A beloved maestro once told me that, in order to progress in the skill, it’s very useful sometimes to put out the work you did and look at it again trying to learn something from it, something that was overlooked when you made the piece and just moved on to the next.
Re-producing an image carved on block is a ritual that never got old for me, and I enjoyed immensely disseminating prints wherever I went and sharing them with people I met or wanted to make/keep a connection with, as presents of an ideal potlach in which the magic of the ink on paper could become a grateful or puzzling presence on the sides of an office cubicle, a refrigerator door, the walls of a bathroom or any other parts of a home where some time can be spent looking wondering. I learned and enjoyed the “sinister” power of prints to release their meaning through time because of their very nature of being created by a mirror-made matrix, and it’s still very interesting and educative for me to hear somebody else describe an image I made by its optical key points, or details they deem as memorable.
The lodge-like feeling of the Playhouse Gallery seems perfect for this exercise of looking again at the work of more than twenty-five years, and to enrich the viewer’s experience I’m displaying five new pieces of ceramics.
Clay offers a precious occasion to experiment freely with relief and gravity, and is an ideal partner of wood because it offers lenience where the plate holds on to its edginess, because it is capable of forgiveness where the gouge on the plywood sounds definitive. Manipulating this soft material is also a priceless chance to enjoy its therapeutic grounding gentleness on my arthritic hands, married with the jazzy excitement of tridimensional freestyling.
Artist
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Claudio Orso Giacone
Claudio Orso Giacone is a print, paper and clay artist from Torino, Italy, and lives in Ohio. He has exhibited his prints across the US and in Europe. Early participant to a state-sponsored Reggio Emilia pedagogy study group, he applied this approach to a very wide range of audiences and academic levels, and maintains to date a strong commitment to art practice and sharing as a service for the community. Past experiences include ArtZreach, a project of art process and education for teens at the Lorain County Juvenile Detention Home, and the Oberlin Big Parade, an all-town event featuring a procession of home-made floats and acts from community groups. Orso works as visiting artist for several organizations in Cleveland, and has been the first artist resident at the Morgan Conservatory and Art of Papermaking, where he is an instructor and was recently chosen for the NEA Apprenticeship grant. He collaborated to create and run the Apollo Outreach Initiative at Oberlin College, a project of media literacy in practice, bringing college students to mentor young and older participants in the community in narrative and documentary short film productions. Orso has also worked as featured and outreach artist for the Parade the Circle, an historical celebration organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Five Uneasy Pieces & a Career Full of Proofs
A beloved maestro once told me that, in order to progress in the skill, it’s very useful sometimes to put out the work you did and look at it again trying to learn something from it, something that was overlooked when you made the piece and just moved on to the next.
Re-producing an image carved on block is a ritual that never got old for me, and I enjoyed immensely disseminating prints wherever I went and sharing them with people I met or wanted to make/keep a connection with, as presents of an ideal potlach in which the magic of the ink on paper could become a grateful or puzzling presence on the sides of an office cubicle, a refrigerator door, the walls of a bathroom or any other parts of a home where some time can be spent looking wondering. I learned and enjoyed the “sinister” power of prints to release their meaning through time because of their very nature of being created by a mirror-made matrix, and it’s still very interesting and educative for me to hear somebody else describe an image I made by its optical key points, or details they deem as memorable.
The lodge-like feeling of the Playhouse Gallery seems perfect for this exercise of looking again at the work of more than twenty-five years, and to enrich the viewer’s experience I’m displaying five new pieces of ceramics.
Clay offers a precious occasion to experiment freely with relief and gravity, and is an ideal partner of wood because it offers lenience where the plate holds on to its edginess, because it is capable of forgiveness where the gouge on the plywood sounds definitive. Manipulating this soft material is also a priceless chance to enjoy its therapeutic grounding gentleness on my arthritic hands, married with the jazzy excitement of tridimensional freestyling.
Artist
-
Claudio Orso Giacone
Claudio Orso Giacone is a print, paper and clay artist from Torino, Italy, and lives in Ohio. He has exhibited his prints across the US and in Europe. Early participant to a state-sponsored Reggio Emilia pedagogy study group, he applied this approach to a very wide range of audiences and academic levels, and maintains to date a strong commitment to art practice and sharing as a service for the community. Past experiences include ArtZreach, a project of art process and education for teens at the Lorain County Juvenile Detention Home, and the Oberlin Big Parade, an all-town event featuring a procession of home-made floats and acts from community groups. Orso works as visiting artist for several organizations in Cleveland, and has been the first artist resident at the Morgan Conservatory and Art of Papermaking, where he is an instructor and was recently chosen for the NEA Apprenticeship grant. He collaborated to create and run the Apollo Outreach Initiative at Oberlin College, a project of media literacy in practice, bringing college students to mentor young and older participants in the community in narrative and documentary short film productions. Orso has also worked as featured and outreach artist for the Parade the Circle, an historical celebration organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art.
