New Series of Work!

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about pottery and defining a personal style, and I would like to share my thoughts on this and a new style I am going to be trying with my work.

After much pondering on my ceramic work, I have come to the realization that to get to the next level in creating ceramics art, I need a style. Style, in my opinion, is the unifying design that distinguishes your work from other artist and adds a little bit of yourself into your work. I believe that personal style is important to any artist and helps distinguish yourself as an artist to the rest of the community. It is the style of the artist that makes your work stand out from other potters and carve out your own personal space in the art world.

In developing this new style, I spent many of hours thinking about what I want to convey and emote with my ceramic work. After many hours sketching out ideas and then throwing them away, I settled on a style that I think reflects myself. So, what's the style that I have decided to start using...

Minimalism!

As a little bit of an Apple fanboy, I was inspired by there redesign of there new iOS that powers there mobile phone. The use of black and white and a single color really struck a cord with me, and make me think how I could apply this to my work. Also, I have always wanted my ceramic work to stand more for the form than extravagant glazing techniques, so this fit in line very well.

Below is an example of this style and how I am going to apply it to ceramics. I will display the finished piece once it is fired!

 

"Through the Window: Barnyard Owl perched at Midnight"

By Mark Barta

 

Ok, here we go! Each piece of pottery in this style will be only glazed in the inside of the piece, on the top of the piece and in the circles inside the "window" with the same glaze. The lines I have drawn on the vase with black underglaze will contrast nicely with the white clay body and create a sense of simplicity. Inside the "window" I want to only use lines and circles to convey an abstract, but minimal scene. I have to say that I feel my creativity flowing through these pieces of work greatly and am having fun coming up with names for the work, something that is usually more of a hassle than anything.

 

I can't wait to show you the finished results!

Thanks for reading!

-Mark Barta

 

 

Raku!

Brackers hosted a Raku firing event this past weekend and I want to share the results!

The first of two pieces that I raku fired is a 1 foot tall bottle form. When performing a raku firing, you superheat the piece of pottery to a couple thousand degrees, then while it is red hot and glowing you open the kiln and pick up the piece with tongs. Once you have a good grasp of the piece, you place the piece into a bin of combustible material and it instantly ignites into a fireball. While the fire is going, you place the lid on the bin to create a seal, all the oxygen is then burned out of the bin and the fire goes out, this creates a reduction environment. Once cooled, you pull the pot out of the bin and quench it in a water bath, solidifying the metallic results. As this was a rather large piece, you can imagine how nervous I was to drop the piece when it was molten hot and break it, but luckily all went well and I got a great piece out of it.

 

 

 

Another view of this piece is on the right.

 

 

 

 

The second piece of pottery I Raku fired was a platter. I especially like the teal tones that came out on the piece.

I hope you enjoyed these two pieces!

-Mark Barta