Art Archives - Page 17 of 51

a tree grows in wulai

June 23, 2020 February 4, 2021

If you followed along with my residency in Taiwan late last year, you may remember seeing me working with a group of kids at a school in the mountain town of Wulai outside of Taipei. We did a number of individual projects but we finished our time together working on a group project. Wulai is in the mountains with waterfalls, hot springs and lush foliage, so I thought it would be great to make a tree of our own for the the school. Each student picked leaves from their neighborhood and brought them to class to use to press into the clay, they carefully cut out each leaf and then they were glazed with a variety of natural colors.

a tree grows in wulai | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

On our last class the students, teachers, the ceramic museum coordinators and myself worked together to assemble the tree in the school’s stairwell. I prepared the trunk and branches in advance using some landscaping cloth twisted into a wire mesh. The kids attached all the leaves and it was hoisted up to attach to the mesh wall of the stairwell. The kids were so proud of their work and the tree was a wonderful symbol of each of us working together to create something new. Photos of this project are now up on the website under the public art section of my portfolio.

go big

June 18, 2020 February 4, 2021

With no exhibits or big adventure plans on the docket these days, I’ve been keeping busy in the studio with mostly little projects and one BIG experiment. I figured that this is the best time to play and explore with out the worry of a deadline. So when I mentioned to my husband Nate that I wanted to try to make my hand-held-sized rock candy pieces big, like really big – he jumped on board to help me figure out how.

Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture | in the field | rock candy series

He came up with a contraption to help support the form and ultimately built one in wood first using the contraption as a support system for each of the panels. We rolled out thick slabs of clay, let them dry until they were stiff and then used the wood panels as templates for each plane of the new rock. We were able to get the whole thing together in a day, and while it’s got a few kinks that need to be worked out, it’s looking pretty good. This piece just barely fits in my kiln corner to corner, but I could go taller and still have it fit in the kiln, so we’re working on another template shape. I’m hoping that I can have a few different base forms that I can modify in the clay version so that they are all unique pieces in the end.

I also made a few medium sized pieces using paper templates. But I found that the paper models were too flexible and I ended up with slightly curved planes instead of flat ones. It’s a work in process, but I’m sure that I can figure out a way to make them this way too.

I’m hoping that the final forms could be used as unique low seating, as architectural elements in a garden, encrusted on a wall or even stacking them up like a totem with a steel rod on the inside, really the possibilities seem endless. But the real question is, what color should this first big baby be??

art + science workshop in taiwan

May 21, 2020 February 4, 2021

In the final weeks of my residency in Taiwan, the Yingge Ceramics Museum arranged for me to get a behind-the-scenes tour of the mycelium labs at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Taichung – which was fascinating! In exchange, I gave a clay workshops for the staff of the science museum. The participants were staff and volunteers, most of whom had never played with clay, but who love science and nature.

art + science workshop in taiwan | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

We created small bowls that they carved into to create natural patterns and designs. All of the bowls were fired and glazed at the ceramics museum and then returned to the science museum. They just sent me photos of the all the bowls installed in their gorgeous greenhouse in a beautiful display of our ART + SCIENCE collaboration.

I’m so thrilled to see how thoughtfully they assembled these pieces into the landscape of their greenhouse. It was a wonderful experience to form this connection between the two museums and I’m grateful to them both for their willingness to accommodate my request to make this cultural exchange happen.

in the shop

May 13, 2020 February 4, 2021

Collaborative Trinket Necklaces | shop | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

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week six – ephemeral art installations

May 3, 2020 February 4, 2021

This is the sixth and final (for now) week of ephemeral art installations in nature, which makes 30 installations in total! I’m sure that I’ll be making more of these in the future, but for now, we’ve decided to get back into our home base area of Santa Cruz so I can work on some commissioned pieces in the studio and we can check in with family and friends. I hope that you have enjoyed these pieces as I’ve been hiding out in our van in nature, it’s been really fun to make them!

Just a reminder, that I am not leaving any of these pieces out in nature. I’m not littering or impacting the environment, in fact all the above pieces were made with the same piece of clay I reclaimed each day. Hope you’re enjoying these fleeting installations and remember to pack your trash too!