Advisor: Toby Buonagurio

I went into this independent study without a particular theme, rhyme, or reason. Learn and experiment more with ceramics using different techniques and to create a massive sculpture. While I had a few ideas going in, they ultimately weren’t executed due to my excitement over a sudden idea. I wanted to take things associated with being cute or tiny and twist it. I was inspired by another independent study student who I worked beside, Max Pitaro, as she was working on cute and intricate pieces. It gave me the idea to create sculptures that were vastly different in comparison, making a huge contrast between us as artists. While her sculptures were intricate and small with many little components, mine were larger than life. They complimented each other as well as established our different strengths with the medium.

My first piece is a giant gummy bear which I have named ‘Gummi’. The idea was to take something cute and small in size and to enlarge it. When I go into creating a piece, I always have a rough idea of the size but don’t necessarily plan it out, I go wherever the piece takes me. This gummy bear turned out to be huge, practically the size of more than half of myself. When the idea first came to me, I was instantly overcome with the type of glaze I was going to use. It all fell together perfectly. To show the contrast in size between the sculpture and that of a normal gummy bear, I created a another small regularly sized one. Placing them next to each other puts its size into perspective. While working on this piece, I encountered various difficulties in its construction but I saw this as another learning opportunity and dove headfirst into learning about paper clay. Doing research and provided information from my instructor, I was able to work with this new technique. It was different from regular clay in that it contained paper pulp mixed into a clay base, with this material I was able to work with the piece at varying degrees of dryness. It gave way to more flexibility and freedom to reconstruct the piece even after it’s initial instruction. This new process was one that I enjoyed and would like to work more with in the future if given the opportunity.

The next piece I created was one that I was very excited to execute, to take something sweet and warp it to create a feeling of discomfort. I wanted to create ‘Terror Tiers’ and make a cake that should not be eaten. Throughout the piece are several stitched panels seemingly sewn together haphazardly. Buttons of various sizes as well as nails and screws are strewn about on the piece to mimic repairs in sewing and give the illusion that it is one entity created from many pieced together. Knitting needles stabbed into the top tier and give the piece a wobblily and unstable look, further expressed by the lopsided nature of the first tier. Balancing various other sewing elements and crafts, a stitched bunny plush head, seemingly ripped from its body as the cotton stuffing spill out and onto the rest of the cake. To further drive the point that the piece was anything but a normal cake, I decided to expose the inner layers, when cut into. The layers are various dark grey tones as opposed to bright light sponge associated with cake. Cutting into the piece gave me the idea to have the ‘filling’ pour out in a blood red color, the cake was alive. This piece was different from my usual process as it included various smaller details, it gave the chance to experiment with different techniques in its construction.

Title: Gummi, Date: December 2022, Dimensions: 18 x 20 x 28 inches

Title: Gummi, Date: December 2022, Dimensions: 18 x 20 x 28 inches

Title: Terror Tiers, Date: October 2022, Dimensions: 14 x 16 x 18 inches