Molly Allen

1. Is the type of clay you are using important?

Yes I picked clay called soldate because it has extra grog which allows me to work on a larger scale. It is easy to work with that clay body because it can be attached and reattached at many stages.

2. What is your overall concept?

During this semester I have been exploring how all the mediums I work with fit together, I have been searching for similar meaning with in the work. In my mind they seemed separate and the most I searched for meaning I realized that they all have one major theme in common. Contemplation.

My earlier photo work consisted of girls wearing dress’s floating in a watery landscape that looked surreal. To me that was contemplation of surroundings, or the space one inhabits. It is interesting to me because when someone is floating, they are most likely thinking and every time I float I think of where I inhabit and how I fit into my surroundings. I have always been very interested in the feeling of weightlessness and how it feels to be submerged in water. When on is submerged they get a brief feeling of how integrated they are into their surroundings.

One of my most successful installation projects “freckle map” was also a form of contemplation. The map was contemplation of body, or one physical presence. I had plotted all my major freckles, and in that process I was contemplating my body. Looking at it in a way I had never before.

Finally in my ceramic work, I make female forms with animal heads. These forms a female, simply because that is my gender. They are the final stage of contemplation. The contemplation of a being, of self. This is different from body; because body is physical and self is being, ideas, morals, thoughts and soul. The figure are in a standing position but I wanted their bodies to be posed in stances that someone who is thinking would stand like.

3. What do the animal heads mean?

The animal heads are ment to be different personality traits. A bunny is fragile and skittish, they seem like they are nervous all the time, or are constantly scared, so it represents anxiety. While the frog, I feel is a pretty passive creature they are more likely to react then to act first, while a bunny is the opposite. An octopus represents hidden aggression, or secrets that people hide. The octopus is a creature of the deep and all we know about that is they fight. The only reason we know that is because when they die and wash on the shore and their skin is full of scars from past encounters. Last, the crow is a animal dealing with omens and superstition.

4. How are you going to glaze each figure?

I am going to use a stain to bring out their raw features. Either black or green. They will all be the same color, I want it to be less about color and more about figure.