Ceramic Arts Commons^™

It Won’T Be Easy, Allison Arkush

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

Interdisciplinary artist Allison Arkush engages a wide range of materials, modalities, and research in her practice. In It Won’t Be Easy, Arkush places and piles her multimedia sculptures throughout the gallery to create installations that overlap ­with her writing and poetry, sometimes layering in (or extending out to) audio and video components. This approach facilitates the probing exploration of prevailing value systems through a flattening of hierarchies among and between humans, the other-than-human, and the inanimate—though no less lively. Her work meditates on and ‘vendiagrams’ things forsaken and sacred, the traumatic and nostalgic. The exhibition title acknowledges that the …

Q&A With Brianne Powers (Bfa Ceramics), Brianne Powers

Q & A Interviews with Art Students

No abstract provided.

The Los Seis De Boulder Sculpture Project: A Case Study Of Socially Engaged Archivist/Artist Collaboration At The University Of Colorado Boulder, Megan K. Friedel, Jasmine Baetz

Journal of Western Archives

As academic institutions and archivists around the nation grapple with the question of how to address existing monuments to racist histories at their institutions, how can archivists support the creation of new monuments on college and university campuses that reflect suppressed or oppressed histories of people of color? This case study explores the Los Seis de Boulder Sculpture Project, a socially engaged art project at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), in which archivists in the CU Boulder Libraries' Archives supported and collaborated with a student artist and community members to create a public monument commemorating the deaths of …

The Shape Of Faith: Understanding God Through Pottery, Kenton Ke

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The Bible uses the relationship between a potter and the clay as a metaphor to describe the relationship between God and humans. “Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” (Isaiah 64:8, NIV). This paper will expand on this metaphor, and draw parallels between the development of personal relationships with God and the complicated processes of pottery making.

Human Nature, Mary Robb

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Human Nature explores my personal observations and life experiences through the use of my narrative ceramic sculptures. Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics or behaviors to non-human entities, such as animals. Some animals are more desirable than others, but all have value and purpose. They exist for a reason. They all bleed. They just want to be. People are like that. I became untrusting of humans after a childhood trauma and began relating more to animals than humans. I observed many similarities in wild animals with my experience. They are continually on alert searching for food and watching for …

Inhumane, Jordan Brown

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

My Goal is to bring awareness to the plight of wild creatures who have lost their habitats due to pollution and urban sprawl. I will be making porcelain vessels that influence people to think about their role on the environment. Both terrestrial and aquatic life has been impacted by humans through poaching, non-traditional medical practices, and human activity in the ocean. By making impressionable clay urns, I hope to bring light to these issues that affect animals. Through research I have been enthused by the steep historical forms from Greece, China, and Europe. Their exceptional skill and knowledge of the …

Current(S), Austin Raye Navrkal

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Current(s) addresses my perspective of the subtle changes that happen as the seasons slowly transition to act as a metaphor for the subtle changes that have happened to me over the course of my time in graduate school.

Mechanisms Of Nourishment, Raymond Lloyd Brown Iii

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This written thesis is a description and analysis of the ceramic work of Ray Brown. Included in this thesis is an explanation and defense of my work in my exhibition Mechanisms of Nourishment. It also unpacks the conceptual, technical, and formal aspects of the work.

The research explored in this written thesis discusses the relationship between the aesthetic and utilitarian components of pottery. From an analytical, iterative approach to form, I strive to isolate proportions that evoke a sense of volume and repetition. My references to Mid Century Modern and Streamlining Era design guide my efforts into dynamic mechanisms of …

Stil-Life, Yi Xiong

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This written thesis is the supporting documentation for Still-Life, my Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition. I use handmade ceramic still-life objects to depict my specific memories and experiences about my life before and after the pandemic. Death, hope, time, and emotion are the themes explored in this exhibition.

This installation of ceramic sculptures not only recreates a historical moment in the pandemic but also captures the current times that we live in. It records the artist's life and time during the COVID-19 pandemic. The selection of still-life objects for the exhibition often has special significance on a personal, cultural, …

Repercussions: The Pressure To Be Thin, Shuhan Liu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

My MFA thesis and supporting exhibition will highlight ceramics work I have created with the intention of dissecting the relationship between a soul and reality to convey the story of tension and anxiety and show it in a way that would let viewers identify with my discomfort and anxiety. The inspiration for my work came from the severe body anxiety that I faced that broke out during the three years of psychological stress caused by the pandemic. Using personal narratives as a starting point, I created object-based artwork that addresses the external pressures I feel to be skinny. As an …

Audience, Minah Kim

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My work, “audience,” reflects binary oppressions sensed and recognized in my private memory and psychological space of living as a transnational being. Linguistic and sensical cognition I(a vulnerable transnational individual) had, have easily been dis-esteemed and devalued by White-centric epistemology. By confronting the reality of history that shapes my thoughts, performance, names, and meanings, I emphasize transnationality as an opportunity to multiply visual tools, dialogues, and inter-connections of individuals. This work integrates moments of physical connection and accountability by utilizing multidisciplinary expression, including ceramics, writing, sound, and the movements of performers and of the audience. Like an interfusion between artists …

Damned Ol' Dirt, Molly Morningglory

All Theses

damned ol’ dirt centers mindfulness and embodiment practices to foster relationships with the self, each other, and the land. These relationships intend to collectively imagine and then build an emotionally and environmentally sustainable and joyful future. My practice foregrounds clay with digital video, photography, and fabric dyeing, recording the imprint of performance. I use my hereditary understanding of clay and fibers, a trained attunement to the natural world, and my background of performance in craft (via demonstration of tactile techniques) to transfer knowledge and skill to the viewer. Through the creation of tableaus and documents of rituals based in materiality, …

Resistance, Catita Guardado

The Tuxedo Archives

No abstract provided.

Drink Up: A Study Of The Food-Safe Quality Of Ceramics Glazes With The Addition Of Rutile, Morgan A. Baldinelli

Honors College Theses

Food-safe ceramic glazes can be altered with additives and become harmful to the user of the ceramic ware. Rutile is a frequently used material added to glazes to create variegation in glazes, but it is commonly known to cause defects in the glaze that can be unsafe for food. This experiment is conducted to determine if rutile can be added to food-safe glazes and still retain their food-safe status. A food-safe glaze is a shiny, thin coating that does not leach chemicals or has an excess of colorants; common food-safe glazes are white liners and clear glazes as they have …

A Lot On My Plate: Family Dishware Serving Up A History Of Global Commercialization, Grace Thanasiu

Student Projects from the Archives

The “Hearthside” shaped plate was created by the Homer Laughlin China Company sometime between 1963 and 1973. My family owns such a plate, and ours originally belonged to a set of plates that was “purchased” by my grandmother, Mary Ruhlin, with books and books full of redemption stamps. Redemption stamps were literal stamps that stores distributed to customers, who could later redeem them for cash or merchandise at affiliated redemption centers that partnered with grocery stores and businesses; redemption stamps functioned as a precursor to the modern loyalty card! The need for a reputable pottery company like Homer Laughlin to …

Adapting The Ceramics Process With Creative Problem-Solving, Jennifer K. Fortuna

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Madeline Kaczmarczyk, a ceramics sculptor based in Rockford, MI, provided the cover art for the Fall 2021 edition of The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy (OJOT). The piece is a wall vase made from clay, luster glaze, and glass beads. Madeline has been creating decorative ceramics for over four decades. In recent years, Madeline has found creative ways to adapt the ceramics process so she can continue creating beautiful works of art. For Madeline, ceramics is more than a means to make a living. This meaningful activity brings focus to her life.

Reliquary, Matthew Sloan

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

I am interested in ritual – the rituals we inherit, and those we choose for ourselves.

By situating the everyday mugs, cups, plates, and bowls next to objects more closely associated with ritual and ceremony, I am suggesting that all of these are significant objects. On one hand, the tableware essential to the rituals of daily living we share at home, on the other, communion vessels and reliquaries are used to deepen a spiritual ritual shared by a community. Both rituals are important experiences worthy of introspection, and consideration.

This is why I make pottery. I believe that handmade objects …

Common Objective, Josh Scott

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Pots are like people. Gestural qualities can make pots appear to move like people. They form groups in ways that people might. Repeated forms on a pedestal can appear to be in formation like a military unit. More importantly, pots perform specific jobs or tasks in ways similar to people.

Inherently, the job someone holds or the function of a pot will have an effect on perceived importance. A funerary urn may seem to be a more important form than a coffee mug, yet both are committed to specific tasks. This can be likened to a lineman and a doctor. …

The Aberration Of The Species, Kristin Ayla Murray

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The Aberration of the Species in an exhibition meant to encourage viewers to consider in impacts technology has had and continues to have on the relationships and interactions we experience in daily life.

The Systemic Punches: Displacement Experience Of Vulnerable Immigrants, Eric Andre

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

"The Systemic Punches: Displacement Experience of Vulnerable Immigrants" focuses on the impact of systems of state control such as immigration laws, policies, and practices that have been institutionalized and that have marginalized immigrants. In my thesis, I pay specific attention to inhuman acts of exclusion and discrimination resulting from the systemic barriers perpetuated by xenophobic and nationalist ideologies.

From this standpoint, my thesis exhibition employs interactive space, which includes visual art (drawing, sculpture ceramics), projection, video, and sound, as a means to explore the effects of the exclusive and discriminatory immigration policies and practices. Furthermore, it is designed to explore …