Slides

So while I've been making work for the 'kindred' show, I've been starting to prepare for a pretty big milestone in my career so far- a talk I'm giving at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramics in Toronto that will be happening Sunday, June 10 at 3pm.  I know, right?  Huge.

Part of my work to prepare for a talk like this involves piles and piles of slides.  What are those, you ask?  Well, when I was a wee kid at Art School, slides were how we documented our work.  Galleries only took slides in those days- no websites, no digital.  My, how things have changed.  So needless to say, I'm editing down the selection of slides I have of work circa 1996-2002 into digital format for my presentation.  

It's been fun, nostalgic, and painful.  I haven't looked at these slides in ages.  Some of the work makes me laugh, some of it just makes me cringe, but most of all, I'm amazed at the amount of work I produced for my BFA.  I've always been on the prolific side- I'd sooner make an idea happen then sketch it or just conceptualize it. That has always been my way of 'problem solving' as a maker.  It's in all these sketches that I would start being able to define and refine the work appropriately.

Fast forward to when I launched my website and started as 'dahlhaus' and my work looks so very different.  Since having kids with limited time in the studio just to 'make sketches', I started with a concept and an idea, created a framework and came up with totally different work.  Where as the work that I did in school has all these influences of potters I was looking at, my current work has really different influences that are outside the medium.  I kind of like that- but sometimes wonder why it took me so long to think of it.  We all have our journey in life, some of us just take longer to get where we need to go.  At any rate, it will give me lots to talk about during my 1 hour lecture :-)!

A bit of new

In the midst of scrambling to finish up a large shop order for the Gardiner Museum Shop last week, I started working on a few 'new' designs.  When I say new- often it doesn't quite mean re-inventing my wheel- usually it just means taking some ideas that have been stewing for a while and re-configuring them.  Like most artistic people I know, we get a little bored of the same old, same old, so for me, when my production starts bogging me down, I need to shake things up.  I think it's a healthy way to keep the creative juices flowing and not to put too much energy into just one kind of work.  Unfortunately in this economy, most shops are asking for the work they know will sell, so I am making work I've been making well for the past few years.  It sometimes makes it hard to justify working with new ideas and making new work when every piece I place in the kiln these days seems to already be sold. 
This is just one of the cups that came out of the kiln yesterday- I hopefully can swing in another firing before we take off for some much needed holidays next week.  I have been working with a new porcelain slip-casting slip instead of my usual stoneware slip (my wheel-throwing clay bodies have stayed the same).  Porcelain is always more challenging to work with- there was some warping but surprisingly no cracking.  I might use the porcelain for another round of casting with my new production moulds, but I'm not convinced it's worth the trouble.  The glazes look brighter and are a little more runny but the work feels more weighty.  Maybe that's ok.  It's hard to know whether other people will notice the difference besides that it's a denser, heavier clay.

I decided to head out to the Multiples Show at Emily Carr yesterday- taking in the sunshine and grabbing a bite to eat at the Granville Island Market.  There were a few interesting things at the ceramic show- although I was hoping for a little more work to look through.  There seems to be a big trend at the school to pair ceramics with wood- and most of the work was by Product Design 3rd year students.  Whatever happened to ceramic majors?  There were a few bowls that were wheel-thrown, otherwise everyone slip-casts. No glaze on the outside is still the norm over there- of course, a glaze fiend such as myself finds this pretty disappointing.  I think it's a shame when work looks too polished and finished when someone is in 3rd year.  This is the time to take risks- to try things in a big way without having to put a price on it.  Anyways, that's me and my opinion, so I should probably keep it to myself;)!
Hope your week is going well!