Down & Dirty – Clay (Play) Creation Days

This week’s adventures are taking place in the Pot Shop under the tutelage of Scotty Dillman, master of the wheel, professor of raku, brewer of beer, keeper of sourdough, appreciator of the blues and Eric Clapton, and Osceola, IN native. He’s also very patient and affirming.
Little known fact: Raku firings yield an 80-85% success rate. (that means that if we do 50 pieces, 10 of them are going to fracture during firing). L (Scotty denies this).

Today’s raku haiku:

Making my clay pot -
reluctant clay, clumsy hands.
God must be patient ….

Our first work was sculpting with raku clay. We first did pinching; then coil; then slab. We all got to try our hand at using these techniques (see Janai and Kate at right); some of the pre-fired objects we made are shown in the photo.

Next came the trials, tribulations, and rewards (hopefully) of throwing clay pots on the wheel, which I had never, ever done before (but my classmates had …). The steps to throwing a clay pot on a wheel: Wedge; Center; Seat; Cone up; Thumb push; Locked hand center; Thumb open; Finger widen; Compress rim; Pull up; Cut loose. Center upside down. Trim. Engage in conversation with the clay and call for Scotty between each step.

Today we were introduced to candlestick holders. The thing that I’ve learned (at my level of experience, at least) is that you start something and see what it turns into. I understand that more experienced people start making something that they have in mind and then see how it comes out. I suppose I was able to do that with a candlestick holder today. Life is good. And I have a lot more respect for the Great Potter who is still working on me.

More pottery tomorrow; firing will be this weekend. All LSTC pyromaniacs are welcome to come enjoy the heat.

Legs of clay are scriptural, you know.

Art Creations

Art Creations

Art Creations

Art Creations

Richard Caemmerer – Art & the Gospels

Our mornings have been filled with slide presentations of artwork related to the Gospels and Richard Caemmerer’s vast international experience, varied insights, and numerous anecdotes. Wednesday we learned about representations and symbols of the four gospels. Mark is typically depicted as a winged lion; Matthew as a winged human; Luke as an ox with wings, and John as an eagle. Our assignment was to depict one of the gospel symbols; I chose Luke and included the infant Jesus because of Luke’s focus on the nativity. Janai used her typography skills to create an amazing lion (see her artwork) and our classmate Kate (from Trinity Seminary in Columbus OH) incorporated all four symbols into a single design. I am humbled ….

Our next lecture focused on specific representations of the annunciation and nativity and the “sacra conversazione” (sacred conversation – think of Mary and the infant Jesus inviting Grandma Anna and John the Baptist over for tea along with a couple saints and patrons of the particular work). Our assignment for Thursday evening was to draw several vignettes – a quick gesture drawing with a splash of color. I have to confess that I’m a slow learner – I kept wanting to color within the lines instead of outside. But I have learned and am really excited about being able to capture subjects quickly. Good lesson for a detail-oriented guy like me.

We discussed Rublev’s “Holy Trinity” icon – the one I chose to draw for my Church History project last semester. Once again it was pressed home how presumptuous I was in doing this – but I’ve learned so much about this icon and iconography through these lessons. Finally, we saw and discussed Rembrandt’s The Return of the Prodigal Son, a deep, touching and mysterious representation of the homecoming. (see Henry Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming).
Our last two lectures have been about representations of the life and teachings of Jesus. The artwork shared has been both historical and contemporary, of both eastern and western traditions (did you know that Byzantine paintings typically have a gold thread meandering through them?), and African, Japanese, North and South American, Native American, and Caribbean origin. Richard also shared some children’s artwork that spoke to the topics with directness, joy and simplicity.
Friday afternoon we did a shaded detail drawing of our thumbs (not much room for creative interpretation there) and a contour drawing of a glass drinking jar. This seemed a little easier for me. Our assignment Friday night was to create our own interpretation of Jesus’ baptism (Mark 1:4-11) for a bulletin cover. We’re supposed to share our renditions this afternoon …..
Fun fact: Richard Caemmerer designed the Budweiser beer logo back in the 50’s; supposedly his name is hidden somewhere on it. No one here has found it …. Let me know if you find it!

During our final lecture, we explored some of the hundreds of church/sacred space/stained-glass windows that Richard has created over the last 50 years, and talked about art in liturgy, sacred space design, and Christian community. We came away with a lot of ideas on how to draw community together through art.

Creation#1,1b

#2

"How do you visualize Jesus and in what environment would you place him?"

Brian's Drawings

Exercise 3: Contours, shading, perspective

Assignmet 2: Additional vignettes

Exercise 2: Vignettes/thumbnails

Assignment 1: Symbol of the gospel of Luke, first attempt

Exercise 1: Quick studies with color

#1

"We share a belief, but how we live, visualize and speak of Jesus belongs to each his own."

Welcome to the 2009 Grünewald Guild /LSTC Weblog!

2009 LSTC J-Term: Art and the Gospels at Grünewald Guild

We are Janai and Brian, first-year students in the Masters of Divinity program at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and we thank you for checking out this web log in which we recount our journey and experience here at the Guild, up in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state.

I’m Brian, and I’m a second-career student following early retirement from a 29-year career in the corporate world of research and development and manufacturing/product support. I never took art courses through all my schooling years, yet have always had an interest and have done some drawing and painting over the years when the time was available and the inspiration hit. My journey to the Guild (and to LSTC and ministry) began about six years ago when my wife handed me a pamphlet for the Guild and told me that I should go to this place where faith and art come together. I resolved to do just that, but had not found an opportunity until I saw the J-term course offering in the LSTC catalog. So … here I am!

I hope to use this site to share information about the Guild, what I’m doing while I’m here, and what I’m learning (or not) on this journey to the snowy northwest (which is slowly melting away right now, in case you haven’t heard).

I'm Janai, and I graduated from the University of Nebraska at Kearney with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree and German. I am also a published author of In His Presence: Intimate Moments Between a Woman and Her Lord and will soon have anothor book coming out in the Spring. Coming to the Grunewald Guild has been an awesome affirming experience and will impact my life for many years to come. We have great art professors that each share their abilities with us in a unique way. My mission here at the Guild to sharpen what I have, gain a solid confidence in what I already know, and be open to what I do not know about. I also do have a theme that I wish to create while at the Guild. Its' focus is on the four gospel symbols that have been icons throughout church history, and my attempt to translate, through typography, how those symbols would look today. I am just thrilled to be here especially with Brian so that we can support one another in keeping our gifts in art alive while undergoing seminary studies.

How much snow is too much?!

How much snow have you had this winter? Here in Plain, Washington it's been...well...

abundant!

Can you tell what this really is under the snow???!!!

(Hint: Some of you spend hours sitting on the Chicago highways in one of these!)

Grunewald Week #1

We've arrived!

This year, there are three of us LSTC students experiencing the beauties and creative spirit of the great Northwest! When you arrive "here" - you find yourself in a wonderful valley in the Cascades in the town of Plain, Washington...but let us tell you the area is anything but plain! The mountains are spectacular, the view is amazing and the snow... well, let's just say there is more snow than you can imagine! The snow itself is about 3-4 feet deep and snowbanks are as tall as we are!

This is our home away from home - otherwise known as the Homestead. Our own rooms with sinks, bath down the hall, laundry room, eating area, common room and a kitchnette all help to make it a great place to stay as well as the fact that it's built out of amazing logs and lots of wood...and the mural on the stairway wall is amazing!

We started our first week here with class in the mornings led by Richard Caemmerer (the artist who painted the mural) who with his wife Liz, founded the Guild in 1980. Rich started us off by looking at the art and architechture found in churches from early Christianity on. We've made it through the Romanesque period with next week starting on the Gothic era. The amazing thing is how much time, effort and thought has gone into so many of the buildings and artwork through the ages. Things we often see as simply old churches! Rich is also helping us see the images around the images painted or carved - seeing shape and color and texture in form and light as well as the image itself.

Afternoons at the Guild are spent actually getting to do art! This week we started off in the pottery shop - first doing freehand and then we moved to the wheel - learning how to make bowls and such. Working on the wheel is not as easy as our instructor Scott, makes it seem, but under his tutelage we are all getting pretty good at centering our clay and making really fun things!



As we get better at centering and working with the different clays what we end up with looks better and better all the time, too! Once the pieces are all off the wheels and have time to dry, they will be kiln dried and then we will glaze them with a special glaze called Raku Glazing. Letting them dry once again.

On Friday it was time to finish all our clay pieces using the Raku method of firing. The pottery is heated in a kiln fairly quickly to about 2000 degrees and then it's taken out of the kiln and quicly placed into a metal can filled with paper strips. As soon as the paper starts on fire, you throw on the lid for a few minutes, then carefully take the pieces out of the metal can and place them in cold water. When they come out of the water they are amazing colors! It's a wild and fun process and the pieces we made came out great!

The weekend came fast upon us and we spent Saturday doing errands and spending time in Leavenworth a little Bavarian town nearby. We walked, shopped and ate some great German food. Sunday we walked down the road and across the foot bridge to worship at a great little church - Plain Community Church. After lunch we each took time enjoying the beautiful country God has called us to for these few short weeks.