November 10-11, 2018
Demo Only

During this two-day workshop,  Arthur Gonzalez will demonstrate his method of constructing a figurative bust.  The pinch-coil technique will be the morning practice.  The technique for making the head is known as the “Inside Out” method, which is where the clay is treated as a layer of skin that can be influenced from either side of the clay wall. This is an alternative to both the reductive and additive techniques.  In addition to this, the artist will lecture on his work as well as emphasize ideas of naturalized gesture as well as the difference between realism and believability.

The second day will demonstrate the technique of making a human hand and the importance of the gestural hand through art history.  The bust will then be completed and the artist will then demonstrate color application and ideas of surface treatment.  Color as “time of day” will become an emphasis.  Lastly, methods of hanging wall oriented sculpture through the “pinch-block” and “French-cleat” techniques will complete the workshop.

Dark, somber and foreboding, Arthur Gonzalez’s works encourage serious deliberation and reflection on the relationship between personal concerns and world issues. Raw in form, lacking in smoothness and rough in finish, the ceramic sculptures give glimpses of a conversation or a contemplation in progress. Gonzalez’s creations of ceramic and found objects reveal visions and feelings that are not polished but ongoing processes of gyrating thoughts and churning emotions that threaten to erupt into reality and consciousness to defy the fantasy of a peaceful experience.