nollsculpturestudio

The methods differ little from those used by their ancient predesessors working in clay:

• they find the clay,
• they dig the clay
• they process the clay,
• they form the clay,
• they decorate the clay and
• they fire the clay.

BEGINNER AND INTERMEDIATE LEVEL STUDENTS WELCOME

The classes will start at the beginner level and progress from there. None of them will require any more experience then that learned in the previous classes. At the end of the series you will have gained some skills, have taken part in a process that goes back millenia, gained an appreciation for the imagination and skill of the Mexican artisan both past and present and most importantly, brought out some of that creative drive that lies within each of us. The classes are not just about doing, or about the object. The classes will focus on creating an object with meaning, an object that you resonate with on some level beyond decoration.

 

THE CLASSES

 

CLASS DESCRIPTION

 Class 1 – (Beginner) - Creating a Spirit Stone – Day 1 – Using the simplist clay forming technique you will create two pinch pots from a ball of clay, then assemble them into a ball and form them into your own special Sprirt Stone. You will add little balls of clay to make it rattle and “stir your spirit” and add a written statement, it might be a “thank you” for blessings received or a wish, hope, dream or desire you want to have brought into your life. Day 2 – You will decorate the Sprit Stone, burnish its surface with a stone till it shines and commit it to the fire. What comes out of the fire will be a beautiful one-of-a-kind object that has a special meaning that you gave it, a small reminder of blessings received and blessings to come.

Class 2 – (Beginner) - Globos – Creating a Spherical Story - Day 1 - You will use a plaster mold to create two hemispheres and join them to create a globo (sphere). You will prepare the surface of the Globo so that you can use it to tell a story – personal, fictional, fanciful, abstact, mysterious, hideous, you choose. Day 2 – You will learn two ancient techniques for decoration – coloring using stains found in nature and etching the surface with a pin tool. Day 3 – You will complete your decoration,  burnish the surface to a high gloss and commit it to the fire. What comes out will be an object that just might convey something about yourself that only you know.

 Class 3 – (beginner) – The Story Vessel – Day 1 – Vessels often serve a three-fold purpose: 1. to store or serve food or drink and 2. as decoration and 3. as an object of veneration with spiritual significance. In these later 2 capacities, some artisans have gone to great lengths to make the aesthetic function exceed the utilitarian fuction of th vessel. We will start with a vessel assembled from a plaster mold. We will refine the surface of the vessel and make it ready to decorate. We will draw out a design on the vessel that depicts in a childlike manner an event of some import in oour lives. Day 2 – We will use stains and clays to decorate the vessel. We will etch a design into the vessel and finish it using a method called brunido, to a high shine and commit it to the fire. What comes out of the fire will be a practicle object that tells a story about an experience you have had.

Class 4 – (beginner) - The Animal Vessel - Day 1  - From the village of Colima, alongside an active volcanoe, come clay images of the hairless dog. Considered even today to have healing qualities, the Colima animal vessel has been a part of this culture for centuries. You will use simple clay forming techniques to creat the body, head and legs of our animal vessel. Day 2 – You will assemble the parts of your animal vessel, add tail and ears and give it a unique personality. Day 3 – You will decorate your animal vessel using natural stains or slip amd by etching ito the surface. You will commit it to the fire.

Class 5 – (intermediate) – Arbol de Vida - Day 1 - This unique art form comes from the village of Metapec in central Mexico. It uses the idea of the world tree, found in many cultures, as a way of depicting events. It is as though the tree and its branches were a stage on which are placed the actors and props. The idea may be personal, religeous, politcal, relate to nature or the cosmos or simply fantastically made up.  You will begin by creating your own “world tree”, the trunk, the branches and the little stages that hold the actors and props. Day 2 – You will create the props and characters of your story and arrange them around the tree. Day 3 – You will decorate the tree, acotrs and props and commit them to the fire. Day 4 – You will complete the decoration of the arbol de vida and assemble it using wire and glue. You will end up with a most unique expression of something significant to you.

Class 6 – (Intermediate) – The Verdant Mask or the Greenman - Day 1 – From cultures around the world comes the Greenman. You will learn about the source of this image and how it relates to our concerns about the natural world. From a plaster mold you will create a clay copy of a nondescript face. You will alter the face, giving it a personality.  Day 2 – You will choose a tree, bush or plant that you relate to in some way and gently remove about 3 or 4 leaves, capturing something of the personality of the plant in the process. You will trace the leaves into clay and cut them out and place them around the face to create your Greenman and give him personality. Day 3 – You will decorate the Greenman mask by using natural stains and etching the surface and commit it to the fire. What comes out will be your unique expression of appreciation for the green and growing things that we share this world with and upon which we depend.

WHAT IS PRIMITIVE POTTERY?

Primitive pottery describes a ceramic method that uses ancient techniques, with tools and materials found in the natural world. I spent the last four years in Mexico, admiring the artwork and observing the processes used by Mexican maestros. I discovered that their incredibly sophisticated looking work was the result of processes that were simple in the extreme and in fact, like those used by the ancestors of these maestros hundreds and even thousands of years ago. The modern maestros, which most often include several or all the members of a family, find local sources of clay , process the clay, form the clay by hand or with molds, decorate the clay with natural minerals, and fire the clay with wood in simple kilns or on the ground, all reflecting directly the same techniques and technologies of the ancient potters who came before them.

A LITTLE HISTORY OF CERAMICS IN MEXICO

Since the advent of the Olmec culture in Mexico between 1500 BC and 800 AD, ceramics has taken it’s place in the the lives of the people of what is now modern day Mexico by providing vessels for carying and storing food, as objects for decoration and objects of veneration with spiritual significance. Techniques for producing pottery were passed down through the Teotihuacans, the Aztecs, the Mixtecs and the Casas Grandes to modern Mexican meaestros. The artifacts, ancient and modern, give evidence not only of great facility with clay but a sensitivity to it’s expressive nature. It is that aspect which informs the primitive pottery classes offered here.

HOW TO FIND SOURCES OF INSPIRATION

Everyone of us responds in our own unique way to the world around us, some things may move us to tears that another person may easily ignore. The variety of responses to life is enormous. The best art combines the artists unique response to some aspect of life with a facility with materials or words or music. The work of art, in turn, elicits an emotional and/or intellectual response in us that is out of the ordinary and that heightens our sense of being alive in some way. So you need to discover what it is in life that moves you to tears, to laughter, to terror, to joy, to feelings of awe, admiration, desperation, dispair or hope. There is no forbidden response, all are acceptable. How do you decide?

A GOOD STARTING PLACE 

Most artists, even the greatest, are inspired by other artists work and lives. Looking at other artwork opens up avenues in our brains that broaden our idea of the possible. Finding art that you respond to provides insight into what ideas, emotions and images you may want to explore in your own work. It opens up creative pathways that lead to unique uses of materials or unusual associations of images, objects, materials and processes. So the best place to begin is to visit work that you have admired and try to figure what it is about that work that you rspond to, using that as a theme, create a variation of it that makes it relevant to you. Don’t worry about the audience, in the first place, it is likely to be samll and insignificant, in the second, they don’t matter, not yet.

ABOUT DANIEL NOLL

For the past four years I have lived in a small village called Ajijic, on the shores of Lake Chapala outside of Guadalajara, Mexico. I have been an active artist for most of the last 20 years. I have always found the expressive quality of clay to be appealing and have studied at ASU with Randy Schmidt and Kurt Weiser, also at Rutgers with Bob Cooke. My approach is mainly sculptural. It is what I am most proficient at. You can see some of my sculpture on the post in this Blog about animal sculptures.

WHAT I LEARNED IN MEXICO

 About six years ago I spent a week in Mata Ortiz, taking lessons from a family of gifted potters in this remote village of 2,000 people, 300 of whom work in clay. The work they produce is extremely sophisticated in design and execution. What amazed me most was, after working for days, weeks or even a month or more on some of these intricately designed pieces, they would take them outside, set them on three pieces of iron sticking out of the ground, place a metal bucket over them, pile cottonwood tree bark around the bucket, set the whole thing on fire and walk away. I realized then the small place technology needs to take in creating fine works of art and began researching artists whose methods were primitive but whose work was outstanding.  After moving to Mexico I came across a wonderful ceramics museum called the Refugio, in Tlacapaqui, a city that has been absorbed into Guadalajara. In the museum I discovered work by mexicans artist, living and dead, that was simply breathtaking. In almost every case the work was created using the simple technologies passed down for generations and termed primitive because of it’s use of only naturally occuring materials and a simple hand building process. I studied with several of the local maestros, learned their techniques and decided to pass on the information in workshops. The intent of the workshops are to give the student a simple effective method of producing a work of art, to give them a sense of appreciation for the simplicity of the method, provide a learning atmosphere and help inspire them to be creative in every part of their lives, and do it in a way that keeps everybody, myself included, entertained.

  I recently moved to Birmingham to be close to my son, his wife and my three lovely grandchildren. I look forward to becoming a contributing member of the art community in Alabama.

I have a new blog devoted to the classes in Primitive Pottery called Walk the Clay Path.