Clay Sculptures

Ceramic monster sculptures made my art students

I have taught my students how to make coil pots and hand build with clay slabs and the score and slip technique, but when I was looking at images of  Janis Mars Wunderlich's art, I came across a few images of sculptures being built from the table up with thin walls. In a few seconds in video clips, I saw her rolling porcelain coils  and then flattening them with her fingers before adding it to the top edge of her piece in progress.  Janis was kind enough to let me stay with her when I flew to Ohio a couple decades ago to check out the OSU art department and occasionally had me over for dinner after I became a grad student there. She was always very prolific and her work was edgy and engaging.

         

Wunderlich's unfinished porcelain sculpture and my student's unfired piece of bucktoothed boy in party hat.

 I decided to introduce my class to some of her pieces and her technique.  

The subjects included a cowboy boot, a cruise ship, a fox, and a large fish and although the finished products are slightly clumsy, given the short time and the visual impairments of the students, I find them pretty charming.