studio day today

I spent my day slow cooking pork ribs and collards over a wood fire and longing to do a wood firing. I spent time creating in between stoking the smoker. I listened to the Greatful Dead outside, and the podcast "Stuff You Should Know" while in the studio. I spent time thinking tremendously about the shapes and forms I might include in my plates, the next form I will explore and I managed to get a few prototypes together for flatware handles. The whole endeavor, a service for 12, will hopefully be fired next fall in the anagama. Plates stacked 6 high (waded on scallop shells). I think about the beginning of this journey with this series, every idea began with coincidental and torturous tugs of spiritual guilt. Scallop shells, the sign of a pilgrim, seem so fitting a mark to leave on a form that will offer sustenance. The flatware handles will eventually hold silver that was forged with the hammer my uncle gave me the week before he died. The goblets intricately mimick the architecture of the cathedrals and churches of London and the dragon that was eventually slain by George. St George incidentally is the moniker that my godmother carries. The fact that I included the dragon, was also purely coincidental.

Interesting note, as I write this Angels and Demons is on STARZ and my family is watching.

My work today has me dreaming of the possibilities of Spain, my next trip to Europe.

iconic ideas? Finally, something to do with my used bike tires!

I have spent years trying to figure out how to get a tight fit on jar lids. My friend Venessa from For the Love of Bikes posted this eons ago, how did I miss it? A links to explore that shows some innovative ceramics http://www.cassiusclay.dk/

I'm reading and envious!

I am reading all the entries posted about exploring problems in a variety of books. I am hearing how excited you are to be exploring in this manner, especially now that you know a scanned sketchbook page counts as a post. I am finding that many of you still elaborate on even that information. I am very envious of your progress and I may just do the same at some point. I take in all of this and long for long periods of time in my studio where I can explore uninterrupted. It truly is like cooking one's way through a bunch of recipes!

Assignment- my blog roll is growing!

So I saw the movie "Julie and Julia" (Ephron 2009) and had decided that it would be interesting to try that from an art perspective. As I observed one of my Ceramics students work her way through Surface Design for Ceramics(Mills, 2008)and making notes in her sketchbook I decided to have my Advanced Studio explore books that interested them as well and blog about it. In the case of Maureen's book, I can't wait to get the blog link to her. Wounldn't it be interesting to have her follow along as a regular reader?
What I hope to achieve with this assignment is to open a door to a technique or series of techniques that these upper level students may not have thought to use. The culminating experience is to create a piece that uses what they have learned. I am sure the journey will be interesting for all of them.

So in the end, I am no better than my students

It wasn't that I was not taking my work seriously, it was just that my schoolwork, the trip to London and illness got in the way. So, tomorrow when I show up in the studio I will humbly explain myself. I will also share my work that I completed in London, or more correctly, the work that is in progress that is a culmination of my 7 days with the HS Choir. More later.

William Burroughs Christmas thoughts

I post this because of its Art Historical and literary value. The Beatnicks, such as Wlliam Burroughs, revolutionized modern art in such a dramatic way that I feel its important that today's young artists learn about these authors.
This particular writing was completed about 1959 and the claymation feature in 1993. The old man in the movie is William Burroughs himself. This work is both controversial and timeless. It was banned by the State of MA, and it took a Supreme Court ruling in 1966 to decide that it was not obscene.

I AM staring at you, but remember, you asked me to create a portrait

These are today's preliminary sketches.

I never thought it would be so awkward to observe my students. It is hard to look at them these days without blushing as I am getting caught in the act of creating observational drawings. Today I finally resorted to asking for a photo, just so I could complete my work without the self consciousness of staring. The problem with this is that I am not comfortable rendering from a photo, I cannot get the sense of depth that I can capture with observation.