I spent two weeks spanning July and August of 2019 in Snowmass Village, Colorado at Anderson Ranch Arts Center taking “By Design: Prototype Development and Mold Making” lead by Hiroe Hanazono. Ceramics have been apart of my work in small ways for a long time. This workshop allowed me to expand my knowledge about plaster mold making as it relates to slip casting. Thanks to a rigorous schedule and the introduction of a lot of new techniques, Hiroe helped me to discover new ideas and formats for thinking. In two weeks I was able to make 7 molds and slip-cast, fire, and glaze 34 porcelain pieces.
To make my prototypes, I sledged plaster with handmade jigs, built forms faster by considering the top and bottom of a form first with Masonite and then filling it with clay, and threw a form upside down on the wheel. I learned how to crack a mold with a metal scrapers and hand saw. I mixed nearly two 50lb bags of plaster and helped to contain a few plaster disasters. I met some amazing people and learned about some new artists work thanks to their lecture series. I survived the altitude, drank more water than I ever have before, and learned about how to avoid bears by talking to yourself while you walk alone outside.
This workshop served as the catalyst for my newest body of work entitled “Shared Starting Point”. One of my favorite parts of being in Colorado was walking from my hotel to Anderson Ranch every morning. Just shy of two miles, the winding walking paths immerse you in nature as you slowly transcend through the mountains. On my first walk in Snowmass, I turned a corner and was immediately struck with a memory from my childhood. Bright, alert, and towering, everywhere I looked hollyhocks stuck out in the overwhelmingly green landscape. Growing up in my family surrounded by very serious green thumbs, hollyhocks were treated as exotic treasures. Described as temperamental in eastern Kansas, hollyhock seeds are coveted.
My paternal grandmother lived 387 long strides from my front door. When I was still a child, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Some of my fondest memories were spent swinging on her patio bench swing, talking about her flowers. She would spend hours sitting outside, slowly rocking and watching as buds turned to blossoms. As blossoms turned to seeds she would carefully and obsessively pick-up every seed so she could replant them the following season.
For many years my creative practice has been about memory, about loss, and about change. I cannot describe the world from the eyes of someones else, I have only my own.
I would not have been able to take this workshop if it weren’t for a Summer Research Fellowship from the Michigan State University, College of Arts and Letters and Research funding from the Department of Art, Art History, and Design.