Tag: Inspiration Through Exploration

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a tree grows in wulai

If you followed along with my residency in Taiwan late last year, you may remember seeing me working with a group of kids at a school in the mountain town of Wulai outside of Taipei. We did a number of individual projects but we finished our time together working on a group project. Wulai is in the mountains with waterfalls, hot springs and lush foliage, so I thought it would be great to make a tree of our own for the the school. Each student picked leaves from their neighborhood and brought them to class to use to press into the clay, they carefully cut out each leaf and then they were glazed with a variety of natural colors.

a tree grows in wulai | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

On our last class the students, teachers, the ceramic museum coordinators and myself worked together to assemble the tree in the school’s stairwell. I prepared the trunk and branches in advance using some landscaping cloth twisted into a wire mesh. The kids attached all the leaves and it was hoisted up to attach to the mesh wall of the stairwell. The kids were so proud of their work and the tree was a wonderful symbol of each of us working together to create something new. Photos of this project are now up on the website under the public art section of my portfolio.

art + science workshop in taiwan

In the final weeks of my residency in Taiwan, the Yingge Ceramics Museum arranged for me to get a behind-the-scenes tour of the mycelium labs at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Taichung – which was fascinating! In exchange, I gave a clay workshops for the staff of the science museum. The participants were staff and volunteers, most of whom had never played with clay, but who love science and nature.

  • art + science workshop in taiwan | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture
  • art + science workshop in taiwan | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture
  • art + science workshop in taiwan | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

We created small bowls that they carved into to create natural patterns and designs. All of the bowls were fired and glazed at the ceramics museum and then returned to the science museum. They just sent me photos of the all the bowls installed in their gorgeous greenhouse in a beautiful display of our ART + SCIENCE collaboration.

I’m so thrilled to see how thoughtfully they assembled these pieces into the landscape of their greenhouse. It was a wonderful experience to form this connection between the two museums and I’m grateful to them both for their willingness to accommodate my request to make this cultural exchange happen.

week six – ephemeral art installations

This is the sixth and final (for now) week of ephemeral art installations in nature, which makes 30 installations in total! I’m sure that I’ll be making more of these in the future, but for now, we’ve decided to get back into our home base area of Santa Cruz so I can work on some commissioned pieces in the studio and we can check in with family and friends. I hope that you have enjoyed these pieces as I’ve been hiding out in our van in nature, it’s been really fun to make them!

death valley, california
death valley, california
sequoia national forest, california
sequoia national forest, california
sequoia national forest, california

Just a reminder, that I am not leaving any of these pieces out in nature. I’m not littering or impacting the environment, in fact all the above pieces were made with the same piece of clay I reclaimed each day. Hope you’re enjoying these fleeting installations and remember to pack your trash too!

week five – ephemeral art installations

well, I was off the grid and missed getting this post out to you all last week, but I was still busy being creative…

enjoy!

blm land, arizona
blm land, arizona
mojave national preserve, california
mojave national preserve, california

Just a reminder, that I am not leaving any of these pieces out in nature. I’m not littering or impacting the environment, in fact all the above pieces were made with the same piece of clay I reclaimed each day. Hope you’re enjoying these fleeting installations and remember to pack your trash too!

week four – ephemeral art installations

well, back to the obsession with rocks! enjoy!!

Click the link to start from the beginning and understand what my thoughts are behind starting this project…

tonto national forest, arizona
tonto national forest, arizona
coronado national forest, arizona
coronado national forest, arizona
coronado national forest, arizona

Just a reminder, that I am not leaving any of these pieces out in nature. I’m not littering or impacting the environment, in fact all the above pieces were made with the same piece of clay I reclaimed each day. Hope you’re enjoying these fleeting installations and remember to pack your trash too!

week three: ephemeral art installations

you’ll notice as the landscape changes, I kind of got obsessed with a trees instead of rocks this week… enjoy!

Click the link to start from the beginning and understand what my thoughts are behind starting this project…

grand staircase escalante, utah
grand staircase escalante, utah
coconino national forest, arizona
coconino national forest, arizona

Just a reminder, that I am not leaving any of these pieces out in nature. I’m not littering or impacting the environment, in fact all the above pieces were made with the same piece of clay I reclaimed each day. Hope you’re enjoying these fleeting installations and remember to pack your trash too!

week two: ephemeral art installations

Here we go with week two…

Click the link to start from the beginning and understand what my thoughts are behind starting this project…

valley of fire, nevada
grand staircase escalante, utah
grand staircase escalante, utah
grand staircase escalante, utah
grand staircase escalante, utah

Just a reminder, that I am not leaving any of these pieces out in nature. I’m not littering or impacting the environment, in fact all the above pieces were made with the same piece of clay I reclaimed each day. Hope you’re enjoying these fleeting installations and remember to pack your trash too!

week one: ephemeral art installations

Ok! Here we go with week one of ephemeral art installations… ENJOY!

Wondering where day one is?

Click the link to start from the beginning and understand what my thoughts are behind starting this project…

day two Mojave National Preserve CA
day three Mojave National Preserve CA
day four Mojave National Preserve CA
day five Mojave National Preserve CA
day six Mojave National Preserve CA
day seven Valley of Fire NV

Since I’ve been asked by quite a few people (including a park ranger), I just want to clarify that I am not leaving any of these pieces out in nature. I’m not littering or impacting the environment, in fact all the above pieces were made with the same piece of clay I reclaimed each day. Hope you’re enjoying these fleeting installations and remember to pack your trash too!

art in the time of coronavirus

Well, these are definitely weird and perplexing times. As everyone around the world is trying to reinvent the way that they do their jobs, care for their families and go about their day, we are doing the same by reworking all of our plans for this year.

Right now we should be driving through the desert of Baja, eating fish tacos on fresh made tortillas and swimming in warm waters, but we’re not. I had hoped to create some works at the Taller de Terreno studio as we camped out on our adjacent property in Todos Santos, but that’s not happening either. Our multi-month North America road trip has been rerouted to only include the US, not Mexico or Canada and rather than go see art and cultural events in cities while visiting with friends, we plan to stay out in nature instead. And this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but a lesson in how to make flexibility the key to our planning these days.

Please note: Before you say ‘Why are they traveling at all?’, if you don’t know this already, we live full time in our converted, self-contained van, so technically we are staying home, our home just happens to be wherever we park it. That said, we are being responsible in our travel, only getting groceries as needed, no campgrounds, hotels, restaurants and we’re staying away from crowds. Luckily we are set up to stay out in nature like this for a long time.

Ok, so with that note out of the way, what exactly IS my plan to create art in the time of Coronavirus? Before we left the studio, I loaded up the van with a few bags of clay and some tools to make some art on the go. Taking inspiration from nature and really connecting to a sense of place, I plan to create small, ephemeral, site-specific works in nature. I’ll be documenting them and then removing them (no littering in nature!). I’m intrigued to see how these installations will simultaneously document where we go in our travels and how i respond to those places from a creative perspective. Maybe all of the images will all end up in a book in the end – we’ll see! I’ll post the photos on my Instagram feed and here on the ‘the dirt’ in weekly posts. Hope you enjoy this process and hope you are all staying healthy out there!

Here’s the first one to get you started…

day one Los Padres National Forest CA

inspiration through exploration: japan (part 2)

On the recommendation of a friend we ventured out to Naoshima Island, taking every possible means of public transportation to get there but as the brochure says – if you like art, architecture and nature, then this is your place – and it totally was. The island is dotted with site specific, modern, minimalist sculptures and museums all of which play with the natural beauty of the island and the South Seto Sea.

(l to r) Yayoi Kusama, Walter De Maria & Lee Ufan

Many of the indoor places you were not allowed to take photos, so there is a lot that is not pictured here, which was honestly kind of nice to just experience the spaces and the art. They also timed the entrances into spaces so that you could enjoy them as they were intended rather than in a space squished with tourists from wall to wall. I imagine that if the Louve showed the Mona Lisa in this way, it would be a completely different experience viewing her. It was a good reminder that slowing down and focusing on what you are seeing is way more important than getting that perfect photo.

(l to r) Sou Fujimoto, SANAA an architecture studio led by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa & Cai Guo-Qiang

We also visited the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park which was a little bit of a research trip for me. The have a very coveted residency program there I would love to apply for at some point in the next few years. So I reached out to my circle of clay friends and was able to meet with the program director to get a tour of the studios, kilns and the grounds. Now that I’ve been there, and seen how amazing their facilities are, I want to go even more! Fingers crossed for this in the future.

shigaraki ceramic cultural park (l to r) gigantic 5.2 cubic meter gas kiln, entrance sign to the park & one of the many ceramic installations

By now, we are actually back in California, and in-between saying hi to everyone that we’ve missed for months and going through our ridiculous pile of mail, we already planning our next adventure. Next up is a North America road trip, so stay tuned for more art, studio visits and a little bit of actual art making. Thanks for joining me on this amazing adventure!