Entries must arrive by Feb 21, 2017.

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• Contact information (including email address)
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Mail to: Ceramics Monthly—Emerging Artist
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Westerville, OH 43082

Submissions arriving after the deadline will not be considered. Emailed submissions and submissions containing more than five images will not be considered. Please do not submit materials in binders or folders. Submitted materials will not be returned.

Due to the volume of entries, we cannot acknowledge submissions. No phone calls or emails please.

The HTC Vive series is great. It starts out with a headset that is no more a aluminum ring with a cardboard box and some wires and motherboards and ends up to be the VR open source powerhouse we all know and love.

Here is more info and pictures from great articles published about the vive development over time.

• Road to VR Valvue Reveals Timeline of Vive Prototypes
• MakeZine Exclusive See the Prototypes we found in Valves VR Lab

The Meta also has surprised me because they have go through so many brave iterations as they quest to crack the magic behind AR.

The heads will be previewed in my TEDx talk in October and will be exhibited at the new Arts District Center for the Arts in Los Angeles as soon as the construction finishes in Spring 2018.

Photos below by Rick Mendoza.

Scott and I planning the loading out!

I was surprised to realized this is what you get when you compare the 180,000,000 years dinosaurs lived on this planet to the 200,000 we have lived on the planet. I couldn’t even get Google Spread Sheets to show the cool orange color I picked out for humans.

Here is a wheat paste mural I did to show the timeline in circles. Unfortunately it only lasted 40 hours here in West Los Angeles. But I am looking for more walls. I also would love to install it horizontally (rather than stacked).

The app is called “Zenka AR Prints” and is programmed in Unity, using Vuforia. The project is being coded by David Suarez with Alvaro Dujovny doing the 3D.  It will be available on iOS and Android free.

Check back in October for the official link to the app downloads and the triggers and also to the TEDx talk.

I had a blast printing the lino prints with Victor at Self Help Graphics in Boyle Heights Los Angeles.

The prints will also be on exhibit for the The Art of Dying show Fri Oct 28th – Mon Oct 31st at The Laundry gallery in San Francisco. The show is organized by Dream Logic.

Download and install Zenka’s free “JH Wild + Zenka” Augmented Reality App in the app store for iphone, ipad, and on the Play Store for on Android.

This augmented reality art app was created by Zenka for an artist in residency as part of the Jackson Hole Wild Film Festival in 2016.  The project includes sound activated augmented reality – keyed off of the artist’s lino prints. Others are triggered when pointed at site specific objects in the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts.

Zenka Augmented Reality Sound Interactive Lino Print Triggers

Point your phone or tablet at the image and then make some noise to see what happens.

Jackson Hole Center for the Arts Site Specific Installation Triggers

Point your phone or tablet at the existing art triggers to see them come to life.

Zenka Augmented Reality Prints (not sound activated)

https://realityupgraded.splashthat.com

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If you ever get a chance to do a workshop with Jim Romberg or Patrick Crabb – do it!  You won’t regret spending the time or money to get a chance to spend some hours practicing and learning with these two masters.

Here is a recap of some of the things I learned over the course of the weekend.

Getting Past “The Comfort Zone”

Jim Rothberg and Patrick Crabb spent all weekend getting everyone out of their comfort zone. They had seen too many workshops where people tried to work in their normal ways – which left all the pots looking the same and people not tapping into new windows, new ideas, new discoveries. Through insightful planning they got us to completely change our approach – so that a few ideas and techniques would resonate with us and be threads we could follow in the weeks and months to come. They achieved their goals by giving us limitations, throwing us curve ball assignments and asking us to strip things down to the basics.

Master Craftsmen

Both of them showed us what master craftsmen they were. Their work had a “well oiled machine” feeling. They had done these techniques and forms until they had absolutely perfected them. And that is the look and type of work you get when you become really good at what you do. We witnessed their polish at their extraordinary show opening at the AMOCA museum on Saturday night and also as they created and glazed works throughout the weekend.

It was wonderful to see the size and stature of the gallery pieces as they hung in well lit spaces surrounded by admirers. Jim talked about the importance of seeing your work and absorbing the reactions and feedback showing affords you. Everyone loved Jim’s new thick slab tripticks and Patrick’s new tip toe into high fire.

Building Your Career in Ceramics

Jim told us to find representation – you have to cast a wide net. Sending a cover letter (hopefully with a connection), your story, your cv, a brochure and a CD may need to go out to hundreds of places to get a handful of responses. Searching for smaller towns with artistic cultural centers can be hotspots for galleries. Look for galleries who have been around longer than others – some galleries close and open in a year or two.  Contracts often stipulate that you pay the shipping to the gallery, they pay the return shipping.  Take note of dates and other conditions such as payment, how long they will hold the work etc.

Showing your work in a bank or a coffee house gives you exposure and a chance to gather feedback and create dialogue about your work. Enter works in juried shows if you fit the theme. Again, both Jim and Patrick explained that for shows and galleries you have to expect lots and lots of rejection.

Patrick explained that producing good work over the years will lead you toward natural plateaus which will move your work toward recognition and success. Don’t put the cart before the horse – ie, don’t search for fame and fortune, work on filling your cart with amazing work and the rest will follow.

Navigating the Long Haul

They both taught us about how to navigate a long professional career. When you get stayed, rigid and burned out – you have to draw back deep into what influences you and feeds you as an artist. This process allows you to rethink, reinvent and re-explore your art at a new and exciting angle. Jim draws his inspiration from nature and Patrick draws his inspiration from world history.

Patrick explained that when you circle around a technique or a series you begin perfect it and perfect it until you start to float to the edges and then eventually you get to the edge and you cross outside of your comfort zone causing you to delve into another circle.

Solving Problems Using Basic Opposites

Patrick constantly told us – when you hit a wall – try a 180. Finding resonance in the opposite is often a start to get your head problem solving again in a new way.

What Do You Ultimately Want to Communicate?

Jim talked about getting away from technique (the details of glazes and colors and minutia) until you can focus on the first step – your true goals with the piece and your artwork. Are those goals rooted in ideas that you hope to communicate like movement or accumulation, desire or rebirth? How do you specifically translate those ideas into the artwork?

In addition to displaying their refined thought processes and successful navigation through the art world and their own discoveries, they also taught us a lot about tools and technique.

A Timeline of Opportunities

Jim talked about the timeline of creation – from conception, to clay form, to slips, bisque, surface treatment, firing, rate of cooling, reduction etc. and how you can creatively influence your work at any point along the way.

Black is Black … Or Is It?

Jim showed us that unglazed raku is not only about deep black. It is about a surface that can be reduced from a pale gray to a deep black depending on how you manipulate your newspaper and air flow in the chamber. His attention and experimentation with the reduction process allows him to achieve this rich smoky pallet. He wanted people unfamiliar with raku to look at his work and immediately think, “Wow – this thing went through FIRE”. Using small amounts of well placed, folded and positioned newspaper “helicopters” he reduces in small areas. He also suggested we experiment with reducing with cardboard stencils and other types of materials such as pine needles.

He also showed us how incredibly powerful black glaze next to unglazed black/gray reduced raku can be! He had three black mixtures to share – a “dry black” (2T 8/2 to 2t Mason Stain 6606 Best Black). He also used a “Soldner Halo Slip” black (½ Iron Oxide, ½ Copper Oxide) which gives a tiny white halo around the edges. And he also showed us the effect of a pure Copper Oxide. He had several whites in his bag of tricks as well – a white stain, a crackle and a thick shiny white called “El Niege”, or “snow” in french.

Patrick showed us oxidation raku firing where we brought the pieces out at 1200 and sprinkled the work with saw dust (better from a distance), sugar and horse hair.  We also tried gluing on rock salt which gave a great brown with a halo.

Note: both Patrick and Jim use white slips to improve the quality of their colors and whites when rakuing.  Patrick uses slop clay left over from his students spray coated with John Conrad’s slip when it is bone dry.  Jim uses a white dry engobe slip applied just before glazing.

Custom Hand Made Tools Make Truly Unique Effects

It was surprising what lines could be achieved within the vocabulary of Jim’s eastern style handmade brushes. He described applying his “garnishes” and bits of color like painting with music, directing the eye, accentuating the shapes, giving off the sensation of rhythm, producing gong or holding for silence. He often glazes then waits a few hours so he can come back to the work to see if a piece is complete. He also encouraged us to practice a motion on paper before touching his brush to the ceramic surface.

He showed us how to make brushes using bamboo sticks that could be split and separated. Bunches of animal hair (much more rigid than human hair) were used. He was out of skunk but samples ranged from bear, to fox, to horse hair. The hair is gathered using a first pass of dental floss tied in a special self tightening loop knot, and a coil of cotton string all sealed with a layer of Gorilla two part epoxy.

Patrick also likes to make his own tools – from rib tools made of cut credit cards to molds made from traffic cones and snow sleds to plaster facial casts created from the faces of his students. He even showed us how to avoid spending $3,000 on a slab roller by dragging out our own slabs using gravity, a board covered in canvas, a squatting position and a very consistent and even hand release. He taught us how he makes textures using carved ceiling squares and tennis shoes and even a wood 2×4 which was burnt and then scrubbed to uncover the deep grain pattern.  He has used stripped sand blasting to improve pieces that didn’t meet his satisfaction test.

The Ultimate Tool

Patrick talked about the importance of stretching your body before you work – as your body is the thing you need to create your art. You have to take care of your body, bones and muscles and listen to them. Sometimes your body dictates the work you are permitted to do. It is up to your mind to find clever solutions and opportunities to limitations as they arise.

Patrick showed off his handbuilding/throwing combo process – a clever technique he has honed to circumvent the task of throwing massive pieces from scratch.

Built to Ship

Patrick’s bigger forms are designed from day-one to be both fired and shipped in pieces. He has contemplated the forms as they will need to be unassembled, shipped and reassembled using clever and secure mating schemes (with drilled out bondo and bars). He also has mitigated breakage by adding nylon fibers into his clay and slip, bisque firing to 02 and coating the back of his reassembled plates with fiberglas resin (after assembling them with a binding agent like a 5 minute epoxy, a surface grout treatment and an Elmer’s glue to penetrate deep into the porous clay body).

Pure Joy

Patrick’s surface treatments for his broken and reassembled pots communicate his utter joy of experimentation and laid back attitude toward allowing yourself to work with your gut. To paint and express with the mantra “why not”. That is one of the things I loved about seeing Patrick in action and his work in general. You can see his love of life and the joy he has experimenting with glazes and combinations.

Where the Eye Flows

I was very impressed with both Jim and Patrick’s mastery and thought process behind how people would look at their work. Where would the eye start, where would the gaze end up? What parts of the form drew attention, and where was the attention going next?

Jim’s incredible painterly style relies on his keen understanding of how this flow works.  It is beautiful to observe his mastery.

Patrick’s new black and white reassembled pots are harder to do because they have to be pre-assembled before glazing to ensure proper contrast along the edges. The color pieces can be glazed based on size – with the smaller pieces getting bright accent colors and the bigger pieces less color.  His works are playful but it is all part of a well envisioned package.

All in all, I love all the workshops I go to at Ceramic Services, and I have to say that I felt that I “leveled up” on my game on so many levels (technique, professionalism, mastery). I find myself rushing to the studio to try out all these new ideas on my own work.  I can’t wait to mix up some black and rust slips, raku using no reduction or partial reduction, sandblasting, base white slips and more.  Thanks to Jim and Patrick for sharing their paths and insights!

More photos of the workshop on Flickr.

Ceramic Services hosts workshops and builds, sells and repairs kilns (all types including raku). They also have studio spaces and supplies.

Check galleries and workshop schedules on their individual artist sites for Jim Romberg and Patrick Crabb

Check out the slides on SlideShare.