Joe Mariscal
MENAGERIE
February 3rd - March 25th, 2017
Opening Reception: Friday, February 3rd, 6-9pm
Opening Reception: Friday, February 3rd, 6-9pm
Birds, beasts, fish and bugs, Joe Mariscal serves up a menagerie of wildlife in this exhibition of his recent ceramic sculpture. Imbued with a gritty sense of power and wry humor, these pieces are intriguing in the territory they occupy. Beautifully crafted and bold, the work references folk art and clan totems with a nod to the long history of Bay Area figurative ceramics and a strong dose of anthropomorphism thrown in.
Mariscal is a veteran of ceramic sculpture, as he says, he has “slabbed, coiled and burnished clay for over 40 years.” His deft touch and fierce connection to the medium are evident in the work. Having lived in Mexico and traveled extensively, most recently to Vietnam, Mariscal expresses his feelings and experiences of the human condition through its animal nature as in these works now showing at Transmission in Menagerie.
Joe Mariscal on Process and Technique
"I have been slabbing, coiling and burnishing clay for over 40 years and in the scheme of things that's a mere drop in the bucket when you consider the tradition goes back thousands of years.
During a period of time spent in Mexico 1972-1975 I actually made my own clay and built my own kilns, but today having access to modern technology , I use a commercial sculpture clay and both gas and electric kilns. Pieces are fired to around cone 06 (1800 degrees or so).
I continue however to use some native clays to produce certain colors of clay slip to obtain the varied colors I use on my figures. One particular native clay that I use comes from the foothills above Sacramento.
The figures I construct are dried to the "Bone Dry" stage and at that point they are burnished with a particular colored slip dependent upon the ethnicity or species of the subject. Historically clay has been burnished with smooth river rocks passed from one generation to another. I however I am not so romantic , I utilize plastic grocery store bags and other things like Hematite from a nature company store or the loop on a combination lock..another words whatever's handy.
After burnishing and bisque firing, the figures are then fired in sawdust or very simply in a metal drum using burning newspaper like the Wall Street Journal, (which has very little colored ink which can be more toxic when burning). The spots on my animal figures and the hair color on my people are produced by utilizing tin foil as a stenciling material.
After the piece are sufficiently cooled, the pieces are lightly covered with a neutral shoe wax or a canuba wax that seals the pores and enhances the shine."
More about Joe Mariscal:
Mariscal recently retired as a full time art instructor at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, Ca. He took his first ceramic class at Delta College where he studied with Bruce Duke ,whose ceramic program produced such notable ceramic artists as Viola Frey, Michael Lucero and Bill Abright .
Mariscal has taught in very diverse venues to include, community college, a school for developmentally disabled adults, a state prison, the National School for the Arts in Tegucigalpa, Hondura ,to workshops in Brazil.
He has traveled extensively and has lived in Mexico, has visited Guatemala, Honduras, Brazil, France, Spain, Japan, Hong Kong and he recently returned from a visit to Viet Nam (Mariscal served in Viet Nam in 1969).
Mariscal holds a B.A. in Art History from the Uiniversidad de Las Americas in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico and a Master of Arts degree from CSU, Sacramento. Mariscal's creative work is figurative in nature, derived and inspired from his travels, personal feelings, interactions, reactions and connections to the world and the human condition.
Mariscal's extensive CV is available upon request.
Mariscal is a veteran of ceramic sculpture, as he says, he has “slabbed, coiled and burnished clay for over 40 years.” His deft touch and fierce connection to the medium are evident in the work. Having lived in Mexico and traveled extensively, most recently to Vietnam, Mariscal expresses his feelings and experiences of the human condition through its animal nature as in these works now showing at Transmission in Menagerie.
Joe Mariscal on Process and Technique
"I have been slabbing, coiling and burnishing clay for over 40 years and in the scheme of things that's a mere drop in the bucket when you consider the tradition goes back thousands of years.
During a period of time spent in Mexico 1972-1975 I actually made my own clay and built my own kilns, but today having access to modern technology , I use a commercial sculpture clay and both gas and electric kilns. Pieces are fired to around cone 06 (1800 degrees or so).
I continue however to use some native clays to produce certain colors of clay slip to obtain the varied colors I use on my figures. One particular native clay that I use comes from the foothills above Sacramento.
The figures I construct are dried to the "Bone Dry" stage and at that point they are burnished with a particular colored slip dependent upon the ethnicity or species of the subject. Historically clay has been burnished with smooth river rocks passed from one generation to another. I however I am not so romantic , I utilize plastic grocery store bags and other things like Hematite from a nature company store or the loop on a combination lock..another words whatever's handy.
After burnishing and bisque firing, the figures are then fired in sawdust or very simply in a metal drum using burning newspaper like the Wall Street Journal, (which has very little colored ink which can be more toxic when burning). The spots on my animal figures and the hair color on my people are produced by utilizing tin foil as a stenciling material.
After the piece are sufficiently cooled, the pieces are lightly covered with a neutral shoe wax or a canuba wax that seals the pores and enhances the shine."
More about Joe Mariscal:
Mariscal recently retired as a full time art instructor at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, Ca. He took his first ceramic class at Delta College where he studied with Bruce Duke ,whose ceramic program produced such notable ceramic artists as Viola Frey, Michael Lucero and Bill Abright .
Mariscal has taught in very diverse venues to include, community college, a school for developmentally disabled adults, a state prison, the National School for the Arts in Tegucigalpa, Hondura ,to workshops in Brazil.
He has traveled extensively and has lived in Mexico, has visited Guatemala, Honduras, Brazil, France, Spain, Japan, Hong Kong and he recently returned from a visit to Viet Nam (Mariscal served in Viet Nam in 1969).
Mariscal holds a B.A. in Art History from the Uiniversidad de Las Americas in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico and a Master of Arts degree from CSU, Sacramento. Mariscal's creative work is figurative in nature, derived and inspired from his travels, personal feelings, interactions, reactions and connections to the world and the human condition.
Mariscal's extensive CV is available upon request.
