Doodling in clay

Three Cities.  Black stoneware 2005
Laurel Lukaszewski image gallery (no date) Available at: http://laurellukaszewski.com/images/imagegallery.html (Accessed: 30 January 2016).

I've taken some time over the past day or two to look at the artists recommended by David and Wendy.  In particular, I've enjoyed browsing the work of Laurel Lukaszewski. Her work uses a lot of extruded clay and small clay components that she puts together into larger sculptures. A lot of it is very simply made in terms of the ceramics involved (and she barely ever uses surface decoration) but it is neatly constructed with steel, wire and other materials and the overall effects are impressive.

From her bio, I learned that she is influenced by Japanese calligraphy from studying Japanese art and culture at graduate school in the USA (she's from Washington, DC) but also she mentioned that she is a incessant doodler and her work does sometimes take the form of doodles in clay.

I too am an incessant doodler, and always have been.  I can spend hours developing intricate patterns on any scrap of paper that happens to come to hand.  It's the only time I draw completely freely - and usually with ink - and really enjoy it. Over the years, I've gathered quite a pile of mini art works created whilst chatting on the phone or trying to concentrate in meetings! [One of my FdA projects was based on the art of doodling and I gathered many examples from colleagues and friends who also habitually draw patterns as a way of relaxing or concentrating. I had some of these turned into decals and put them on to the work I made for the project.  An old ramble about that is on my original blog:  http://ambientceramics.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/doodles.html]

I've never been sure of the value of these doodle drawings outside of my own use for relaxation. They seem quite self-indulgent and one doesn't necessarily want to inflict them on other people.  However, Wendy has been encouraging me to explore working with extrusions and look at joining these together to make a larger form. So I think I'll have a go at freely creating a clay doodle, if I can, using strips of clay to mimic the flow of ink...