Back in mid-2018, DASH Literary Journal published my painting All Out. DASH editors recently reached back out to me to request my permission to republish it in their best-of retrospective DASH Special Edition 2021 to be published in December. I said yes, and provided updated contact information for the new contributor copies they kindly send out. Those just arrived in the mail!
Well, last week we wrapped up the Fall 2021 semester, and next up is Spring 2022! I will be teaching Graphic Design I, Painting I, Painting II, Graphic Design Internship, Advanced Studies in Drawing, Graphic Design, and Sculpture, and Senior Art Seminar.
As we were critiquing all the student animations turned in for my ART 210 Graphic Design I final, one piece prominently displayed the Photoshop twirl filter.
I commented to the class that when I see that filter, I recall how it was used by an infamous pedophile to hide his identity online, but international police managed to reverse it enough to allow for identification which then led to his capture.
My students were like, “huh,” and then we moved on with the critique.
The twirl filter applied to my most recent “baked potato” raku-fired bowl. Scroll down to see it unaltered.
You got a sneak peek at some of my recent raku work in my exhibition shots from Functional Aesthetic, but here is the full reveal!
Above are three photos of one “baked potato” bowl. I used my own hair again as well as sugar for the carbonized marks on this piece.
This vase is very difficult to photograph well; it’s currently on exhibit, but once it comes back I’m going to see if I can capture it a bit better digitally. A couple of my friends who viewed the show said this was their favorite piece of mine. The way the glaze dots turned out reminds me of inset abalone shell.
This piece certainly didn’t turn out as planned; I experimented with a turquoise crackle glaze, but I really did not like the way the color came out, so we went ahead and re-fired it. I much prefer this hammered copper look!
This above bowl is decently large, and I chose to do the outside in a relatively matte glaze while the inside is a high gloss. It gives me dragon egg vibes. The Functional Aesthetic curator placed this piece in the choicest display spot, and I learned today that it was sold! I did see a viewer admiring it and gesturing to and around it at the reception, so I wonder if she’ll be providing its new home or if a different patron snapped it up.
This above vessel is kind of football-shaped, and its surface reminds me of a somewhat aged/stained city map. It has my own hair and sugar burned into the white crackle surface. I am quite into this piece.
I was really excited about how this piece turned out, as it’s adding into the “broken egg” series of clear crackle pieces I’m developing. The shape is hard to convey in photo, but it leans in a way that feels quite anthropomorphic - at least to me!
This bowl was intended to be another in the “broken egg” series, but it cracked coming out of the kiln due to the thermal shock and my thin walls. That’s more literal than I’d like for the “broken eggs” to be. It is still in one piece, but even after I epoxy over the crack (which I plan to do to bolster its structural integrity), it will have that weakness as it’s a fairly sizeable crack. I’m not sure if given the severity of the crack if I’ll want to display this piece, but if I do I plan to list it as NFS (not for sale).
And here is yet another casualty; however, this football-shaped vessel’s crack is more minor.
I haven’t updated you on Ashlar - my pet gargoyle gecko - in a while, but she’s doing very well! Ash is a little over three years old, has a strong preference for the Fig & Insects Pangea Gecko Diet, changes color regularly, and makes full use of her vivarium. Here are a few new photos of her!
The reception for my Functional Aesthetic juried group show at the Le Mars Arts Center was really nice! I met some of the other exhibiting artists, and a group of my friends attended as well - then afterwards, we went out to dinner!
Here is an exhibition advertisement and a few photos of my five pieces in the show. In both the ad and the show design, my ceramics earned center stage! I was pretty pleased about that, since this is my first professional juried exhibition of ceramics; I only began working in the discipline in 2020 so it’s fulfilling to have my work in this field be received well so quickly. I haven’t even finished editing my portfolio images of all of my newest raku ceramics, so these pictures give you a sneak peek at some of my most recent ones.
Functional Aesthetic is still up for another couple of weeks, so please check it out if you’re in the area!
My chromatogram “Literal Landscapes - Whiterock Conservancy 7, Fig Ave” was accepted into the juried online group exhibition Vibrant Landscapes hosted by Red Bluff Art Gallery (which is located in Red Bluff, CA).
You can check the virtual exhibition out here! For anyone who finds that virtual exhibition format hard to use, I’ve included a screenshot of my own “wall” in the Lovely Landscapes room of the Vibrant Landscapes exhibition below.
Well, this is a real reservoir problem: in an Iowa study of hundreds of deer sampled between April 2020 and January 2021, eighty percent tested positive for COVID-19.
This is a milestone - I have my first ever juried ceramics exhibition which will be at the Le Mars Arts Center later this month. I only began working with the discipline of ceramics in 2020, and so this is an exciting development. I will have five handbuilt pieces from my raku firings in July and October 2021 on display in this Functional Aesthetic group show.
Functional Aesthetic will be open from November 9 - December 18th, 2021. The opening reception will be Friday, November 12th from 5-7pm.
The Le Mars Arts Center is located at 200 Central Ave SE, Le Mars, IA 51031. Contact info: 712-546-7476, lemarsarts@gmail.com, www.lemarsarts.com. Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday 1-5pm, Thursday 1-7pm, Saturday 10am-4pm.
I’ve been posting about my raku productivity of late, but I have also continued to make stoneware pottery too!
I really like the combination of two glazes - standard Cone 6 recipes for a white and “smoky brown.” I particularly like the crawling that frequently results. I sometimes add in a complementing lighter grey glaze which is a discard mix of my own creation and therefore likely very difficult to reproduce once gone.
Below are eight different pieces. They include, respectively, a bowl, two images of a planter, two more of a second bowl, a third bowl, two images of a dish, a fourth bowl, two images of a fifth smaller bowl, and two images of a sixth bowl.
I am extremely happy and honored to announce that I have earned tenure at Morningside University. I came in on a shortened tenure clock due to having already earned tenure and promotion at my previous institution, so this news comes in my third year here at Morningside University as Art Department Chair and Associate Professor of Art!
In that time - even in a pandemic - I have experienced the professionalism, academic excellence, support, and warmth of the Morningside community in an abundance of ways. I look forward to continuing my work and service as I join the ranks of the tenured Morningside faculty!
I have artwork in the upcoming group exhibition Haunted, hosted by the Vermillion Area Arts Council at the Washington Street Arts Center (located at 202 N Washington St, Vermillion, South Dakota).
This show will run from October 24-31, 2021 from 6:30-8:00pm, if you’d like to stop by and check it out! Entry fee to the exhibition will be $2 for VAAC members or $5 for non-VAAC members. Masks will be required.
I have another raku workshop coming up on October 16th, and it should be a fun one - we’ll be bringing 6-7 Morningside artists, including alumni, faculty, and current students. I decided to apply earlier this fall to the Morningside Faculty Development Committee Conference Travel Fund to help cover my costs for this one, since doing these regularly does add up financially. My request was approved!
Morningside’s 15th annual Into the Streets event took place today; we had over 800 Morningside students, faculty, and staff volunteer with non-profit organizations across the region! I volunteered with Art Club students, and we brainstormed display changes and restored the Lila Mae's House Break the Silence exhibit, which raises awareness about sex trafficking.
I only did one crackle piece (and this time, I went with the natural crackle as opposed to the white) this go-round, but it is my favorite of all of the pieces from either raku workshop. In fact, in a sense I think this might be my first professional piece of ceramic artwork. Or perhaps ceramic object.
What I mean by that is that so far, my ceramic studio practice has involved experimentation and learning, but my primary design purpose has been functional. The aesthetics matter, of course, but don’t take primacy over the form. I’ve been making pottery. That’s a completely valid ceramic arena!
However, in this piece, the function took a backseat to conceptual and aesthetic goals. I’m really pleased with how it turned out!
This past weekend (September 4th and 5th) was the 2021 ArtSplash festival, hosted by the Sioux City Art Center. I had previously attended the 2019 ArtSplash which was held in Riverside Park; the 2020 festival was cancelled due to the pandemic. This meant a lot of people - including myself - were really excited to attend the 2021 ArtSplash, which was relocated downtown to take place in and around the Sioux City Art Center itself. I think this was a very smart change that highlights the institution and clearly links it to the festival.
I was invited to serve as one of the two 2021 ArtSplash judges, and I was honored and excited to say yes! I visited each of the approximately 50 artist booths and looked closely at the work presented as well as spoke with the artists about their processes. My co-judge and Briar Cliff University art professor Nan Wilson and I then came together, compared our notes, and visited a number of booths again before selecting four Awards of Excellence, a Best 2D, Best 3D, and Best in Show artist.
This was my first time judging an art festival, though I have judged art shows and competitions before. In my previous judging roles, I did so solely based off of the work itself, without access to the artists until after the awards ceremony. I really enjoyed getting to speak with the artists and learning more about the work and process as a part of this ArtSplash judging. Overall, I’d say the 2021 ArtSplash was a blast, and I look forward to 2022 ArtSplash!
I decided to try copper glazes again, but with some wild cards thrown in - I experimented more with unglazed negative spaces, and tested out some different types of glaze.
This first piece has “Midnight Luster” glaze on the interior and a lithium carbonate glaze on the exterior. It’s quite attractive in photo, but it did suffer from a bit of pitting, meaning the glaze pooled in some spots and it bubbled and hardened in ways that are suboptimal; instead of a smooth surface, there are rougher points within.
This next piece is interesting in that I had intended it to be a more standard bowl, but in the bisque firing process its sidewall accidentally got damaged and it was involuntarily edited into the shape it has now. I sanded it down a bit and decided to move forward with it; I can imagine that the cavity might improve accessibility to whatever is stored within!
I was pretty proud of this platter as a handbuilt piece, but unfortunately though it made it through the bisque firing unscathed it was unable to handle the temperature fluctuations of the raku firing and it sustained a crack across about 2/3 of its base. It is not salable now, but I still wanted to share the piece with you!
Finally, here is the most experimental piece of the metallic batch - I used both “Emerald Copper” glaze and a thinned out crackle glaze to create the exterior dripping decoration, and used “Midnight Luster” on the interior. The bottom of the exterior is just the result of carbon trapping in unglazed raku clay.
I attended a second raku workshop at Dakota Potters Supply in July! I brought eight pieces along, but this time unfortunately two of them did crack during the process as the wild temperature swings were too much for them. Thus only six pieces made it through.
At this workshop, I decided to try one of the techniques that I hadn’t yet attempted - horsehair and/or feather application! I had two twists in mind, though.
The first is that I had just had over seven inches of hair cut off in a summer chop, and my hairdresser kindly collected it for me upon my request to use in this raku process! I like the conceptual power of it being my own hair, plus human hair results in a more delicate line (though I do have pretty thick hair).
The second is that I had gathered in my ceramics research that sprinkling sugar is a possibility as well and decided to request giving that a simultaneous try. Dakota Potters had never heard of using sugar in this way, so Wanda was really curious to see the results too! She helped me add my decorations as there’s only a short window of time where the piece is at the right temperature to trap the carbonized additions.
Wanda and I adding the hair and sugar to my just-out-of-the-kiln, blisteringly hot bowl.
This above bowl turned out really nicely!
This vase was even more of a showstopper, as it is the tallest piece I’ve handbuilt thus far and the height lends drama to the overall impact.
I made three “horsehair” (my hair) pieces, but the third one cracked so these two are the ones that got through without issue!
I just finished my second relief from my Whiterock Conservancy residency earlier this summer! This piece depicts an American bullfrog, Rana catesbeiana syn. Lithobates catesbeianus, floating on the surface of one of Whiterock’s turtle ponds.
Here are a couple of process pictures of the underlying QuickCure Clay relief. I began by sculpting the above-water portions of the bullfrog, and then added patches of algae as well.
After I finished the relief elements, I began to paint! I’m pretty pleased with the end result. I finished this piece with two coats of gloss varnish to contribute to a wet appearance.
This is Surface, 12x16x2”, QuickCure Clay relief and acrylic on basswood panel, 2021.
I’ve been keeping houseplants for over fifteen years, and fairly early in that timespan I became a serious hobbyist. At this point, it’s not that common for me to find a species of plant for sale in a nursery I’ve never seen before. I wish it happened more often! However, recently I bought a fern that was completely new to me.
Some context: I keep what I would consider to be a small number of ferns; many ferns require a level of watering or humidity that can be hard for me to consistently supply. I was previously holding stable at four species of ferns which have proven pretty resilient - Nephrolepis exaltata 'Mini Russells' (a miniature Boston fern cultivar), Nephrolepis exaltata ‘Green Fantasy’ (another miniature Boston fern cultivar), Polypodium formosanum 'Cristatum' (ET Fern), and Davallia fejeensis (Rabbit's Foot Fern). However, due to my branching out into carnivorous plants, I’ve become more accustomed to daily watering. As such, I am willing to give more fern species a go and brought three new ferns into my collection this summer. Two of them I’ve either seen before even if I haven’t acquired them or at the very least have seen similar versions, and then there’s this third…
The tag called it the “Antenna Fern” and provided the scientific name Doryopteris cordata. When I purchased it, it had a soft groundcover of rounded, verdant, gently hairy leaves and I found it very attractive.
My Doryopteris pilosa var. gemmifera “Antenna Fern.”
A few weeks after it had come into my collection, it appeared to be growing a very errant new leaf. Instead of unfurling at ground level, it grew taller and taller until it loomed eight inches over the rest and after unfurling, it looked to be a completely different fern. I assumed a spore or very small plantlet from another fern species had gotten mixed up in my plant, and figured that was that.
As a couple more weeks passed, I grew even more curious as I assumed that if it was a second fern, another leaf or two would begin to appear in a central crown formation. This hadn’t yet happened.
As I was studying my main plant while trying to see how the interloper was doing, I decided I wanted to know more about the “Antenna Fern.”
Upon researching the fern, the provided scientific name of Doryopteris cordata does not actually exist. This is not that surprising; plant nurseries often mislabel their stock. The actual scientific name is Doryopteris pilosa var. gemmifera. But here’s the real shocker: I discovered in my research that the second fern is in fact the first fern; Doryopteris pilosa var. gemmifera is an extremely dimorphic fern, but apparently as many as one in five fern species exhibit some degree of leaf dimorphism (this also surprised me). In this case, the dimorphism results in a sterile groundcover and a fertile canopy that is better able to disperse spores into the wind. The colloquial name “Antenna Fern” is in fact a nod to the fertile fronds.
My research also confirmed that this is a rare plant in both cultivation and in the wild; however, if you’re interested in it there do appear to be some online vendors offering it up! Just a note of caution, though - from my own experience, this fern does need moisture at all times; I went on a three-day trip and upon my return it was desiccated and crisping, whilst all my other ferns were doing just fine. A good drink did refresh it, however, and aside from a couple crisp spots it’s fully bounced back as you can see in the photo above! I do wonder if this is my fern’s first ever antenna, or if the nursery also thought that the fertile fronds were hitchhikers and cut them off…
