Here’s a piece I did just before I left for West Palm Beach. He’s a small ceramic figure – almost a sketch for a larger piece or series I’m contemplating. I really fell for this little guy. I’d be sad to say he sold if he didn’t go to such a cool lady.
'now where did i put that bird?'
He is sculpted with white earthenware clay, bisque fired at cone 04 and cold-finished….more on cold finishing in my next post!
As if I weren’t busy enough getting ready for Art Rock this weekend, I decided to try the 2 part self hardening clay I recently bought. It is like an epoxy but with more clay like sculpting properties. Basically you mix small amounts up at a time…like really small…and then work with it during the sweet spot when it’s not so sticky and not too hard. You potentially have 2 – 3 hours before it cures, but I think the sweet spot might be more like an hour. I have some stuff in mind to do with this clay that I just can’t use ceramics for due to the potential beating the work will take, so I’m giving epoxy clay a whirl. My first attempt went pretty well. I manged to create 3 pieces of jewelry inspired by sea monsters…or if you are more of a fire person than a water person you can pretend they are dragon inspired.
Here’s a pic:
These will be available at Art Rock. I think this might be the start of a creature inspired jewelry line. We’ll see…
Oh, by the way, I think there are a few epoxy like clays on the market, but I went with Apoxie Clay by Aves. Here’s a link to all of their 2 part products. I here a lot of people use Apoxie Sculpt. I got the clay instead because it sounded less shiny. I prefer a more clay like look to my make-believe clay.
I want toshare with you the piece I did for Blue Lucy Gallery’s ‘Scratch the Surface’ exhibition. The rules were simple: each artist purchased a 15 inch square birch board from the Gallery. There was no theme, you can do anything you like so long as the art stays within the 15 inch square. Just over 100 Tampa Bay artists and aspiring artists participated. The result was really cool. The mod podge of artististic styles and skill levels made for a really fun visual experience.
It surprised me that myself and a few fellow artists struggled a bit with the board. I think it just was so wide open and a lot of us really wanted the piece to represent our individual styles and mediums…the result perhaps of showing with so many people at once. The amount of ideas and directions swirling around my head for the first week or two was dizzying. I felt I wanted to flip the board and sculpt figures within the recessed square (flipping the board turned out to be a no-no) and then I wanted to slice into the board, insert a hand built shadow box and house a figurative sculpture within it…as for the rest of board I was leaning towards paint and some mixed media. The more I thought, the more I couldn’t decide. At one point I wanted to grind the whole thing up and just leave the frame suspended from which would be a few test tubes filled with saw dust. That idea still amuses me but it’s so far flung from the art I do and I did want to have something that represented me.
One day I slid my hands across the board and found myself admiring the smooth texture. Birch is really lovely. It struck me that the surface is really ideal for painting and since 2d painting is something I rarely do, why not honor the surface and challenge myself! I made my own rules. No clay, no epoxie, no found object, no collage….just paint on wood.
The result is “Inseparable’. I used acrylic paints and a bit of colored pencil. It sold at the opening.
Inseparable by Calan Ree - Acrylic on Birch Board
Don’t forget if you are in Broward County to make your way over to Art Rock in West Palm Beach this Saturday! I will be unveiling several new ceramic sculptures and have all my other goodies with me – functional ceramic art, figurative sculptures, illustrated and sculpted jewelry, prints and of course, GingerDead Greetings.
Inspired by a combination of the astrological sign of Taurus as well as the comic character Hellboy and a bit Dia do Los Muertos, I call this sculpture Torro. He is hand built using earthenware clay and finished in underglaze, glaze and iron oxide. Some of the cylindrical shapes used to create this piece were created using the ‘broomstick method’ which I learned watching Mitch Lyon’s video. Thanks Mitch! This is a great technique to create cylinders without the use of a potter’s wheel. Sure you can make a cylinder with a slab but with Mitch’s method, you get a nice seamless result. I also used good old fashioned pinching. Remember making pinch pots when you were a little kid? Yep, same idea. I like to combine pinch pots to create hollow organic shapes that I use in sculptures as well as for functional stuff like some of my sgraffito vases.
My biggest challenge with Torro was getting a decent photo. The oxide finish is really beautiful and it’s nearly impossible for me to capture that. I’m going to have to think about getting better lighting for my little lightbox. Anyway, here are some photos. He is currently available through my etsy store (sold) and will be traveling with me on May 12th to ART ROCK in West Palm Beach.
In addition to Art Rock next weekend, I’ll be one of the 105 artists participating in Blue Lucy Gallery’s Scratch the Surface show this Saturday night. I created a painting for this show. Something I haven’t done in a while. Pics next time….
This conjoined bear and bunny sculpture is one of my favorite ceramic pieces so far. I think it’s those chubby cheeks.
Inspired by a visit to the circus poster art and circus memorabilia exhibition at Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, this figurative animal sculpture features conjoined bunny and bear twins that share a single heart. A medical professional saw this piece and told me she once saw an xray of a two headed baby that shared a single heart. Unfortunately, the infant didn’t survive for long because the heart wasn’t strong enough. Luckily, these twins have a big strong heart, will never grow up and will keep you company forever!
The sculpture was hand built from white earthenware and painted with multiple layers of under glaze. It was fired several times to achieve the desired finish. The twins measure around 6 inches tall, 4 inches wide and 3inches deep.
This piece is currently available in my Etsy store.
Recently there was a Call to Artists in Sarasota that several of my friends answered. The call, like many others, was limited to art that can hang on a wall, meaning no 3 dimensional art. As someone whose pretty dedicated to clay, I didn’t want to create new work on paper or canvas. It got me thinking about how versatile clay is as a medium and that I should consider making some wall art out of clay. I decided to start with some masks and this sock monkey is the first of many.
The mask measures around 7.5 inches from chin to pom pom and another 7.5 inches from ear to ear. At its thickest point, it’s approximately 2 inches thick. The piece is hollow with a lip at the top of the back for easy wall hanging on a nail or a picture hanger. You can purchase this piece online through my etsy store.
For the sock monkey obsessed, you can also find sock monkey dishes like these in my etsy store.
These new ceramic art dolls are inspired by the idea that you find in Native American culture of spirits that protect things and places. I think of these figures as forest spirits and gave each one a set of trees to accompany them. In keeping each component separate, you get to interact with the art and decide how to display it. While you move the trees around the figure, you are, in a sense, playing with a doll. It’s a simple act that I hope will remind you of a simpler time.
This first one is around 4.5 inches tall, includes 2 trees and is available in my online Clay Studio store.
The second one is around 5.5 inches tall and includes 3 trees. It’s not in my online store right now, but you can always contact me if you are interested.
I have more new work to show you. I’ve been slacking on updating the blog and store….but not slacking in the ‘making stuff’ area. I’ll post more new work this week.
You can see my work in person this weekend – SAT 12 – 6 – at the new St. Pete Indie Market located on the sidewalks of the 600 block of Central Ave, here in St. Petersburg FL. They are doing this indie art market every first saturday of the month, but I’m not sure how many I’ll do in the hot months to come, so don’t miss it this weekend!
Whenever I’m working on a figurative piece, I always seem to end up with enough clay scraps to make a little dish out of. They come out so cute that I can’t resist. These miniature paintings on hand- built clay dishes are affordable little pieces of art that can be displayed or put to good use. I use the heck out of mine filling them with cookies, sauces, rings, loose change or for feeding my kitties their wet food in style. Some of these dishes are finding their way into gallery shops and boutiques, others are available in my online store and others will be available at shows. Here are some of the recent designs:
Sock Monkey Dishes:
Bunny Dishes:
More Bunny Dishes:
and of course, skull dishes!
Keep an eye on my new clay studio store on etsy to see what’s available or message me as sometimes I have some held back for stores or galleries that aren’t listed on etsy.
Thanks for stopping by. Next up, I’ll finally be sharing some of the latest figurative sculptures that I’ve been working on. I’m pretty excited. 
Over the last few months, in addition to restocking my skull bud vases and little dishes, I have been experimenting with sculpting and finishing techniques. One successful experiment so far, has been working with iron oxide on a low fire red clay body. I used it on this bust I sculpted. The only finish is the iron oxide wash ( a special mix created by potter Nick Abrami who was kind enough to give me some- thanks Nick! ) and some white underglaze. I’m really happy with the result. This piece is not for sale as it turned out to be a Christmas gift for my friends Frank Strunk III and his girl Bethany – who Frank thought the bust resembled (she does have a lovely long neck!).
Here’s a snapshot of the awesome metal and barbed wire Christmas tree Frank gave me and Jim. It’s sitting next to the antique doll head Jim bought me for Christmas who is sporting Jim’s mini metal hat baby-new-year style.
Barbed Wire Christmas Tree by Frank Strunk III
I’ve been working on a lot more little dishes to restock after the holidays. At the moment I have a couple available in my new etsy store which features only my ceramic work – www.CalanRee.etsy.com.
One of the new dish series are the anatomical hearts. I’ve been selling them pretty fast locally and only have one left on etsy right now until I get back more work from St. Pete Clay.
Handbuilt anatomical heart dishes by Calan Ree
I have one of the pale aqua and orange skull dishes left too.
Handbuilt Skull Dish by Calan Ree
The next batch will include my sock monkey paintings and some black and white day of the dead / lucha libre inspired.
Otherwise I’m working on figuring out an efficient way to hand build mugs and the best clay body to work with. I’m also in the middle of a larger sculpture. I won’t say more than that because I don’t want to jinx it!
Until next time…
Don’t buy this snow elf! This chubby fellow is super cute but has a marshmallow obsession that means late nights in the kitchen stirring cocoa and crinkling plastic bags. Super Annoying! Otherwise, he’s really sweet.
Snow Elf is a one of a kind art doll made of a lightweight super durable doll making air dry clay – (La Doll Premiere) and measures around 6 inches tall. His widest point would be from the back of his head to the tip of his chubby carrot nose – around 3.5 inches.
He is currently available in my brand new clay studio store on etsy:
I’ve decided to have all the clay works including all ceramic pottery, ceramic figures and clay and mixed media art dolls in it’s own special shop. You can still find the GingerDead cards, GingerDead comic prints and Illustrated jewelry at GingerDead.etsy.com.
I had spend the last couple weeks stocking the store so I could make a big announcement but then I went to Atomic Holiday Bazaar and sold out of nearly everything! So the store is a bit sparse, but I’ll be adding new work this week starting with my personal favorite – the Snow Elf. Here’s some more photos of the little guy:
