|
Technical statement
|
My favorite
techniques working with clay are slab-building and
press-molding. I use plaster molds. Usually I work
with earthenware, which is fired at 1100℃.
I add about 20% of fine grog to assist drying.
Sometimes I use stoneware and porcelain, too.
After bisque firing glaze usually with commercial glazes. I
use spraying and dipping, or sometimes apply glaze
with the brush. Occasionally I leave some places
without the glaze, so that the rough clay surface
would contrast with shiny glaze. I am working with
white glaze quite often, because after the glaze
firing I usually work with over-glaze techniques, so
I need a white of light background.
|
 |
|
|
 |
My third on-glaze technique is collage-like. I cut trans
technique is collage-like, I cut transfers and combine
them into usually complex, solemn and elaborate
compositions. A plate may be composed of 40-50 small
pieces. I enjoy that play with decals, feeling like a
child, playing with colorful pieces of pictures. A
successive phase is drawing with fine pen and a brush,
applying china paints. This is a very important phase in
my work, because I like playing with illusion, and this
is when I arrange the components into the space. In the
case of figural compositions this is the perspective,
the tilled floor usually they require separate firing.
In the case I can draw not only around decals, but also
on them, after they are once fired.
I usually use commercial decals, but lately I began using
decals that were made specially for me from my photos.
In that case I can get such images |
|
as
Vilnius architecture, my children's or my own portraits.
When I incorporate my face into the composition, there
is a reference to old painting, when I incorporate my
face into the composition, there is a reference to old
painting, when masters used to paint self-portraits
somewhere in the corner of a figural composition.
Recently I began experimenting with computer and digital
imaging of scanned photographs and designs. Since the
"ink" of the laser printer contains iron oxide, it can
be used for making decals. I use a special decal paper,
and after printing the image, it must be coated with
decal lacquer. After transferring that image to the
glazed surface and firing at below the glaze's melting
temperature, it will fuse and remain. Because of the
iron, the fired color turns to reddish brown. These
experiments allow me to choose any images I like, and
what I can't do is to use only commercial decals. |
|
|
