Here's to a New Year of Art

Graffiti that is gang tagging isn't art, it's just a signature. Graffiti that makes you smile or blink or look again isn't graffiti, it's Street Art. Sometimes Street Art is legitimate (as in permission granted) or sometimes it is not. Whatever. These images flashing by will make you think twice about art being just something you see in a museum.

Many years from now will these images be what people look at and say "This style of art was practiced in the early part of the century"?

Great website, great work: http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/

Have a safe and Happy New Year.

Season's Greetings

This year is the 12th holiday season that U.S. service members are serving in Afghanistan.

Wishing Peace and Goodwill to everyone, everywhere.

Going Down a Sad, Sad Road

In recent years, U.S. gun manufacturers have enjoyed fast-growing sales amid an easing of various state and federal restrictions.  Making guns can be very profitable, with some leading manufacturers recording operating profit margins of 20% recently...

Sales at gun manufacturer Sturm, Ruger in the third quarter were up 46% from a year earlier, to $118.1 million...

Smith & Wesson...said sales in the second quarter jumped 48% from a year earlier, to a record $136.6 million.

Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

Tweet, Tweet

OK, I'm off on another tangent here.  I can't be satisfied doing ceramics so I move to wood. But then I move back to ceramics. And back to wood. And then ceramics again, until Susan tells me if I don't focus on something, I'll risk be mediocre in a lot of things. Sort of the quality versus quantity problem -- which I'll decide to decide on another day.

For some strange reason I'm into making birds again. The last time I did some was about 3 years ago. I thought the two above came out OK, the one below could have done with a little fine-tuning.  They are raku fired.