I finished the last piece for the show just a couple hours before set up on Wednesday. Thursday I cleaned up the studio during the day and attended the opening that evening. Friday I decided to take a weekend break from studio work. Spent some time with friends, worked on the house and yard, relaxed and took it easy.
I was pretty happy with the final wall masks all things considered. I enjoyed using metal leaf instead of fired gold. It was fun to build up the reflective surfaces. The gold interior of the one reminded me of King Tut’s death mask. The cool aluminum interior of the other didn’t have the same historical allusions. It felt more cold and alien. The biggest head was left alone inside. It’s more about keeping secrets.
The outer foot on the three heads was very unsatisfying to me. It needed to be there for the alumina wax barrier to hold back the runny glazes. All that bare clay just looked kind of ugly after the firing. Covering it with flock seemed a good choice. First time I have used it since grad school more than twenty years ago. I love the way having the flock makes hanging and unhanging these heads into a silent operation. It transforms the experience. I would definitely consider using it again.
Nothing was finished in time to get it photographed properly. The only images I have this week are a few iPhone pics taken during setup. I am going to stop by the show with a camera and tripod one day this week to take some better images.
I rounded out my display with some other work not directly related to this project. I will talk more about the work when I post better images of the show next week.
I might take one or two more days to get caught up with the rest of my life and then back to work.
