Claire Loder, Them

Today I'm loving Claire Loder's heads.  Aren't they fabulous?  There is something about Them.  I could never pick just one.  I want to scoop up the whole bunch and take them all home, (especially that little blue one).  Claire is a ceramic artist from the U.K.  About her heads she says...."Although relatively shallow in physical depth my sculptures are intended to have a psychological complexity, they rarely look directly at the viewer, are often lost in thought or otherwise occupied." 

Clair has an amazing website and a blog that you can visit to learn more about her work. Very inspiring.  Can't wait for school to start because this makes me want to haul out the white clay and start a portrait project with the kids. 

Thank you Claire Loder for allowing us to share your work here!   

Wesley Anderegg

Coffee and a Smoke, Wesley Anderegg, 2010

I love finding contemporary artists who possess the elusive little something that I call "kid appeal.  Today I'm featuring the work of Wesley Anderegg.  I really looking forward to sharing his work with students in the fall so I contacted Wesley to let him know just how much I enjoy his work, and ask him for permission to share his work with you here.  I especially like his head spinner series, which you can see in action by clicking here.  About the series he shared this..."The head spinner series actually started with a clay class for my daughter's 4-H group.  We were making candle sticks by stacking shapes on dowel rods and then putting a small dish shape on top to hold a candle.  And of course I started making people and I noticed their heads could spin because they were on a dowel."  Like those dolls that some of us may have had as a kid, you can change the expression on these figures by spinning the heads. 

Visit Wesley's website to see more of his narrative figures which are at once light-hearted and serious.  You can also read an interview with Wesley Anderegg on Connie Norman's Blog.