Keith Carter - Artist In Residence

Keith's mop bucket

Keith Carter who is an artist in residence. He is currently working at Clay on Steele studio in Algoma and at the Barnsite Gallery in Kewaunee. We are honored to have him in our class. He shows and teaches us many thing outside of the box which we might not have chance to discover them on our own.

After showing us new and cool techniques working with clay, he assigned us the "Rustic Vessels" topic. Taking the idea of a vintage object, we have to recreate that object out of clay and then add on another found object which is not clay into the clay part with a purpose.

I am really excited with this topic because it's really different from what we get to do in class. Normally, we only get to make pots, cups but this time we get to incorporate a non-clay object into our clay piece. I think it's really fun to do.  And since we have to choose a vintage object, I choose to recreate a rotary phone which no so many people using it nowadays. People now have their "smartphones" with them almost 24hours per 7, forgetting the rotary phones or dial phones which played an important role back in the day. The found object I'm going to add on is a wire connecting the base to the hand set. I wrap the wire around a pencil to create its shape like a spring.

I used super glue to connect the parts together.

Keith is an inspiring artist. He gives us new ideas,  helps us in making the objects. He is funny and friendly. Not only he gives us great ideas but also makes some awesome pots, sculptures and vessels. They are all great. I really like them. And I would love to have him in our class again.

Time distortion

• The movies seems to happened in a really long time compare to the entire movie had been put into just two minutes
• Hitchcock distorts time by using many pan shots to make the length of the movie longer, showing from place to another at the same time showing different actions happening at the same time. 
• He sometimes use connection cuts during the conversation of the characters in the movie. 
• ex: Hitchcock shot at one of the window and back to Jeffries face and then to another window and so on. That would make the scene seems longer. 
• Compare to the clip of the entire movie had been put into just a two minutes long. If it wasn't Hitchcock editing, the movie would only last for 2 minutes. 

Textured container

I first formed a cylinder with a mold. Then slip and score to connect the clay together. I used some of the texture square and also hand decorate to create the decoration on the container.

 The glaze that I used for my textured container body was Albany Slip Brown first layer and another Albany Slip brown layer for the half top container. 

I was thinking about making something fun for my container lid so I made a short braid to go on top of the extruded parts. The glaze for my lid was double layer of Smokey Merlot. 

"Movement" - Dirty Harry

A short clip from the "Dirty Harry" movie was about two man, one with a gun chasing the other (the injured one) in a stadium. The tension is built up even more in the dark night.

In the beginning of the clip, there were a few scenes where the two were running toward the camera. The camera was placed at a low angle when the injured one running by to show that he was moving fast. He was moving toward from the left to the right down the stairs. The camera was staying still except the director used a little of a pan shot and that he then moving away from the camera to emphasize he was running away and in fear. In the other hand, when the man with a gun moved toward the camera, the camera was placed just a little lower than a point-of-view angle and he stopped right in front of the camera showed that he was probably slower and moving behind the injured man.

The man with gun became more significant while the other became less significant toward the middle of the clip because the man with gun tend to only ran toward the camera while the other ran away from the camera.

Toward the end of the clip, the injured man was shot with a stationary cam and a long shot when he was running down the field. Based on what Giannetti says in his book, the longer and higher the shot, the slower the movement appears to be. After he got shot, he felt to the ground. Then, the camera was only placed at a high angle showed his lack of power. In the end, it was greatly ended with a helicopter shot flew away from what was happening showed the empty stadium in darkness covered by a foggy sky.

Pinch Pots

 Organic - High fired

I turned my pinch pot into a slanted pot with a few flower pedal on top.

Bellied - Low fired

This is my favorite out of three. I like the color it turned out to be as well as its shape. It was pretty symmetrical. I used some low fired glaze to decorate my pot and then i coated with a clear glaze to my pot. 

Footed - Raku fired

I added a little foot a shape of a cross. I like the green on this pot; however the burned smells really bad. 

Jaws - Mise en scene analysis

Jaws - Mise en scene analysis

The dominant in this shot is the medal-stick-like cage because the cage is the biggest and brightest object. The bright color of the dominant makes it stand out from the rest of the objects appear in the frame. The cage draws all the attentions to it because it appears to be really big and extremely close to the screen. In order to make it like that, the director uses an extreme low angle shot, which the camera is placed extremely close to the cage, suggesting a sense of vertically and heighten the importance of it.  

From the shot, we can conclude that Chief Broody, Quint and Hoover are doing something with the cage. Just by looking at the shot, Chief Broody is pushed to the left corner of the frame and he is standing inside the cage while Quint and Hoover are outside of it. By placing Broody in the left corner without any space to move around, we can say maybe he is stuck inside the cage, trying to get out. All the three characters are facing away from the camera. The distances between the three are about more than 8 inches between, personal distances. There aren’t alot of spaces between the character. The characters seems to be structured into the confines of the frame and the spaces seems to be enclosed. It’s clearly a closed form and a tight framing.

15 Elements

• Dominant:
• The cage and the top part of the frame, the brightest
• Lighting key:
• Back lighting using the natural lighting source. Key light and fill light.
• High key lighting? b/c the features are bright and that features few shadows on the principal subjects
• Shot and camera proxemics:
• Medium-close up shot
• Angle:
• Extreme - low angle
• Suggesting the height the importance of the cage.
• Color value:
• The dominant color: bright silver, the other objects are in darker color, make the dominant stand out.
• Contrasting foils: no because the three figures look like they are all fixing or trying to open the cage.
• Lens/filter/stock:
• Seems like the director used wide angle lens
• Subsidiary contrasts:
• The 3 man figures
• Because there are only 2 main things in the frame, the 3 men and the cage.
• Density:
• The shot has a little degree of density because there aren't many texture in the picture.
• Composition:
• Vertical: based on the vertical sticks of the cage, suggesting strength
• Binary structure:  emphasize the parallelism
• Form:
• Closed form: structured within the confines of the frame. Space seems enclosed and self-contained.
• Framing:
• Tight: because chief Broody and Quint are very close to the edges and they kind of go off the frame. and have no room to move.
• Depth:
• 3 planes:
• The 2 figures at the bottom of the screen, foreground.
• The cage and the other figure, mid-ground.
• And the sky, background.
• Character placement:
• Chief Broody and Quint: place at the left and right bottom of the frame. Suggesting the meaning of powerless against the cage.
• Hoover: place at the top of the frame and he’s on top of the cage, not inside the cage like chief Broody.
• Staging positions:
• All 3 characters facing away from the camera.
• Character proxemics:
• Personal distance between the 3 figures - more than 8 inches apart from each other.

Ceramics 1 Blog Test

Can visual art of clay be a self expression?

Yes, clay can definitely a self expression. Just like drawing a 2D picture, instead of sketching out what we are going to draw, we shape clay into what we want it to form. And instead coloring, we glaze. A person can tell a story with clay without saying a word. The way we glaze the clay could tell what emotions we are having. Clay allows us to express our feelings. When we touch it, feel it and shape it; we can easily forget our worries or we can even release our anger as we pinch, squeeze, throw and press clay.