Give-Away and Sell Away

We recently had our Student Art Sale and I had to move things out of the apartment so I sold some of my stuff. When we lived in our house I had the luxury of a two-car garage to use as my studio, with the cars banished to the driveway. There was also the back yard, front yard and side yards to use for display of those pieces that didn't find a home inside. Now I just have to do Give-Away or use the Student Art Sale where prices have to be very, very low.

This wood sculpture went to a good home.  It doesn't show in the picture but I took some gold paint and brushed it on a few of the edges, just enough to catch your eye.

This poor boat suffered from a lousy glazing and firing, result in a pale pukey green -- all my fault.  I was just going to throw it away but Susan insisted we could maybe salvage it.  It took Adirondack Alcohol inks, Daler Rowney inks, and some acrylic paint but I think it came out pretty good, especially on the back. 

Austin Community College is spread out in a building that used to be a high school.  It's pretty beat up but it does the job.  The latest Sweater Child Give-away is by our loading dock and she's been there for about 2 weeks now.

 

Give-Away and Ken Price

Remember the Sweater Children? (here) They are still slowly going out as Give-aways. This particular one went to live in the gardens at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft.

 



Sometimes life is just like this:

This guy lives outside the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas.  Behind him is a stunning new building, The Museum Tower, covered with reflective glass. Unfortunately, the glass reflects so much sun into the Nasher Center that it is affecting the art inside and the exterior grounds.  The museum was there first....

We were at the Nasher to see a Ken Price exhibit.  The best part was actually seeing the beautiful pieces up close but the worst part was not being able to run your hands over them. 

Raku Birds

This is the peephole in the raku kiln I use at school.  Look carefully and you can see a little bird in there.

The pieces are taken out hot and put in a container filled with something that will burn so as to make an oxygen reduction when covered up.  I don't get to barbeque any more - funny how grills just aren't allowed on an apartment balcony - so this is how I get to do the Guy Thing of Fire.

 

 All my work at school is supervised by the Peacock Teaching Assistants.

 



Once that fire goes out the pieces are carefully lifted out with tongs.  They'll look interesting then ...

...or the smokey residue can be rubbed off off.

The reduction firing can affect the structural integrity of the pieces and make them very subject to breaking, which is why there are 6 birds before I started rubbing on them. And 5 birds when I was finished..

New York City in January

This is the cover of my sketchbook I use when we travel. It's the 4x6" size and Susan helped me cut up one of my old art papers to make the cover. 

And why, you ask, have I waited so long to post the rest of the  information and pictures from my January trip to New York City? I have an excuse and it's a very good one.  Susan is my Blog Wrangler and it's HER fault. She has been doing things like wrangling with the new (now 6 months old) computer and has now figured out that for every snag the old one had, the new one has a different snag, just a bad. It took just about 2 weeks to get rid of the crummy security program that came preinstalled so she could use her familiar one. She has no idea why she can't play Yahoo games anymore. She has no idea why Yahoo Mail randomly ignores paragraph spacing. She is beginning to hate Yahoo.

This week she hates Picasa Web where she normally puts pictures so that this Blog can get at them. For no reason it keeps telling her "Upload failed: Server rejected". But if she keeps trying a LOT of times it will finally take them, one at a time, very slowly.

Anyway....

Now you know what we do with our days. This is how we travel through the city:

I finished reading Dog Stars by Peter Heller. Wow! Martha tells it better than I can. I'm now starting Before I Go To Sleep by S. J. Watson and the first chapter has already hooked me in.  Susan is reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking and gave me the Introvert Test in the book:  Scoring 19 out of 20 makes me a gold-plated Introvert. She thinks the book is great reading if you are, as she is, a "pseudo-extrovert". 

Looking back on the notes above I see that we watched the movie Hanna. A fascinating creepy movie, 5 Stars.  Last night we tried to watch Cosmopolis. I don't care what the reviewers said about how great it was, we stopped it after the scene with the doctor in the taxi. Dumb. No Stars.

Ernie Pyle

"When he looked at the war he saw no politics, no ideals, only soldiers."



It's sad to watch and hear news accounts from Boston. It's sad to know there are still soldiers in Afghanistan and South Korea and many other places outside the United States. It's sad to know they wish they were home, holding family and friends close as they watch the news. It's sad to know that today's news always seems to revolve around politics.

Roger and Grave of the Fireflies

Roger Ebert was special.

He made "small" movies special.

He wasn't afraid to tell you a too-big-to-fail movie was a failure.

He helped us see the art and wisdom and talent where we

probably would have missed it without his guidance.

We'll miss him.

The clip below includes a wealth of information I can (and should) use in my art. We've put the movie on the top of our Netflix queue.

His description of "pillow shots" is the best advice an artist can have: edit.

Gone and Giving It Away

 

Ernesti has gone from the gallery to a new home, taking his shell with him.

And so has Kathai.

But for no reason whatsoever, this Give-Away piece is still in place after more than a month.

This spot is on a busy corner and has a bus stop just a few feet away.  Go figure.

I'm reading Dog Stars by Peter Heller. Definite 5-Star book, very unusual and surreal, definitely holding my attention..