Thursday, December 31, 2009

Upstream People Gallery - 12th Annual All Media Juried Online International Art Exhibition

My work received Special Recognition for this year's show. This online exhibition runs for the entire 2010 year. Enjoy!

Here's the direct link:

Juror's statement:
ANTHONY FOO of Placentia, California has some interesting works in clay. “Family Ties” shows cylindrical forms in two parts; the white ones with black ties and the black ones with white ties. The idea of black and white as a family is a good concept indeed. With crackling used appropriately in the context of a kind of life form emerging from a shell or egg form he successfully creates “Emergence” with wonderful textural effects. “Terra Nova” shows an arch formation holding various cylindrical parts. And “Seed” with its rich patterns of circular voids and overall desaturated orange patina, is magnificently striking. Also, “Home” using raku with a shiny and rich reddish tone, with rough and smooth character, is a nice grouping.

Paperclay and Portraiture

Traditional clay has long been the medium of choice in portraiture modeling. There are different ways of starting - some use a big chuck of clay and start sculpting; others form an internal head shape form and then add clay to it. Either way works. The main drawback is that in big chucks or in thick slabs, the clay gets heavy and some kind of internal support is required. The clay also tends to sag and slump under its own weight, so some waiting time is required for the clay to firm up. If you work from a solid block of clay, most teachers will tell you to hollow it out at some point in your creation process to minimize your bust blowing up in the bisque firing. Still, I've seen many heads loose part of their anatomy during the bisque fire stage as trapped air pockets or improper/uneven drying caused chunks of the work to pop off.

Paperclay certainly has several advantages here. For this project, you will be working with moist on moist techniques.

Some of the benefits of using paperclay for portraiture.
1. Reduced risk of cracking or parts of the piece blowing up, popping off during bisque fire.
2. Dries faster and more evenly than traditional clay.
3. A bit lighter after bisque. Obviously you can still use a lot of paperclay and it does gain some weight, but certainly not as heavy as a traditional clay body.
4. Tremendous greenware strength around certain areas of the face, for example, ear lobes, nose, chin.
5. Ability to repair cracks and broken pieces at the green stage with paperclay slip.
6. If the piece does dry out, it's a simple matter of spraying it with water to re-hydrate your piece without the clay crumbling on you. Keep on hydrating it until it becomes leather hard again and then continue as before.

My friend, Beverly T, who is the owner of the new doggie (see earlier post on Paperclay as SuperGlue) has been using paperclay exclusively for her portraiture figures ever since she started using it. It has worked extremely well for her and she is a total paperclay "convert."
Way to go Beverly! I've linked her website to my blog.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

OC Weekly write up - All Media 2009 Juried Exhibition, Irvine Fine Arts Center

Here's the direct link to the review of this year's All Media show at the Irvine Fine Arts Center by Dave Barton from the OC Weekly. Enjoy the article.

http://www.ocweekly.com/2009-12-24/culture/all-media-2009-juried-exhibition-irvine-fine-arts-center/