HOW DOES YOUR LIFE EFFECT YOUR ART?

Biology 101  by Elizabeth Gordon              Clay tile with photo transfer printing inks   2012      
 
The clay tile above is a piece I created this year at Hyde Park Art Studio.  With my friend and teacher Kathy Pena we experimented and created a type of ceramic ink that we could use on low fire clay.  In this piece I had experimented successfully I think with overlays.  The idea for this piece came from my Mother's love of biology and nature.  She studied science in college and taught biology and chemistry in high school.  She taught me and my brother the love of all living things as children.  She formed stories around different kinds of insects to help us learn about their lives and habits so we would understand them and not be afraid of them.  I grew up fascinated with all insects.  Growing up in a tropical environment like Florida one becomes used to being surrounded by bugs of all kinds.  And more recently spending summers in the mountains of the Blue Ridge Mountains I have widened my knowledge of various insects.  Their colors can be brilliant and their structure complicated and fascinating.  From my Mothers' love of science and nature comes my interest that transfers into my art.  Sometimes it is conscious, other times I think it is not.  If you think deeply about how you grew up, what influenced you, what your parents did, what you were surrounded by..you might surprise yourself with what you discover that influences your art.  Sometimes it can be the most minute of things...we are complex organisms ourselves....where a hint of a smell can whisk us back to a childhood memory...like riding down a gravel road in Mississippi, windows down in a 1940's Hudson and red clay dust whirling in...will I make a piece of art from those memories or have I already?
Think, remember, think, recall, and you may just be amazed!

TRANSFERS PRINTED ON CLAY

Printing Images on Clay

These pots were a cooperative effort. The pots were thrown by Kathy Penia. The transfers and design were mine.

The small disk to the left above is a test tile I did to see how overlaying more than one transfer on top of another would work. I am pleased with the effect. All of this is a practice for my mixed media world, but I love doing pottery. Clay is so tactile, it totally involves all ones senses in the act of making art.

The young woman on the pot above is my Mother when she was in college. The insects are a nod to her love of biology and science. With aging and the effects of a stroke, I lose bits of the Mother I knew. These pots are in honor of her and the amazing person she was. It is my way of dealing with loss and sadness. At 98 and a half, she is still a formidable person in her own way. There are many things that motivate an artist to do art. It is self expression when we make art. We create often because of our emotions: Such as love, happiness, compassion, fright and horror, and sadness.

The glaze is an antique green, that give speckles of brown. It is a cone 6 and was sprayed on. We found if we sprayed the glaze the image would not run. If we applied it with a brush, the ink in the transfers ran and blurred.