Tag: Inspiration Through Exploration

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Video: Inspiration through Exploration: Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal

In the midst of having my solo show in Grants Pass Oregon and getting ready for two upcoming residencies, I snuck in a month long adventure to Bhutan, Sikkim India and Nepal. Have you noticed that I like my schedule completely overwhelmed!?!

While it may be overwhelming to my schedule, I believe that my time exploring the world outside of my studio is equally important to the development of my art work inside the studio. Engaging in Art, Nature & Travel are my three favorite ways to spend my time and they all connect together to inspire my work. This video shares just a few images from each country, and I hope that you find inspiration to travel, explore and connect with cultures different than your own. It will be interesting to see how these experiences find their way into my sculptures and installations in the future. Enjoy!

Video: Walking the Umbels

A little taste of what it’s like to walk the trail of Umbels..

About the Umbel Series Installation:
The saffron colored trail of abstract ceramic flowers is inspired by the folklore of bright yellow mustard flowers leading the way from mission to mission along the Camino Real. The installation is named the Umbel Series due to the umbrella shaped flower structures that inspired the forms.

Click here to pre-order your Umbels…

Inspiration through Exploration

If you follow along on my Instagram feed, you’ve seen a lot of my posts are from my explorations in nature. I truly believe that you need exploration for inspiration, and for me, hiking, road trips and time spent in nature is crucial to my inspiration of what I make in the studio. If you don’t follow my Instagram feed, here’s a few things you missed from our road trip from Santa Cruz to Portland for NCECA 2017.

Inspiration through Exploration | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture
Watching the sunset over the ocean on the Oregon coast makes for happy campers.
Inspiration through Exploration | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture
The most gorgeous pinecone ever found on the shores of Shasta Lake.
Inspiration through Exploration | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture
Kind of obsessed with lichen and moss.
Inspiration through Exploration | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture
Patterns in nature
Inspiration through Exploration | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture
Finally found some snow for this happy Indygirl!

New Video: Tide Pool Series

The Tide Pool Series is inspired by my time spent observing the tiny watery worlds on the rocky shoreline that exist temporarily as the rise and fall of the ocean reveals them and hides them again. The creatures and amount of life that thrive in these crevices is fascinating and forever a source of inspiration for me.

This installation explores the flow of water as it rises and falls between the rocks. The pieces mimic the blue mussels often found in these tidal zones. As the pieces were placed in the sand during the installation, the waves occasionally rolled in and kissed the edges of the pieces, gently moving them and washing them with sand without disrupting the forms.

To purchase work from this series visit: Shop | Tide Pool Series

Art at the Arboretum

I got the opportunity to visit the UCSC Arboretum last week. I’ll be selling a few small works and lots of Art Hearts in the gift shop soon. There are plans in the works for a sculpture exhibition on the grounds. I’ll be creating a large installation as a part of this exhibit, details to follow soon – very excited about this!
Art at the Arboretum | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

While I was there, I had one of my Nest Series pieces with me and couldn’t resist the opportunity to take this snapshot of it with the red flowering plant in the background. I hadn’t been to the Arboretum in years and it was such a lovely spot, I’m going to make a point to go there more often and to bring out of town guests there. Sometimes the best exploring is in our own backyards.

A Weekend in the Woods

We have been working on house projects weekend after weekend for a few months and this time, we finally escaped!
3 days in the woods… happy freakin’ camper!
A Weekend in the Woods | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

I’m not used to a lot of down time, generally I go and go and go. But for a good hour, I sat on this rock and watched my dog sniff around, watched my husband attempt to build a rock bridge across the creek, watched the sun move across the sky.

I’ve been working on an artist talk for an upcoming event, mainly explaining why I take my art outside. It’s hard to verbalize in a way that doesn’t seem silly but I think I feel the most connected here, the least lost. When I am connected to nature it inspires my work and when my work connects with nature, I find my place in the system. I’ll have to keep thinking about these concepts in order to really explain them for my talk but in the meantime, I’m just going to enjoy being here.
A Weekend in the Woods | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculptureGot this photo of our camp as it was getting dark under the redwoods and we had just turned on our solar lights. Everyone asks us about these, and I try to give some away whenever we travel to places where I know we’ll meet people that don’t have reliable electricity in their homes. (See my page about bringing books and solar lights to an orphanage in Haiti.) We love them, they work great and the company that makes them does good philanthropic work, so get some Luci Lights for yourself, get outside and reconnect with nature!

A Great Art Teacher

I sat in my car by the cliffs on a very wet morning, half watching the waves pummel the coastline and half scrolling through my phone while I contemplated taking the dog out for a walk in this unpredictably drizzly day. I came across this post on NPR about A Great Teacher, this particular article was about an elementary school art teacher.

After reading through the quick and cute illustrated article, I took the dog for a walk (despite the rain) and while we walked I thought about all the great art teachers I had. I tried to remember back if there was a moment that they boosted me up or that they let me down, a defining moment that led me down the path to become an artist and art teacher myself.  But all I could remember was that they were my heroes, they were in charge of the space that I wanted to be all day long: the art studio.

A great art teacher | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculptureAs all these thoughts were mingling in my head, I found myself crouched down in the mud trying to get my camera to focus on these beads of water lined up perfectly on the blades of grass along the path. They were beautiful and tiny and so easy to pass over. I was reminded of a very early art lesson that started with something to the tune of train your eye to see everything, then train your hands to create what you see which was a more poetic was of saying, “We’re sketching landscapes. If you don’t see lollipop shaped trees, don’t draw any.”

What if I hadn’t had great art teachers to train my eyes or my hands, where would I be? From elementary to high school to university, this group of talented misfits gave me a safe, creative space to enjoy who I was and become who I am. I am forever grateful.

Awhile back I wrote a post about Why I Teach Community Clay Classes and after 15+ years of teaching, I hope that I’ve done (and continue to do) justice to my responsibilities as an art teacher.