Ellen Jewett

I came across Ellen Jewett's work last year and was surprised to find no threads over here. All pieces are one-off sculptures made primarily of porcelain clay; according to her site (click) she only sculpts by hand and paints with brushes. I'll let the work speak for itself. Titles are included where I could find them.












the farther I travel, the more I am home




strange and gentle

Dude.... .....

Holy shit these are so cool  

Right? Her work is so beautiful; no chance I'll be able to afford a piece for the next eight to ten years, though. At least commissions should cost about as much as her listed pieces, since they're all one-offs. I wonder if anyone on these forums has had experience dealing with her.

It just looks too boring to me.

Its the same super stylized work. She is super talented and great at the craft, but the concept just looks tired.

If the work of the fox had been done with an actual concept in mind it would be much more exciting as a work of art, as it stands it just looks like another anime cover from about 10 yrs ago.

Perhaps a little. I don't think I can fairly judge sculpture since I know very little about it; visually the art is exciting to me, and it would be interesting to see in person. Unlike vinyl, these don't seem like the sorts of things you collect in large numbers; similar motifs shouldn't be an issue when only one or two sculptures will be on display together. I suppose if you were willing to buy several sculptures at over a thousand dollars each, they may look boring in the same space.

One question I'd like to ask: what excites you about a new Squadt, when it's essentially a new colourway of an existing model with different accessories?

I don't mean to be defensive or attack you at all; just curious about what differentiates these from the vinyl figure world, which is full of heavily repeated motifs. One obvious difference I can see is the price; another is the nature of the art—if each of these is a one-off, it should feel like a creation in its own right, with a unique artistic vision behind it.

Well everyone is allowed there own opinion but I think they are all Fckn dope as hell a lot of words other then tired describes this artists work like tedious and more then likely very expensive lol , If I walked into a room with a few of these sitting there I would be jealous as shit, My favorite is the octopus personally

Art is subjective.

ROACHSHACK138 wrote:Art is subjective.

always has been always will be lol

AngryPanda410 wrote:

ROACHSHACK138 wrote:Art is subjective.

always has been always will be lol

Yup

InebriatedGnome wrote:

One question I'd like to ask: what excites you about a new Squadt, when it's essentially a new colourway of an existing model with different accessories?

I don't mean to be defensive or attack you at all; just curious about what differentiates these from the vinyl figure world, which is full of heavily repeated motifs. One obvious difference I can see is the price; another is the nature of the art—if each of these is a one-off, it should feel like a creation in its own right, with a unique artistic vision behind it.

Oh, no offense taken. I was just pointing out how to me these are boring. Clearly her sculptural work is great (or at least whoever is shooting it does it magnificently)

These are not on the same realm as Squadts.  Squadts are toys, meant to be played with, whose concept is that of interchangeability of parts and options, much like the GI Joes or any other toy that you could swap its parts. There is a concept there that I see, I appreciate and I actually enjoy, even if its simple. Its a different matter than this and the comparison doesnt really work.

I especially loved your point of motifs being repeated to no end in the vinyl world and I agree with it. In part what makes this hobby interesting is finding new things and works that find ways to do things without the same motifs over and over.

Price notwithstanding, I do feel that this falls under representational art and that to me does nothing. It appeals to a lot of people and that is great, but in that so many opportunities are missed. My initial comment was referring to how much skill this artist possesses and how little concept there is in the work. Yes, theyre animals at play with domesticity and the ideas of home and trying to settle down even as they are nomadic, but then what?  

I dont know, art is not necessarily subjective, since we all have to agree on its parameters to a greater extent. I do feel that a lot of the work done as art outside of the vinyl community is somewhat boring and just plain dull. I mean look at the pop surrealists, theyre still doing the same boring crap 15 years later, thats how devoid of any real concept this stuff is.

Definitely beautiful work. But agree with Gatiio point on the concept...