this one feels different

Today for whatever reason 'feels' like a new year.  I don't remember feeling so much like I've 'entered' a new year quite the way I do this time.  I'm not sure why, but there it is.

I don't know about you guys; last year was a bleepin' bleepity bleep of a year?  I lost my job, got a boy, he moved in, he moved out,  people showed up, people left, people died and babies were born....and then the holidays came.   Even though it was a royal ass pain, I'd do it all again, all of it critical, even necessary.   The hardest lessons are the best teachers!  I love it.

But, what's curious, what's odd, is 'last year' already feels more like years ago.  It doesn't feel like just months and weeks and days have just gone by.  Today feels like everything somehow got fast forwarded, much like an era ended and a new one suddenly started.  People must have their own personal eras.  It is almost like flipping through some old photo album wondering who is that person I'm with and why the hell did I wear that?

I've still no "real" job.  And my definition of that is rapidly changing.  I've been operating as if clay IS my real job and will keep doing that until I figure out what a "real" job is for me now (my bank accounts' are in charge, however).   I don't know what it's going to be; I can tell what it isn't: working for a massive company, ushering people and paper here and there - with two actual hours of work each day and 6 hours of politics.   After 25 years of that nonsense, I'm having an allergic reaction to any thing resembling a cube and 360 reviews.

I applied to 4 shows - would like to find a couple more.  I'd like to keep to a pretty regular studio schedule, and spreading events out over the year every couple months will keep me on my toes!

Started my Etsy shop - we'll see how that goes.  I have a lot to learn there.  I'm going to design some t-shirts, note cards and maybe some other stuff...

I just found a bigger kiln (needed).  I need an electrician.  ...actually, I need a plumber too!

Brushing off the remaining dust of last year and (smiling) and looking forward.  Hopefully, next year I will have some really fabulous pictures to look back on?

...I just started cranking out some Valentine's Day stuff - waving goodbye to last year, and looking at 2012 and saying "Hello Sailor"

fun times ahead!

Cuppas

Cups of love on top
Orange Dream cups- peek at pieces made for the Fourth & Clay DESSERT show coming up on Thursday, Dec 8
Blue Navigator Cups
and couple action shots from happy purchasers!

WIP and some new molds

 

Started glazing the WIP.  it's a beginning, though I'm not sure where I'm heading (haw! no pun intended).  Amaco underglazes, first firing, to be continued...

AND, making some new bowl molds - I've been using these bowls as slump molds and I think I can get a cleaner result with a plaster mold - so at it I went this weekend.  I actually really like working with plaster.  I found myself mold-happy walking around my house eyeing everything as potential molds...go mold or go home!

Ed made the wood molds for me to be re-used, so just getting started.  If I can get some success, I'll make enough to up my production!  Actually, I've not made this type of mold before, I got some tips from Tiffany Schmierer over the phone and tried to figure out the rest.  Possibly not the best practice - I made a clay 'rim' for the bowl to seat on and made it pretty clean and tight.  I then put Vaseline on the bowl, which is made of bamboo, and poured away.  The bamboo is pretty snug in the mold, it hasn't yet released.  I'm hoping that when the plaster dries more the bamboo will lose some of the suction and be set free?

I probably could have watched a you tube video....

navigating major changes

New vases

Ed's newbie cup

My world is in flux.  I need a deflocculant.   Now, so I don't LOSE MY MIND; I am working to plant seeds, keep my feet on the ground, connect to what's important, learn and change, not have a meltdown while I'm at it.

Some parts I'm handling gracefully.  Some parts, uh, not so much.  See, I wasn't prepared for this change?  Funny how that works.  So lots of navigating and reorientation.  And guess what; introverts have pretty low tolerance...I think that's why I keep having fleeing fantasies - like going on a trip to fiji, walking out on my job, getting in my car and driving.....to LA.

So while floating around on a swelly sea; I really need to get to work in my studio producing work for a show in November.  that's probably the answer.  clay.

accepted!

Hello Linda,  Congratulations - you have been accepted to the 2011 Santa Cruz Sea Glass & Ocean Art festival! We had an overwhelming amount of applications this year, with 55 artists and only 36 spaces. Each artist application was categorized according to medium and viewed by a 5 panel jury. Points were awarded according to originality, photo quality, technique, and overall artistic quality. It was a very tough decision for us. best, Krista

The coldest summer is the summer I spent in San Francisco...

I've been off the grid.  I spent 10 days in Gualala, CA and stayed with my boyfriend at his family home.  I had never been to Gualala until recently and this trip was my second.  The real gift, and there were many. was that there is no signal.  ZERO reception.  No iphone.  No computer.  No blog.  NO Facebook!  It's so exacting that when you cross into "no signal country" you now have no choice but to cross into "no signal country".   In our world, it's a lot like crossing "to the other side".  It can be a very scary thing.  There is little or no thought at all to even trying to find a signal.  I was a little bummed at myself that I was back "on" almost as soon as I had access - but I did value the time off and it did illustrate how much time and energy is devoted online.  I really got how much more space it opens up when you're not on, or distracted by, what you think you might be missing.   

The Mendocino Coast is breathtaking, Gualala is no exception.   It's beautiful up there.  It was hot, we ate, we worked hard, we played hard, and slept like the dead!  I can't wait to go back!

The property is 10+ acres of trees, meadows, gardens, old cabins and sheds.  It's beautiful.  There is a little trail to walk through the forrest on the property, all of it feels like being home.  The peace and quiet - it reminds me so much of hot summers at our family home in Glen Ellen when I was a kid.  The Gualala river is near by, not to mention an ocean, and the water is glassy crystal clear.  See where I'm going with this...so super easy to blow off your stupid signal.

on the clay front: 

I've applied to a show in November and we'll see if I've made it; tough competition this year.  If it's a go, it's time to ramp up production.  I've made some vases and cups in an effort to get my ass in gear and back in some kind of making groove...even the boyfriend recently got in on the act.  I have to say that it's an interesting thing to spend time in your studio with your significant other.  I enjoy his company in the evening studio time together.   I often need to work alone to concentrate.  There are some points in process when I still do need to just do my shit.  When someone in my studio with me, I notice I have a tendency to slightly downplay whatever I'm working on - I have no idea why -  I have to work harder to concentrate on what I'm doing which means I get very quiet.   But, I do like the juxtaposition.   He's a creative and talented builder in his own right;  I learn a lot from experiencing his approach and process.  Really, I'm just super stoked he get's it!  love and art are pretty fucking good together.

here's the boyfriend cup!  awesome, I think.   it's been glazed and going in the kiln tonight.....stay tuned.

forward motion

hey gang - I'm off for a bit here - I'll be back on in mid-july and hope to have some tales to tell and visual spectacles for you to behold.

see you soon, eh!




photo; via morgan maassan

twilight color

alberto seveso

this is only a drop in the bucket.  I don't even know what to say...

just.  go.  here...alberto seveso

Sylvain Deleu blog

found via sylvain deleu photography blog.

An interesting pictorial dynamic of design, art, fashion among other interesting happenings.  His wife is Aneta Regel Deleu - so there is a regular bent toward the ceramic community in the UK.

Plate: Cormac Boydell (incredible)
Rings: Aneta Regel Deleu
Box: Hitomi Hosono - made for wedgewood.  so quiet and brilliant.

I want to talk about Gundi Deitz

words from her website: "Creatures with a strange sexuality, girl-like an massive lost in meditation and whimsical at the same time, helplessly plump and yet frivolous."


I'm drawn in.   The power of this work for me is it is all about contrast and extremes, but in so subtle a way - there is such solid, stubborn power displayed in the fragile porcelain 'picture' of a pudgy, seemingly simple, innocent, young (?) girl.  




Gundi Deitz website is very interesting in that the gallery format shows photos of work spanning 30 years.  I find it a fascinating commentary on the emergence of a style and it's spectacular expansion.  I found it very informative to see such an amazing artists career arc.  


Please go check out the works page on her website.  
and here




I'm feeling akio and esther in these pieces too!

progress

working on it; paint on wipe off, paint on wipe off.  repeat.

Guess what? Stuck and unstuck go hand in hand

Pulled this out of the kiln still nice and warm and WHAM!   Instantly unstuck.  The other piece I was suffering through finishing - well, it's drying.  I'm still ambivalent about it, though.
Then this got my attention and I couldn't be more unstuck, more engaged.

Interesting that this is mirroring some personal life events too, but I digress.  How did I not get that the two things often happen simultaneously or semi-simultaneously.  Am I oversimplifying the complexities of the creative process?  I am just thinking if you have a lot of tools in the tool box - stuck is a way less existential crisis-y, little downward spiral and therefore less impactful to the creative psyche.  This isn't coming out right...I think it's just that sometimes you're ahead and sometimes you're behind.

Shakespeare said; "Everything and Nothing"

I still feel the same way about the windy/water piece - wishy washy, but I don't about this one.

For this piece: I thought I'd capture the glaze process as I go along on this one  (please, my super talented friends; chime in at any time if you think I need saving!)