Artist Residency, August 2024

In August of 2024,  I completed an Artist Residency at Ceramica Suro.  If you follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kerry_hugins/ you may know that I am a long time fan of this creative hub, a vibrant creative ceramic company in the city Guadalajara; in the state of Jalisco in the country of Mexico (a city of nearly 6million people at 5,ooo+ ft elevation, with major internationally recognized ceramic centers of Tlaquepaque and Tonalá). It is also true that every artist, and person on the staff whom I met was so generous, kind, patient with me and very professional and I felt really lucky be be included to make art there.

Ceramica Suro is a place with new ideas and creative vision. For two wonderful weeks, I was invited to walk into their doors and create.

My project to work on in residency was taking my 2d grid watercolor paintings into 3d on tiles for an installation piece. I painted by hand 130 tiles (on gorgeous high quality locally sourced clay- tiles that Ceramica Suro makes), the ceramics paint were vibrant colors- that I painted with,  mixed and blended the way I like to tinker with colors.  My vision is using colors to create a conversation and mood between the colors on a larger scale to continue to explore the subtle realms consciousness.  To create my palette,  my process is I am always collecting and spotting colors in my daily life, absorbing the color in like a mind snapshots/sort of like bowerbird painter. In the end the idea is to make a tile mural in the final form. The project once complete ended up about 30+hours start to finish.

Imagine something like this painting I made this spring, (although the colors are specific to Mexico) but four feet tall and about 6 feet wide once installed outdoors (maybe near a gorgeous water feature).  I think it could be complimentary to some special place outdoors that is quiet and intimate and also a piece of art that contains consciousness like a portend.

Once I completed the tiles, I was welcomed to paint gorgeous pottery for the table, pieces which created by Ceramica Suro.

My 3rd project while at Ceramica Suro,  feeling bold- I painted another mural a mural of 10 large hand-painted wildflowers, from photography stills I have in my files.  I painted both portraits of wildflowers from Mexico, from Texas and some of the images were from under UV lights. I see it as a compilation of several kinds of my work interwoven together into a new format, which is exciting for me.  Perhaps a new way to branch out of murals into my future; as well as my works on paper.  A new frontier is always a wonderful doorway to discover as a visual artist.

addendum I have not seen the final works yet and will be making a part b to this post with pictures of the finished works. If you want to hear more about my hand painted mural tiles hit me up. khugins@gmail.com