PASCAL

II I IIIIIII IIIIII IIIII II Ill II IIII I I II Oep Mod Ran Sect Shelf Tra

P 1 07 06 22 01

C 0--, QI -, iii" en I

8' C

~ ....

, 111lil1i1!iI1l111li111lil'i~iil111ii11ii1ijll1i1i1 U18304 0354538

FOR REFERENCE DO NOT TA~( E F RO r~1 l H \ S

DISFUNCTION

By

Mary C. Bryan

B.F.A,, Kansas City Art Institute, 1976

A thesis submitted to the faculty of the Graduate

School of the University of Colorado in partial

fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Fine Arts

Department of Fine Arts, Creative Arts

1979

ROO : I -k.cti T 19,9

6 8'<47

Thie Thesis for the Master of Fine Arts Degree by

Mary C. Bryan

has been approved for the

Department of

Fine Arts

by

Date --------

The work in this show is evolved from traditional craft

objects in form and in spirit but does not resemble the crafts in

function, It is a synthesis of other exotic cultures with our own

exotic culture and times, It is a synthesis of primitive crafts which

are intimate and decorated in relevent motife with industrial goods

which seem practical but impersonal. "If the nature of our civili­

zation be such that we lack a sufficency of "intelligible goods"

then we had better remake ourselves than divert the intelligible goods

of others to the multiplication of our own aesthetic satisfactions,"*

It is a strange set of circumstances when one deifies crafts from so­

cieties that one is destroying. Since much art today is geared toward

an elite art world of galleries and museams it is appropriate to turn

to craft oriented art for the home. The work in this show is func­

tional art, disfunctional craft,

The bowls offer a microcosmic picture which the viewer must

be very close to in order to become immersed, The large sculptures re­

verse the prespective, confronting the viewer directly. The bowls may

be held; the sculptures are a size which could enclose one, The bowl

is an obvious craft reference; the sculptures make use of less obvious

craft forms, A good example of this is the sculpture "Raincoat" (Plate

#1) which is an interpertation of a Japanese grass raincoat.

I consider square shapes to be masculine and round shapes to

be feminine.In this sense I define masculine and feminine in the cosmic

sense of the I Ching not in a sexual sense,

The bowls correspond to our own society where an emphasis is

placed on the individual, The sculptures consist of many individual

* Ananda Coomaraswamy, Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art

(New York, 1956)

units which fit together somewhat like a colony of ants - to be effec­

tive they must work together as one unit. "SCHEHERAZADE" (Plate# 2) is

a bridge between the two with each stick individually decorated yet

relying on the sum total for its effect.

Embellishment is an essential part of both the bowls and the

sculpture. It is used in the traditional craft sense to heighten the

importance of the object and connect it to (or remind the user of)

lifes' deeper meanings. This embellishment displays an ultimate inter­

est in collecting of many things; in the bowls color and texture (and

their many possible combinations); in the other work collections of

objects of a kind, The sculpture "SCHEHERAZADE" (the name of the woman

who told the collection of stories known as "The Tales of the Arabian

Nights" in order to save her life) most clearly envisions this theme.

Color is the bowls main instrument of embellishment. Red

connotates lust, passion, j ealousy, blood, sex, and fire. The blues

and greens represent growth, infinity, water, and calm. The use of

contrasting colors and colors, ,of.• ,similar hues but different textures

has supplementd the use of emotive coloring.

Usually the multiple image sculptures are left in natural

colors to heighten the patterning and the play of light on the indi­

vidual units. (The exception is "RAINCOAT" where the gold paint is

is used to give the ordinary, not valuble sticks a value.) Shadows and

patterns compliment each other and heighten the illusiveness of the

work.

The handmade bowl or basket is one of the first shapes to

be utilized in ceramics. Originally made for personal use, the round

form is well suited to a close body relationship and sense of intmacy.

These bowls are comfortably held, felt, and turned, ks sculptural units

they are self contained and may be considered from every angle. The

bowls are a detailed and exaggerated look into the repetition of form,

Each bowl is its own specialized answer, Answers have involved reor­

dering of shapes, reshaping of insides, narritive, bloodying the bowls,

of making them ugly, ridiculous, or exaggerated. The contrast between

inside and outside has been explored with interest. Puncturing of the

bowls corresponds to the Mimbres who reportedly punched a hole in their

bowls for spiritual reasons, "WHIRLPOOL BOWL" (Plate #3) and "ANNOUNCE­

MENT BOWL" (Plate #4) are good examples of this; in the "CRATER BOWL"

(Plate #5) holes are carried to such an extreme that the function of

the bowl becomes an issue. "HEAVEN AND HELL" (Plate# 6) combines a

Christian (a la Blake) ideology with that of the Mimbres,

The bowls are carefully balanced and structured so that no

plane can be hidden or ignored and there are no arbitrary bases, This

decision is based on a compulsory urge to have a minimal possible base,

I suspect the compulsory urge stems from my precarious sense of self in

the world, Metaphysically it stems from an interest in the principles

of delicate balance of opposing forces expressed in the I Ching.

The sculptures "SCHEHERAZADE", "ANGLE OF REPOSE" (Plate # 7),

"RAINCOAT", and "CORAL REEF" (Plate #8) continue on a larger scale a

theme of repetitive basic units which I have been interested in for

several years, It is a very organic imagery in the use of material and

reference to images seen through microphotography. The effect of this

multiple imagery stemming from multiple life systems parallels feeiings ·

of primitive desires, fears, and needs which affect us all. Perhaps

these are sculptural representations of "The New Landscape" Gyorgy Kepes

talks about in the essay in the book of the same title. The color of

and emotional response to the work is muted. The "Angle of Repose",

made of thousands of tiny smoked clay pieces, and "Coral Reef", made of

bisqued clay rings, are made to express feelings which have no verbal

outlet. They are tortuous, delicate, and beautiful. The construction

process is long and contemplative.

The balance of the sculptures is more concerned with gravity

than the use of geometry. Compulsion here is channeled through the use

of repetition instead of balance and is related to the organic imagery

mentioned above. "Coral Reef", with its predominance of round feminine

forms, is a piece which would comfort or hold the viewer. "Raincoat"

which is large, heavy, and basicly a masculine square shape, presents

more of a confrontation. "Angle of Repose", although a delicate piece,

combines aspects of both. "Scheherazade" is a bridge between repetition

and individuality,

My creative process is not linear. It more closely resembles

a spiral; the presentation of work concerning a variety of issues fol­

lows this theme. There is a kinship in approach between this work and

the music of Keith Jarret. The roots stem from a variety of classical

sources, the presentation is adapted to the style of the individual pre­

senting the work and is left in a loose (improvisational) form. Through

functioning on an individual level it reaches a universal realm.