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[timepiececlock]

For our first project in my ceramics class we're doing pinch-pots with black underglaze, which we are then carving through for white recessed area. The Prof urged us to try to incorporate some kind of historical or cultural "narrative" in our carving designs, from images to text . I dunno what the hell that means, but he suggested text, so I'm going for poetry.

On the outside of the bowl, in the bottom/apex, I have three rabbits in a triangle/circle around a cresent moon. And around the rabbits I have a large circular sun. Then from the rays of the sun to the edge of the bowl I have text. Here's what it will read when finished:

ALL BY ALL AND DEEP BY DEEP
AND MORE BY MORE THEY DREAM THEIR SLEEP
NOONE AND ANYONE EARTH BY APRIL
WISH BY SPIRIT AND IF BY YES.

TEACH ME TO HEAR MERMAIDS SINGING,
OR TO KEEP OFF ENVY'S STINGING,
AND FIND
WHAT WIND
SERVES TO ADVANCE AN HONEST MIND.

WHAT IF A DAWN OF A DOOM OF A DREAM
BITES THIS UNIVERSE IN TWO,
PEELS FOREVER OUT OF HIS GRAVE
AND SPRINKLES NOWHERE WITH ME AND YOU?

Of course, because it goes in a circle, the "order" depends on which side is facing upward first.


Because carving the interior just sounds like too much work at the point, I decided to leave it black and just include this, along the inside rim:

TILL HUMAN VOICES WAKE US


I'm on a poetry kick, if you haven't noticed. :) The first stanza's from E. E. Cummings's "anyone lived in a pretty how town". The next is from the second stanza of John Donne's "Song". The third is Cummings again, "what if a much of a which of a wind". The last line is part of the final line of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Elliot.

I was really going for a nature/season/stars/magic/philosophy thing, and the end result is pretty good I think. All I have to do before I finish is carve the second stanza and do touch-up with the underglaze paint (like where I messed up on letter terribly.) Then it's glazed and sent into the kiln!

Comments

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Except for poetry, I'm pretty much the opposite: When I look at visual art, like sculpture or painting, I focus almost entirely on "the pretty". I assume that whatever message I take from it is usually personalized to me, so I don't spend much effort trying to figure out what the artist is trying to say (except extremely politicized art, of course). Usually I look at the design of things-- the color, shape, shading.