Saturday, March 19, 2011

Little brother [mobile] account!

I got my old gmail account back up and running so I can update from my phone. It would be nice it wasn't so stuck on only working with gmail accounts. None the less it should be an interesting blog to follow. Im sure there will be plenty of random snippets from what im working on at any given time. The adress is simple enough. Its the same as this one but with "-mobile" at the end.

Like so......http://mjhillartist-mobile.blogspot.com/

Enjoy
MJ

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Its been a crazy week. I ran back to back firings during the night when I was working on my sculptures. Needless to say the week submissions for student show are due is a very crazy one with very little sleep. Im not too satisfied with the pieces I fired for the show, but im still learning how to use the washes.

First one loaded


End of first one


Cids Piece [awesome]



Second firing

Second firing end






Saturday, February 26, 2011

So the semester is moving along okay. Its exhausting. Spring semester is always the crazy one. It seems like everything happens at once. Clay conferences, Sloss, all this scholarship business, and all at the same time trying to keep up with your work. I will say its always the most interesting and rewarding semester though.


I made some maquettes for my sculpture. They were pretty quick and raw, but it gets the idea across. It probably saved me a lot of time, but at the same time its not as fun as going at it blindly.



I started cutting up the five pound pots I was throwing. This piece im working on, is made of pots cut in half and putting the pieces together.




Then this piece is made from two pots I threw down at an angle and connected. I then added one of the half pots from the other piece and cut a slab from a pot. I enjoyed how spontaneous this piece was. We were talking about honest work in critique. I would have to say this is a pretty honest piece. It feels like the clay just made itself into what it wanted. I don't feel like I made it at all, but then again thats what I like about it.




First glaze firing! Finally.

Monday, February 14, 2011

The first critique is over. Things got a bit crazy, but it all worked out in the end. Which brings me to the importance of the process in my work. The photographs below are in chronological order, showing my last project developing. These are just the high point, but I still think its interesting.







Monday, January 24, 2011

New Semester!

So its a new semester and things have been pretty productive so far.


*I've been finishing some small things on the cupola im building for Sloss this year.

*I've also started to fab up the base and pieces for my next metal sculpture.

*Apparently I figured out how to throw around ten pounds of clay during the break. I've tried to throw large forms in the past, and had little to no success. So i am proud of this sudden progress.

Here are some pictures of what i've been doing.















My cupola on the left and the base & materials on the right.

















Some of vessels I've made these past few days.






















And something random I made to finish off the set. [sassy figure]