I, Curtis

Category: Art

  • Another Exhausting Day In Clay

    ok, so I didn’t start working with clay today until about 1:30… but it was 9:30 when I stopped for the day… so I’m not far from a full day of working with clay. I started the day with the intention of practicing bowls with rolled rims, and I threw several of them. A friend had asked me to make a q-tip container, and it came out more like a cotton ball container, so I might have to try that again tomorrow. In addition, I tried making a bottle… twice, and ended up making a vase both times. I have to go back to my artistic drawing board and remember how I used to throw bottles… maybe I should document how I do things and keep a record for my own reference. After throwing those pieces I made dinner, then went out for a bit and in general mucked around (WLW’s suggested phrasing) for a while until some of the pieces were ready to trim. The 3 smallest bowls and the lid for the qtip container were ready to trim.. the other bowls wait to be trimming…most likely in the morning. The vases are good as is (and very light as is). 

     

    Here is an instructional video that I used to get started with roll rimming my bowls by European ceramic artist, Simon Leach.

  • Kiln Loading Strategy

    Many times people have asked me how to load a kiln. Many times I have failed to have the right words to describe it… tonight, Jared asked a simple question that summarized the process…"is it like playin Tetris?"… YES it is very much like playing tetris.. fill in as tightly as you can, leaving no gaps, but only putting pieces were they fit.

  • Bisqueing Again

    Last night I ran the first bisque kiln that I have run in about six months. I felt so strange programming the kiln and loading and everything. Luckily it all came back to me and the 8 pieces I fired made it through with no problems. I am starting to believe I need to find a way to get a bigger kiln, soon, since it is going to take me about 4 days of firing to fire 2 days worth of work… hardly efficient. Also, each of those pieces has to go back through for a glaze load, and that will be even more spread out in time. I had forgotten how absolutely tiny that kiln is.

  • Picking an Art

    It seems like every artist has a primary specialization. They are sculptors, painters, graphic artists, ceramists or a variety of other titles…anyone simply called "artist" is usually a painter, or is a lazy person who smokes too much pot. I don’t know what my specialization would be. I have been in ceramics the longest, but I’m not sure how much I am married to it in the long run. I enjoy almost any art form I start just as much as ceramics, although, with things like photography and drawing I am not as easily able to venture out into a self-guided attempt as much as I am with ceramics. So where does the decision start? When does an artist declare their "primary medium"?

  • Different Approach to Ceramics




    DSCF6379

    Originally uploaded by Curtis M. Kularski

    I’m playing with texture on some of my new ceramics. It gives a different dimension to the simplest of forms, allowing me to stay with my simple forms, while being more expressive in the clay medium.

  • Picking Studio Art Courses

    Most semesters I know what studios I want to take, it is just so obvious to me. For Fall 2008 it is a little more challenging. I was originally presented with a very slim assortment of studio courses to take…primarily I was left with Sculpture 1. Now, through courses being added and instructors agreeing to special arrangements I have options of Sculpture 1, Ceramics Studio (self-paced project course), and Photography Studio (instructor-lead exploration, resembling Digital Photo II). As I have discussed previously, taking 3 studio courses is insane, if there are any other courses present on my schedule, and for fall 2008, there are. I will have to narrow down to 1 or 2 studios.

  • Otto Heino

    This morning I was running over Google News, looking at things that appeal to me, and I came across an article about a 94 year old potter in California. It is inspiring to think that it is possible to go into a career that one loves so much and still be able to do it at that age. Mr. Heino was not influenced by the sculptural ceramics movement, instead he has stayed true to functional ware. He is quite an inspiration.

    Otto Heino  – Master Potter

  • My ‘Inspiration’

    Earlier this evening I was reviewing the contents of my “Inspiration” folder. It is a little folder that resides on my personal share on my server. The folder contains images I have collected for a while, most of which are very personal to me. The images represent my artistic and aesthetic interests. The folder contains a lot of pictures of muscular men, vases, bowls, and a variety of others I have collected over time. This folder is strange in that it reflects who I am at any given moment. I change moods and feelings so much, but this folder is always a strong collection of how I feel and whats on my mind over a longer period of time.
    I started this folder several years ago when I first met Ms. Joan Tweedy, my first ceramics instructor. She told several of us who she felt were destined to enter ceramics as more than just an academic interest that we should begin collecting pictures of things that excited us and made us want to create. She stated to use walls for “active” interests and a box for “collecting”. I took this a little more metaphorically and began collecting imagery in a folder on the server. I have used this folder off-and-on through my artistic adventures.
    I started this entry with the title “Being Gay and An Artist”, because a lot of the images in the folder are naked or half naked men, or little things from fetish interests I have. I looked at the folder and sort of had to giggle about how weird I have been about my aesthetic interests that have mixed with my erotic interests, because when those interests are shared, it comes down to aesthetics. I like it because its pretty! I have avoided including some aspects of the Inspiration in my work because I don’t want to be a gay artist, I want to be an artist who is also gay. When looking at the things I have focused on in the folder, most of the stuff seems really harmless, even if I were straight. The picture of chain, or the picture of a bicep could be integrated into something without risking anything. There is even a great symbolism that can be pulled from the picture of a tan muscled guy who is bound tightly in white rope.
    If I am to become a serious artist, I think I must review my Inspiration folder and take it seriously, every last byte of information there is precious. Things I care about are there, they aren’t in some random still life.

  • Randomness, Uncertainty and The Pursuit of Accomplishment

    Today I woke up fairly late in the day and have been having the weirdest mood shifts and changes in objectives. I have a chapter to finish for my novel, I have put in several random attempts at effort on it, for the same course I also have to “explicate a poem”, which I can do, but I just have to pick a poem for it. In addition to those assignments, I also have to finish my perspective drawing to turn it in on Monday, and also draw an orange with full shading and texture in my sketch book. I have been letting all of this go through my head and I am bouncing between thoughts in my head way too quickly. I have considered working on the mid-term for one of my online classes as well, but haven’t started on it (100 questions, all to be done and turned in by April 7th, most likely by UPS).
    Other than academic stuff, I have been looking at LiveCurt.net again, working on some stuff for it and trying to get a grasp of what it is supposed to be. I am feeling like I am trying to do a 4 dimensional website in a 2 dimensional space. I have played with Google Analytics some, primarily adding the Art blog to it. I have also been playing with the idea of a centralized location for all of my blogs, which I then realized are all about me, so therefore belong on LiveCurt.net (my domain-registering addiction is foiled again). Oh, and I have been trying to write blog posts on random shit, and pretty much getting no where. I played a game a little while ago, thinking maybe it would calm me down and let me focus, nope, didn’t happen, I’m still bouncing off the walls with stuff to do, but not nearly enough ambition to accomplish any of them.
    Finally, I did finish my loop of looking for a digital camera for my course this summer. I still haven’t decided on or purchased one, but I have at least placed a fall-back candidate in my head. If I can’t decide on anything else, then I am going with the Fugifilm FinePix S5200. It isn’t a true SLR camera, but it gives me the functionality I need for the course. SLR cameras are a little scary with how they work. I don’t like the idea of using a camera that has to rotate a mirror to take a picture, but I guess if I find a real SLR camera that I like, I will go for it, although, the S5200 is definitely a piece to drool over.
    Today I have done a lot of “half-done” things, but fully completed nothing. Maybe tomorrow will be part 2 and I will get everything done.

  • Final Images from the Studio