6 Year Blog Anniversary and Miscellany…

Well I’m quite out of touch with the blog of late. This has been driven home by the fact that the anniversary date has come and gone and I just realized it. Like all previous years, the anniversary is accompanied by yearly pics of the bug holding the first piece she made for Mom six years ago. Without further ado…

Let’s see, in other news I just returned from the Alabama Clay Conference for the 4th consecutive year. This year’s artists were Patti Warashina, Nick Joerling and Peter Rose (who I kept thinking to myself was Pete Best). Without belaboring the point too much, I had to get a new computer this summer (due to forced obsolescence) and now my old computer has two versions of photoshop on it and my new one has none because apparently ad0be now charges by the month. Regardless, carrying the thumbdrive back and forth from desktop to desktop has proven too tedious for me so some pics haven’t been processed in my normal OCD manner. I state this as a sort of apology to Nick Joerling that I have only one image from the show and none from Pete Best. I have a few of Patti Warishina’s though…

Here’s a lovely platter by Nick Joerling…

In short the conference was fun as I’ve come to know several people over the years. The highlight of the conference itself was the incomparable Ms. Warashina who was very entertaining and brought to mind a female Puck. While wandering the Birmingham Art Museum looking for the show of the presenting artists I came upon a Bougereau…

I became familiar with Bougereau (in person) when I saw another of these large vertical nudes at the Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska. Although in my opinion, the one in Birmingham doesn’t possess the awe-inspiring flesh of the one in Omaha it is still wonderful. Here’s a pic of the one in Omaha…

On an interesting note, while there in Birmingham, I went to lunch with Scott Bennett and Daniel (I don’t remember his last name) who as it turns out used to be the director of the museum and when I brought up the Bougereau he said that during his tenure they had attempted to get all 4 of the large vertical nude Bougereaus together for one exhibition. The snafu that occurred was that one of the four paintings is in Cuba and try as the might they were unable to convince the Cuban government that they wouldn’t simply keep the painting. So the show never materialized. Maybe a couple cases of Cuban cigars and the Bougereau delivered to the White House might help the thaw betwixt our countries. Might as well throw in another tour of the remaining Afro-Cuban allstars.

When I got back from Alabama, I met Mr. Troy Bungart here at my house. He was in Louisville to do a woodfire with Mr. Rademaker and stopped in to see me and get some wood I’ve been hoarding for 25 years or so. When I was a woodworker and amassing hardwood in my basement I came upon some exotic wood in Indiana that was apparently from a defunct veneer factory. The two species are brazilian tulipwood and bee’s wing sapel. I don’t do woodworking anymore and have grown tired of storing and (this summer) hauling this wood around. I figured I should give it someone who would actually use it and Troy seemed like a good idea. Troy left the next day and has already made one of his tools from the sapel and here’s a pic…

And here’s the booty I traded for…

Of course when the camera came out, the tomfoolery ensued…

Here’s Sofia spoonfeeding her Dad…

And all three of us…

Part of the reason for the lack of blog action is mostly that instagram is so much easier and less time consuming. As Ms. Carole Epp once said (I hope it was Carole), “instagram is the crack cocaine of social media”. It is fun to see potters from everywhere post all sorts of pics daily but I’ve also come upon other stuff that is fun. My favorite so far is a user named “gummifetus”. Here’s a couple pics from his feed…

Lastly, here’s some pics of some pieces from my most recent firing…

I almost forgot, the bug and I did another pottery comix. Tried to post it permanently with the other one in the right column but it wouldn’t let me. Here’s this year’s (you might have to click on it to get it big enough to read the text)…

Primitive Alien Culture Of Pottery…

Who’surdaddy…

It’s been quite some time since I’ve managed to write a post here. The hiatus can be explained easily enough and was borne out of, what I now consider, a questionable decision… to move. I won’t go into the reasons here only to try and remain positive. Anyway, we met with our neighbor the realtor ages ago (March, I think) and ran the idea of selling the house “as is” by her. She said that it was possible but by the time she left our house I had a list of things that had to be done because they were “deal breakers”. The main one was the fact that my studio’s interior was never completed. It had insulation, electricity, and HVAC but the studs were exposed and a bare light bulb hung in the middle of the room. More on that in a bit. Although it may seem strident, we quickly came to the conclusion that we would not be able to do the work that needed to be done without moving first. I’ve been reticent for quite some time about the idea of moving because I always felt that I would have to stop making pots for at least 3 months… I wish. Anyway, we started looking for houses in Louisville with our list of priorities. These included a space that I could use as a studio or a studio itself, more distance from neighbors as the ones we had were a mere 10 feet away, a larger yard with space to plant a garden and more room for the bug to play outside. We soon realized that that was not going to happen in Louisville, especially in our price range. Eventually we came to the conclusion that we could get much more house/land for the money if we simply moved across the river to Southern Indiana. While we looked, I started painting the exterior of the house. We found a place after a few weeks of looking and bought it. Then the nightmare began. I won’t belabor the dreadful nature of moving only to say that I still don’t feel like it’s done. All my ceramics stuff is strewn amongst furniture and a riding lawn mower I had to purchase in the attached two-car garage that will be my new space to work (or hopefully just part of my new space). Everything is in piles and boxes and the few times I’ve had to find things I’ve failed. We’ve been officially living here for months yet every day I drive into Louisville and work on the old house which is yet to be put on the market. As with all home improvement and I’m sure anyone who’s ever done any will understand exactly what I mean, the unforeseen obstacles far outnumber the tasks to be completed. So, let’s just concentrate on what was once my studio. This takes me back to my very first blog post that showed the transformation from my tiny space to the much larger space the addition to the house provided. Here’s a couple pics of that transformation…

Little did I know those 5 years ago that I would move away from all that work I did. Anyway, here’s what the studio looked like while I was working in it…

So after about a week of moving just studio stuff, the space looked like this…

Then there was drywalling, mudding and trim work…

And finally the finished room which does not belie its history in the least…

Of course, seeing as how I built the original room, this was probably the easiest room to deal with of the whole house. My first real nightmare began as I had to replace the shower upstairs. It was one of those 32″ x 32″ plastic insert showers (which I originally put in 22 years ago). The plastic became faded and stained over the years and no amount of scrubbing could make it look ok. I figured it’d take me 2 or 3 days and I didn’t finish for 2 weeks. The story of steps backward is too long and boring to elaborate. After almost all the furniture was removed from the house and the shower was done, our realtor came back over and added more to the list. Two regular doors and one set of french doors were added to the list which in itself didn’t seem like that big of a deal either. Of course the house is 100 years old and there is not a doorway, wall, floor or ceiling that is level, square or plumb. My high school geometry came in handy trying to figure out how to cut the new doors into snug fitting trapezoids. There was also tons of painting, in fact, I think we’ve painted almost every room in the house and the outside and the porch. Our realtor is coming this Monday and I’ve already told her that I’ve reached the point of “I’m not gonna do anything else” so we’ll see what happens. So in a literal sense, we’ve traded our urban lifestyle for a completely different rural life style. Even though I didn’t get to make any ceramics all summer, or ride my bike, or do anything really other than work on the old house I was able to accomplish something else in parallel which also can best be show as a before and after…

As you can see in the picture the bug really enjoyed combing it in the wrong direction. Then there was the during…

I should have done something to get arrested for since I already had the mugshot. And finally…

So… Indiana. We’ve got 3.5 acres, few neighbors and they’re not within spitting distance, a creek across from the end of the driveway, lots of trees, darkness at night, a basket ball court (every Indiana home has one), periods of stunning silence, propane for fuel and it looks like I’m gonna need a chain saw and a tiller. I’ve been thinking of writing to the department of motor vehicles and proposing a new state slogan for license plates and such… “Indiana, the land of slow transactions”. My only real complaint so far has been the internet. It never occurred to me that this would be a problem and although I did ask the woman that lived here before us if she had internet but I guess I should have dug deeper. I doubt that it would have swayed us but it has been like going back in time as far as speed. I certainly cannot open two tabs on my browser at the same time and netfl1x just stops mid-movie but it’s doable. One surprise has been the lawn mowing. It takes me 2.5 hours which at first I was not ok with but there is something about it that’s enjoyable. Probably that I cannot hear anything except the motor, I cannot receive phone calls but most of all I can look behind me and feel a small sense of accomplishment as I compare the uncut grass to the recently cut grass. The smell of the grass has memories flooding back as I remember my chore of mowing the lawn as a boy, mowing for money in high school, and mowing the roughs at a golf course in Louisville the second summer of undergraduate school when I locked up the motor on the owner’s Allis-Chalmers tractor because I didn’t keep up with the daily 3 quarts of oil it burned. I’m planning a big garden next year and maybe some chickens. Here’s some shots of Sofia’s creek…

Here’s some pics of the new place but there are so many trees that you can’t really see the house or even the yard. These were taken from the upstairs porch…

During the move I found this folded quote by Bertrand Russell that I got from my Dad’s wallet after he died…

The bug and I have been doing some collaborative drawing/watercolors and I just spent about a half hour trying to send the pictures from the 1pad to the desktop but gave up because of the sterling dialup-like speeds we get out here in hoosierland. This is the only one I have on this machine…

Well, that’s the update. Leaving with a portrait of the mad potter of Floyds Knobs…

Mount Up For A (Re)Treat…

Not sure if you all are aware but the Mary Anderson Center for the Arts located at Mount St. Francis in Indiana, just a short hop across the river from downtown Louisville will be having their first potters’ retreat this summer from June 11th – 14th, with Adam Field, Kristen Kieffer and Matt Long as the inaugural presenters. This three day demonstration based workshop will showcase three highly regarded ceramic artists.

The Mary Anderson Center for the Arts is located on the grounds of Mt. St. Francis, IN. We are just across the river from Louisville, KY and a short 25 minute drive from the Louisville airport on 450 acres of beautiful woods, fields and a lake. The bug and I have spent many afternoons walking around the lake on the hiking paths and simply enjoying the quiet peaceful landscape.

If you get a hankerin’ to attend and/or need more information they have a new website you can check out. For general info click here.

For registration click here.

And there’s info on the schedule here.

As you may know, my buddy Steven Cheek is in charge of putting on this event and it promises to be a wonderful clay-centered treat. Here’s a quote from Steven… “I am very excited about this workshop and I would love to have a great turnout. I have created a facebook event for this and I am in the process of the final big push for this event. I have extended the early registration out to May 15. If you have any questions feel free to contact me at stevengcheek(at)earthlink.net.” Here’s pic of Adam doing his thing…

And Kristen…

And of course Mr. Matt Long…

So anyway, if you’re keen on a workshop to attend, this has a bit of something for everyone to be held in an idyllic natural setting. And maybe, if you’re lucky, you can go swimming with a friar!

Spring Break Firebug/Toads…

It’s been a while so let’s get down to business with the really important stuff. The butt dictionary…

It doesn’t have all of them but there’s a few new ones. It is currently spring break here in Louisville and we spent a couple days down at Lake Cumberland at some friends’ “camp”. I use the quotes there only because it’s nicer than my house. Here’s the view from the deck…

A brief history… Lake Cumberland is actually the dammed Cumberland River. Years ago my friends purchased property on a bluff overlooking one of the many many arms of the lake that were formed when these “hollers” were flooded. The property is only a parcel where there are probably over a hundred lots. When my friends started building, a problem occurred with the dam and the lake had to be partially drained. It was supposed to be fixed and return to previous levels within a year or so but it apparently presented more problems to the Army Corps of Engineers than initially suspected and now it’s been 8 (I think) years and although the water level has increased finally in the last year or so, it’s still quite low. The good news as far as I’m concerned is that the drained lake put the kibosh on building of camps and we were literally the only ones there… not another human in sight save a few bass boats that tried to make their way up the creek that was once the lake. The first day we went down to the tributary in front of the camp and explored with the bug. She found toads…

And here’s a rare pic of Mom with the bug…

So it was a few days with no internet, no phone, too much food and much peace and quiet. One highlight for Sofia was the campfire. Just typing that makes me cringe with the realization that we are not spending enough time out in the woods. Anyway, there’s no bigger bunch of firebugs than potters and this may be where it all begins…

Another highlight that I didn’t get pics of was a small pond with, really, hundreds of mating toads. Under the surface of the water were wads of what looked like yarn but were in fact long strands of eggs. There had to be tens of thousands of them. In other news, we broke down and got an iPad which has allowed me to use instagram. I read that someone (I think it was Carol Epp) said at NCECA that instagram is the crack c0caine of social media. I can see why. I had tried it before with an old iP0d but the resolution was low and I didn’t like the picture quality. Needless to say, it allows me to post in progress pics without coming upstairs, downloading pics from camera to desktop, resizing in photoshop and then posting. Here’s a collection of some of the greenware I’ve been working on…

I’m happy at this stage of the process and am looking forward to seeing them finished. As always, there’s that one last hurdle and I’ve got a bunch of new color combos I’m itching to try out too. I was invited to participate in an Emerging Artists show in Houston at the 18 Hands Gallery. My friends Mattie and Katie in Houston went to see it and sent me this pic…

That’s all I have for now.

Nuke The Old Uke/Alabamy Clay…

The bug got a new uke. It’s a bit of a step up from her pink beginner’s uke and it’s wooden. Regardless of appearance, it sounds better…

A friend told me that at the Guitar Center stores they won’t allow anyone to play “Stairway To Heaven” in the store. I’ve never been interested to learn it but this prohibition has inspired me to learn just enough of the intro to maybe one day get thrown out of the store. In other news, Sebastian and I traveled down to Birmingham for the Alabama Clay Conference. I was a bit remiss in the photography department but managed to get a few shots. A good time was had by all and I got to reconnect with acquaintances that are fast becoming friends. There was the big Alabama clay sale reception the first night, the presenters’ exhibition reception the second night and the big beer party/mug exchange the third night. I got lucky this year and got Megan Gulland’s stached mug…

Here’s a shot of the commode that’s askew…

I see now that it’s at a hangle to allow a bit more space to step in and out of the shower but still it seems a bit of bad planning at the very least. Here’s some shots from the clay conference. I apologize for the quality of some of the shots at the exhibition. It was in a very cool space with big windows and although there was probably plenty of light during the day, it was quite dark that evening so many of the shots were just too dark to be worth posting…

Mr. Beasecker throwing very precise pieces. Here’s some of his cups…

Gary and Daphne Hatcher presented also and had great stories of there idyllic pottery in Texas. Here’s Gary throwing…

I didn’t get a good pic of Daphne on stage but here’s a piece (albeit dark) that was at the reception. It’s quite big and looked almost like cast bronze on the exterior…

Last but not least was Bonnie Seeman. I’ve always admired her work and after seeing her presentation at the end I am even more admiring. Here’s one of the pieces she was working on and then a couple that were at the show…

I also got to see 4 of Curtis Benzle’s pieces. I always loved his work but had never had the opportunity to see any in person. They are so beautiful and delicate and translucent…

I don’t usually hawk for others but I bought Mr. Sherrill’s new trim tool which I thought a bit steep but I have to report that I love this tool. If you have a foot fetish like me and spend too much time trimming, this is quite a fine tool…

Lastly, I’m experiment with something completely different and I’m not sure where it’s going or if it’s going but am quite excited by the prospects…

That’s all I have.

Universal Artist Statement/Polar Horcrux/Blog Anniversary/David Katz/Homework…

I recently went to an artist’s reception with a friend who is not an artist or craftsperson and afterwards he asked me over a beer if I had read the artist statement on the wall outside the gallery’s entrance. I said that I hadn’t and he expressed his view that it sounded like a bunch of mumbo jumbo and didn’t make any sense. I tried to explain to him that most of these statement end up sounding similarly because of a series of factors. The main one being that visual artists are not necessarily writers. Also, some people do not dwell on explanations for the things they make. I mentioned some other things but this was pretty unsatisfactory for him which led to the question of why are people writing them or why are they required to write them. I certainly do not want to enter this fray here as debates about artist statements online seems ongoing with the debate raging and covering the continuum from there’s no need and they’re absurd to they are absolutely necessary, etc. I only mention this because it reminded me of my long forgotten solution to this problem which I employed for the artist statement that accompanied my BFA exhibition. Since I used this successfully back in 1982, I figured I’d offer it up for anyone who may be struggling with writing an effective statement. Basically I plagiarized Earth Wind and Fire song lyrics. Fortunately for me, the temporary gallery director where my BFA show was exhibited was unfamiliar with the Earth Wind and Fire “lexicon”. So here’s a youtube of the song which wordpress won’t let me embed…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9GOkGu8qCs

The song is titled “All About Love” and if you think you might be inclined to use it as I did it is well worth the listen… just skip to the 3 minutes 10 seconds mark on the video. If you’re not that interested or simply don’t have the time, here’s post the pertinent quote that I lifted:

Now, I want you to stop whatever you’re doing.
Just stop.
Cause I’m gonna rap to you for a moment.

You know, they say there’s beauty
In the eyes of the beholder.

Which I say is not the fact.
’cause you are as beautiful as your
Thoughts, right on?

You know, for instance, we study all
Kinds of sciences, astrology, mysticism,
world religion, so forth you dig.
And like coming from a hip place, all these things help
Because it gives you an inside your inner self
Have mercy!

Now, there’s an outer self we got to deal with
The one that likes to go to parties,
One that likes to dress up, be cool
And look pretty, on ego-trips and all this.

Hey y’all, I’m trying to tell you,
You gotta love you. and learn all the beautiful things around you,
Trees and birds. and if there ain’t no beauty,
You got to make some beauty. Have mercy!
Listen to me, y’all!

So there ya go… problem solved right? In other news, we are in the midst of a week long polar horcrux. There’s a coating of ice on everything which is beautiful…

Here’s my poor little bent cedar…

The electricity went out two nights ago but fortunately it was only for 5 or 6 hours. Strangely enough, right in the midst of the polar horcrux, we had a 65 degree day on Saturday which seemed like a good reason to take the dog to the park. I figured it would be muddy but had no idea how muddy. Sunglasses had fun, happier than a pig in shite…

Also, my 5 year anniversary of the blog has occurred. Here’s the obligatory shots of Sofia from my second post ever through to a current one to show how much difference 5 years can make.

Whilst on the subject of the bug, here’s what has become a typical example of her homework. Can you get the correct answer? (hint: Hamin’s going to have a long and difficult life)…

This is not an isolated example. A couple weeks ago she had homework about fractions with the numerator and denominator labelled only they had the upper number labelled denominator and the lower one labelled numerator. And don’t get me started on the reading comprehension homework. The little stories seem to have been written by 3rd graders instead of educators. Finally, I went out to IUS last week to see some work by David Katz. If you get a hankerin’, head over to his website here. Here’s a shot with Mr. Katz present…

Here’s one with the man, Brian Harper, sporting his Jeremiah Johnson beard…

Apparently these yellow metal-looking parts of the piece were made in advance and the webs between were made with simple wet clay. I have to say that I was kinda blown away at these because I simply assumed (even though I was right next to them) that they were made of steel. I also thought that they worked well as stand alone pieces…

That’s all for now.

Why Are You Carrying That Empty Cup?…

I’ve kept tight-lipped about this for far too long so the time is finally here. Regular readers may remember this post about how movie and tv makers use stand-ins for the backs of actors’ heads in the infamous over-the-shoulder shots. I have since trained myself with limited success to not dwell on the foreground blur that’s supposed to be the actual actor in the scene only to transfer my observational skills to the most bothersome of all movie and tv nonsense… the EMPTY to-go coffee cup…

First off, we’ve all come to know the manner in which a cardboard cup acts when it either has a liquid in it or is empty. I, personally, have 55 years of this experience. Now that I’ve started noticing more and am completely unable to ignore it anymore, I don’t think I’ve ever seen movie of tv show that has the to-go cup with any liquid in it. Consequently, the scene breaks down because even the best actors can’t make the empty cup they hold to their mouth or set on the table look like it has liquid in it. I’ve even seen scenes where the actor takes the “last” swig and finishes the drink only to later pick the “now empty EMPTY cup” up and take a sip as though it were full again… continuity problems. I don’t really understand this problem as putting a couple ounces of water in the cup would not mean any more expense, would not present a hazard on the set if spilled and wouldn’t be something with alcohol or caffeine in it that would alter the performance. Last but not least, it’s disposable and it would be nice if every now and then the cup was handmade. Enough of that, how about the weather… please please please stop with the polar vortex. If I hear it called that again my head’s gonna explode… reminds me of weapons of mass destruction or trickle down economics. I know it’s not sexy but it’s just cold weather and it is nothing compared to what Shackleton and his crew endured. On the up side, we had enough snow in Kentucky that was packy enough to make a snowman…

This is one of the few occasions where Sofia allows me to take her picture anymore. The cold weather is hindering some progress in other areas, namely delivery of things from distant locations and as far as clay work is concerned I cannot use my garden hose to rinse clay from my sieve. Meanwhile, I’m making a bunch of cups. Here’s some shots…

Don’t Steal From JOM!…

Esta el 1 de Enero. I must agree with all the people (and apparently there were thousands and thousands) on twitter who are amazed that the United States is 2014 years old. Whew! I can’t believe we made it… hell, that’s almost as long as the earth has existed. Talk about narcissism, wow. I can’t believe also that somehow the United States got the world to use our country’s inception to mark their years by as well as ours. Along the same lines, I feel I must relay some holiday stories… of course the only reason I’m calling them holiday stories is because they happened in late December, nothing else. My friend and I have been frequenting a Thai restaurant for lunch periodically over the past year and (as I always do) I find something I like and settle on that item from the menu. The point being that we’ve been enough times over the year to have gotten all the wait staff to wait on us and the order always goes the same way. We order the dish and the wait-person asks how hot we want it. The scale is 0-5. My friend always says 0 and I always say 5. So a week or so ago we get a waitress that we’ve had several times and we order and it gets to the question and my friend says 0 and I say 5. She looks at me and says “you can go higher than 5 if you want”. At this juncture, I have to admit that I fell for it. I immediately perked up thinking to myself… hmmm, I wonder if it goes to 10 and how nice and hot that would be. So I ask, “how high can I go?” Inimitably, she says, “as high as you want”. Wow! Of course she is oblivious to the fact that this is the epitome of nonsense. I say, “how about 50,000?”. Apparently, this was too subtle as she giggles dismissively, turns and walks off. I guess I could belabor the point and parse the various layers of nonsense but I’ll leave it at that. On to the bank. I received a check from the xmas sale and it’s made out to JIM GOTTUSO… all caps. My deposit slip also has my name on it… JIM GOTTUSO, all caps too. The check was printed (on a printer) and upon closer inspection it was originally printed and said JO GOTTUSO and afterward someone took a pen and made the O into and I and added an M. So I endorse the back of the check dutifully ignoring my belief that signatures are such a bunch of horse shite altogether and present docs to the teller. So she looks at the deposit slip and flips the check over and pauses. She has a confused look on her face and I say, “What’s the problem?” “Well, it’s just that the name after ‘Pay To The Order Of’ has been changed.” I haven’t grasped the level of absurdity yet and say “well, my last name is spelled correctly which is unusual and you can see that it’s exactly the same as on my deposit slip.” She says, “yeah, but it says JOM”. So with all the non-sarcastic-ness that I can muster I say, “I have never in my whole life met someone named Jom have you?” “Well no.” she says. But she keeps staring at it and I finally say, “what would you like me to do?” She says, “on the back of the check above where you’ve endorsed it, you need to endorse it with the wrong name”. At this point I haven’t even broached the subject that it originally said JO not JOM and if I’m gonna endorse it with the original wrong name it should be JO not JOM so I tell her to look closely at the M and see that it was printed by hand along with the I that’s written over the O. She gets even more flustered and calls the manager over. I’m thinking, oh great she’ll clear it all up. The teller explains the whole thing (rather poorly I might add) and the manager says to the teller, “you’re right and you’ve done everything correctly”. She then turns to me and says that I need to endorse above the original endorsement with the wrong name. Then she leaves. I ask the teller, “what’ll happen if I just leave it the way it is?”. She says it might get kicked back. So… the endorsement detectives have spoiled my efforts at fraud. You see although I have never actually met another person with my last name (other than a very few relatives) and have only ever heard of very few Gottusos (actually only 1 before the wonder we know as FaceCrap… I mean book) the bank teller did prevent me from finding a man (in Louisville) named Jom Gottuso, stealing his check from a ceramic sale, endorsing incorrectly and depositing his money in my bank. Poor Jom… but it’s a good thing he’s being looked out for. And then there’s this…

Can’t really do justice to explaining this wonderful occurrence but suffice to say I was behind this young dude, not going very fast and without a blinker he decided to take a U-Turn into a waiting area in front of the water company’s parking lot. In addition to not using the blinker, he swung wide right before turning left (which looked like he was turning right onto the road across from the water company). As he swung back across both lanes of the road he all but stopped before actually leaving the road so that when he had almost stopped, his front end was blocking the oncoming lane and his rear end was blocking my lane… and I skidded but not in advance enough to not hit him…

I tried to explain to him as we waited for the police (that didn’t come) that the only two explanations for what happened were the one I just mentioned and that he was innocently making a left turn and I just sped up and rammed his driver’s side door. He swore it was the latter. Now I’ll admit that I’ve often been behind people and fantasized about ramming into them but of course, I’ve never done that. That’s enough of that. In other news I received a letter from a painter who informed me that my pot that he had purchased was now the subject of a recent painting…

So there ya go, my bowl is in a painting. If you get a hankerin’, here’s Mr. Gary Drake’s website. Here’s some pots that came out of my last firing…

Colder Than A Brass (Singing) Bowl On The Shady Side Of An Iceberg…

It’s that time of year again. Trip to Des Moines, Halloween, Sofia’s birthday and this year the now infamous cross-country state championships. I traveled to my friend Ig’s house last week since he is visiting from his two year overseas trip. On the way there I stopped off in Champaign-Urbana to visit with Mr. Don Pilcher. I didn’t stay too long but got a peek at his new work which was very cool and we sat and talked for an hour or so. The trip to Iowa was filled with coffee, dinners with friends and long nights conversing on anything and everything. The last night there, Ig hosted dinner with good friends Loulou, Mark and Tom. Here’s a shot of my good friend Mark…

Always a pleasure to hang out with Mark. Ig brought home a couple of Tibetan “singing bowls” which are hammered brass and are used in conjunction with meditation. We all played with the bowls for quite some time. To make the bowl sing, one must take the felt-covered rod with a handle and rub it around the rim much in the same manner that people rub their finger on the rim of a crystal goblet. Once the bowl starts singing, the pleasant ringing sound is sustained for a remarkably long time and apparently meditat-ors/ers try to match the tone to the pitch of their own OM sound. Here’s a link to a video of Ig and Ellen banging on the bowls, they’re upside down but it’s posted just to get an idea of the sound. Unfortunately, wordpress won’t allow me to embed these videos anymore (or else I’m unaware how to) so if you’re interested you’ll have to go to the following link…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqXHWN1Xg1c&noredirect=1

Of course, not being satisfied to simply bong the bowls and listen, I tried to have this all happen with it on my head and had trouble concentrating on the sound as I was sure the heavy brass bowl would topple off my top…

So after driving all day Friday to come home, Saturday Sofia and I had to drive to Lexington for the state cross-country tournament. I agreed against my better judgment. We left 2 hours early to arrive one hour early and after leaving the interstate to travel the last 8 miles on a two lane country road, we got to about 2 1/2 miles from the entrance to the park where the event was taking place and the traffic came to a halt. We inched along and made it to her school’s “tent” to sign in one minute after the race began. So that was bust and we headed back home. Here’s the bug… “hey, you lookin’ at me?”…

Later this week is birthday and Halloween and then a couple free weeks before the insanity of holiday bullshite. Before I left on the trip Sofia and I spent a bit of time at a workshop at U of L where Christyl Boger was demonstrating making figurative work using coils. Here’s a couple shots of Christyl…

Ran a bisque before I left and haven’t finished unloading it yet but here’s some shots of the greenware…

Until next time.

Diggin’ With The Clawhammer…

We all have our bright ideas and occasionally I get one that seems to make perfect sense and then when it no longer is efficient to abandon that idea, I realize that maybe it was really a very stupid idea. Over the years these ideas have fallen into categories. A recurring category involves digging. My basement is/was a disaster area with my kiln, shelves, boxes, peanuts, bubble wrap, raw materials, and about a half ton of clay. Of course there’s remnants all over the basement of other activities pursued over the years. This includes woodworking with all the assorted tools (planer, sanders, clamps, router, saws, drills, a plethora of hand tools and quite a pile of assorted hardwoods) and sculpture that includes bronze ingot, aluminum, welding supplies, micro-crystalline wax, wax working tools, metal chasing tools, etc. not to mention piles of driftwood and other found objects like disassembled old fashion typewriters and 2 disassembled pianos. So most of the accumulation (including the 2 pianos, hardwood, fulfillment supplies and on and on) was crammed up in the crawlspace. Fortunately, I don’t remember the days of awful capering around the crawlspace hauling heavy 20 foot lumber. So anyway, I decided it was finally prudent to admit to myself that, at 55, I will no longer be pursuing any of these old pursuits and waterproof and insulate the crawlspace, give away or throw away as much of the non-clay stuff as possible and make the basement a slightly more useful space. While insulating, my bright digging idea came to me and I decided that if I dug a walkway into the crawlspace after dragging all the detritus out that I could simply walk into the crawlspace and put my dry raw materials on the un-dug portion next to my walkway. This would make the raw materials impervious to moisture (if my basement still leaks) and free up actual floorspace. So there you have it… digging. It seemed like a good idea but unfortunately, the dirt in the crawlspace is like hardpan and a simple shovel will not work. As you can see from the next couple photos it looks like I had help from a sabertooth beaver when in fact I had to use my trusty estwing clawhammer (not my Framus clawhammer banjo) to dig out the walkway a couple inches at a time and carry the dirt 5 gallon bucket at a time out of the basement and into a wheelbarrow to deposit the dirt at the far end of the backyard…

And here’s a shot of it with raw material stacked on the sides…

Now if you’re thinking, hey what a great idea… ixnay on that. In the 90+ degree heat for days digging with the clawhammer, I felt like (a miner searching for a heart of gold) a creature whose only purpose was to take water into my body and sweat it out. But it’s done and it’s finally seeming like a bit of progress. In other news, the show I’m in out in Medicine Hat at Medalta is online here. Check it out if you get a hankerin’. Here’s the pieces I have in it…

Sometimes I hear people talking (that means I’m eavesdropping) and decrying the wasted youth of the generations of kids that follow their generations and saying there’s no hope etc. and that they’re not equipped to handle the crises of our contemporary world and of course this is all debatable for sure but sometimes I run into evidence that our world is in good hands after all. This is just such evidence and begs the question on most everyone’s mind… What does the fox say?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE

And for some reason, stupid wordpress will no long insert the video into the post but click it, you won’t be disappointed. Last but certainly not least here’s the bug bugging with her soldier costume complete with that damned British heraldic lion…

You Say Canandaigua, I Say Canadarago…

Haven’t posted in a while because I decided to try to get some of the long neglected household projects addressed. So far, I’ve fixed the roof, trimmed all the trees that touched the roof, put gutters on the front of the house, repaired the floor of the porch where the water was rotting the boards, made a vinyl skirt on the exterior along the foundation where water’s coming in, re-cemented the interior wall of the foundation and gave it two coats of dry-lok and now I’m in the middle of insulating under the floor on one half of the crawlspace. I’m running out of gas though and my wheel has been calling for me. Last week, Sofia and I made a trip to central NY that coincided with a surprise 50th birthday of my younger brother. He was, of course, surprised because his birthday isn’t for another month or so but his kids arranged it then because they have to go back to college. It ended up being like a mini family reunion as my Mom and sister made it up from Florida. I have to say since I really haven’t been in NY during the summer in many years that the place is breathtakingly beautiful and the weather was cool and dreamy. The highlight of the trip for the bug was taking my brother’s boat on on Lake Canandarago which I was surprised to find that it is so close to where my siblings live. The bug went tubing for the first time and swam in a frigid northern lake. Here’s some shots of the captain at the helm and some tubing shots…

Napping before the boat took off…

And the main event…

Dad even tried it with a frozen shoulder…

As it turns out the Ommegang brewery is about 15 miles from the lake in Cooperstown so we took a little detour over there but unfortunately the tours and tastings weren’t for hours so we got an Ommegang frisbee and split. I did spend a day at my cousin’s home (the one that brews crazy amounts of beer). We drank much and had some lively conversation. So that’s about it for now. Oh, and anyone who’s interested in how progressive Kentucky is should definitely watch this video. I tried to embed it but it wouldn’t allow it so you have to follow the link. It’s well worth it though.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/522314

A Touch Of Burl…

When growing a new goatee…

One must always remain vigilant as to how close one might be getting to the Burl Ives snowman character on Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. This is especially of concern when one reaches an age where the goatee consists of white hair.

Forewarned is forearmed.

Might Need A Transplant…

I don’t usually weigh in on current events on this blog but some developments are just a bit too important not to at least mention. So it appears that now it’s possible to perform a “full human head transplant”. I’d like to leave it at that but I have way too many questions to stop there. First off, shouldn’t it be called a “full body transplant”? I mean if I needed a new head (there’s many acquaintances who would probably maintain that I do, in fact need one), wouldn’t the new head (you know, from the guy who just died in a motorcycle accident but whose head is still “viable” because he obeyed the helmet laws) come with its own consciousness and all the memories etc. of his life? I maintain that, at this point in my life, I’d rather keep the head I have and get a new body to go with it. Imagine a body without plantar fasciitis, frozen shoulder, bad eyesight, stiff nose hairs, etc. In fact, they may as well set up a list like an organ donor list. Maybe one could request certain types of bodies they would be interested in. For instance, maybe you don’t want to have a hairy back? Maybe one wants the toe next to their big toe to be longer than the two adjacent toes? Opposable thumbs? Definitely more muscular calves. So I’m kinda on the fence. If given the choice would I opt for the body of a Cirque du Soleil performer, Brad Mehldau, or fall back on an old faithful Rush Limbaugh. A hard choice for sure but it begs an even more perplexing question… without the donor body’s brain would the new me be able to do acrobatics, play jazz or talk out of my ass all day or do those activities require the old head. It’s a brave new world and I’ll have to contemplate these issues much more intensely to move forward. As long as I’m posting content from somewhere else, check out what the Japanese have given us lately…

Oh, what the hell, Sofia came home the other day all excited about how funny this video is, so here ya go…

In clay news, I have new work up at Schaller Gallery…

Last but not least, I got the kiln fixed and fired. This was a large load of new color tests. I’m ambivalent because I got some very satisfactory results but also had about 30 pieces that will be heading to the shard pile. I’ve been uploading to Etsy but it may take a week or so but I compiled this picture of the new color combos. Much info for me to digest but I’m pretty excited about it…

Sayanora.

Thermocouples And Relays…

What’s this? Digging in the kiln guts again…

I was firing off a bisque and I got a dreaded errd error code which according to the manual means that the actual temperature is more than X (can’t remember exactly) degrees away from the set point. Well, that cleared everything up right away. I guess all I had to do is get those two measurements closer together. After repeated “shazams!” and “voltos!”, I called the controller person who was extremely helpful and two days, two relays and two thermocouples later, I think I’m back in business. The lesson I’m taking away is, if I’m gonna replay relays, thermocouples or elements… I should just replace them all. Duh. In other news we had our beach vacation a week ago or so on St. George Island just off the panhandle of Florida. It was hot and although the forecast said that it would rain everyday, it never rained once. I guess the lesson I’m taking away from that is, don’t pay attention to weather forecasts… duh. Hell, I think I learned that lesson in high school. Anyway, the bug had a great time. She swims like a fish… at least 6 or 7 hours a day. Here’s some beachy pics…

Then one day, this washed up on the beach…

Not sure what it was but it had sand in it’s beard and squinty eyes. Hopefully, I’ll have a glaze firing soon. Sofia’s been drawing like gangbusters lately and I keep taking pics but I had such a backlog that I decided to put all the pics together into one big file (click to enlarge)…

Bike Crashing And Lettuce Pilfering…

Things are moving right along here in the very temperate Kentucky spring. This saved my life or at least kept me from having a serious brain injury…

I was taking my normal 30 mile ride a week or so ago and this route passes by downtown Louisville’s newest “attraction”, a pedestrian bridge over the Ohio River with an enormous spiral ramp on the Louisville side…

My interest in the bridge is that it would provide cyclists with a safer route to Indiana than the 2nd St. bridge which is not a bridge I’d take to get to Indiana on my bike. Unfortunately the Indiana side’s ramp remains unfinished. Months ago Sofia and I traipsed up the ramp and across the river only to find that the other side was closed still. Someone told me that it would be finished by late May so when I was riding by I thought I’d go up on my bike and see if it was finished… it wasn’t. As I came down the ramp (which wasn’t crowded) I approached two groups of people. Three were on my right coming up the ramp and three teenage girls were on my left going down the ramp. As I approached, the 3 coming toward me were closer to me and the 3 moving away were getting further away creating a gap which was more than ample to zig through. So I drifted to the left intending to cut to the right as I passed the closer group and as I passed them the girl closest to me moving away caught a glimpse of me in her periphery and panicked. She did that thing squirrels do when you approach them in your car. Fake left, then right, then left. Her eventual direction, of course, was into me and my handle bar snagged her purse strap. And down I went, smashing my protected head on the concrete as well as scraping my right shoulder, elbow, hip and worst, my knee. As I lie writhing in pain, the girls decided to pick my bike up for some reason and didn’t understand that my right foot was still clipped to the pedal. During the first 30 seconds or so, you know, when the pain is too intense to really speak… the girls are lifting my bike and wrenching my ankle because my shoe was still engaged. I finally managed to squeak out, “my foot is attached”. Oh they said and laid the bike back down and I twisted my foot free. As they walked away I heard one say, “that’s kinda dangerous”. I’m glad she survived OK. Anyway, no broken bones and no concussion or brain damage. Hurray for the helmet.

In other news, the bug is 4 days away from finishing the 2nd grade… hard to believe. Here she is making fairy houses at some school thingie…

Another thing they did at the school was plant a garden with a bunch of different greens. Since it’s the last week, each child harvested a bunch of greens to bring home… they were delicious. There was quite a bit left over and the bug’s teacher told Mom that if she wanted to take some of what was left to help herself because it was just gonna go to waste. So the following day, Mom walked Sofia to school and afterwards grabbed some romaine and collard greens. The day after that a woman at the school called her into her office to let her know that a different woman at the school had seen Mom “stealing” from the kids’ garden and took a picture of her in the act with her phone. Of course, this all got straightened out but we thought it amusing that someone would think we’d go on a lettuce pilfering extravaganza. Oh well. I’m done throwing, trimming, terra sig-ing and burnishing and am ready to begin shellacking next week. Here’s some shots at various stages…

That’s all I have… sayanora.

Cool May Day…

For my 500th post I’d like to start by kvetching about the endless “special” days… you’ve heard it before, Mother’s day, Derby Day, Memorial Day, Valentine’s Day, Thunder Over Louisville, Easter, Tie You Own Shoes Day, Walk Backwards Day, Clean The Camera Lens Appreciation Day, Grey Moustache Awareness Day, Hammer Toe Awareness Day, Dogwood Pruning Day, Don’t Buy Reading Glasses Day, Do These Make My Cankles Show Day, We Need More Days Day, Green Day, National Haircut Day, Integumentary Care Day, Peeing Outdoors Day, Clean Your Dashboard Day, No Deodorant Day, Train Graffiti Awareness Day, Don’t Give Me That Day, Busboy Day, Pepperoncini On Your Pizza Day, Ignore Facebook Day, Chase A Raccoon With A Broom Day, Unmarried Sister Awareness Day, Going Off My Diet Day, Throw One Back For Me Day, Ride Your Bike One-Handed Day, Swim With Long Pants On Day, Dig A Tunnel In Your Back Yard To China Day, Shoot At Aircraft With Your Homemade Potato Gun Day, Oh, Isn’t It Such A Coincidence That Two People In A Room Of Over 500 Have The Same Birthday Day, Drive Without Texting Day (actually that one got shortened to Drive Without Texting Hour because no one could do it for a whole day), Save Your Toenails In A Mint Tin Day, Sit Without Crossing Your Legs Day, Steal A Fork At Lunch Day… oh shite, the list goes on and on. Actually we are having the coolest spring weather in memory. It’s 54 degrees as I type and it’s May 12th. Anyway, went out to the mount last night for Amelia Stamp’s opening reception. There was a lot of nice work. Here’s a bunch of pics…

Here’s Amelia herself on the right with Joy…

Last but certainly not least, here’s the bug with a strawberry the size of an apple…

I finally have gotten back on the wheel after months of shellacking. Some greenware…

Emerging…

Well I guess the issues have been delivered by now and the cat’s already out of the bag on FB so…

I’m very excited about emerging and want to thank Ceramics Monthly for selecting me. One of the interesting things about this is that since one of the criterion is having less than 10 years in the game, I would assume that most of the emerging artist are relatively young. In my case, I got a late start and only started at the ripe age of 46. I’m not saying that 55 is old but it is well past the time when one realizes that they can no longer play the “hey, I could possibly only be halfway through my life” game. At 46, it was absurd but not necessarily impossible to live to be 92 but each year makes the game more ridiculous. My only point is that I feel a certain irony that this emerging artist is submerging simultaneously. So I sit at the wheel with my 4.0 reading glasses, aching feet and frozen shoulder and wonder how long after emerging before the submerging takes over and my pieces become smaller and smaller and blurrier and blurrier. Anyway, I’m honored to be chosen and hope the my work can continue to emerge and my health can continue to resist submerging. Thanks for all the well wishes! Here’s some new yunomis…

It’s Not Like Me To Brag But…

Well, I’ll keep this short because boasting is almost universally considered in bad taste but sometimes I think one needs to toot one’s own horn. So here goes… it just so happens that our kitchen faucet is the same exact kitchen faucet as the coach on Friday Night Lights has in their kitchen…

How many people can say that? Look at that faux brushed nickel surface and the way the water comes out all bubbly on the broccoli. So in case you think I’m serious, check out our new band…

“She’s an American Dog”

AKAR Yunomi Invitational 2013…

It’s live!…