What I see when I look at this vessel is a very cool piece of artwork. The top looks like waves of water, with a big wave coming over about half of the vessel. Then there are carvings in the side, which look like that of flames, to give it a balance of fire and water. These weird and natural shapes make it an organic vessel.
This artwork was organized by putting together slabs that look like waves and then putting another slab on top of part of those, and then leaning it over the rest of the vessel. This contributes to the element of art of form that I used, which is shown in the way I worked with the height, depth, and width of the clay. A part that this is really shown is the wave at the top, which really requires the use of all three axis to fully see it. The artist I used for inspiration in this piece was Vincent van Gogh, a Dutch painter from the 1800s. One of the things that van Gogh was known for was the way he used color, and the way it made his paintings look. I haven't added color yet, but I kind of tried to make the flames look similar to how some of the lines his colors created looked, which would be very free-flowing and curvy. As I was making it, I was mainly focused on making sure that my slabs were blended together well and would not fall apart. I also was concerned when I was making it about how I would get that big wave to stay over the top, but I was able to do that by reinforcing the top slab with clay and leaving it overnight with a plastic bag holding it up. The function of this vessel is a decorative flower vase. There isn't a whole lot of meaning behind the design of it, other than I like the appearance of natural things like water. I just wanted something that looked nice but still had a function. I really like this vessel, and I actually think it was the best clay piece that I made. I think that it looks really cool, and it turned out pretty close to how I imagined it. One way that this unit was especially helpful was in how it helped me to get better at slab building. I was able to roll slabs faster, and blend them together better at the end of the unit. |