Fully Flummoxed

Baby, Baby, Baby

2012-02-12T17:44:00.000-06:00

Looking at these past few pieces you would probably think I was pregnant. Nope. Not a chance. Not unless pigs fly. I have no freakin' idea why I've done baby bumps and babies. (Piece shown above is unfired.) I'm desperately try to get my head in a different place and I think it's going to be ... boats. Below is a copper one I made years ago, when I was doing metal stuff.

Now I think I want to try ceramic boats. We'll see. When I first started in ceramics many years back I took two workshops from Debra Fritts - a great instruction and motivator. She traded me some small ceramic birds for one of my copper boats. The piece she made (image below) was called "Tall Tales" -- what a creative use of a boat! I am humbled.

I'm On A Roll Here!

2012-02-06T10:32:00.000-06:00

Another Dude made (unglazed)!
Don't get in my way, don't stop me now -- when dinnertime comes around just set the food out and stand back.

Bumping Out

2012-02-02T08:47:00.000-06:00

I wanted to do something different so I decided to make some Dudes that are expecting, or as is commonly said today, Dudes with a Baby Bump. This is the first one, she hasn't been fired yet. Susan critiqued it and told me she needed to have a sway back. I wasn't exactly sold on the idea so she googled images for me and sure enough, the belly goes out and the back goes in. So I gave the Dude a little back dent. She told me to make the next Dude with one hand on her baby bump and one hand at her aching back.

I've never had a baby so I don't know these things. Susan's never had a baby either but somehow you women all know these things anyway.

By the way, I'm not going to refer to a female Dudes as Dudette or Dudess, these are all unisex "Dudes". It's my vote for gender equality.

Oliver, The Articulated Man

2012-01-29T12:33:00.000-06:00

Oliver is an articulated man who is about 20" tall. He's named after my next-door neighbor's dog, Oliver, who likes to come visit me when I'm working in my garage.

For the record, here on Day 29 Susan has faithfully filled up bag #29 with Stuff. This time it was a lot of beat-up old kitchen stuff. Do we really need 3 sets of measuring cups? The frightening thing is that she's promised me once she finishes her Day 30 with bag #30 she is going to start up with a new set of 30 bags in my garage workshop. Help!!!

30-30

2012-01-23T11:10:00.000-06:00

I didn't know what they were. Did you? Answer at the end of this post.

All this is just Stuff. Stuff I have to have, stuff I've bought from people who probably fished it out of their Grandma's trash can. Stuff I have no idea what to do with but have to have just in case ...

So what is 30-30? It's something to do with Stuff. Grit your teeth and consider this:

You have too much stuff. Too many clothes.

Too many books (Ackkk!!!).

Too many dishes and kitchen things.

Too many pencils and pens and old towels and just stuff.

So gather up 30 bags, preferably the small sort you get at the grocery store for vegetables, or those T-shirt bags that everyone hates but they are handy. Mark them with 30 numbers, beginning with your start date number - for example, if you start today, the first bag is #23, the second #24 and so on, following #31 with #1 as you head into February. You need to have 30 bags for the next 30 days.

Put the bags in a prominent place where you can't ignore them. Each day you pick up the appropriately numbered bag and fill it up with Stuff to either give away, donate, or throw away. For example, on our first day we went through all our miscellaneous junk drawers and put in all the old pens and pencils and highlighters that didn't work. Did we really need 11 pencils in the kitchen drawer? No, and they didn't fill the sack totally up but that's not the idea. What did happen is that we deliberately took care of eliminating some Stuff. The theory behind the small sack size is that it doesn't seem like such a monumental job to do when it's just one small sack, every day, for 30 days.. If you get to gathering up old clothes to donate you'll probably need a bigger sack but that's OK, it's the action that counts.

Today Susan is filling up the sack with cookbooks she really doesn't use anymore. She's thumbing through them to see if there was one stunning recipe she remembered and she'll make a copy of that. Then the sack goes off to Goodwill.

So is any of the Stuff shown on this post going to go into a 30-30 sack? NOT A CHANCE! These are treasures. Shown above is a very special treasure that was gifted to me by a talented, interesting friend, who now has me thinking about my favorite five (later).

Top picture? Old hair curler rods.

Yippee!

2012-01-18T19:11:00.000-06:00

Susan speaks: Don is finally back in school. Yessssss! A quiet house to myself, no one wondering when lunch is, no one asking if the mail has come, no one tracking clay dirt into the house, no one drinking all the coffee in the pot.

Nicho above was sold at the Student Art sale.

Books - REAL Books

2012-01-11T09:57:00.000-06:00

We are Book people. Above is what we gave each other for Christmas. Books. What else do you need?

This video is terrific! I reduced the size so you can see it here in the blog but if you go directly to YouTube and search for "Joy of Books" you'll be able to view it larger.

As for the Kindle or Nook... is that something you want to take in the bathroom with you?

Bamboo Pot and Cranky Consumer Complaint #2

2012-01-08T12:49:00.000-06:00

This piece is about 14" high and the inside has a crackle glaze. I call it "Bamboo" because it sort of looks like that. I'm not sure if I will make anymore like this or even if I can, but the crackle effect on the inside intrigues me. In the picture below it sort of looks like an elephant leg but trust me, it really does look better than that. The gash in the side lets you have a glimpse of the crackle.

Here's the latest blow to the long-gone concept of "Customer Service":
Vendors keep costs down by using FedEx SmartPost and you think your package is safely in the hands of FedEx. Wrong!

FedEx passes it over to USPS, as in the United States Postal Service. You know, the one that is out of money and tells you soon a letter will take several days longer to be delivered. This is not a big deal in other countries but here it is has been thrown out as a solution to the budget problems. What you might not realize it that the USPS has been doing that slow-down already.

Here's proof, shown in our package tracking (below):

1. The order was placed Wednesday, Dec 14.
2. The package shipped FedEx out of Ohio Friday, Dec16.
3. The package arrived in Houston, TX, about 6 p.m., Sunday, Dec 18.
4. The package left Houston FedEX about 10 p.m., Sunday, Dec 18, to go to the USPS.
5. The package left Houston via USPS for Austin about 9 p.m., Monday, Dec 19.
6. The package arrived in Austin about 9 a.m., Thursday, Dec. 22.
7. The package arrived at my location, directly across the street from the US Post Office, about two hours later.

Here's the interesting part:
FedEx: Time = 60+ hours, distance = 1100+ miles
USPS: Time = 60+ hours, distance = 165 miles

Slow delivery from the USPS? Get used to it.
Think FedEx is better?
Only if you are getting "pure" FedEx, not FedEx SmartPost.

Start Your Year Off With Eye Candy

2012-01-04T09:17:00.000-06:00

When we were in Washington DC at Thanksgiving we made sure to set aside time to go to the Torpedo Factory. There we were lucky enough to find time to visit with an old friend, Susan Finsen (above). She had moved to a different (better!) space in the Factory and was sharing with a new (to us) artist, Laura Edwards (below). The two women use very different color palettes but their works seem to enhance each other. We had a distinctly enjoyable visit to their space and are in awe of the work they create. Check out their websites and you'll see what I mean.

Laura really was praying in this picture, she was saying "Please, please let these pictures be hung straight."

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T19:13:00.002-06:00

Let's all make a New Year's toast to consistency!

And to the infinite wisdom of Snoopy.

Dug Up and Consumer Complaint of the Day

2011-12-28T11:14:00.000-06:00

I like these little pots (about 4" high) because they look like they were dug up from an ancient pit. Contrary to what usually happens with my glazing, this was exactly what I hope to accomplish. Sometimes the Kiln Goddess smiles on me.

I tried to sell them at the Student Art Sale but no one was interested in stuff that looked "old". Including me, I'm sure. One of the nice things about growing old is how invisible you become to most people, which means I don't have to shave everyday.

But growing old does turn you into a Cranky Consumer. Younger people seem to be oblivious to (or have never experienced) the notion of "Customer Service", as in "I want to help you efficiently so you'll appreciate my company/product".

From my Consumer Complaint Department, Consumer Complaint #1
(#1 for now, but there are still more hours left in the day for challengers):

You receive your new credit card to replace the expired one.
You call the number on the card to activate the card.
"Thank you for calling to activate your new card. Please hold while we process your activation."
Then you are forced to listen to 2 minutes (yes, t-w-o) of a disgustingly cheery spiel about some other crud they want to sell you before they finally say "Your card is now activated." Click.
You and I both know they could have activated that card immediately, because that's the way it used to be. Back when I was younger. And less cranky.

Star of Wonder, Star of Night

2011-12-25T13:38:00.000-06:00

I had a scrap of clay left over, crunched it up and tossed in in a box. Later on I put some pieces for raku glazing and firing in the box. When I was glazing the "good" pieces I noticed this piece (about 3" high) and since I had some extra glaze, I just slapped it on it. When I did the raku firing I tossed this piece in, just to do something with it.

Sometimes, art happens when you aren't looking for it.

Have a Happy Holiday season.

Map Nichos

2011-12-22T15:03:00.000-06:00

These nichos are starting to incorporate some markings that I am beginning to consider as "Map Markings." Susan has always been intrigued by maps and now I'm starting to see the attraction.

The color difference (aside from the photo background) is due to the various types of oxide stains I put on after the bisque firing. The stain is applied all over the entire piece and then wiped back off with a damp rag - a very messy procedure - leaving the resulting stain in the markings and texture of the clay.

Nichos and Bones

2011-12-18T12:24:00.000-06:00

These two nichos were sold at my Austin Community College Student Art sale. I wanted to be sure people noticed the nichos had niches that you could put things in so I included some "bones" pieces.

Cy Twombly

2011-12-12T03:18:00.015-06:00

Cy Twombly said he was "very happy to have the boat motif" in his work, not only for its autobiographical relevance (as a child, he spent his summers with his parents by the sea in Gloucester, Massachusetts) but also because he like the "reference to crossing over" associated with it. In this sculpture (shown at the MOMA), a boat is conjured through a hull-like slab of wood mounted with plaster atop a boxy wooden form.

Every time we go to Houston to visit museums we include the Menil's Cy Twombly Gallery on our list. It is a small building on a quiet street, just a few large rooms containing his magical paintings. The word "magical" is Susan's and she swears that although it might look like scribbling, it is impossible to scribble like that, even if you are 5 years old. Unless you are Cy Twombly.

I'm not that big a fan of his stuff but I did find the boat to be interesting and am thinking of ... boats.... clay..... drippy glaze.... boats..... We'll see.

Time Warner: Pitcher This

2011-12-09T14:05:00.000-06:00

Susan is bouncing off the walls so I picked these pictures all by myself for this blog entry. This is a raku pitcher I made, about 14" high. I liked making it but don't think I'll make any more of them soon because I've got another concept idea in mind. Stay tuned.

Why is Susan bouncing off the walls? Three words: Time Warner Cable.

1) Our online printed bill comes with 4 pages.
Page 1 is the summary of the costs and Page 3 gives the current service pricing.
Any good reason why Page 1 says the billed Standard Cable TV cost is $67.99 but the Listing of Service Prices page says $65.99 would be the cost? They have no idea but they will "research the issue".

2) Five years ago they started using my Social Security number as a password for account information.
She insisted they stop using that and let her designate a specific password. That worked fine until today when they told her they had no record of any password whatsoever and she'd have to give up my birthdate for account access.

3) She had the nerve to ask what she had to do IF she decided to cancel the cable TV service and just keep the internet service.
There will be a $39.99 charge to do that.
What if she canceled both the TV and the internet service (all the services we have with them), thereby closing out the account?
There will be a $39.99 charge to do that.
Oops.

4) About 5 minutes after she hung up, the phone rang with an automated survey about her "experience" with Time Warner.
She had to answer the various questions by pressing 1 for "Absolutely No" and a number up to 10 for " I Love You" (or something like that).
When they asked a question like "Would you recommend our service?" she would press 1.
Everytime she pressed 1 for a reply, the automated survey would then say "You pressed 1. This means Absolutely No. Are you sure this is correct? Press 1 if yes ...."

The Crab Nicho

2011-12-07T08:45:00.000-06:00

Above is the finished Crab Nicho.

But this is the crab nicho before it was fired, you saw it back in September. Once the piece was raku fired it had some nice crackle marks on it but the crab shell just didn't look right. A little paint magic took care of that and it all seemed right. This nicho went to one of my favorite Kiln Goddesses, Julie.

My blog has been sparse lately because my Blog Wrangler has a bad cold. She's promised she'll get back to work soon. Besides, we've run out of kleenex.

We've Been Busy

2011-11-30T18:05:00.000-06:00

The image above is Superwoman, 1973, by Kiki Kogelnik, shown at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. My own personal Superwoman, aka BlogWrangler, is Susan and she's been ignoring the blog lately because:
a) we went to Washington DC (via Fort Worth and Dallas) for Thanksgiving, and
b) she was getting me ready for my Austin Community College Student Art Sale tomorrow.

What did we see? Special shows of work by these artists:
Richard Diebenkorn, Jean-Paul Gaultier (ok, not exactly an artist, but very creative), Degas (does he even need a first name?), Andy Warhol and Mel Bochner.

Miles driven (to Dallas and back): 400+
Flights taken (from Dallas to Washington DC and back): 2
Hotels stayed in: 2
Nights at hotels: 7
Number of times we had to ask for a properly maintained room:
1, in Dallas
Number of times Susan chewed up and spit out a Manager because the cleaning service goofed up badly:
1, in Alexandria.
Number of free nights we got because of that: 1
Number of museums visited: 10
Number of art galleries visited: 1 - but it was the Torpedo Factory which has over 80 open studios and galleries.
Number of Belgian Brownies bought and consumed: 4

Once all the dust settles and our suitcases are unpacked and laundry done, the pictures will be sorted out and blogging done.
And....and....and.... I'm keeping up with my email!
All by myself.
Sort of.

A Fiber Friend

2011-11-26T06:33:00.000-06:00

Susan has little drawers full of fancy strings and ribbons. She calls them "fibers". Whatever. When I needed to wrap the little ceramic packages she suggested I look in the various drawers. Then she hovered over me, telling me which ones I could use and which ones were "...I'm planning to do something with those...". We all know not to ask details about PIMMs.

PIMMs? Projects in My Mind.

Every year we go together to the International Quilt Festival in Houston, where there are about 600 vendors selling all sorts of good stuff. I look at the metal doodads and jewelry findings, she looks at fabric and fibers. This year I got to meet a special friend of her, Connie James, The Fiber Goddess and Diva Cord Maker. Connie and Susan laugh every year about Susan's addiction to buying more fibers but never using them because "If you use them you won't have them to fondle and admire!"

Connie and I bonded immediately because I know about serving in the military in bad times and Connie has a son in Afghanistan. And because I liked her fibers. I promised her I'd make more packages to wrap up with her fibers. Do you visualize Julie Andrews and hear the sound of music in the background, "...brown paper packages tied up with string..."?

Yes, I also looked at a lot of quilts. We both agreed we were underwhelmed at most we saw but one by Joyce Seagram had great colors and design. You only see a detail portion in the photo because they set the quilts up with big hunks of plastic tape in front of them so no one will touch them and this makes your photos look weird so we just don't take full photos there anymore.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T06:13:00.003-06:00

Somewhere, there is a turkey gobbler missing his head.

Somewhere there are raku clay bodies that were supposed to fit these heads but didn't. Someday I'll figure the clay shrinkage deal out.

Hope you all have a good Thanksgiving this year.

Matakhan, Afghanistan, photo by Scott Olson

A Big Angry Bird

2011-11-22T06:56:00.007-06:00

We both play Angry Birds on our iPhones. I'm struggling at level 3 but Susan is stuck in level 9. She says she's that far ahead because she spends a lot of time playing while she is waiting in lines, on hold and waiting for me. We would both be a lot farther ahead but someone told us she never moves forward until she gets all 3 stars so we have been intimidated into perfection on Angry Birds. Could our lives be more superficial?

It has rained in Texas - not enough to ease the drought for the farmers and not enough to lift our burn bans but just enough to let us do raku firing in ceramics class. This is Big Angry Bird. His head lifts off and he is a container of sorts. He stands about 10" high. I wanted to get a defined dark shape (which is the smoke effect) on his front and his back and I feel I was very successful at that. Raku firing is a lot of smoke and crackling of your glaze. The best part about raku firing is that you put it in the raku kiln and you have a finished piece a few hours later, as opposed to a 10-24 hour firing cycle and 6-10 hour cool-down time.

The worst part about raku is that you don't have much control. That's why Big Angry Bird has a dark off-center belly button and a long vertical clay crack right down his side. Damn!

Blippa

2011-11-20T06:55:00.000-06:00

Say hello to Blippa, another one of my Little Dudes.

Enough about my art. When we were in New York City we were hit with that huge snowstorm. This shot is inside the Metropolitan Museum, looking up in the atrium where the Robert Lehman collection is.

Another favorite is the Museum of Artsand Design. It used to be the American Craft Museum but ... let's just leave it at this: I craft art.

This piece, Intrinsecus, by Jennifer Trask, was fascinating and even more so when I finally took the time to read the documentation. Maybe you can read some of it if you click on the photo below. Got to start collecting more bones!

A beautiful basket by Lillian Elliott, displayed in front of a window looking out over Columbus Circle.

It wasn't all art. We walked to Bryant Park, watched a performance by synchronized skaters doing a dance thing at the ice rink, watched protestors at nearby bank, browsed at Kinokuyina, a Japanese bookstore (the art supplies are in the basement) and people-watched from the generous collection of chairs in the park while having a coffee break. The obligatory cup of coffee was purchased at Le Pain Quotidien where Susan spotted their Belgian Brownie and insisted on it. The clerk asked, "Just one?" and we said yes, we'd share. She asked, "Are you sure?" Yes, it was a really large brownie.

And oh boy, was it ever good and I'm not even that much of a chocolate fan. While she was eating the first one Susan was moaning so much ("Oh, yum. Good! Sooo good!") I looked around to be sure no one thought I was misbehaving. Fifteen minutes later we were back inside, asking for two more to take back to our hotel for our late night snack. The clerk just laughed at us and gave them to us as a freebie. Thanks, Chris, you helped confirm our belief that some of the friendliest people around are New Yorkers!

I Did It!

2011-11-18T08:05:00.001-06:00

I have replied back to over two months of various comments and emails. True, I didn't have much to say but then if you get to know me better you'll find out that I don't usually say much anyway. I'd like to think I'm "pithy" but maybe not! Anyway, if I missed you it's because 1) your comment reply address was blocked or 2) I accidentally deleted your email. Sometimes I get confused with all my choices and accidentally delete something I should keep -- It's accidental, honest!

I also looked at a lot of blogs that I've been ignoring lately. You people are really productive and creative! I'm appropriately humbled.

I promise to be a better person in the future.

Susan speaks: That probably means he'll take one month to reply. But trust me, he does appreciate your comments - every day he asks me "Did anyone comment? What did they say?" and every day I say "Read your own damn mail." It never ends.

Callio

2011-11-16T08:37:00.001-06:00

More of the Little Dudes, this is Callio.

Susan seems to always gravitate toward the artwork that has greys, blacks and whites in it. Then she'll stare at it for a long time and take a photo. I have no idea why. The first piece below is a collage by Esteban Vicente, the second is a detail from a large painting by Pat Steir (both at the Metropolitan). Do a Google Images search on their names and you'll pull up some great eye candy.

Not until we were putting this blog entry together did we notice the similiarity between her photo of Steir's painting and the photo below. She checked and sure enough, the title of the painting was "Waterfall..." (She usually takes a photo of the documentation right after the photo of the artwork).

One purpose of our trip to New York City was for Susan to go to the World Trade Center Memorial and make sure her step-brother's name was shown correctly (he died in the plane crash at the Pentagon). Susan had always been impressed by the Pentagon Memorial and was worried this Memorial wouldn't seem "right". Her fears were unfounded as the sound of the flowing water at the Memorial seems to block out the city noise and gives it a serene feeling.

On October 31 we found this little kiddo watching the street action, ready for his trick-or-treat night.

Every morning it's my job to go out, buy the daily newspaper and Wall Street Journal for Susan and forage for breakfast that we eat in our room. (Want to travel a lot but have a small budget? Don't eat in restaurants.)

I found great breakfast scones as big as softballs at Donna Bell's, just across the street from our hotel. Those along with the Belgian Brownies would increase my pants size except for the fact that we were on our feet all day long. My abs look almost like this guy's (from the Metropolitan Museum, Greek hall). Almost. But not quite. At all.

Alippo

2011-11-14T10:40:00.000-06:00

Here is Alippo. I've been busy lately. Austin Art Garage has been patiently waiting for me to produce something for them but I've been doing the usual "farting in a colander" and doing everything else. I finally got "or else" orders from Susan, accompanied by a lot of yelling and dire threats.* Being retired is hard work!

To compound the problem of a lack of productive work, we took off for a week and went to:

Yep, New York City with Times Square for Halloween once again. Before that crazy night we had the (dubious) pleasure of a beautiful snowstorm. Through rain and wind we went down into the subway at 51st St.....

.... only to come up at 81st St to blowing snow. These shots are from within the Metropolitan Museum, the perfect place for a snowy day but not exactly a good choice for a snowy Saturday. Just us and a zillion other tourists.

*Susan speaks: Very dire threats. He has orders to respond to comments from a month back (yes!) and to read his emails all by himself. Dire threats. The man is not going to get lucky anytime soon.

Veterans Day, November 11, 2011: For the 1%

2011-11-11T06:39:00.036-06:00

Have you forgotten yet?...
For the world’s events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked while at the crossing of city-ways:
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you’re a man reprieved to go,
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.

But the past is just the same-and War’s a bloody game...
Have you forgotten yet?...
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you’ll never forget.

From Aftermath, by Siegfried Sassoon

...............................................................................

The Occupy Wall Street protesters proudly display this political statement:

"We are the 99%".

This refers to the fact that wealth and income has become concentrated within the top 1% of the United States population.

Here's another way to look at numbers:

Just 1% of the United States population has served,

or is currently serving, in the military

to shoulder the load of America's two longest wars.

Do you need a job?

Join the Army. Or the Navy, Marines, Coast Guard or the Air Force.

Are you part of the 99%?

Thank a veteran today (or any other day) for stepping up for you.

................................................................

Remember the family of James Clifford McKittrick.

They are still waiting for him to come home.

I'm still waiting to send them my POW-MIA bracelet.

Remember Barry Lynn Brown.

I escorted his flag-draped coffin home to his family.
Captain Barry Lynn Brown, Killed in Action, Vietnam, May 5, 1968

Remember Joseph Ambrose,

a World War I veteran, holding the flag that covered the casket of his son,

who had been killed in the Korean War.

What's Your Cup Size?

2011-11-05T06:18:00.005-05:00

Two small test cups, about 3" high. I'm liking this glaze and want to try some more soon.

Close, But No Cigar

2011-11-02T06:08:00.027-05:00

Sometimes I make large pieces that just refuse to talk to me but I stubbornly insist on continuing with them. They come home and Susan takes one look at them and says "That one is going outside in the back yard or the trash can, your choice."

After I pout and whine for a while and desperately try to defend the piece, I accept the inevitable: the piece sucks. Big time.

Susan tries to placate me by telling me it's not a failure, it's a "learning experience". That sucks, too. Big time. But she and I took the piece and started fooling around with acrylic paints and inks and stamps and all sorts of junk because obviously there was no reason for it to be "precious". And the end result was some interesting color combinations that I'll try in the future on pieces I decide to paint instead of glaze.

Raku Penguins

2011-10-30T06:02:00.015-05:00

My latest Penguin/Pod People. These have been raku fired, frantically, on the one day we had rain. The crackle is characteristic of the technique, as is the grey which is the smoke set into the clay. Raku firing is very spontaneous and you can plan all you want and the fire will do just exactly what it wants to do. So my plan with raku firing is to not plan.

They stand about 6" high. The picture below shows them at another angle.

Ice Ink

2011-10-27T12:02:00.000-05:00

Are you asking yourself "Now what?" (Sort of like this?)

Very simple. Take sumi ink and pour it into an old ice cube tray, a little in each compartment. Freeze it. Then put the frozen cubes on some heavy paper and let them melt. You'll be impatient and pick the paper up and move the cube around and blow on it and all sorts of odd things will happen.

Ok, you ask "But still, now what?" Well, eventually I'm going to do something with these and all I can say for now is that is is related to coffee. Stay tuned.

If you are the curious sort (aren't all of us?) you might try freezing some other kinds of ink or poster paints (especially for kids). The paper needs to be the heavy-duty watercolor paper so it won't warp too much.

Kervin, At Last

2011-10-24T16:06:00.000-05:00

If you look at the previous post of Kervin (named after my barber, who gave me the antlers) you'll notice there doesn't seem to be much difference. Sometimes, but not always, Less is More. Sometimes, and actually most often, this is a tough thing for me to realize. But this time I think I got it right.

I Do Doodle

2011-10-18T06:33:00.024-05:00

When I was at ArtUnraveled I took a class from Traci Bautista. It was called "Doodles Unleashed" and oh yes, I can unleash my Doodle. In fact, I was definitely the best guy Doodler in the class. Well, actually I was the only guy in the class, but hey, I'll take my glory where I can get it!

Traci is sometimes considered what some people call a "Girlie Glam" artist but that isn't all she can teach you. I had fun, she's a great teacher, I learned new stuff, and I got a long way out of my comfort zone. I'll be taking more classes from her in the future (she does some classes online also).

Good Penguins, Good!

2011-10-15T11:45:00.000-05:00

This is what well-behaved Penguins/Pod People look like.

Blog posts have been few and far between lately. No, my Blog Wrangler hasn't left me. With my encouragement and urging she has taken a break from spending way too much time at the computer, which meant she quit doing any photography tweaking and posting and quit typing in my answers to my emails and comments and even (shame!) quit reading other people's blogs!

But she's baaaaack! Be afraid. Be very afraid.

In the meantime, our latest Netflix movies (yes, we'll stick with them, we love it when red envelopes show up in our mailbox because our internet connection is too flakey for instant viewing) have been:

Inside Job - explains a lot of the anger shown in the Wall Street protests. Portrays perfectly the bumper sticker sentiment "If you aren't completely appalled then you haven't been paying attention."

Bill Cunningham, New York - Love this guy. Susan and I try to take "theme" pictures all the time in New York City but it is very hard to do. He makes it look easy.

Flawless - Interesting mystery and I didn't guess the ending. Susan kept telling me to watch for expressive wrinkles on Demi Moore's face - couldn't find any. I said she was supposed to be acting "detached", Susan said Botox. What do you think?

The Bank Job - Great movie, reminded me of "A Simple Plan".

Cedar Rapids - Movie was interesting and held my attention all through but the story was a little sappy. Worth watching again if only for the priceless 30-second scene of John C. Reilly wearing a trash can lid in the swimming pool - pure creative genius.

Bad Penguins, Bad!

2011-10-03T15:08:00.000-05:00

I call them Penguins. Susan calls them Pod People. They do talk to me. These two told me: "Not my fault!" Hmmmm, maybe, maybe not. OK, I didn't make them stable enough and when they got in the kiln, out of my control, they danced right into each other and now they are stuck forever.

Very discouraging.

In addition, a glaze I liked decided to join in the trouble-making.

Turn your back on your Penguins and they just get into all sorts of trouble. But at least one of them behaved.

What Was I Thinking?

2011-09-14T09:05:00.007-05:00

When I was at ArtUnraveled in Phoenix I took a class from Mary Beth Shaw where I learned to use Wood Icing and scratch into it, and using Ampersand Claybord, and all about colors and mixing them. This was in early August. Who would have thought that September would bring fires all around us in Austin?

The class was supposed to be focused on depicting layers, like strata in rocks, but I sort of fell off in a different direction, although I did manage to maintain the 2-panel idea. Mary Beth is totally cool with people who fall off her planned route so I want to take more classes with her in the future.

I've been practicing my color mixing stuff by using her methods of painting your own style of color charts. It's more interesting than I thought it would be.

The fires are still around, it was 103 degrees yesterday, and winds are starting back up. People are still being kept away from their homes in Bastrop, whether to sift through the ashes or to be thankful their home is still there. Even if the house is still standing, electricity will be a long time coming.

We Remember

2011-09-11T06:07:00.026-05:00

At the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial the benches representing the victims that were inside the Pentagon are arranged so that when you read the engraved names you are facing the Pentagon's south facade, where the plane hit; the benches dedicated to the victims aboard the plane are arranged so that when you read those engraved names you are facing skyward along the path the plane traveled.

Susan's step-brother's bench is here. We remember.

Scorched Earth

2011-09-07T12:42:00.003-05:00

Our drought has led to the inevitable - fire. Fires everywhere. Wildfires or wild fires or flash fires or fire zones or whatever you want to call them. In Bastrop, our friend Mary lost her home - everything. In Spicewood, our friend Regina watched flames come within 200 yards of her home. In Austin, we worry continually because we live on a greenbelt, now dry and parched looking and a potential firespot, as it is a popular hiking area and home to a number of transients.

Late edit: Our friend Susan S.and her mother both lost their homes in the Bastrop fires.

The image above is today's map of Bastrop, black circles mean heat/fire within the past 24 hours, yellow means some current heat, red means a still active fire. Current estimates are that 38,000 acres have burned and 885 homes have been destroyed.

Late edit (Thursday morning): 1,386 homes have been destroyed so far. The fire is 30% contained. The map above shows only a section of Bastrop, there are other areas that have been destroyed.

When most people think of a fire they think of the possible loss of life and then they think of the homes burning up and all possessions gone. It is more than that. It is the people frantically packing up their cars to evaculate, frantically calling for their pets that they eventually have to abandon as the flames come closer. How much time do you have to evacuate? Take a look at this video to see how fast fire can move. Now think about how fast it moves when the wind is blowing 20 miles per hour.

It is the exhausted firefighters, many of them volunteers, who haven't had a break for days, even to go back to see if their own homes were among those destroyed. It is the children, wary of their now unstable environment, not able to go back to the routine and security of school. Not because the school has burned down but because the buses can't travel down the roads, roads covered with ash, roads with bridges and guardrail posts burned out. It is the air that smells of smoke, even to us, miles away. It is the ash in the air that impedes the breathing of people with asthma, elderly people, babies. In the end, it is just scorched earth.

The map images are courtesy of Bill Gabbert's WildfireToday website. In the Bastrop image shown below Bill says:
"An interesting footnote. You may have noticed on the lower-right side of the satellite imagery map the name “LUECKE” spelled out in green. The landowner clear-cut trees on the property, leaving enough to see the letters. They are huge, and span about 2.5 miles from the “L” to the last “E”. Astronauts on the International Space Station use these letters to check the resolution of their cameras."

Have A Grate Day

2011-09-05T06:56:00.001-05:00

Here are two more grates, but with only glazes, no nailpolish (go here for my experiment with that stuff). I liked doing these but they were more therapeutic than creative, in that I sort of relaxed and just let them happen. Or maybe that is creative. I don't know and I don't care and that's my story and I'm sticking to it because I just like playing with mud.

What else have I been doing lately?

Netflix

Fair Game - 5 stars and gave me the creeps. Why does stuff like this not make more people furious?
The Company Men - 5 stars and gave me nightmares because I spent 32 years looking over my shoulder until I was pushed out. Susan was horrified at the beating Kevin Costner has taken in the looks department, as she (and I) both really liked him in an oldie, No Way Out.
Last night I watched Unstoppable -- 5 stars and Wow!
It starts out with you knowing bad things are going to happen and knowing it will end well and knowing you cannot stop watching until it's over, even though you know how it will end!

Reading

American Assassin by Vince Flynn.
Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff

Eating

Too much.

Napping

A lot. Because I can. Because I can't help it. Because I have an outrageously expensive Relax-the-Back zero-gravity recliner and it makes me fall asleep every time I get in it.

Final Step Pending

2011-09-01T06:00:00.001-05:00

These two pieces need to be glazed. As usual, I have no idea whatsoever. The nicho (below) has that crab shell positioned in it but I'm not sure what glaze will make it really look good.

I have two possibilities:
1) Something fantastic will happen. It will be an incredible glaze that I have no idea how to recreate and I will spend the rest of my life trying to recreate it.

2) Something really ugly will happen and I'll mope around for at least 3 days until Susan kicks me back into action by telling me I'm a crybaby.

I Can Draw!

2011-08-30T06:33:00.000-05:00

At ArtUnraveled I took a drawing/journaling/sketchbook class from Jane LaFazio. Susan had taken a class from her before and told me I had to take one, no matter what the subject, because Jane was such a good teacher. And she was! Here are my very first "real" drawings and my very first attempts at watercolor.

The drawing below, unfinished, is a start of a piece of a wasp nest. I plan to finish it someday and maybe even do a series of them.

Go here to see more of what everyone did in all of Jane's classes. If you have a chance to take one of her classes -- Do it!

The World's Best Guy Oatmeal Cookies

2011-08-27T07:30:00.000-05:00

Not only am I an accomplished ceramic artist/sculptor, I can also make The World's Best Guy Oatmeal Cookies. Do not think about making these cookies if you are a delicate, fussy person. These are Guy cookies, they are fattening and and sugary but have oats in them so the healthy oats win over the bad stuff and don't tell me I'm wrong, I don't want to know.

Trust me, this will be easy -- there are only 5 ingredients.
First, turn the oven on to 375 degrees.

Now, you put these things in a bowl and mix them up:
1 + 1/3 cups of flour
2 + 1/2 cups of rolled oats
About the oats: Not the instant kind and not the 5 minute kind - just the real old-fashioned rolled oat kind.

Next, you use a 2 cup glass measuring cup:
Measure in 3/4 cup of cooking oil (I use Wesson canola oil).
Use the same glass measuring cup and pour in, on top of the oil,
3/4 cup maple syrup

You know you have 3/4 cup of syrup in when the line shows 1 +1/2 cups of liquids. That's heavy duty math for me but then I'm the kind of guy that has to say to myself "Big into Little means percent." Yes, I was a financial planner in my previous life. Don't ask.
About the syrup: Not the pancake kind but the real kind, the expensive kind. I get mine at CostCo.

Then add 1 Tablespoon (the big spoon) of vanilla to the oil-syrup mix.
Sort of whip that stuff around with a fork and pour it over the dry stuff and stir them up.

Now wait about 2 minutes for the dough to stiffen up. While you are waiting, put parchment paper on your two cookies sheets. If you don't want it to roll up, fold the 4 corners in. Blob the dough down into 24 cookies and bake them for ABOUT 13-15 minutes, or until there is just a little bit of brown showing at the edges.

When you take them out of the oven just slide them onto the layers of newspaper you've set on the counter. No need to make any more dishes messy by getting out some sort of cooling rack. Notice that this recipe messes up a minimum amount of dishes. If you think using parchment paper is expensive, just consider that you'll be saving on your water bill because you don't have to wash the cookie sheets.

I'm not promising you'll have success right away with this recipe - we fiddled with the amount of flour and the cooking time for about 8 batches before we got what we liked. You can also add some salt, we don't. Or add raisins or chocolate chips or any other decadent thing your heart desires. Just remember, there are oats in those cookies so they must be good for you!

Do-Over

2011-08-25T06:11:00.000-05:00

Sometimes a great idea winds up in the trash can. Or, as Thomas Edison put it:

There are not 10,000 failures,

but 10,000 ways by which

to learn what does not work.

I thought my bisque-fired but unglazed nicho (above) looked pretty good. Then I turned it over. Susan has told me more than once that structural cracks like that in a piece mean that someone wasn't paying attention in Ceramics 101. Guilty as charged.

Flip-Flops for Earl

2011-08-23T06:04:00.000-05:00

While we were at ArtUnraveled I had a free day. That meant I ran errands like food shopping, liquor shopping, and miscellaneous supply shopping. Wal-Mart was selling plain white flip-flops for $1.95 and I couldn't say No. Actually, I have a hard time saying No to anything on sale. Susan has warned me many, many times "If it's on sale there is a reason and it isn't always good.", along with telling me that the inability to say No would have, if I'd been a woman, made me pregnant many times.

Once I got them back to the room I realized we had a carton full of various art supplies that were required for the classes but probably wouldn't get used unless I took control. So I took control. Ta-Dah!

When Susan got back from her classes she admired them but pointed out that they reminded her of a Dumb Blonde Joke: Why do blondes have shoes with TGIF printed on the toe? To remind them Toes Go In First. (If you are a blonde don't be offended, it could easily be a Snooki Joke. If you are Snooki, take your TV money and go away.)

We decide the perfect person for the flip-flops was EGE, better know as Earl, The Guy With The Camera. Ricë makes sure Earl is decked out attractively enough that you don't miss him in a crowd. As if. Go here if you aren't sure what I'm talking about. And as a matter of fact, you can see me in a picture in her blogpost if you scroll down. I'm the one trying to look intellectual.

Yes, She Does

2011-08-20T06:59:00.003-05:00

Yes, Susan does make art. That is, when she isn't wasting her time trying to keep me in line.

Go here for Mary Beth Shaw, her immensely talented and geneous teacher. More from me coming soon because Susan liked Mary Beth so much she talked me into taking a painting class from Mary Beth. Me - a painter! Well, sort of. If you go to Mary Beth's ArtUnraveled video on her blog you can see me at about 1:21 into the video. Susan is at about :25 and (another class) at about 1:14, the talented Marcy is at :39 and Carol is at 1:08. There are many more artistic people in my posse but that's all I can identify and remember now.

Hot and Dry. Very Hot and Dry.

2011-08-16T19:20:00.001-05:00

This little clipping came from our extended family member, Sheila. Go here to see what she has helped bring back to life. Susan swims at the Y a lot and loves the Speedo reference.

It is funny but then it's not so funny. We are finishing up the 62nd day of this summer with a temperature reading over 100 degrees. We continue to be in what is considered an "Exceptional" drought and no, that's not like in school where it means you are doing well. We are doing lousy. Our trees are losing leaves, we can tell who has been violating the watering restrictions because their lawns are green instead of brown, and mice are starting to invade people's homes to look for water. The first time we see one we'll be on our way to the Humane Shelter to get a mouser cat. The continual wildfires that break out near Austin make us very nervous because we are on a greenbelt area that is no longer green with a dried up creek.

The saddest part about the drought was what we saw in West Texas on our drive to and from Phoenix. Every year we marvel at the beautiful landscape and always see some sort of blooming roadside plant life. Not this year. No plants were blooming, tall cactus plants were bent over and areas still showed the blackened effects of wildfires. And the scrub trees are turning brown. In some areas so many trees are turning rust and brown you would swear it was November. We have never seen it this dry.

Me and My Posse

2011-08-12T09:57:00.000-05:00

We are finally back from a 13-day trip to Phoenix for ArtUnraveled that included 4 long days on the road. We had a great time. I learned a load of new stuff. I reconnected with old friends and made new friends. Eventually we will get stuff unpacked and pictures uploaded and emails returned and Comments acknowledged. Eventually. In the meantime, here is a sample of what Janis, Carol and I did in Lisa Renner's Pod Head class. That's my piece in the front, adorned with a tin heart, courtesy of Martha, and Carol's piece on the left, Janis' on the right. The bases will get stained/painted. Eventually.

A Great Grate

2011-08-10T05:08:00.000-05:00

This is a piece I molded off a grate I found. We can't do raku firing this summer because of the drought and the burn ban so we've been doing soda firing. I'm not sure what soda firing is all about but it seems to make the pieces look like brown clay. On this piece I had put a rust glaze between the ridges but when it was fired it looked boring. A glaze is like glass once it's fired and the clay has a little of that quality also so it's not a surface you can easily alter by painting.

Susan had a brilliant idea for me: Nail Polish.

I didn't want just red on it but she assured me that polish sold today comes in every color of the rainbow. They don't sell it at Home Depot or Harbor Freight so I bribed her into going to buy me some wherever they sell that stuff. The bribe was oatmeal cookies, details of that to be posted later.

Ladies, just give me a call if you'd like to have your nails done by a pro.

Little Packages

2011-08-06T11:48:00.000-05:00

I made these ceramic packages for Susan for her birthday. They are the size that fits right in your hand. She told me this was the kind of stuff that I needed to start making for my Etsy site (which sits empty). Because she would have to do all the work, I'm holding off on that thought for now.

Moo Cards

2011-08-04T05:04:00.000-05:00

These are some of my latest Moo cards. What? Moo cards are little cards that are half as wide as a business card. Your text (up to 6 lines) goes on the back and the front becomes your gallery. The best thing about Moo cards is that you can order 100 cards and get them back with 100 different images on them. We only take the time to upload about 25-35 images so I get several of each image. The cards are so narrow you have to crop your images but they make it easy by providing you with a little sliding box to position over your images you've uploaded (no need to crop ahead of uploading).

The next best thing about Moo cards is that they are fast. In fact, Moo used to available only from England and the cards still came in less than 2 weeks. Cost with shipping? About $25 for 100. I think my Moo cards are great. If you see me, ask me for one.

Bud, Turtle Bob Jr, and Their Girlfriend

2011-08-01T09:09:00.014-05:00

On the left is Bud. You saw him before here. On the right is Turtle Bob Jr, who functions as a Little Bird Spa that has to be refilled about 3 times a day because the birds get in and splash all the water out while they play Marco-Polo. In the middle is some gal named Phoebe that hangs out a lot with Bud.

Bud now holds some stale wheat thins, sometimes leftover popcorn or bits of stale bread. As you can see from this picture, Phoebe has been scratching on Bud (who has only been glued in place for two weeks) as she tries to get every last crumb. In the center is a piece that sticks out, it was supposed to have a pod or something glued on it to fill the hole. Instead it has become an annoyance to Phoebe as she digs in. Take a look below to see how diligent she is. By the way, don't be fooled by the green appearance of our backyard - the trees are actually in a lot of drought distress.

Buried Treasure

2011-07-28T07:06:00.002-05:00

Seth has the annual Buried Treasure online collaboration going on. Go here to see what I'm talking about. The guy is a Creative Maniac! I am in awe of the work he produces, not to mention he's a nice guy. Enjoy his blog, it's a treat.

Here's the text of the original post. Notice the mention of the weather, not that we can possibly even remember what it's like to be anything under 100 degrees in Texas.

**************************************************
More Baby Pots and Pancakes
January 21, 2011

Baby Pots because Baby, it's cold outside!

I am an oatmeal fan and a pancake fan so I really enjoy cold weather as an excuse to have those for breakfast. Not both at the same time until now because Susan has found a recipe for oatmeal pancakes that are even lighter and puffier than the Bisquick Melt-In-Your Mouth ones (recipe on the box) we've been making. Up until now she only tolerated oatmeal in cookies but these pancakes have won her over.

Oatmeal Pancakes
--------------------
Mix in a bowl:
1/4 c. flour
1 c. quick-cooking oats (the 1-minute kind)
1 T. sugar
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
a dash of salt
optional: 1/4 t. cinnamon (we don't opt)

Mix in another bowl:
1 c. nonfat buttermilk
1 large egg
2 T. melted butter

Add the wet stuff to the dry and stir just until mixed.
Cook on your lightly oiled (or not, if teflon) pancake griddle or in a pan, turning when tops are covered with bubbles. These might looked browner when done than normal pancakes.

If you are of the decadent type you can do what we do: Fry up Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage. Crumble it into little pieces. Sprinkle them on the pancakes before you flip them over to finish cooking. When you serve them, serve them sausage-side up because then there are all the little spots to trap the syrup.

If you have extra pancakes left over they will reheat (about 10-20 seconds) in the microwave the next morning. If you are like us, there won't be any left over and after breakfast you'll just go lie on the floor for an hour or so.

For the record, I can cook and I can make these all by myself.

Jessica Dupuis and My Jessica Book

2011-07-26T13:34:00.041-05:00

Thousands and thousands and thousands of tiny ceramic shards, all carefully adhered to a backing. When we go to Houston we always stop by the Center for Contemporary Craft. Resident artists work in studios there and part of their "job" is to have open studio hours. This lets us go in and talk to the artists, to ask them what they are working on, the processes they use to make their art, the inspirations they have.

On my last visit I was lucky enough to visit with Jessica Dupuis, the artist of the piece above (detail at top) and the creator of the in-process work shown (below). Jessica shared ideas with me and encouraged me to try what I was thinking about: A ceramic book. Susan is always making books of one sort or another so I thought I'd surprise her with a book I made.

It hasn't been glazed yet because I'm not sure what to do about that. In the meantime, it's a really fragile piece, although Jessica swears her pieces hold up well enough to be shipped to gallery and museum shows. Take a look at more of her work here. Thanks again, Jessica, for all your advice. Susan loved the book.

Black and White

2011-07-23T06:11:00.008-05:00

He has black underglaze on parts of him and graphite pencil marks. I'm not sure what will happen with the white unglazed areas. If I don't do anything to them with this particular clay they have a tendency to look chalky.

I'm back to making more heads again, which was originally a starting point for me. Sometimes art just pushes you around in a big circle.

Guys and Dolls

2011-07-20T05:54:00.048-05:00

Last summer I took a class from Lisa Renner (here and here) and was not, for a change, the only guy in the class. Gary Smith was also in the class and he is the artist who created the piece above. Below is a detail showing how meticulous his work is and further down is the picture I took of his piece at the end of the class. Lisa provides more information and assistance than you can possibly absorb in one day so most of us put the finishing touches on our pieces when we got home.

Obviously Gary is a much more skilled artist than I am when it comes to mixed media (my piece, Ricky, is shown below). I guess I could challenge him to a ceramics smack-down but I'm not sure I could win that! Although I relish being the only guy in most classes, Gary is an enjoyable classmate and is more than willing to stand back and watch me (unsuccessfully) try to be the Alpha Dog.

Just like I benefit from the atmosphere around Susan, I think Gary benefits from the atmosphere around his wife, Jeanie Thorn. We are both pretty lucky guys. And we make Dolls!

Summer Colors

2011-07-17T18:27:00.000-05:00

I'm working again with heads (about 4" high) but this time I'm focusing on color. Right now I'm liking purple, chartreuse, cinnamon and black. We'll see how far I can go with those colors. This head needs a little more work, maybe just a clear matte glaze but then again I might just accidentally screw him up. Oh well.

Our friend, Maria, has a knack for growing anything, regardless of the weather. She brought us the okra and yellow cherry/pear tomatoes. I cooked them with some onion, and red cherry tomatos and then tossed them with chili butter and capellini. And bacon. Of course.

Dancing As Fast As I Can

2011-07-13T03:28:00.011-05:00

These pieces all need to have a glaze picked out, then the glaze applied and then they need to be fired. The stack on the right contains test tiles. I hate test tiles. I also hate it when my glaze choice doesn't even look like it was in the same planet than what I planned. Or even in the same universe. I hate it when Susan tells me a glaze looks really cool and then I can't ever duplicate it again because I was just winging it. Hence, test tiles.

I've done test tiles before, carefully and methodically. And never was able to recreate the test tile glaze again, regardless of what I wrote down. Maybe the Kiln Goddess doesn't like me.

Nahhh. No way. Which reminds me, my high school reunion is this fall -- don't ask me which one. Susan has absolutely no interest in going with me because 1) she didn't got to my high school and 2) she went to 3 different high schools in 4 years and thinks reunions are dumb. She's made me promise to be on my best behavior. Best Behavior means that when a woman comes up to me and starts chatting about our high school days I do not say to her "Did we date?"

All the raku pieces have to wait until our burn ban is lifted which will be after it rains a lot which, based on the way our summer weather is going, might not be in my lifetime.

(small symbol in center of bottom bar will let you eliminate any screen notations)

Pointing Out

2011-07-10T07:45:00.002-05:00

Remember those antlers I got from my barber, Kervin? Here is where they might be going. The head is just bisque fired so far and the antler piece will be glued on after final glazing. What will the final glazing look like? Beats me.

Julie Guyot and Me

2011-07-07T05:15:00.007-05:00

No, I didn't make the cup shown above, Julie Guyot did and I bought it from her. We went to the Renegade Craft Fair here in Austin earlier in May because Susan thought I would see some examples of jewelry that I might like to try making. Instead, I found Julie.

First of all, the Renegade Craft Fair was WAY better than I thought it would be and we're looking forward to going again. Check their website to see if one is coming to your area. And as far as it being "craft", take a look at what Julie thinks about that. Second, I rarely buy anyone else's art art because our house is getting full of S-T-U-F-F, both other artists and Susan and mine. We are trying to de-acquisition, not acquisition -- face it people, none of our stuff is going to fit in our coffins.

I made a deal with Julie: If she would tell me how she shaped the cup, I would buy one. It was an easy offer for me because both Susan and I really were attracted to her work. She just laughed and told me she'd tell me how even if I didn't buy one and she'd even draw me a template. I know there is a lot of website/blog talk about copying and stealing ideas but so far I've been fortunate enough to find people who are more than willing to talk to me about their work and the techniques they use and how they create their specific "trademark" pieces. Maybe it's because ceramic artists know that no matter how much you tell someone, it's still up to the Kiln God/Goddess to decide what the final result will be.

I drew off a lot of her templates on paper and tried to determine how the shapes would go. I redrew her template in the size I wanted and then tried making some of cups using her shaping techniques. [Note to Julie - Not fair! You made it sound easy.] Two results are shown below. I like the wonky-ness of the cups but I'm not sure about the glaze. It is a soda firing technique I did for the first time.

Thanks Julie, for taking the time to give me advice and making me feel like a "real" artist.

Happy Birthday, Gigi!

2011-07-05T06:58:00.005-05:00

I grew up with two brothers but was lucky enough to marry a woman who had a brother and a sister. That meant I acquired a sister-in-law, Gigi. She's really smart and has all sorts of degrees to confirm that and best of all, she thinks everything I make is terrific.

Gigi works in a cubicle and we all know that those cubicle workers seem to find the best sorts of funny stuff to mail around - on their break, of course. Here are some items she passed along to us. If you want to see more in the series just google the title.

What Artists Do If Given Wire and Household Objects

(and too much time on their hands)

Susan speaks: Her real name is Linda Jean but at age 3 when she came along I wasn't up to saying all that. "Gigi" was what I could say and that became her family name. Only family calls her that and it still seems odd when other people, including her husband!, call her Linda. The picture above was from 1960, Disneyland. The first picture below is from Arlington, Virginia, and includes my brother and Mom. Dad was always the photographer and Gigi has inherited his photographic eye. The bottom picture is from Ann Arbor, Michigan, back in the dark ages when I had no grey hair. I have no idea what we were doing dressed alike but it must have seemed like a good idea at the time.

Remembering on the 4th of July

2011-07-02T06:20:00.003-05:00

Re-enlistment ceremony, Kabul, Afghanistan

The 4th of July is our Independence Day, when we celebrate our 1776 Declaration of Independence, which includes this statement:

We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal,

that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights,

that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Make sure you mentally do a little editing to get this phrase correct:

that all men and women are created equal,

Our military armed forces serve to protect our independence, and women serve in our armed forces, in both support and combat positions. So far, while serving in our armed forces, 111 women have died in Iraq and 28 have died in Afghanistan. We like to have lots of parades on the Fourth of July and I hope your parade includes a section for military veterans, especially the women.

Please remember also those who served and are no longer with us, among them Captain James Clifford McKittrick and Captain Barry L. Brown.

Captain Barry Lynn Brown, Killed in Action, Vietnam, May 5, 1968

Bottoms Up

2011-06-30T12:06:00.000-05:00

I was digging around in the back of some shelves and found this mug I made a long time ago, back when I was just starting in ceramics and thought making mugs was a cool thing to do. The shape isn't bad and the blue glaze is interesting. However, gripping a handle that looks like an alligator's tail is not exactly what I want to do with my morning cup of coffee. Not to mention the fact that the glaze job is pretty pathetic on the inside. And I had to ego-trip my intitial on the bottom, prompting Susan to say it would be my job to wash it anytime I used it. It has become a give-away to my green-thumb friend, Maria, who will plant something little in it.

We did get a blast of rain last week but it wasn't enough to keep us from having our drought alert and burn-bans extended through all of July. That means no more raku firings for me unless we get a heavy-duty load of rain and the burn-ban is lifted. I don't know what this bush is, but every summer it comes back to our front courtyard-- it seems to like the heat.

Nichos Again

2011-06-27T17:25:00.000-05:00

I'm back to making nichos but I'm not sure why. Maybe I need to feel enclosed? Maybe I'm in a box? Maybe I just need to ponder my bellybutton some more.

The nicho above is After cleaning up from raku firing, this picture below is Before cleaning up from the firing. All the nichos shown here were raku fired which involves lots of smoke and hot fire. Unfortunately, we still have a burn ban in effect due to the drought we are having so there won't be any more raku firing done until we get some rain.

Susan speaks:
Robyn thinks our oven is clean. Ha! The myth is greater than the reality. The oven is pretty bad (see picture) but is easy to clean because it has a self-cleaning feature. You just set that option and a few hours later you wipe out the ash reside and your oven looks like Martha Stewart cleaned it with her q-tips. One problem however -- the odd odors from the self-cleaning cycle set off our smoke detectors! The alarm blares, the alarm company calls us to tell us the fire department is on the way, and we run around like idiots trying to shut the alarm off. Note to Self: Ripping the back-up battery out of the control box is not a good thing to do. The only way to do the cleaning without having cardiac arrest is to open all the windows, have several fans blowing and alert the alarm company before you start. As a result of all that hassle, I just let the oven get really, really, really ugly before I clean it. After all, it's not like I'm eating food off its surface.

All About Me. And Food

2011-06-23T17:11:00.002-05:00

Nothing much happening here but we did get a little rain the other night. To alleviate my boredom Susan told me to make some bread while she was out running an errand. She promised it would be easy and it was. One hour, self-rising flour, sugar, some melted butter and Yes! A bottle of beer. We had a few chunks warm from the oven and smeared with butter. She had also promised it wouldn't taste so great. She was right. But the birds and raccoons aren't as picky as we are. Next week she promised to upgrade me to a fancier recipe.

I took the video on the bottom with my iPhone. Can you tell I've been listening to FoodTV? Rachel Ray would be proud of me. Susan spent about an hour trying to figure out how to make it look better (other than my cheesy narration) on YouTube and determined that:
1) I should have filmed it sideways,
2) she wasn't going to mess with it anymore and
3) she had no idea how to fix it. (Any ideas?)
What you see is what you get.

To sum it all up, I can serge and I can bake bread and I am the Champion of Napping!

To atone for the crummy video we'll give you a recipe for a pie that's like the one pictured. Promise yourself you'll only make it once a month. (OK, once a week.) Promise yourself you won't eat the whole damned thing in one day (OK, it was the two of us). Totally ignore the aversion you might have to buttermilk because you won't taste it. I promise. Totally ignore the fact that Cool Whip is fake stuff because once you taste the pie you won't care. Totally ignore the fact that this pie is just a highway to junk-food hell because once you taste it you'll be asking for the express lane.

Velvet Pie
------------
Dump a package of Jello French Vanilla Instant Pudding mix in a bowl.
Pour 1 cup of buttermilk over it.
Whisk it together quickly until it looks smooth.
Fold in 1 8oz container of Cool Whip.
Plop it into a graham cracker pie crust.
Chill for a couple of hours.

Sounds too bland? Not!
Consider doing the same thing with White Chocolate Pudding mix and a chocolate cookie crust. Or try a different pudding like lemon or butterscotch or chocolate.
Too decadent for you? Wimp! OK, use the fat-free pudding and fat-free Cool Whip and low-fat pie crust.

One last tip: For us, the treat part is the crunch of the pie crust. So we buy 2 crusts. The first crust is the pie bottom and gets half of the mix plopped in, then topped off with some broken pieces of the 2nd crust (about half of them). Plop in the rest of the mix and top it off with the remaining chunks.

You aren't getting a picture of our pie because we were too busy eating to stop for a photo op.

How Hot Is It?

2011-06-21T06:09:00.002-05:00

It's hot. I don't obsessively check the thermometer anymore but I can tell you yesterday was Day 16 in a row of days where we've gone over 100 degrees. For the record, today is the first day of Summer. It's gonna be fun...

How hot is it?

I now know that a seat belt makes a pretty good branding iron.

How hot is it?

I can drive with only 2 fingers on the steering wheel.

How hot is it?
The best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance.
(always my best move)
How hot is it?
I'm doing minimal yard work at dawn and I start sweating before the sun actually comes up.
See photo above for my suffering plants that I have been watering, but we are also in drought conditions so I can only water twice a week.
How hot is it?
My biggest fear while riding my bike is "What if I fall and get knocked out and end up lying on the pavement and cook to death?"
How hot is it?
I now know that asphalt has a liquid state.

It's A Guy Thing

2011-06-19T20:41:00.000-05:00

Feats of Clay here in Austin is a great place to shop for ceramics -- and some of my metal sculptures. Judy, the owner, has a great garden area on the side of her shop where she manages to grow stuff despite our drought and heat (102 today). She generously lets me display some of my metal yard art Guys there (all about 3 - 4 feet high) and I am hoping someone will decide to take one home with them.

Some of the sculptures are anatomically correct - Happy Father's Day.

Winter's Bone and The Hunger Games

2011-06-16T11:00:00.000-05:00

We are reading The Hunger Games trilogy (now into the third book). In this case it is actually Listening, not reading, because they are from Audible. A book that is read to you gives you an entirely different connection to the story and a good reader will help you stretch your imagination as you visualize the characters and the scene. These books are considered "Young Adult" but it confuses me as to why they aren't considered Adult books. Yes, the main character is a teenage girl but so what? The theme of the books is heavy-duty morality, the future, death, violence, manipulation, deceit and so on. The movie (of course) is being shot now and Jennifer Lawrence is the main character, Katniss.

So how does this tie in with the movie Winter's Bone? Jennifer Lawrence (shown above) was the lead actor in this movie and her performance was achingly, hauntingly perfect. A good movie is one that has you thinking about it the next day, mulling over the scenes and wondering about the characters. In this movie it was very interesting to realize at the end that the strongest characters, in terms of how they faced life and dealt with hardship, were the women, not the men. Recently we watched The King's Speech and gave that a five-star rating. Winter's Bone gets six stars.

How does that all tie in with the picture of the antler pieces at the top? They came from Kervin, my barber. He hunts a lot and does a lot of gardening, too. In The Hunger Games they hunt game for food, in Winter's Bone they hunt game for food. You may think hunting animals is a bad thing but consider the fact that in Austin our local Caritas organization accepts venison donations from hunters and uses it to provide food to families in need.

The antler pieces are in the process of being worked into some ceramic sculptures - or at least that's the plan.

Man With A Mission

2011-06-13T06:49:00.001-05:00

I wanted to have some definitive texture on the clay slabs I rolled out so Susan begged some spare canvas from an artist friend and we bought some other pieces of canvas and burlap at HobbyLobby. I cut them into pieces a little bigger than some plywood boards I had and I'll wrap the boards and staple-gun the cloth into place on the back. I need several boards covered because I use both red and white clays and sometimes they get pretty wet from the clay.

The pieces I cut were all raggedy and had lots of loose threads on them so I asked Susan if she could fix the edges for me. "No problem! Let me get out my serger and we'll see what we can do." Notice the word "we" in her response to me.

Ten minutes later I was a serging fool! I like the serger -- it's has a sharp edge that can whack your fingers, it goes really fast and is loud. It's just like guy power tools!

For Everyone You Love

2011-06-10T05:11:00.011-05:00

I have a lot a scars on my body. Too many. I've been blessed by having a wife who nags me and over twenty years ago an alert doctor caught my first basal cell carcinoma before I even knew what it was. I now see my dermatologist, Dr. Colby Evans, every 3-4 months but basal cell carcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas still continue make their way to the surface. The frightening part is not how small the spot can be, but how large the area is that the doctors cut out. I have a scar on my back that looks like a knife stab that I like to joke is where Susan stabbed me. If only it was that simple. Watch this video, please.

If you aren't sure why that small funny spot won't go away, go see a dermatologist. The longer you wait, the larger the scar will be. That picture at the top shows you how much might get cut away - the inside circle is what goes out along with the bad spot. The outside circle shows you the cut lines the doctor makes so as to close the skin over the hole you just had whacked in your skin. There will be stitches. Gruesome, yes. So use sunscreen and forget about having a "good tan". There's no such thing.

Today is our wedding anniversary -- 44 years. Dr Evans is helping me make sure there are more to come.

Note: Go here or here to see what I usually post on our anniversary.

Savage Beauty, Now Lost

2011-06-05T18:48:00.000-05:00

On our last day in New York City Susan told me we were going to the Metropolitan Museum specifically to see a special exhibit of works of a young fashion designer who had died recently. OK, I had been wrong about Bye Bye Kitty but this idea was a deal-breaker. N-O-T interested. N-O-T going to see it, would go to the Hall of Armor instead and see some definite guy stuff. Do I need to tell you that an hour later I was walking into the "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty" exhibit?

There are times when you see an artist's work and you are just stunned by the vastness and depth of their creativity. There are times when your preconceived ideas are so wrong that you are totally humbled. This was one of those times. The dresses, the videos of the shows, the shoes, the acessories, everything ... everything was amazing. For me it wasn't about fashion or clothes, it was all art. And I do understand the difference between runway clothes and real-people clothes. He knew that if he threw art at you, you would be able to pare it down (sadly) to be just clothes.

Alexander McQueen supposedly had a tattoo on his arm of this quote: " Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind." Perfect. Our short trips to New York City are always expensive but this one exhibit alone was well worth the whole cost. Go here and take the time to see more.

We went in early, just when the museum opened but the exhibit rooms were still very crowded and we had to shuffle along and wiggle around to get up close enough to read the signs. When we came out we saw a huge long line of people standing in line waiting to get in, as they had started controlling the number of people in the exhibit rooms. The wait was estimated to be 45 minutes! What?!?! Why didn't they come earlier?

We took a break and had a cup of coffee at the American Cafe and then went up to the roof top exhibit where we saw over 30 people standing in line just to buy a drink. What!?!? There had been no line at the Cafe. What is with the people in New York who will tolerate standing in long lines for food? Our friendly City native politely pointed out to me the fact that these were obviously tourists standing in line, as true City natives stand on line.

Well, in Texas we draw a line in the sand and choose to step over it.

Note: The Alexander McQueen show has turned out to be so popular and so crowded for viewing that the museum has extended the dates of the show and is now allowing special viewing times when the museum is normally closed. The ticket for this viewing time is $50. If we were to go back to the museum I would gladly pay that. And I'm basically a cheap guy. Yes, the show is that good.

Facing The Blank Canvas

2011-06-03T07:38:00.005-05:00

I can't seem to get that painting urge out of my system so Susan decided to have me channel it in another direction - on to canvas. Yikes! I've never done that. What the hell do you do with a blank canvas? She found me four very small canvases and told me that it would be very simple. I was to paint four new "faces", just like the ones I've already done in clay. Stay tuned because it might just happen.

In the meantime, another reject ceramic piece might need painting.

Acrylic Paint Is Not Exactly My Friend

2011-05-31T07:20:00.043-05:00

I'm learning that when a ceramic piece I have made decides not to speak to me then it is time to throw it in the trash. But because we have a big woodsy backyard with windows overlooking it Susan urges me to put the pieces out in the yard. The squirrels and birds jump around them and sometimes the pieces get broken but it doesn't matter because I was going to toss them out anyway.

One of my semi-repressed urges is to PAINT. I like to put color down and fuss at the details. Sometimes. This is not a quality that works well with my preference for ceramics. So these bisque-fired but unglazed ceramic pieces that were slated for the backyard got painted with acrylic paints. The paint might wear off easily, maybe not, but it won't matter anyway because these pieces were one toss away from the trashcan.

Here is what I know now: The acrylic paint on these ceramic pieces looks .... plastic. Acrylic. Not right. But good enought for the squirrels and birds.

Remembering: Barry Lynn Brown and James Clifford McKittrick

2011-05-28T05:07:00.002-05:00

Arlington National Cemetery

Heart weeps.

Head tries to help heart.

Head tells heart how it is, again:

You will lose the ones you love.

They will all go.

But even the earth will go, someday.

Heart feels better, then.

But the words of head do not remain long in the ears of heart.

Heart is so new to this.

I want them back, says heart.

Head is all heart has.

Help, head. Help heart.

__________

Head, Heart, by Lydia Davis

_______________________________________________________

Memorial Day is a Federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May to honor U.S. soldiers who died while in military service. On this long Memorial Day weekend enjoy your picnic, your barbeque, your family gathering and maybe a long break from work.

But before you do, please go here to see why it is so important for me that you take a few moments to remember two men who gave their lives defending our country and the freedoms we have.

Captain Barry Lynn Brown, Killed In Action, Vietnam, 1968

Major James Clifford McKittrick, Missing In Action, Vietnam, 1967

Art, Museums, Friends Old and New

2011-05-25T11:31:00.000-05:00

Continuing our visit to New York City:

On Saturday we went to The Center for Book Arts (a favorite of ours). Barbara Page's Book Marks seemed deceptively simple at first - library cards for each book she had read. Closer examination showed that each card had been altered to depict the book it was representing. For example, a book about birds of New Zealand had bird postage stamps on it, a book about architecture showed a floor plan, or as she puts it, "remnants from the library of the mind." The vaguely sad part of the work was the fact that library book cards are now considered ephemera. As we proceed into the Kindle Era, perhaps physical books themselves will become ephemera. Take a look at Barbara's website for more info and other art (the map paintings are especially intriguing).

At the Museum of Arts and Design there was an exhibit of ceramics jewelry and this strange arrangement by Christoph Zellweger was Susan's favorite, even though the descriptive statement was "His 'seeds', which look vaguely like functional objects found in hospitals, can be worn around the neck or stored on hooks like other work apparatus."

We met up with some very special friends here and had a easy-going afternoon looking at art and talking about art, New York City, Italy, family, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a multitude of other topics. All topped off with a stop for some beer. Our original connection was via the internet and it continues to amaze me that perfect strangers can so easily become immediate friends. I guess it's because there are no questions asked, no emotional baggage toted and no strings pulled - just good conversation, always leaving us wishing for more time together.

Spirit of Fi Yi I, Victor Harris

We had hoped to meet up with some other friends in the city but schedules become complex and it didn't work out this time. When we travel we always let people know we are coming but we never expect them to drop what they are doing just for the "tourists". But when we do connect, it is always good.

Speaking of friends, Susan-Who-Talks-To-Everyone made new friends at the MOMA (unfortunately no pictures). It started with a short, casual chat about the exhibit with a woman sitting next to her on a bench in an exhibit room. About an hour later we were taking another break in a different area and, as if by magic, there she was, taking a break with her two daughters. Half an hour later she and Susan were still yakking away, covering Austin, politics, travel, museums, .... you name it, they were talking about it, as if they'd known each other forever.

The nicest, best thing about it all was that the entire time they were talking, the two daughters (ages 6 and 14) never once interrupted them, they just sat there quietly, listening or looking at their sketchbooks. And we are talking about a 6 year old and a 14 year old. Unfortunately, we are used to having conversations interrupted by "Mom, Mom, Moooommmmy!" followed by "Just a minute, Mommy's talking" (repeated numerous times). When it doesn't happen that way we often guess the children are home-schooled, as those children seem to have learned that listening to adults means they learn something.

Debbie, thanks for all your advice about sights in NYC. We've checked the subway maps and have learned that next time we can easily make it to the Brooklyn Museum via the subway. Thanks for doing such as good job with the girls. Gabriella, your sketches were great and we'd love to see them with some color. Can you bring colored pencils to the museums when you sketch? Amber, you're only 14 but you can hold your own in conversations with any adult and we loved the fact that you never once said "Like" or looked bored. Good luck with your horseback riding. And thanks for reminding us about the Rockwell show, we enjoyed it when we saw it in Washington DC.

Here Kitty, Kitty

2011-05-18T06:47:00.001-05:00

On Friday at breakfast in New York City my Blog Wrangler, Cultural Advisor and Tour Guide, Susan, stated we were going to the Japan Society to see an exhibit called ByeBye Kitty. I know about Hello Kitty and there was absolutely no reason I would go see that dumb exhibit. Half an hour later we were in front of the building. It was a beautiful day and across the street at the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza workmen were putting up some sort of statue. Actually, they were just re-installing some statues that had already been placed there. At first I thought it was... yuck (my apologies and pity to you if you are one)....mimes.

Go here to see what Steinunn Thorarinsdottir's work looks like. You will be impressed. Even more impressive is the feeling and aura surrounding the statues. We sat in the park for about an hour, watching people interact with the statues and just enjoyed the fresh, cool air. As long as we sat out there I could avoid going in to see the dumb ByeByeKitty exhibit.

Finally, I had to bite the bullet and go in. Not only would I have to look at the exhibit, I would have to pay to get in and worse than that, Susan timed it so we would get a docent's tour. Pure torture - give me waterboarding anytime but not that Kitty stuff.

Hear that munching sound? I'm eating my words. A fascinating exhibit with some work I really liked. Thanks to the docent's direction I "got" most of the art and could understand the what, why and how of the pieces. One of the most amazing ones was a huge sheet of cut paper, go here to see it.

Other pieces were just as fascinating. If you can make it to New York City be sure to take the time to see this exhibit. The Japan Society is a little out of the usual museum area but make the effort, especially since you'll get the added benefit of see the statues in the plaza.

She Never Met A Stranger

2011-05-16T13:32:00.000-05:00

This I have told you before: Susan will talk to anyone.

She used to be pretty quiet in public until she went to a business conference in Orlando with a friend of mine, Bob Dye. During a break in the conference they decided to go to Epcot Center and, as this was before the days of getting advance tickets, they did a lot of standing in line.

As Susan tells it, Bob would just start talking to the people in front of him or behind him, and by the time they got to the head of the line Bob was on their Christmas card list. He told her this: "Just start talking to someone by asking a question, as simple as 'Where are you from?' Most people will be so surprised a stranger wants to talk to them that they'll answer you back and there's the beginning of a conversation. Everyone has a story to tell and if you are lucky, you'll get to hear it."

We flew in to New York City early on a Thursday, checked in to our hotel and headed out to the MOMA, as it had late hours that day. First stop was for a late lunch in their Cafe (yes, good food) where you sit at long tables with lots of other people.

No surprise here -- Susan started talking to the woman across from her. By the time lunch was finished we knew that France (her name) had grandchildren in southern France, lived in Australia where she taught French, had come to NYC by herself because her husband didn't like museums, was staying in Chelsea, had been at a performance in Harlem, to the ballet (she loved it and was going to go again), and had already toured a lot of the city. She and Susan compared notes over what to see over the next few days and when they started talking about the ByeBye Kitty show the people at another table entered the conversation. Never a dull moment with Susan. Stay tuned for the next few posts, it gets better. Worse?

Here's some of what we saw at the MOMA on Thursday:

German Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse, artists who were working from about 1905 through the 1920s, with a number of works focusing on World War I. Otto Dix had a series of over 50 etchings he did in just one year about his war experiences. If you want to know what can cause PTSD, he's nailed it.

Picasso: Guitars 1912-1914 included some pieces that didn't really seem like guitars but who cares, it's Picasso. This exhibit reinforced the concept that you need to do something over and over and over again if you want to move forward successfully with your art.

Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception was a little confusing for me because, although I understand the concept of Performance Art, I don't quite get the idea of pushing a block of ice down the street. His ideas and themes were very creative and the videos were hypnotic to watch but his sketches were ho-hum.

León Ferrari has said his drawings are "an imitation of writing, like a taunt, or like a series of codes of an unknown language".

Sometimes at the MOMA I just look out the windows.

Little Dudes Again (Dude-ettes?)

2011-05-14T18:39:00.000-05:00

These two pieces went over to Austin Art Garage last week. The one below is Abby, named after the Goth character on NCIS, and she probably looks familiar, as I've posted her picture before. The one above is Agatha.

Coming soon (stay tuned!) will be highlights from our trip to New York City. Were you wondering why we flew out twice within 30 days to two different cities? Good question. The other question might be wondering what happened to our spring BRT (Big Road Trip).

The BRT, a good 20-26 day trip (with only about 5 days of staying with family), was carefully calculated. We didn't go to Hampton Art and Soul this year because I took most of the classes I wanted at AdornMe. Hotels continue to increase their costs. Gas costs more. A lot more. Do the math. We came out ahead by planning ahead and buying cheap airline tickets and doing the best we could on room rates. Museums in New York City are expensive. Museums in Washington DC are free. Do the math again. We still came out ahead. But we do miss having that slow unfolding vista of our country as we drove east.

Susan says Blogger is still acting funky. Yeah, right. Like I would know.

JoAnne Russo, Akiko Sugiyama, Jody Williams and Teresa Maria Widuch

2011-05-13T12:38:00.000-05:00

Susan speaks:
Enough with the mud and clay. On to some stuff that caught my eye.

JoAnne Russo's work was beautiful and so carefully and neatly crafted it was amazing. She explained how she dyes her bead buttons to get the colors she wants, decides on a design and then on an armature. From there she does all that inticate knotting and wrapping, adding the beads as she goes. I loved the hook and eyes she used.

Akiko Sugiyama is an artist we've seen before but I'm a real paper and fiber fan so it was good to see her again. She used rice paper, banana paper and some other kinds I can't remember. Her forms are so well-made that you know if you hung them on a wall they would move if there was a breeze. Yet they held up to being poked and prodded for the show. For more on her work ... no website, you're on your own here. But trust me, the pieces are fantastic.

Jody Williams makes art in a world I don't live in -- she talks about measurements in 1/64" increments. If a ruler has more than 1/8" increments I don't use it. Check out her website, her books are tiny, some barely 2" square. She prints them herself from her woodcuts and engravings and they are all beautifully made.

Teresa Maria Widuch makes unique garments from wool and ultrasuede. Her colors are stunning and the sculptural pieces are beautifully made; each piece is one of a kind.

Late edit: Google's Blogger is having some serious online issues. This particular entry should have shown up on Thursday morning. Somebody at Blogger is not having a good week.

Aaron Kramer

2011-05-10T05:57:00.004-05:00

Aaron Kramer has long been an idol of mine. His quote "Trash is the failure of imagination" has always served me well as a mantra. This year when we found him at the Smithsonian Craft Show it was (relatively) uncrowded at his booth and we were able to spend quite a bit of time with him.

We had the incredible pleasure of seeing on his iPad some artwork he'll be incorporating into a book in the future. I don't think I should tell you too much about it, just read this and watch for it to come out. In the meantime, ponder these points:

How in the world can you be in your 20's and be savvy enough to decide to travel around for a year, on a bicycle no less, and be smart enough to send back to yourself art collage cards you make that depict everything you see and do?
This was over 20 years ago.
How can you be so astute as to know that those collages would resonate with people today?
How could you have know to save them all this time for a book?
How can one person have so much energy?

Go here and here to see Aaron's work. Try not to go to his Flickr or YouTube sites unless you have a ton of time and promise not to weep with envy.

Mother's Day

2011-05-08T06:33:00.010-05:00

Today is Mother's Day. I hope you were lucky enough to have a Mother who thought you were special. If you did, make her feel special and let her take a nice long nap while you make dinner for her by ordering in pizza. Hey, it's the thought that counts!

Image by Charley Harper, go here for more info.

Karyn Debrasky, Barbara Sebastian and Heather Allen-Swarttouw

2011-05-05T17:25:00.001-05:00

I wouldn't want you to think Washington DC is a stuffy town. This is a wall we spotted just about 2 blocks from the White House. It is the alley where the dumpsters are stored but give them credit - it's art.

After a day of walking and talking to artists at the Smithsonian Craft show, we decamped to Ella's Wood Fired Pizza place. My contentment shown here probably has more to do with fact that I'm finally sitting down rather than the beer I was drinking.

Karyn Debrasky had quiet, detailed work that intrigued us. Susan was fascinated with the fact that she "stitched" wire through some of her paper works without creasing or bending the paper and with the detail of her quilling (whatever that is). She had some of her work used for background in the movie How Do You Know, which I never saw but it has Reese Witherspoon in it and I thought she was great in Walk The Line. Go here to see more of Karyn's work.

Barbara Sebastian took the time to tell me how she created her bird teapots and also gave me advice about making lids for small jars. She does a lot of large wall pieces but she also makes beautiful small pieces. She was just another one of many artists who were enthusiastic about their art and just as enthusiastic about talking to you about your efforts.

Heather Allen-Swarttouw had interesting wall tiles that were layed with different glaze treatments and she also had some fiber art. I had seen images of her work before from Novie Trump's blog and found them just as interesting in person. The small boats were made with hog gut. Yes, that's right, hog gut that her butcher cleans for her. Fascinating work. Hers, not the butcher.

It's My Story and I'm Sticking To It

2011-05-03T11:16:00.089-05:00

In January 1970 I came home from hot and steamy Vietnam and headed directly to Pease AFB in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where I spent long hours on the runways counting the days (471) until I would be a civilian again. Susan describes that entire time as "The longest winter I've ever lived through."

We lived in a quadplex, next door to Rick and Marie, their adorable toddler, Rebecca, and their beautifully trained German Shepherd, Angel. Rick was a pilot and Marie was a quasi-hippie, which was the best you could be when you were an officer's wife, but she definitely had earned her credentials by being at the real Woodstock.

When Rick wanted to have some cheap amusement he would convince me to put on a padded jacket and then work on training Angel to attack on command. You don't know fun until you've had a snarling German Shepherd leap at you with all 376 pointed teeth on display.

One of the interesting things we learned about snow was that as it piles up it buries everything in layers as each snowfall comes down. It looks beautiful until it starts to melt in the spring and then everything it had covered up melts down into the ground at once. This results in an incredible amount of fertilizer for the earth; that's why Spring is so vibrant up north. But in between snowfalls you see frozen on the 4' snowbanks the reminders of might have been there.

You may not have known it but I'm also a poet. One morning I wrote a poem for Susan to see when she woke up.

Ode To A Dog Turd

There is a frozen dog turd

Outside my kitchen window

Surrounded by a sea

Of soft virgin snow.

Good morning.

I love you.

In a desperate attempt to shed the trappings of being a maintenance officer, I took pottery lessons in Exeter at night, in an old building by a river. I kept the first one (top photo above) as it proves that yes, I can make wheel-thrown pieces. It is about 5" high. The second one is also about 5" high, Susan calls it "Nuclear Reactor" and it and the bowl were sold at the Student sale. Skip over more than 32 years -- everything I do now is hand-built.

Good and Bad

2011-04-30T19:29:00.000-05:00

OK, we got those British folks married off without a hitch, the pomp and majesty of those guys on horseback really do project the power and force the British Empire had in its Power And Force days, and yes, her sister is .... yeah....!

So much for the good of the past few days. Now for the bad.

Take a second look at this photo, taken by Martha Steele, in Ringgold, Georgia. People, there is NO way to run and hide from a tornado -- if it wants you, it gets you. Here in Texas we will be contining to cope with wildfires and the threat of tornados all summer long. Sort of makes you wonder how the early settlers ever managed to survive without The Weather Channel. As you ponder that, consider a donation to a charity to help those who have lost everything.

And now a brief interruption of art from our past trip to Washington DC. Usually in the spring we make a big three-week Road Trip to the East Coast and had considered this year, thinking to head east about April 23/24. As gas prices went up and my classes took up more time, we decided to do a quick flight instead. Otherwise we would have been on the road last week, with our driving route taking us driving through Tuscaloosa, Brimingham, across Georgia....

I promised you more artists from the Smithsonian Craft show and they will show up eventually. In the meantime:

This pot from the permanent collection at the Smithsonian African Art Museum continues to amaze me. It looks like wood but it is ceramic with vegetable dyes.

These are NOT blown glass, they are ceramic pieces from the Qing Chinese dynasty. Amazing. And they didn't even have electric kilns back then.

Senora Sabasa Garcia by Goya. When Susan was much younger (7 - 10 years old) her family lived in Washington DC. Her mother would drag the three kids to the National Gallery of Art every chance she could get. To this day Susan can, without hesitation, walk into the appropriate gallery and find some of the paintings her mother would often linger by. It still amazes her that after thinking she had ignored the "Art Lessons" of her mother (not many young kids do pay much attention in art museums), the images of many paintings had somehow stuck in her mind. This painting was a favorite of her mother's because it reminded her of Susan's younger sister, Linda, who has very large beautiful brown eyes.

Who Cares?

2011-04-28T17:41:00.001-05:00

Someone is getting married in England soon. Who cares? Not me. But, for the record, we saw this beautiful little painting at The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC just recently. Edward VI, by Hans Holbein.

If you don't get enough of England on your telly (See? I can speak English.), watch The King's Speech. The best way to tell if the movie is good is if you get so engrossed in it you forget to go make your popcorn at half-time. We gave it a Netflix 5-star rating.

Just to make sure you know this blog is all about me*, here's a picture of PodMan, who recently went to live with my friend Becky.

Susan speaks: So what else is new?

Elizabeth Kendall, Adero Willard, and Olen Hsu

2011-04-25T18:23:00.000-05:00

More ceramics from the Smithsonian Craft Show (artists' link here). We almost walked past Olen Hsu's work but something about it caught Susan's eye and she backed up to give it a second, harder look. He uses the word "languidness" in describing his work -- what a great word! His wheel-thrown work often has what seems to be a slight "off" angle but once you look at it you realize the subtle grace and beauty of each piece.The pieces seem to slow your breathing down and give you calm you didn't know you could find. Perfection.

Adero Willard was enthusiastic about her work and shared her technique ideas and suggestions with me. The layering effect of the colors seems to be something that I can achieve -- with a lot of practice, effort and definitely luck. She makes it seem easy but I know better.

Elizabeth Kendall's work was all hand-built, not wheel-thrown, so I was immediately drawn to that aspect of it. She gave me good advice about using black and white clay and how to work on my shapes. She also works with porcelain paper clay, something I'm beginning to have interest in as it makes the pieces very light.

These three artists wrap up the ceramic artists I talked at length with on just the first day. More to come.

Andrew Van Assche, Nathan Falter and Betsy Williams

2011-04-23T18:25:00.001-05:00

One of the distinct pleasures of the Smithsonian Craft Show is the ability to talk to the artists about their work, to ask questions, and to listen to their helpful advice and suggestions. I always tell them I'm still a ceramics student at my community college so they don't think I'm a total ignoramus, as opposed to Susan, who will ask questions like "How hot does a kiln get?" Of course, sometimes she gets answers that surprise me and I learn from listening to her questions as well as asking my own.

This year one of my favorites was Nathan Falter, a new exhibitor. His work had a turn-of-the-century industrial and rustic feel but at the same time looked contemporary and graceful. He gave me advice about the ways to apply slip and valuable information about underglazes and the kind of kiln I should use -- valuable information for the future (if I ever get my own kiln) but sort of useless now since I'm stuck with the school's kiln.

Another favorite was Andrew Van Assche. His work was crisp, graphic, and clean-lined -- a opposite to Nathan's but just as impressive. His slab building and glazing were meticulous and precise and I can only hope to achieve that type of perfection in 30 years, just like Andrew did. Unfortunately, I'm starting about 30 years too late.

Andrew gave me information about slips and incising marks and glazing and slab building and more than I can remember and hope to achieve. He also was patient with Susan's endless questions.

Betsy Williams made pieces with such beautiful shapes you just wanted to cradle them in your hands. Her little cups were all different and we talked about the ways to get different looks within a similar style.

The wooden frames the cups sat in were as beautifully made as the cups (the pieces were sold as a unit, some were 25 cups in a frame, some were 40, and so on).

These three artists were just a few of the artists we talked to over two days. More to come.

Susan Finsen

2011-04-21T10:53:00.000-05:00

How does this happen?

We get up up in Dark Dawn of Never-Again, point ourselves at the airport, park our car about 10 miles from the terminal, wait for a shuttle bus, trudge through a terminal, take off our shoes, shuffle in a line, wait patiently while a TV blares overhead, and shuffle in another line onto a plane.
After a while we shuffle off the plane in a slooooow line. We trudge again. We shuffle in another line to another plane. We sit for a while as we hurtle through space and finish going over 1500 miles to Washington, DC.
We shuffle off in another sloooooow line, wait for a Metro car, drag our stuff over to our hotel, get back on the Metro, walk 2 blocks, and enter the Building Museum to the the annual Smithsonian Craft Show. It has now been 12 hours since getting up at the Dark Dawn of Never-Again.

No sooner do we walk away from the ticket desk than we hear:

"Well, hello there, Texans."

What?!?!?? How can this be? We haven't told anyone we'll be here.

It was Susan Finsen, a talented, smart and funny artist we had met at the Torpedo Factory last year. We love her color sense and the playful attitude in her paintings; all the images here are of her work. Check out her website to see more. It was a delight to see her again and we were also delighted she remembered us. I'd like to tell you it's because I'm unforgetable but my Blog Wrangler (who loves the black/white series) is already rolling her eyes.

So, how did she manage to spot us at that exact moment? Magic. Wait, maybe it was my animal magnetism! (Blog Wrangler has stopped rolling her eyes and has now progressed to muttering "I'm done here. I'm done....")

Stay tuned for future blog posts about some of the great art work we saw in DC and the conversations we had with the artists.

Hatch Chiles

2011-04-18T13:11:00.039-05:00

I'm lucky enough to live in a town where we have both Central Market and the Mother Ship of Whole Foods. It's a miracle I don't weight about 400 pounds.

Central Market has an annual Hatch Chile Roasting Week (lots of special foods and festivities) in the late summer but other times during the year they will get a bunch in and set up roasters in the front of the store. The smell of the roasting chiles will magically make Bacon-Cheddar-HatchChile Scones jump into your grocery cart.

Sorry I can't offer you a Scratch-n-Sniff option on my blog. These videos will have to do. I took them with my iPhone because I have now learned how to make a movie versus a photo. (I'm still pretty pathetic on Angry Birds but beginning to really like Osmos.) I also know not to be talking on my iPhone while I'm in the bathroom. I learned that from my sister-in-law who tattled on her husband -- he had to buy himself a new cellphone because he dropped it in the ...

Little Guy Gone

2011-04-16T16:00:00.009-05:00

This little guy, about 7" tall, was sold at the Student Art Sale ($20) and I really liked him. I think I need to make more like him.

These small cups, about 2" high each, sold for $3 each. I was experimenting with getting a crackle glaze and was pretty successful. I wasn't as pleased with the black accents but I'm going to work on that in the future. I still like making small cups as my "test tiles."

Our friend, Maria, can grow anything. Not only are these roses beautiful, they had an incredible strong rose aroma that you never find in the ones in the store.This summer we will be the lucky recipients of okra, beans, tomatoes and loads of different kinds of herbs.

Take My Pitcher

2011-04-14T05:39:00.027-05:00

These guys didn't sell. They are about 6" and 5" tall and were priced at $15 each. I almost didn't want to give them up. Also, the brown ones below didn't sell. These little guys are only about 3-4" high and were priced at $10 each.

But this pitcher did sell, about 6" tall, priced at $15.

Here's what Donna (of Layers) said in her comment:
" ... used to do art fairs years ago and I remember the same phenom-- my least favorite paintings selling first and my favorite ones coming home- can be goofy I know."

Yep, goofy is the best way to describe it. But at least I made some sales.

ACC Student Art Sale 2011

2011-04-11T10:47:00.002-05:00

The ACC (Austin Community College) Student Art Sale is Tuesday, April 12, from 9 -5 at the Rio Grande Campus (12th and Rio Grande). If you live in Austin, please come by because I have a table and will be selling lots of stuff. We do this every year and it benefits our Scholarship fund. These pictures show some of the pieces I'll have for sale.

The question I keep getting asked is this:

If your Blog Wrangler has set you up with an Etsy* shop why are you selling at this Student Art Show instead of through your Etsy* shop?

The answers are these:

1) By "purchasing" a table at the ACC Student Art Sale I will be helping out the school's scholarship fund.

2) Some of the pieces I'm selling are too big or too fragile to sell to anyone who has to have them shipped to them. Some are "seconds" - pieces of unsatisfactory quality but someone might want them anyway.

3) Because I have low traffic to my blog I don't think I'd have much traffic to an Etsy* shop and thus the pieces wouldn't sell and that would screw up my self-confidence.

4) Because I'm lazy and techno-phobic and techno-ignorant and would make my Blog Wrangler handle all the details and she does enough for me by just keeping up this blog.

None of this excuses the fact that I do have loyal Readers who voiced interest in some of my work and I've not followed through. If that's you once again, Blog Reader, mea culpa.

*Late Edit: The Etsy shop doesn't have stuff in it. I signed him up for it to save the name (Flummoxed) because his name was already taken. Someday we'll put things in there (both mine and his) and you Blog readers will be the first to know. ----- Susan

Raku Angry Bird

2011-04-09T07:48:00.001-05:00

I have an iPhone. Better than that, Susan put Angry Birds on it for me. I still am not sure how you make a phone call to anyone other than Speed Dial 1 or 2 (our house or Susan), thanks to the special app she put on it. I'm sure there are numbered buttons for dialing somewhere but for now I can call home and I know how to answer it. That's all I need.

We play Angry Birds but Susan has been convinced (Thanks a lot, Magpie!) that you can't move forward until you have 3 stars on a level. Forget that! One is good enough for me. As soon as Susan saw this piece she insisted it was an Angry Bird. His head looks different because it comes off (he's really a pot) and it reacted to the glazing a little more.

This piece has been glazed and fired as raku, which means "Play With Lots Of Fire". You get the piece glowing hot in a kiln and then use tongs to take it out and stuff it in barrel filled with newspapers. They start to blaze and you immediately cover it up to snuff out the fire and some sort of chemical magic happens and the carbon gets into the glaze crackles. You can't exactly plan anything because whatever the Raku Gods and the Fire Gods want to do, they can and they will. So at the same time that's a drawback, it also makes your pieces come out with some fascinating effects.

Other good things happening in my life are:
1) Our landline is dead so no phone calls will wake me up from my nap today. Yea!
We put through the repair request this morning (Friday) and the reply was "Your repair should be attempted by 7:00 p.m on Wednesday." Thank you, AT&T, for such responsive customer service -- is this your way of telling us to drop our landline now that we have iPhones?
2) Susan put Osmos on my iphone.
This could turn out to be more time-wasting than Angry Birds.

Play It Again, Sam, For Carnival ah!

2011-04-06T06:32:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again. On Tuesday, April 12, from 9-5, I will be at Austin Community College's Rio Grande campus to participate in the Annual Student Art Sale (Carnival ah!).

The small vase (about 5" tall) above will be on my For Sale table. Some of what I'm selling will be what I consider not-so-good pieces and some will be really-great pieces, but obviously the final decision is always up to the viewer. Every year I'm surprised by the number of not-so-good pieces that sell right away and by the unsold really-great pieces I bring home (and will take back the next year).

In a side note, take a look at two of the public pianos we have available for your playing pleasure. Susan tried to explain to me how to find Middle-C so that I could play the one song I know ("My Dog Has Fleas") but I just couldn't figure it out. My career as a musician is definitely not getting off the ground.

Adorn Me: Resin Paper and Carol and The End

2011-04-03T17:43:00.000-05:00

You might be tired of seeing my Adorn Me stuff but I keep having people tell me "Why don't you show what you did?". So I am. And this is the end of it. For another year, anyway.

The picture above is of me, Carol Wingfield Myers and Richard Salley, our instructor. Carol is the pretty one, I'm the amazingly handsome one and Richard is just in there trying to suck up our glory. Below is another picture of Carol and below that a picture of her repoussé piece (she's a fast worker!). Carol sent me these pictures for my blog, which I appreciate immensely. She also gave me a beautiful card that shows her Facebook address (her full name).

My final class was a short workshop with Jane Salley, Resin Papers. Go back here and scroll to the last photo and you'll see how Rene used pieces of the resined paper. The resin makes them stiff and shiny, almost like thin pieces of mica. Susan has already appropriated most of the ones I made.

P.S. I'm not in Facebook and therefore don't have a Facebook account so I am not able to see 99% of the Facebook pages people tell me about as they require a Login to Facebook. I appreciate the need to keep Facebook viewing limited to "Friends" and I'd like to think I'm your Friend but I can't be your Facebook Friend and see what you do since I don't have a Facebook account and I don't really want one, thank you. How about if I'm just your Friend in the real world?

Adorn Me - Repoussé Without Pitch

2011-04-01T19:05:00.000-05:00

These pictures are from Richard Salley's Repoussé Without Pitch class. We didn't use pitch and I have no idea what pitch is and why you would use it anyway -- I guess Ignorance is Bliss for me. Repoussé means you shape the metal from the backside to make raised areas on the front side. We then could assemble the shaped pieces into pendants but most of us just kept working on our small pieces to get the technique down. The bright colors came from the torching of the copper and most of us were using the tools we had made in his previous toolmaking class.

The picture above is one of my pieces and so is this one right below, which Susan calls "Man with Creative Atomic Fart".

The following pictures are from just a few of my classmates and I took the pictures early in the day so they don't really show the finished product. But at least you can get an idea of how good we all were!

Julia Morrison, using silver mesh on her piece

Brenda McCoy

Kelly Schroeder

Martina Stein

Laura Henry

Rob McDonald

Sally Turlington

This last photo shows one of Richard's pieces so you can get an idea of how the finishing of the piece could go.

Adorn Me - Over the Top Hinged Bracelet

2011-03-30T05:40:00.003-05:00

Here's my effort from Richard Salley's class at AdornMe. The red piece is an enamed cone I made in another class. The center pieces are straw but if I had had more time I would have used tiny copper rods with little bead ends (not that hard to make but time was short). Below are some of my classmates masterpieces (if I have your name wrong, please let me know so I can correct it). I'm still in awe at the level of creativity I find in these classes.

Jessica Papke

Kelly Schroeder

Sherrie Drummond

Jayme Savage Stoutt

Janis Cowell

Rene Lindquist

Adorn Me - All Choked Up

2011-03-27T18:29:00.000-05:00

All Choked Up was taught at AdornMe by Richard Salley. We all started out with a piece of bicycle chain and some PVC pipe. My result is shown above and I plan to do a lot of adjusting of the doodads hanging down and will add a lot more.

Michelle Goodyear

Rob McDonald

Kim St. Jean

Tish Reed

A very meticulous artist, she didn't have much added at the

end of class but had the most precise and evenly spaced copper coils in the class.

Mike McMillen

Our class "ringer" -- an accomplished artist.

Obviously.

And an all-around great guy to be in class with.

Adorn Me - Mixed Metal Milagros

2011-03-25T08:16:00.001-05:00

Most people in this class, taught by Richard Salley at AdornMe, actually made things with their enameled pieces (see pictures at the bottom of this post). Me? I just kept practicing the enameling stuff. Eventually these pieces might get worked into something. Or maybe I'll just keep admiring their colors. Susan's favorites are the rolled cones which I learned to make right at the end of class or else there would be more of them.

If I'm showing your piece below, let me know and I'll add your name to this post.

Adorn Me - Tool Making 101

2011-03-22T17:53:00.001-05:00

Earlier this month I spend 6 days in Houston at the annual Adorn Me art retreat. The site is an Embassy Suites with great breakfasts in the morning and a manager's Happy Hour every evening. All classes focus on jewelry or something closely related and I have a great time revisiting old friends, learning new stuff, shopping at the vendor show and just having time that is 100% art-related with no pressure.

This year my instructor for all classes except one was Richard Salley. Usually I have several different instructors but this time I just happened to want to sample everything Richard had to offer. In Tool Making 101 we made steel tools that can be used for jewelry making or, in my case, mark-making on ceramic sculptures. We actually used the tools we made in a class the next day, Repoussé Without Pitch.

The picture below is Richard, working with my friend EJ.

If you are interested in taking some of Richard's classes, check out the ArtUnraveled website -- look for me there this August (don't worry about the heat, you'll be inside in class all day).

More pictures of my classes to come in the next few days.

Lucinda Hutson's Garden

2011-03-19T15:38:00.000-05:00

Today I ran an errand and took a back street I'd never been on before. I saw a woman working in her front yard garden and was so impressed by the garden and her house that I stopped. Her garden was fantastic and so was her house, so I took some pictures. She was very friendly and chatted with me about her garden and even gave me some plants for my yard.

When I got home I started to tell this to Susan and said "Her name is Lucinda...."
Susan: "Wait. I bet I know who she is, she's Lucinda Hutson and she's a famous cookbook author."

How in the hell does Susan know all this stuff? The day my wife stops amazing me with the bits of surprising or unusual or obscure or miniscule or arcane information she has retained will be the day I stop breathing.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from her yard and colorful house. I hope you'll check out her website for lots more information, and not just because she wrote a Tequila cookbook.

To make this art related, here is a picture of some pieces that are going to be fired soon. The largest is about 5" tall, most are about 2-3" tall. Three different kinds of clay and 5 different glazes. We'll see.....

My Problems Are So Small

2011-03-16T11:52:00.000-05:00

You can build storm and tornado shelters, you can barricade yourself in your home, you can earthquake-proof your buildings and have all sorts of alerts and alarms but there is nothing you can do to stop a tsunami.

Photos: AP, Reuters, AFP