Glazing Mojo

I spent part of the day at the studio today, part of that time on this little plate, my Calavera con flores. She looks kind of zany, no? I think it's those prozac teeth and the halo of flowers that make her look a little like Lucille Ball. I got a little bit more done on her, but not much.

I stopped working to go out and unload a glaze kiln that fired last night. I had a couple of test tiles in the kiln and I wanted to let The Brain have a look at them so that things could start percolating through the plans I have for a future project.

The future project is a couple of bowls inspired by an article about Australian Aboriginal painters that I read recently in Smithsonian magazine. One painting in particular, Mystery Sand Mosaic by Shorty Lungkarta Tjungurrayi, caught my eye.

Look at that thing. How beautiful is that? Like pointillism writ native.

I envisioned using it as a jumping point for glazing some bowls, which is why I made a few tests.

I was not entirely thrilled with how they came out, but I think I can move forward with what I learned from them.

The clay is the usual clay I use, a dark red clay. The black glaze I used as a background is too glossy, I think. And I learned that the dots (painted with a variety of satin-finish glazes) will have to be large to have the impact I want them to have. So in the next stage, I'll use either a more matte black glaze (if one is available, I don't know yet) or a very dark glossy glaze that has some variability in the color, and larger dots.

 Here are a few more paintings:

Children's Water Dreaming, Shorty Lungkarta Tjungurrayi, 1972 

Water Dreaming, Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri, 1972

Rainbow and Water Story, Old Walter Tjampitjinpa, 1972

 Untitled, Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula, 1973

When I was studying biology in Australia, I had the opportunity to visit the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin where many paintings of this style were exhibited. 

It's taken twelve years for this style of painting to percolate up through The Brain.

Ah, and next time I'm going to talk about art and cultural appropriation, I think.

Perhaps.