Ex Nihilo

Hooray! Got all the art supplies finished. Those itty bitty paint tubes gave me a neckache...but they were simple compared to the darned clay box. Who'd think cardboard would be so hard? The flaps on the box (modeled after MANY 50 lb. boxes I have purchased from Austin's own Armadillo Clay & Supply--great place, check it out!) ...well, the flaps had problems with gravity. But all is adhered now and here it is, called "Ex Nihilo"...out of nothing.

Along with the clay box, we now have a small turntable, after a metal one made by Amaco. On top is incised the labyrinth from Chartres Cathedral. A lot of carving went into these pieces--carving leatherhard porcelain is one of my favorite techniques.

The relief carvings on the ends of the cardboard box are from Andrea Pisano's medallions somewhere on the exterior of the Florence Duomo. Naturally, they are of the Creation of Adam and Eve, since this is a box of terracotta clay ("Longhorn Red" to be exact)...

The problematic cardboard flap has a sgraffito adaptation of the Hebrew Brickmakers, from the ancient Egyptian tomb of Rekhmire....you know those slaves hated clay as much as the Creator loved it. Here is an in-process shot and the finished one. The curly white thing is a clay cutter string, on top of the plastic bag of terracotta.

And the real killer was this rolling pin...six images deeply incised into stained clay...from the myth of Gilgamesh. These are liberally taken from ancient Sumerian cuneiform roller seals. Sort of like one of those springerlie (sp?) cookie rollers, you know, but here we have "Gilgamesh Repeating Himself." What more can I say, all that violence just comes back around...














So now the clay tools can join with all the paint stuff...for a table full of "What Art Supplies". In the MAC show, we'll add the typewriter and box of paper to the mix. Plus it'll be installed on a good-looking table by architect Gary Cunningham, without my living room in the background!