Wishing Ears!

October 19th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

The wishing ear idea is complete.

After watching an Igmar Bergman movie titled “The Magician” Dieter suggested we make porcelain ears similar to the one given to a young woman by an old witch in the movie. We came up with the wishing ear.

The wishing ear is made in a secret location for you to have and use for purposes of GOOD. Use the wishing ear to wish for things that will grow in LOVE and compassion. A number has been fired onto the porcelain indicating the number of wishes the ear will grant. Therefore, it is very important to consider carefully what you wish for. After you feel you have used most of your wishes, the wishing ear’s power can be re-established by GIVING it away to someone you LOVE.At that time the full number of wishes are restored. It is recommended that the wishing ear be worn for a period of time before the first wish is made, allowing it to become familiar with you. Each wishing ear is nurtured to develop its listening potential. After rigourous testing, none, but the finest tuned ears become available for you to have. The wishing ear might become overly stimulated by extraneous noise, so best to keep it in the felt pouch while it is not being worn.

The Wishing Ear looks great on everyone!

Wishing Ears are available on Etsy!

 

Oil Spill Commemorative Plates

September 10th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink


The is one in a series of four plates, a bird, human hand, fish, and leaf, which represent the fragility of nature in the face of an oil spill. The plates are hand built porcelain. The surfaces are a combination of sgraffito, decals, and linoleum cut printing on clay. The back of each plate is uniquely decorated with images and the date of the spill. These are sold through the Etsy shop and
25 percent of the profit from these plates is going to the American Bird Conservancy. Specifically going towards threats to birds in the environment.

Launching Less Greed Company on Etsy

September 10th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

This summer I launched an Etsy site. Here many of my clay pieces can be bought. I am calling the store Less Greed Company. It is a place where I support the American Bird Conservancy and 5 percent of the profit from any pieces that represent birds is going to the American Bird Conservancy. Specifically going towards threats to birds in the environment. The bird sculptures are hand built out of porcelain. They are a life sized representation of the rescue bird I have been living with for 14 years. Just like my friend, Mr. Birdie, he sits in your hand giving you the experience I have when carrying my starling. This one is called “Trust in the Low Light” because we recently realized mr. birdie is blind in one eye.A dry felted nest is provided as a comfy sitting place.

see a very short portrait of mr. birdie (less than one minute).

clay banners, decals too

September 21st, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink

Some first attempts at decal transfer onto porcelain.

fresh out of the oven

August 29th, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink

thank you

thank you

This is the first high fired piece to come out of my new kiln. I plan to make  a series of these heads. I had one going the other day and I walked across the room to get something and I heard it hit the floor. It was broken in a million pieces. Another one cracked in the kiln. This is the only baby that survived.

Impractical Labor

August 19th, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink

baby rabbit talisman

For the past two years I have engaged in The Festival to Plead for Skills. On July 7th members of the group ILSSA practice making something. All participants create enough of these objects to distribute to the entire group. The membership of  ILSSA includes those who make experimental or conceptual art using obsolete technology. The technologies I used in these two pieces were clay stamping by hand, which is reminiscent of cuniform–the oldest record of written language and silkscreen printing.  Silk screen printing is not so obsolete, but it is a more time consuming process than printing out from a computer.

less greed more leisure

Meedlepoo

August 19th, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink

meedlepoo

meedlepoo

The physical nature of the meedlepoo resides in thoughts and observations that occur by chance. Prepared by Ann O’malie: inquisitivist and naturalist, versed in the art of memory, theories of forgetting and the conservation of meaning.

Meedlepoo was influenced by a book I read called Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet Of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology, and taxidermy. I could not imagine preparing a taxidermy out of animal hide so I made one out of paper.

The Wheel of Torture

August 17th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

Combined Interrogation Techniques
What I did on my summer vacation was a real experiment in sleep deprivation. I attended Bonnie Oconnell’s letterpress workshop titled “perf, score, cut and fold” at Penland School of Crafts. At Penland you are given every opportunity to really torture yourself with late nights, non stop focus and really great food.
Combined Interrogation Techniques
What do you know. I found out the Architects of enhanced torture techniques live practically in my back yard. I thought “well, if they can come up with enhanced torture techniques having no experience, then I sure can do it too.” Hence I developed a Wheel of Torture for Combined Interrogation Techniques. A spin of the wheel points to two symbols. As shown here, the combination landed on a dancing cowgirl and a symbol for electricity. This is open to interpretation in any way you see fit to get the desired results. Don’t forget to turn up Slim Shady real loud.
Combined Interrogation Techniques
The piece is handset and printed. It includes die cutting, perforating and scoring on the press. 25 copies were made. note: If you think you know alot about typography and have never handset type, think again.

The “Wheel of Torture” was exhibited at BookOpolis 2009 in Asheville, North Carolina. Bookworks is an amazing facility for book artists, letterpress printers and paper makers, or anyone interested in just taking a look around. It is worth the trip.

Project: Memory Palace

July 15th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink


Still images pulled from micro { two minute or less } interviews

FINISHED!!

This project came out of a harsh realization that I had accumulated so many things in my house that I was not even aware of what I had anymore. I thought because I am a designer,  I was interested in an aesthetic and the objects I chose to live with reflected that, but what were some other reasons why people chose particular objects? To explore this question I began with a series of interviews. People I knew, didn’t know, young and old were all subject to my imposing video camera. Some of these people are no longer living, but their possessions are still with us. The result of this project is a video short animation and this book titled Project: Memory Palace.

I presented the project at the University of Arizona as part of a workshop on design process and I was encouraged when asked if it was available for purchase by a few students and faculty. Later, I assigned my senior graphic design students a project to self publish. I needed some examples to show. This was just the opportunity and little push I needed to refine the book. I sent it off to LuLu and Blurb as a way to compare print quality, paper and cover material. The book is available to preview or purchase from Blurb.

The project began with a series of micro interviews, each about a relationship between an object and its owner. At the time I was also interested in stop motion animation. For these early experiments I combined documentary style interviews with stop motion animation. After reading a story by Hans Christian Andersen titled “The Red Shoes” in which a girl becomes obsessed with a pair of shoes and meets a tragic demise, I decided to make an animation based on that story. This book documents the project experience. It includes drawings, video stills, collected notes and stories that relate to the desire, possession and burden of ownership.

In The Shadows

April 4th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

Recent works made In the shadows.

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