Jingdezhen, China Summer Project
Donation protected
Hello,
My name is Deshun Peoples. I am a double major in Studio Art and Rhetorical Theory and Criticism, and a Chinese Minor at Bates College. I am going to Jingdezhen, China this summer, in June, to study porcelain production in the porcelain capital of the world, wow producing a body of work at an international residency studio thanks to a fellowship from my college. Unfortunately my awards have fallen short of my project costs. I still need to raise about $1,000 to cover the final costs of the program and I have exhausted the available funds that I can apply for at Bates. In addition, I have increased the goal to $1,500 to allow for emergency fund and any extra unforseen expenses. This is where your donations will be greatly appreciated. I will still go to Jingdezhen, but some aspects of the trip night be compromised, such as going on excursions, exploring the historical city, and shipping my work back to the United States, all of which are very valuable aspects of the project. Also, I would prefer to go prepared monetarily, just in case unexpected expenses were to arise, as I well be in a foreign country do different than the United States and unexpected expenses will be much harder to deal with there without having budgeted for it.
I thank everyone in advance for any donations that you can make.
Please check out the rest of my information below to learn more about the program and artwork that I am interested in making.
I will to go to Jingdezhen, China in the summer of 2015 ( June, 1-July, 27) to pursue a dream that I have had since I started my pottery studies at Bates College: to investigate first-hand Chinese Song dynasty porcelain vessel production at its source. One method of art-making relies on the use of historical models as a basis for understanding: to learn to see and make form. Living in Jingdezhen for eight weeks will allow me to explore this practice of making pottery at its source; from the people, culture, and region where these beautiful, elegant, and highly refined Song and Yuan dynasty vessels originate. These forms are the epitome of sophistication and refinement that has been at the forefront of my art practice and what I try to achieve in my work.
Click the link below to my website:
Check out some of my work here
Read the rest of my proposal below:
The Residency Program:
The Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China has programs that focus on all steps of ceramic art production: local raw material collection to make clay and glazes, an education center that offers pottery classes to the community, a fully equipped ceramic studio to produce ceramic work, and a pottery sales market to sell the ceramic art work. The ceramic studio where I will spend most of my time during the summer has an all-inclusive studio fee for each week of my eight-week stay. The studio fee includes electric throwing wheels, bats and boards for throwing and storing work on, shelf space for storing wet and dry clay work, kilns for firing my work (electric, and gas kilns), as well as hot showers, lunch and dinner from Monday through Saturday, and lodging with Wi-Fi-internet connection and flush toilets. The Pottery Workshop hosts up to fourteen international ceramic artists for up to ten weeks as a part of an international residency program. The Workshop will also help me identify the most affordable ways to ship my ceramic work back to Bates.
Academic Career and Personal Development:
The ancient Chinese vessel forms that I want to produce are intricate. They are difficult forms to make, particularly in porcelain, a very soft, finicky clay. They are very round, voluminous pots that have small necks or openings on the tops. Producing these forms takes an immense amount of time, practice, technical skill, and near-perfect execution. I have created some similar forms in my short time studying and making pottery, but I have much more to learn in the ways of wheel throwing these elaborate ancient forms. My primary goal is to work with Jingdezhen porcelain. Other goals for my ceramic work are to address issues of scale in my pieces, weight distribution, aesthetics of proportion, glaze and surface design exploration.
As a studio artist, my development depends on consistently being in the studio and making work. Perhaps I have been influenced by the words of Susan Dewsnap and Penelope Jones, the ceramics, and drawing/painting professors at Bates College respectfully, but I’m convinced that majority of inspiration and progress in a studio art career come from the combination of producing and reflecting on work made. This continuous artistic dialogue over time will help develop my critical eye, and eventually inspire ideas for creating my own body of work. By intensively working in The Pottery Workshop for eight-weeks, I will become aware of making the kinds of decisions that may catalyze unforeseen ideas for ceramic form, technique, and design.
As a Chinese language and culture minor, this opportunity unites my ceramic art interests with my Chinese language studies thus far. I studied Chinese throughout high school, and I’ll confess that in my sophomore I travelled to Beijing, China for one month as part of a program geared towards exposing students to Chinese language and culture. My stay in Beijing was very restricted, in the sense that there was very little interaction with people in Beijing, or conversations in Chinese. The Jingdezhen residency will differ because I will interact with fellow resident artists, some of whom may be Chinese, with Chinese assistants, and Jingdezhen residents as I visit nearby museums, art galleries, and other ceramic art institutions such as Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute, and local raw material sites. The environment will be ideal for practicing Chinese language and growing as a Chinese language scholar in all areas (speaking, listening comprehension, reading Chinese texts, and writing Chinese characters). Continuing to learn about Chinese culture and society will help me to interact with people from diverse backgrounds. This will better prepare me to engage in dialogues around difference in the Bates community.
Qualifications:
Although I have studied pottery-making for less than two years at Bates College, my dedication to making art has led to incredible opportunities. At Bates, I worked as a pottery studio assistant during the short, winter, and fall terms of 2014. I learned to load electric and gas kilns, make glazes, and maintain a ceramic studio facility.
In the summer of 2014, I had the incredible opportunity to work as a pottery studio intern/apprentice in the Chicago studio of Theaster Gates, a well-known urban developer, artist, and now professor at the University of Chicago. Theaster’s work is shown nationally and internationally. He has won awards and grants for his art as well as his commitment to repurposing abandoned properties on Chicago’s south side and transforming them into libraries, restaurants, and artist living spaces. The most notable aspect of my getting this internship was the bold, yet professional way in which I attained it. Being from Chicago’s south side, near Theaster’s studio, I realized that the two of us share identities and experiences, that propelled me to relentlessly reach out to him for an apprenticeship. Eventually, I was granted an interview, and after a week of proving my ceramic capabilities, secured a paid internship position. Working closely with Theaster, as well as art undergraduate and art graduate studio assistants, I saw new possibilities for future aspirations. I realized that I could have ambitions far beyond what I previously believed was possible.
After a ceramics short term course, I proposed the idea of selling pottery to Sarah Potter at the Bates College Bookstore, and she accepted it; I have been selling my work at the Bookstore since, and have inspired others to do so as well.
I have high ambitions for my ceramic art as a career, and right now that means mastering these Song and Yuan dynasty forms. Throughout high school, I studied Chinese (including Advanced Placement level), and am continuing my Chinese studies. At Bates, I have taken Chinese 201,202, and Chinese 301, and am now taking Chinese 360, an independent Study that I created with the help of Dr. Liping Miao in the Chinese department. I am a Queer Peer Mentor in the Office of intercultural Education (OIE), helping to build and support members of the lgbtq+ community at Bates. I am involved in many clubs and organizations including OUTfront, Amandla:BSU, Latinos Unidos, in which I have an outreach officer position. I was selected as one of 11 students to participate in the Bates Summer Scholars Program in the summer of 2013, staying on Bates’ campus for six weeks, and taking a condensed version of a Bates math and science course. I have taken voice lessons with Professor John Corrie for the past three semesters. I was also named a dean’s list scholar for both the fall and winter semesters last year. My academic and co-curricular involvement demonstrates my commitment to academics and engagement in the Bates community. I believe that I have the tenacity and leadership skills to be able to successfully complete this project. Ceramics has awakened in me a love for creating art and a desire to pursue a career in studio art. The Chinese Song and Yuan dynasty bottle forms are the embodiment of the type of art that I want to create and the direction that I want to go with my artwork. Doing this project is a necessity for me as an artist.
My name is Deshun Peoples. I am a double major in Studio Art and Rhetorical Theory and Criticism, and a Chinese Minor at Bates College. I am going to Jingdezhen, China this summer, in June, to study porcelain production in the porcelain capital of the world, wow producing a body of work at an international residency studio thanks to a fellowship from my college. Unfortunately my awards have fallen short of my project costs. I still need to raise about $1,000 to cover the final costs of the program and I have exhausted the available funds that I can apply for at Bates. In addition, I have increased the goal to $1,500 to allow for emergency fund and any extra unforseen expenses. This is where your donations will be greatly appreciated. I will still go to Jingdezhen, but some aspects of the trip night be compromised, such as going on excursions, exploring the historical city, and shipping my work back to the United States, all of which are very valuable aspects of the project. Also, I would prefer to go prepared monetarily, just in case unexpected expenses were to arise, as I well be in a foreign country do different than the United States and unexpected expenses will be much harder to deal with there without having budgeted for it.
I thank everyone in advance for any donations that you can make.
Please check out the rest of my information below to learn more about the program and artwork that I am interested in making.
I will to go to Jingdezhen, China in the summer of 2015 ( June, 1-July, 27) to pursue a dream that I have had since I started my pottery studies at Bates College: to investigate first-hand Chinese Song dynasty porcelain vessel production at its source. One method of art-making relies on the use of historical models as a basis for understanding: to learn to see and make form. Living in Jingdezhen for eight weeks will allow me to explore this practice of making pottery at its source; from the people, culture, and region where these beautiful, elegant, and highly refined Song and Yuan dynasty vessels originate. These forms are the epitome of sophistication and refinement that has been at the forefront of my art practice and what I try to achieve in my work.
Click the link below to my website:
Check out some of my work here
Read the rest of my proposal below:
The Residency Program:
The Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China has programs that focus on all steps of ceramic art production: local raw material collection to make clay and glazes, an education center that offers pottery classes to the community, a fully equipped ceramic studio to produce ceramic work, and a pottery sales market to sell the ceramic art work. The ceramic studio where I will spend most of my time during the summer has an all-inclusive studio fee for each week of my eight-week stay. The studio fee includes electric throwing wheels, bats and boards for throwing and storing work on, shelf space for storing wet and dry clay work, kilns for firing my work (electric, and gas kilns), as well as hot showers, lunch and dinner from Monday through Saturday, and lodging with Wi-Fi-internet connection and flush toilets. The Pottery Workshop hosts up to fourteen international ceramic artists for up to ten weeks as a part of an international residency program. The Workshop will also help me identify the most affordable ways to ship my ceramic work back to Bates.
Academic Career and Personal Development:
The ancient Chinese vessel forms that I want to produce are intricate. They are difficult forms to make, particularly in porcelain, a very soft, finicky clay. They are very round, voluminous pots that have small necks or openings on the tops. Producing these forms takes an immense amount of time, practice, technical skill, and near-perfect execution. I have created some similar forms in my short time studying and making pottery, but I have much more to learn in the ways of wheel throwing these elaborate ancient forms. My primary goal is to work with Jingdezhen porcelain. Other goals for my ceramic work are to address issues of scale in my pieces, weight distribution, aesthetics of proportion, glaze and surface design exploration.
As a studio artist, my development depends on consistently being in the studio and making work. Perhaps I have been influenced by the words of Susan Dewsnap and Penelope Jones, the ceramics, and drawing/painting professors at Bates College respectfully, but I’m convinced that majority of inspiration and progress in a studio art career come from the combination of producing and reflecting on work made. This continuous artistic dialogue over time will help develop my critical eye, and eventually inspire ideas for creating my own body of work. By intensively working in The Pottery Workshop for eight-weeks, I will become aware of making the kinds of decisions that may catalyze unforeseen ideas for ceramic form, technique, and design.
As a Chinese language and culture minor, this opportunity unites my ceramic art interests with my Chinese language studies thus far. I studied Chinese throughout high school, and I’ll confess that in my sophomore I travelled to Beijing, China for one month as part of a program geared towards exposing students to Chinese language and culture. My stay in Beijing was very restricted, in the sense that there was very little interaction with people in Beijing, or conversations in Chinese. The Jingdezhen residency will differ because I will interact with fellow resident artists, some of whom may be Chinese, with Chinese assistants, and Jingdezhen residents as I visit nearby museums, art galleries, and other ceramic art institutions such as Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute, and local raw material sites. The environment will be ideal for practicing Chinese language and growing as a Chinese language scholar in all areas (speaking, listening comprehension, reading Chinese texts, and writing Chinese characters). Continuing to learn about Chinese culture and society will help me to interact with people from diverse backgrounds. This will better prepare me to engage in dialogues around difference in the Bates community.
Qualifications:
Although I have studied pottery-making for less than two years at Bates College, my dedication to making art has led to incredible opportunities. At Bates, I worked as a pottery studio assistant during the short, winter, and fall terms of 2014. I learned to load electric and gas kilns, make glazes, and maintain a ceramic studio facility.
In the summer of 2014, I had the incredible opportunity to work as a pottery studio intern/apprentice in the Chicago studio of Theaster Gates, a well-known urban developer, artist, and now professor at the University of Chicago. Theaster’s work is shown nationally and internationally. He has won awards and grants for his art as well as his commitment to repurposing abandoned properties on Chicago’s south side and transforming them into libraries, restaurants, and artist living spaces. The most notable aspect of my getting this internship was the bold, yet professional way in which I attained it. Being from Chicago’s south side, near Theaster’s studio, I realized that the two of us share identities and experiences, that propelled me to relentlessly reach out to him for an apprenticeship. Eventually, I was granted an interview, and after a week of proving my ceramic capabilities, secured a paid internship position. Working closely with Theaster, as well as art undergraduate and art graduate studio assistants, I saw new possibilities for future aspirations. I realized that I could have ambitions far beyond what I previously believed was possible.
After a ceramics short term course, I proposed the idea of selling pottery to Sarah Potter at the Bates College Bookstore, and she accepted it; I have been selling my work at the Bookstore since, and have inspired others to do so as well.
I have high ambitions for my ceramic art as a career, and right now that means mastering these Song and Yuan dynasty forms. Throughout high school, I studied Chinese (including Advanced Placement level), and am continuing my Chinese studies. At Bates, I have taken Chinese 201,202, and Chinese 301, and am now taking Chinese 360, an independent Study that I created with the help of Dr. Liping Miao in the Chinese department. I am a Queer Peer Mentor in the Office of intercultural Education (OIE), helping to build and support members of the lgbtq+ community at Bates. I am involved in many clubs and organizations including OUTfront, Amandla:BSU, Latinos Unidos, in which I have an outreach officer position. I was selected as one of 11 students to participate in the Bates Summer Scholars Program in the summer of 2013, staying on Bates’ campus for six weeks, and taking a condensed version of a Bates math and science course. I have taken voice lessons with Professor John Corrie for the past three semesters. I was also named a dean’s list scholar for both the fall and winter semesters last year. My academic and co-curricular involvement demonstrates my commitment to academics and engagement in the Bates community. I believe that I have the tenacity and leadership skills to be able to successfully complete this project. Ceramics has awakened in me a love for creating art and a desire to pursue a career in studio art. The Chinese Song and Yuan dynasty bottle forms are the embodiment of the type of art that I want to create and the direction that I want to go with my artwork. Doing this project is a necessity for me as an artist.
Organizer
Deshun Peoples
Organizer
Lewiston, ME
