A Happy Halloween From Michael W. Moses in Ocean Springs, MS

Wishing Everyone a Great and Ghoulish Halloween!

Well, Halloween is here once more and I have been busy doing all kinds of phrightening photos for the season.  The above image is one that I took the other day.  It is one of a pair of baby kitties that have cast a spell on a woman here in Ocean Springs and they are now both living with her and her family.  I am not sure if my two male cats are happy or not.  They tried to act like they did not care one way or another about the two little ones, but every time I turned around one (or both) of them were playing with them.  Well, they did not seem too upset over them being gone.  

Both of my cats spent most of the day today trying to keep me from doing work in my studio.  I have been doing so many things of late that I must frankly say that I have been negligent in doing my pottery.  I have about a dozen or so pieces that I need to paint and glaze and fire!  I have some interesting ideas rolling around in the back of my mind for future pottery pieces.  I hope in a week or so that I will be able to start up some new greenware and finish off some pieces that I have been working on.

Please remember that it's not how much candy that you get for Halloween, but how much you enjoy the process of getting it!

Blue White Delft Style Georgian Cthulhu Reliquary Trinket Box by Michael W. Moses Ocean Springs, MS

"The Georgian Illustrated Box"

This piece is named "The Georgian Illustrated Box" and I used a commercially made blank bisqueware ceramic box and painted it in a blue and white style that is reminiscent of the tastes for the 18th and 19th century blue and white ceramics. There was a passion for all things mourning, and the romanticized memorial in nature, during the Georgian era, 1714 to 1830. 

I have mixed these design elements with those of the Asian influences on European and American ceramic-wares and then added a few more elements that do not generally belong to this piece if it were original. I then gave it all a brisk shake, mixed it a few times and ended up with the designs mentioned to achieve an eclectic effect.  This spin has made it totally my own original expression of antique blue and white ceramic art work. It is an "homage" to this neo classic style so to speak.

Circa 1820's 30's English Blue and White Transfer Ware

I have tried to create a box that is a stand-alone work of art that appears to be nothing more than a beautiful hand painted piece that might sit in some delicate grandmother's finely appointed front parlor. This innocuous trinket box might sit for a very long time on a dainty étagère, maybe for years without anyone even touching it. You just do not touch things in the formal parlor.

  A Georgian Era Mourning Image

The first thing that you will notice is that the lid has an idealized almost pastoral scene, That has a number of almost Chinese or Japanese elements, but then you will see the stately willow and the funereal urn and then the peculiarly formed pseudo-obelisk discreetly on the side. This vignette is a thinly disguised memento mori similar in mode to nothing less than Georgian era mourning Jewelry

The outside of box is an archaic style wall of individual stones of an unknown age and with a number of cryptic images that can only add to the final tale that this piece has to tell.

But with closer inspection, you might start to observe that many of the stylistic details are not standard to what you would expect to see on a piece such as this. If you look closely, you will see a number of interesting things on the painted into the details on the box. Then, once you lift the lid off, you will see inside a mysterious garden of not quite wholesome looking flowers. These plants surround an oddly laid out geometric detail that contains what appears to be an ancient long forgotten language.

Then, when you turn the lid over, you will see on the inside what makes this piece so different for your everyday drawing room nick-knack that sets in other brightly lit everyday homes. An image of Cthulhu longingly, and eternally hungering for human life force to reinvigorate his very being, staring at you with his ice cold yellow (at least in our spectrum of light) eyes!  This delicately detailed image is almost hidden inside the lid.  Who looks at the inside of the lid of a box?  Not most I would think.

This lavishly painted container is a perfect reliquary for whatever curious artifact that you may have that needs a truly special pyx to house it appropriately.

For a little more oomph, turn the box over and you will see that a happy little winged spider creature with the wings closed tight is painted on the bottom, as a cartouche.

The Unknown Captive Pod Vase by Michael W. Moses Pottery Ocean Springs, MS

 Here I have a new piece that I call "The Unknown Captive Pod Vase".  Here I have once more sculpted a Neo Victorian objet d'art that has a natural organic quality that makes it seem to be some type of quasi animal/plant life that really hungers for something to get just a bit too close to its opening.  It seems to wait for you to maybe, hopefully, reach inside.  But do not do it!  It wants to have you think that it is a delicate little flower like creature, but I assure you that it is not. 

Why else do you think I have it chained to a vintage tea cup?  These little pods are ever so clever and because of this they have to be restrained or goodness knows what might occur!  It may not passively wait for good things to arrive in it's presence, it may actively go out on the prowl looking for the unwary.

These captive bulb vases are a whimsy of mine that are a lot of fun to create.  I will start out with a special cup.  It has to be an orphan cup forever separated from its saucer and sometimes even with a tiny flaw that would keep any savvy collector from having much interest. So to sum it up, each cup is chosen for it's loneliness, but also for specific qualities of aesthetic beauty that for the initiated will be easy to discern. 

After I find a cup I will then place it in my work area and observe it for awhile, maybe a month or so or in some cases years before I see the exact form that will be made for this single cup.  I have to say that as spontaneous as my works may seem to be many of them are intricately thought out for in some cases many years before I sit down to sculpt the actual ceramic art pottery its self.
 

Most of these captive bulb and pod vases feature a message or art work that is hidden by the restraining cup.  These sort of secret messages are there, hidden by the cup enclosure, just for the eyes of very special people.  There may be a great truth, an obscure message, a private joke, or maybe even just a bit of silliness. I will tell you though that as I make them they are evolving, making each one more and more special to my sense of creative value.

Who knows where these little personal treasures may lead?  The only thing that I can factually say is that there will be many more and that each one will be ultimately an original work of my labor intensive love obsession with art pottery.

Michael W. Moses and the 2015 Coastal Treasures Mississippi Gulf Coast Spring Pilgrimage

I was chosen to create a piece of art for the 2015 Coastal Treasures Mississippi Gulf Coast Spring Pilgrimage. This year is the 63rd and it will feature home and garden tours of some of the most beautiful places on the Gulf Coast.

To the left is the finished image that the Mississippi Gulf Coast Council of Garden Clubs, Inc. selected.

If you go to their Spring Pilgrimage website you can see what the finished card looks like with the added writing and find out more information about the 2015 Spring Pilgrimage.

If you are interested in learning a little more about this image Click here.

Oh, and by the way I am not just doing art for the 2015 Spring Pilgrimage, I am also their web designer and  a proud member of the Gulf Hills Garden Club!
 

The Tumtum Tree Incubator, Ceramic Art Pottery by Michael W. Moses, Ocean Springs, MS

My newest piece of hand sculpted ceramic art pottery is called the "Tumtum Tree Incubator".
This hand crafted work of art is a mixed media piece that is comprised of a pottery piece that has been lavishly embellished with a large wire and a glass beadwork armature. Is this some type of an alien tableau or glimpse of life from under the deep tropical waves?  Who is really to say?  All I know is that....

He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought.

Jabberwocky
by Lewis Carroll

 So look and see what is so grand
A peice from clay that I have wrought
And painted oh so bold and free
A moment of time bought

Nonsense
by Michael W. Moses

Burma Shave!

Blue and White Delft Style Hand Painted Vases by Michael W. Moses, Ocean Springs, MS

A while back I did a piece that involved a hand sculpted bottle that had a blue and white design called "Alien Nafaar unguentarium", that I featured just a few posts back as having been sold.

I started thinking about how some of my earliest ceramic pieces were simple blue and white works that were in a modified Delftware style.

I thought it would be interesting to create a few new pieces in the Delft manner.
I was a bit leery about using a pre made blanks, but it was brought to my attention that it really did not matter who made the canvas that a painting is painted on. It was the painting that was important, not the canvas. This seems to make sense to me so, I went ahead and purchased a few commercially available blank vases and got to work painting them.

Here are the first two of these new pieces. They are undreglaze painted with my original free hand designs. These are not transferware, they are each a one of a kind hand painted work of art.

 

 

I have started a few more pieces that I will post as I have them finished.

Last week I started some new hand sculpted pieces that are now covered with plastic and are slowly drying on the rack. In about a week or so I will take each piece and start all the intricate hand stamping. Then They will have to be put back on the drying rack and left to very slowly dry out completely before being fired in the kiln.

"Come to me my Love" Pod Vase by Michael W. Moses of Ocean Springs, MS

Here is one of my newest pieces of hand sculpted ceramic art pottery, which I call the "Come to me my Love" alien pod vase.

 This piece looks as if it might have been captured just above high tide on a delightful tropical beach on an alien planet far from our everyday lives!

Then again it has that organic quality that makes it seem to be some type of quasi animal-plant life that hungers for small creatures to come forth and give themselves up to it's desires.

Then again this type of life form may not passively wait for good things to arrive in it's presence, it may actively go out on the prowl looking for the unwary.

What ever the case, this neo Victorian objet d'art will be the master of whatever domain it will be placed, be it your bright conservatory or a cool shady curio cabinet in your front parlor. This piece will surely be the dominate species in any setting!

SOLD! Michael W. Moses' First Three Pieces of Ceramic Art Pottery at "Persnickety" of Madison, MS

Well, just to update a bit. If you were interested in the following three pieces of my ceramic art pottery you are to late.  All three pieces have already been sold at "Persnickety" of Madison, MS! All three works sold on the same day that we did the initial installation. Not bad for a first day at a new location.  See also my previous blog entry to see these pieces in situ in their case at "Persnickety".

 Orange Blue Mellon Bowl by Michael W. Moses

Yellow Red Dot Tea Cup and Stand by Michael W. Moses

Yellow Red Dragon Fruit Pod Vase by Michael W. Moses

I would like to invite the purchaser to submit photos of these pieces once the have been placed in their new home, to me, and I will include them on this blog as an update to this post.

Also just to inform you, I have some new pieces that are fresh out of the kiln and I will be posting some images of them during the up coming week. Stay tuned!

Michael W. Moses Ceramic Art Pottery Now Available at Persnickety in Madison,Mississippi

 Every jewel needs a setting and a collection of jewelry needs a jewel case.  "Persnickety" of Madison is one of those jewel cases.  Set in the small jewel-like city of Madison, Mississippi, the shop named Persnickety takes small things seriously.

That being said, I am happy to say that "Persnickety" is a proud purveyor of Michael W. Moses ceramic art pottery.  I have been searching for just the right place for my pottery and I was very pleased to have "Persnickety" take a hand-picked group of 45 pieces of my pottery.  We went up to Jackson yesterday, 26 June to make the installation and found the owner of "Persnickety", Ben Rogers and his staff to be helpful and knowledgeable.  All went swiftly and the installation was complete in just a couple of hours.

 Here are some photos of the showcase my pottery will reside.  You will note the juxtaposition and contrast is startling.  The placement in an antique style display case which can be seen stage right, just as you enter the door, makes for maximum impact to the eye.  The bright flash of colors and the non-traditional shapes pulls the eye immediately.

 "Persnickety" is no stranger to fine items and their inventory is diverse and well placed.   Discriminating buyers can choose items that have been carefully selected to tickle the fancy of the upscale buyer.  Anybody can have a store, but not all can match the painstaking research and selection available at "Persnickety".

 I’d like to thank The owner Ben Rogers, his Family and fine staff for making this an easy and enjoyable experience.  I hope that people in the Madison and Jackson area will see my pottery there at "Persnickety" and feel like for a brief moment, they are on the Gulf Coast.

SOLD! Ceramic Art Pottery Alien Nafaar Unguentarium by Michael W. Moses, Ocean Springs MS

Yesterday, I had a surprise visit from two people that collect my pottery. We had a good long chat and got caught up on many different things in our lives, being that it had been a couple of years since we had seen each other. Well, to make a long story short one of them bought three piece of my ceramic art pottery to add to her growing collection.

The first piece was a very nice spike covered pod vase. I call this piece "A Sip of Nektar". The spikes are all glazed in a wonderful dark lustrous metallic that jump out from a rich sky blue color and has a a striking organic green interior.  there is a single mottled red tendril groping out from one side, handle like.

 The second piece was a pod vase with a dragon like reptilian creature on the side. A bright orange pod vase with a multitude of individually hand painted light blue dots basks in the bright tropical sunlight while the small hunter sits beside it on a blue and brownish rock quietly waiting for a tastier snack than an orange pod vase to make it's self available for a fast lunch.

The third piece, and I think it was a great choice, was the "Alien Nafaar Unguentarium"

This Alien Nafaar unguentarium is a highly detailed ceramic art pottery lidded jar or bottle depending on how you might look at it. This hand sculpted vessel has an abundance of almost glowing green spikes, an almost aubergine purple-red mini bulb vase and features intricately hand painted alien images and calligraphic inscriptions.

Pieces showing images of the Nafaar are rather uncommon here on Earth.  Most pieces are from the area of the Pleiades star cluster and many will even predate the existence of Earth itself.  This piece is more than likely from Darhlis Denarbith and appears to be from the early Deknerg culture, judging from the inscription.  Being an early Deknerg inscription there is little chance of an accurate translation, being as there is so little information on the earliest of their scripts.  The writing is more than likely a dedication involving the archetypal story of the last of the Nafaar and the end of their world.  An highly romanticized fable dealing with the atrophic end of a vastly ancient master civilization that withered from a planet wide moral and social malaise. A story that even in our own time we all know well.

This translated poem from a late digicript reproduction taken directly from Darhlis Denarbith is well known among the worlds of the Pleiades and far beyond.

On vast Shayvar the suns have set  
Time before before
Such sadness is the lands regret
Eons times adore

The Nafaar Sits at Evening tide.
Dreaming of the day
When all their dreams will come to be
Sorrows swept away

The red sky burns upon the land
Hot pink sands of time
Much hotter than poor souls could stand
Even in their prime

The Nafaar's world has come to end
Their world has been slain
And now I tell you this my friend
Nor to rise again

Now back to reality for a moment.

It is always nice when I sell a piece of my ceramic art pottery, but it always seems even nicer when I sell to one of the people that collect my art works. Many thanks to this collector and also to all the other people that have supported me over the years in my many creative endeavors.

"Yellow Red Service Shell Bowl" Hand Sculpted Ceramic Art Pottery by Michael W. Moses Ocean Springs, MS

Fresh to our world from a sun drenched alien seashore comes the "Yellow Red Service Shell" bowl.

A luxurious study in a matt, satiny, sulphur yellow exterior glaze.

The yellow outside is a perfect foil for the shiny glassy red interior of this piece.




 Each little tiny blue dot is painted one at a time and then painted over with a drop of clear glaze. The yellow is three coats of glaze tediously hand painted around the dots.

The flowing pink and red interior is totally hand painted to give it the effect of a natural flowing surface and then covered in crystal clear glaze.

 

The bottom is hand engraved with my signature and place of manufacture. The writing is filled with colored glaze that is fired on to the piece.

For more information, more images and pricing, please visit me at ETSY.Com

Michael W. Moses and the Frozen Bubble Photography of Angela Kelly

This morning I noticed a link to an image that a Facebook friend posted and I was immediately filled with a child-like thrill. One look at these images set my mind awhirl with all manner of magical artistic thoughts.

When Angela Kelly of Washington state recently took these delightful images she was truly thinking on a different level.

 

The joy of these images is surely the playful nature of how they were created. It seems that it was a mother and child wanting to have a bit of fun on a dreadfully cold day....  First they went online and found a recipe to make bubbles.

 They ended up creating what may well be a new art form: "Frozen Bubble Photography",or "FBP". They found out that the icy cold air caused the bubbles to freeze and then she took photographs of the frozen bubbles. Now How cool is that!  Angela Kelly seems to have come up with a really beautiful Idea. Have you ever heard of such a thing?  Blowing bubbles in an atmosphere cold enough for them to almost instantly freeze and then having the thought to take images of them.  Each one is a unique moment in time. A bubble frozen in place and recorded in an image that one can view now and later. To me these frozen bubbles are the epitome of what photography is about, the capture of a single heartbeat in time, stored for future use.

 I know that I have never seen anything like it. I find it every bit as amazing as the images of Wilson A. Bentley who did the first snowflake macro photography in 1885.

You can see these wonderful images by MS Kelly at her Etsy shop.

I have to add that her work reminds me of of the frozen water balloons that were popular awhile back all over the frozen north.

I guess living on the Mississippi Gulf Coast I will not be trying any "FBP's" in the near future.