Carly’s Blog

Friday April 24, 2009: Toledo Pavilion Demo featuring Julia and Robin Rodgers

1.)    Provide a brief detail-oriented technical description or summary of the event you attended. This section should remain journalistic and should not be reflective of your opinion.

Julia Rodgers, our glass grad student, approached me about a month ago asking me to

 help out with her demo at the Pavilion. Agreeing, I and a few other glass blowers traveled to Toledo last Friday to assist Julia and her husband sculpt a glass cat women holing a bunny. The demo took about three hours and went very well. We all communicated as we had practice and managed to finish the piece with no problems.

2.) Use the section below to write a well-structured paragraph focusing on your personal critical insight / response to the event. How did you interpret or react to what was presented to you?

Although I have been to many demos at the Toledo Glass Pavilion, this event was special for me because it was my first time participating in it. Usually I only watch, but this time I was able to use the skill I have learned in glass to assist an artist. I think I reacted well to this event. I was able to help out in many ways and was a part of the team that successfully got the piece put away.
3.) What information, ideas, images, etc. most impressed you and why?

I was very impressed to see how Julia reacted to her first demo at the Pavilion. She mentioned that she gets nervous working in front of people sometimes, but it was very inspiring watching her create a beautiful piece with her husband without any problems. It also impressed me that I along with me glass peers were able to assist a piece like this regardless of how long we’ve been glass blowers.

4.) Overall, how would you rate this event (10 being the most worthwhile)?
10

5.) Justify your rating in the question above:

This was a chance of a life time. Not only that, I got to be alongside me good friends and know I have a support system like we do. It was a great feeling accomplishing this without being instructed to do so. Everyone knew what to do and how to do it. It was good to finally realize all our efforts pay off.

Saga Meeting April 18^th, BGSU Glass Studio

1.)    Provide a brief detail-oriented technical description or summary of the event you attended. This section should remain journalistic and should not be reflective of your opinion.

In today’s meeting, we first covered the up coming events, such as sales, and the end of the year glass smashing party. After, we helped a student from the architecture department sand cast pieces for a building she was making. After pressing her molds into the sand, we sprayed it with CO2 and then ladled hot glass into them. After, the club members got into groups and made glass tumbler cups for our spring sale.

2.) Use the section below to write a well-structured paragraph focusing on your personal critical insight / response to the event. How did you interpret or react to what was presented to you?

I am always excited to see the way our glass meetings go, particularly because this year we have more members than ever. It is always exciting to see the group that gathers every Sunday and the things that we come up with and accomplish together.

3.) What information, ideas, images, etc. most impressed you and why?

Again, I think it’s incredible the way SAGA members have morphed into a well oiled glass-making machine! We have come so close as to know each others style and next move which makes things go smoothly in the studio. We have also been able to pick out each others strengths allowing for our projects to be done quickly and easily.

4.) Overall, how would you rate this event (10 being the most worthwhile)?

10

5.) Justify your rating in the question above:

I love all SAGA meeting mostly because it’s us who’s in charge. By being able to be responsible for an organization like this, gives a lot of pride and confidence in yourself and the team around you. We all depend on each other and nothing can get done if we aren’t all one.

I forgot to add the dates of the last two ArtXposed….

ArtX 1: March 9-13 BGSU Glass Studio featuring Elio Quarissa

ArtX 2: April 4-5th, Cleveland Ohio CIA

1.)Provide a brief detail-oriented technical description or summary of the event you attended. This section should remain journalistic and should not be reflective of your opinion.

In the beginning April, myself and 9 other BG glass blowers went to the Cleveland Institute of Art to attend the 2^nd annual Glass Olympics. Here, glassblowers from around Ohio, Michigan, and New York gather to compete for the gold. Three events were played, biggest rondell, longest pull, and glass curling, to determine the winner.

2.) Use the section below to write a well-structured paragraph focusing on your personal critical insight / response to the event. How did you interpret or react to what was presented to you?

This event was interesting to me because it was my first time being with that many other glass blowers who where around my same age and experience level. It was intimidating being around most of them because of their intense skill level, but also made me want to try harder.

3.) What information, ideas, images, etc. most impressed you and why?

I was very impressed to see how the other schools interacted and worked with each other. It gave something to compare our studios team to. It also gave comfort in realizing how closely bonded our schools blowers are and how other teams reacted to us. Overall I was very impressed that the other teams thought so highly of BG.

4.) Overall, how would you rate this event (10 being the most worthwhile)?

10

5.) Justify your rating in the question above:

I gave it a 10 because I had so much fun and learned so much at Glass Olympics. Not only about glass techniques, but also about ourselves and the way we work together as a whole.

1.) Provide a brief detail-oriented technical description or summary of the event you attended. This section should remain journalistic and should not be reflective of your opinion.

For this artXposed I attended a week long work shop and lecture by Italian glass Master Elio Quarissa. During his work shop, which was open to our classes as well as the public, we watched him demonstrate the classic Italian style of goblet making as well as cane pulling and some vases. This one in a life time event also offered a chance to ask the Master about his personal experience with glass.

2.) Use the section below to write a well-structured paragraph focusing on your personal critical insight / response to the event. How did you interpret or react to what was presented to you?

Elio Quarissa’s visit to BG was a week I will always remember. It offered me the chance to communicate with a man who has been around glass his entire life as well as living in the glass capital of the world. This workshop inspired me to broaden my glass creations and refine skills I already had. His lecture was also one of the most inspiring I have ever heard. His Italian character and close contact helps us all to meet on a closer level, making the experience that much richer.

3.) What information, ideas, images, etc. most impressed you and why?

Elio’s stories about being young and living in Italy while glass was being made all around him gave me the best images in my head. Imagining an Italian street after living there, on top of an inspiring Italian artist, it wasn’t hard to take the information given and run with ideas about it. His personal stories seems like secretes, but that he was sharing with us. It meant a lot that he came.

4.) Overall, how would you rate this event (10 being the most worthwhile)?

10

5.) Justify your rating in the question above:

It was a once in a life time opportunity to see a master glass blower demonstrating his techniques in front of me. On top of that, we had dinner and got to spend a lot of time with the master in our home studio. I will probably never get that chance again. That is why I rated this a 10.

My composition focused on the word gluttony. In the beginning I knew I wanted to start with an obese, naked woman to show the texture of her round body. I took an image from artist Jenny Saville and using what we talked about in class, I altered the image enough to create a new black and white negative space figure. I used the ink images that most resembled candies and spills and combined them with the obvious unhealthy food images to create an asymmetrical background to go against my image. Closure was used to trap the woman into a certain contained area to make her seem as though she doesn’t fit into her world. A bun and chicken wings were later added to continue her body as the unhealthy intake she consumes. I also tried to match up actual photos with their resembling abstractions to continue the feel of the piece and also to guide the viewer’s eye. I choose to completely eliminate the containment requirement of this assignment. I decided that gluttony would best be depicted if it looked like what it actually meant.  By having the textures extend outside the 11X17 limit the piece connects with the idea of over excess and amount. It breaking the boundary shows the over overindulgence I added to the piece to make it more subtly obvious.

     I thought that this was a good representation of repetition because of the repeating bottle tops. Because some are empty and some full, and some have caps, some don’t, the repetition is broken, but also allowing it to obvious to the viewer. It also represents variety in the piece and keeps the viewer entertained. The perspective of the bottles also changes through the views of each individual row. The wire separating the bottles from one another shows continuity and allows the viewer to understand that the object continues off the page. The matching textures of the wire crate and bottle caps show grouping in the image. The squares that are created by the crossing bars give proximity to the bottles, closing them in and keeping them all together. This creates unity throughout the entire image, and although different, repetition is still the major subject represented.

         First of all, my drawing was designed to represent a glass hot shop. The bee and honey comb gives off a waxy smell, and along with the fire and smoke smell that is also represented in the piece. The skull was added to represent the danger that goes along with entering any hot shop. I also added some glass tools both subordinate and dominate to give size variety and clues as to what I am depicting. The glory hole along with skull and blow pipe on the bottom left create tension with the much softer area above. The line definition I used for the skull shading and fire/smoke lines shows how lines can be used in different ways to create a different feel. The detail used for the smaller honey combs in the back ground gives an area of focus and also creates perspective. It allows the viewers eye to believe the page goes far back into space.

  I chose this picture of Two-Face because I believe it shows a great deal of juxtaposition. With the left side consisting of mainly cold colors, a divide is made down the center of the picture and warm colors are represented on the right side. Colors are not the only thing that creates juxtaposition. The contour lines on the right help to lead the eye to the more intense contours of the hair and face. From there, the eye moves to the detailed black hair on the left and down to the coins.  This picture also creates a lot of tension. Although there is only one man in the picture, the tension between both sides of the picture creates two separate men to be represented. The line definition also helps to create this tension. With variety in line definition, areas of the picture pop and submerge into the page.

       I chose these three images to represent the three levels of our world. Earth, air and water. Besides that, the three have no relation what so ever. I believe that they still manage to tell a story and give off a statement of the natural side of things. While I chose these images, it didn’t occur to me that they represented the three dominate areas of the world. All were just shapes that interested me and I thought might be interesting to mix. As I looked at the page of images I had printed out, I saw that most were natural depictions. By that, I knew I wanted to keep a natural theme. The ant stood out to me most. Its interesting shape seemed very asymmetrical and moved my eye around its body. Seeing as that was kind of the point of the project, I knew I wanted to use it. The orca I chose next. I’ve always been interested in this sort of native depiction of orcas, and this silhouette seemed to be a very random match to the ant. Finally, I picked out the sparrow. Its simplicity and geometric shape added a bit of balance and intention to the two others. With the three, I felt confident that I could array them in a sort of fashion that would be interesting to a viewer.