Charissa Brock

Bamboo Basics

Course Description
Bamboo is a remarkably versatile art material. Its repetition of nodes, its hollow structure, and its flexibility create an inspirational challenge to the individual who wants to work with it. Because of its structure, it can be used in an infinite number of ways by the maker. Participants in this class will experiment with basic techniques and tools for working with bamboo including cutting, binding, riveting, and bending bamboo. We will create several small projects, including a bamboo and paper vessel. Participants will have the opportunity to explore creative options, each receiving individual instructor attention. Demonstrations in preparing and splitting bamboo, a slide lecture, and resource information will further help participants understand bamboo as an art material.

Artist's Biography
Charissa Brock has worked with bamboo since 1999, when she discovered it while hunting for tree bark. Her bamboo, stone, and glass sculptures are created in her studio in Portland, Oregon. Her work is included in the Arizona State University Museum Collection and can currently be seen at Cervini Haas Gallery, Snyderman/The Works, and The Gallery at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts. Since 1987 she has taught bamboo, glass, and mixed media to all age groups in the US and abroad. She is featured in an article in the April 2008 issue of American Style Magazine.

Artist's Statement
My work stems from an interest in the complex structure of bamboo and its unlimited potential as an art material. Bamboo is a remarkably versatile material. It can be cut, layered, glued, and sanded like wood, or it can be split, bent, and woven, incorporating basketry techniques. Bamboo’s repetition of nodes, its hollow structure, and its flexibility create a challenge and versatility I enjoy working with. Bamboo is a continually renewable resource, and it grows in a way that makes it easy to gather without worry about harming the plant.

Bamboo requires a complex preparation process in order to be used as an art material. I gather my bamboo from backyards, gardens, and farms around Oregon, making friends with other bamboo enthusiasts in the process. After gathering, the bamboo is dried for at least six months to remove moisture, then prepared with heat, which removes an oily starch, making the bamboo unattractive to insects and hardening it. After preparing the bamboo, the possibilities are limitless.

The glass petals included in some of my work are made using a fusing technique. This technique involves a low fire fusing of frit, or ground glass, on a kiln shelf. The frit is applied to the kiln shelf in the shape of a small petal-like wafer. These small wafers are fired and then slumped (bent with heat), or stacked into a shape, fired, and then slumped before being included in a piece.

While growing up in New Mexico I became aware of and inspired by the adobe brick architecture, the multitude of patterns in local basketry and pottery, the sparse and delicate landscape, and the many myths I have read over the years. In my travels I have found many landscapes and cultures to add to my collection of inspirations.

The impetus for my work comes partly from a collection of the forms, textures, materials, and methods of other cultures, past and present. It also comes from an interest in forms in nature. The continuous evolution a plant makes inspires me to further explore how to manipulate my own forms. These elements are combined with ideas I have gathered in making and evaluating my past work. In the abstract objects I create, I incorporate a continuous narrative of my own internal culture, one that includes all that I am exposed to. Referencing aspects of objects from the past and forms from nature through knots, interwoven lines, and stacking systems, I am creating a story in hopes of calling to mind the story in us all.