Ceramics Junkie

I do still exist- Just somewhere NEW

2010-06-25T17:15:00.000-07:00

Hey World.

If there is anyone still following this blog I must tell you I have a website!!! Yeah It has taken a long time but it exists (with a few minor errors we are still fixing).

www.andrearosselle.com

Also..... Not today, but in a month or so my new blog will be up. I already have the domain name though..... so not today, not a month from today but in about a month and a half you can find me at www.craftdrip.com

I will see you there..... -A

Update

2009-03-05T17:47:00.000-08:00

I have not disappeared. I have been working in new media lately, and being such a neophyte at it, I have not felt like posting my new work. But soon I believe I will be posting again. I should also have finished photos of the pieces in greenware which are on here, I have finished them but not gotten around to photographing them yet. Anyways I am off to teach Ceramics at Concordia, a University here in Portland where I have been teaching ceramics this year. All is well, expect and update soon.

Newest Piece in Greenware

2008-04-29T22:38:00.000-07:00

My Show- Some pics

2008-04-29T22:34:00.000-07:00

Wall Sculpts For Show Finished:

2008-03-10T00:37:00.000-07:00

My Show Poster!

2008-02-25T20:16:00.001-08:00

detail

2008-02-25T10:08:00.000-08:00

It's Late- I'm Still Up

2008-02-25T02:36:00.000-08:00

Test Tiles For Underglazes

2008-02-20T01:10:00.000-08:00

These are all underglazes that I am trying to utilize like watercolor paints, but mostly I think they look muted and muddy. Here's to hoping I find something better.

Unsure, Might be Done

2008-02-10T12:56:00.001-08:00

I added a glaze to this, which makes it rich with tone, I love that, I might need to add more color, but I am going to live with it awhile to see what I think.

The Latest Sculpture

2008-02-10T12:09:00.000-08:00

The flash bleached it out a bit, but I am not in the mood to set up lighting for one picture.

Two Finished Pieces From Fall Semester

2008-01-21T03:17:00.000-08:00

I had a really hard time not having these images turn out yellow. What can I say- I am not a photographer....

Surface Experimentation on Little Brains

2008-01-21T03:05:00.000-08:00

Two pedestal pieces- bisqueware from fall semester

2008-01-21T03:02:00.001-08:00

Wallhanging Bisqueware Photographed From Fall Semester

2008-01-21T02:49:00.001-08:00

If Only My Camera Wasn't Gone

2007-12-15T23:40:00.001-08:00

Yes my camera is officially gone. Alas, I wish it weren't - I can't afford to buy another one, now or in the near future.... but my new phone has a camera... so my pics will be off my phone until further notice. Yes these are a bunch of little brains. My style brains- messy ones with little pseudo lesions/barnacles. And I have embedded all sorts of junk into them- staples, kitty litter etc. No idea what will happen cause I don't know the properties or melting points of the additives, but I felt the need for exploration this past Friday because I feel kinda lost in my current direction. But I needed to work. Life has been preventing me from working as much as I like. I believe I am in need of some work-style creative restructuring. So I am trying to ponder that. Trying to work on my ability to work, and my direction.

I can't find my camera -It evaporated in my classroom

2007-12-10T22:17:00.000-08:00

I took pics with my phone..... so yes they are bad. Where my camera is, only some bug on the wall knows.....

I Waited to Long to Take these Pics

2007-11-28T21:36:00.001-08:00

So the work is dry and you can't see contrast, sorry.... ususally I am good about this. This top one is a piece.... a piece to something else that will most likely hang. What? Who knows?

This piece was a stand up sculpt that went bad. So I turned it into a wall piece, which needs some strange and illustriously gunk to be added into it's caverns in order to be what I am truely envisioning. So we'll see.

Crappy Experimental Pics I am Too Lazy To Retake

2007-11-28T21:16:00.000-08:00

So I am trying different things to hang the bead things I made from.

I think I like the string best thus far.

I have also been trying new surfaces, and this is watercolor, and I most certainly like this best of my experimentations.

This is latex. I am going to experiment next by putting things under the latex and adding watercolor onto the surface before I apply the latex.

This is a bad pic yes, but I added acrylic medium to organic plant stuff and laid it on the work, It didn't work out too well. I am gonna try laying in other stuff.

I am trying some new stuff. I have fired most of my work, but added nothing to it, because I have not yet decided exactly what to add to it. I am working on that. Especially since I actually have a show opening on April 11th. It is sooner than I realized.

Sculpt the first week in NOV

2007-11-06T17:26:00.001-08:00

I kept adding stuff to it and taking it off. I think I realized it's continuation must be in other materials besides clay, so this is the clay part of this sculpture, simple but apparently the way it wanted to be.

Two New October Sculptures

2007-10-20T22:15:00.000-07:00

Fourth Week In September Sculpture

2007-10-01T23:35:00.000-07:00

My new sculpture for this week.

I forgot to put this sculpture up once it was finished. These are the only pics I have of it since I sold it to one of my professors at school this summer. I also bought/exchanged for one of her pieces (which is hanging in my studio). She does not have her new work on her website but here is her website: http://www.melanieweaver.com/

Another Work

2007-09-22T21:04:00.000-07:00

I am working on elaborating imagery I have already used and maintaining the concept I have already been working on. I am focusing on brain and cell imagery at the moment.

New Studio, New Work

2007-09-16T18:29:00.000-07:00

This is a sculpture steming off of my pod-figurative work. I am attempting to experiment in the same vein.

The holes on the left hand side of this are to add strings wich should have small pods on them. They will hang down over and below the sculpture.

This is a sculpture I made at Azusa after have a crit on how I use the figure and overemphsize the characterization of the facial features.

I made this one in Azusa as well. I may sand off a large section of the glazes. I don't know that I like it at all right now, but I'll need to live with it for a little while to see what I might do with it.

I have yet another new studio, and currently I am sleeping in it. Practically everything I own is in this little room. But is it the best studio set up I have ever had. We finished moving in three weeks ago, and I started a new job two weeks ago, so I know I should be proud that I am on top of things and making work... but mostly I am exhausted and feel a behind in everything- not significantly- just enough to stress me out.

My Sister in Her "Studio"

2007-06-23T21:59:00.001-07:00

My sister is a metal sculptor who recently started a bussiness called Firebelle Metalworks .... She launched her newest works this weekend at a garden show. She is making beautiful pieces of high-end garden sculpture. She will be at Cracked Pots next month selling her work. Above is a rather funny looking picture of her in the garage-studio. She is really beautiful under all that welding gear. :)

I'm in Portland!

2007-06-23T21:38:00.001-07:00

Hello Friends: I have indeed resettled in Portland OR. I have moved in with my dad and my sister, it is the first time we have all lived together in a long long time. It was mildly bumpy at first but we all have been getting along great the past few weeks. We are in a rental house right now, my dad is looking for a property where Alicia and I can have studio space, and finding the right house for the right price is turning out to be very challenging. But I have hope we will find something that suits us. Right now I am in a little bitty room upstairs in our house for a studio space. There is a picture of it above.

I started making an idea where I was going to make pods with emerging flowers and figures, but I made this first one and it just looks too much like a decorative gourd.... now if I was going for a decorative gourd that would be fine, but I wasn't. :)

My Aunt and Uncle visited us from Chicago two weekends ago and we went to the coast on a rainy day. I found lots of great shells for texture (in shops and not on the beach). I then came home and made a bunch of textured slabs, and textured stamps from my shells and rocks. I am trying to cut down on the time it takes me to texture my pieces. I did cut down on some time but this new idea does add a uniformity I am not completely happy with. It did give me a few ideas for some slab pieces though- I have not gotten to those yet.

Below is a pod with a bunch of the textured slabs used to create it. I have a bunch of them currently finished and bisqued. I will finish glazing them tonight, and then I will be putting them together to make a mini corner installation type piece. I will post a photo when it is finished.

Below are textured pod-beads for the installation.

Below is my new old kiln. It is about twenty years old, it is in really good shape for its age- which is not too say it's perfect, the place where you place the cone inside that holds the kiln sitter up broke today. My father and I went to Georgies Ceramic Supply and bought a new one, he is going to have the fun of trying to fix it tomorrow. I have too much to do right now.

Well that is what I am up to at the moment. Soon there will be all kinds of work to put up here. I imagine in August I will be putting up lots more pictures.

Tyndall took pics of my Piece in Stations

2007-03-28T16:48:00.000-07:00

This is Station 12: Jesus is Hung on the Cross

Mesa Contemporary Art's Physical Presence

2007-03-09T13:29:00.000-08:00

I am in another show- This is the piece that got in. This is a well established Museum- I am pretty happy I made it in this show. The juror is Ann Wolfe, Curator of Exhibitions and Collections at Nevada Museum of Art.

Piece at Houston:

2007-03-09T13:25:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture a friend took of my piece hung in Houston.

I forgot these, These should be the sixth & fourth images in my Portfolio

2007-03-04T17:41:00.000-08:00

This is my portfolio- For better or worse

2007-03-04T14:16:00.000-08:00

Newest Piece

2007-02-18T15:25:00.000-08:00

Hey all- I know I still have some images of my show to put up here. I'm just returning from Oregon, and then bouncing around Michigan for a little while. Actually I was in Indiana this morning. Anyways---- I am trying to stay in one place for the next few months at least. But here is my newest work (coming to you in bad pictures) for the Stations of The Cross Exhibit in Houston.

Show Release

2006-12-16T16:14:00.000-08:00

Here are two pics from the show release. I should have Missa's pics in the next few days- Then there will be some nicer images of the whole show. That's what I had her take. Soon, soon....

These are a Few of My pics of the installation

2006-12-16T16:10:00.000-08:00

Installing I am Installing- Yeah!

2006-12-05T00:05:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, I take awful pictures BUT a friend who teaches photography here at CMU has agreed to shoot my show in exchange for one of the pieces- it's a really good exchange, and I am very pleased. So, don't worry folks I am not taking the pictures. Above is the tallest rock stack with the lowest hanging sculpture above it. The rocks stacks go down in size while the sculptures are hung higher.

Another rock stack with it's sculpture, they are slowly moving away from eachother.

The tallest rock stack on top.

Second tallest.

This is a sculpture I have not photographed yet.

This one is as well, but this hangs above your head looking down at you, so I couldn't photograph it until it was hanging in the installation.

Another sculpture that hangs high and you look up at.

rock detail

my very very nice father hanging the pods.

rocks in slight disarray but begining to form a circle.

If you look through the ladder you can kinda see the formation on this side.

We;ve had to iron some curtains twice, and some are still evil! Pure evil! Wrinkled evil.

The center pods before their hanging.
The show is saturday!

New Sculptures

2006-11-26T23:03:00.000-08:00

Here's Some More

2006-11-18T03:46:00.000-08:00

Well here are some more photos, I have two more sculptures that hang looking down in a way I can only take images of them in the installation and not at my set up in my apt. I also have six more that are unfinished. Only 19 more days till the show opens, so I need to get moving on that. I have a working artist statement which I have not quite decided on yet.... I'll post it when it's ready. I have been watching Harry Potter and Christmas Movies all week- while I am working of course. :) I love Christmas, thankfully Thanksgiving will be here soon and I can unabashedly spread my love of Christmas. Right now it's a little too early.

Some New Images I Took Today

2006-11-17T02:13:00.000-08:00

Twenty Days Until My Show Opens, less until I install it, the show cards are ordered, I am getting everything ready, today was my last day of working in wet clay. Soon...... it's very soon.

Too many images, not enough time

2006-11-14T22:04:00.000-08:00

I really need to take a lot of pics to get them up on here, but I am two and a half weeks out from installation of my show, so I am focusing my time on that. There will be a world of updates on her in a couple of weeks.

One More.....

2006-11-03T00:04:00.000-08:00

The Sculpture of The Day

2006-10-31T23:56:00.000-08:00

One down and three...maybe four to go

2006-10-29T23:26:00.000-08:00

Sculpture, sculpture, sculpture

2006-10-27T22:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, it does hang this way...

Changes in the Installation Plan--

2006-10-26T23:52:00.000-07:00

There have been a few changes to my idea. One the rocks diminish in stack size and rock size as the circle turns. It opens up the installation and I think should help focus more on the hanging sculptures as well as add more dimension to the space as an installation. The hanging sculptures will actually dimish in heigth as they move around the circle, the one above the smallest rock being the highest. The sculptures will stay within average visual range of an adult. So the lowest rock will rest just above the highest stack of stones. The other significant change is the sculpture in the center. I have not made it yet, but it will be one woman in a pod lowering another woman shedding her pod to the pillow below. I am toying with making the pillow ceramic- I have not decided because I think if I made the pillow ceramic it would need to be significantly smaller than I might like. Also, not shown in the image, I may add small pods with no figures shown coming from them around the center piece. 6-8 pods. I am nearly finished with all the rocks. I have 4-5 more sculptures to make if I want 18 hanging pieces. That does not include the middle sculpture and the pods. I may have to cut back but I will just continue to create until I must stop, so we'll see.

Did I mention These are Inadvertantly Kinetic?

2006-10-26T23:30:00.000-07:00

So taking images of these is a real pain, they move- almost all of the sway regardless of how long you let them sit. So most of these images are me setting the timer as the peice gentle moves and hoping I can get the camera to take the shot just as the sculpture sways into place. It's a ghastly pain I tell you, but it should be pretty sweet in the installation. Anyways- here are so more pictures.

New Images

2006-10-24T21:02:00.000-07:00

I have four sculpts in the kiln which will come out glazed tomorrow. I am very excited. Opening the kiln is a little like opening presents at Christmas, same surprises, disappointments, and sucesses. It's all up in the air.

Hard to take an image of

2006-10-21T22:20:00.000-07:00

I tried to hold it and take a pic at the same time- not so easy... so it's a bad pic, you can kinda see it.

Once Again....

2006-10-20T13:51:00.000-07:00

I am feeling pretty okay about getting everything done. I chatted with Pam about it today, and started writing my thesis paper last night. All is well, and I feel as though I am about to make a break through with these particular sculptures. It's not there yet but I have three more weeks of greenware before I need to start glazing and finishing up. A lot can happen in three weeks.

What's New In Greenware

2006-10-17T22:03:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to Brag

2006-10-15T20:11:00.000-07:00

I won an award... don't really know anything about it other than I get a check. I just hope it covers the cost to send the piece to the show. The show is called Earth In Balance 2006: A Regional Clay Competition. It's the same piece I drive to Detroit tomorrow to pick up from it's last show- From Our Perspective: A National Woman's Art Exhibition. I guess people like this piece. I posted it on here in August, but I will repost it. I just wanted to brag. :)

On I go....

2006-10-10T21:46:00.000-07:00

Figuring out the stacks of rocks

My newest sculpture, she hangs upside down.

What's going on...

2006-10-06T20:35:00.000-07:00

I am making more sculptures, I am exhausted- mostly from making rocks, and living life. I am going to take all day Sunday off. My hanging women are working better, I am thinking about the interior of the pod shapes, and altering exposed figure components,

The rocks are taking quite a while to make, it's the process. First make the rock of clay, then deal with the surface (journaling/sketching), fire it, add burnt umber wash, wash off excess, add black matte glaze, wash off excess, glaze with (20% A8/ 80% water) off-white glaze that varies from matte to high gloss, and fire again. Some of the rocks have also required some sanding on the belt sander after they have come out of the kiln. Now imagine doing this multi-step process on 40 rocks. That's been my life for the last three weeks. I am very tired.

I'm running out of shelf room. This is obviously not everything.

I seem to be running into problems at every corner. Today has really been the hardest day in my semester. It ended well. I went out to dinner with Pam and Dan and had some wine and laughed a lot. My committee is very supportive of me. I think I am just worn out at the moment. I think I will most likely change the concept of the installation again. My committee suggested that I just continue to make work and not stress about the installation right now- I think I shall. Pam gave me a ton of alternative solutions to my original plan- I need to muse for awhile. But as I have said already-I'm really tired.

Firing Rocks

2006-09-30T23:33:00.000-07:00

Two new peices glazed

2006-09-23T23:38:00.000-07:00

All the sculptures that currently have wires sticking out of them will have little covers made to hide the wire. The covers will fit into and be part of the sculpture. Below is a cover onto of a piece that is in bisqueware. The covers are needed because the sculpture will now hang from fishing line and I need to hide the way the sculpture is attached to the fishing line.

I am still making rocks. I have decided that the rock stacks will have 7 rocks in each stack and there will be 12 stacks total. I have 32 of 84 done. I need to make 56 more, and that includes all the bottom stones still.

Two new pieces in greenware

2006-09-22T23:36:00.000-07:00

This one hangs from the middle, where you might imagine a belly button to be located. It is resting on a made clay base (which is not part of the piece) so that I could make her back arched upward. I can't actually lay the sculpture down, so I needed something I could fire with her to hold her. I am very much in-like with this sculpture at the moment.

This sculpture is an attempt to have other sections of the female figure emerge from the cocoon form that these hanging figures come out of. Having different elements of the of the figure emerge gives the piece alternative vunerabilities and emotive meanings.

More New Work in Progess

2006-09-15T18:53:00.001-07:00

My newest Sculpture in greenware state, it hangs from the middle of the torso in back.

A few of the top sections of the over 3 foot prayer/memory rock stacks.

This is the surface glaze that will be on the rocks.

Another Sculpture which hangs directly from the middle of the back.

Current Sketches

2006-09-15T17:39:00.000-07:00

Above the circle of prayer/memory stones, and figurative hanging sculpture there will be a canopy of sorts. The canopy will be wispy like a thin willow tree made from hanging spanish moss. Behind the whole installation I want to put a neutral colored sheer series of backdrops that will make an octagonal shape around the sculpture creating a "flow of traffic" around the piece and hiding the gallery walls. It hopefully will create a feel of not being in a gallery space.

I am going for a sacremental feel. The prayer/memory rocks and the act of stacking them are taken from a Buddhist tradition I learned about when I lived in Korea. It is very common to see rocks stacked where you are hiking or at temples and palaces. The act of of stacking them is a form of meditation. On the rocks I am making out of clay I am scrawling text and image as a visual "journaling" of the last year of my life, and dealing with chronic illness. I then wipe of the text or image to so only parts and sections can be made out.

The pillow may or may not be there, I have not decided on it yet. If I do, it will have a foam lining so that it looks inviting and comfortable, but I hope to fill it with smooth stones so that once someone sits in it, it won't be comfortable- at least comfortable in a way we'd expect.

There is also an audio element, which I just tried up upload for like 45 minutes and alas it hates me. I think you need to hear it to understand it.

Update on my Work

2006-09-03T17:06:00.000-07:00

In this sculpture I tried to make the figurative element more cohesive with the organic element, also this sculpture hangs so the woman is upside down looking up from below. Also I am trying to make my work less decorative... that's hard for me, it's natural to do so.

This is my first attempt at hanging one of the sculptures, this one is not for my show, but I wanted to get something finished so I could see how well the wire holds the work. It's hanging in the studio as I write this, it makes me a tiny bit tense... but my show needs to be up for three weeks, so the wire needs to hold. If it falls that will stink, but oh well.....

The response I got to this one in it's greenware state was that it was uniform and comical so I glazed it as such. I like it, but more because it makes me smile than anything else. This also will not go in the show.

These are the glazes I tested all last year. My committee meeting went great, but they seemed to feel that a lot of color wouldn't suit my current body of work. So a little part of me thinks "What did I do all this work for?" but then I know far too well you do what's best for the work you are creating, and sometimes that is no where near what you planned.

This is just part of the view of my studio at school. I hang lots of pics around my clock since I look at it more than anything else. I have been meaning to put some more pics up of people I miss, but I've been meaning to do it for almost a year so I doubt that'll happen.

What I am thinking @ the Moment

2006-08-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

I am working at creating a piece that resides somewhere in between installation and straight up pedestal, wall piece exhibition type stuff. This drawing makes the concept kinda hard to see, but the basic components are floor and hanging pieces. The floor is covered with stones, three seperate types: the prayer/memory stacked stones which are underneath the hanging components, the "loss of identity" stones which are stones with faces, and the straight up stone stones which will be made of ceramic predominently. The white border to the square area of stones on the floor should be white carpet cut to delineate the spacial edges of the piece. The hanging pieces consist of "beads" that look like stones and will be stacked from the ceiling down as well as the figurative pieces. The figurative pieces have two componenets, elements of the human torso and face, kinda encapsulated by organic imagery. There is a somewhat symbiotic-paradoxical-pseudo parasitic type thing going on. I will have more sketches soon and hopefully starting images on the hanging components--- I will make the hanging pieces first, followed by the prayer stones, and lastly the "loss of identity" and stone-stones.

Is the idea for the show emerging?

2006-08-30T22:15:00.000-07:00

I keep taking pictures

2006-08-25T22:45:00.000-07:00

More Pictures

2006-08-24T17:41:00.000-07:00

What I am up to at the moment

2006-08-22T22:57:00.000-07:00

Did a firing and lo and behold, the wires in the sculptures were great- no cracking or anything. Good good. I have been taking lots of photos, it's taking me awhile to get things to look good, I don't hink I have mastered it yet. I am also trying to get my work in shows. I have a bunch of entry forms ready to be filled out. I need to get them done in the next week. lalalalalala.... Here are some of my attempts at taking better pics.

Rachel helped me take pics that are not embarrassing

2006-08-12T00:13:00.000-07:00

We didn't get to too many pieces which is really fine because I learned a ton on just two pics. It's really all very simple cept if you are me, and you just don't have any clue what you are doing. I mean she taught me where the timer was on my camera- I am very clueless. But here are the two pieces we did photograph, I tried a couple more on my own, but I didn't frame them right, so I will try again later - but I am learning.

More Sculptures

2006-08-07T19:42:00.000-07:00

Rachel thinks this is my strongest piece of the five I have worked on thus far, she thinks I should highlight one of my greatest strengths which is being neurotic and putting so many little intricate things on a piece. I think she is right. It does take absolutely forever, but I do really like it oddly enough. Oh and the wire is hidden in one of the bumps near the figure.

I think this is my weakest piece thus far, though the one that's in two pieces on the last post may rival it as my weakest- neither went far enough in detail... neither quite feel finished, but at this point it's early and I just want to fire them to see how the wires inside fire and hang with the peices. This one hangs from the middle of the back.

This is my make shift studio at my apartment. It doubles as a dining table, office, and coffee table, an all in one deal. The studio has no air and it is 9,000,000 degrees inside so I am currently working at home, which actually is good for me. I am much more relaxed, no one bothers me, and I don't have to listen to the wood plainer, or mitre saw or whatever awful music the undergrads are playing (well cept Erica- she has good music taste). Oh and Erica has agreed to make test glazes for me in return for an hourly wage which is WONDERFUL since that will help me with time and not being subjected to the art building sauna. I have over 26 tests I want to make. Trying to come up with some more stable less glossy glazes. I have already tested quite a number of glazes, but that seems to be the only way to really gather info, you can guess as much as you want by staring at the ingredients and reading about them, but it is like baking a cake- you gotta cook it and try it before you really know what it's like. I hope to get some more artist statement related posts on here soon. I would love anyone's thoughts.

Okay here are a few things in the Greenware State

2006-08-06T17:49:00.000-07:00

These two pieces will be attached (bottom to bottom) and will hang from the top.

This hang from the hoop at the top up the sculpture.

This one also hangs from the top but it has two holes going through so it will hang from a larger aparatus.

I know I am a crappy photographer. So sorry. I should have a lot more up next week, I already have two more sculptures done in the greenware.

It has begun

2006-07-25T14:35:00.000-07:00

My crazy crazy semester doesn't start for another month, But I just finished my third sculpture in the greenware state. So it has begun.