeks prepping. Although, the majority of the work I have done in the past week has been on other things, these tiles have been a time sink that started two weeks before senior project. A ceramics installation with barely any ceramics? Is that even possible? I have lots of rethinking and revisiting to do. But in the end, it is an installation of who I am, what I see, and how this crazy mind of mine works and just because I like making pottery doesn't mean that is who I am. *May 12, 2015 - 3:00pm*

A Peaceful Monday

My vision continues to become a reality. 

Slow and steady wins the race.

Or so they say.

Who are they anyway?

A bit of glazing to start off my morning.

Planting of a bulb,

picking of leaves,

and the filling of bottles followed.

Bottles lined up,

like ducks following their mother.

A toilet finished up.

A sitting area found.

Tiles to be hung tomorrow.

A tree to be finished.

And a sky to be hung.

Stars to come?

Tonight I'll be with Lulu,

cozy at Mud Pond.

For now, the air humid and heaving,

is hanging above. 

*May 11, 2015 - 4:30pm*

Work on the Weekend

Saturday morning was filled almost entirely by glazing tiles. During this time I was "shadowed" by Gracie Hovem for her journalism class...a video clip for her project will come. This was followed by a bit of "foraging" and then some intricate organization of natural items into entirely different shapes. Sunday was mostly a day of rest, but after dinner I rushed back to the art studio and worked on the bottom section the toilet. These hot days have been horrible for drying clay slowly and so many sections have cracked off. I set up a better drying area after working last night, but only time will tell.

*May 11, 2015 - 10:15am*

A Day of Work and A Few Weekly Musings

First off, let me say that Friday's are ALWAYS the best...because of polar swim of course. So after an early AM swim across Elbow and back, a sweat in the sauna and a rowdy rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody, I was more than ready to hop around campus in search of natural objects in a variety of colors. Red berries, dandelions, green leaves, orange dried pine needles, white birch bark...well you get the idea. This idea came to be in a "vision" I had last night, I'm not ready to reveal the full details but it will reflect the image colors from the collage wall. Then I got to work in the installation room itself, starting to create my paper bag tree in the corner, it looks great so far, but I definitely need more brown paper bags! In other news, a few of the wall tiles came out of the glaze kiln this morning and they are looking great. I'm very excited to see them all together, but we have a few more firings to go before that happens. For the afternoon I had the wondrous opportunity to throw with Kate Jones, literally a four year dream in the making. After that, I spent the rest of my afternoon cleaning and painting the floor a second time, as I hope to start working on my floor display tomorrow - no this will not be a department store. Although this may seem to be excessively time consuming, it was very rewarding as it now looks perfect. 

This week has been a whirlwind, but I can see my crazy vision unfolding in front of me as a reality. The collage wall looks better than I ever imagined it to be. The room is all painted. I have a toilet and it is covered with clay. The tree is started. I have a plan for the floor. The tiles are on their way. I have fabric for the ceiling picked out. And most importantly, everything has been done with the utmost attention for detail, so as I pick up speed next week everything should fall into place perfectly. I had hoped that the tiles would be done, but it is hard to fit more than four or five in the kiln at once and there is just no way to change that! I honestly hadn't thought it would be that hard to find a used toilet and after a few weeks of search I was beginning to loose hope...then I just found one on the side of the road. Next week my plan is to continue to power through. I hope to have the tiles all up, fabric hung and the floor display all finished...In the meantime, if you have any mussel shells or blue sea glass to donate to the cause let me know! Blue is hard to find! *May 8, 2015 - 8:40 pm*

A Day of Rest and Toilets

My day of rest turned out to be one of the most exciting and productive yet...I finally found my toilet. Yes, for two weeks I have been actively on the search for an old, used toilet. And today, I came across two! Of course, I only took one and with some hauling help I brought it back to Slocumb. A through cleaning ensued and then I just went at it. I applied used clay (pots that had been formed and discarded to one day be reprocessed) to the entire surface of the toilet, then followed that up with a smoothing of the entire thing, though the inside I decided to leave rough. After dinner I finished up the surface and filled in the rest of the wall. A very exciting day, as I have been looking forwarding to this experiment for a while. *May 7, 2015 - 9:30pm*
P.S. The two videos below are time lapses of me working on the toilet today! Fun stuff man!

Where Did All That Mod Podge Go?

First off - a picture of my set up at mud pond and a quick video that demonstrates how beautiful mornings are there (sound is a MUST for this).

My plan for today was to squeeze lots of work into the small window of time before heading off to our tennis match. However, an early arrival in the AM gave provided plenty of time to tear up a few more books, glaze a few bowls and paste said books up on the back wall of the installation space. I also measured the ceiling size, picked out a fabric to cover it with and gathered a trash bag full of pine cones from outside the math office. Kate and I had a few moments of realization, that lead us to decide that it will be better for me to work only on the indoor installation space. That way I can spend more time making it into what I want and we don't have to worry so much about squeezing in all of the firings. In the evening, I trimmed my six vases, tore up more books and continued to paste. Which is a bit harder with Elmer's glue, now that all that mod podge is gone. The image below is from mid-day...always more work to go...it's all in the details. *May 6, 2015 - 10:20pm*

Art is Not Eternal My Friends

I awoke early this morning to bird song and sunrise, boiled some water for tea and then sat in my crazy creek near the ponds edge. After spending some time rearranging, I put on my shorts and started my journey back towards campus. Despite a slightly chilly, windy morning, the air soon warmed up and by the time I got back to campus, I was ready to take a dip in Blackwater. So I did a quick switch-a-roo into my bathing suit and towel and plunged in. It was a morning without human connection, of many animals and of new spring growth, and yet it was only 7:30am. Breakfast was eagerly consumed (I had already been up for almost two hours), along with a second cup of tea, before I headed off to Slocumb.

Checking in on the vases I had made yesterday was the first order of business, but after that my paint clothes were donned and the perfectly white installation space became dirt brown. This was not an easy task, as the space is primarily composed of nooks and crannies. While leaving the space to dry a bit, I worked on texturing my vases - each different, but all fitting together to form a unit. For now there is only six, but soon there will be more (the primary project for tomorrow). By the time I finished with that the floor and back wall were dry - thank goodness spring has finally arrived! So, I pulled out my box filled with eleven used yogurt containers - each containing torn images from the science departments old text book, luckily I had already done all of the searching, tearing and sorting by color - and began to paste the found images on the wall. I finished up the collage after lunch and am very pleased with the result. Lots of work still to do!  *May 5, 2015 - 5:00pm*

Planning, Throwing and Painting.

A sunny day started with some early morning planning for my nature based art installation that will one day be at home outside. I rummaged through many ceramic books, and found that I was drawn to vases. But there was a problem, how to combine individual vessels into a large installation that could later be separated. So after taking pictures of many vases, Kate and I spent some time brainstorming ways to overcome this. The current idea is to throw a bunch of things that then push them up against each other, so that they fit together, but are still individual pieces. This will also create an intriguing texture and shape on each. So next, I got down to some throwing - six medium sized vases. Which took a while, but was very rewarding. After lunch, the installation space was freed up and I set up to start painting the whole room white again. Despite some heavy red spray paint, this was very successful. This room will be to the nature based indoor installation that I have already been working on for a few weeks. Tomorrow I will paint it brown and later start installing tiles. These two installations will make up the bulk of my work in the next few weeks, as they are both labor intensive. This afternoon I head up to the Greg (aka the mud pond shelter) to set up my tent, spend the night there and get more inspiration for both of my installations.  *May 4, 2015 - 3:45 pm*