Research!: Jenny Hart

Jenny Hart is a contemporary artist I first saw at the Renwick Gallery. She was featured in the "40 Artists under 40" exhibit. Hart specializes in contemporary embroidery-taking an art considered old and out of date and turning it into a sassy, young art form. I liked Hart's portraits like this:

 For my project I am using Hart's work as inspiration to create my own contemporary art, using clay to create a style that (hopefully) mimics her embroidery. Stay tuned for more research on henna designs and other symbols that I plan to incorporate into my designs and project!






(source: http://jennyhart.net/#8c6/flickr)

Artist Statement 2012

My new artist statement: Funky Art is my favorite thing. “Thing” doesn’t give it justice; a more accurate description might be “passion” or “daily activity.” I have taken art classes since elementary school, seriously pursuing art as an interest at the end of middle school. My grandmother was an oil painter when she was young, and always appreciated art. She inspires me because I like to paint as well, and I want to continue to improve my painting and other art skills and make her proud. A few years ago I would never have imagined choosing art as my primary study or career. Now I have just applied to two art programs. In high school I have taken ceramics for three years, as well as painting classes after school. I hope to be a design major next year, and eventually earn a degree in Communication Design. I would describe my artistic voice as funky because I can sometimes be all over the place, working with clay, oil paint, pastels, pencil, or mixed media. In the future I want to put together a cohesive collection of art that could potentially fit into a gallery or professional portfolio. My vision for this project would be something created with mixed media. I love to collage and bring together pieces from random places, often cutting up magazines or finding images to put together in order to form a final piece. At this moment I am actively pursuing a career in art as a designer. My top choice school is Carnegie Mellon, school of design, as a communication design major. Combining my love of art, publications, and layouts, my hope is to become an art director for a magazine or a website. My strengths in art and writing will help me to excel in careers like this. I envision myself in a creative career where I am in charge of aesthetic decisions and creating new projects. Just thinking about a future like this excites me and gives me the feeling that this is the right path for me.

glazed pitcher project. I had to reattach the handle using slip and tissue paper, fingers crossed it makes it out of the kiln in one piece. next up:nesting bowls

glazed bowl from last yr

40 artists under 40

last week we took a trip to the renwick gallery to see the 40 under 40 craft exhibit.

the majority of the work was made with unusual materials by contemporary artists.

my next assignment is to propose a project based on the art that we saw . I'm thinking of doing a sculpture based on some paper art but well see if it's possible!

bisque merbabe pitcher!

unfired revisitation of a project I did last year. first ceramics 3 assignment!

This pitcher was made by hand building. It's Shenandoah clay, with pressing techniques used to create surface decoration. My goal with this revisitation was to make it with the correct proportions (a 2/3 1/3 ratio). I think I succeeded with this goal. I used a loop tool to shave extra clay off the bottom and create the silhouette seen here. After firing I will upload more pictures and add glaze to create the final piece. I can't decide whether or not to add a "shell bra" to the mermaid form but I'll make that decision soon.

Place Setting

This is my place setting for my final exam in Ceramics 2. I formed both cups and plate with slab construction. The unifying elements of the place setting are the wavy edges around the tops of the cups and the edge of the plate, and the opalescent aquamarine glaze and black glaze used for surface decoration. If I could change something I would go back and maybe pick different glazes so that there would not be the bubbles on the bottom of the plate. I like how the plate and cups match and work together, and the surface decoration on the outside of the cups especially, but I wish I knew how to prevent the glass bubbles that form on glazed ware.