Thinking Without Words II

This is what it feels like sometimes when I really want to have some alone-time for thinking.

Everyday Stuff - Those things you have to do.

The bottom section represents interruptions, stuff that comes up, sidetracks, new problems that have to be attended to, you know…….

And sandwiched between it all is new ideas, old ideas you want to get back to, segways you want to take, continuing themes, etc.

Graphics Design - Logos

Well, I've been rather busy. 

We are in our winter location and I've been working on designing the new logo for a Wiki page for CLAYART.   

CLAYART is a worldwide clay artist's and a clay associated discussion email group that has been active for over 15 years. It began as an idea during a yearly National Conference for Education in the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) convention. I will explain NCECA and CLAYART further in future posts. But sufice it to say the internet email part of CLAYART is undergoing big changes at the moment. 

One of the new changes was the creation of a wiki page. My part was to design a tiny, easily-recognizable logo to mark the upper left-hand corner of the site. 

Being completely new to the designing of tiny wikis, I have been on an intense learning curve. 

I don't have sophisticated computer design software, but I have had an undergraduate series of courses in computer design which I took just because they were available to me. And I discovered that through Apple Pages, I can do a limited amount of black and white work. 

Warning:  Some Graphics Geekdom follows--

The catenary arch design was made by stretching a black circle into an oval, then overlaying it with a white oval, adding a thick horizontal line to connect the bottom of the arch and suggest the floor of a kiln. 

I blocked the bottom of the ovals with a lineless rectangle placed below the "bottom of the kiln" line and layered over the top (brought forward) of the oval shapes. That blocked the bottom sections of the ovals from view which is equal to erasing them. 

The teapot was made by manipulating black and white ovals. And the handle to the pot is made the same way by layering a white oval over a black one. 

The body of the pot is another black oval, with another white one imposed to suggest a lid. The lid knob is a standard shape available from the menu and layered over the black and white ovals (brought forward).

The whole design is on top of a black rectangle, which was sent to the back. This creates the top 3 borders of the logo.

The lettering at the bottom was lifted from a tiny graphic I had squirreled away and used on this blog some years ago. 

This is fine for a tiny wiki, but when I wanted to enlarge it to a huge file for use in other ways, that's where the trouble began. All the enlargements resulted in shaggy, pixelated lettering. 

I finally ran the whole thing out of my printer at page-size and, using a fine marking pen, smoothed up the letters one by one. Like, taking-off-your-glasses, sticking-you-nose-to-the-page making-pixels-go-from-squares-to-smooth-edges smoothing. 

More later---

Written later than the above versions.  Sorry for all the changes after the initial posting. On re-reading the first ones, I realized I could write a clearer description of the geek graphics.

On Writing by Stephen King

I don't usually read Stephen King. No, I've Never read Stephen King, that is until now.

I've seen a some of his work made into movies, like "The Shining" , "The Green Mile", "Doloros Clayborne", "1480", and "Misery". But for the most part, his kind of stories just aren't my choice of fiction.

I picked up this book because I assumed it would be different than his usual efforts and I wanted to know what he had to say about writing.

The first part of the book is about his life, which is interesting enough, but he doesn't get "down to it' until page 95.

That chapter, entitled What Writing Is, begins with: "Telepathy, of course."

It just stopped me short.

And immediately my mind said, "Of Course!" But who would have just come right out and said it?

Although he goes on to say that he is writing this chapter in 1999 and the reader will read his words somewhere downstream in time, his thoughts will transmit over time, space and the ethers to the reader's mind. And therefore in it's own unique way, writing is a form of telepathy.

And so is art. Only instead of transmitting thoughts in words, art is making visual, emotional, tactile aesthetic statements that will be 'read' by another person somewhere later in time and space.

Something magic happens when you are in the state of creating. Call it telepathy, call it a visit from your muse, call it inspiration, ---anything you like. But I'm sure we can all agree that it just ain't the normal, everyday, humming right along. It IS magic. It is living totally in your mind and flying.

When you think about that, it's pretty amazing.

A Tile Challenge

Some time ago, we bought a house in Sandbridge Beach, VA and someone left this mirror behind along with some furniture and odds and ends. I have no idea where it came from. I would guess Italy because when I cleaning up the wood carving, I discovered the gold was laid over a red undercoat. A handsome thing with one thing wrong: There was only cardboard backing the mirror, so when you turned it around it was really ugly.

I drug this thing around with me all over the place in subsequent moves and when I took a tile workshop/course with Marie Glass-Tapp in Seattle, one of the challenges I set for myself was to try and make a tile to put in the back. I wanted it to mirror the shape of the cut-out, so I did this tile first:

It turned out not exactly as I expected. I had little experience working with cobalt and didn't realize how strongly it overpowered just about anything it is applied to. This was supposed to be a light blue tile with contrasts between a really light blue (the white design under the cobalt) and a darker blue over a dark claybody.

I still like the tile and it sits on my table. Appearance wasn't the killer, though, Shrinkage was. I hadn't taken that into account when I made the tile assuming that the shrinkage would just be enough to allow for grout. But NO, the shrinkage was just too much.

Back to the drawing board. Second try = success. This backing has basically the same design, but this time I scraffittoed the wreath-like decoration in the center and the words that circle the outer edges of the tile. The white is a majolica glaze, so I was able to get away with the letters coming out in the color of the claybody. It reads: "The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes, without speaking, confess the secrets of the heart."

I love art and words.

Thoughts about Artist's Statements

Disclaimer: The following is my opinion about artist's statements.
First of all, most artists don't need to read other artists' statements. Statements are not for other artists; most artists 'get it' before they ever read a word. And, it's not just artists who 'get it' either. A statement should only enhance the intuitive quality of art.

But---Since we live in a quantifying world, artists are sometimes required to write statements. It is not easy. I think a statement should answer these questions:

Are you unique?

Are you communicating?

Are you marketable?


Uniqueness:
Voice, style, whatever you want to call it -- that's the essence of an artist's work. It's what makes an artist an artist. No one else does what you do. You are distinct. Your work stands alone. You are identifiable. This is maybe the most difficult thing to put into words because 'in words' is not where the value resides--it is in the work.Teasing this out and converting it into words--what the work is--is one of the hardest things an artist has to do.

Communication:
Does your work speak to the viewer? How do you want it to speak? Is it telling them about the uniqueness of your work? Is it your voice? Does the artist's statement help them understand your communication better? At some time, on some level, work must communicate. Even if you are only communicating with yourself, there's no getting around it. Art speaks.*

*conversation with my college art prof.:
"What kind of statement are you making?"
Me: "Statement? There isn't anything to say. It's a teapot."
Prof: "Okay."

Marketability:
Lets face it, no gallery, no show, no body is going to be interested in your work unless it sells. You finding your niche is the key. Marketable to academia/ marketable to the general public/ marketable to galleries/ marketable to connoisseurs/ whatever the target is, whoever is going to take an interest in your work, marketability has to come in somewhere in the mix. To non-artists, marketability sometimes equals validation. People buy art for many reasons. Because they love it. Because it is a good investment. Because it shows they have good taste. Because they want to learn more.

The Bulwer-Lytton Contest

"It was a dark and stormy night", so begins the first paragraph or rather the sentence that identifies this yearly contest of really bad writing known as the Bulwer-Lytton contest, hosted each year by the San Jose State University Department of English. It is the brainchild of Professor Scott Rice. Examples of entries can be found at the official website, http://www.bulwer-lytton.com. A visit is well worth your idle time and a great source of amusement, nay even possibly an inspiration to lower to the depth of your worst writing efforts. It certainly has done that for me. The deadline is April 15th.

Yesterday I polished up six of my worst gems and sped them on their way.

Here's a sampling: "But I'm NOT a 2-dimensional person," insisted Sylvia as she tossed down the last shot of vodka and glared at her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend, continuing "I have lots of interests," she added flatly; a little too flatly, she thought as her mouth became difficult to work, her features begin to cave in, her dress loosen and her hair crinkle and she felt herself suddenly lifted up, swung horizontally under his arm and carried from the bar to her apartment where he ever-so-carefully slid her under the door.