Clay Modeling

Objectives

a. Create a surreal, grotesque or whimsical sculpture.

b. Create a sculpture using the additive process of modeling and subtractive

process of carving. You may also use any combination of handbuilding

techniques (pinch, slab, coil).

c. Effectively use art elements and principles of design to create a clay sculpture.

d. Consider craftsmanship and attention to detail when creating your sculpture.

e. Use references looking at actual objects and create several sketches and/or

maquettes (small models) to work out ideas.

Relevant terms: Define these in your journal.

• Effigy• Surreal• Grotesque• Whimsical• Juxtapose• Modeling• Additive• Maquette• Armature

Relevant Art Elements and Principles

•Form•Texture•Color

•Proportion/Scale•Balance•Unity•Variety

Head potMississippian Culture (800-1600)

Found in Arkansas

An effigy is an image or representation of a person or animal. Effigy pots may have been used in burials, at shrines, and for

ceremonial or other utilitarian purposes.

Carved Stone MortarCa. 500 B.C.

Redware Effigy UrnGuano; Chimborazo, Ecuador

750-125013.5 x 26 inches

Face jug, 1862-70. Chipstone Foundation collection

The Face Jug originated in the pottery created by enslaved African Americans during the second half of the 19th century in Edgefield, South Carolina. It isn’t totally certain what they were used for, but they may have been used on graves to scare away evil spirits. In the 1920s they were became Ugly Jugs and may have been used to store alcohol; they were made ugly to scare children from touching the containers and their contents.

Face jug, South Carolina, ca. 1850

http://river.chattanoogastate.edu/orientations/ex-learn-obj/Face_Jugs/Face_Jugs_print.html

Grotesque: Since at least the 18th century, grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the

strange, fantastic, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting. It defies the notions of art as beautiful.

http://www.theofantastique.com/2010/05/18/gary-varner-gargoyles-grotesques-and-green-men/

Gargoyles of Notre Dame

Oaxacan Wood Carvings: Fantastical wood carvings of animals from villages in Oaxaca, Mexico. Although these are carved in wood, the decorative painting and whimsical quality may inspire you.

Cheerful cat carving by Aurora Sosa by artist of San Martin

Tilcajete, Oaxaca.  

http://www.mexican-folk-art-guide.com/Oaxacan-wood-carvings.html

Luis Pablo

Damian Morales

Salvador DaliPersistence of Memory1931oil on canvas

Surrealism: Art and literature movement which began in the 1920s and combined dream-like or seemingly odd elements together. -http://www.surrealism.org/

Salvador DaliLobster Telephone1938

“Surrealism was a means of reuniting conscious and unconscious realms of experience so completely that the world of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational world in ‘an absolute reality, a surreality’." -http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/surrealism/

Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach by Salvador Dalí, 1938.

Salvador DaliCabinet AnthropomorphiqueBronze

David GilhoolyFrog Fry with Bacon and Eggs1985

David Gilhooly is a well-known sculptor, who is recognized primarily for his ceramic sculpture of animals, food, planets and the FrogWorld.  A graduate of the University of California at Davis (BA, 1965 MA, 1967), he and his friends, working in TB-9 were what was later to be called, The Funk Ceramic Movement of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The term, Funk, was coined in 1966 by Peter Selz for a show at the University of California Art Museum in Berkeley, California.  The implied meaning was something common, dopey, stupid or low.  Shows of Funk Art were often met with the question, "What, you call this Art?" 

They were inspired by the Pop Art movement. For example, they looked to the work of Claes Oldenburg. -http://davidgilhooly.com/02funk.htm

 

Oldenburg, Clothespin Centre Square Plaza, Fifteenth and Market streets, PhiladelphiaCor-Ten and stainless steels 45 ft. x 12 ft. 3 in. x 4 ft. 6 in. (13.7 x 3.7 x 1.4 m)

Claes Oldenburg, Dropped Cone,  2001

David Gilhooly Burger for Two2008Ceramic8 x 4 x 4 in.

David GilhoolyTall Sundaes1978

Robert Arneson, Bob at Rest, 1981,Glazed ceramic, 39 x 26 x 12"

Robert Arneson was an instructor at the University of California at Davis. Humor and non-traditional approaches were encouraged. David Gilhooly was one of his students.

Robert Arnesonself portrait

Jack Earle It's the clothes that make the man

Student Work

Vocab: • Effigy: representation of a person (or animal)• Surreal: a mix between real & fantasy, dream-like,

bizarre• Grotesque: comically or repulsively ugly or distorted• Whimsical: fanciful, playful, unpredictable• Juxtapose: placing two opposite elements next to each

other• Modeling: shaping a soft material• Additive: building up/adding material to the work• Maquette: small scale model; rough draft• Armature: a framework to build the sculpture on

Review of Objectives:• Create a sculpture drawing inspiration from the previous art

work. Create your own 3-d clay sculpture that combines animal or human features, or bizarre and dream-like, or grotesque, or whimsical elements together. Think about objects that don’t normally belong together. Think about dreams you’ve had or fairy tales or mythology and how you can juxtapose different things to make one new creation.

• Effectively use art elements and principles of design to create a sculpture with clay.

• Consider craftsmanship and attention to detail when creating your sculpture.

• Create a sculpture using the additive process of modeling and subtractive process of carving.

• Use references looking at actual objects and create several sketches and/or maquettes (small models) to work out ideas.

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Clay VocabularyDefine each term in your journal.

The stages of clay:1. Slip2. Plastic3. Leather-hard4. Greenware or bone dry5. Bisqueware6. Glazeware

Other clay terms:ClayReclaimingWedgingKilnFiring ScoreGlaze