Hi All

[kaidu]

I just recently found this site and have been browsing the posts with great intrest.Here is a link to my homepage.
http://home.everestkc.net/kaidu
I look forward to your coments.

[fritchie]

kaidu - Welcome! I looked at your web link last night and was very impressed. I captured one of the images more or less at random, and now have reduced it in size to fit requirements of this forum.

Here it is. Hope you don't object. (If you do, please let me know, and we'll change it or take it off.) The file as I captured it was also a bit washed out, so I adjusted intensity, contrast and even hue. Let me know if you think it is off-color. I estimate the height of this piece as about 20 - 25 inches, by comparison with background objects in the show. Is that about right?

If I understand your process with this installation, you make these ceramic building-block forms, and it sounds like you must have used about 150 to 200 in this installation, and then you assemble them sort of spontaneously for the exhibit. Is that about right? In any case, I like it! The forms are expressive and inventive, and I think they fit the nature of ceramic very well. Let’s hear more about your process and goals.

[kaidu]

Thanks for the feedback. That particular piece was about 12" tall if I remember correctly. The color looks about right.
I have been kicking this idea around for 2-3 years now and finally this year I abandoned throwing pots for making sculpture. I mostly work in a spontaneous fashion. I roll out flat slabs and draw out the shapes. I then cut them out and allow them to dry to leather hard stage, and assemble segments to use for the final constructions. You are correct about the final installation. I arrived at the gallery with boxes of random parts and spent about 8-10 hours assembling the sculptures for the show. When it was over they were all taken apart. The image that is posted is made up of some my first efforts along these lines. In my more recent work,the segments have gotten more complex and im trying to make the surfaces more interesting. I will try to get some images from my latest work posted.
In the future I want to push these to a much larger size, I just lack some of the equipment that I need at the moment.

[obseq]

Welcome to the baord, Kaidu!


I also had a chance to look at the work on your website and was very impressed. I am very intruiged by the spontaneous nature of your work.

Does your work emerge from inclinations you have about the materials at hand? Certain dynamics?.........

Forgive the questions--I realize it may seem redundant to analyze your spontaneity but I am genuinely interested in your creative process! :)

[kaidu]

I arrived at this process and material in a roundabout manner. I had some ceramics classes in high school, and really enjoyed the medium. However, when I went off to college, I picked a track in commercial design and illustration. I guess I thought that it was a way to make a living from my art. It proved to be a poor choice and I lost my motivation to create. I concentrated on partying and flamed out of school with one year left. That led to series of crappy *jobs* to pay the bills. It was while I was working as a lab technician, that my current tack took shape. My job consisted of running tests that were very repetative and involved lots of waiting for results. To maintain my sanity, I started drawing on paper lab towels.I could not invest too much time in any one drawing so I spent the day just doing little designs in a rapid manner.
So, when I finally quit my job to pursue art, I thought that I could use that method for decorating thrown pottery. After a couple of years of throwing I realized that I was still on the wrong track. Although I am a fairly competent potter, It just wasn't in me to produce similar objects in large quantity. This is quite a drawback as a production potter. Now I have pretty much abandoned the wheel and just work as I please. I have been really happy with these first few efforts and I am planning on seeing how far I can go with it. I have some friends that sandcast, so in the future I might attempt to do something similar in metal.