full on demo at oktoberbest.
demo with little red.
almost finished with demo wall piece.
all the residents, with friends (and boss)
the perfect end to a long day.
condom hockey in the glaze room...
i’m kind of starting to like this new group.
thanks to emily and little red for the pics.
well my studio mates already poke fun at my apron of choice: an old towel wrapped around my waist and clipped in back with a mini clamp. luckily no one was in the studio tonight when i had to utilize yet another after shower towel trick. the head wrap. as previously mentioned our studios have no air con and in the thick of florida june that means sometimes swimming in sweat. i couldn’t take it anymore tonight, even with 2 fans pointing at me. finally i took one of my studio towels and wrapped my hair up in it. it really did the trick. but i don’t know if i can rock the head towel when i have company in the studio. haha.
anyway, it was a productive weekend. i have been working on some more wall peieces. j- and i were so excited about our firing that we decided to sign it out again asap and will fire again on the fourth of july. i thought i could bang out multiple wall hangings in preparation for the kiln but i am so into making these toes that i ended up spending 2 days on 4 wall peices. anyway, i am having a great time. and j- needs space in the kiln with an upcoming show so i am happy to build up a collection of bisque work. when j- leaves, i’ll have to fill the kiln up on my own won’t i? unless one of our new a.i.r.s works in soda fired raw porcelain too?
here’s a sneak peak at this weekends work:
and a new chicken butt in the works:
mixed up some glazes today for one of the clay co’s owners. i haven’t mixed up a big batch like that in awhile. my roommate helped me out which was great because it would have taken hours longer.
best thing ever is seiving the mixture. especially when there are little chunks of dry material. you start out with this lumpy mess, especially if you didn’t premix your bentonite, and then everything gets all creamy and homogenous.
here are some photos from the show.
through the front window
bird's eye view
me and collaborator sue stevens. www.suestevensart.com
in the tunnel
after dealing with some mechanical issues on the drive down, i finally made it to west palm thursday morning with my little microbes in tow. sue had our miniature biba room under way. a came up to hang and helped us out quite a bit. she was our contract seamstress. everything seemed to come together at the end and we were happy with the finished product. thnaks to kara walker tome, our amazing curator, a for seamstress help, everyone who came out and made this showtel 7 the most successful ever and oh, yeah, a little shout out to the rogue room. more pics soon.
i’ve had lots to post about but nothing but technological difficulties. i bought a camera a month or so ago and it seems to be malfuctioning, actually it won’t even turn on. am i cursed with all things electronic? and in addition my laptop seems to be on it’s last breath. i’m going to have to give in and get a new one soon.
but anyway, lots of stuff has been going on. preparation for showtel 7 has been underway. all my little microbes got finished up. i ended up soda firing them and was pleased with the results.
working with the kiln tech to check my work i sorta kinda “solo” fired the minnasota flattop and the soda kiln sunday. rudy, the flattop was done in a sweet 12 hours but our new soda takes a little longer. we had it done in 16 which is about average. hopefully as it gets fired more and we get to know it better the average time will decrease a little bit.
our kiln tech is a really great teacher and i’ve learned a buttload from him over the course of my residency. the soda kiln is a nice size to fill a load of my work and and fire solo, or to split with another resident. after finishing up sunday evening, i was already amped to start making work for the next one.
i’m getting really interested in the soda finish i’ve been getting on raw porcelain. i love the gray color and peach blushing that is typical of a soda fire, but for my work, the clean orange peel sheen is the best. especially when you get the little gray squiggles. i have so much detail in the form that putting glaze over it always seems like a bummer, but the soda sheen just coats it nicely, finishing it off. we’ve been firing to about cone 10 each firing, but next time, when i can fill the kiln or split it with j who also uses porcelain i’d like to push it to cone 11 or 12 and really max on the soda.
anyway, tuesday we were able to unload. everything came out great and is headed down to west palm with me today. showtel 7 is saturday. if you happen to be in the area, come on out!
microbes pre-fire. will post fired pictures and installation shots asap.
monster pile
monster egg sac
top of monster
monster detail
worm
1. i have learned a lot of fascinating things reading these lists. 2. i can’t smell. seriously, not at all, but i can taste, perhaps poorly. 3. i’m not vegetarian. 4. i bite my nails. 5. i’m addicted to american sitcoms and dramas. 6. 7. i like blood. as long as it’s not my own. and there’s a good reason for it to be around. i mean, i don’t like massacres or such things but i do like phlebotomy. 8. if i fail as an artist i want to be a nurse or surgical technician. 9. i work better with a deadline. 10. my house got broken into a month ago. nothing of mine was stolen. 11. i always over indulge when there are books involved. i bought 3 books by bell hooks at her talk yesterday. 12. my greatest addiction/weakness is sugar. i also over indulge when there is sugar involved. 13. i like tequila shots, with lemon wedges and salt. 14. i love to read. 15. i don’t like to draw. 16. i’ve kept journals since i was 18. i save them all, along with daily planners, sketchbooks and letters. 17. i own very little. most of what i own falls into catagories: books/journals, clothes, pottery other people made, special kitchen things, and trinkets/chotchkes/art that other people made. 18. i don’t believe in god and i don’t give a shit about germs. 19. if it’s not meat or milk, i don’t care about expiration dates. if it is meat or milk, or fresh produce for that matter i want to eat it while it’s fresh anyway. 20. i’ve been in jail once. for 4 1/2 days. being in jail sucked, consensus meetings held with everyone in the cell block were pretty awe inspiring. 21. i still feel sad when i think about masa. 22. my goal every day is to act as though i am still innocent and the world is an amazing place with tons of potential. 23. i believe that the universe provides and what we need will come to us as long as we act. 24. twice this week someone picked up my tab at a restaurant which was super nice! 25. i believe in mutual aid.
seriously, last week was long. i was bummed out to miss art basel in miami but life on the west coast of florida was busy enough. at work we were being observed, at the studio we were preparing for the sale and i was preparing my own art work for the sale. whoo, i was really running on low!
finally yesterday i had a bit of a break. well, recently a half day is as close to a day off as i get but i’ll take what i can get. i worked in the morning at creative clay. we are still book making. i know we will have to move onto something different but i’ve so enjoyed seeing m improve her skills.
afterwards i went to mazzaro’s italian deli to get something for lunch. i’ve been hearing about this place since i moved here, but hadn’t yet been. it was like walking into italy. i was able to find my favorite cheese from when i was traveling in italy (romano fresca with pepper corns) not to mention arancini (sicilian rice balls) and italian tuna. these were the things i would buy (with a roll or loaf of bread) and carry around in my bag to eat for lunch in some scenic spot. you know how it is. the only thing i didn’t find, but i’ll have to look next time, is white anchovies. the arancini were very similiar to my family’s except that they had way too much cheese in them!
i relaxed the rest of the day, stepping out for an errand or two, and this morning, finally i was back to 100%.
today and yesterday were super busy. st. pete clay held their annual holiday sale and i got a great suprise.
i pulled my wall hangings out of the kiln at 7:30 saturday morning, put wires on the back and hung them in the reitz room, where a display of work had been set up. among everyone else’s stuff, j had set up some of my bushes in a little patch of “snow”. i hung the wall pieces across from them and then headed to work. a couple of hours later j sent me a text saying that someone had purchased all 5. when i finally got back to the studio, i cruised past my shelf to see if anything else had sold and to my surprise an older sculpture of mine had also gone. the “nose warmers” is the white sculpture with red knitted tubes.
this whole holiday sale thing was fun. i’ve never really made work with the sole intention of selling it before, but i got into the spirit this year. i put my work into a format that i thought would fit into people’s lives well and it was successful.
i had one bummer of the weekend though. the white platter with glaze cells (bottom photo), took a dive off the shelf last night. yikes.
wall peices installed in the reitz room
my shelves
seed pocket
seed file
layers
fungi
belly buttons