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Clayton Bailey Press 45475787574
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| When Bailey and his family moved to Crockett, California in 1968. He made his first live-in studio, separate from the University, and away from his students.The Dairyville Cafe in Crockett was a storefront much like the drugstore and soda fountain where he had worked during his youth in Wisconsin. There were restaurant booths in the front window, so he decided to make some freaky ceramic "people" to sit in them. Thus began this series of life-size ceramic busts of 1968-1969. They are glazed ceramic sculptures similar to the rubber monster masks he had made a few years earlier in Whitewater, Wis.
The "Burping Bust" is a kinetic ceramic piece. It has a "hydro-pneumatic" mechanism similar to that of the "Burping Bowl" hidden inside its body. A long push-rod lifts the plant-like hair off the head a few inches with a watery burping sound, and then suddenly drops it down again. This intermittent action attracts the viewers' attention, and a 30- 45 second waiting period between sounds keeps them waiting to see what will happen next. It was an attention getter in the Dairyville window.
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Life-size ceramic busts in the window of the Dairyville Cafe, 325 Rolph Ave., Crockett, California- 1968 The Dairyville Cafe in Crockett won the award in the 1968 Christmas window decorating contest sponsored by the Crockett Chamber of Commerce even though the window had no Christmas decorations at all. The creatures sitting at the restaurant booth are enjoying a cup of electric tea in their nose cups while watching a burping bowl. Each day, dozens of workers from the C&H sugar refinery across the street walked by the window and sometimes tried to come in for a cup of coffee. |
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