Looking for the big picture.

In working in the graduating art class this semester, we have to keep thinking about how we want to present our pieces. This is something that I, in particular, have to think about. These aren't just paintings that you put up on the wall. Some of them are, but then there's the question of the sculptures themselves, the photographs, the drawings. What would I choose, and how would I exhibit them together? How would they interact with one another?

I think that the best option for me would be to leave the original sculptures out of it. They of course are invaluable to the entire process, but that's just the thing: they are part of the process, not the final product.

I love them to pieces, but this is about vaulting them into new dimensions, and figuring out how they can be shown at their best. As sculptures, in person, they just don't have the same impact.

Case in point:

BAM. See? Impact.

Let me know what you think!

Oh hi there.

Eye candy time! ...the sculptures, not the model... I LIKE CLAY, OKAY.

Which do you like?

Men made of yellow mud.

It's Life Drawing Wednesday! I finally got to play around with my new clay, and boy was it awesome! The texture was so smooth and easy to work with, and I just love the colour. And then there's the anticipation of how it will look fired. So exciting!

I was really in the zone tonight, and even though I haven't done any sculptures since November, I noticed that I'd improved on a couple things. One was time-management, but the other was technical. I was paying really close attention to the heads. If you remember last semester, I thought they were looking too cartoony, so I mostly steered clear. This time though, I was trying to be conscious of proportion, and features, and all that. I kept remembering a video clip I watched on Ceramic Arts Daily about the proportions of the head. The video I watched was here, but here's a nice condensed version that's pretty similar. Pretty much just the first minute or so.

Here's a photo I got around the halfway point of the evening...

ONLY TWO PHOTOS?!? you ask... well, I swear I'm not being coy. My camera died! There will be more to come very soon, I promise!

In the meantime, moment of the night, while getting a brief shoulder massage from Courtenay:
Me: "Do you feel the knots?"
Courtenay: "I don't know... what I'm touching."

Also great: listening to Graceland.

Sending myself an acceptance letter.

Last week, I got to email myself my own acceptance letter. Something to the effect of:

Dear Melanie Godel,

Thank you for your submissions to Portal 2012 etc etc... We are pleased to inform you etc etc...

If you are not contacted by Tuesday, please email Melanie Godel etc etc...

Please submit a bio, addressed to Melanie Godel etc etc...

Sincerely,

Melanie Godel

Soon-to-be-published author and artist, right here folks.

Fun.

You see, on top of being a Visual Arts student, I'm taking a Creative Writing minor. This spring, I'm in a publishing course for VIU's literary magazine, Portal. All aspects of the magazine are created and run by students, from designing, to fundraising and advertising, to screening submissions (exclusively from VIU students) and editing, to planning the launch. 

One of my jobs is "Acquisitions Editor", where I had to draft up the acceptance and rejection letters for all those who submitted work. I sent them out after a very long Monday evening in the library, and this included an acceptance letter to myself.

Two of my poems, and two works of art (one drawing and one photo) will be published in the magazine. Yay!

I considered posting the artwork that will be in the magazine, but where's the fun in the that? You'll just have to wait for the magazine's launch, March 27th from 2-5pm in the Royal Arbutus room at VIU.

In the meantime, check out Portal Magazine HERE, and maybe like us on Facebook HERE, and perhaps even consider following us on Twitter HERE.

And for good measure, maybe check out the fundraiser we're putting on on February 10th at the luxurious Corner Lounge, which will feature music from Dope Soda, and of course all manner of shmoozing with us publishing types. Check out the event on Facebook!

Signing off!

Capital letters! Poo jokes! Quotes!

Oh, hello there. Long time, no see!

Well, you see, I'm doing this little thing here in my final spring semester of university called ARTS 486, also-known-as the GRADUATING PROJECT. This means that over the course of the semester, we have to complete five projects in a direction of our choosing, and have works ready to be mounted in the downtown Nanaimo Art Gallery for the graduating show, Explorations, in March. March! March. So soon. Breathe...

So, I've proposed to continue the explorations that I started last semester in my ceramics directed study with Scott. I want to continue exploring the mixture of media, including some painting, and trying out some gel medium transfers of some of my photographs from the fall, which I want to apply back onto clay slabs. Full circle!

I'm also hoping to go to more life drawing classes (sadly, last week's was cancelled due to the snow day), but I want to try my hand at a lovely red clay body that I got in Victoria, known as Klamath Yellow. Why is "yellow" in the name if it's a red clay, you ask? Well, as the man at the clay store aptly put it, when it's wet, the clay is a lovely "baby-poo yellow." Once fired, it turns into a beautiful red. The benefits of this? Well gosh, who doesn't like making things change colour (read: magic) WITH INTENSE AMOUNTS OF HEAT? And poo jokes.

Unfortunately, I don't really have much started that I can share with you all, visually speaking, but for a written project this week, we had to look up some art vocabulary in reviews or artist statements. This led me to discover the art magazines in the Periodical section of the library, where I have decided I should spend some more time this semester. It was there, this morning, that I stumbled upon this lovely little quote about sculpture, which I find relevant to my work.

“Sculpture is the silent key to the world we encounter every second of every day. You might say that sculpture is what is not painting or printmaking or performance or video, what is not photography or film or cyberspace. You might be right. But you may just as easily be wrong.”

 – Ian Carr-Harris, professor at OCAD University

More to come, and thanks for reading! 

Holiday Projects

Happy New Year!

I'm back, after a little hiatus, but I'm ready to get this blog ball rolling again.

Over the holidays, I had a couple drawing endeavors. The first was a commissioned birthday card from a regular at Mon Petit Choux. She'd remembered me drawing my own Christmas cards last year, and asked if I could make a birthday card for the captain of her outrigger canoe team, Just 4 Kicks, the 2011  Cora Cup champions. She provided me with some photos of the team and the trophy, and I got to work with my Prismacolour pencil crayons.

The woman in the canoe is the one whose birthday it was, and the wave is what the trophy looks like.

Also over the holidays, it was my parents' 30th wedding anniversary. My parents were already paying for us all to go to Cuba together, but my siblings and I wanted to do something special for them. We came up with the idea of compiling some of our childhood memories into a book, accompanied by some drawings. I ended up taking on the task.

Unfortunately, with the end of semester, and the previous card that I needed to finish, the project got pushed to the background until I was set to leave for Cuba. I started it on the ferry, sneakily worked on it on the plane (with my parents one row up, on the other side of the aisle from us), and more while at the resort. Needless to say they suspected something was up, and they were quite nosey about it until we finally revealed the book to them at their anniversary dinner.

I ended up splitting the memories up into a number of categories, including "Parenting", "Food", "Travel" and "Activities". Here are some of the pages, mostly from the "Parenting" section.

I forgot to get Andre to sign it before taking the pictures...

The book was a hit, and stirred up a lot of memories and laughs. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to finish it before we parted ways (it felt a little bit like having homework on vacation...) and Mom and Dad made their way back to Dubai while I came back to the island with the book. My task now is to finish it before I see them again in the summer.

Happy anniversary guys! Love you!

Art Sale, December 7th!

This year's Art & Design Student Sale is being held on December 7th from 10am-2pm.

I will be participating for my third year running, with mainly ceramics and photography available. It's a really great opportunity to showcase some of the things I've been working on over the years, and a chance to see what everyone else in my program has been up to as well.

These photos are from another sale I participated in recently, the Snowflake Craft & Artisan Market at Pleasant Valley Hall in November. Luckily, preparing for that sale made it easier for me to prepare for this upcoming show, since I now have most of my stuff ready to go. And I even made myself some fancy shmancy business cards!

This is a great way to come check out what the art students are getting up to in the community, and a great way to support them if you want to. Buying local is becoming very important during the holidays, and this is a great place to find unique things for your loved ones, ranging from cards, jewelery, photography, drawings, paintings, prints, ceramics, and more.

I've been running around campus and downtown in the past week or so putting up posters and tent cards wherever possible, and I'm lucky that my boss, Linda, at Mon Petit Choux let me put up a small display of my work to help promote the sale.

Please check out the Facebook event, and invite anyone you think may be interested! 

Here are a few ceramics pieces that will be available, and please also check out my photography on Flickr!

Hope to see some friendly and familiar faces!