Carnival of the Animals
Sculpture and Clay
Artist in Residence -
Lulu Quintanilla
Term 2 2013
Princes Hill Primary School
Sculptors are involved in many processes depending on the
medium he or she uses. The grade 2 students will have the opportunity to work
with Lucreccia Quintanilla, our artist in residence this term. Lulu will engage
with the students in her chosen field, Clay. She will make links with her
cultural heritage and help students to create clay creatures based on South
American sculptures of imagined and spiritual creatures. Lulu will be exploring
new territories with the students; an exploration of her own heritage and the
animals and creatures of her childhood that she has wanted to re-create for a
long time. She will work with them, explaining techniques and skills that are
important to understand when using clay as a material for sculpture.
Lulu is a multidisciplinary artist working within painting,
installation, and ceramics. She has exhibited both interstate and overseas and
is currently undertaking her Master in Fine Arts degree at Monash University.
She has worked at the studios of Arts Project Australia and is currently also
conducting workshops at Signal, a creative studio for young people aged 13-20.
As a child growing up in El Salvador, Central America her imagination
was captivated by traditional as well as Pre-Columbian ceramics which commonly
depicted interesting and humorous animals both real and invented. Lulu
considers her time as artist in residence at Princes Hill as an opportunity to
finally explore her interest in this form of ceramic and to be sharing her
inspiration with the children at Princes Hill.
Week 1
This week Lulu
introduced herself to the Grade 2 students.
She bought along
with her an example of the ceramic work she wanted to explore with the
students this term. We passed Lulu’s small ceramic creature around. Each child
examined it carefully.
Students asked Lulu
about her creature. She explained that it took her about an hour to make and
that it came from her imagination and that it was part deer, part donkey.
When you begin
something, it may not turn out as you expect it to. But it is ok to change your
ideas as you keep working. Lulu started drawing a deer and then her final work
turned out to be more like a donkey.
Lulu explained that
she is from El Salvador in Central America. There is a rich history of clay
work in El Salvador. Many centuries ago,
the people of El Salvador didn’t have a written language. They recorded their
stories through pictures and through sculpture, toys, works on walls, textiles
and architecture. Over time, the only things that survived were the clay works.
The things Lulu remembered most from her childhood were the animals in these
art works. These remain today to tell the stories of the people from that time.
There were many examples of clay creatures, both real and imaginary. These
creatures told a story about the myths, beliefs, and the way these people
understood the world around them.
Lulu explained that
over the next few weeks we would all be making our own imaginary or real
creatures out of clay. We will be learning the techniques and skills that
artists use when working with clay.
Students asked Lulu some questions:
When you create your own work, do the things you make also tell a story?
Nicole
Yes. I look in my
studio and books and at other art works in museums for inspiration. I then draw
my ideas. The things I make tell a story about my own childhood.
How do you know what the stories are? Rufus
Signs, symbols and
pictures tell stories that are passed on through the generations.
How did you find the clay? Saskia
The clay was bought
in a shop. Clay is mud, but a special kind of mud. There are different kinds of
clay that you can use to make things with. The clay from the shop is very
refined and smooth.
What inspired you to make this animal?
The materials
artists‘ use and work with often help them to bring their ideas together. Ideas
often change and develop.
After the students
asked Lulu questions they set about designing their own creatures, inspired by
pictures of Pre- Columbian work and Lulu’s own work.
Lulu helped the
students with their designs. She walked around the tables asking students to
think about many things. Remember to think about texture, whether it will be
fat or thin, and how many legs will it have? Think about the creatures head,
its torso and its legs. What shape will each part of the creature be? How will
your creature be supported, and how will it stand?
Lulu was very impressed
with the student’s imaginative and creative work. Each student had their own
style of drawing. She really liked the way each student thought about the
inside and outside of the creature they designed.
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Week 2
Last week, under
the guidance of Lulu, we recorded ideas for our sculptures of animals. This
week Lulu guided us through a range of skills and techniques of how to handle
and manipulate clay. It is important to use the techniques that Lulu taught us
because it is really important that our clay work is strong and the joins are strong
and that it survives the firing in the kiln.
She explained that
today was a day that we were free to experiment, where we should try to make
different shapes and have fun with our clay. This week we are using one ball of
clay and modelling it into a creature based on the designs we created last
week.
We learnt how to
use clay tools to create shape and texture.
We played with
shape.
We thought about
structure and how our creature will stand.
We trained our brain and hand to have a
conversation; how your head can make a shape and your hand creates a texture.
We worked with our
hands and our thumbs flattened some areas while our fingers manipulated the
clay into the shape and form we imagined in our head. We noticed that
when we started to work our ideas changed. Sometimes we started with one idea,
but as we moulded the clay the form took on its own identity. We also noticed
that sometimes we had no idea about what to make and when this happened,
creatures emerged, without much thought, from the clay. Some people noticed
that when they worked ideas also happened as they were working. We realised
that there are many ways of working to create a sculptural form.
What we all did was to create a conversation between our hands and our brain.
We started to think
like sculptors.
Week 3
This week marks the
culmination of our exploration into clay through the childhood memories of our
Artists in Residence, Lulu Quintanilla. This week we brought together our ideas
from week 1 and our techniques about how to use clay from week 2 to finally create
our creature, either real or imagined.
Lulu was able to offer advice and help along the way.
The students
delighted in finalising the creative process and seemed to bring their ideas
together with speed and assurance. Their speed when making the final work highlights
the importance of carefully working through ideas and thinking through
possibilities when creating an art work.
Students enjoy the final collaborative piece.
We are looking forward
to glazing our individual work and the collaborative pieces, which we imagine
will be very colourful and joyous.
We will say goodbye
to Lulu for a few weeks until our work is fired and then she will return to
give us advice on how to glaze and colour our final pieces.
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