go big

With no exhibits or big adventure plans on the docket these days, I’ve been keeping busy in the studio with mostly little projects and one BIG experiment. I figured that this is the best time to play and explore with out the worry of a deadline. So when I mentioned to my husband Nate that I wanted to try to make my hand-held-sized rock candy pieces big, like really big – he jumped on board to help me figure out how.

Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture | in the field | rock candy series

He came up with a contraption to help support the form and ultimately built one in wood first using the contraption as a support system for each of the panels. We rolled out thick slabs of clay, let them dry until they were stiff and then used the wood panels as templates for each plane of the new rock. We were able to get the whole thing together in a day, and while it’s got a few kinks that need to be worked out, it’s looking pretty good. This piece just barely fits in my kiln corner to corner, but I could go taller and still have it fit in the kiln, so we’re working on another template shape. I’m hoping that I can have a few different base forms that I can modify in the clay version so that they are all unique pieces in the end.

I also made a few medium sized pieces using paper templates. But I found that the paper models were too flexible and I ended up with slightly curved planes instead of flat ones. It’s a work in process, but I’m sure that I can figure out a way to make them this way too.

I’m hoping that the final forms could be used as unique low seating, as architectural elements in a garden, encrusted on a wall or even stacking them up like a totem with a steel rod on the inside, really the possibilities seem endless. But the real question is, what color should this first big baby be??

website updates!

If you have a website, you probably have a similar problem to me, maintaining it, keeping it fresh and at the same time consistent throughout. It may not look like a lot, but it’s days worth of work to create new pages, write content, format images just right and to get that one damn photo to nudge over when it just refuses to be centered. But with time on my hands these days, I’ve decided to attack this project a little at a time.

hive series | objects | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

I’ve found that I’ve got too much content in some area which makes it hard for viewers to find the work they are looking for or to share direct links to past pieces. To solve this, I’ve decided to break up some of the content heavy areas into new categories. It’s been fun going through older pages and revisiting work I hadn’t looked at in a long time! There are videos to watch on a number of the In the Field and Installations pages as well as behind the scenes installation photos. Here’s how it’s now organized…

If you click the portfolio tab on the main page, you can now see work listed as:

In the Field which are my ephemeral outdoor installations

Installations which is mainly gallery or museum exhibits

Objects which are generally smaller individual pieces

Public Art pieces which showcase any permanent or long term installations in public spaces

Collected Works which are selected works in clients homes

Works for Sale which will take you to the online Shop.

Originally, all of that content was on only three pages and you had to scroll through it all, so I hope that this makes it easier for viewers to find what they are looking for. I’ll still be tweaking, adjusting layouts and adding content so check back often to explore more of my works.

If you haven’t checked in on my website in awhile, please do and enjoy exploring!

relic series | objects | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

Art + Computer Science

So many of you have complimented my website over the years and I can not take responsibility for it’s beauty and functionality, I owe that to Priscilla Cinque’s amazing talents. Her artful eye and incredible attention to detail has made mine and many others websites simply shine. And when something breaks (usually me touching something I shouldn’t of!), she’s the first one I contact to patiently help me fix it – seriously don’t know what I’d do without her!

So, when she FINALLY made a website for her own creative endeavors, I knew I needed to share it with y’all!

a sample from the ‘down to earth’ collection

Please follow the link below to explore the (of course!) beautifully designed brand new site that showcases Priscilla’s botanical illustrations, photo realistic objects and painstaking line drawings. As I have no patience or talent for creating this kind of detail, I am always impressed when I see these pieces emerge from her home studio. I’m so happy to see her sharing her artwork with everyone now. Please enjoy…

Priscilla Shih Cinque: meditations on form, color, light and shadow

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