Tag: Life In The Studio

RSS feed

Mujeres y Mycelium

Led by participating artist Natalia Szalc, the women of the Fungi Nipple Collective brought their orange glow to our slice of desert last Sunday. Complete with dance, soundscapes, poems, films and food and drinks all of which celebrated the connection of women and mycelium. The Fungi Nipple installation is comprised of hundreds of handmade clay forms that seem to be sprouting up in the arroyo. Here’s a few scenes from this pop-up event…

About the project: What do mushrooms and women have in common? They both play a significant role in the creation of life on Earth: populating, nourishing, cultivating, and communicating. Similar to the mycelium network, women serve as facilitators of communication and builders of connections. They pass down valuable knowledge through generations and share supportive information that uplifts one another. The Fungi Nipple ceramic installation is a collaborative effort between myself and a group of women who create these pieces together to form a swarm of Fungi Nipples. The number of pieces reflects the vital role that women play in our world as creators of life and growth. A woman embodies Mother Nature herself, with a sacred connection to the earth and clay. By honoring and respecting the womb, we honor and respect the feminine – embracing the deep, mysterious realms of inner wisdom, feminine power, intuition, and living in harmony with the cycles of birth, growth, decay, death. and rebirth. This installation aims to recognize women as the creators of life and their profound connection to Mother Nature. What better way to establish this connection than through a simple acknowledgment? Acknowledgment can serve as a potent tool for building trust, shifting attitudes, and fostering collaboration. This installation is designed to spark conversations about the power and practice of acknowledgment, aligning ourselves with the essence of Mother Nature. – Natalia Szalc

photo credits: Fungi Nipple Collective members

a feast of flowers is D.O.N.E.

I can’t believe that I’m actually able to write the title to this blog post but it’s finally true. A Feast of Flowers has officially been installed on the newest section of the Coastal Rail Trail at the corner of California & Bay Streets on the westside of Santa Cruz. Here’s a few process pics of the installation…

day 1 : 3 stems get installed
day 1 : 3 stems get installed
day 1 : 3 stems get installed
day 2: all 6 stems are installed
day 2: flower #1 gets transported
day 2: flower #1 gets unloaded onsite
day 2: first flower getting placed
day 2: second flower getting placed
day 2: third flower placed
day 3: fifth flower being placed
day 3: last flower leaving the studio
day 3: final flower being placed

Once landscaping is complete we’ll get some better shots of the installations but until then, enjoy this photo that was a long time coming.

If you want to read about the whole journey of making these pieces, click here!

About the project: A Feast of Flowers will be six ceramic and steel sculptures inspired by the umbel flower structure of fennel plants. Placed staggered along the sides of the trail and silhouetted against the sky, the installation will create a sense of whimsy and wonder for the thousands of patrons who use the trail as well as bring an awareness to our connection with nature.

My inspiration for this particular installation comes from my exploration of the natural world, and my curiosity about identifying plants, especially the edible ones. As an amateur forager, every hike in the woods has become like a trip to the grocery store for me. Fennels are one of the most recognized edibles that grow in California, available for the taking, yet there is a tendency to not trust the wild plants. This disconnect we humans have with nature, the loss of knowledge about native plants and how that relates to the global issue of food insecurity are all concepts explored with this project.

It is also my hope that whimsical oversized flowers will create a fun and dramatic impact for the area, will draw locals and tourists alike outside to connect with nature, learn about local plants and of course take a moment to stop and smell the flowers.

This project is sponsored by:

A Feast of Flowers | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

let there be light…and gates

Thrilled that we finally got our ceramic sconce lights up on the patio wall of the studio and they look pretty cool. It’s fun to take a traditional style light form and apply my own hole patterns to it. Also note the amazing ceramic oar sculpture by Susana Arias that seems right at home on our studio patio. And the crowning achievement of the month is finishing up our studio gate!

This project has been a long time coming and we’re excited that it’s going to be ready for the opening reception of our exhibit. Nate, my talented husband designed and fabricated all of the metal framework and hardware for the gate while I made and installed all of the ceramic parts. The shadows cast by the pieces and cables are such a cool element, that we gotta say, we’re pretty proud of this collaboration!

the gate is up!

For those of you that have been following along on the months long journey of making our main studio gate, I’m excited to share that the gate is up and in place! Nate did a fabulous job fabricating and now I’m starting to add on my art elements to it. Over the course of a full day, I got the majority of the parts installed but the rest of the parts are loaded in the kiln for their final glaze firing. So it will be finished up as soon as those come out of the kiln this weekend. Then we will dismantle the sticks and wire temporary fence we’ve had up for close to a year now! Things take a while to come to fruition around here – a pace that I’m slowly getting used to, and it seems to make the end results even sweeter when they finally do happen!

The ceramic work on the gate panels are from my Bone Series and are typically spaced out more with more negative space in both the ceramic elements and the steel cables that connect them. In this application, I needed the pieces and cables to be densely packed to keep my dogs from jumping through the fence. That’s given me the opportunity to explore a new way of working with a very old series. They become like a taut screen that is solid and obviously not solid at the same time. Of course these installations are all about the shadows, so I’m looking forward to seeing how they change throughout the day.

sculpture garden tour

If you missed it, here’s another chance to take a walk through the sculpture garden!

Want to visit in person? Join us at our next Event or Contact us to book an appointment!

new studio gate is almost ready!

Nate has been welding away on the new studio gate and it’s almost ready to install. He designed it so the bottom has perforated metal panels and the top openings are where I’ll install my art from my Bone Series. He figured out a way of making the loops for me to attach my art to by cutting chain links in half and welding them along the framing. Of course he had to make a little jig to hold each of these loops in place when welding them, so that’s just one more step in the process. Now he’s working on the track for it to roll in, as well as priming and painting all the metal. The priming currently makes it look the color of the golden gate bridge but promise you, we won’t be leaving it that color.

I’ve glazed up a bunch of pieces and will be ready to install them once the gate is in place. I think the shadows the pieces will cast will look great in place – can’t wait to see this collaboration finished up!

el carrito

Many, many months ago I bought a homemade, used tamale cart on a total whim from the nicest guy who told me he made the cart and that he and his daughter used to go around town together selling tamales. It was just too cute to pass up even if I didn’t have a plan for it.

It sat outside my studio for months before I was inspired to give it the name of El Carrito de Arte or The Little Art Cart and even more weeks passed and I finally designed a sticker for it. All of this with still no plan of what it was really going to turn into. Eventually I used some found materials to make a lid for it which I wrapped in some recycled burlap and I lined the inside of it with some more burlap, double sided tape and zip ties, totally making it up as I went. I made a few hooks to hang Art Hearts off the side of it and some chimes for the handle to tinkle when it moved around.

taking a minute | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

Eventually I came up with a plan to support the lid better so that it could be shifted to be a table for the top of the cart. I found wood boxes that fit to support work on the inside of the cart and also double as a place to store the work when the cart was closed up. And then I found this pink table runner (which matched my kid size bike wheels so perfectly!) that made a divided area under the table so that I could store wrapping supplies and overstock items, making them accessible but also hidden.

Honestly, it makes me smile every time I look at it and I especially love that other than the pink tablecloth, everything was repurposed to make this carrito de arte. I still need some air in my tires and a little lube for turning, but this carrito is ready to make her showing at the next exhibition. And if there’s a truck or trailer in my future, I’ll be able to transfer her around town hawking my wares.

new projects at the studio

We’ve been busy over here with a slew of new projects to help improve the studio and sculpture garden before the next exhibition. I’ve been working on some signage to help those braving the dirt roads with some signs of hope that they are still on the right track. While we will always have our big green flags and sandwich board signs out for events, hopefully these smaller signs will help for everyday visits. We’re still working on getting Google maps to recognize our road – which would be extremely helpful!- but until then, consider yourself in the adventurous club if you’ve made it all the way out here!

Nate has begun building our studio gate, it’s pretty exciting for him to have all of his tools, shop and welder set up to a point where he can create a big project like this. He’s building the framework for the gate and I’ll be filling the voids of the frames with ceramic parts from my Bone Series that will be connected together with steel cables. I’m so excited to see the end results of this plan that has been a long time coming.

on the map

We are officially on the world wide map for Labyrinth Locator!

Our labyrinth is now the 2nd listed labyrinth in Baja and one of 15 in all of Mexico! It is currently made of natural rocks found on our property, but my plan is to eventually exchange all of the natural rocks for my hand-made ceramic rocks so it will change over time and each visit will be a new experience. If you’re in Todos Santos and want to venture north into the desert, come say hi! Contact us to make an appointment today.

Rock Candy Labyrinth at Earth Art Studio

studio tour

If you missed it, here’s another chance to take a peek inside the new studio!

Want to visit in person? Contact us!