Surround Yourself with Beauty

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Kira Call Ceramics

963073_10203136634484890_1964917725_n

 

The photo is just a snapshot I took with my phone of all of the things sitting on top of my dresser right now. I cleaned my room this morning and when I got home and took a second look at it, I realized how much easier it is to notice the things I surround myself with that become invisible to me through familiarity. I try to surround myself with beauty. Most of the pots in the photo are pieces of mine except the rectangle flower vase. I feel the need to surround myself with other kinds of beauty besides material things. I need to make a few changes in my life to improve my surroundings.

 

I feel like I need to fill a metaphorical void. Maybe I just need more sleep– that could be it. It feels like I’m forgetting something or not getting enough done each day. I always make a point of being productive, but maybe without a little selfless service, I won’t feel accomplished. I’ve decided to make a point of actively doing nice things for others in between what I have to get done for myself. Yesterday, I took an entire pan of chocolate chip cookie bars to the studio to share. I did eat one the night before to try them, but that was the only one I had. I gave the rest away. It felt good to do something nice. I want to try and keep the habit going by finding other ways I can do nice things for studio mates and roommates. Getting into selfish habits is a bad habit in itself. I guess I’m trying to think differently. I attended a Buddhist-inspired meeting the other night that helped me pull away from the thoughts right in front of me and see things more objectively. It’s gonna take a lot of practice and self-discipline to make it a good habit. I feel like donating some of my clothes now 🙂 I have way too many.

Posted in Art, Ceramics, Creative Writing, Deep Thought, Organizing, Philosophy, Stress Control, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Kira Call Ceramics

1624376_10203085984818680_1609619864_n

 

Hello 🙂 I’ve been staying busy. I’ve fired a few kilns since I last wrote. Don’t worry, I still work with bright colors that kick ceramics in the teeth with their vibrancy, but I really wanted to try the water-erosion wax-resist technique like Andy Shaw does so well.

1797252_10203100199374035_1962431645_n

I bought a cup that used this technique when I went to NCECA in Seattle in 2012– it was a spiderweb design on the cup, and it was eggshell thin porcelain with a beautiful blue celadon glaze. I still love that cup, and for the longest time I couldn’t decide how it was done. I tried my hand at painting wax resist direct designs on my cups, and it turned out alright. I really like the technique, but I think I will probably leave it to Andy Shaw and others. I just wanted to see what I could do with the idea, but I’m hooked on my bright colors. I love to have a window of bright color seated in a crystalline glaze of blue or green or creamy beige. I do appreciate celadon and textured porcelain– so I will support other artists buy buying pots I like with those materials and techniques. As for myself, I think I will continue painting vibrant underglazes on my own work.

I went on a beautiful hike last week. I didn’t have time today, but I thought about it. The weather just keeps getting warmer. There’s rumor that it’s supposed to snow tomorrow. I won’t be surprised if it does since it’s only February in Utah. It has been a beautiful couple of weeks here. Plus, I’m creating a new social life for myself. I think it’s healthy to have balance between studio/classes, work, and the people I choose to associate with. Lately I feel like the studio has been overshadowing my social life in a way that I let happen. I am trying to branch out and make some friends of my own so that I can have a personal life outside of the studio. So far, I’m having a lot of success 🙂 Now I just need to find a way to successfully plan out my senior exhibition show.

 

1922751_10203068873710913_1368232478_n

Posted in Art, Ceramics, Daydreaming, Deep Thought, Design, Drawing, Nature, Science, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Setting myself up for failure– as a challenge to overcome

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Kira Call Ceramics

1600304_10202921028894885_1915572678_n

This photo is of a cup that I pulled out of my cone 10 oxidation firing last week. I loved how it turned out. The only thing wrong was that I think the glaze was a bit too thin for crystal growth to occur. Hopefully I can be more patient with glazing for the firing I plan to do this weekend.

Ok, so I don’t actually plan on failing at anything. BUT– I am setting a lot of goals to get done by the weekend’s end. The first thing I should actually be worrying about is creating a powerpoint for Art History. I’ve got most of the images already, thanks to my professor for lending me a book.

Right now I’m listening to Neutral Milk Hotel, sipping on a glass of Australian shiraz, and pondering how in the world I will accomplish everything on my weekend list. It’s currently Thursday night here, late. I am simultaneously working on two of the items on my list: revising my artist statement for an assignment and filling out info online for the Windgate Fellowship Award 2014. I guess I’ve got good progress on three of the listed things, but to make things just a little bit more crazy, I’m gonna see if I can balance a personal social life tomorrow night by planning a date where I said I would make dinner and then I signed out a gas kiln for Sunday. Yeah. I know. I’m a crazy person. But somehow, I think I will be able to get it all done. I’m not completely confident about the art history powerpoint yet, but I think I can handle the rest. 😉

Posted in Art, Ceramics, Drawing, Nature, Organizing, Stress Control, To-Do List-ing, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Silhouette in Smoke

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Kira Call Ceramics

It has been a HELL of a long time since I’ve bothered to post anything, and I am (pretty) sorry about that. I really am. BUT– You know what they say, guess I’ve been too busy living life instead of writing about it 😛

But I feel like it’s important to sit down and make a written checkpoint about what I’m doing with school and art and life in general, and my journal has suffered just about as much (Okay, maybe I share the few juicy details with my journal every now and then). I don’t intentionally neglect my blog and journal. It’s just that life seems to have picked up pace since I was lounging around last fall. Australia was a nice vacation where I found time to write every once in a while and when I got back my only actual responsibility was working to pay the rent. Over Christmas break, I managed to be completely useless for about three weeks straight with the exception of recording some new music (mostly just learning covers and editing old originals), but now my life has a whole new rhythm.

first ceramic knives

Every week day, I wake up at 7:10 am, get ready, pack breakfast and lunch, do my best to get out the door before 8:15, drive to school/work, and stay there until about 7 or 8 pm on average every day. On weekends, I’ve been trying to fire kilns. Last week I fired a test kiln mid-week because I was so damn excited about my ceramic knives and stayed at the studio until 1:00am (knives pictured above: which are a huge personal success). I cut them out of slabs of clay, waited for them to set up a bit, carved them down to a basic knife shape, bisque-fired them, used coarse sandpaper, carefully wadded and glaze-fired them to about 1280 Celsius, then sanded them first with coarse (100 grit) sandpaper, then refined them with 220 grit sandpaper. I’ve sanded them to a point where they are sharp enough to slice tomatoes, pickles, onions, pears, and bacon (I know this because I’ve used one of them to prepare my last three or four meals).

My point is that I am working towards progression, and writing in my blog has fallen a bit to the wayside. It’s not just ceramics and work that are taking up time. Those are just my life-defaults. The stuff that has been taking up time is attending classes, writing papers/doing assignments/readings, and trying to wrap my mind around this Windgate Fellowship grant proposal writing project. I’m finding a finishing point- I can see light at the end of the application tunnel. After February 8, I will just have to wait two months to hear whether I won or not. After that, everything is up in the air, which drives me crazy. Even if I do get the award, I still need to decide what I want to do this summer, because the visa will most likely take about 6 months.

I’m really at a cliff here. I dunno how else to describe it. I know I need to keep making money to work on paying off student loans, but I can’t decide on where to look for another job. I could keep working where I am now and look for something to add to it– or I could just chill out, keep working one part time job, and get organized for the trip and show (assuming I get it). Another idea I’ve been mulling around in my head is that I can look for a summer job in or near Jackson Hole. I’ve always wanted to experience Jackson in a closer sense. My home town reads the same newspaper, but I almost never go to Jackson. I want to actively experience the bluegrass music, art, nature, and maybe even the political scene of the place just for one summer. I think it would be a good life experience. I have plenty of friends who work in Jackson, and maybe after I graduate with a Bachelors in Fine Art I can find some pee-on job in a gallery there just to get my big toe in the door. But– right now everything is just an idea, a silhouette in smoke.

Posted in Art, Ceramics, Daydreaming, Deep Thought, Design, Organizing, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Rustic Daydream

Posted on January 11, 2014 by Kira Call Ceramics

mud trail 025

I have sweet memories of a far-off place,

Filled with crazy people and beautiful landscapes.

I have feelings for an ideal that I can’t seem to grasp—

Left longing for a daydream burnt to ash.

My ideal life, with closer friends, grass always green, skies often blue.

Maybe what I’m looking for is a house in the hills, with feelings I once knew.

Maybe I just need a few miles of space,

Tall trees, tall mountains, a wishful place.

My old-fashioned daydream of a country boy and a forest cabin,

It seems so simple and cliché, yet complicated to find.

Knowing what you want is half the battle, but what if you run out of steam?

A big dog lying on a rug by the fireplace, a hot cup of tea—

My country boy waits for me.

I haven’t met him just yet, he must be playing hard to get.

He must be a folk guitarist, with a one-month shadow,

Or a rustic cowboy, studying how the grass grows.

Maybe next year, I’ll find myself in Brazil—maybe not.

Maybe I’ll find myself in Jackson Hole, singing on a corner,

Or looking for work in some fancy art gallery. Maybe not.

Or maybe, I’ll still be sitting right here.

I’ll busk my way to a better day,

Play right through ‘til my fingers swell.

Sing out my lines like it’s my last breath,

Like the next day I might wake up in hell.

Posted in Creative Writing, Daydreaming, Folk Music, Photography, Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Tough Week… for a poor little undergrad- Tips of Advice

Posted on January 10, 2014 by Kira Call Ceramics

kings park botanical garden 043

Yeah yeah, I’m whining a little bit. My mind is still telling me that I should be taking it easy and that having 3 studio classes is too much. I’m not used to the rhythm yet. I know there are people out in the world with tougher hardships, worse weeks, worse people, and busier schedules, but this week I am complaining. I will probably get over it in a week or two 😛 hopefully.

I’m eating my mom’s roast beef from last Sunday out of a ziploc bag because it’s delicious and I’m too lazy to think about making dinner, sitting and contemplating homework, writing in my blog and my journal, sipping on a spiked Squirt soda, and indulging in Godiva dark chocolate truffles that my lovely father gave me for Christmas. I am feeling much better than I was a few hours ago. I still don’t feel like I’m being productive enough. I have three paragraphs to write before Monday, Valentine’s sale stuff to help out with, and I should make some mugs tomorrow, but I feel like what I truly need tonight is sleep– as soon as it’s logical to try and fall asleep. I’m not saying I’ve lost hope. I’m not saying I’ve lost vigor. I’m saying that my mental battery needs recharging… so I can be productive AND diplomatic.

My creative mind suffers when I’m stressed. Even if I can’t solve the most important problems at hand, I usually can’t stop thinking about them nonetheless. The thing that seems to help best is a phone call to a friend, sister, or my mom, and a good long journal entry. That way, the words can escape my mind and dwell somewhere else. So I figure, if I call someone, write a blog AND write in my journal, then my worries can leave long enough for me to sleep and worry about them the next day. How else can you conquer things you can’t do anything about?

Try taking my advice if you’re stressed out a lot… writing about it takes it out of your mind temporarily. If it’s something that you should be thinking about in the short term but keeps you from sleeping, put it on a To-Do List 🙂 That usually helps me organize thoughts. I’ve written 3 notebook pages worth of a to-do list, and I think it has helped. Crossing things off is the most rewarding thing when you’ve got a lot on your ‘plate’. Cheers 😉

Posted in Advice, Creative Writing, Deep Thought, Organizing, Stress Control, To-Do List-ing, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

On a Roll! ;)

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Kira Call Ceramics

1579769_10202809108616948_1794555184_n

 

So, the photo is of a drawing of my “Haworthia concept”, new decoration designs based on the plant genus: Haworthia. The leaves have cool texture. Also in the photo is a spoon that I decorated today as kind of a prototype of the idea.

 

Yes, I was bewildered yesterday, but today I feel like I’m getting things together– now that I know what to expect as a schedule for my days, I can get on top of it. I’m working on homework for the week already– 2 days into the semester and I already have to have a paper written by Friday and another one by Monday. Guess I knew my senior semester would be a bit intense… but I’ve already finished the one for Friday, sent the email to myself reminding me to print out my Windgate Fellowship application tomorrow, and I’m working on assignment #3, the paper that’s due by Monday. I’ve got Hectalite soaking in buckets in my studio so I can mix white Grolleg porcelain tomorrow during/after class. If I get done with everything by Thursday night, I’m even planning on going to a cool little blues band’s show at the venue downtown. 🙂 Pretty sure that glaze calc will kick my butt, though.

Speaking of going to a show at a venue, I’ve had something on my mind. When I was playing guitar at home for my family gathering in Wyoming for the holiday break, my uncle mentioned a pizza place here in my Uni town that is owned by a guy from my hometown. My uncle said that the guy would probably like me to play guitar there, if I just went in and talked to him about it. Part of me is dying to go down there, buy a slice of pizza, and talk to the guy. But the rest of me is spiraling in self-doubt. I don’t have too many songs prepared for a full-on performance– especially when people demand me to “sing something, something upbeat!” I’ve got six almost-performable originals ready to go, and I know a bunch of classical instrumental songs (wouldn’t fit that pizza place well), and a few folk songs and covers that I can’t sing to just yet. I’ve got my Christmas tabs book nearly memorized, but the season is gone now. Guess I should learn some more bluegrass covers 🙂 The pizza place is close to the venue I might be going to on Thursday– maybe I’ll stop by.

Guitars

 

Caption: All five of the guitars I own as of today (January 7, 2014) from left to right, oldest to newest (the Cordoba in front, that I would be taking with me to the pizza place).

Posted in Art, Ceramics, Daydreaming, Deep Thought, Design, Drawing, Folk Music, Music, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hello, Senior Semester, where in the world did you come from??!

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Kira Call Ceramics

guitar and me

Alright. New place to live, new roommates, new semester– I’m not ready for any of it! I will figure things out, but I feel like I could have used an extra week of sitting around and catching up on sleep. Yeah, sure I probably would have just found a way to stay up until 4:00am every night and sleep in until noon the next day, but at least when I did decide to get out of bed the biggest thing on the agenda was making coffee and playing guitar. I could use another week or two of that lovely schedule… 😉

The photo above is me playing guitar for an Christmas Open House party for a friend’s small business in Wyoming in December 2012. It’s amazing that I’ve had the patience to let my hair grow out a bit during 2013:

1488060_10202665520707340_1357953896_n

 

🙂

Posted in Daydreaming, Music, Photography, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Graduating Semester Jitters

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Kira Call Ceramics

I’m feeling nervous about starting classes on Monday. I’m gonna have 3 studio classes and an art history class. Its not that I’m whining about 10 credits. It’s that I haven’t finished my grant proposal yet and that I have to get used to living in yet another new apartment with new roommates. It’s mostly about the apartment. I’m not looking forward to adapting all over again. Yeah, I’ll be able to handle it, but I can’t help but feel a little worn out by moving so often.
At least I’ve got an awesome new idea that I’m working on in the studio 🙂
image

I came up with the idea of making ceramic knives before I came home for Christmas break. I’m really hoping it will work out. I have to make tiny shrink slabs for each blade and I have to remember to sand them after the bisque firing– I think that will be the most effective way to create a sharp blade. I guess since I’m making spoons and knives, I should think up a fork design 😛 dunno how functional a ceramic fork would really be…
I am kind of excited for the exhibition class, but I’ve still got some paperwork to sort out for graduation. I’m not worried, just frustrated. I’ll work through it. In better news, I got an amazing new guitar for Christmas 🙂
image

Posted in Art, Ceramics | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Autobiography in Craft- Part 2

Posted on December 27, 2013 by Kira Call Ceramics

etsy stuff 016

In my first semester of college, I wasn’t taking art classes yet, and I was unemployed—so I was utterly bored. I knitted a large afghan, and also came up with an idea after looking in the pantry at the large collection of plastic bags that my dorm-mates had built up. I decided to cut them in strips, tie them together, and crochet things out of them—my own way of contributing to the “Go-Green” campaign (I was skeptical about the university’s recycling system anyway). With my dad’s help, I distributed bags to three different shops in Jackson Hole, including “Jackson Whole Grocers” and created tags and the brand name “Bag of Bags”.

My second semester, I was taking two art studio classes that innovated a lot of new visual ideas. Towards the end of the semester, I had to plan what classes I wanted to take in the fall. I decided on a whim to sign up for the university’s ceramics class. I was told by my advisor that it was required for graduation from the art college anyway.

first wheel ceramics part 2 025

It was time consuming and frustrating my first week on the wheel. I felt like I would never figure out how to make a cylinder six inches tall with walls only a quarter inch thick. I tried for at least six hours every day that week. Basically, I felt like a mud factory, because my clay on the wheel kept shrinking and my throwing water kept getting cloudier and thicker, a classic beginners’ problem. I kept telling myself I should just give up and settle for a B or C in the class, but I have a competitive personality that kept me trying all week. On day five, I had a cylinder that reached about five and a half inches tall. I decided to let it be and keep trying. By day six, I was able to throw five out of my six assigned cylinders at the right height. Three weeks later, I made a Japanese style teapot that made my professor (John Neely) say, “Not bad, not bad at all!”

first wheel ceramics part 2 078

After that, I was hooked in. I made three more teapots before that semester ended. With some encouragement from the studio tech, I decided to take the intermediate class the following semester. The class should scare away any beginning thrower—the syllabus included making ten cylinders at 14” tall, 50 bowls, 50 cups, 5 teapots, 8 pitchers, 10 large lidded jars, two vases at two feet tall minimum, 4 dinner plates, and a giant platter—22 inches in diameter. I ended up passing with an A, but decided to take the class again for further practice. I still didn’t feel confident with the quality of my bowls, but I did learn how to throw things that weren’t quite so thick and heavy at the bottom. It took me one more semester to start working seriously with porcelain as my favorite clay material. Porcelain was a whole new challenge for throwing. It’s not very friendly towards making larger forms, so I tried a few other clay bodies for when I felt like making anything taller than six inches.

Tree inlay

The reason for using porcelain was to work on my surface decoration techniques—porcelain makes a smooth clean white canvas, the perfect victim for intricate carving and detailed colorful inlaid drawings. I started buying brightly colored underglazes online, which put my work on a whole new level. It also transformed my process. I did decide to modify the underglazes to make them less chalky by putting a small amount of Gerstley Borate in each color, because I don’t actually cover them with glaze.

BFA Studio Spring 2013 045

 

Find me on Instagram: @kiracall   🙂

Posted in Art, Ceramics, Deep Thought, Design, Drawing, Nature, Science, Sculpture, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment