Jeweled Tortoise

 

NASA Orbital Lander

History of Forms

 

The site -- forms of the formless ceramic -- was first inaugurated as animal wilderness influenced by all the treks into the desert and the walks up the Mazatals in the 80’s on first arrival. These were captured in the long series of pastels done then along the Four Peaks Trail especially. I would  pack my two kids starting that first summer and continuing in our car and head to the Beeline Hghwy early, dawn with coffee and sketch pads. It was clean and pure in the desert in June at sunup. We would last until late morning and be back home about noon when the heat was hot. Even the way there was unique, straight out McDowell before a lot of the shopping centers existed, then north. We went up every dirt road and far into to the casino property before it was along the gualupe, into the roads of SRP, all over the Salt river canyons, further up and up, around the back of the amethyst mind/mine, all the names now faith/faint in memory, for I had/still have all the topo maps, all the way down to the flooded sands of the river where I had to dig out with my bare hands and a piece of chicken wire left by barbecues there, my 2 and 6 year olds watching. One time we came on an Indian massacre. It looked like with two cars and 8 Indians in the road, one with a split nose like a plum dripping blood who I drove to the hghy to get fixed. All sketched, The saguaro mule deer, the mountains male and female embracing, the rocks laminating in the wilderness vibrating.

Much of this work is improvisational, begun with a fragment of idea recognized as the work progresses.  First solid, stable, but taken to where it begins to fall, just intervening in the collapse, the clay is shifted and pulled, but it is a hollow or solid cylinder when all is said and done, that from from the various strength and weakness in the stretching, pulled back from the brink, it is a rescue. It has to be remembered that these are three dimensional, have sides and backs to the front side viewed in the photographs which have to be as good as organic as the front in advancing the impression.

Sculptures and murals appear here. The sculptures are laminated layers of different clays, stressed and sculpted into figures which must stop short of falling to remain upright. Parables of redemption, just intervening in the collapse, for they are hollow cylinders when all is said and done, the tallest about 27" and can fall from the imprecise pressure of  stretching the various strength and weakness of the clays, which have no armature, and need to be pulled back from the brink. The murals haven't circulated to shows because they need to be hung but are put in glass cases.

 First there were small figures, bears floating in a cloud, children playing with lollipops, but after an early version of Bruegel’s Opening of the Fifth Seal, the Early Captives of Egypt, portals of the divine gates and  seraphim. Many processions become figures or immigrant families of up to four that cover compositions. Some become in-depth looks of one or two. There are a number of horses, and stand alone figures like medieval woodcuts, finished in glass, and whole heads mounted on a background of plexiglass.

The idea generally is to give form to the formless, the invisible, the unknowable, meaning the spiritual world. Many of the ceramic murals explore this by bringing but not quite bringing a picture of what really exists that cannot be seen by posing linked identities, one in one world one in the other, that have similar names but are unknowable to each other except from some third narrative view.This teasing the brain tries to make sense of unknown patterns by making them into the known even though the two worlds exist untranslatable to each other.

Captions—All high fire reduction atmosphere.

Looking for Work. 2012. 20x9x6 First place Standing Sculpture, AZ State Fair, 2012.

Tortoise 2013. 11x9x10

Holding the Lamb 2014. 21x11x1/4 published as cover at https://issuu.com/buffaloalmanack/docs/issue9

Orchidaceae. 2018. 16x14x11 Best of Show, AZ State Fair 2018

Weimar 2014. 21x10x8 Basis for article, “Oracle,” Red Fez Magazine 71. 13 Sept 2014

First there were small mural figures, bears floating in a cloud, children playing with lollipops, but after an early version of Bruegel’s Opening of the Fifth Seal, the Early Captives of Egypt, portals of the divine gates and  seraphim. Figures became processions of immigrant families and in-depth looks of one or two. There are a number of horses, and stand alone figures like medieval woodcuts, finished in glass, and whole heads mounted on backgrounds of plexiglass.

 

Blakean Figures

 

There was a Forms of the Formless 2010 to 2019 that ceased before the kilns closed, an envious position, to have an open and and a close. It said everything it had to say, concluded making cement blocks as condominiums,  the last here. It ended with no regrets the way writing  ended at the end of 2021 after more than fifty years. How does one know it ends? You know. Of course there is mop up to attempt permanent form  preserved, either sold, published or put around along the canals and on the walls. You remember George Ohr buried some of his ten years of work in the Biloxi woods and ended in 1909, but 7000 pieces, just like Basho wandered the country and lived under bridges. You think it absurd to compare these outlets to the present? You think there's a difference in scale from large to small, many to few, one to ten. There's no difference. One is  many. 

I began production again in 2022. There is a prejudice of scale to the large, spectacular even while we all know that the size is immaterial to the soul.

Ceramics Monthly 2022 Emerging Artist Contest

This entry did not make a short list, which these days is quite long. But here was the entry.

Submitted on 02/09/2022

Name

AE Reiff

Artist Statement

The idea of this work is to show Forms of the Formless, the invisible, the unknowable, meaning the spiritual world. Many of the ceramic murals explore this by bringing but not quite bringing a picture of what really exists that cannot be seen by posing linked identities, one in one world one in the other, that have similar names but are unknowable to each other except from some third narrative view.This teasing the brain tries to interpret by making unknown patterns into known even though the two worlds are untranslatable to each other. Much of this work is improvisational, begun with a fragment of idea recognized as the work progresses. First solid, stable, but taken to where it begins to fall, intervening in the collapse, the clay is shifted and pulled, but it is a hollow or solid cylinder when all is said and done, that from the various strength and weakness in the stretching, pulled back from the brink, is a rescue. It has to be remembered that these are three dimensional. The sides and backs viewed in the photographs have to be as good, as organic, as the front in advancing the impression.

Resume. AE Reiff

 Workshops, Classes

 Tea ceremonies, kiln events on an irregular basis with Ah Leon, Don Reitz, Tom Coleman, Ceramics Research Center, Jonathan Cross, Mesa Center for the Arts, Char Applen,.Don Ridley Phoenix Center for the Arts, Jon Higuchi, Phoenix College.

Exhibitions:

Mt Rushmore, Cherubim, Red Wall Limestone, Cheops @ Watershed Review Fall 2023. 

Pit Pony, Tortoise and Red Flower @ Animal Vegetable, Mineral: Sein und Werden, Summer 2023.

Condominium. AZ State Fair 2019. 2^nd Place.

Flight and Flower @ AZ State Fair 2018. Both 1^st place. Also Best of Show.

Hands Up. AZ State Fair 2016. 2nd place Free Standing Sculpture

Praise Jars. Cover, Buffalo Almanac. # 9. Sept 2015
Bus Stop. AZ Clay Exhibition at WHAM. May 4-May 28, 2015
Flower From the Rock. Shemer Art Museum, Force of Nature. May 7th – June 18th, 2015.
Quechua Wife, Husband, Heart, Untitled, Herberger Theater Center, Crumpled, Dented and Crushed. January 9-March 15 2015.
Eleusis, Praise Him, Herberger Theatre Center Jan 2014.
Dharma Bum AZ State Fair, 2nd sculpture, Fall 2013.
Anti, Cover Aug 2013 .
Praise Him, Christmas Turkey, Flight All AZ Clay Exhibition, March 2013. Curated by Kurt Weiser
Corn, Rice, Bean Jar, Herberger Theater Center, Jan 2013
Looking for Work AZ State Fair 1^st place sculpture, Fall 2012
Boxcar Named Desire, Herberger Theater Center, Fall, 2012
Pit Pony, Mortal, Out of Body Herberger Theater Center, Spring, 2012
Balzac, All AZ Clay, Spg 2012, Balzac, published at Sein und Werden, July 2011
Rex, Portrait, Raven, Subliminal Interiors, Sept 2011
Geronimo, Chuang Tzu, Herberger Theater Center, Summer 2011
Ikon, published at Orion Headless, Feb 2011
Gypsy Art Show, Feb 2011
Mortal, Out of Body, Mask, published at Mad Hatter's Review, Winter 2011
Gypsy Art Show, Feb 2011

Water jars, boots, bags, faces, figures, animals, wall hangings.

 

AE Reiff- Captions —All high fire reduction atmosphere.

 

Looking for Work. 2012. 20x9x6 First place Standing Sculpture, AZ State Fair, 2012.

Tortoise 2013. 11x9x10

Holding the Lamb 2014. 21x11x1/4 published as cover at https://issuu.com/buffaloalmanack/docs/issue9

Orchidaceae. 2018. 16x14x11 Best of Show, AZ State Fair 2018

Weimar 2014. 21x10x8 Basis for article, “Oracle,” Red Fez Magazine 71. 13 Sept 2014