HAAnevada: Working toward a synthesis of painting and ceramic sculpture

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Working toward a synthesis of painting and ceramic sculpture

For this semesters work, I wanted to push the possibilities of the the sculpture/picture dichotomy around a bit. First, I started painting this semester! The goal I had had in mind was to make paintings with which I could explore the way I treat my ceramics but on a flat plane. I had intended for the paintings to end up working alongside my ceramics--not in synthesis, but in some sort of environmentally activating conjunction. But the paintings took a different path than I had intended (see post below). However, as I was painting I would run out any unused paint on these panels of underlayment I had sitting around, and as these panels developed, I realized that they were bound to work well with ceramic elements. As much of my works deals with the allusion to the figuration, I began working on ways to depart from the freestanding figure. The idea here is to activate space through a formal sort of inquiry into the ways which the figure (or allusion thereof) can be approached as an art object. The synthesis here of ceramics and painting becomes important in the way with which I can present the figure in the flat plane as well as the freestanding figure. Some of these works be directly connected with one another, while others will simply exist within the same space--or hopefully anyway.

3 comments:

UnknownApril 4, 2015 at 4:54 PM
Those paintings look like perfect!
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amy.tApril 10, 2015 at 3:36 PM
Do you think you have to synthesize the two? Do you feel an obligation to ceramics because it's what you've always done? What happens if you take a hiatus from ceramics?
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UnknownApril 15, 2015 at 9:31 AM
Amy: awesome set of questions! So, I don't think I have to synthesize the two, nor do I feel an some odd sense of obligation to ceramics simply because its what I have been doing for a while. I work in ceramics for the process it presents, and for the form and surface I can achieve with it. I suspect that I will stop working in ceramics when I am no longer interested in the process and possibilities it presents. So, while I have taken a mild sort of hiatus from ceramics over this semester, this break has only served to enhance my interest and appreciation for the medium. I will post some insights in this post as well as in a post about painting.
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Artist Biography

Thomas A. Drakulich was born and raised in Reno, Nevada. He attended Truckee Meadows Community College and the University of Nevada, Reno where he received his AA in Art History and his BA in Criminal Justice. During his undergraduate studies, Tom began to explore the wheel-thrown vessel as a means for creating large form sculptures. His works interweave figurative, narrative, and abstract elements that relate to both his personal ideologies and aesthetic interests. Tom is currently working on his Masters Degree in Fine arts at UNR.

Artist Statement

In my art practice, I take a visceral approach to presenting the idea that we exist in this world as fleeting agents, relentlessly tied to the earth and to our mortality. My work begins with the play between dynamic elements within their respective environments, and it ends as a presentation of the way that my memory, perspective, and history effectively shape and relate my views on the human condition and the world around me. My work exists in the in-between and in the enigma: seeking to play upon the present that exists in absence. I constantly interweave a visual language that is both familiar to the mind, and entirely obscure. Each work becomes a series of action and contemplation. I capture and then expand upon moments of my creative spontaneity to synthesize situations, wherein, the living and the dead exist collectively as fleeting agents within a greater static context—be it a landscape or a contrived human tradition. Mortality and the earth are the dominant themes in my work. I use these themes, both, to relate a sense of place and perspective to the viewer, and to explore specific aspects of the human condition.