Sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor‘s ethereal underwater sculptures have been floating around on social media and in the news for awhile now, but I just caught his TED talk and wanted to share it with you. As a scuba diver and as an artist who has taken her work under the ocean, I can’t imagine the energy and planning that goes into his installations. I also love that the focus of his work is on the education and preservation of our oceans and reefs, while maintaining a beautiful conceptual and aesthetic body of work. Someday, I hope to dive his underwater museum! Check out his website at: www.underwatersculpture.com
the dirt
Another Teaser from the Tide Pool Series
Here’s another image from the brandy new Tide Pool Series that will be released in the online shop very soon! These pieces have been mounted on reclaimed wood and can be wall mounted to bring a bit of the tide pools home with you. Portfolio and video of the In The Field installation will be released soon too! Stay tuned…
Tide Pool Series
This series is inspired by my time spent observing the tiny watery worlds on the rocky shoreline that exist temporarily as the rise and fall of the ocean reveals them and hides them again. The creatures and amount of life that thrive in these crevices is fascinating and forever a source of inspiration for me.
Paying Respects
I spent this past weekend on a whirlwind trip to the freezing east coast to say goodbye to my last surviving grandparent. After 98 years and 8 months, the sweet, funny and feisty Gma Rose left us behind, and she will be very missed.
She was a maker; she sewed clothes in her younger years and quilted feverishly in her later years. She hand-painted blown egg shells by the dozens and rolled out miles of dough for Hungarian nut cookies. She collected items from pine cones to cardboard as materials that she might want to use in an upcoming project. If you think creativity is genetic, I’m sure some of mine came from her.
I spent nearly every summer of my childhood with her and my grandfather in North Carolina happily cruising around in their Airstream trailer while she constantly worried about the possibility of explaining to my parents that I’d inevitably been gobbled up by the alligator that lived in the swimming hole near their property.
When she visited me in California a few years ago, my dog stole her hearing aids off the nightstand and ate them. She laughed at the idea that she must of had tasty smelling ears and wondering how she was going to explain it all to the doctor. Two winters ago, she let me tattoo her (with Sharpies) with her namesake after Christmas dinner – she thought it was hysterical and couldn’t wait to show the ladies in her domino group her new tattoo.
Last summer, we ate New England lobsters and drank wine together on my parents porch in New Jersey (one of her favorite meals), proving life is good to the last drop.
Free Shipping Reminder!
Just a reminder that it’s Free Shipping February so be sure to take advantage of it and explore our online shop! Enter LOVEFREESHIPPING at checkout and the shipping fees are on me. Here’s a selection of pieces available to bring intrigue to your creative place…
“My mission is to create abstract interpretations of nature through thoughtfully crafted ceramic sculptures that reconnect you with the natural world.” -jw
Home school?
For all the home school families out there, I’ve recently partnered with Outschool, they are a new resource that helps you find and book in-person learning activities for kids.
I’m offering two 4 week clay classes designed for just for home school kids with small class sizes to allow for personalized learning opportunities. Please share this with any home school families you think might be interested.
Here is the link to view the details: Outschool | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture
Another Sneak Peek!
I took advantage of the extremely low tides this past weekend and got out for another In the Field installation. The area of the beach where I placed these pieces is normally completely inaccessible to explore and is only cliff and ocean. I’d been planning this one for so long and finally there was a time that the tide was low enough and everyone could make it out to document the installation. Here’s a sneak peek video of the install, but there will be more to come soon AND these pieces will be reconfigured for installing in your home and will be available in the shop very, very soon!
Photo & Video credit: Sequoia Kimmel
Art Hearts!
These beauties just came out of the kiln! Swing by the studio this week and pick one out for your love!
A portion of all Art Heart sales benefit philanthropic art projects, give to the arts and get a heart!
Also available at the Santa Cruz Art League and The Homeless Garden Project Store
dammit…
Anyone who has ever worked with clay knows that it’s a love/hate relationship.
There are no guarantees of what will happen in the building process, the drying process, the kiln firing process, the glazing process, and not to mention any other random accidental events. While you can build your skill level and knowledge of your material to get an edge on most of these problems, there will always be that time you push the material farther than it wants to go and usually it will win. Despite all this, I still keep coming back to clay.
There is something about this uncertainty and lack of total control that is luring and downright in-your-face challenging. That said…
Today’s score: Clay 1, Jenni 0
Work in Progress: Bone Series
Just got the first batch of new bone pieces through the bisque firing and more are drying as I type. I plan on glazing these in a matte white to give them a soft even surface but I’m testing out a few options on some maquette pieces before I commit to glazing the final forms. I’m hoping not to lose the subtle textures in the clay with the thickness of the matte glazed surface.
Here’s how I’m planning on displaying them for an in the field installation most likely on a beach. I’d like to play with suspending these somehow for a gallery installation, but I’m going to have to doodle around with some ideas of the best way to make that work.
I love how once you have an idea in your head, you start seeing everywhere you go. We’ve had some pretty big storms lately and that has changed our beaches quite a bit, washing up all kinds of debris and detritus. The other day I found a piece of metal that was wedged in between some piers and buried in the sand just right so that from a distance it appeared to be a bone structure tapering from large to small just like my bone series pieces.
Featured Work: Bone Series
I walk on the beach or in the forest nearly everyday, it’s my time wander, be inspired and explore. I usually end up collecting something along these walks; a stone, a piece of wood, today it was a vertebrae from a seal that had washed up in a storm.
Over the years, as my bone collections have grown, I’ve really studied the shapes, the curves and the textures. It’s made me realize that what I’m attracted to about these parts is that I love to see the insides of things and understand how things work, how they are put together and how complex yet how simple the puzzle of our bone structures are.
My Bone Series has been inspired by these explorations of structure and form. I’ve recreated these structures in clay by emphasizing the fibrous texture through all the holes cut into my pieces, focusing on how our internal structures shape our outer form and contrasting the balance of strength and fragility.
When I create series of work I play with the variety of ways that they can be displayed, so the Bone Series has been suspended in a museum, taken 70′ under the ocean, pushed into the sand on the beach, connected on a frame to create a wall of bones and displayed in galleries under bell jars. As much as I’ve done with these pieces, I feel like I’m just getting started and that this series will be coming out of the studio for a long time.
View more pieces from the Bone Series here…