The Ball Girls

These were outside the Guggenheim in Washington DC. I call them "The Ball Girls". I tried to make a ceramic piece sort of like them but since I'm limited to 26" in height in the kiln it didn't exactly have the same impact. I named her "Lucille Ball" and glazed her in shiny black. Looks good but is very difficult to photograph well.

She was in a show at the Dougherty Art Center, set in a very low box filled with black sand. A little toddler that came to the show with his parents thought she was just the right size for him and gave her a big hug.

Baby Books

These little ceramic books are a diversion I made at Susan's request. The template for the cover piece was an old credit card. Their color comes from paints of various types that Susan painted on and most have been rubbed with wax. The backs are similar, some have a color variation.

Susan taught me how to make an accordion folded piece of paper that I glued inside two ceramic covers to make the book, one book has some paper she had painted up. They are being sold today at the Austin Community College Student Art Show. She has about 10 more covers to paint for me and I may be making even more covers because they are fun to do. We are experimenting with different surface treatments, as glazing them is not a good thing -- takes up too much kiln space because they have to lie flat.

I'll Keep An Eye Out For You

This piece of Susan's hangs right over the toilet, exactly at my (standing) eye level. Don't blame me, she picked the spot.

Tough Guy

I played high school football against this guy. I was the center and he was on the opposing team, right across from me. All I did the entire game was try to fall on his feet and live through the experience. You know the expression, "He ate my lunch"? Well, Tommy Nobis ate my lunch, chewed it up and spit it back out on me. But I lived to tell the story.

A Little Hot Air Pocket

Susan, The Blog Wrangler, speaks:

I'm back! Life, Don, Google, and the blog will all start behaving again. Well, I can hope, can't I?

I was at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, taking classes, trying to help vendors survive our economic meltdown and looking at way too many quilts. A whole lot of inspiration and information came thundering into my head via Katie Kendrick and Maggie Weiss. More later but in the meantime you can check out Katie's blog.

A few years ago I took a basic 6-session bookbinding class from Wendy Hale Davis. Amazingly enough I came out of the class with 6 books of varying styles. Now I'm taking it again, but this time, as I told Wendy, I'm trying to pay attention. But I'm still not into the measuring perfection stuff. If the book doesn't fall apart when I open it (and if it does open) then I count it as a success.

Here's the nifty thing I learned from her when she taught us to make this leather book: Air pockets.

She gave us 36 sheets of paper, to be folded in half to make 6 signatures ("sets") with 6 sheets of folded paper in each one. Should you fold 6 in half together at one time? Or fold each sheet separately and then group them into 6 signatures? The answer is: It depends on what the book will be for.

If you will be pasting things in and making the pages thicker, fold 6 sheets together at once because it will make a sort of "air pocket" in the middle. You can see this in one of the signatures in the top view pictures. When you bind the signatures to make the book, it will be a fatter book but you will have room ("air pockets") to expand when you add things like pictures, receipts, ticket stubs, etc.

If you will be just writing, fold the sheets one at a time because then the book will be very neat and flatter.

What did I do? One air pocket, the rest flat. I'm not big on decision making or commitment on things like this so I just hedged my bets, so to speak. Regardless, Don got a new sketchbook out of the deal.

Art Car

"The Lizard King Car is a gift to Steamboat Springs from Rebecca Bass, Waltrip High School, Texas". Evidently this woman has her students making art cars every year.

No, I didn't get to go to Colorado, but my sister-in-law, Linda, did and took these pictures for me. I think she thought I'd be motivated by them but instead I'm overwhelmed. High school!?!?

All I ever did in high school was make a leather wallet in shop class. Art class? That was for sissies. Fast-forward many, many years. As the not-politically-correct saying goes, "You've come a long way, Baby."

Trick or Treat? A Two-for-One

Look closely. This artist is taking care of both Halloween and Valentine's Day at the same time.

Getting Ready for Halloween

He's small, just under 4", but don't mess with him.

It's Not Heavy, It's My Head

Not long ago Robyn posted pictures of figures with stuff on their heads and mentioned in a comment that it's common in her part of the world for people to carry things on their heads. How could I have missed that? Had I never looked at a National Geographic magazine? Well, yes, as a teen-age boy but at that age I was looking for something else.

Anyway, here are two small heads I did a few years ago. Both are just under 4" high.

To Susan, with all my love

To Susan, and to all the wonderful women artists I know:

Go here.

Thank you.

Buddy Holly Glasses

About two months ago Susan asked me to take a picture of some street art (aka "Graffiti") near downtown while I was on my Sunday bike ride. It was just a pair of Buddy Holly glasses she said, very graphic and large (about 3 feet high) but on a railroad overpass near an intersection where there was construction and no place to stop a car .

Of course I forgot. ("I was listening, I just didn't remember.") When she brought it up again it was to tell me an eyeball had been added. And by the time I finally got around to taking the picture, the boys had been added. The next week it had been painted over by the construction crew.

Yesterday, driving through Zilker Park, Susan noticed this hanging from the trees and made me take her back today to get a picture. It looks like it's made of foamboard, is about 3 feet across and spins in the wind. She'd like to have gotten a better picture but traffic was crazy in the park so this is as close as we got.

I don't know who's doing this but I'm starting to look around more as I drive. However, Susan has been given strict orders to quit looking around so much as she drives. The only thing worse than a bad driver is a bad driver who's looking at stuff.


Late update: We took off on an errand. No sooner did we get down to Barton Springs Road when Susan spotted another set of glasses. Fortunately she wasn't driving. Who is doing all these?

Janis and Don Trash Around

I owed a debt to Janis and I finally repaid it by taking her Trash shopping. Some women like to shoe shop or something stupid like that but my kind of gal likes to Trash shop. And they don't take Visa at my Trash store.

Remember: Trash is only the failure of imagination.

Late edit about the quote: A lot of people have said it, in different versions, for many years. I think it orginally came about, in some variation or another, right after Woodstock when the clean-up began. Anyway, the most popular attributed quoting comes from Aaron Kramer, a very gifted artist.

The Squadron

In formation, drying, waiting to be glazed and named.

What Was It? The Rest of the Story

Revisiting my strange plant. The first picture below was taken October 9, the second on October 12. It finally bloomed on October 14. Just for the record, the flower smells like rotten meat and attracted a lot of flies. Anybody know what this is?

Chris

Here I am, fully flummoxed, watching Chris, my nephew. Like any self-respecting teen-ager he's looking down because he's texting. Me? Text? Huh? Chris plays the trumpet, is funny, wise enough to catch on to all of his Aunt Susan's snide jokes and smart enough to pretend that he doesn't to his parents. His band was recently in a marching competition and looked real sharp.

Dude Done

This is the final glazed version of a piece shown earlier (here). Again, Robyn and her blog continue to be a strong source of inspiration for me.

Before and After Glazing and Firing

Before and After

The Kiln Gods were kind to me this time.

What Will It Be?

The pot is an old one I made a long time ago. The plant came from Sharon Smith, one of my ceramics instructors. For about a year it just sat there, doing nothing. So I ignored it. But now it's got these weird bud things on it. How did that happen? Now that I'm paying attention, the damned thing will probably die on me. But if it lives (our plants have to survive on "tough love") I'll let you know what it turned out to be.

Gathering Stuff

Susan and EJ went to an Estate Sale last week even though she was pretty sure everything would be picked over because it was late on the 2nd day. Fortunately for me she only had $40 cash with her so that kept her from buying more than one of these cool school posters at $15. It is about 3'x5', has some water stains but still looks great.

The Belgian story book intrigued her because instead of the characters having word balloons over their heads so you know who is talking, they have little character heads next to the text. Or maybe that's the way all story books are now. What do we know? We grew up with Dick and Jane.

Once she photographed the poster she had to go crazy with Photoshop. She told me she had planned to cut the poster up (it's paper glued on heavy canvas) to make book covers but now she's liking it the way it is.

Other loot acquired included old velvet-covered record album books, children's silverware, wooden weaving shuttles, a china doll head, a weird Kewpie doll with one (broken) arm, and some mysterious old tools. All in all, a good haul.

The A-Team Takes a Break

When the weather is good I take a class break outside by the loading dock instead of inside the student lounge. And that's when I catch up with my A-Team. On the left is Jason, one of the best lab techs I've met. He can fix any machine, put together anything you need, and he's a good artist also. On the right is Ben, a sculpture instructor at ACC, who has always given me positive feedback and encouragement. You can check out his work here.

Roadrunner Recycling

It was a long, hot drive from Phoenix back home in August. The one thing we look forward to (other than safely making it home) is the Las Cruces Roadrunner. He is poised for take-off at the IH 10 East rest stop, just before Las Cruces, New Mexico.

He was made from totally recycled items from the old Las Cruces city dump when it closed about 8 years ago. I really wanted Susan to take more pictures, including one of me standing under him. His chest is way over my head so that picture would have given you a better idea of his size (about 20 feet high). But she balked and headed back for the car, muttering something about the warning fence we stepped over to get closer to him, something about the sign saying "Beware of Snakes."

You can get an idea of his size from the last picture which shows what his chest is made up of. Nice job of recycling!

Bird Man

I like to think I'm a creative guy but the fabric was Susan's idea.

Where I Do What I Do

One bonus of taking ceramics classes at ACC (Austin Community College) is a spacious working environment and supportive, encouraging instructors. Another bonus is the collective creativity generated from all the students in my classes.

ACC is housed in an old building that used to be Austin's only high school.

The ceramics classroom is in the basement.

John makes big pots. Very big posts. Sharon Smith is one of my instructors and she gives killer critiques. She and I agree that when someone says, "Oh, how cute!" you might want to re-think what you are doing.

Mary and I do battle over the few free parking spots in front of the school. To get one I usually have to show up before dawn. I think Mary just parks her car there the night before and sleeps in her car. I've only beat her to the free spots about twice.
A new dude, standing in front of some of John's big pots.

Your faithful old dude, working away on his little dudes.