Eva Funderburgh
This week I’ll be featuring women artists. They’re all working on fabulous new things and I’ll show you some of their work and tell you a little bit about them. So check back each day for a feature on different woman artist whose work will surely inspire and intrigue.
Let’s start with Eva Funderburgh:
You may recognize the last name “Funderburgh” from the incredible Dan Funderburgh. I love his work. I was thrilled to have him contribute to the love book. Apparently art is in the blood in the Funderburgh family. His sister Eva makes incredible sculptures. I asked her to tell me about them and here’s what she said:
I’m not completely sure where my creatures come from. Most likely from a childhood with healthy doses of science fiction and video games. I try to use my creatures as a lenses to see other things, ranging from human movements and emotions, to larger and more dramatic views of the world and myth.
I use a medium that is pretty uncommon in the present day art world. Not only do I choose to work with porcelain for my sculptures, something a bit unusual, I also use a thousand year old Japanese firing technique to finish it. All of my work is “wood fired” in an anagama style kiln. Basically, we heat the kiln entirely with wood. The wood ash, in turn, actually melts onto the pieces, creating a beautiful, natural, and unpredictable glaze. It’s an incredible process, taking nine people and 5 cords (10 pickup truck loads) of wood. We go nonstop for five days, getting the kiln up to 2400F in temperature. I fire three times a year at “Santatsugama”, or “Three Dragon Kiln”. (This why there was some confusion earlier with my pieces mistakenly being called “santatsugama”s). It’s a whole heck of a lot of work, but results in an incredible, unreproducible result.
Here are some photos from that amazing kiln. Here’re more of her amazing sculptures for you to peruse. I can’t look away.
**She and Dan are working on a collaboration. I can’t wait to see how it’ll turn out. I’ll be sure to post it here when it’s complete.
