I just completed an intensive month of making work for an exhibition. Earlier this year I joined CWAL, Cleveland West Art League. I wanted to connect with a new organization. New energy and new ideas! As an artist you are always reinventing yourself or reconnecting with colleagues to discuss what is currently working for artists; shows, exhibitions, materials, what's hot and what's not are just a few things discussed. I leave the old boring discussions of what is art and what is craft to someone else.
CWAL put out a call for entry for their annual 6 in the studio show. The curator, Arabella Proffer, choose 6 artists, Abbey Blake, Marissa Bona, Gabe Kenney, Carmen Romine, Catherine Spencer and Theresa Yondo to create work. "One month, endless possibilities".
I found out on March 9th that my proposal was accepted. The introduction and opening reception was scheduled for March 20 which did not leave much time to begin preparation for the body of work which needed to be made. To add to all the frenzy, my father who had been sick for many years passed on St. Patrick's Day. A fitting day for father to depart from this world. Not Irish, but loved a good party.
The proposal submitted was to continue the portal series I started this year which uses architectural elements. This series would use window shapes. The architectural inspiration would come from early 1900 industrial buildings built in the United States. Partially because this shape makes a great platform to explore and partially because the CWAL gallery is housed in an industrial building built in the early 1900's. The building currently is known as 78th Street Studios. The building sits between 78th St. and 80th St. which can be confusing since the name 78th Street is different from the mailing address which uses 80th St.
I began the project by sculpting 2 window shapes which I bisque fired. The plan was to make several negative molds of the sculptures. I had to work fast in order to complete the project in one month. Having several molds allowed me to make the windows quickly.
The top left shape shows the original sculpture and the right shape shows the mold. The other 2 shapes show the final sculpture in various stages of completion.
The top image shows another window shape used.
The handling of the panes in this way allowed a wide range of stories to be told and left room for the untold story.
Various stages of glazing
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Installed
Sorry for the small image but I was having problems with the blog tonight and could not upload a larger image.
Concept to Creation,
Theresa Yondo
