journal entry 1 (Michaela)

What is visually intriguing or conceptually fascinating to you?

 I am visually intrigued by textures and patterns, largely the patterns and textures of animals’ skin and fur. There is something so beautiful about how unique each kind of animal is. I love the patterns of cheetahs, giraffes, or zebras, and the textures of alligators, elephants, or snakes.

                It is inspiring to think that so many different types of fur/skin were created naturally, and here we are with the ability to create all types of patterns.  To me finding a way to incorporate these different animalistic features into my pottery would be awesome.

                Another thing about animals that is visually stimulating is the wide variety of colors that they present. Animals display such a wide variety of shape, texture, color, sound, and ability. It is so cool how different each one is. So I guess I am inspired by animals and their actions.

                As cheesy as it sounds my own cat has been my inspiration for several things I have done in my life, so I guess it makes sense that I would be artistically inspired by him as well as all other types of animals.

Hey, Where's The Handle?

A mug is a mug, with or without a handle. When I was growing up, my dad accidentally broke handles off of our mugs whenever we got new ones. our cupboards were filled with "handless coffee cups" and it became more of a joke. After I signed up for ceramics, I told him that I would make him mugs without handles to save him the trouble of a spilled hot drink. Although I have always had a collections of "handless" mugs, I would rather have one to keep my drink from burning my hands or getting warm if it is a cool beverage or cereal.

I get bored with the same old handles. I've seen mugs with designs that make you want to pour some coffee and enjoy yourself. Handles that make the whole piece come together, show some one's talent, and make it awkward to hold but you feel cool with it in your hand so it doesn't even matter. I want to be creative with the handles on my mugs. It won't happen until I have more experience but my goal it to be able to use my brain to make some intriguing works. For now, However, I will stick to mugs without handles.

I do love me some handles on my mugs but they are not always necessary to create a work of art. If a handle was on some mugs, it would clutter the design and change the whole piece. Some of the most beautiful works do not have handles and sometimes, they are so beautiful because of the lack of the bulky appendage.

Visually Intriguing, again, by Joe S.

I like the outdoors, but nature did even better with humans.  A person’s appearance is often an intriguing sight.  I like Mr. Chuck Berry’s acrobatic entertaining, shown here with concentrated face and half-splits, all while continuing to boogie with his trademark guitar riffs while his face glistens with the sweat of a man who has the best job ever. If one ever has the chance to check out Berry's duckwalking, do so.

 Out of all all planetary animal species, homo sapiens are the ones who decide to drive a car through a majestic Redwood tree.  Wow.  I've driven through a redwood, and I must say I would've been equally impressed with a treehouse or something less...sadistic.  In fact, a picnic would have sufficed.

The White Stripes have used a relentless, powerful color scheme in their aesthetic endeavours.  Like the Nazis and Coca-Cola, The White Stripes have mixed black, white and red to create a recognizable symbol.  They come in peace, maybe, and for purposes of rocking the socks off of virgin ears.  This album cover is called White Blood Cells.  The diseased silhouettes are about to get their asses beaten, but Jack (white shirt) isn't showing his cards just yet, while Meg matches the wall nicely.



 This album cover by The Beatles has kept me intrigued on many different occasions.  The collage has heroes and villains, famous and not-so-famous people.  I like that the people, besides the colorfully-suited quartet, are all cardboard cutouts because it adds a bit of the unreal with the real. Smells like the flower-power people.

Arouse my eye holes, please.

There is something to be said about visual intrigue and optic stimulation.

Sure, it’s nice to see the sunset beyond a field of golden begonias stretching the horizon, only to reach the feet of mighty snowcapped mountains as the bravest of bald eagles soars overhead.

Gee.

Though these scenes certainly do occur in our mysteriously beautiful world, there is a difference between what we conceptualize as beauty, and that in which we become enthralled.

Have you ever walked passed a horrific car wreck?

Have you ever seen a person’s home engulfed in flames?

Has your friend ever broken his or her body, or somehow discharged their insides to the outside?

Like a new dawn, these things happen every day, and much like the setting sun, we cannot help but to gaze, sometimes only to look away, then to again fix our eyes closely upon.

What is it about the dreadful and horrid that so easily grabs our attention? Regardless of whether you are able to find beauty in the macabre, one thing not to be ignored, is that we are helplessly captivated by it.

The new, the improved, the disgusting, the wretched, the perfectly symmetric, oblong, and domestic, the best and the worst and the queer and the loud, the foreign, the frail, those who make not a sound. The far and the few, and the masses of asses, the same old shit and the never have ever been seen before.

All of these evoke a very sincere emotion from us, some perhaps more than others. We cuddle and caw to a risqué Bettie Page, yet we gawk and revel to the copulation of mantids. Does one move more than the other?

What is conceptually fascinating to me? : That which stirs.

Journal Entry #2

Cups without handles by Haemi Jung.

Everyone who lives in this world use a cup for many reasons. They drinking water or coffee, even they put some pens in it. I guess we can’t live without a cup. A cup with handle is mostly used for drinking something. However, a cup without handle could use for everything.

There is no limitation for decoration and function, so it could be used for anything. If a cup looks pretty, we can put in display case for decoration.  Also, it could be a flowerpot.

One function that I really love is that I can feel the temperature in the cup. So I can feel it warm, also I can feel it cool. It makes feel really great. Of course, really hot stuff will be not fit on this. 

Lastly, we are using a cup everyday but actually we’ve never thought about a cup. I guess it’s too familiar and close with us. Even if we drink water in a nice cup, we can get a different feeling. I guess that is a attraction of a cup.

Cups Without Handles-Courtney Hottowe

Cups without Handles

This was a difficult subject to start writing about. So I went into Google and looked up some interesting pictures of “cups without handles”. There are many different styles and shapes of cups that are available without handles. For example, there are coffee mugs and cups, water cups, shot glasses, and bowls are practically cups with no handles. The cup that is used most among college students is the party cup, a simple plastic cup that comes in multiple colors and is easily mass-produced. Although they are easily made, they are not very artistic and do not usually have any creativity added to them unless you add it yourself!

There are many different styles of the coffee cup or mug. The cup can come in glass and plastic versions mostly with handles but there are a few without, and the mug is usually made of plastic and can be used to keep the beverage warm. These are interesting because of the designs that are put on to them. Lately Starbucks has been making ceramic coffee mugs that are easier on the environment! When they are ceramic they are thicker and keep the drink warmer and they are able to paint better designs onto them unlike the plastic ones that usually don’t have designs because they need to be dishwasher safe. The downside of ceramic mugs is that they aren’t dishwasher safe.

Shot glasses are also a great way to put creativity to work. There are so many ceramic shot glasses with designs and colors and are easily made. Shot glasses although easily made, need to be very precise with their sizes because of what they are used for. It may be difficult for a beginner, especially me, to make a shot glass because of the size and the exact amount of liquid that is supposed to be held. Here is a picture of a shot glass I found especially creative. J

Water cups are not usually ceramic, they are often plastic or glass but they can still be used creatively, and in many different ways. There are many different shapes and sizes of cups, as we are currently learning with our cylinder assignment, that it is easy to make many different heights of cylinders, it’s the width that makes the cup different mostly. Plastic water cups many times are larger than glass cups because of the weight of the cup and the danger of dropping or breaking the cup. Also, plastic cups are more often colorful and artistic. Glass cups are artistic in the way they are shaped and the grooves in the glass. I prefer plastic cups because they don’t break and you can get ones that have lids and straws!

Pots

The rustic look of these mugs spark my attention. Whenever I
see them in someone’s cupboards or I am handed a cup of steaming hot chocolate,
the mug is what I notice first. In this class, I want to learn how the colors
were created and be able to make my own.

To throw one of these pots, I would have to learn how to use
my arm muscles and steady my hands. I love the shape and texture of this piece.
Everyone makes throwing look so easy. Maybe soon, I will make it look easy. I
am excited to learn how to throw a pot like this.

Before the design was put on these small pots, they were
plain and not something I would be interested in taking home.. They needed
something to catch your eye. Now that
the design has been etched on, the pots look more decretive. The shape is very
appealing, as well.

This piece is my favorite so far! I love the swirl, the
colors, and the chips. I’m not sure what this work would be used for other than
decoration but I would buy it.

Mugs- Kayla Rodriguez

These mugs were originally thrown on the wheel, and that is how they got their initial shape and then altered to get their unique pattern and design. The pattern itself is very detailed, but what I noticed the most about these mugs, other than their pattern, is the handles. They look extremely delicate, but being a mug, they should be quite durable, at least I would hope so.


This mug, similar to the first in how it was made, being thrown on the wheel then later altered to get the unique pattern is quite different in the general appeal. The first collection of mugs were delicate looking, extravagent even due to their intricate detailed pattern. While this mug looks simple but crafty, more of an everyday mug that I would actually use.



This mug was thrown on the wheel as well but with porcelain. I like the shape of this mug a lot because of the super tiny bottom and the exaggerated middle. My favorite thing about this mug in particular is the glaze work. First off it isn't shiny all the way around and I am into the dull look. Secondly, the fading around the middle and dark fading around the edges looks really sweet. Lastly, the blob creeping around the side of the mug is cool because it accents the peaceful look of fading dullness.

Lastly, is this picture of these two mugs beautifully crafted, imperfections and all. Sadly, I am unable to put the picture up at the moment... but I will try again tomorrow! (http://accessceramics.org/viewimage/549/) However, I enjoy these mugs a lot because it is clear that the artist wasn't concerned with getting the most perfect product. The mugs are not symmetrical, and their glaze has no rhyme nor reason but I think that makes them all the more beautiful.

Handle-lacking Mugs, By Joe Savidge

While these mugs don’t have handles, they do have cuddly cute little faces.  However, the artist is using the cute faces as a distraction from the true intent:  To deliver a message of the beast with three rows of six (666) cups.  I also like the color schemes and the little potbellies.  A few have what look to be teardrops.  Nice.

Another sweet, precious, cute piece by Mikey Walsh featuring bulging eyes that leave me wondering what these little half-penguins have been doing.  I think the piece does a good job of mixing innocence with derangement:  Would your grandma put these on display?

This is a beautiful beer-drinking mug.  Amazing detail all the way through to the cup’s deification by its cushioned-pedestal placement.  I don’t know where I would drink from, but I’m sure that can be figured out.  I’d like to know more about the people on the cup because I smell a whiff of history from this Bavarian-looking piece.

  

Zoom in and notice that these finely crafted handle-lacking cups are advertising bottom shelf whiskey by the name of Black Velvet.  Why not Chivas Regal?  Johnnie Walker?  Well, maybe it’s an ode to the poor man who can still have appreciation for the fine arts.  Or maybe not.  Either way, these cups interest me even more because of their square bottoms and rounded tops.