Sealife Diptychs

The purpose of this creative project was for the artist to design a series in clay, construct them, and write a thesis about the series concerning the ideas and imagery. The artist chose sealife imagery as a focal point for the series because the shapes of their fins and curves of their bodies create a feeling of movement. Ten images were chosen for the design of the diptych sets. The negative space between the two diptychs made reference to the varied fish forms and sealife. The surface of these pieces have a highly textured appearance reflecting impressions of intrinsic detail of vegetation, coral, fin, and tail-like shapes. The color of the sculpture diptychs will relay to the viewer the feeling the artist desires. For example, a shark image would have black and dark blue on the sculpture to represent unknown threats and anxiety from this ominous form lurking amidst them. The construction of the diptychs was cardboard template and slab method. The artist rolled out clay slabs, with shaped cardboard templates, transfering an image to the clay slabs. This gave the sculpture temporary stability while it was being constructed. The cardboard was removed after the form was dry enough to be stable. After stabilizing, the form had reinforcement coils added. This also gave the form stability to stand on it's own. Then it was ready for the additive and subtractive process to create the fins and tail shapes on the positive forms. Wavy lines were then carved into the forms to add movement to the diptych set. Texture was added by pressing shells and coral into the clay to add to the imagery. The forms were then allowed to dry completely. The first firing was the bisque firing to cone 010-04 (1641-1940 F).. Cone 04 allowed for a more stable form. After the bisque the diptychs were glazed with Reward Underglaze, Reward Glaze, Duncan Underglaze, and Duncan Clear cone 05-06 (1915-1830 F). The clear was applied in a wave like affect giving the surface a wet look where applied.The creative project was a chance for the artist to push the media of ceramics, and to learn the limits of the medium. The artist has also opened a new door in her own personal experiences through exploration in the use of negative space as the image and the clay forms, or positive space as the area around the image.Department of ArtThesis (M.A.