Welcome

Post One

Firstly, lets talk about what this blog is meant for. This blog is a little school assignment that Megan (that’s me) is accidentally two weeks late on…

But in actuality this blog will serve as a deep dive into creating working title; Intimate Moments: a Ceramic Discovery, this is my first dives into what I truly want to make within my post undergraduate career as an artist.

Recently I reworked my artist statement it reads as follows:

“After closely looking at and observing my work to define what I am interested in making. I found that a central theme in my work is intimate moments. Not necessarily intimate as in sexual or only good moments, but rather moments in my life that have changed my perception of the world. Thinking closely about the people who have loved me, hated me, assaulted me, and denied me. When I was growing up, art was always used as a therapy mechanism because my parents were reluctant to put me in therapy or understand why mental health is a serious issue. It was not until I attempted suicide that my parents took my mental health concerns seriously. So, I have noticed that much of my work is used to figure out and deal with my traumas or traumas that have affected the people who are my chosen family. The way in which my work tends to display these traumas and questions is through both the use of language and pattern. Language and writing have been dear to my heart as a way of expression, and I see language itself as a form of pattern, and the two seem somewhat indicative of the other. 

Regarding my ceramic work, I have the utmost interest in combining hand-building and throwing techniques to describe the intimate moments that impact me most. Last semester, I developed a love for hand-building and using unconventional tools within my pottery, such as piping bags. Though I have a passion for functional ceramics, the combination of sculptural and functional ceramics fits my artistic motive the best.

Something that I consider to be intriguing is how ceramics can be imperfect and impacted in ways the artist never anticipated. This unanticipated way of working aligns with my understanding of intimate moments in my own life because of their unpredictability and fluidity. Some of the people I found closest to me were at the most unexpected place and time in my timeline. On the contrary, some of the worst moments in my life have been at the hands of people whom I thought had my best interest. 

My work is more of a diary of what impacts my life and how I choose to grapple with and answer the questions that different life events bring forth. Both describe my thought processes in the intimate moments of my life, whether through primarily visual or written language.”

So lets talk Initial Ideas:

Above are some few initial sketches for pieces that impact some part of my life that feels intimate to me. The pieces above talk about an array of themes such as sexual assault, mortality, the boundaries of love, and gender identity. Rather than an examining all of these ideas lets move into the studio portion to talk about the pieces I have already gotten started on.

This is my sexual assault pot I don’t have a final title for the work, but this piece is intended to help free myself from the assault I have faced within my line of work. I have worked for three years as a cook in various restaurants and as a woman these jobs come with a lot of baggage. This pot is being coil built as I have found that I much prefer hand building to throwing as for right now. So far as of today she is 25 inches tall! I am hopeful to complete the construction of this work by the end of the week.

I forgot to snap a better picture of these, but these orb shapes are corresponding to my sketch above with originally seven cylinders. When I started making I found that the orb shape was something I felt more inclined to make for this work as it deals with the idea of mortality. The round shape made more conceptual sense to me due to its associations to earth or the secular.

Later this week I will post an update with more specifics and background research to cover more of the nitty gritty, but as for now this seems like a good little spot to end my introduction/catch up post because I am in fact bad at checking canvas for school.