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Exploring the Artistic Vision: A Conversation with Ms. Corrie and Her Inspiring Artwork

Ms. Corrie is a talented ceramic artist with an MFA in Fine Arts from California College of the Arts and a BFA in Ceramics from California State University, Long Beach. With a wealth of experience in ceramic sculpture, she has assisted in various courses and worked as a glaze technician in San Francisco. In addition to her professional work, Ms. Corrie has a passion for teaching, having introduced pottery to elementary school students and co-founding a studio co-op in Long Beach, where she actively collaborates with other artists.


Ms Corrie
Ms Corrie

What inspired this piece of artwork?

The idea for this particular piece came from a dream in which a large green blob descended from outer space to wreak havoc on the futuristic high speed transit system in Los Angeles. 


Can you share any personal experiences or influences that shaped this work?

I love to read sci-fi novels and use the premise of those stories to spin my own fantastical narratives. I enjoy working on a sculpture while I daydream through my story building time, turning clay into abstract imagined creatures.


I also am quite fond of piercing and body jewelry, so I use sculptural body jewelry in my sculptures to give them individual personalities and a form of self expression.


What techniques or materials did you use, and why?

This piece is made from ceramic, glaze, and gold luster. I use slab and coil construction methods to achieve the shapes I’m looking for, and I glaze fire my pieces multiple times to layer textures and colors. Lastly, I apply gold luster in a very low temperature firing to fuse real gold to the surface of certain areas. This, although it is the most toxic step, is by far my favorite– it just really makes the highlighted areas pop.


Can you describe the process you followed from concept to completion?

I sketch shapes I’m interested in and then begin building them in clay. I almost never end up building the shapes I drew, but it’s still a great way to kickstart the creative process. As I’m building a piece, I find the concept in the specific form as it takes shape. The construction process ends up being very active, constantly adjusting and responding to little changes in the form. Once the piece is bisque fired, my glazing process is much less free-form– I like to have a clear plan for color and texture application to tie the piece together. The color choices are directly informed by the shape.


What message or emotion were you hoping to convey through this piece?

I aim to make work that is fun, playful, and just the right amount of weird. I feel that keeping a form open to interpretation allows for a more dynamic experience for the viewer– I would rather hear what shapes or creatures people see in these blobs rather than telling people exactly what to think of them. 



How does this piece fit into your overall body of work?

Through my current body of work, I’m exploring abstract shapes that hold some allusion to arms, legs, ears, etc. I see them not just as blobs, but fantastical creatures in an imagined alien environment. This piece is of a newer subgroup, one in which I’m focusing more on the negative space left from the suggestion of jewelry instead of depicting the jewelry itself quite so literally.



Ms Corrie

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