A Weekend in the Woods

We have been working on house projects weekend after weekend for a few months and this time, we finally escaped!
3 days in the woods… happy freakin’ camper!
A Weekend in the Woods | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

I’m not used to a lot of down time, generally I go and go and go. But for a good hour, I sat on this rock and watched my dog sniff around, watched my husband attempt to build a rock bridge across the creek, watched the sun move across the sky.

I’ve been working on an artist talk for an upcoming event, mainly explaining why I take my art outside. It’s hard to verbalize in a way that doesn’t seem silly but I think I feel the most connected here, the least lost. When I am connected to nature it inspires my work and when my work connects with nature, I find my place in the system. I’ll have to keep thinking about these concepts in order to really explain them for my talk but in the meantime, I’m just going to enjoy being here.
A Weekend in the Woods | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculptureGot this photo of our camp as it was getting dark under the redwoods and we had just turned on our solar lights. Everyone asks us about these, and I try to give some away whenever we travel to places where I know we’ll meet people that don’t have reliable electricity in their homes. (See my page about bringing books and solar lights to an orphanage in Haiti.) We love them, they work great and the company that makes them does good philanthropic work, so get some Luci Lights for yourself, get outside and reconnect with nature!

Only 2 Weeks Left for Early Bird Discounts!

Summer Workshops for Kids | shop | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

There are only 2 weeks left to take advantage of early bird prices for

Summer Workshops at Earth Art Studio!

Earth Art Studio offers small class sizes (6-8) for our student artists. We focus on process vs product, honing skills and experiencing the world of art and artists through a variety of materials. We will build with clay, paper mache, work with wire and experiment with a variety of other materials to create unique sculptures. New projects are offered each session, so you can join us for multiple sessions with no repeats. Every year we have an end of summer art show!

8 One-Week Workshops Available:

Mon – Fri, 12:30 – 4, starting June 6th thru July 29th
Healthy snacks and all materials are included in class fees.

Learn More…

 

Playing with Fire

Happy Throwback Thursday, here’s a few more oldies but goodies that I’ve discovered…

One of the best parts about being a ceramic artist is getting to play with fire. This is the amazing two chamber wood kiln we had at Hartford Art School, it makes my current electric kiln look like an easy bake oven. Contained within this firing was the majority of my senior thesis exhibit. I was probably delirious at this point because this kiln eats wood like a champ and fires for about 18 hours (which is actually very fast for a wood kiln) so you are constantly feeding it wood and there is hardly time to eat or pee between stoking it but it’s so much fun and the results can be incredible!

Playing with Fire | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture
Who can’t stare at a fire and not be mesmerized? This is what about about 2300 degrees looks like and I’m sure that there were 6′ flames coming out the top of the chimney at this point too. If you’re not familiar with ceramics, the 3 triangle shaped pieces in the photo on the right are cones. They melt at different temperatures, so that you can tell how hot your kiln is, you can see the ones in front of the three left standing are practically a puddle.  The three left mean that this kiln is done when the middle one starts to melt and fall over.

Playing with Fire | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture
This installation, called Changing Tides was in that kiln (you can see a few of them in the picture above right) and this piece was a part of my senior exhibition. I still have this piece hanging on my living room wall and still love it! The varied effects of the wood kiln can be seen on these pieces, they range from golden and toasty to charcoal grey. It’s been almost 20 years since these photos were taken, I think I’ve got to get my work into another wood kiln and start playing with fire again!

Playing with Fire | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

My Art, Your Home: Dalzell Family

So, full disclosure, I was a ‘Dalzell’. Yup, these are my parents and they are supporters of the arts (including my art!). I got to take a snapshot of one of my newest pieces in their home when I was back visiting a few weeks ago. This one is from the Rock Candy Series and while I designed these to be wall mounted, they look great as a centerpiece for a table too. My parents live along a waterway that leads out to the bay and they’ve decorated with lots of underwater themed art work and colors, so the driftwood in these pieces goes perfectly with the feel of their home.

My Art, Your Home: Dalzell Family | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

If you’d like to see the last few in this series, they are available in person at Good Life Ceramics Gallery or in the online shop.

I love seeing where my art ends up and hearing why you connect with a piece. If you have some of my work that you’d like to share, please email me! Thanks for sharing!

 

 

Sketching Up A Plan

When I first came to California, I took a workshop at the Mendocino Arts Center with sculptor Stephen de Staebler. He talked of just grabbing pieces around his studio and reusing them on new work, which at the time horrified me. I had assumed that artists create a piece and that’s it, there’s a end to the process, that’s how you call a piece ‘finished’. But I’ve learned over time that you are never finished making art or working on a piece, there is always evolution but hardly ever resolution. One piece builds on the next and what you’ve learned challenges you to explore more. I’ve really come to like that this can be really exciting and exploratory for a series of work and now it’s become a normal part of the process for me.
Below are the same 200+/- pieces from the Hive Series installed in two very different ways.

Sketching Up A Plan | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

I’m planning two large installations for the upcoming Clay & Glass Exhibit in Healdsburg CA and I’ll be reusing existing pieces to create entirely new works. Both pieces are from the Bone Series but one will be wall mounted and one will be suspending from the ceiling.  Below is a sketch of the wall piece I plan to create. The lines will be steel cables connecting the ceramic pieces together and they will be floating a few inches off the wall. I’m hoping that with gallery lighting, this will cast intense shadows on the wall and enhance the negative space between the pieces.

Sketching Up A Plan | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

I love that while I’ve worked with these pieces many times before the outcome will be new and the process of installing will be honed. There is still the element of surprise, the danger of failure and the possibilities of learning.

Spring Studio Sale 2016

Spring Studio Sale 2016
Saturday April 30th
11 – 4

It’s time for the 11th Annual Spring Studio Sale at Earth Art Studio!!!

Spring Studio Sale 2016 | events | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture
A great opportunity to visit the studio, meet the artists, tour the sculpture garden, sign up for summer classes and BUY ART!

Did you miss visiting Jenni’s studio during Open Studios this past fall? No worries, new work by owner & artist Jenni Ward will on display. And we will raffle off a hardcover copy of Jenni’s first book ‘a relationship with earth’ and one small sculpture to two lucky winners!

Talented students from Earth Art Studio will be displaying work for sale, with a special ‘yummy’ theme to this years group project.

BUY ART and SHARE THE LOVE!
We donate 10% of all art sales at this event to The Homeless Garden Project of Santa Cruz!

As a special event this year, we will celebrating by signing the studio table! If you’ve ever taken a class at this table, made a pinch pot or have been cr8iv here, you’ll be able to leave your mark and tag the table. Help us fill the sides with student names!

Join Us:
Saturday April 30th 11 – 4
767 Cathedral Dr | one mile from the Aptos PO
Looking forward to seeing you there!

Road Trip…

The first time I took my art out into the world was also one of the first of many big road trips I’d done with my husband (although we were just dating at the time), this was probably circa 2000. It was actually his idea to bring along some of my work, so I really can’t take credit for this idea but we wrapped up a few pieces and tucked them in among all of our camping gear.

I just discovered the photos of the trip where we cruised up the coast towards Mendocino and onward to the Oregon border where we eventually turned south at Grants Pass. Then through Shasta and Redding and into Lassen National Forest, that’s where these photos were taken. If you’ve been to the studio, these pieces are still sitting on the deck by the succulents. Eventually we drove down the Eastern Sierras as far south as Mono Lake before heading through Yosemite and home again. This is some well traveled art!

road trip | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

All of this was before I had a real studio to work out of, before I had the idea to create work specifically for outdoor spaces and way before ‘where art & nature meet’ become my mantra. I love that over 15 years later, this idea still feels new and exciting. I love that my husband is still willing to fill a backpack with ceramic sculptures and haul it off into the wilderness. I love that I’m still discovering where art & nature meet.

Studio Sale Postcards have arrived!

Loving these postcards for our 10th Annual Spring Studio Sale, look for them around town! Hope to see you all at the studio Saturday April 30th 11 – 4

Studio Sale Postcards Have Arrived | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

This is your brain on nature

The New Science of the Creative Brain on Nature

Outside Magazine | By: Carolyn Gregoire

I have always found a sense of focus and calm after being out in nature but this study proves that spending time on the trail is good for your creativity too. “In a 2012 study, for example, Strayer found that backpackers were 50 percent more creative after they had spent four days out on the trail.” read more…

This is your brain on nature | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture
#optoutside it’s good for your creativity!