Megumi Naitoh and Keith Becker-Lazore
Megumi Naitoh, a professor at Emmanuel College, invited Keith Becker-Lazore to participate in TEN OUT OF TEN to provide an opportunity for exposure for her student, but also to highlight the artistic exchange that occurs between students and teachers. Keith Becker-Lazore began his college career as a chemistry major at Emmanuel College. He changed his major to studio art, with a focus on ceramics. It was in that program that he began working with Megumi. She says "Of course Keith learns from me as a student, but his work also influences me. Keith’s work is expressive and intuitive. I feel jealous of him having a good time and this influences me in my practice. I recently started to incorporate more experimental ceramic materials and surfaces because of this. We learn from each other. It is a pleasure to work with Keith who is a committed student and has vast amount of potential."
Megumi Naitoh on modern still life
Through the objects they depicted, many 17th century European still life painters revealed much about their environment, how they lived and what they thought. Some of these objects possess symbolism, some reflect social or cultural changes in their lives. In the 21st century, I am surrounded by many digital objects in a virtual environment. Google 3D warehouse, Thingiverse are the 3D file share sites that I often visit. I search and collect these virtual objects to create my digital still life compositions in clay. My work evokes our cultural changes associated with current technology. It directly references our accessibility to 3D technology, open source software and online resources. My studio practice reflects these changes. I am an open source, 3D technology enthusiast. The history of still life paintings is a strong source of inspiration for my digital still life composition. I am influenced by Juan Sánchez Cotán (a Spanish 17th century painter) and his distinctive approach in selecting only seasonal produce, memento mori in 17th century Dutch still life paintings, and Giorgio Morandi’s more modern approach to still life paintings. The specific ceramic materials and processes were developed in response to Morandi’s studio practice. Morandi’s dust accumulated on the objects’ surfaces while white house paint was poured into the transparent glass bottles to create the painterly quality in his work. I translated his dust and white paint to ceramic dust and a plaster liquid mixture that I pour into the plastic 3D printed object molds to produce my work.
About Megumi Naitoh: Megumi Naitoh is originally from Tokyo, Japan. She currently resides in Boston where she teaches at Emmanuel College as an Associate Professor of Art. She has exhibited in “Earth Moves: Current Shifts in Ceramic Art and Design”, Arvada Center for Arts, CO. “Push Play”, NCECA 2012 Invitational, Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA, Ceramic Research Center at Arizona State University, Fuller Craft Museum, MA, Digital Craft Collection at Manchester School of Art, UK, Massachusetts Cultural Grant, Brother Thomas Fellowship.
About Keith Lazore-Becker's Mei(o)sis:
About Mei(o)sis: Mei[o]sis is a work that focuses on intense emotional control and the value in processing feelings rather than suppressing or hiding them. Each piece is crafted by hand-squeezing clay forms while channeling negative emotions like frustration, loneliness and rejection. All of the small forms are piled unceremoniously into a square coddle where it is compressed into a cube shape; to show how we tend to “box up” our own negative emotions and put them away to deal with them later. The pieces tend to warp and shift during firings, with portions falling off or breaking free of the core structure. During glazing the pieces are put back into the square coddle, along with any bisque forms that may have broken free during firing. The piece is then glazed together and fired again. The process becomes a ritual of struggling to maintain the form's cube-like shape that is constantly being changed and broken down; much in the same way that we struggle to reshape our own negative emotions and experiences into more appealing and comfortable forms. Additions of luster to final piece highlight the preciousness of the time and energy we dedicate to our own emotional control and maintenance.
About Keith Becker-Lazore: Keith Becker-Lazore is currently a senior ceramic art student at Emmanuel College in Boston, MA. He studied forensic chemistry for three years before changing majors and pursuing his passion in ceramics and three-dimesional art. For the last year, Keith has worked as Megumi Naitoh's research assistant on various projects, as well as a mentor for undergraduate art students at Emmanuel.