I have been entertaining the idea of applying to graduate school next year. I'm going to spend the summer working with my teacher Kathy at
ACC in order to try to advance my work as much as possible over the next six months. I don't know if my work will be ready at that point for the competitive world of MFA spots, but I'm going to give it a shot.
One of my first summer assignments from Kathy was to answer the question, "What grabs you?" Specifically, what catches your eye or heart in this world? What interests you that you want to share with the world through your artwork? This is precisely the question I've been trying to answer for years, but I've been coming up a little empty-handed. I've never felt a clear understanding of my sources of inspiration. So I just sat down with my sketchbook and started a list. I figured I'd share of few of the things that grab me over a few blog posts.
Numero Uno on my list is old houses. I LOVE old houses, and other buildings for that matter, with a passion and fervor other people reserve for soccer teams. I know I've gone on about this before, but old houses are probably my greatest visual love in this world. They may even top pots (gasp!).
Old buildings of any sort are great, but there's something about houses in particular that grabs me. Pretty much any American house built until 1940 is amazing to me. Maybe it's that they're each different, despite the fact that you could buy kit houses in the 1920s. Maybe it's that they each have a level of detail that you just don't see in residential architecture anymore. Maybe it's because they tend to be located on tree-line streets (also a great love of mine). Maybe it's because being inside one feels like living inside a piece of art.
At any rate, I have a serious crush on
this house right now. I love to search through Realtor.com for beautiful old houses for sale. This one is in St. Petersburg, Florida and I am in love with it something fierce. It's drop dead gorgeous, inside and out, and I can't stop thinking about it. I want to buy this house despite the fact that I don't live in Florida and already have one mortgage payment to make! It's got a little guest cottage out back that would make a great studio. My perfect world would be made up of houses like this.
That being said, I don't know exactly how to translate this love into my pots. I've never made a ceramic house, but I don't think I would like to just literally translate the gorgeousness of an old house into a ceramic replica. Maybe I need to think about making the kinds of pots that would live in this kind of house, that would enhance it's interior landscape. Maybe I can capture the level of detail and color in this house that is attractive to me. Maybe answering this question will be my next assignment....
I think what I notice the most about plants is their colors. I can't get enough of the brilliant, saturated colors of flowers in bloom, and the soothing green of trees and open fields. I've never been as interested in the specific shapes and forms of plants, although the shape and proportion of a lovely tree or orchid blossom will catch my eye from time to time.
No, what I love the most about plants is their very vitality, the fact that they are growing, moving, changing, and filling the world with their color and life. I think this is why I've never been a winter person. The monochromatic grays and browns of the winter landscape leave me feeling weary. The brilliant, shining colors of summer are energizing and uplifting, and I think that's why I've always been attracted to them in my work.
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