BACK IN THE BUCKET

I worked for two weeks on this piece and I now know I have to just dump it into the recycle bucket. It's hard to say good bye, but there are fatal flaws I can't ignore. Ironically, the piece is about letting go and I see that by letting go of it I am fulfilling the concept I had hoped to convey with the artwork. This is my second try on the subject. I will try again.

REJECTED

When you see a piece of mine at a show or on my website gallery, you are looking at the end product of much exploration and failed attempts. If the clay hasn't been fired when I discover the "fatal flaw", then the clay just goes into my recycle bucket. If it has been fired then it gets sent to my garden. If I just can't stand to look at it (big failures)... they go to my shard pile. Sometimes my worst failures are the starting point of my next success. If I don't push the boundaries of what I know, nothing new happens. I have learned to embrace failure as a teacher.

DEMO

The Ceramics Annual of America was this past weekend and I want to thank all of you intrepid clay enthusiasts who braved the chaos of Fleet Week to get to the show. ( and my apologies to those who tried to be there and had to give up) Ft Mason officials should be hung from their heels for renting out the building for such a big event with almost no parking and traffic that would stop a speeding train.

I did a demo on Saturday and many times I had to wait while the Blue Angels screamed overhead. The air show was exciting...I would go out on the wharf to watch from time to time.

FOLLOWING THE MUSE

I work in a very organic mode. everything is curves and torn edges. Recently, I had a sketch materialize that was about straight lines. The figure in slices that had hard edges. I brought it to life, but now what? It doesn't fit into my body of work...or does it?

FLYING

It seems like i have spent the whole year trying to fly. My first attempts were mounted on cement blocks and secured by a piece of re-bar. I thought them very successful, but the block was cumbersome. Next, I tried hanging  pieces...those turned out so ugly, they didn't get past the bisque stage before being discarded. Most recently, I have been doing pieces that mount on the wall and have no need for other support. I thought myself clever until  discovered that they were bound to the wall and more static than most of my other work. Ah,me...what to do. Stay tuned.

PALO ALTO SHOW

The Palo Alto Clay and Glass Festival was this past weekend. Thank you to all who stopped by to buy and to talk art. It's a lot of work and I sometimes (while stuffing my pedestals into my vehicle) question whether it's worth the exertion. The answer is yes because it is one of the few times I get to show exactly the pieces I choose (not what some judge in some show chooses) and I get to talk about what I do and how I do it with people who are genuinely interested. So thank you all...you make it worthwhile.

SURGURY

I love the front of this piece, I love the back of this piece I even love the disembodied leg. But, I do not love them together. Fortunately, because I use paper clay, I can literally take a hammer to it and break the 2 halves apart. I think the leg will become part of a front-facing wall-hung piece and the back side will have a life of it's own as well. My new building method (more about this later) has brought me as many question as it has answers.

SHIPPING

After you make the art, show the art, sell the art....now you gotta ship it. I recently have been learning a great deal about how to protect and ship my work. For my money nothing protects the surface of the piece like memory foam. I wrap strategic areas before boxing it with bubble wrap. Then this goes inside a second box. Ideally this outer box is just large enough to allow for 2 inch thick pieces of styrofoam all around.  Fed X with 3rd party insurance is a good idea. I have used www.shippinginsured.com

NEW WHEELS

This is one of my favorite "older" pieces. The surface lacks what I have been able to give my more recent work. So she's getting a face-lift. A new base to add stability and a complete re-firing to improve the surface. Hello, beautiful!

ASSEMBLING

I have been building skyward with the the body parts I created in my first torrent of activity. It's much slower now as I consider how each piece fits into the whole. It must balance and work from all sides. I work on a turn-table so I can keep it flowing. 

CLEAN STUDIO/FULL STUDIO

I have been feeling the need to make something big. Maybe several somethings big. I felt I was lacking in studio space, but by cleaning off the cluttered work surfaces and putting a new top on 2 of them, I have made space for myself to work to the scale I had imagined. What I didn't imagine is just how exhausted I would become moving that much clay (about 50 lbs.) in the space of a few hours. Tomorrow I can start putting pieces together and see if I'm as clever as I think I am.

VOICES

I am always amazed how things pop up for me in my sketchbook. I have a chorus from my early teens that tells me how worthless I am. My best efforts to quiet them has met with limited success over the years. Now, here they are in my sketchbook. Bwa-ha-ha! Your in my world now! I am making a representative piece and guess what....nobody gets to speak. A discrete little piece of tape over their mouths should do it.

MODESTY

I am aware that art in public places like museums and galleries suffers from political correctness. naked forms are not easily tolerated. I am at a disadvantage because I can't imagine my figures with clothes on. Nudity has an honesty that I cherish...you can't hide anything. 

I sometimes do male figures, but what about that pesky penis. My Dancer is beautiful, but will he ever be seen in polite company? As a joke to myself, I made a little a breechcloth for him to wear.

It can be easily removed....or lifted up for a quick peek.

CAN YOU RAKU

I have been toying with Raku firing on some small test pieces. The first firing was pretty uninspiring because I couldn't wait to see the results and I kept lifting the lid of the smoke container. Yesterday I walked away and let it cook. Wow! the results were amazing. I want to take the result of these tests and do more. The surface is so blindingly bright that I had trouble getting a shot, but I think you can see how I might be seduced.

dried out

Circumstances have kept me from my work and now that I have the freedom to return to my studio, I find that everything is dried out and cold. The muse is sulking and I will have to woo her back into my presence. 

DOWN TIME

Down time... those interludes when you either by design or by accident spend time doing not much of anything. This past December was such a time for me. I couldn't work in clay so I just sketched...I gave my imagination free rein and didn't think too much about how I would produce the pieces I was drawing. They were leaping and dancing and to actually make them, I had to reinvent how I support my work. My time away from clay helped me see how much I wanted to find a way to make it happen.

OUT OF CONTROL

It has been a very interesting winter in my studio. I keep trying things and most of them have been disappointing at best, but it's the only way to find out what's possible is to try it. Right now I have a behemoth of a piece on my work table. I know what I want, but not sure how to get there. I learn every time I try something new, ...even if the whole thing falls down. part of my process is to be a little out of control. This allows the subconscious to dominate because the thinking brain is giving up and solutions occur.