vessels

When I was 14 years old I started taking ceramics at Cypress College. I took all 24 ceramics classes they offered at the time - and then got hired as lab technician and got paid to be there. I loved it, and have probably written other blog posts about it before - it was more than about ceramics, and it was more than a class.

One of the assignments we had, every semester, was to create a postcard - it should incorporate visuals and text, have our portrait on it somewhere, and illustrate what our artistic mission statement was. I did a set of postcards one semester, the semester I was also taking printmaking, and did a bunch of wood blocks with different cups and vases on them. Since then, it's been folded into part of my unconscious doodle repertoire. 

Part of it is that the first semester of ceramics you only made one thing: cups. Cups, cups, cups, cups, cups. We'd watch slideshows of Ron Nagle cups, go to exhibits focused on cups... and have trash-ceremonies if someone brought in a cup that was machine-made. It's the perfect vessel. It's so much more than you think it can be. It can also be so simple, beautiful, and functional. 

My instructor said - to get a C, make 6 cups. To get an A, make 30. So I made hundreds. I made so many I gave them away to anybody who would take them. I frequently visit people all over the country and am surprised by a vaguely familiar looking cup in their cupboards. 

So.. in any case. I like cups.

Sharpie, metallic watercolors. 

vapid faces

I don't love these atc's. I'm putting them up here to remind myself that sometimes it is about the process and not the final product. I still might come back to these and do more. They seem vapid to me. But I still love what watercolors do, and the 2.5 x 3.5 space of an ATC card...

simple trees

Sharpies and metallic water colors. Somewhere in my project stash I also have these embroidered...

torn paper

Water colors, torn paper, colored pencil, needle and thread. Some of my first ATC's ever made. All freeing and fun and process-y.

out of doors

Inspired by Everett Ruess.

sharpies and watercolors.

inhale, exhale

water colors, smooshed together onto another paper, then sharpie.

Also some collage and sharpie.

first bf atc's

Once upon a time I was 14 years old and madly in love with my very first boyfriend ever. He lived in Fresno, and I lived in Orange County - about 4 hours apart. I was 14, remember, and couldn't drive - so in addition to the three hours a day we spent on the phone, we also wrote letters. A lot of letters. Recently my father decided he actually wants some of his garage to himself, so he foisted a big box of old-Roya-stuff on me... and I found the box with all the old letters, some photos, jewelry, mixed tapes and other mementos. 

I wasn't sure what to do with them...seemed a shame to just toss them, but I didn't really need a big box of letters from my first boyfriend, either. Then a friend came over and introduced me to ATC's - the perfect solution. I cut up some letters, envelopes, and other random bits of nostalgia and made a few ATC's, and then tossed the rest. 

So here you have my First BF atc's.

watercolors, glue stick, and collage material.