A busy and exciting week of art has come to an end and a new one begins.

Exciting moments have included the reveal of the pieces that were in the salt kiln firing at the Benton Center. My sculptures both came out beautifully, with one of them landing the title of star of the firing. I'm so excited about it! After my next photo shoot (Late February or Early March?) it will be up on here and the Flickr.

I will also be participating in the premiere art show at the Majestic Theater in Corvallis, OR beginning on February 29th with a reception on the same evening from 6-10pm. The theme is Leap Year. I will be displaying one of my sculptures, as well as creating costumes of characters from Alice in Wonderland with live models. The costumed models will only be available for viewing on the night of the reception so come that night and check things out!

This week also saw me creating earrings and other jewelry out of glass scrap and recycled materials. These will be available for purchase later in the month or at the latest mid March. More details to come.

Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive of my art career as I start out. I couldn't do everything I do without you!

Today was an interesting day in the world of me and art. I have my first negative critic. The individual who was expressing distaste for my work felt frustrated that my figures were not anatomically correct. I find this interesting as my work is not supposed to be exactly human, my torsos are humanoid, alien and distorted. They are forms with exaggerated lines, shadows, and movement that differ from the reality of the human body. I love to play with perception and ideas of correctness. There are all types of creativity and as long as I stay true to my own aesthetics and goals I feel I am moving in the right direction. I welcome criticism and accept it as a way to improve my craft, weighing what is said and drawing from it necessarily information. This information allows me to better myself and reaffirm why I am an artist. I must create and I love every minute of it. Thanks all! 

Hello again!

Today saw me disassembling the living room in order to try and take some photos of some more recent work that I've completed. Thanks to Quin we have some new images on the flicker, including ones of these orbs that I am doing.
This one is a reclaimed (or recycled clay) in a salt fire. I am hoping to enter it in a show soon, so fingers crossed! Check out the new photos on the Flickr- http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessgraff/

Still figuring some things out on the technicalities of blogging, but so far so good. I have found some images of my art that were on my old computer prior to it's crash and am uploading them to my flicker, please take a look! You can go there by using the link to my images on the left side of this page. More to follow this coming week. Enjoy. :)

Ok, first time trying this without someone helping me with the technology. It makes me sad that I need to be so versed in tech things in order to fully explore my artistic potential, but that's the direction we are moving, so here I go. I know no one is following this yet, except Connor, who was kind enough to help me figure all of this out, but I hope that once I get some more stuff up here that I can get some of the many people I know to spread the word that I am going to be even more fabulous in the future than I am now. Starting out on this adventure as "an emerging" artist is tough. The ceramics lab is helping, as I am getting a lot of positive feedback from the folks there on my various forms, and I am hopeful that the same will be true of the Quilt Guild once I finish some things and pluck up the courage to show them around. The ladies there are all really supportive and terrific. I've also got some other people in my life who are helping me stay focused, grounded, and positive. Overall not a bad way to be starting out. This next week will involve photographing some of my more recent work which will then go up on this blog and the connected flicker account! So stay tuned (Connor) and tune in everybody else!