In the last five years of being a full-time artist, I've learned four very important things. One, you don't learn if you don't start. Two, experimentation is king.
Three, you need to let go of your ego. Four, mistakes are inevitable. You need to work with them, not against them.
In the past three months of being a full-time artist, I haven't done any of this. I've been stuck in comfort. And comfort is the enemy of growth.
[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hi, Wex. What's up, girl? This is Vex, an artist I've looked up to since the very beginning.
An artist I've just been doing like the same things over and over again, who's going through the same ro as me. So, we came up with a plan. What if we What about we a plan?
Oh, let's do it to level up. Each of us chose a completely unfamiliar art form for the other to learn. For Beex, it's you will learn Japanese wood block printed.
Oh, no way. For me, it's you will go and learn ceramics. Ceramics?
Wo. H how long did we agree we had to do this? The catch?
We will have 2 weeks and that's it. 2 weeks? Yeah, that's a crazy deadline.
It's always two weeks, isn't it? Two weeks to learn an entire new art form and create something that blends tradition and the modernity. But as opposed to our past learning experiences, this time we are not alone.
Each of us is going to search for a mentor to guide us on this journey. Our master for this adventure. I'm ready.
See you in two weeks. Yeah, see you in two weeks. Bye-bye.
I've been a full-time artist for the last 5 years. But for the next two weeks, I had to become a beginner again. A beginner in the craft of ceramics.
Oh my god. Two weeks takes me months. Just how am I going to Two weeks to learn ceramics?
Sounds impossible. Shut up. But what if you used that to your favor as a mean to push your creativity forward to think outside the box.
I added a couple of extra limitations to the list. One, I can't create either something functional or decorative. Maybe both, not both.
of two undos are prohibited. What? Three, the final piece can only be as big as my head.
Four, reduce tools to the strictly necessary. Pencil, pen, self-explanatory. Notebook self-explanatory.
Camera to gather inspiration. Glasses to see floats optional. the Lenovo Joas Slim 7i or edition imagine within to push boundaries to create limitlessly the heart of this project.
Now let's see what I'm getting myself into. Ceramics hasn't been touched by time. It hasn't been limited by borders.
It's an ancient art form mastered by countless of cultures around the world. And that excited me because there's one culture in particular I could draw inspiration from. And that culture is my own.
[Music] This story began in the anthropology museum in Mexico City. Figures that were created centuries ago, but somehow still feel modern, as if they were made today. gods.
A dog and his owner, a group of friends, characters, masks, warriors. Inspired by these pieces, as soon as I got back home, I created my sketch. The course of this project would then be defined rapidly in four main events.
They occurred as it follows. I find my dream mentor, express my interest, and send my sketch. They come on board.
However, they need a 3D model of my character within the next 3 hours. Otherwise, we won't finish on time. I have no experience with 3D art.
No. [Music] I set my yoga laptop to smart mode. Attention, state of flow, watch tutorials, struggle.
Finally, I make something. It exports rapidly thanks to the Intel Core Ultra processor. And I send it over just in time.
72 hours later, I find myself 500 kilometers west from Mexico City in Guadalajara to learn ceramics from a legendary workshop run by my master, Joseo. [Music] fabricas and for the next three days I too would become one of such artists. [Music] The first thing that I learned is that ceramics is a very slow, delicate, and unpredictable art form.
Each piece is first modeled and completely air dried. Then it goes into the kiln for the first time, a giant metal box that heats it up at 1200° C for 12 hours, transforming the clay into hard porous ceramic. It however doesn't always go as planned.
If the piece isn't hollow, it explodes. If it isn't well built, it breaks. It's risky and timeconuming.
And for this project, risk and time were luxuries I couldn't afford. That's where my 3D model came in handy. It became a mold.
[Music] Each mold, including mine, is handcrafted by these three artists. It's an often overlooked process. Nevertheless, one of the most crucial for many ceramic productions.
My piece made it out of the kil alive. I named him Cabeson. Now, it was time for a part I am familiar with.
Or at least that's what I thought. This time I took my precautions and made a test first. Turns out surprises never end with ceramics.
The colors change when they are fresh, when they dry, and they completely transform after the firing. So for Caveson, I embrace this unpredictability and just went for it, welcoming mistakes along the way. Then I stood there waiting for a reaction from my master as my time in the factory came to its end and I got it.
Finally, my piece would be glacier in my absence. But this didn't end here. I wanted to transform my piece into something tangible to somehow bring it to life.
Okay, ready, ready, baby. 3, two, 1. I had a trick up my sleeve, a detailed manual for the transformation.
The plan to turn my figure into a multi-styled loop animation. The tools, cabon, my brain, and the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i. One, the scan.
First, I took hundreds of images from every angle, every detail, every pore, which then as if it was magic, got stitched together, assisted by Lenovo's AI acceleration. Then the nightmare began. I had to open Blender.
I didn't understand anything. So, I had to simplify things. I animated a simple knotting cycle of my model.
25 frames infinite loop. The perfect canvas for the next stage of the process. The plan was to use the render as a base to hand over each frame in a different style.
Frame one is the original cabon. The rest were still a mystery, but not for long. Because using the many ports, I connected my drawing tablet to the Slim 7 and I got to work.
I soon overcame my fear of the unknown. With every frame, I tried something different. Artworks started popping out like freshly baked bread.
Layers piled on top of each other like dangerously stacked dishes. For the next two days, my routine revolved around those frames. And it was worth it because Caveson's transformation was complete.
And I couldn't be more proud of it. But this project went beyond that. It became less about the result and more about the process.
Less about growing as artists and more about growing as humans. About embracing mistakes and finding beauty in them. We became the forever beginners.
But most importantly, we experienced the strange freedom of knowing nothing. [Music] [Applause] Okay, Guggs, show me what you made. It's been 2 weeks.
I want to see the finished piece. I made this. Wow.
Did you sculpt that? Wa. And you?
What do you make? Okay, I'm going to send it to you. Are you ready?
And go. Oh my god. Fix.
You're crazy. How did you do this? Damn.
You really leveled up. We all leveled up. Oh yeah.
Thank you for watching. Thank you to Lenovo and Intel for making this video possible. Check out the incredible yoga slim 7i with the link in the description.
Watch Beex's video and don't forget to enter the fun challenge for a chance to win a one-on-one mentorship call with me and with Beex. Hope you get to experience the strange freedom of knowing nothing. Bye.
