Re{as}semblance installation at Art Outside 2012

Title: Lamby

Series: Backroads, Finding Home

Lamby is a self portrait done from my childhood stuffed animal with a sunset halo and sitting on green maple leaves.

Title: Gertrude

Series: Backroads, Finding Home

Title: Southwest Peaks

Series: Backroads, Finding Home

The three piece mountains series “Southwest Peaks,” went up on a wall in the employee area at Le Cordon Bleu in Austin, TX. I couldn’t be more excited! I love bringing a little joy to someone’s day.

Lost With, Lost Without piece which is a part of the “Backroads, Finding Home series”

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Gold Mountains 

struckdown asked: I have photos of your work from Art Outside. How can I get them to you?

Can you email me at msmaryamanda@gmail.com, I can send you awesome directions.

Faces Progress…

   From conception this project has been a labor of love and reality for me. These faces are all from one mold, I mix paper fibers (specifically a paper insulation) in to clay and then pour that mixture in to the mold. They are bisque fired and then for the finishing touches they are put in a pit firing where I have little control of what the fire and flames will do. Sometimes they break sometimes they do not. Every time they never come out how I expected them to and there’s something beautiful and magical about that. 

   The one mold represents humans, we all come from different places, different races but as humans we all share DNA (one mold). In the molding process the clay that is used is strong, light weight and in theory should be able to withstand varying, sometime extreme temperatures. The final firing is life. I put the faces in a fire pit similar to a campfire, I put different combustible materials and chemicals to influence the coloring and surface designs, I even try to control the rate of temperature increase and oxygen. Once I light that fire what happens to those creations, those faces is out of my control. It’s nerve wrecking standing by the fire and hearing all the crackles and pops, I want to protect what isn’t mine to protect any longer. 

   When the ashes are settled and the coals have all cooled, I get to uncover my faces. Each time I uncover a face I feel like an archeologist discovering King Tuts tomb. My excitement can hardly be contained. Some break, some stay whole but none of them ever turn out how I expect, the clay, the flames they all have a mind of their own. They’re incredibly beautiful. 

   To me these faces are like humans, as we go through life we break, we put ourselves back together, sometimes you can see the scars and sometimes you cannot. Each time we break, each time we put ourselves back together influences us as a whole. We can prepare ourselves for life all we want but in the end life is going to take us where it wants to, it is up to us to continue to put the pieces back together and see how stunningly beautiful we are.  

Progress… This turned out better than I could have expected. The branch had a lot more depth and texture then what the pictures could convey.

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Lately I’ve been working really hard on completing some paintings but haven’t given up on my ceramic endeavors. I did a plaster mold of a glass head, after a lot of work on the mold I think I’ve gotten it to a point were the face is where I was hoping to get it. 

These are my first test trials, I poured them with a paper clay mixture. I should be able to bisque fire them this week. I’m looking forward to seeing how these turn out and doing a larger scaled piece(s) if they come out ok. Fingers crossed!

I am so excited about this piece. I originally started this maps series from a box of maps that I got from a very nice lady on Craigslist. That box of maps happened yo be filled with maps from specific states I’ve lived in and loads of places I’ve visited has been a huge inspiration. There’s a myriad of reasons why I love maps, probably why most people love maps and why it was important to me to do this series and the animals+maps with maps.

People relate to maps. Most of us grew up learning how to read maps, how else were you going to help navigate a road trip or find your way home if you were lost. All those roads, all those places, all those people, all connected despite how far apart they are. Many times it’s just fun to look at a map and think about all those places, people and things.

Maps and map reading seem to be a lot like books and records recently, they’re becoming a bit of a lost art. I don’t want to lose map reading, I don’t want to lose maps (or books and records for that matter). Perhaps I don’t want to lose these funny papers of direction because I don’t want to lose me. Funny to say that but in some ways I feel like that might actually happen.

For me maps were a pretty big part of my growing up and I liked it. My parents wanted to make sure no matter what I could navigate the best routes for the trip I was taking; for fun, for safety, for sightseeing etc they wanted to make sure I was prepared. I still take my map reading with a fair amount of pride especially since I refuse to get a smart phone.

As I’ve grown up I’ve found that there’s really no preparation for life and the roads you end up traveling. Whether I have a map or I don’t have a map chances are I’m probably going to be a little lost! I think everyone to a certain extent can really relate to this which makes maps that much more magical.

While this little guy doesn’t fit in with the others (yet) I had envisioned this piece and am so incredibly happy with how it turned out.

I’ve been working on this canvas for awhile and I am finally excited with how it’s coming out. Only a few clouds left and a choosing a name left! I always seem to find naming pieces hard.

I’ve been on a mini hiatus but there’s plenty of things that are in the making at the studio right now. One being a mini mountain piece, the other being a plaster mold and a batch of paper clay. Here are a few pictures of the background of the mountains before I put the map mountains on the painting.

Kirby is finished and at home with his mom Lauren. I loved making this project come to life!

The progress of Kirby