where the process matters so much more;; part 1

oh well in case you didn't know i've been taking pottery for about 7 years on and off but i only started throwing last year. here are a few pictures of my works ^^

for me, pottery has been a way to get away from the stress of everyday life. there is just something very therapeutic about sitting on a chair for hours on end watching a lump of clay shape itself into an artwork. in order to make pottery, you have to have the "work with whatever you've got" mindset, especially for throwing. Unless you're an experienced potter who can make exact replicas of vases or bowls, there is no way for you to predict what a little nudge will do to your work. neither is there a way to predict how the glaze will look, whether it will spread evenly, or it will flow down the sides. It is this level of unpredictability that I really like about pottery. That, and the fact that the process is always more important than the final.
For paintings, you look at the composition, the subject matter, the forms, the brushwork - in other words, you look at the final and how it looks, because that is the point of painting. but it is a different case for pottery. when you view a pottery piece, the main point is not the form, nor the colour. it is imagining how the potter made the work, how he made a sculpture like that, or how he made the vase curve that way. pottery is also a very personal thing, because only you know how the entire process from wedging to glazing goes about. only you can look at one of your works, and recall the memories of shaping and trimming, of colouring and polishing. it is this aspect of clay - that the process matters so much more - that holds the attraction for me.
these two bowls hold a special significance for me because they were the first ever pieces i made when i first started throwing. i especially like the one on the left, because of the colour combination i chose - stormy grey outside, and mother of pearl inside with shino beige for the rim. the grey flows down the side like rain and clouds, as though its really stormy grey and the whole feeling is just very subtley complementary C: you might guess from the pictures that i like to paint my pieces in glazes that flow, and you'd be right. i especially love the glaze mother of pearl - a runny glaze that appears transparent in less layers, and white in thicker ones. a good example of a use of this glaze would be the second picture. it's a pot painted in cobalt blue for the bottom half and liberal amounts of mother of pearl at the top. The result is that the mother of pearl flowed down the sides of the vase during firing, mixing attractively with the blue ^^ ever since then i have always liked the combination of white on dark blue. the third picture is a work that was more experimentative. i was actually inspired to try it when i saw one of my teacher's work - a slim vase with thin layers of colour running down on each other. so i decided to try it out by adding mother of pearl in between layers of colours to make them run and it worked! (sort of) :D the first picture is one of the few i have that doesn't have runny glazes. its the combination of a matt beige with a glossy clear brown. the effect is very simplistic and elegant in its simplicity c:

final. (FINALLY.)

finally! after one year, this is my final :D 4 trees, 4 candles, 4 choices. which is yours?

as far as all my trees go this has to be my favourite. its the spring tree, with new leaves just sprouting out, symbolising hope of new life, and hope for change, as the tree will not stop here but continue to grow leaves till it has a full crown. spring is a very hopeful season :) for farmers, it means the snow will melt and their plants will grow again, for people, it (usually) means a new year and new beginnings, for animals it means the coming of warmer weather. the birdhouse is the candle holder because spring is the time where birds return, after migrating before winter, symbolising the return of hope and life.

my comments: this tree was inspired by my spaghetti tree, except i blended the spaghetti together partially so that it looks a lot more realistic. the birdhouse was /supposed/ to be on the tree, but it fell off so i'm going to stick it back after everything is fired ^^ the red+grey oxide really came through when i was glazing the birdhouse. the brown that was created made the birdhouse look very woody and nice :D
summer. the hottest period of the year, but the favourite season of trees. in the summer, they are at their prime, with huge crowns of bright green leaves, soaking up the sun. the hot sun is the source of hope for the trees, as it promises food, light, warmth and life. also, for people seeking shade from the sweltering heat, the great crowns of the tree provide the perfect place to sit under and perhaps read a book, or swing from a branch.

my comments: don't look at it now, but the tree and all the rocks are actually not attached to each other. they (heh) sort of broke apart due to poor joining but its okay! it can be salvaged :D the thing i regret most about this sculpture is still not being able to shape the crown more realistically. (plus, i probably shouldn't have added so much oxide to it either ><)
autumn - the season of harvest. this is the season that farmers have been looking forward to all year, as it is finally the time they can reap the fruits of their harvest. not only do farmers hope for this season, trees do too. their fruits are finally grown and the seeds in them can be dispersed to grow into more trees. autumn is the season of hope of more food, harvest, and new life. so i thought it would be apt to let the object of all this hope - the fruit - be the main part of the sculpture, the place where the candle is placed. the apple symbolises fertility and new life. due to greek mythology, the apple is also associated with Aphrodite, and to throw an apple at someone was to symbolically declare one's love. not only so, the apple also plays a big part in the creation of life, as it was the forbidden fruit in the garden of eden.

my comments: the apple fell off again D:< but kay lah it was cause i hollowed the apple slantedly because the apple was going to lean on the tree so the "floor" that the candle is supposed to be on had to be parallel to the floor.. so as a result the c.g. went bazongkers and it couldn't stay on the tree >:
winter. the time of bitter cold and harsh snow. but even though times are bitter, hope is burning bright in everyone's hearts, providing them with the warmth and strength to survive the winter. a den is used as the place to hold the candle to emphasise on this point. animals like bears and foxes seek refuge from the cold in their warm dens, and hibernate throughout the winter, in hope of waking up to a warmer, greener place. by placing a candle in the den, i hoped to symbolise the hope that the animals and people hold in their hearts and minds, the hope that gives them the power and will to survive through winter.

my comments: haha i don't know why but this sculpture looked alot better when it wasn't painted >: but even though winter is supposed to be cold and harsh, its my favourite season (competing with autumn). there is just something so attractive about a scenery with the ground covered in sheets of white, and fluffy white flakes drifting down.. (kay fine i probably like winter because i'm been living in summer my whole life) but still ^^ I really like my den by the way. from behind it looks just like a big rock, which suits the natural feel of the sculpture ^^

tree try-outs! (real ones.)

this is my next trial after that failed one that broke. i realised that not only was that one too weak, it did not look realistic enough for my liking. so i tried using the spaghetti thing again and stuck them on layer by layer to slowly build the tree you see above :) its not very big.. probably just 15 cm at most.. but the tree looks //a lot// more realistic. but looking back, i realised that the knobbles in a tree aren't actually so prominent and... individually formed? its more of one shape made of different shapes. so i suppose i should have like took some slip and blended round the edges so the coils look more natural instead of.... a heap of spaghetti.
oh this is the crown of leaves for the summer tree! its hollow on the inside so a candle can go in and shine through the holes (: but i could have made the form more realistic i suppose but i forgot and left so it became dry and hard.. >:
this is the winter tree! see the big boulder-ey thing there its a cave where animals hibernate in the winter :) and its also where the candle goes ^^ i took this picture because i thought the tree looked really cute as though it was asking for a hug :D
this is the autumn tree! the apple is hollow (the hole's on the other side) to put the candle in. i'm so proud of the apple :D originally i just made the apple without the stalk or leaf and went around asking people what they though it was. all said it was an apple ^^ -happy- but the apple looked so nice i was quite sad to have to hollow it out >:

darkness is simply the absence of light;;

credits to xuedi for the title :D koped it off her blog~

anyway I made a mini version of my final sculpture! :D But it's not big.. Probably a few cm higher than a hand? It was basically just to let me get a feel of making trees out of clay and how I would make the trunk, the branches or the leaves. It was then that I decided on making the base out of rocks to add to the earthly naturalistic effect :) Through this sculpture I also intended to experiment with how I was going to integrate the candle holder into the tree. I tried my idea of putting it on the top of the tree here! I didn't know what to do with the branches so I just improvised with the spaghetti making tool.. sort of reminds me of avatar now.. The general effect was quite nice :D Like a nest built on a tree top ^^ very.... hopeful. Unfortunately.................
..................this happened. The coils for the trunk were too weak to support the candle holder and the spaghetti were unbelievably fragile (even more so after they dried). I suppose this could have been better thought out as to how the trunk should have been thicker, or how i should have hollowed more out of the candle holder to make it lighter, or how the candle holder could have been of a different shape to minimise clay usage and weight. But oh well~ it will be remembered~~ and plus it gave me new ideas as to the composition of the final sculptures ^^

oils!

oil painting assignment in sec 3! ^^ seeing this just reminds me of the europe trip since we were doing this before and after it :D we were asked to pick an art movement and use techniques from that movement to paint something related to nanyang. i chose post-impressionism, and was inspired by georges seurat's painting style of pointillism to complete this painting ^^

If you can tell, I painted a scene that you would see if you stood at the midpoint of the 2nd floor classroom block corridor, looking out past the flags, to the admin block. i think the thing that stood out the most for me was the presence of the flags. The combination of a school flag and a national flag is like a trigger that immediately tells you its a school. Also, the first thing that has always caught my eye about ny's appearance was the light red bricks that make it. Also, this is a view from the classroom block, a view that most students will see of nanyang. I wanted to show that this scene was from a student's point of view instead of just another glamourous shot to advertise nanyang or something. Another thing I added to reinforce this point was a girl sitting on the floor, sketching. Since sketching or observational drawing usually requires some form of peacefulness, I added her in to create a sense of tranquility in the picture, and to show how she feels right at home in nanyang, as it would not have been possible to be so peaceful in uncomfortable surroundings. A human presence also seems to make the picture seem more "real", as opposed to just a shot of a building. It humanises the picture and shows that nanyang is not just a building, it is a home with living breathing people inside it.

For me, this work is important because I have never really been confident in my artistic skills and this assignment showed me that if i put my mind to it, something like an oil on canvas painting is actually possible of me. Through this painting, I realised that i really like painting, or more precisely, the tranquil feeling you get just sitting there and dabbing blots of paint on a canvas. As far as this painting is concerned I feel that I could have done a lot better with regards to the painting technique. Pointillism was supposed to be dots of pure colour placed next to each other such that the eye blends them together from afar. But i sort of mushed up the colours together instead of neatly dotting them next to each other thus not really capturing the point of pointillism.

dreams. what will we do with(out) them?

credits! this is valerie's coursework but i thought it was really cool and so i'm going to try and interpret it. (SORRY VAL IF I MISINTERPRETED SOME STUFF OR LEFT OUT SOME THINGS!)

the story starts when we're little. when we are small, and asked the question: "what are your dreams?", a thousand ideas burst into our heads. Although answers may vary with each ask of the question, we never fail to provide an answer. Practicalities or societal norms or economical problems don't plague our heads as we dream our dreams at that age. We are secure in our innocence, and peaceful in oblivion to the harsh realities of the world - as is clearly shown in the young girl's peaceful expression as she draws. This is the age where you don't think too much into things, and its okay to be different. The bright pink of her shirt shows her uniqueness and the brightness of her dreams, unclouded by fear or reality. The amount of colours in the colour pencils she securely holds show the vibrancy and diversity of her dreams. Her cup is upright, secure, and packed full of colour pencils - essentuating how secure she is at this age. The positioning of her in the smack center of the painting adds to the feeling of security in the painting. The blank paper shows her potential for dreaming. She is a blank slate, capable of being anything she wants to be. She is (for lack of a better phrase,) in her own world; a world full of bright colours, and innocent ideals, where black is black, white is white. The chair in front of the painting is carefully tailored to ensure the chair will not wobble, further emphasising her security in her world. It also has a drawer under the seat, which i feel is a nice touch because it adds to the air of innocence since little kids often have a secret compartment (like a drawer) where they stash their most precious things (or dreams). However, it is not painted; which could symbolise how incomplete her view of the world is, or the amount of life she has experienced thus far, or her state as a blank slate, her potential to dream and develop.

The cup is whole, and full.

the story continues as the girl grows up to become a teenager. we enter the stage of adolescence, a stage of maturity, a stage of growing up. this is the most unstable part of life, as we are exposed to the true face of the world with all its problems, norms and realities. as we go through this period of rapid growth and exposure, we face the struggle of finding ourselves, our insecurities, and continuing to hold on to our dreams. The girl is positioned at the side of the painting showing a rather unstable view of the painting. We see the vast difference between this picture and the previous picture, evident in the girl's expression and the colour of her shirt. In the first picture, her expression was one of peaceful security; now, she hosts a face of shock as she is faced with the world she is expected to accept and conform to. In the first picture, her shirt was a bright pink that contrasted starkly with the white background, showing her uniqueness and brightness of her world; now, the tones have cooled to blue with a white collar, as though showing how she is turning into the white background bit by bit, losing her some of her uniqueness and brightness. But the colour of her shirt is still a bright, vivid blue, showing the "bit by bit" part of growing up, instead of turning dull all of a sudden, thus giving the sense of transition into the paintings. In actual fact, the most eye-catching bit of this painting, is that everything is partial: The shirt is partially coloured (collar white), the cups are partially coloured cups, the chair in front in partially painted, and it has a partial leg, making the chair very unstable. All this serves to emphasise the girl being "neither here nor there", as she is in a stage of transition - neither a young naive girl, nor a mature adult woman. She struggles to keep hold of her dreams, and finds it very much harder than before due to the fact that she has left her sanctuary of innocence.

The cup stumbles, and falls.

this one is a bit harder to explain. so you've lived your share of life, seen lots of things, experienced lots of things - good, or bad. your dream cup is battered and cracked despite many attempts to repair it. The woman's expression is blank, her eyes staring, unfocused, into the distance as though reminiscing about her past, be it her successes, or her failures. Her shirt is now completely white, just a shade brighter than the background. The painting is rather devoid of colour, as the woman has now lost most of her innocence. Her dream cup seems to symbolise her state as of now - battered, but still able to hold some water. It seems to say that although she is not the blank slate she was years ago, she still has a chance to fulfill her dreams - if she takes the chance. Will she just abandon her cup because it leaks? Or still try to mend it and make it usable? This is further emphasized by the chair in front of the painting, which is narrow and with a low back rest. As you sit on it, you feel a sense of discomfort at the narrow seat, and if you lean back, you feel insecure immediately, not knowing if you will be supported by a back rest, or just tumble backwards to the ground. It symbolises that there is always a dream out there, even for this woman. All that is needed is a little faith, and a willingness to take the risk and try.

The cup is cracked. Not broken.

labyrinth-

"Labyrinth", (1987-8), Dede Eri Supria

I really like the amount of symbolism and meaning, as well as the significance of the message this painting conveys. The first thing that would strike people is the sheer size of the painting. At 200x250cm, this painting can dominate an entire wall, forcefully and deliberately attracting the attention of any who pass it. In addition to size, the artist has used bright colours to further enhance the eye-catching effect, as though to say "hey look here! the message i want to tell you can't wait any longer!"

Next to draw the eye would be the vast labyrinth of cardboard boxes, decorated with an array of well-known brands that we probably encounter in our everyday lives. The labyrinth stretches to the top of the painting, becoming increasingly packed and complicated as it goes up to create a sense of depth and perspective, making viewers wonder if there is even an end to this maze. The cardboard boxes seems almost sinister in this painting because of the way they are portrayed as the walls of this never-ending maze. They serve as the evidence of the rapid consumerism that has steadily increased throughout the passing years. On top of that, metal bars (not unlike those frequently seen in construction sites) weave through the cardboard boxes, strengthening their structure. The appearance of construction bars seems to draw a connection to the industrial revolution, as metal is mostly seen as an unnatural, man-made, industrial material. Viewers may also feel a twinge of unease at how familiar all the brands are to them, reminding them that they too are culprits, and the builders of this labyrinth. As if to make the picture even worse, right at the top of the painting is a cramped array of new cardboard boxes, impatiently wanting to squeeze themselves into the picture. It seems to spell the ominous question - Does the world know when to stop?

Also, this painting is almost devoid of life, except for two boys, lying in a loose fetal position, weak and helpless. The way in which they are arranged - limbs and all - practically scream out their helplessness, faced with the impossible task of getting out of this maze. As the only human figures in the painting, and in their weak state, they naturally evoke a feeling of sympathy in the viewers. In this aspect, the never-ending cardboard boxes seem even more sinister, as they are the cause of the childrens' suffering.

I think that the main point of the painting is how it portrays the relationship between poverty and industrialization. While there have been countless representations and documentaries and what not on poverty, this painting is a still a stand-out among the billions of other representations. This is primarily due to the fact that most of the other representations only show a picture of say a factory spewing smoke next to a village, or children walking barefooted to work in sweatshops etc. Only showing singular cases and examples. However, "Labyrinth" stands out due to its attempt to portray the entire situation of poverty and consumerism in its magnitude in one picture. Just using one picture to show this huge problem clearly reinforces the message and makes sure to deliver it with a huge impact. He also cleverly makes the boxes seem to carry on even off the canvas to show that this is still not the full picture.