The Sabbaticalist

A Followup on the PMC (3)

2010-08-09T12:41:00.001-07:00

To finish up, there were craft tents for Pedal Partners
...special guests...

and an impressive finish line (with my Dad their for the 6th straight year!), with people crossing the line for hours on end. Some finishing with an average of 8 mph and some finishing at 19.5 mph. All for the same cause...

And most turning in for the night to do it again on Sunday. Most of the riders were then riding from Bourne out to Provincetown, another 70 mile day. I was a one day rider this year, although I have ridden on Sunday in the past. It, too, is a special day.

Finally, a portrait of the beast that brought me...

Final stats:

6 miles to the start line

84 miles to the finish line

8.5 miles to my aunt's house (family party there and easier than dealing with the traffic!)

1.5 miles around the block a couple of times to make the odometer a nice round number.

100 miles in all. A very special Saturday.

So far I have raised $1550 this year. $1450 to go by October 1. If you can help...

But most importantly, I want to thank my family and friends for making this possible. You are amazing and generous and kind with your encouragement and generousity. With your help over the years, we have raised over $18,000. It couldn't go to a better place.

A Followup on the PMC (2)

2010-08-09T12:21:00.001-07:00

One of my fascinations with this event is the personalization of this somewhat abstract cause. "Fighting cancer" is hard for me to grasp at times. How many different forms of cancer are there? How does a $25.oo or $50.00 or $250.oo donation contribute to this battle? What can we really do to make a difference?

And then I see all these shirts...

and people with ribbons and photos and signs and messages. And all of them, ALL of them are just doing what they can - banding together, eating together, riding together... its really difficult for me to describe what I feel when I'm in this event: watching survivors pedaling along (one rider with one leg blew by me at 21 mph!), being helped by twelve year olds at rest stops, overhearing conversations about sisters lost (one was lost just 4 months ago), being pulled aside by families for heartfelt thank yous (one such family spoke to me at the lunch stop and introduced me to their son, survivor of brain cancer for 7 years so far!). I feel so inadequate and powerful at the same time...

One more blog to finish it all up...

A Followup on the PMC (1)

2010-08-09T11:47:00.000-07:00

I want to get out a proper thank you to all who supported me for this weekend's ride. I am working on this electronic version and will be writing some old fashioned notes tonight and the next couple of nights. It is my hope that this version of a thank you will help illustrate what the weekend was about.

I have always been a relatively silent participant in the PMC. My family thinks I am brave but in truth, at this event, I am surrounded by a vast blanket of people who epitomize strength and bravery and character. I am always reluctant to stand out - there are so many people who have been affected by cancer, so many people with unique stories and heartbreaking battles, everyone one of us needing/wanting to do something...

And so I have been quiet. I am one of thousands. My very presence and participation in this event has been enough for me. I can raise the minimum. I can pedal the distance. That was enough. But I wanted to do something more this year. I wanted to be more of a participant. Baby steps, I know, but I decided to take pictures this year and show them. I always try and describe the event in my post-ride letter, but I thought images might help the visual among us. So here it goes...
Saturday morning was beautiful! Woke up at 5:15. On the road by 5:40...

...looking a little groggy...

...but arrived at Babson to a party. Volunteers, riders, family members energetically preparing for the ride. Donated coffee, yogurt, bagels, fruit, PB&J being consumed at an incredible rate. Disco lights and music pumping. It was high energy and a great way to psych oneself up for the task at hand.

My family showed up, bless them, at 6:30 - Liam a bit cold, obviously. They are always so good to come out and cheer me on at the send-off. My sister Kathleen and her boyfriend Randy also came (they've come every year as well!), although I didn't have the camera out at the time and I needed to wade into the sea of riders...

...to get my bike so it was a brief hello. A cheery send-off from Larry Luchino, himself a cancer survivor and then a magnificent rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner by an opera-trained rider. Send-off at Babson was at 7am.

An even larger group of riders had taken off from Sturbridge at 5am! All told, there were about 5000 bikers on the road this day!

I will continue this story with more photographs on the next post...

The PMC

2010-08-06T17:18:00.000-07:00

Community: I suppose nothing is bigger in this particular community on this weekend than the PMC. For those not in the know, this is the Pan Mass Challenge, a two day bike-athon of 180 miles or so. This is a monster fundraising event - thousands of bike riders, hundreds of volunteers, millions of dollars raised. This is my 6th year riding. The PMC raises and donates its money for the Jimmy Fund, the fundraising arm of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Amazingly, the PMC provides half of the Jimmy Funds annual total and is the single largest contributor to the DFCI.

I started this ride in memory of my mother. She died of breast cancer in 1999. She did get to see Trish and I get married, but she died before Liam was born. It was wonderful to have her at the wedding - we were married on August 1 and this was before she got really sick. It was an awful fall - she died in January. While she was never officially a grandmother, she did know that the next generation was on the way, as my nephew Ian (my brother's first born) was born just six months after she passed. She would have loved holding court with her grandkids...

Every year, I ride with ribbons. On each ribbon is the name of someone affected by cancer. My mom, my dad, my grandmother, both my blood uncles, my ceramic mentors... Some are survivors, some are battlers, and some have succumbed. My ribbon bouquet gets larger every year. This year, it is extremely sad that I have added Sally Naser to my list. Sally is a young, elfin, energetic girl who is in my son's class. She is only 10 years old and is battling an extremely aggressive form of bone cancer. She has been getting radiation and chemotherapy all summer long and is due for an operation next week to amputate one of her legs in hopes of keeping the disease from spreading. Whenever I ride my bike, I always bring my mom along. This year, I'm bringing Sally as well.

For those wishing to donate, you can click here.

Studio: It ain't about the studio this week.

Fondue and Olives

2010-08-02T11:37:00.000-07:00

Community: Haven't been out in the community of clay as much in the past couple of weeks. I did NOT make it to Smith College to see Emily Eveleth, although I still hope to (I am heading back to VT tonight to finish up the treehouse so perhaps on my way home on Wednesday?). I have been trying to keep up with what's going in the digital information sharing world, however. On the weekend that I got reacquainted with a form I have been fond of (produced by D. Lasser ceramics in Vermont), Jim Gottuso posted on his blog, Sofia's Dad's Pots, a form that was kind of similiar, although more baroque and elegant and beautiful:

I wrote to him about the coincidence and promised to get him some images from the original source. Alas, I can not seem to negotiate D. Lasser's website to find the original form. Wanted to give proper notation (no modern-day high school plagiarist am I...)

So...

Studio: Here are some photos, then, of my interpretation of said form:

These forms are the closest - smooth transition from top form to bottom form. D. Lasser is a little psychedelic with glaze treatments and so likes really pristine surfaces for glaze spatters...

I like texture, myself, so I started to experiment with creating a zone of texture - almost like a handle - with a smooth bowl area. These are closest to what I think of as my aesthetic. I think these might be good for olives...

The next ones are a direct result of looking at Jim's work. I would never usually go as detailed as he does, but it was fun to work on these. I think of them as fondue pots - the opening nice and deep, with rests on the side for the forks. If I keep working on this form, I'll probably tone them down a bit, but who knows...?

Football at Fenway and the TreeHouse

2010-07-26T07:10:00.000-07:00

Community: I spent some time away from the studio this week. We decided as a family to build a treehouse up in Vermont and the only way to really make it happen was to take a couple of days off and spend some time up north by myself to get the platform built. I headed up Tuesday night, spent Wednesday morning at ReNew - a building salvage center - a paradise for junk hunters! The afternoon was spent laying out the materials and measuring the space. THEN, jumped in the car and drove back to Boston to see Celtic v. Sporting at Fenway...

So cool to see the bandbox outfitted with sidelines and goals! We were in the thick of Celtic supporters - drunk Irish and Scotsman singing at the top of their lungs while standing the whole time - very Euro...of course, Celia had a tough time seeing over everyone so she and I retired to the top of the section where we could walk around, get some air and cotton candy. Still, a wonderful time.

THEN, back to VT (arrived at 1:30am). Building of the platform began in earnest the next morning...
Here's the site:

Got the platform built on Thursday and the floor laid out (purple!!!!) on Friday...

Trish and the kids came up on Friday night and we worked on the "house" as a family on Saturday. Trish took photos: I'll post progress later this week...

Studio: Not much to report, obviously. Filled the bisque kiln with new mugs and am firing as I write. More mugs today?

Studio Pics and Emily Eveleth

2010-07-20T10:41:00.000-07:00

Community: Betsy came over for dinner last night and brought with her brochures from her travels to see Emily Eveleth at Smith College. I have seen Emily's work before and am glad she has gone back to donuts. She dallied briefly with bald headed portraits, which were nice, but I felt like she hadn't fully mined the donuts for all they were worth. From Betsy's report, and from the images I saw, Emily has really pushed the work - recalling northern European painting, Ansel Adams landscapes, Weston photographs - the paintings are luscious explorations of intimate landscapes, family portraiture, pornography, CSI cadaver studies...

...and they are just jelly donuts! The image above comes from Emily's website - go there! It's beautiful! Her drawings are just as powerful as her paintings!

I will try and see the show while I am in Brattleboro this week.

Studio: As promised, some photos of the revamped studio:

The new divide between show space and work space...

The window-turned-wall...

The improved shelves for work...

SummerTime!

2010-07-19T07:12:00.000-07:00

Community: Harvard came to Nobles and we fired in the heat! Kusakabe-san was back in town and we ended up doing a 16 hour firing - very different than how Nora and I have been firing. I certainly learned a lot about the possibilities of how to fire this innovative and versatile kiln. In preparation for the heat, I dusted off my sewing skills and created some shades - the kiln now has wings!

Kusakabe-san's trademark angels were again blessing the firing. The Harvard folks have been having fun posting their photos on Facebook. We had such a good time during the entire process - Wayne does a great job of teaching and the rest of the crew kept it lively and fun. We ate so well during the entire day, taking advantage of our "pizza oven".

A new goal? To write about this kiln and its genesis and submit it to The Log Book?

Studio: In my own studio, I worked hard in June to improve my space. I created more of a divide between the show space and work space, adding more shelves and a work table. I'll post images of the revamp soon. I needed more space for all the work we've been firing lately...

Also, my essay was published in Studio Potter this month - very exciting to receive it in the mail! My headmaster happened to be in the mailroom when I opened the package (they send you four copies) so I gave him one - he seemed pleased! At the same time, Laurie Erdman featured me in her Wood Fired Wednesdays - seemed like a lot was going on in a short amount of time...

Woodfire Wednesdays and Greece

2010-06-09T05:33:00.000-07:00

Community: I have really been enjoying Laurie Erdman's blog - The Spirit of Clay. We met at the NCECA pre-Conference: Making Through Living - Living Through Making". I love her format of "Wood-Fire Wednesdays" (great work there today - John Butler). The format reminds me of radio formats when I was growing up - Double-Shot Thursdays or Two-For-Tuesdays on WBCN or WAAF or whatever rock and roll station I happened to be listening to - usually hoping for some Doors or Creedence or Dire Straits. Some other ceramic possibilities? Free-Form Fridays? Slip-Cast Sundays?

Studio: My aunt Connie is coming over today. She is the Teacher Specialist with The Examined Life: Greek Studies in the Schools. She and her crew will be filming me at the wheel in order to get some visuals for their website. While my own influences aren't specifically Greek, I am a strong believer in travel as a means of learning and growing and understanding. We travelled as a family to Greece a couple of years ago and loved it - wonderful food, spectacular scenery, plakas, islands, history...and we happened to be there for Euro '08 - a great place to take in a soccer tournament. Afterwards, we determined every town in America should have an outdoor movie theater on a rooftop...the best place to watch a James Bond film!

Community and Studio

2010-06-07T05:43:00.000-07:00

Trying a new format for this blog: Community and Studio. I always seem to do better when I have a structure for my writing. I think this blog has been a little too freeform so I'll see how this framework works. The goal will be to write about work/artists/happenings in this part of the world and also give some updates of what I am working on in the studio.

Community: went to Warren Mather's talk at Lacoste Gallery yesterday. Warren's work speaks to the beauty of the ephemeral. He shoots images of water (lakes, streams, ocean) and presents them in ways that speak to the personal. Moonlight on river becomes a gorgeous calligraphic line. Raindrops on snow becomes a broadside of bulletholes. Seagrass in front of the sea becomes abstracted into a hairy hole. Snowman in a field becomes a brainscan searching for tumors. Warren uses fisheye lenses, symmetrical printing, and a glazed ceramic surface to create objects that entice the eye and invite deep observation. In addition, Warren is such a kind and nice man - it is such a pleasure to talk to him about his work.

Studio: I've continued working on gridding my pieces. I like that it allows me to explore pattern, symmetry, historic fabric like the harlequin, architecture like IM Pei, mathematical graphs, weather maps, etc. The work has progressed in a way that recalls what I wrote about Spanish architecture. I like trying to fit the contemporary with the classical, like an old city. Here's a couple images of some greenware:

The Kids Get to Glazin'

2010-05-25T05:12:00.000-07:00

The kids had a chance last week to begin to glaze some of their work that they had worked on earlier. As you can see, Celia is still very much aware of the camera whenever it is in her vicinity and Liam continues to focus on the task at hand. So interesting how the two can be so different even though we have tried to raise them with the same loving hand.

Of course, we long ago realized how different they were and now handle each kid in their own way - the trick being to keep it as fair as possible - for we will be called out instantly by one or the other if their seems to be a sniff of imbalance.

Also, last week, I got the opportunity to chaperone Liam's class to the Kennedy Museum. It was a great trip - had no idea that Kennedy's ordeal with PT109 left him and his crew stranded on islands for 9 DAYS!). Was really taken by the gathering room designed by IM Pei. Took a couple of shots with the phone of the shadows that were created:

Thought they related to my Harlequin grids and decided to play with them a bit:

We'll see where they go...

Harlequin Milk Jugs

2010-05-19T11:54:00.000-07:00

Been playing with pattern lately - gridding out the bottles, texturing in very specific places. I like that the staid form of the milk jug is livened up by the harlequin design. Harlequin was one of the old world jesters and seems a fitting way of giving these vessels some personality.

Now the trick will be to figure out how to glaze these puppies - leaving some skin available for the wood firing, of course.

Meet The Potters

2010-05-18T11:01:00.001-07:00

Meet The Potters in Brattleboro was a very fun event. Not quite sales worthy, at least for me, but it was worth it to go up and connect with all the local potters. It was held in the River Garden, a great place to show - right downtown, with skylights and plenty of room for all. We had two local acoustic bands play during the afternoon and coffee was always right there.

Here's my little setup:

I did get to trade a piece with one of my favorite Brattleboro artists: Natalie Blake. She was able to set up her stuff but had to leave to catch a plane. Her mom Mary sat the entire show. I traded one of the tokkuri's for one of her carved wall tiles - spectacular!

Also, it is always great to talk to Eric and Noelle of ZPots - so cool and hip and Vermonty...

One of my other favorite potters was there as well: Maya Zelkin. She woodfires some beautiful pots - clean lines, perfect proportions, sturdy yet loveable...

Open Studio Weekend

2010-05-03T06:11:00.000-07:00

The weekend Open Studio is over and it is time to get back to the wheel. We had a nice flow of people throughout the weekend although Celia's First Communion took priority on Saturday. Here's a couple of shots of the new display areas:

Next up is Meet The Potters, in Brattleboro - this Saturday I will head up there with a carload of the work and see how Vermont reacts to the stuff...

Japan Trip

2010-04-28T03:18:00.000-07:00

We are back from our amazing trip to Japan. It was an incredible trip, full of tasty food, friendly people, beautifully wrapped everythings, on-time public transportation, and something new and different around every corner.

I published a bit more images on my Facebook page - 15 or so. We took a ton of pictures - over 500! Of course, digital cameras are a great way to keep kids occupied on long train rides so not every image is Pulitzer worthy. I think the images there give a good taste of what we experienced.

Kusakabe-san was the main reason for the visit and he was very generous opening up his studio to our family. He will be coming back to the Boston area in July to fire GreenFire again and we look forward to seeing him again!

There was so much good take-away: I loved how ceramics could be found in department stores, seeing posters for ceramics postered all over the cities, trying new foods, discovering how mountainous the country is, marveling at the precision of the trains and subways, being blown-away by the generousity of the Japanese people. Of course, it was incredible to be exposed to the clay history of the work I so admire. Hopefully, it won't be my last trip to this wonderful country.

Tokkuri, Vases

2010-04-09T12:07:00.000-07:00

Spent more time on the computer - uploading images of Tokkuris and Vases. Here's a little sample...
Both were woodfired - the tokkuri was also in a salt chamber...

New Images (Teapots, Yunomis)

2010-04-07T12:24:00.000-07:00

After all the firings this month, I was finally able to bring everything together and spend some time with the camera, tripod, and lights. I'm no Ansel Adams, but atleast I kept some things in focus.
Two teapots from the firing down in New Jersey.

Some yunomis from the same firing. I have put a lot more images on the website.

Back From NCECA

2010-04-06T08:09:00.000-07:00

Crazy week - unloading all the stuff from NCECA, trying to document 3 firings, getting ready for our open studio May 1, final prep for our trip to Japan. All very exciting, all so much to do in a short period of time. Here's a couple of images to illustrate the trip:

Incredible show of Bill Daley's pots at the Philadelphia Center for Architecture. A collaboration with his son Thomas, architect. Beautiful, beautiful pots that look like they belong in an HH Richardson building. Gorgeous surfaces and contours you could get lost in for weeks!

Some images from the wood firing down at Appel Farm. Top image is from the wood chamber, the bottom image is from the salt chamber. Bruce Dehnert, who ran the workshop, is so sweet and hard working and generous - I would love to fire with him again!

It was an incredible week at NCECA, with wonderful presentations by so many artists - but what was the best was being able to meet the people behind the pots I so admire and discovering new great work! Ron Meyers, Allegheny Meadows, Julia Galloway - all so intelligent, intense, open to talking and listening and challenging. I really admire the amount of energy they all put into their work and the ceramics community. I hope to get there someday...

Pots in Action!

2010-03-24T05:08:00.001-07:00

The kiln is still a little wet so that even though it is not raining today, it feels like the proper thing to do is give it the day to dry out completely and fire tomorrow. It HAS to happen tomorrow as Friday I leave for a whirlwind tour of the Philly area: woodfiring in southern NJ with Bruce Dehnert, then a two-day conference entitled Making Through Living - Living Through Making: Studio Pottery in 2010. Finally, on to NCECA for Wed, Thu, Fri - my first conference!

I was making dinner for the family last night and had just shown Trish the new plates I purchased from Sam Taylor and Mary Barringer (see earlier posts on the show). Decided to put them to use for the meal and thought it might be fun to see Pots in Action. So I issue this challenge, to all three of you out there, put up some images of pots you have collected that you use on a regular basis. It would be great to see some wonderful pieces being used as they were meant to be used:

Here is our morning coffee set-up: Todd Wahlstrom for Trish on the right (half and half, no sugar), Jennifer Allen for me (everything in it), Barbara Knutson sugar bowl...

The aforementioned Mary dish, Sam plate, and old friend Makoto Yabe for the kids...

Unloading, Cleaning, Reloading

2010-03-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

Today, we unloaded GreenFire. I will post our notes from the unloading on the GreenFire blog tomorrow. Suffice to say, we are pretty happy with our results, especially considering how easy it was to fire. We cleaned the kiln, rewashed the interior and the shelves, and reloaded. I will fire it by myself on either Monday or Tuesday. Nora will be in South Carolina.

This is the firing capacity of the kiln: about two tables worth...

Will post studio photos soon, hopefully before the end of the week...

St. Earth and GreenFire

2010-03-18T17:32:00.000-07:00

Did anyone else read St. Earth's blog about bilateral and trilateral symmetry? Jeepers, it was a good post. First, Three Is A Magic Number is definitely my favorite School House Rock song. Second (or should I make this the third point?), I am a big fan of trilateral symmetry and often think about numbers when determining how many I should make of something. Third, I love the discussion of history, culture, science, and mathematics that permeated the blog. It was invigorating to read and the only bummer I could find is that I couldn't easily leave a comment. Anyone see how to do this?

Yesterday, we fired GreenFire. 14 hours total. I write a little bit more technical stuff on the GreenFire blog. It was a beautiful day to fire and the first that Nora and I did on our own. It was a little nerve racking in the beginning to get the thing off the ground - the last time we fired, we had a huge crew on hand, everyone fighting for time at the stoking area, or time to ask Kusakabe a question, or cooking, or eating, or whatever. It was exciting and crazy and energizing. This time it was super quiet, with just the two of us firing. We brought it up slow (worried about dampness from the winter) but it climbed beautifully and reached temp in about 11 hours. We side stoked for two hours and then monitored cooling for another hour before shutting it down. We'll unload tomorrow. If the work turns out well, it will be so exciting to have dialed in this part of the process. Now, just to make some interesting work...

Hideaki Miyamura at Pucker Gallery

2010-03-15T06:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon, after driving through some crazy rain and battling the downtown Bostonites for parking, I was able to make it over to Pucker Gallery for an artist talk by Hideaki Miyamura.

The gallery is beautifully laid out and pairs Miyamura's work with paintings by Jim Schantz - a powerful combo. Miyamura was an extremely humble man who spoke for about a half hour about his process, his work, his history.

Miyamura grew up in Japan, the son of architects. He eventually found his way into traditional ceramic apprenticeships, where he honed his skills at the wheel. He became increasingly interested in glazes, based in part on his love of Chinese temmoku pots, which helped define his shapes: pure, smooth, with generous curves and often, tiny necks and rims. He works in a custom porcelain, again to ensure an absolute perfect surface for his glazes.

I'm not a big glaze fan but recognize this is a major shortcoming of mine - I am so much more about texture and form and atmosphere. Miyamura's work really opened my eyes to the discipline and work needed to really push this part of the pots. He has made tens of thousands of pots and had thousands of failures to get to this point. He continues to fire tens of tests pieces in every kiln. I really admire his work ethic and the vessels are a testament to his investigations.

The images above come from Pucker's website and the work is on display until mid-April.

GreenFire Loaded

2010-03-13T03:47:00.000-08:00

GreenFire has been loaded. Nora and I spent most of the day loading it up and bricking up the door. Poor weather pushed the firing date back a bit - we are going to get hammered with rain so we decided to fire first good day of next week. Here's some images of the loading chamber. The space on the left is for the side stoking. The small square chamber is for raku, which we will load when we fire (and remove in the middle of the woodfire.

I love the piece on the floor - it is one of Nora's students and it is the stand for a cup, which sits in at the juncture of the crosshairs.

The O-ring teapot in the back is by one of my students who will hang a cup from the little hook at the top of the inside of the O.

The little striped bottle in the foreground has a "Mary Barringer" texture as a belt - my fingers are crossed that it comes out ok. Can't wait to see how these all come out!

A Followup on Spanish Architecture

2010-03-08T05:32:00.000-08:00

This image of the Santa Caterina Market is the one that really got me thinking about my work and how it might fit into the (canon?, history?) of Japanese influenced ceramics.

I am acutely aware that I do not have the personal or cultural history to tap into Japan when it comes to finding influence. Yet so much of the work from Bizen or Shigaraki or Mashiko speaks to me, in the way the work of Franz Kline or Jim Dine or Willem DeKooning did when I first encountered them (and honestly, still do). And I must count the most recent influences - Makoto Yabe and Masakazu Kusakabe - of high importance - one of forming, one of firing, both for attitude and ways of seeing and understanding. Somehow, this way of working seems most natural to me.

To come back to this image: I love the way the contemporary roofline flirts with the traditional buildings that surround it. The arches that peak out from underneath. The layers of meaning that are held with the piece (the pixellated image on top of the roof refers to the produce that it protects beneath it).

What I want to do is try and embrace this attitude as I continue to work in more traditional methods and forms. I love Robert Yellin's website that incorporates both traditional and contemporary Japanese potters. Robert recently posted about a young new talent: Gomi Kenji. This work seems to have some Santa Caterina Market in it, no?

Barcelona Architecture

2010-03-04T03:14:00.000-08:00

Just returned from a short trip/long weekend/second honeymoon with Trish to Barcelona. An amazing city, a wonderful city, never such a city will I meet! We saw many of the sights, traveling easy by Metro, and generally getting ourselves lost and then blundering into a square or piazza (I know, Italian) that we could find on the map. We did much less sitting and watching the world go by then we have in other European cities - too much to see.

As to how this trip will permeate itself back into my clay world, I was struck by the integration of contemporary architecture into the modernist and classical buildings that made up the city. And I was reminded how free from convention contemporary architecture can be. I have been searching for a way to break the raku work away from the wood-fire work and this attitude of invention in the middle of the classical and traditional seemed just right.

Antoni Gaudi was much more than I thought. I loved La Sagrada Familia with its integration of the organic and the mathematical. When I was inside the cathedral, it was strange to feel small in a different way then most other of "God's Houses." Most cathedrals have you focus on the heavens with its soaring ceilings and tall pointy spires. Gaudi takes a different approach - there is still the incredible height but when looking up, with columns branching into trees and a ceiling matrix that transforms into sunflowers, you realize you underneath a biological canopy, shrinking you down to ant size. Humbleness set in the context of the natural world, but still of God's doing. Pretty incredible...

In addition to modernist architecture, the city is filled with incredible contemporary buildings as well. It reminded me of the MoMA exhibition On-Site: New Architecture in Spain of a few years ago. If you have the chance to go through the multi-media on the page, you will see a clip of the Santa Caterina Market, which Trish and I wandered through. If we had rented a little apartment instead of a hotel room, we probably would have been there daily to pick up our produce and meat.

I started on a series of "soft architecture" or "little buildings" that I intend to raku fire . I will pull up some images and perhaps do a "Kristen Kieffer" influence page soon...

Teapots and Houses

2010-02-22T06:44:00.000-08:00

Back in the studio after almost a week away. Was able to finish up these teapots, which I had stashed away in my "Sam Chung" box (large plastic box with a poured plaster floor about 1" thick - acts as a great greenhouse for greenware).

Trying to fight off feelings of stupidity - a part time potter trying to compete with full-timers? Luckily, I got the Conchords and everything sort of fades into absurdity. Just need to keep making stuff and let it all sort itself later.

Found a great new blog this weekend: My friends Reed and Anne recently moved to Chicago from Seattle and Anne is working on a blog that is exploring the architectural history of lakes area. She and Reed bought a 1957 house and are renovating it. She writes an excellent blog - unlike me, she has command of the English language. Great drawings, photos, history, thoughts and ruminations.

Touch Fire

2010-02-20T05:49:00.001-08:00

Just back from some time spent up in Vermont. Kids vacation week and we took them up to Brattleboro. Snow is really minimal up there and we did not get in any sledding. Did manage to in some time at the Montshire Science Museum, a great place to take the kids, right outside of Dartmouth. Liam got some great ideas for his forthcoming science project - thinking of building an "air cannon" - basically a drum turned on its side so that when struck, the air contained on the side of the drum comes shooting out - we'll see how far away we can get and still be able to blow out a candle.

One of the artists I sought out while I was up there was Natalie Blake. She makes gorgeous vessels, carved with intricate drawings of foliage or patterns or shrubbery. She shows her work at Gallery In The Woods. She had a great piece of tile work that was a collaboration withCynthia Houghton. It was intriguing and beautiful. I loved seeing the collaboration between a couple of Vermont's finest!

On the way back home, we detoured to Northampton and went to Smith College to see Touch Fire. Gorgeous work! Exhilarating to see clay used in such different ways. My two favorite artists of the show were Hoshino Kayoko and Kishi Eiko.

Kishi Eiko

Hoshino Kayoko

Both women had such a powerful way of moving the clay about to create these dynamic sculptures. As an added treat, there was a 10 minute movie on Eiko that did a great job of explaining her process. The show doesn't have too much time left at Smith but if it travels, I highly recommend going to see it!

Round Trip to Sam and Mary's

2010-02-13T11:18:00.000-08:00

Made the round trip to Mary and Sam's. Both individual's are so nice. Had a great talk with Mary about internet life and potters - I'm trying to put something together for the next SP. Sam made a tasty lunch of rice and beans. He also invited me out to his next wood firing, which I think I am going to take him up on - very generous! Made it back just in time to pick up the kids. Crazy trip - I shoulda marked the mileage but suffice to say: 2 hours out, one hour down, two hours back.

Opening for the show is Feb 24 and both Sam and Mary will be there!

In Praise of Small Cups

2010-02-10T07:02:00.000-08:00

A while back, we had the good fortune of having Mark Shapiro as a visiting artist to Nobles. During his time with us, he spoke about his affinity for small cups. I, at the time, was making some enormous cups - things you could take a hot tub in. Definitely things to hold with two hands.

This week, I went to Lacoste Gallery to pick up some work for Foster Gallery - we are having a two person show: Sam Taylor and Mary Barringer. While I was there, I saw a small Warren Mackenzie cup, about the same size as Mark's. I bought it on the spot and had a bit of beer in it that night - a strong Belgian beer - something for sipping. The cup fit so naturally in my hand, something that I admired in Mark's pieces (I bought two of his cups while he was in residence).

This week, I decided to try my hand at something smaller and I really like making them. Here's the first go:

How do you all feel about small cups? Do you make them? Do you use them?

Thursday Afternoon, the Opening, and the Saints

2010-02-08T05:59:00.000-08:00

Saturday night saw the opening of the Raku show here at Gorse Mills. Place was packed - although that may be easy within our tight quarters. Had a great talk with Eduardo Lazo, whose beautiful piece is one of the highlights of the show. He is such a nice man and very generous with information. His website does a great job of explaining his vapor firing technique.

One of the other pieces that we liked was Don Ellis' vessel. Celia kept referring to it as the "big peach pit" which at first I couldn't understand. Then I realized her point of view and that she was primarily looking at it from the underside, it being on a pedestal and all...

Don Ellis:
Eduardo Lazo:The show is open until March 19.

Thursday after school, I had the kids back to the studio and they were excited to get on the wheels. Guess which child is the one who loves to focus and stay on task and which child is a bit of a more free spirit, the "creative type"?

Love the image of Liam throwing with a tie on - so Bernardish...

As to the Saints - my friend Reed probably put it best:

Maybe the most satisfying emotional sports moment since 1980 us hockey team win in the olympics.

12 by 12

2010-02-05T05:54:00.000-08:00

Michael Kline published a challenge on his blog: create 12 pieces by noon. I took on the challenge and thought it would be a good opportunity to put some images up of actual work that is going on in the studio. The day before the challenge, I had actually thrown a bunch of cups and bottles (whiskey and tokkuri). So during the challenge, I finished them - trimming, paddling, incising, stamping, etc.

A Trip to the Children's Museum

2010-02-03T09:21:00.000-08:00

Not sure if this blog is turning into a Dad's blog (like Seth's excellent blog) rather than a pottery blog. I'm still working in the studio, but every time I pull out the camera phone, its usually to document something about the kids...yesterday, it was a trip to the Boston Children's Museum.
As you can see, my kids aren't afraid of challenging gender stereotypes..

...or mix up 2D and 3D reality...

This was Liam's favorite room when we came here and they were little. Truth be told, he probably averages an hour and a half a day on our little nerf hoop at home. Must be all the Sportscenter highlights that makes it easy to imagine that flying at the hoop, tongue wagging, is an easy thing to do.

This last image is from last night. It is Celia's list for her mom. Trish is travelling and Celia was determined to take notes for her on the American Idol contestants so that she would not miss a thing. Kind of in her own code but still pretty organized. Last night's tryouts were from Denver and Celia could not get over Bikini Boy! I think she was laughing too hard to write down anything of value.

Maybe tomorrow I'll have an image regarding clay...

Lunch with Trish

2010-02-01T10:59:00.000-08:00

and a couple of monkeys...

Over the Weekend

2010-02-01T05:58:00.001-08:00

Over the weekend, Steven and I came in to finish setting up the show. We were really happy to get almost every single piece in that was sent in. The work looks great and the show is powerful! So many good pieces altogether in one place. Jim Romberg and Gail Piepenburg hanging on the back wall, Marvin Sweet with his tentacled piece in back right, Rick Hirsch in the foreground...
This figure by Amber Aguirre is unbelievable - it has such a quirky presence and almost takes over the room. The vase by Michael Hough is rich with texture and physical presence as well.

The opening is this Saturday, from 5-8. If you are in the neighborhood, come on by!

Finally took some photos...

2010-01-28T10:38:00.001-08:00

Spent the last couple of days getting another part of the studio set up - the business side. Yesterday waded through the aisles of Staples and got myself a printer (its wireless but am using the USB - makes me feel safer). Then, today, went to Newtonville Camera and purchased a tripod and lighting setup. Trying to get my act together to submit to a couple of shows. Cup show and another raku show. Figuring out lighting is no easy task...

I'm going to put some of these on the website...

Old Guys Getting Old...

2010-01-25T14:08:00.000-08:00

Is it just me or do most guys getting older tend to identify with the aging athletes on their favorite teams? Here we are at Celia's first Celtics game (mom had season tickets back in the glory days and Liam and I have gone once a year for the last couple of years). While the kids were all about Rajon Rondo, I was empathizing with Kevin Garnett, who is a decade younger than me! And I wasn't really identifying with him as much as I was identifying with his knees...

I just wanted Kevin to get through the game without getting hurt after missing the last (10?) games with an injury to those pivotal joints. Winning was secondary to me.

Touching the shamrock for good luck works - Celtics end a three game losing streak and Kevin survives to play another night!
Celia thoroughly enjoyed herself - less for the game than she made it up onto the Jumbotron twice for her crazy dancing! Here we are trying to catch a glimpse...

Speaking of old guys, is anyone else exhausted about trying to figure out whether Brett Favre could make it back for another season? The league is better with him in it, but the beating he took yesterday and the prospect of another whole season of games with no guarantee of making it to the Super Bowl would make me cry into my soup - to contemplate coming back for that at age 41 would make me hesitate until October too...

As to ceramics, I put together a Facebook page for John Dorsey Ceramics - I have no idea what I'm doing. I just know that a former student of mine has 1895 friends...

Raku Preview

2010-01-23T06:05:00.000-08:00

Helped to unbox work that was coming in for the Raku show. The work is great!

Here's a list of who is participating:

--------------------------

Bill Abright

Daniel Achermann

Amber Aguirre

Nathan Anderson

Tim Andrews

Ruth Apter

Wally Asselberghs

Rick Berman

Edge Barnes

Colette Beardall

Doris Boschund-Johner

Steven Branfman

Jim Connell

Daphne Corregan

Patrick Crabb

Andrew M. Denney

John H. Dorsey

Nesrin During

Mark Einhorn

Rick Foris

Bob Green

Domi Gruszecka

Richard Hirsch

Michael Hough

Kate and Will Jacobson

David Jones

Eduardo Lazo

Ronda M. Liskey

Mark Lusardi

Karen Mahoney

John Mathieson

Kevin Nierman

Geoffrey Pagen

Irene Poulton

Linda and Charles Riggs

Jim Romberg

Harvey Sadow

Lou Smedts

Marvin Sweet

Kathi Tighe

Leo Van derheyden

Paul Andrew Wandless

Debbie Winnick

Patty Wouters

Celia and Playdough

2010-01-22T05:31:00.001-08:00

The other day, Liam brought home a recipe for homemade playdough. He is working on a project in school for geography: a topographical map of the United States. It was a really easy recipe and we enjoyed making it. Celia, of course, saw the two of us working on it and wanted in on the action so she and I had our own playdough making session, which I was able to document:

Pretty simple ingredients (listed below) that just get mixed together and slowly heated over low heat. It doesn't usually glow nuclear with an other-worldly light...
With patience and constant stirring, it takes about 5-7 minutes for it to turn from goo into playdough.
We subdivided into four so we could add food coloring.
Have to be careful with the food coloring...
Pretty easily wedged - we just formed a little pinch pot and put a couple of drops of the coloring in. Celia was determined t that we make "seafoam" and not "green". I am also a big fan of orange, hence we went with two primaries, two secondaries.

Recipe:

2 cups of flour

1 cup of salt

3 tsp of cream of tartar

2 Tbsp of vegetable oil

2 cups of water

Mix - should be kinda soupy. Low heat and stir until sticky and clingy. Keep in airtight container. Have fun!

New Teapots - Rough Stage

2010-01-19T11:10:00.001-08:00

Big day in Massachusetts - election day! Scott Brown v. Martha Coakley...huge! So important for the future of the Senate. Both sides want this one pretty bad.

Tough call, having taught Ayla Brown, even gave her the ceramics award when she graduated 4 years ago. Nice family and all. But what I really want to know is: Will Democrats ever be fiscally responsible or will Republicans ever respect individual's liberties? I don't see either happening anytime soon. Ultimately, I leaned left and went with Martha. I hope she has a voice that can be trusted.

Here are some teapots that make me a little happy:

Raku Pieces

2010-01-18T16:56:00.001-08:00

Images from the raku firing on Friday.

Also got to see the Randy Johnston's show at Pucker before it closed. Will write about it tomorrow...

Lights and Fire

2010-01-14T13:49:00.001-08:00

Back home

after a whirlwind day. Glazed pots this morning for raku firing tomorrow. Stopped by Nobles to drop off library books, see friends, pick up mail. Went to Foster Gallery to see the latest iteration: Awesome!

Tony Kudner's

installation was so cool. A black box was created inside the gallery. The space changed over the course of many minutes. Grids, columns, walls

were created out of light and mist. I loved it!

Then I went

to Portland Pottery to pick up supplies and decided to hop over to Thayer Academy to see my friend Steven Branfman and the show he had going on at their gallery: John Baymore.

Really beautiful wood-fired pots. Lovely proportions, luscious glazes, pretty true to Japanese traditional work. John studied for some time in Japan and has built his own naborigama in New Hampshire. He will be doing a workshop at Thayer next Thursday, so I'll get a chance to meet him! So cool!

Music as Pots?

2010-01-13T16:18:00.000-08:00

Today was a day for organization. Boxed last year's paperwork. Created new folders for the coming year. All at home (Wednesday is Home For The Morning Day) Then, headed to the studio. Made lids, spouts for the teapot bodies that I threw on Monday. What really dominated the studio was the music today: Flight of the Conchords, KD Lang, JJ Cale. Most of music made me a little nostalgic for college days (obviously not the Conchords, being in my 40's and all but still...) A phone call from Digler didn't help either.

So I'm trying to figure out how to make my pots like the Conchords: fun, rhythmic (or atleast not rhythmically challenged), unpredictable. I played KD Lang right afterwards (Ingenue) - beautiful, haunting. A lot of the pots I have been looking at recently (Jennifer Allen, Julia Galloway, Kristen Kieffer and yeah, you, Jim, have similiar qualities - intricate details, gorgeous colors, luscious surfaces. I don't think I can get my work there, but I love studying it...

...and then I listen to the Conchords and I'm ok with where I'm at. (also listen to the Dirtminers - equally crazy and fun and irreverant). Somewhere between raw (think Japanese pots chiseled from local clay) and chunky/funky (maybe, Christa Assad or Tim Rowan?)

Tomorrow, I glaze a dozen pots for a raku firing on friday...

BTW - the image of JJ Cale comes from last.fm

Dinner Tonight

2010-01-12T16:50:00.000-08:00

One of the things that the sabbatical allows me to do is cook a bit more. More time to research, more time to prepare. While I get into the studio a whole bunch more, I still have to get the kids after their school is done. 6 hours in the studio. A couple of hours supervising the kids doing homework and cleaning their rooms. Time to cook.

I was recently asked, I think by Celia, what I would have done if I hadn't become an artist. I immediately thought about cooking. I have some experience in the kitchen of a restaurant (The Chart Room, Parchman Farm - although, I worked at Parchman Farm when it was a jazz club and not "the only Japanese-Italian restaurant" in Portland.) When Trish and I were talking about how I could use my sabbatical, we talked about me asking Michael Leviton (behind us at Wesleyan by a year) whether I could intern with him at Lumiere, Michael's exquisite restaurant in West Newton. Ultimately, I decided that I needed to stay in the studio as I much I could. So I will cook for my family.

Tonight's recipe: for pasta - I used a tomato-spinach fusilli

4 slices bacon, cooked - broken up

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 red onion, rough chopped

6 button mushrooms, quartered

2 tomatoes, roughly choppped

herbs de provence

ground pepper

salt

Parmigiana Reggiano

Cook bacon. Drain and crumble. Pour off excess bacon grease and saute garlic and onion until soft. Add mushrooms until cooked down, then tomatoes. A bunch of herbs (provence, pepper, salt). Top the pasta, then put on the parm. Looks like hell, tastes so good!

Handles!

2010-01-11T05:33:00.001-08:00

Ok, I promise to lay off the exclamation points in the title to these posts...
Goals for this week: Three more teapots, raku fire the vases, a visit to the orchid garden center to do some research on well-designed pots for orchids, a trip to Pucker Gallery to see the Randy Johnston show...

No Handles!

2010-01-08T05:38:00.000-08:00

Assessment of the week so far: Tried some teapot forms (haven't made them in a while) - still need to add handles today. Worked on new mug forms (handles, again, need to be added). Made about a dozen vases that I plan to raku fire for the show Mastering Raku. They need to be trimmed today. Best part was having the kids in the studio this week - Celia making cups, Liam doing homework and experimenting with slabs. So cool!

BTW, this camera phone takes terrible images...I need an update...

...couldn't be the photographer...

Celia At The Wheel!

2010-01-06T13:48:00.000-08:00

After school yesterday, Celia visited the studio and was able to try out her new Whisper LT, which Santa brought. She did really well for her first time on the wheel! This is her breakfast set. This should become a regular Tuesday afternoon date!

The First Day Back In The Studio

2010-01-04T13:22:00.000-08:00

After a weeks vacation in Vermont, I was able to get back into the studio and actually start the work part of my sabbatical. I spent the early part of morning cleaning up and organizing, getting Celia's wheel in order (yeah, Santa!) before starting in earnest on making some cups.

The messy space before:

Organized, with Celia's station next to mine:

This week, I plan on getting back to writing about Warren MacKenzie and Garth Clark - while away, I spent time working on an article that at some point I will think about publishing. I'll post the sloppy copies here in the meantime.

One last item for today: while in Vermont, I happened upon Nicholas Seidner's work at a gallery in Woodstock: Collective. The work was beautiful and he and his wife just built a wood-fired kiln about the same time we built GreenFire! Check out their work: http://www.risingmeadowpottery.com/index.html

Warren MacKenzie, part I

2009-12-26T07:16:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve Eve, I took Liam down to Brockton to the Fuller Craft Museum so we could see the retrospective of Warren MacKenzie's work that is traveling around the country. It was a beautiful show, filled with his strong work, and well worth the visit.

The layout of the show was a bit awkward, a hallway as the main entrance with a good sized room of Warren's early work off to the side. I really enjoyed seeing how his early influences (Hamada and Leach) informed his start. There was a really great video that chronicled his life and gave good insight into how he started. His work is so vibrant and bold while still staying within the old-school tradition.

This morning, the 26th, I reread an essay by Garth Clark, on the future of functional pottery. So much good stuff in it that I want to wrestle with, both in agreement and to parry swords. Life is calling at the moment so I will be back with more thoughts.

First Morning Coffee

2009-12-22T07:01:00.000-08:00

It's the first morning of the sabbatical and I am caught between wanting to get to the studio and getting ready for the impending Christmas/Liam birthday (the 24th!) extravaganza. Still some shopping to do, as well as some wrapping.

Was reading Kristen Kieffer's blog about ceramic first loves and I posted a response about my influences (Mary Barringer, Maren Kloppman, Jeff Shapiro, etc) and I mentioned that I love my Julia Galloway mug. She was surprised that I might like something so beautifully ornate (and it is!) after listing my minimalist, Wabi-Sabi influences. I'll have to think about that...

I also love my Sam Chung mug as well and had the morning Joe in it today - see above. I took a workshop with Sam at Shakerag in Tennessee. He threw so light and thin, thinner than I had ever seen done. Then he proceeded to slice half way through the paper thin walls to create these slits. THEN he pushed out at these slits to open them up just slightly. Incredible! And the handle is just perfect! A simple single finger loop, perfectly balanced and soft to the touch. Maybe tomorrow I'll post Julia's...

Mastering Raku

2009-12-21T08:52:00.000-08:00

It is the last day of school and already I am looking ahead. I am going to be in a show in February and preparations have already begun. We are preparing the promotional materials for Steven Branfman's show and book release: "Mastering Raku". If you haven't seen the book yet, it is beautiful! Honestly, one of the best laid out books on ceramics that I have seen in a number of years. (Full disclosure: I have an image of one of my pots in the book).

Here's some of the info:

"Mastering Raku: The Book and the Art Within"

A celebration of the release of Steven Branfman's latest book "Mastering Raku: Making Ware-Glazes-Building Kilns-Firing" and an exhibition of the art of the contributors.

Dates: February 1- March 19
Opening reception and book signing Saturday, February 6, 5-8PM
Jared Branfman Memorial Gallery
Gorse Mill Studios
31 Thorpe Road, Needham, MA 02494 USA
for information; 781 449 7687

The Day Before It Begins

2009-12-20T11:22:00.000-08:00

Today is a major snowstorm and we are huddled up in the dorm. Tomorrow is my last day as a teacher for the next 9 months. Noble and Greenough School has been kind enough to grant me a sabbatical and I aim to make the most of it. This blog will try and keep some record of how this time will be spent. I have been teaching for 20 years and I am really curious to see how wearing a hat other than teacher feels. I will be spending the majority of my time at my studio (Gorse Mill Studios)