Rough Draft

    There are many aspects in one's life that can influence them. These influences often comes from the enviornment in which one lives in. By living in the Snoqualmie Valley, one influence that i am constantly reminded of is nature. And becuase of the abudence amount of nature that i am exposed to daily, I saw fit to choose nature, and how i represent it throught my surface designs and glazes, as my advanced ceramic theme.
        I used different techniques in my projects to show aspects of nature. Projects that use surface design to illustrate nature are my lidded, teapot, and hand and wheel. These projects used 3 dimensional elements to bring nature to plain and other wise boring projects. The other projects that show nature are through thier glazes. This includes my theme choice, theme choice 2, and theme choice 3 projects. I show nature in my projects through the surface details as well as though glazes.
    I gave these projects a nature feel to them by using mulitple artistic elements. For my surface designs i used carvings, negitive space, and positive space. My hand and wheel has boh positive and negitive space with the coils along the sides and holes at the top. My teapot has carvings on the body and lid. Also the roots along the spout display positive space. And lastly my lidded project has carvings on the sides of the vase to show a running stream of water. Now, the projects that do not use surface design to show nature, uses glaze. My 1st choice project shows the ocean floor and vegitation that grows at the bottom. My 2nd choice project with its surreal glazes, show how nature is not whats expected. And lastly my 3rd choice project shows fish swimming in water. My projects use surface design and glazes to display nature.
    I chose the theme of nature for mulitple reasons. For one, the Snoqualmie Valley is a beautiful place because of the surrounding nature. it would be a crime to not incorperate this into my artwork. Another reason is natures role in history, such as the transcndentalist movements. And Lastly, becuase of my own personal expierences with nature, where it was a safe place for me to go to clear my head and relax.
     By using surafce design and glazes to show nature in my artwork, i can only see how much more oppertunity there is to incorperate it even more. By doing so, I think that anyone will be able to take thier skill and elevate it to the next leve becuase of the vast oppertunities that nature presents. By nature always being a place for inspiration for artists, i believe that the best is only yet to come.