This too shall pass....

Security, safety, purpose, and love. Humans are on a search to find these things. Whether they be physical, emotional, relational, or spiritual, we all want security.  In the country in which we live, America, there are many things that seem to provide us the opportunity to be secure -  physical homes, institutions, systems, organizations, and structures.  In comparison to other nations, America is rich.  However, how long will these man-made and imposed orders last?  They will not - they are merely attempts to achieve what is really to come.  At any moment, a disaster could bring it all crashing down and our perfect ideas of security will be no more.  No more white picket fences, perfectly manicured lawns, or even organizations that seek to help those in need.  Everything will pass.  What will we be left with?  I challenge you to consider if the world as you know it were to fall apart, what would you do?

 

 

 

Wisteria Lane from the set of Desperate Housewives

 

 

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18

 

Standards: Recent thoughts about my work

In my art, I am searching for how to communicate my ideas on the value of the Christian faith and worldview in relationship to the idea of one’s personal security and how it is illustrated through the home and family.  I am seeking to illustrate value, purpose, standards, and truth within these topics, but also the redemption that is available when we fail.  I believe there is an ultimate security and standard to be found.  What does that look like? How can we attain it, then nurture and protect it?

History of American Ceramics - Where do I fit? Minimalism and Clay

Some studies and thoughts supporting graduate studio practice that will hopefully help me determine where I fall within the history of what we call American Ceramics....

 

Minimalism - an art movement of the 1950s - 1970s that stripped forms down to the essence of their being. Some refer to it as a reaction against the movement of Abstract Expressionism which brings to mind the work of Jackson Pollock or for us clay folk, Peter Voulkos.  While there is no denying the brilliance of the abstract expressionist... I mean, look at the life that Voulkos brought to the clay... there is for me personally, some sort of comfort that can be seen in more minimal work.

 

When I think of minimalism, I think of Donald Judd and Carl Andre and I see order. There is repetition and order and for me, it is comforting.  There are modular units that are grouped together to create a larger form or installation.

 

When we get to clay and this movement... Garth Clark has some interesting things to say about it.  He says in his essay, "Geert Lap - Some Notes on Minimalism in Ceramic Art,"

 

"The modern traditions of ceramics have tended towards the expressionistic and the hand-made. Minimalism, with its implicit acceptance of the contemporary industrial landscape, has been suspect because of its identification with machine-made objects and materials.  the more obvious the hand of the maker, most ceramicists believed, the more obvious the art content.  The fear of being mistaken for machine-made production ware, in conjunction with a deeply felt anti-intellectualism and anti-conceptualism, has kept ceramics away from the minimalist arena."

 

Clark goes on to describe the art of Lap in the essay, but I would like to focus and think about what Clark said about clay people staying away from minimalism for fear of their work appearing machine made. 

 

John Mason began to defy this in the 1970s with his large "X" forms and usage of firebrick to create modular units on the floor.  The brick are yes, machine made....

 

But my interest is in the production of minimal forms in a way that still appears handmade. Currently, my solution to this is by press-molding... Not the most efficient way.  There is something about the labor that is involved in creating the pieces each individually. I use my hand on each one and they have a story.  Isn't this what is so powerful about clay?  It has a memory. We have a memory. The metaphors that can be made between clay and the human life are infinite. Why is that? 

 

I don't want to take away the hand and the story from the pieces, I create.  They can be merged with the minimal form in which I personally press the clay. Why am I doing this? I don't have all the answers yet. That is why I am here and that is why I continue to make. If I knew the answer, I might just go try my hand in brain surgery.

 

Voulkos

 

 

Mason's Bricks

 

 

My Bricks

 

School of Life : Lesson 2 - People Pleasing vs. the Truth and Nothing but It

People pleaser.  I am often guilty as charged.  I have "known" it is not the best way to be, but it seems as if I am truly realizing why it is not good at all as I find myself in graduate school faced with many things that oppose my convictions. 

 

In every situation, I must hold true to my convictions.  This isn't easy.  It requires a lot of confidence.  I am learning.  If we are not honest with ourselves and one another, no one is ever satisfied.  We will continue to carry around feelings of hurt, discomfort, and miscommunication. We would all be flakes.  I don't want to be a flake.

 

In a recently watched episode of "Leave it to Beaver," June tells Beaver, "You'll always be safe if you tell the TRUTH."  https://youtu.be/7kZtpML1RHM?t=833

 

What does telling the truth and honesty have to do with being a people pleaser?  It has everything to do with it.

 

Ever just say what you know you want people to hear so they will like you?  Ever don't say what you really think for fear of offending someone even when you know what is right?  What is beating around the bush?  Passive aggressive?  What is love?

 

"Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love NEVER fails." - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

 

This is how we must share truth and discipline.  It is tough - tough love - not always squishy, but it is all of the above.  How do we do this?

 

"Simply let your "yes" be "yes" and your "no" be "no."" - Matthew 5:37

 

No need to make excuses. I am willing to bet people will respect you if you share your true feelings in love - REAL LOVE.

 

For it is this I have been commanded...

 

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself."

- Matthew 22:37-39

 

This love is sharing with brothers what is true even when it hurts.  Even if they may not like you anymore.  It is not condemning, but kind and patient.  It is honest.  It is genuine.  It is forgiving.  It is true.  This folks, is Christ's infinite love.  He is who I strive to please for it is His face that I want to see. 

 

"Beaver's Bad Day" (1958)

Leave it to Beaver

June and Theodore (Beaver) Cleaver

School of Life: Lesson 1 - Paddle at Your Own Pace

Included in my thoughts and research supporting studio practice during graduate school are my thoughts and lessons in the School of Life.  I will attempt to keep up with this for the Lord has taught and continues to teach me many lessons this year.  By documenting them, I hope to share the good news, encourage others, and most importantly remind myself of the lessons that I have already learned - I often forget them.

 

December 11, 2014 - I joined some friends from UF Ceramics to take a trip to Cedar Key, FL to partake in some kayaking adventures.  This was to be my second kayaking voyage.  My first, was in Curaumilla, Chile where I kayaked the COLD Pacific Ocean.  I should have learned this lesson then.  I happened to "lose" my breakfast in the great Pacific if you know what I mean.  Not fun.  Well maybe that was a different lesson - one from childhood - don't go in the water for 30 minutes after you eat!!!  At any rate, I was going to conquer this second trip!  I tend to get a little bit competitive at times.

 

As we launched the boats in the water, I could see the destination island in the distance.  For a rookie kayaker, it seemed to be at least an hour away - not really.  My friends zoomed ahead and continued to glance back at me, "How are you doing, Paige?"  "Oh fine," I would reply.  While inside, I was a little frustrated with myself and I wanted to be further ahead than I was.  I was tempted to pick up my pace and catch up with the troop.  As I did, I could feel my body saying to me, "Slow down!"  I began to feel a little nauseated and was finally forced to stop.  A voice inside of me said, "Look at this beautiful gulf."  I paused and looked and the rays of sun were bouncing of the surface of the water.  There were birds swooping down and flying so close to the water that their feathers just gracefully skimmed its surface. "WOW!" I thought. "Look at what I see when I SLOW DOWN to ENJOY what is before me and RELAX for a change."  I began to paddle again, but this time with a different attitude.  I decided that I WILL reach the island when I reach the island.  Maybe that is not when my friends reach it, but that's okay because maybe it was that kayaking adventure that was meant to teach me this very important life lesson!

 

I viewed the trip as a metaphor for life.  We're all on this kayaking adventure.  We're going out into the open sea with nothing in sight of what could come across our path.  Through it we learn lessons.  It may be hard to learn them.  Growing pains aren't comfortable.  However, if you believe what I believe, we have been promised by our Lord Jesus Christ that we WILL reach the island if we trust Him.  Be who you are.  Learn as you learn.  Find joy in the experience of it all.  Are we to be diligent at this? Of course, but don't allow trying to catch up with the crowd get in the way of your pace and what you could be learning.  If you try to race ahead, you may get sick (if you're kayaking) or most importantly, you may miss what it is that God is trying to teach you.  His plan for us is individual and I can't expect mine to line up with someone else's.  It is unique.

 

Are you paddling at your own pace?

 

 

Kayak Cedar Keys!!!! http://kayakcedarkeys.com/

 

 

My Manifesto - I Love to Tell THE Story - Part I

In conversation a few weeks ago with my mentor, he encouraged me to write a manifesto for my art.  I was at my wits end, frustrated, and trying to figure out what I am doing.  I think grad school will do that do someone.  It is really hard.  I won't pretend that it isn't.  However, it is good and necessary to experience in order that one might truly own his work.  I have learned that my work can no longer be about what someone has told me to make it about or even what I think it should be.  No, it has to be what One greater than me has commanded it to be.

 

My second semester of graduate school has been a challenge to figure out that goal.  All I could figure out is that I wanted to tell a story... What story?  I had an idea. "I love to tell the story of unseen things above of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and His love.  I love to tell the story because I know tis true.  It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do."  That's the story I wanted to tell and that's the story that I wanted to sing everyday.

 

PROBLEM! Not everyone can relate to that story the way I know it and not everyone cares about Jesus the way I do.  HOWEVER, there is something that we all have in common and that is that we are all human.  WOW. Yep. We are.  Flawed and sinful to the core. I know I am anyway.  I need saving.  No matter how hard I try, I can't fix or save myself at all. I must surrender and die to myself daily.  So I have a story - MY story.  It tells the story of Jesus and how He loved and saved me.  Doesn't everyone want to be saved by something?  Doesn't everyone want to be loved?  Can't I show human's desire to be safe and loved? Yes, I can.  That is what I will strive to do.  It won't have a cross stamped on it, but it will seek to share the story of His truth and love that is unchanging and eternal.

 

In reading a book that was recommended to me by none other than my mentor again, Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning, I came across a paragraph that screamed out to me, step it up a notch, Paige!!!!!!!!  You're on a mission!

 

Christian art should grow out of the robust confidence that nothing is unredeemable - that Jesus himself entered into the darkest levels of human experience and transformed them into sources of life and renewal.  A full-orbed work of Christian art should include all three elements of the biblical worldview: creation, fall, redemption.  It should allude to the beauty and dignity of the original creation.  But it should also be transparently honest about the reality of sin and suffering.  Finally, it should always give hints of redemption.  No matter how degraded or corrupt a character may be, he or she should be portrayed with the dignity of being redeemable.  Some ray of hope should penetrate the darkness....

 

I seek to...

 

.....create humane and healthy alternatives that speak deeply to the human condition.

 

Each and every one of us have a purpose in life.  We are created which means we have a Creator with a purpose.  I pray that I strive to live out that purpose everyday.   I have to tell my story.  It is the only one I have and because I am the only Paige there is, it will be told through a new lens - my lens. 

 

"I love to tell the Story,  'twill be my theme in glory. To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love." 

 

 

 

Objects are magic.

IIn reading The Syntax of Objects by Tim McCreight, I have been brought to tears more than once.  Admitting that seems to prove Tim's thoughts and statements about objects from Chapter 32...

 

"Who thinks objects are magic, raise your hand.  Do you need convincing?"

 

Here is why I raised my hand. Guilty.

 

"Or think of the rediscovered toy.  You hadn't thought of it for years then see it at a flea market.  What is it?  A board game, or a doll, or a cap pistols in tan-colored plastic holsters?  A child-size kitchen, or a rubber sword, or a sheet metal dump truck, or a potholder loom?  You buy it, of course.  It is an artifact of historical dimensions.  It is COMFORT in a changing world, a familiar face seen across a room crowded with strangers, suddenly precious to you.  Of course you bought it, and you cannot explain why."

 

Why Mr. McCreight,  you have nailed it right on the head for me - for most of us I think.  My grandmother did this.  When I was in high school I thought that it was silly.  She would frequently come home from a visit to the antique store with something that one of her grandmothers had when she was a little girl.  Once, it was a set of aluminum measuring cups.  They were dinted in places and had lost their sheen.  She was so excited to show them to me.  She said, "Look what I found! Mammie had these when I was a little girl."  I didn't get it.  "So what? I thought." 

 

Please forgive me, Gran.  I get it now.  Approximately 5 years later, I stumbled across a set of the same aluminum measuring cups at a yard sale and guess what?  I bought them.  25 cents.  You can't beat that with a stick. In the end it doesn't matter how much they cost though.  They are special.  Irreplaceable.  They have a story in them that I know.  My Gran used them and now I know my Mammie, my great-great grandmother who I never met did as well.  WOW!  Well now I use them.  5 generations used the same style measuring cups. Cool.

 

Maybe I got an extra dose of sentiment in my genes, but this just moves me.  It takes me back to a time in life that was so special.  Not that now isn't.  IT IS!  Then was just different.  I don't know how to articulate it yet, but I long for that time back.  I could just cry.  I smell smells of then.  I feel my Grandmommy's sheets on my legs after a long day of work in the yard and a refreshing bath. 

 

HOW DO YOU MAKE THAT?!

 

Can I make my work be about this?  That's what I am striving for.  I want to capture this feeling.  Of course no one gives a rat's tail about my Gran or Mammie that I never met, but you have a Gran and a Mammie and I bet you feel the way about yours just as I do mine.  It's universal you see.  In the end, all I have is my story to articulate this feeling.  I know it best.  Since I do know my story best, I could probably express this feeling in the most powerful and sincere way if I use mine.  So I will...