Wednesday, November 30, 2011

"Mr. Sgraffito"

~ Mister Sgraffito ~


I have to say that I've had an idea for an image of myself in my studio.  I've been devoted to ceramics for the last 23 years but ever since I cheated on clay with cardboard I've had thoughts of working large once again.  When I say large I'm talking 4 ft. to 8 ft.   Not impossible to achieve in clay but the reality of firing any clay object of that size has many technical,  practical and philosophical concerns surrounding it.  


Ceramics is not a medium that I have any intention of putting on a shelf, but working in both the clay and the paper medium seems to be where my head is at these days.  I think I will work on smaller clay objects while getting crazy big with the paper works.


Sgraffito is a ceramic technique that involves scratching through an applied contrasting slip clay into the clay body beneath creating marks, designs or imagery.  I LOVE IT!  It's something I can't achieve in paper but who knows....maybe I'll figure it out.  


When it came to realizing the idea for these very unstaged snapshots there was only one choice for who the person would be behind the camera.  The phenomenal Kristin Theiss who has become an amazing photographer over the past couple of years taking probably 200 shots on any given day.  She has a way of putting the fun in "fotography" (or "photografun").  I think she nailed it.  Stay tuned for more adventures of "Mister Sgraffito" in his house of clay and paper.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Chris,

    I thought of you when I read this:

    http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/keep-it-weird-cardboard/

    ReplyDelete