Community and Studio

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:

Harlequin Milk Jugs

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.

Open Studio Weekend

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

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.

Unloading, Cleaning, Reloading

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...

Teapots and Houses

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

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!

Thursday Afternoon, the Opening, and the Saints

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

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.

Finally took some photos...

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...

Celia and Playdough

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!

Music as Pots?

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

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!