Uva Be Dolezal's Art Blog

enough round tiles yet?

noreply@blogger.com (@Uva_Be) — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 01:39:00 +0000

I've decided that I've taken enough photos of tiles to express that it's quite a bit of work. In truth, I'm posting them for myself in part because I feel time slipping past faster and faster making me wonder what I've been doing. Here is a record in clay of a few days' work that will last a lot longer than I will. I like that about ceramics. It's fragile like us and also possible that many millennia from now some sentient being will pick up a little round tile off a beach and wonder. Who made this and why?

March 1, 2020

Feb 29, 2020

Feb 9, 2020

Jan 22, 2020

Jan 7, 2020

June 16, 2019

Oct 11, 2019

March 29, 2019

May 27, 2019

May 5, 2019.

April 29, 2019

Oct 19, 2018

Oct 14, 2019

Sept 25, 2018

Sept 3, 2018

Apri1 25, 2018

The day I started working on round tiles for the upstairs bathroom was April 25, 2018. There are a lot more photos and the floor isn't finished yet.

return home

noreply@blogger.com (@Uva_Be) — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 23:37:00 +0000

This past fall winter and spring 2016-2017. I made tiles for our bathroom floor. I wrote a lot about it, then decided to let the pictures say it all for me. Tiles handmade and installed by me, as simple as can be.

Yes, that blue tape is the hole for the toilet.

Hubby got tired of watching me scrub grout and joined in.

Functional bathroom / laundry so far as of Oct. 2017

My personal mark language.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 22:17:00 +0000

I have been drawing, and doodling a lot, over the past couple years. My drawing and painting on paper is posted here on a blog titled simply ink clay blog . http://inkclay.blogspot.com/

I have doodle a lot with glaze on the surface of my ceramic art for years, but I'm trying to take it to the next level. Make it fine. Here is, a three legged platter, unfired, and the first 3 large vessels, these 3 are bisque with fired on pigmented slips, and a photo of one of the insides painted with glaze before firing.

November 2013 raku fire

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 19:44:00 +0000

Before fire, 3 raku kilns loaded. At Mudfire Clayworks & Gallery, Saturday Nov. 16, 2013.

Opening of second raku kiln at temperature. 1,500.

Tongs and glass workers gloves.

Reduction buckets, the paper and other burning materials are ignited by the heat of the raku pottery.

Hot out of the smoldering bucket.

Vase before washing any ash off surface. Also Mike Y's beautiful vases are in the shot on purpose.

Here I've scrubbed some of the ash off, see the puddle of water.

Second view of still hot half scrubbed raku vases. If you are interested in Mike Y's vases, check out the Mudfire Gallery. Mike's raku works have really incredible crazing patterns that follow the tension the of the thrown vase.

macrophage pod vase

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 20:41:00 +0000

google-site-verification: google4b1c14a5d2e36052.html

macrophage pod vase ( e.e. defender series )

dimensions: H, 7 in. or 18 cm. x W 11 in. or 28 cm. spike to spike.

link to raw clay photo of vase

Click link to 3rd photo to see engobe on surface of raw clay vase.

Raku of defensive basket vases 4 & 5

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 23:36:00 +0000

Hi all, if you wonder who is the guy in the background with the glass worker's gloves on, who is opening the raku kiln? Or know who he is and wonder if there are photos of Tom's ceramic art on the web. Well, that's Tom O'Fink. Here's a link to his pottery web site.

I think I'll let the photos do the talking. Except for stress fractures all the way through the top and handle of vase 5, I'm very happy. And I say this knowing that cracks are what one expects with the raku fire, especially with vases that are 22.5" and 21.5" tall.

1st ceramic art back in Atlanta

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 19:23:00 +0000

We are not unpacked, our studio and furniture is sort of put tother, and I'm already back in the mud.

1st piece back at mudfire after glaze fire.

1st piece back at mudfire before glaze fire.

raw clay at various states of drying.

photo record ceramic art

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 23:44:00 +0000

Photographed 4 pieces made in California, it's a grey day here today. This is a macrophage jar. Info details here.

derivative art

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 23:17:00 +0000

Lately I've been doing an inventory of over 25 years of drawings and 18 years of prints, plus a lot of paper that I've been carrying around with me as we moved across the country.

July, 28, 2012 I cut 2,280 slips of paper. Some was drawings I photographed first. Plus 250 slips were inked and printed before they were cut.

I cut 2,500 more August 12 and 13th.

I quit counting them after 5,240.

I made a couple cut board plates.

2 weeks ago I set up to print.
http://instagram.com/p/OcyvniPHZ1/

This pile is the result after drying.

Sorted into stacks. Also the plates, are there cut into 4 and stained with ink.

Closer look at stacks from art derivative print run 1. I haven't counted or numbered them yet. Best guess, approximately 350 or so.

Ceramic art / pottery — artist statement:

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:18:00 +0000

snack defender

I am a narrative artist. I shape metaphors of fictional ideals with my clay art work to communicate a microscopic and imaginary story about the balance of living creatures.

The pod series are about people and food. A simplified personification of "you are what you eat." They are plant-critters, both plants and animals at the same time. I often mix the two ideas rather then realistically render animal forms or pure plant shapes, because human beings are omnivores. I also am obsessed with our symbiotic dependent relationship with the microscopic world because we attempt and fail to sterilize our food, in spite of the fact that like all living creatures we can't survive without beneficial bacteria in our own bodies especially for digestion and the upkeep of our fragile cellular chemical balance that is needed to maintain our life energy and to fight disease.

detail, inside of snack defender

Because of the cheapness of the oil age, causing the post industrial generation's seeming obliviousness to our connection and dependency on our environment, the pod series has evolved into the defender series. The pots are like cacti monsters, and I've been having a lot of fun naming them with puns according to their symbolic usefulness.

Spiked and twisted beverage defender mugs for the post oil age, to serve as weapon in hand if scarcity of clean water and resources knocks civilized behavior down a few rungs. Gravy boat to protect and serve the good sauces. Punch-cups, and "platelets" Shaped like natural killer cells, white cell or giant blood platelets.

Alternatively if the green revolution is a success and we don't sink into a new dark age when the earth runs out of oil, then the defender series are science fiction props. I love science fiction. I'm rooting for the diversification of renewable energy, smart micro grids, small local eco-conscious businesses and global internet communication to change our world for the better, post oil.

technique' - I throw forms on the wheel (spheres, bowl shapes and cylinders ) to have sturdy thin compressed shapes that I can stretch, alter and add pulled handles and spikes to.

materials - I prefer stoneware and earthenware over chemically white "clay" because it is the natural local stuff the earth is made of in North America. Also earthenware clay fires at a much lower temperature by a few thousand degrees, then porcelain. I enjoy the dichotomy of both the permanent and breakable balance of fired clay.

defender mug and platelet waiting to be fired at Berkley Potters Studio

creative process - I work slowly, I'm not a production potter, nor the type of artist who quickly covers a surface in one pass. It takes me easily three or sometimes four times as long to build the ceramic art then it does to throw the original forms. I strive to have the first layer of the pots surface fired into the raw clay. I like to apply some pigmented slips onto the surface of my raw clay to react to glazes fired on top of them in the final firing. I glaze with a brush, in a very painterly style. I have a series of glaze bases that I'm constantly testing to keep a full pallet of hues that work together. There are multiple glazes on all of my pots. Each surface is at least two layers, sometimes three layers of fired on color and texture.

Peace - make pots not war, or plastic, or trash the earth with toxic chemicals etc..

☮ + ❤ Uva Be Dolezal

giant white and cobalt speckled defender mug

one down — many more to go

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:53:00 +0000

As many of you know. I've been writing and posting a scene everyday. What you may not know is that I usually write something everyday, and have been doing so for years. Also, I'm not going to continue to do this, writing most every day — yes; posting of my working draft, no. The 'Ode to Impossible' posts stop December 31, 2011. The working draft with it's errors and typos was to prove that I'm a writer. The professionally edited finished e-book 'Code of The Fates' Is simply a finished book 1 of many. Tho admittedly there are only 2 books in this Ode to Impossible series. After I get both e-books edited and published. Then it's on to paper books, and after the paper books is the next four book series. etc.. etc...
For 2012, one way or another, I'm going to return my public posting focus back to art. But, as I mentioned above, I'll still be writing, just on my own, not attempting to prove it to anyone. I hope this makes sense. Seems simple enough. Time will tell better then I can explain.

"The proof of the pudding is in the eating." — Don Quixote

Quote from a novel written by Miguel de Cervantes.

The 'Code of the Fates' e-book is now available on Google Books and smashwords.

toast

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 08:07:00 +0000

I love writing, but editing and formatting the final book for publishing, I wish someone else was doing it. But, that's not the way the cookie. Well I don't have any cookies. Here I've got 386 pages and black beans with habanero salsa and cheddar on toast.

It's on smash-words now. I wanted to have the e-book published by the Wed. before Thanksgiving and I kept to that date. But, that didn't leave time for the very last go over. My beta reader who is a much finer editor than I is going over it now (11-28-2011). She says, there are a few typos, one misspelling and one missed homophone. I will get these fixed as soon as possible. I've kept it quiet. Three people have bought the book. One was my cousin and he told me that when I uploaded a newer version he was able load that into his kindle no problem.

So? soon I need to make noise, sell myself, peddle my soul and all that. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Some people are natural marketing types. I just keep writing. I need to make a plan. I should have a plan done already. I can write a plot that spans thousands of years, but, making a simple marketing plan is .. I'm fool enough to think my work will sell its self. That if people read the story they will want to know what happens in the end.

All I know is that I want to return my focus to my art in 2012. I think it will be illustrations and outlines for my writing. Unless we move someplace where there isn't a two year waiting list for a pottery space or two bridges to cross. But, as we all know there are no excuses in life, and time continues. So one way or another, if I plan to make art in 2012, I'll figure it out.

Novel One is a wrap — Now what should the title be?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 21:11:00 +0000

Hi, everybody

I'm writing this post today in a very good mood because I wrote the last scene of book one, last night and have now posted the entire working draft as a sample to promote my writing. See blog: 'Ode to impossible' if you would like to check out this story for free. If you prefer to read the edited novel, my e-publishing goal for the finished book is for November 2011.

I plan to continue to drafting up book two a page a day, starting the second book of this 2 novel mini-series, tomorrow August 26. I will keep all the pages I post this year, up on my blog until January 1 2012.

Meanwhile — several of my friends have been teasing me that 'Ode to impossible' is possibly the worst title for a novel. In this day an age where people read tweets and flash fiction, and poetry, prose and short story blogs get ten times as many hits as longer fiction blogs, my working title sounds like it means the story is so long it's 'Impossible to read. Bummer, I want a title that is as good as I feel the story is.

I confess without any hesitation — I'm terrible at names and titles.

So? Do you think 'Ode to impossible' is a terrible title for book one?

Please choose a title and tweet @Uva_Be or leave a comment here if you read some of the story. and have a better idea for a title to book one that is better than "Ode to Impossible."

A. Code 'E' the Lost King.

B. Code of the Fates

C. Ghosts of Fate

D. Ode to Impossible

P.S. Thanks everyone who read with me as I wrote out the draft of this story in 2011.

as always — grand art and writing to you ~ Uva Be

P.s. Please vote by leaving a comment or go to footer of writing blog.

starting to make plans for 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 16:58:00 +0000

I know it's only August 2011, but it was about this time last year that I decided I'd write 365 and see if I could finish a novel in a year. If you have been following my work in 2011, thanks very much & there is a couple things I should mention before I write more about my goals for 2012.

1. Is that it turns out the 900+ pages screen plays I wrote in 2005-2006 as a TV series, translates into two novels. I should have known that, but I didn't. I've had similar surprises translating a screen play into a comic book or 12 graphic novels - but I digress and I'd rather show you when those dreams get done not ramble about them at this moment.

2. The 2011 writing goal is for a FINISHED novel, and I am writing and posting the 'working draft' — BIG difference. Again, I will have to prove it to you by showing you. And I will, I promise, because I will settle for nothing less than a finished novel. "e-hem.. two finished novels."

So before I did this little ego ramble, my original thought for posting here on my art blog is, my goal in 2012 is going to be art again :) like it was in 2010. I like these yearly goals, they seem to be working out well for me. If you just read this, thank you for listening.

note to self: I think I'll save this to draft and make up my mind if it's worth publishing later.

P.s. reply to self three minutes later "I haven't got time for blogging psychobabble like this everyday, so I've written it, I mise-well add some photos, post it, and get back to work.

here's to grand writing & art for everybody

sincerely @Uva_Be

transition, again? — neither here nor there

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 00:03:00 +0000

The reason for this blog post is I haven't updated my art blog in a while, and this is why. Writing has won for my attention right now. Also, we are in San Francisco and we haven't been here a year yet and we are already contemplating moving out of town where we can have more space to make art.

In spite of this conflict of time and space :) today I thought about using clay as a printing plate. I didn't get very far. It's a puzzle that's going to take me a few runs through the press to figure out.

These two pots, the owl like tea pot and the 5 legged vase are fired now. I'll be taking a break from ceramic art for a little while, mostly to edit for a couple months and self publish my science fiction / speculative fantasy novel before my goal, of Thanksgiving. But, having a space to play with art set up in case inspirations strikes, or when I need a break from editing, is very nice. It's all just looking ahead to the future, as is my usual mode of existence, when I feel like I'm neither here nor there.

Meanwhile, if you enjoy science fiction / speculative fantasy please follow my writing blog. Ode to impossible :) Thanks

slow but sure progress in my ceramic work

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 06 May 2011 21:11:00 +0000

In spite of the fact that I've been writing everyday on a serial fantasy novel, working title 'ode to impossible'. I still find comfort and unwind by working with clay.

So far I don't consider any of the pieces I've fired to be anything more than funky test tiles. (Not talking about the raw clay, I'm talking about the test tiles with glaze in the 2nd slide show on this page.) So, I've thrown some WIP (work in progress) photos up on the web as evidence that I have fired something. So far, so good, as the cliche' goes. I admit enjoying the luxury of cone 10 again. Now, back to my writing I go.

clay echoes of a battle

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 20:00:00 +0000

Thrown clay parts stacked on bats, pushed into a corner, ignored for a week.

The battle is me fighting to stay alive. To find purpose in this short fragile human life I create art.

I feel guilt for not having the defender series in a gallery. But, this year I'm writing a novel. I have yet to earn my own clay studio. It's just that simple.
There are no excuses in this life really.
What happens, happens.

Battle onwards.

art versus fiction writing in 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 20:32:00 +0000

If it is a battle for my time and attention, then my writing is the clear winner so far this year. I had hoped I could do both. It was sort of too easy to write on my own, and post a doodle a day for 2010. I joked about feeling schizophrenic attempting to make the daily mental leap from the mind set it takes to create fine art, especially ceramic art sculpture, and the deep imaginary almost delusional sea of thought it takes to write a science fiction / fantasy story. Worst of all the 365 page a day science fiction fantasy story I'm writing / redrafting, clashes mercilessly with my art.

I have several competing ideas about what series of art I should attempt to complete next. But, the truth is, last year turning 40, my biggest midlife regret was the case boxes of manuscripts I've been moving around with me. These boxes of drafts weigh more and more ridiculously on my conscious, as we continue to hunt for a place where we can survive; if I was a published author, then it wouldn't matter where we lived. .. It's not that I didn't periodically submit stories, search for a literary agent, and editor etc.. I've gotten a few very nice rejection slips over the years. I can be remorseful all I want at the plight of the publishing industry. But, I don't think that is my problem, especially since in our current social networking / digital age, any writer who wants to be read can just publish themselves.

It's the divide in myself, a choice I have to make. Artists and writers are not often the same person. I don't mean illustrator / writers like Dr. Suess or other children book artist writers, who seem to be a third species. I've attempted to combine my cartoons and writing over the years, all it takes it a quick look at my tumblr blog 'the many paths to failure', to see, clearly, I am not an illustrator / cartoonist type of writer + artist. Warning these art derivative sarcastic cartoons that are way too bitter for any children's books.

So ? that is what 2011 is about for me, I have a goal for both, a page a day novel, redrafted from a screen play for a TV series and an art goal related to a couple possible series of art, my spiked defender macro-cellular inspired ceramic sculptures for the post oil age. And only time will tell what will be.

1st spiked platelet*; back in the clay

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:32:00 +0000

up-dated blog 02-19-11, just not enough significant clay work for a new post, yet.

From raw clay art work in progress 01 - 2011

This 60 grit cone 10 stoneware looks like chicken to me. I'm returning to the clay by making a small pile of platelets to test new studio glazes on, just a few thousand degrees hotter fire and a few thousand miles and I'm the same, but I've got a bit of adjusting to do. Vitrification, and shrinking is not the same as cone 6, so I'll have to carefully learn the new limits to how far I can push the surface textures and the spindly legs on my forms. But, unlike many things about moving, I'm very happy to be getting lost in the clay again.

From raw clay art work in progress 01 - 2011

If I write & draw 365 will my brain get severed in to bits ?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:24:00 +0000

This is what I was thinking today, on the
19th day since I quit. #draw365 for my page-a-day 365 sci-fi novel writegoal.

I am both, I should do both. I had another goal in mind for my art in 2011, and it was to start to sell it. That is the hurdle that made me stop my daily art posts more than anything else.

Why is stepping over that line from sharing an idea to selling it so nauseating ? All the art I've sold so far has been in the comfort of a friend's gallery.

I thought since I hadn't sold any paper before, I'd make up a Certificate of Original Art, out of my own, old 1995 insane printing stationary. Designate my fingers 0 - 9 and "number" the certificates in my bloody fingerprints. Actually I was thinking ink would do better than blood, but the idea didn't squeak by that sensor that attempts to determine what is funny and what is correct. So I just tried to lose myself in writing for a bit.

But, it seems writers don't art, and artists often don't write novels. Both are false over all, but for the main part it seems true, and it may indeed be what is wrong with my art. That slick IT factor I've never found, replaced by the creepy depressed writer reaching its mental tentacles physically through and through my work. Nope there is no point in fighting - 18 day gap in my #draw365 or 16 year gap between pottery wheels, I just have to keep moving forward, and I'll know what that means when I get there.

Happy New Year 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 17:42:00 +0000

I make art. I do what I can get my hands on, based on where I am. There is over a two years waiting list for both of the pottery studios on the side of the water where I currently live, we may move before I get in line to get a spot that limits my ceramic art work to under 12" in any direction. So while I mourn this loss, I don't really have time to consider it any more than it is, it's a change in course not a death to my art. I'm going to write and work in 2D on paper or in paint for a while.

My 2011 resolution is a page a day science fiction novel.

ceramic art 09 and 10 - 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 23:35:00 +0000

My usual bi-monthly post of ceramic art may be held up a bit, by a combination of a cross country move and getting set up in a new place to work. Also, I plan to add descriptions to this last wave of pottery as I unpack them and make sure what survived the move.

From Be's ceramic art Sept. & Oct. 2010

Be's ceramic art Sept. & Oct. 2010

There are 29 photos in this web album, I thought a slid-show might be too web heavy, click on any image in my art blog to see all the photos.

Be's August ceramic art

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 06:05:00 +0000

This test tile represents a series of glazes that I've been working on / testing, to better understand glaze chemistry over the last year or so.

Also I've been adding to my 'thought books' book-arts web photo gallery lately. Since I have been packing, I took photos of some of my older bound books, and I am binding more new books as well, as I find it relaxing, meditative to fold and sew the pages.

photo gallery of Be's books

July Pottery

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 22:46:00 +0000

3 June vases 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:45:00 +0000

From 3 June vases 2010