Rise Up

 

In this piece, my art takes inspiration from the musical Hamilton. Our task was to create a square shaped clay bowl and glaze it. I decided to name this piece Rise Up, as it reminds me of the musical Hamilton. We were told to choose a statement that’s reflective of a year that was important to us. The musical came out in 2016 and my life changed after I first heard “Satisfied”. I’ve always been into the art of theatre, but Hamilton created my obsession. My most obvious elements in the bowl are the odd, yet complementary colors from the Hamilton Playbill.

To create Rise Up, I used a variety of different tools and techniques. I used a wispy stamp, a popsicle stick, sponge, different letter stamps, a scratchy metal sheet, a straight metal sheet, slip, a thin needle-like tool, and my fingers to mold the clay. While glazing, I used the colors Tuxedo (SC-15), Sun Yellow (IN1003), and Iced Mocha (FN229) as well as a variety of different shaped brushes. It took a great amount of time to finish this piece, but I eventually got the job done. In order to make the color more vibrant, I glazed each part of the pot three times. I almost wasn’t going to use the black as a trim, but I thought it would do a good job of separating the wisp design from the sharper edges. Another last minute idea I had was to color in the indent of the “Rise Up!” phrase. While it made me struggle, I think the outcome of the coloring paid off.

As previously stated, I was heavily inspired by the hit musical Hamilton. The phrase “Rise Up” comes from the song “My Shot”. The song talks about coming up and rising to the situation beforehand, ready to face any struggles that might come your way and regardless of what circumstances might occur. It’s specifically talking about stepping up to fight in the American Revolution, but the creator of the musical created the whole thing to reflect on modern issues as well. 

My goal with this piece was to create a bowl much better than the one I made in eighth grade. I think this goal was met, but some of the glazing bled into each other and it’s slightly lop-sided. However, I had fun creating this pot and am satisfied with my results (kind of an unintentional pun because one of the songs is “Satisfied”).

I learned that improvising and adding new things can sometimes create interesting results. Like I said before, I definitely could’ve been more precise on the dimensions and been more careful when glazing. I think I will do a better job of taking my time and not feeling rushed next time.