[ visual thinking ] first week of april

So basically this is me trying to make sense of my thought process throughout my [mix and match] collection. For my final submission, I've been asked to explain what research methods I am using in my practice and I hadn't realized how the Visual Thinking is such a huge part of my artistic process. I am planning on including all these drawings as part of the piece, because I feel these communicate a more playful side to the objects themselves and in the end, communicates the personality of the collection. Hopefully this will encourage engagement, discussion and more creative responses from my audience.  So.. there you go!
~ photos by julibd ~ 

[ in the workshop ] second week of march

The countdown for the Degree Show has officially started now! It is very exciting yet a bit sad how time is running out and my two years of MFA are coming to an end. I wanted to share a bit more of my process and what I am going to be doing these couple of weeks. These are some photos of the works in progress and snapshots of some of the first [ Mix and Match ] nonfunctional vessels. 

{ Visual research and my understanding of the glass piece- Sketch and photo of the Mix and Match component. Alabaster/white color overlay with engraved pattern} Love the thickness and the play of the pattern. This was a gift from Che. He has given me several blanks that he was going to throw away, and I am glad he didn't. I started to saw off into bits and this is where these amazing components came from. 

This pictures above show: - two of the Mix and Match nonfunctional vessels in the inicial 'quick project' stage, - action shot of the saw cutting parts of the mint green blank and - the last one shows all the other new parts from the sawed blanks. I am very excited to start cold working these and playing around to build the other nonfunctional vessels. Laters!
~ photos by julibd ~ 

< Quick Project > Jan. 18th 2013

"Quick Project - Jan. 18th" This mini animated gif shows my thought process in action when playing around with the glass 'rings'. These were engraved this week as part of my component collection. Also I am fascinated with the casted shadow and how it gives a whole new dimension to the simple  engraved pieces.

~ photos by julibd ~ 

< Visual Exploration & Studio Work come together/Part 2>

{Moss from our walk to Arthur's Seat and engraved sample from the "Cut" series}

{organic lettuce at the farmer's market on Castle Road and tiny engraved perfume bottles/ clear glass}

{amazing ceiling at the David H. Koch Theater- Lincoln Center and bottom of engraved manufactured glass bottle}

{nyc lilac, cream and mint lettuce that looks like lace and engraved turquoise blank}

{vibrant pitangas from our graden back in Costa Rica and engraved pattern on decanter}

{double shadow of beer in plastic cup and shaping molten glass on the iron}

"Visual Exploration & Studio Work come together: Part 2 " So the collection continues to grow. I feel this is a very simple yet effective way of communicating my inspiration and showing the links to my studio work. These reference my creative process as an artist and it is easier for the spectator to relate to my world. As you can appreciate, I am drawn to the patterns and textures from my surroundings and how they are translated and appropriated into my work.

~ photos by julibd ~

< Visual Exploration & Studio Work come together >

{sights from our Highland road trip Scotland and my engraved yellow sample also used as a stamp}

{lovely nyc purple lettuce and royal purple perfume bottle/ engraved sample}

{agave plants from the Royal Botanic Gardens of Scotland and workshop samples of my quick projects using green beer bottles}

{old photo from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and some curvy engraved glass pieces}

{London architecture lit at night and a very detailed engraving on clear glass}

"Visual Exploration & Studio Work come together" is a mini exercise for me to organize and understand my creative process a bit better. Also it explains in a quick and easy way, what visual connections I make, collect from my inspiration, experiences, memories, etc. and how all of these come together in my work.

~ photos by julibd ~

< Quick Project > Manufactured glass versus Craft

Ever since I got back from Pilchuck, I tried to practice Michiko Miyake's Quick Project technique. This consists on giving yourself time to do sketches, drawings, collages, pretty much anything, to stimulate the creative process and come up with new ideas without any restrictions from your brain. This is basically trying to avoid sabotage and let your creative side of the brain be the boss.

This is one of the many that I've done since. This is particularly interesting because I am using a bottle mass produced and constructing a new connection to Craft, by engraving unique marks.  

The picture above shows the process from beginning to end. Step 1, 2, 3 & 4.

~ photos by julibd ~

< Cold Working Samples > Red Bubble + Yellow Tumbler

These are some more cold working samples. The blown pieces are trials I made in our HotShop Color Module and then I practiced engraving on them. These were great ways to find out what the different diamond wheels could do and try to create a pattern, giving a little character to each piece. 
Red Bubble: 17 width x 17 height cm. 
Yellow/white Tumbler: 7 width x 9 height cm.
~ photos by julibd ~

< "Protection" Project > details of engraving

Hey there! As promised, here are some more pics of my project from the end of my first year of postgrad. I was inspired by all the different varieties of cactus and started to experiment blowing the glass forms and later engraving on the patterns. As you can see, I had so much fun with this, that the whole project is made up of 50 engraved cacti + flowers!! Each one is unique since no cut can be repeated. What do you think?? Later on I will post pictures of the whole composition!

Also if you could visit my facebook page and support my work by liking it, that would be amazing! All the support is very much appreciated :0) 

-------------------------------------------------> julibd - Art & Glass <--------------------------------------------------------

 thanxs again and see you soon!

{juli

~ photos by julibd ~ 

< Cold Working Samples > Small Tumbler

Hello there! I am very excited because I just finished my first year of postgrad studies! The best thing is that I decided to stay for the two year program so this means that I have had more time for the exploration of new techniques that I had never tried before. Of course, I fell in love with some of the most complicated techniques: glass blowing and glass engraving. These techniques will take me many, many years to master, but I've enjoyed them soooo much, that I am very excited to see where this leads me...

If you have noticed, I haven't posted much since I've been a little busy. But now that I'm officially in vacation, my only task is to photoshop a bunch of pictures to share my progress with you. So here we go!

This is a glass tumbler that was blown by Ingrid (our technician) and Meg (artist in residence). Since this was one of their trial pieces for their new line and didn't end up using, they gave it to me :D It has a lovely shape and I decided to engrave a simple pattern on the bottom. The coolest thing is that since the bottom of the glass is thick, the engraving is mirrored and therefor looks like it multiplied! Making this a very delicate and simple way to add intrest to your new set of tumblers.  

Let me know of you are interested in a set of these, we can make them specially for you and ship them over :0)

~ photos by julibd ~

< Random Snapshots > Hello again!

After many (manyyyy, manyyy) days of not posting, I want to recap some of the highlights of these past few months. Since I have been very busy, the good news is that I have many pending posts of cool stuff and new projects. Meanwhile, here are some pictures of my inspiration and a new test piece.


# Minto House: We had our first meeting regarding the Concrete Project at Minto House and this beautiful staircase caught my eye. The woodwork and contrast in color really look so simple yet soo beautiful. 
[soon a new post with the details of the Concrete Project!!]


# Vintage Jewelry: There is this little store in Lady Lawson Street, right across from the ECA campus, and every time I go in I want to take something home :/ I don't know what I love more: if the Vintage Light Emerald Earrings (I don't think they are actual emeralds but it doesn't matter because they are gorgeous!) or the Vintage Little Box?! These remind me of some jewelry that my great grandmother gave to my grandmother, and since they were bought in an auction from their previous owner, they must have a lot of history since they are from the 1920's... <3 


# New Test Piece: This is one of three color samples that Che [a PHD student from Korea] gave me since he was going to throw them away :D {thanks Che!!} I really love the shape and color and I think that with some engraving, it could look very interesting. It's still a work in progress, soo eventually I'll post some more pictures. :0 ) 

~ photos by julibd ~

"Kith & Kin" Symposium at Sunderland University

This past 10th February, 2012 I had the chance to attend the Glass and Ceramics Symposium at The National Glass Centre, Sunderland. 

It was a great opportunity to understand a bit better the artists' point of view when creating the work that was part of the "Kith and Kin" New Glass and Ceramics Exhibit. [Barnaby Barford, Niel Brownsword, David Cushway, Erin Dickson & Jeffrey Sarmiento, Cerith Wyn Evans, Angela Jarman, June Kingsbury, Rachel Kneebone, Andrew Livingstone, James Maskrey, CHristopher McHugh, Colin Rennie, Nick Renshaw, Gabrielle Wambaugh].

I really enjoyed how each artist explained their own way of rationalizing their art and the process in which they work, from the idea to the finished product. On top, you can see some of the work that caught my eye, obviously most of it is glass... 1] Colin Rennie: With his piece, he wants to explain "Negative Entropy: measuring the lack of chaos in a closed system". His process is mainly inspired by science and technical data. 2] Angela Jarman: "Carambola" flawless work inspired in the genetic intervention of man over nature. 3] James Maskrey: "The Worst Journey in the World" hot blown bottles and glass sculpted detail on top. 4] Jeffrey Sarmiento & Erin Dickson: "Emotional Glass" is really interesting because the piece was thought and built for the exhibit's location. This is the 3D representation of what a leak looks like, after taking a time-lapse of the leak for some hours. All the drops on the floor were traced and then rendered into the final work. It is amazing to see that stands from floor to ceiling, i'm not sure how many sheets of 7mm flat opaque glass are stacked together but I' sure it weighs a ton!! 5] Cerith Wyn Evans: "Permit Yourself". I don't have any pictures of the work of June Kingsbury, but I strongly recommend to take a look, her work focuses on memory and absence and it is worth seeing. The rest of the work in the exhibit can be found here!

So there's still time for people in the area to take one last look, since the exhibit ends on the 19th February, 2012. Enjoy!

~ photos by julibd ~

< Organic Casting Technique! > Golden Peach

After many days of having this video done, finally tackled the technological difficulties and managed to uploaded it :) 

Soo, this is a photo secuence of the Organic Casting Technique. It consists on making a plaster mold of anything organic. In this case, we all used fruits and vegetables for the class project. I used a half of a Peach and it is amazing all the detail the plaster manages to take in and reproduce. 

The process basically is: 

- taking the organic fruit and making a plaster mold out of it. 

- burning out the organic element in the kiln

- clean out the ashes from the mold 

- and use the negative mold of the Peach, to fill it with glass and 

now you have a Glass Peach!

- in this particular case, I decided to try Gilding (applying gold leaf) as a test piece to see the effect /color/ texture. 

I also made one Broccoli and came out very well! Later I'll post some more pictures!

~ photos by julibd ~

< New Finished Work > Honeycomb Textile Curtain

The < HoneyComb Textile Curtain > is the second commissioned work by Durman, the same factory that produces PVC pipes, among other things. 


I was immediately drawn to the shape and the amazing aqua color of these pipes. Putting them together with the metal rings made it look like a true textile. But only if you look closely, you realize its made out of a bunch of plastic PVC and metal rings. I specially love the movement and flow that it has.


So I hope you enjoy it as much as I did working on this amazing project! ~

Description of the work:
Size: 39'' x 28''
# of pipes: 706
# of metal rings: 3,896
# of hanging rods: 2
Weight: 5 kg


Title: "HoneyComb Curtain" Commissioned work
Inspiration: PVC products/ colors, shapes & sizes.
Medium: PVC pipes, metal rings & stainless steel hanging rods. 
Year: Aug. 2011
Framed Dimensions: 39'' x 28''
Photography: julibd
Price: $- SOLD

< New Finished Work > White Curtain

I'm very excited to show off my new project! This is my most recent Commissioned work for Durman, a factory that produces PVC pipes, among other things. I used their own products to built this curtain and the outcome was: amazing wall art specially made  for their executive offices.
What do you think?

Description of the work:
Size: 38'' x30''
# of pipes: 885
# of metal rings: 1,292
# of hanging rods: 3
Weight: 27 kg


Title: "White Curtain" Commissioned work
Inspiration: PVC products/ colors, shapes & sizes.
Medium: PVC pipes, metal rings & stainless steel hanging rods. 
Year: Aug. 2011
Framed Dimensions: 38'' x 30''
Photography: julibd
Price: $- SOLD

< Mindfulness > at Viridian Artists’ 22nd International Juried Exhibition Juried by Elisabeth Sussman, Curator, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

www.viridianartists.com/

I had the great opportunity to be a part of Viridian Artists' 22nd International Juried Exhibition <Juried by Elizabeth Sussman, Curator, Whitney Museum of American Art> New York. < Mindfulness > the collection makes you focus and be mindful of the present. For more info on the collection:http://cargocollective.com/julibd#1464296/-Mindfulness-6-6

So if you have a chance, be sure to drop by June 28 - July 16, 2011!

~ photos by julibd ~

< Inspiration > Petit pumpkins

I didn't have to go to far too find these amazing pumpkin-like fruit, called Pitangas. There's a small tree in my backyard filled with green, orange and red bits. Aren't these wonderful?
~ photos by julibd ~

Feather (Scrap Gold Leaf Paper Collection) < New Work in Progress >

Title: “Feather”  from the Scrap Chinese Paper Collection

Inspiration: Chinese paper.     

Medium: Scrap Gold leaf paper, wood & gold paint.     

Year: April 2011     

Framed dimensions: 15.5 '' x 7 ''     

Photography: julibd
Price:-

< The New Museum >

George Condo: Mental States

January 26, 2010 - May 8, 2011

http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/431/
...worth taking a look! 
-photos by julibd -

< Random Snapshots > New York City Opera

MONODRAMAS

John Zorn/ Arnold Schoenberg/ Morton Feldman

New York City Opera 2010/2011 Dress Rehearsals

at the David H. Koch Theater  < beautiful venue! >

Lincoln Center Plaza Broadway at 63rd St. NYC

http://www.nycopera.com/calendar/view.aspx?id=12529

http://new.lincolncenter.org/live/index.php/visitor-information-overview


- photos by julibd -

< Random Snapshots >

 Bright Sunday colors from Soho and Union Square.

- photos by julibd -