Murals in Ceramics 2 

by Catherine Karakosta Roban

Most artists have a very difficult time   attracting clients who will trust them with large commissions.   Being the wife of a well known architect,   presented me with certain advantages that are not  available to someone just beginning a career in art. 

The Rooster Kiln God:

  My husband was not the only one who needed the protection of  kiln gods.    On the following  pages you will see a series of my own gods of the kiln firings.....................

I will introduce you to a few of my favorites...         The one above is a rooster (that is my sign in the Chinese horoscope).  

Where does an artist start,  when after years of study you are out on your own.  At this point you come face to face with the real world and the need to make a living.   I had achieved a small following of clients from the exhibit of my work at the Lowe Gallery and this at least was a good start.   Gallery owners, interior decorators and my husband's clients spared me the necessity of  doing the sidewalk art shows that so many of my friends had to become involved with in order to establish a following.

There was a special showing of my work ................

  The owner of the gallery had seen my work at the Lowe and asked me if I would have a special exhibit for her.   I did a series of Indian pots that were actually containers.    Each one had a lid sculpted into the ceramics concealing hidden compartments.   I embellished these pieces with Indian beads and totems.          

The show sold out..... but for one piece.  This was the only Indian head that I really wanted to keep. 

  Wide-spread wings became a structural challenge.    I doubled the layers of clay and created a ladder truss inside ...

What is a ladder truss you might ask?    It is my way of  taking clay to it's limits.   Living with an architect has it's advantages when it comes to learning engineering principles that make clay go  where it has never gone before.   The hiku poem I composed for this work became it's title.

                                                                Indian serene

                                                      Flying warrior eagle

                                                      Interchanging souls.    

Noah's  Ark.... This was a commission that was done in bas-relief .                It is  the Ark of Noah and the animals that he took with him.   These ceramic sculptures rise up on the walls of an enclosed swimming pool and seem to engulf those who are in the water with visions of the coming flood.   The client wanted something that was playful and would be of interest to the children who were constant visitors to their home.  The pool area was a favorite gathering place for the family and indeed the visions of animals turned the walls into a living.................. Mural  of life.....

The monkeys, the ant eaters   along with snakes, giraffes, kangaroos, parrots and all the other species are collected here and shown in the splendor of ceramics.   These sculptures will out live any work that is done in any other media and the colors will be as vibrant in one hundred years as they are  today.   The history of using ceramics in areas of bathing is not new.    The famous bath houses of Rome and Pompeii were known through out the world for their splendor and the walls were covered with ceramic paintings that were visual representations of that era of history.

The main difference ...in the paintings in the Roman bath houses and my work is that they showed life as a flat   painting without texture and I preferred to see living objects as something you could touch and feel.

Consider the fact... that Noah had no background as a veterinarian and the food supply had to be a great problem,   it does make one wonder at the survival of all our animal friends before and after the great flood. 

Something else to ponder... How did Noah know how to build an ark?  When he asked "Why" build an Ark ?  Did he really hear a great voice ask him the question..........., 

"HOW LONG CAN YOU  TREAD          WATER? "                                     

All animals .......great and small seemed to have come to an agreement that there would be no midnight snacking allowed during the cruise....Noah must have really had his hands full with this bunch.

Tortoise Kiln God

Art is a universal language.      It speaks to each individual in a different way.   It knows no boundaries of  speech. It knows no limits of emotion.   No two people can look at an artistic creation and see exactly the same thing.   This is one of the hidden wonders of imagination.   The mind can add its own color and flavor to every object it sees.

This young Neptune,  rose from the floor of a large shower in order to provide a place to hang a towel on his outstretched trident and the fish offers its mouth to receive the soap.  The scale of the figure is life-size.  The shower head is concealed under the nautilus shell at the top.

When an interior designer....... came to me saying he had a client from South America who wanted something personal on the walls of her private spa,  I was intrigued with the idea.   The obstacle of  language did not stand between us as she indicated to me that she was fascinated with the ideas of  the Egyptian and Roman bath houses and wanted to have a feeling of being surrounded by beautiful people while she bathed.    The ceilings of the spa rose to a height of some fourteen feet and the walls of the area to be covered were equal to the dimensions of any personal bath either of this age or of any other.   With an area like this to be covered  in ceramics you are free to allow your mind to create visions that have no limitations. 

It is seldom that an artist can walk into a work in progress and look like she is part of the creation.

The man shown in the lower foreground is holding in his extended hand a platter where scented soaps and items for the bath can be placed.

Shown above... is a close up detail of one of the architectural columns.   The crackle of the glaze is done to impart a feeling of antiquity.

The mural below adjoins the wall of the larger mural that is shown above. At this point the wall makes a right angle and extends into another section of the bath. 

    This secondary mural has a small pond at it base and is surrounded by plants.  Overhead there is a skylight that throws a gentle warm glow over the mural and the bathers in the Spa.   Natural light is without a doubt the most flattering illumination for a woman that there is, outside of candlelight.

Many different clays were used during the construction of this mural.   Clay bodies have a lot to contribute when it comes to the method of fabrication and the glazing of the tiles.   Without the years of preliminary work  we spent developing both clay bodies and glazes it would be doubtful that we could have completed this project successfully.   I will have to say that one of the greatest assets we had was the big kiln and its ability to fire the glazes to a perfect melt and repeat the same firing time after time.   In this way every tile in the murals had the same appearance without a variance in the color or the texture.  

Without a doubt materials made of ceramics are at home when surrounded by water and this is one of the few artistic materials  that can be used when the humidity approaches such a high degree.

On the other hand the Musketeer Kiln God was present and guarding the kiln during one of the many firings that always reached a temperature that approached 2000 degrees.   This is a far cry from the water world that the ceramics will live in during the years to come.

All the work on these murals is done by hand building.   Each piece is assembled on a large flat table top.   There are no molds or other methods used to cut down on the time required to produce the finished mural.   The clay is fired once to change it from a soft pliable clay called greenware to a solid state that can be handled and glazed.   The final firings are called the Glaze firings and that is when the chalk like materials used in glazing finally take on a melt and assume a beautiful glass like character.    Finally the true colors are revealed.   Until that time the artist only has an idea of what the result should be and the opening of the kiln after a good firing will hopefully be the reward of months of work.