Artist Statement

For my pinch pot bust, we were into the Halloween season and I wanted to create something scary and themed.  I chose to make a bust of the creepypasta character "Jeff the Killer" complete with emo hairstyle covering one side of his face and blood-soaked black hoodie.

​

The movement in this piece is best brought out through the use and organization of color and form.  Color helps move the viewers eyes from the darkness of the hoodie through the deep ocher of the blood to the heavily contrasting bright white of the single visible eyeball.  Form brings the eyes from the surrounding smoothness of the hoodie to the texture of the face by encircling the focal point with the hoodie opening.  

​

The hardest decisions were picking the subject character and deciding how to best make it into a three dimensional figure that had the right proportions.  The biggest issue I ran into was that there were still some small bubbles in the clay that caused the lower jaw to explode when being fired.  While not planned, it gave the character an even more menacing look so I used it in the facial expression.  I think it turned out even better than I had originally hoped!

​

The process was as follows:

  -Decide on character and look / feel for the theme

  -Wedge the clay and roll into four soft-ball sized spheres

  -Use pinching motion to hollow out each ball into a bowl-shape

  -Score and slip two pieces together to form a "burrito" 

  -Cut the burrito in half to form the shoulders of the bust

  -Fill shoulder form with wet crumpled newspapers for strength

  -Cut circle in middle of shoulder form and place over rod

  -Add coils around the outer edge of the cut out circle to form neck

  -Fill neck form with wet crumpled newspapers for strength

  -Cut circle in bottom of third pinch pot bowl

  -Lower third pinch pot down over rod to form lower head form

  -Score and slip the lower head form and the neck form together

  -Fill lower head form with wet crumpled newspapers for strength

  -Fill final pinch pot with wet crumpled newspapers for strength

  -Lower final pinch pot upside down to form the upper head form

  -Score and slip the lower head form and upper head form together

  -Add clay to both head and shoulders to give material for the hoodie

  -Add clay to head to create facial features

  -Smooth edges and refine all the features adding small details

  -Use fork to create texture of the hair

  -Place in kiln and Bisque-fire

  -Apply iron-oxide to entire form

  -Apply under-glaze with brushes for color

  -Kiln fire again to finish hardening