Kevin Snipes Workshop
Drawing Both Sides - August 5-7, 2011
Kevin Snipes leads this three-day hands on workshop exploring greenware ceramic surface decoration. Using throwing or hand building techniques, participants will create simple porcelain three dimensional canvases using throwing or handbuilding techniques.
The workshop primary focus will be on drawing on these canvases using mishima, sgraffito, underglaze and slip decoration. Kevin will demonstrate both his forming methods and the use of these techniques to produce intricate, layered surfaces.
Kevin will lead discussion on formal design, composition, and meaning. Historical and contemporary resources will be referenced for creative inspiration. Dialog about the social relevance of creating narrative ceramic vessels will be encouraged. Kevin will discuss his interest in the concept of dualities and how his reflections in this area inform his work.Participants will work with their bone-dry greenware and supplied tiles to subtly alter form while composing designs. The workshop will also touch on creating hand-built forms starting with bisque molds, and the making of the molds. MudFire will have simple greenware forms available for pre-purchase for participants travelling from afar.
The workshop requires basic hand-building OR wheel-throwing skill. There will be limited access to wheels to create basic forms with the focus on building, altering, and decorating at the participant's work stations.
Class size 16.
Free to the public
August 5-7, 2011
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Kevin Snipes Bio
Kevin Snipes was born in Philadelphia, but grew up mostly in Cleveland, Ohio. He holds a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and did MFA work at the University of Florida, in Gainesville, Florida. From there participated in several artist residency programs, including the Clay Studio, in Philadelphia and Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, in New Castle, Maine he was also a visiting artist at Louisiana State University, in Baton Rouge. After completing a yearlong Taunt Fellowship from the Archie Bray Foundation in 2008, in Helena, Kevin has continued on as a resident artist at the Bray until the January of 2011. Exhibiting both nationally and internationally, Kevin has exhibited as far away as Jingdezhen, China. Kevin combines his love of making unconventional pottery with an obsessive need to draw on everything that he produces, creating a uniquely dynamic body of work.
Kevin Snipes Artist Statement
"I am continuously fascinated by the concept of duality. Duality of course, refers to two things which are intrinsically bound together, made of the same stuff. Yet those things are also inherently in opposition with each other. This is nothing new. Such things as lightness and darkness, and day and night, can only exist by acknowledgement of their oppositions and duality. But what I find most interesting is the way that we define one side of the duality is by describing what is not. In other words, we can only know a thing by defining its opposite. How is it possible to describe what lightness is, for instance, without referring to the concept of darkness, or to describe what rigidity is without describing softness? These thoughts are my starting point in the act of creating."
"There are many types of dualities in my work. Look closely and you will find, not just the obvious binaries of male and female drawings on opposing sides of my clay vessels, but also subtler means of communicating my fascination with this two-folded view of life. It is my goal that by creating multiple layers of dualities I can develop provocative narratives in each piece."
"I often use written text in the form of cartoon-like word bubbles, or notation-like scribbling to give the viewer clues into the unfolding stories. People I know become quirky childlike representations of themselves, and fodder for true or completely bogus tales. I like to think of my work as 'sweet and spicy'; not too much of either, with a good dash of humor. There is an uncertain sense of edginess or mystery that offers the viewer just enough information, so that they can extrapolate his or her own stories."
"As an artist, and as a member of a historically marginalized group, I find that I tend toward nontribalism. Rather that creating art that speaks of love or victimization of African Americans, I speak of the problems underlying the recognition of difference. I work on a personal, intimate level that encourages an almost private investigation of the objects that I make. This act of confrontation that encourages only a single viewer with a single object sets up a dialogue in the nature of subject-to-object relationships and becomes a metaphor for the concept of otherness."
