First Day Back

Hmm... well... what a day. I feel a little overwhelmed mentally today. It was the first day of classes, and I moved into my studio space this morning. I have no idea what I want my focus to be for this semester, but I am supposed to have a written proposal by Friday morning. I will get some more guidelines on Wednesday morning, but for now I am just making a list of things that I am interested in or things I like. I think I want to work more with transparent glazes over light-colored clay with black slip images on it. I also want to make more red pots... and paint white porcelain slip and black on top of that, like my mugs from before. I want to make some big pots out of nicer clay and paint on them and glaze them with various celadons... and I want to salt and soda fire some more. I guess that my main problem with the proposal is that I don't want to be too specific but I don't want to list everything because the goal is to keep the idea simple and build on it later. I just don't know where I want to start. I didn't even want to start making pots today because I don't have a direction yet. Also, I need to get a table put in my space because the one that was there belonged to the previous tenant...
Anyway, class was alright. I think it will be a creative semester. Glaze calculation is intimidating but exciting at the same time. I can't wait to learn the details about glaze minerals. Once I know more, the sky could be the limit and I could actually find decent glazing options for my pots. Lately I have moved away from glazing for the most part and left it up to the atmosphere to color my pots. The red clay is the other no-glaze on the outside solution. I don't mind glazing the insides of my pots.
I went to work after helping to make test tiles. I only worked for a couple of hours because I was supposed to have wheel-throwing class at 4:15pm. The professor had a meeting and couldn't make it, so I sat with the other students and waited to see if the syllabus would be handed out anyway. I don't really know why I was sitting there in the first place because they were discussing respirator training, which I did last year. After I found out that the professor wasn't going to be there at all, I decided to walk home because I didn't have any crazy good ideas to start on. I did make more black slip before the supposed class meeting time, but I didn't feel in the mood to make pots. I felt dizzy at work earlier.
Well here are a few drawings that I worked on over the holiday break:

Frog Study in ink on tea-stained paper

Abstract Deer

Figure

Figure 2

Paranoia

Hush

Female Face Study 1

Female Face Study 2

Jude Law, ink, black colored pencil, and white charcoal on tea-stained paper

Olivia Wilde