Here's Looking Back at You, Kid

Three locations, five pictures:

1. Paris, France

2. Baltimore, Maryland

3. Austin, Texas

Susan is Gagging

A beautiful day today, sunny, dry and 87 degrees. The kind of days in Texas where bugs decide it's Spring Break and they get together and party -- in our house. All of the sudden we had an ant invasion. Big ants. Big. Like nearly 3/4" long (we grow them big down here). No, they aren't termites. They weren't there at lunch and all of the sudden 2 hours later there were hundreds of them swarming around and in one window. Susan's yelling at me to bug-bomb them (sorry, PETA) and I'm sweeping them back out onto the deck to get rid of them. Once they were gone I went crawling down underneath our deck to be sure their home base was wiped out. Whoa! A mound full of ants! The sissy ants hiding out there are now history and it's been a few hours with no stragglers showing up so we're good for the time being. This type of invasion happens once or twice a year at our house, mainly because we live near a creek and have a large wooded backyard. Nice for our view but nice also for critters and bugs who are thirsty.

Speaking of critters. . . .
As I was crawling around under our deck near the outside of our lot I spotted this fellow. He has now been moved to a prime spot where I can watch him from the kitchen window. I'm thinking some of the nearby foxes or raccoons will carry him off even though he is totally dry. He probably bit the dust last summer when it was very hot and dry and since we're in a prolonged drought period he had plenty of time to work on his tan without anyone getting a whiff of him. I got a lot of good pictures and will take some more later today. Hope you find this possum as interesting as I do.

Susan, the Blog Wrangler speaks:
No. No way. I am not putting all these disgusting pictures up. Don got to pick one picture and I have posted it without really looking at it. Gross. Interesting, my eye. That thing had better be gone by tomorrow morning or I'm not going in the kitchen. Want food? Get it yourself.

Peevay

Peevay is the name of a character in a book I'm currently reading (English Passengers). His head lifts off at the dotted line and inside is a small ceramic shape with writing on it. I can also put things in the opening on the front. I'm heading off into a direction where I am making small shapes, writing on them and then wrapping them. On this shape I wrote some lyrics from a new song I'm liking (The Littlest Bird by the Be Good Tanyas) from a CD Susan put together.

Size Might Matter

This picture was taken in the grounds of a museum in Sicily where we heard a good talk about Sicily being in the middle of a number of trade routes which resulted in a lot of culture being dumped on it. I'd tell you more but the visit to the museum happened after a big Sicilian lunch and I do know how to nap standing up.

Me: This is the picture I want on the post. Can you fix it?

Susan: Looks fine to me. What's the problem?

Me: Can you make me look like I didn't eat so much in Sicily?

Susan: You ate too much in Sicily.

And I have Photoshop Elements 2.0 and it won't work to make you look skinny.

But we could get a better version of Photoshop and maybe a Wacom tablet and I might be able to do it.

Me: How much would that cost?

Susan: Total, maybe about $600-700.

Me: You're right, the picture looks fine.

For the record, the official ceramics name for a pot this size is "Big-A** Pot".

Disintegration

Seth at The Altered Page has set up an interesting project: Disintegration Collaboration. Not being much of a social person meant that I ignored his general invitation but made the mistake of mentioning it to Susan. She immediately remembered the certificate I had started to distress a few years ago with my daily used coffee filters. They did a good job of staining the certificate but then what was I going to do with it? It waited for me to decide while Susan stuffed it away in a pile of papers. Disintegration, Susan said, was now the solution.

The next question was where to put it. My back yard had the perfect answer: Inside this nameless welded sculpture. Nameless, like I was to the corporate headquarters who knew me only as a 6-digit employee number. Inside, where I held back the knowledge that I did have, that I had been tested on, that I knew backwards and forwards, but inside where I kept it because few people trusted that I really knew what I was talking about. Inside the gut of this sculpture because every day for 32 years I started out with a knot in my gut, hating what I did for a living.

The certificate was rolled up and pushed up the middle. Symbolic? When I let go, it was held in place by the tension of the paper unrolling. More symbolism? How long will it take before nature takes my piece of paper away from me? Seth set a general endpoint of May 1. We'll see.

Little Dudes

One is supposed to be a Dude but somehow it looks like . . . . What is the female equivalent of Dude? I bet you think I made them. Nope, they came off that meteor that landed in West Texas this week.

Late update: Thanks to Sherry, I now know I have a Dudette.

Valentines for You

Susan is in love with her new CueCat and fast becoming obsessed with LibraryThing, thanks to J of OWOH. The bad part is that she says it is almost, almost as good as Amazon books and she spends too much time on it. The good part is that she can't buy books at LibraryThing.

In the meantime, while Susan scans everything she can find, I have been working. These little guys are BabyBuds and the ears have been eliminated on them. It was starting to get just a little too . . . cute. Hey, I'm a guy!

This photo shows some glazing, the photo above it shows pieces that are pending glazing and the clay looks darker because it's a new type I'm experimenting with (Laguna B3).

Two Winners and Mr. Goofy

He's from my old welding days, made of metal roofing scrap, the first and one of only a few pieces I cut with a plasma cutter. He's on the outside where we can see him from our kitchen window.

For the OWOH giveaway we created our random numbers by adding up birthdates, time, the year, etc., to come up with two winners. Congratulations to Nicky Linzey and Carol Stocker -- please stop by their blogs for another look at their work. And thanks to all of you for your thoughtful comments.

Susan Opts for Cheryl

Susan speaks:

Robyn's Bug posts came to mind just about the time I was looking once again at some of Cheryl Finfrock's work. These just have to be pictures of Bug!

Cheryl's new show opens March 7th, if you're in the area it's worth a look-see. I love that her work seems so free and loose but I know that effect comes only through hard work, not happenstance. Her work always makes me smile. And so do the titles.

Oops

Oops, this little guy should have been Part Two. His true name is FubiniDos.

Note: If you've been commenting because of OWOH, many thanks for all the encouraging words.

All Ears, Part 2

This little guy has already found a home. His name is FubiniBTB, which stands for Fubini's Big Tall Bunny. Fubini was a famous mathematician and Susan (who usually names my pieces) thinks that using names like his will ease her math anxiety. And mine. In our house we go around muttering "Percent means big into little, percent means...."

One World One Heart Giveaway

One World One Heart is an annual event when bloggers all over the world get together and visit each other and give a door prize to one of their guests. Sort of like an Open House but you don't have to get dressed up for it. If you click on the logo above or here you will be taken to the One World One Heart blog where down the right side are links for all the participating blogs. Click on any (or all!) of the links and leave a Comment to be eligible to win the giveaway described on each blog. You don't have to have a blog yourself to be eligible to enter, just comment and be sure your email address is included. Note: The deadline for 2009 entry has passed

Why? Here's part of what the sponsor of this Giveaway said:

". . . .the connections. The whole idea behind doing this and trying to get as many as possible to join in, was and is to meet new and wonderful people."

What You Need To Do To Win My Giveaway (Two Winners were selected, will be notified by email): The deadline has passed and Comments are closed. Check OWOH for future giveaways.

Please take a look at the blogs of the winners that were randomly chosen:

Nicky Linzey

Carol Stocker

What Was Won in My Giveaway: One of the small books (small as in the size of a credit card) shown below. First winner randomly selected (Nicky) got the rust book, the second winner (Carol) got the green book. Front and backs are ceramic clay with acrylic paint. Center is accordian folded paper. The book pages have bits collaged on them.

I'm All Ears

My latest work is slightly different. Why? I don't know, I just like ears.

Secret Belgians and Baby Dremels

Saturday was a busy day for us. Susan went to a workshop sponsored by the Capital City Scribes where she learned how to make a book with a Mongolian Binding. She said was sturdy enough it could have been carried around by Genghis Khan (no picture of it, sorry). These pictures are of the 2nd book she made with the Secret Belgian Binding. She said the secret was that it was hard as hell to do. The covers are Arches Text Wove paper, with washes and stamping (large foam stamps) with acrylic paint mixed with gesso. The thread is waxed linen.

While she was in that workshop I was busy shopping at one of my favorite stores, Harbor Freight. (And it's one of EJ's favorites, too.) If you haven't signed up for their mailing list, do it! That's how I found out this great tool was on sale for only $6.99. This Baby Dremel will be perfect for drilling little holes in stuff like leather and cardboard where normally I'd have to work with a screw punch and wind up with a big hole. When Susan saw it she made me go back and buy her one. She calls it her Sissy Dremel.

The Squadron, Revisited

A few months back I showed you The Squadron before they got their final "dress uniforms" on (bottom picture). Well, here they are, all ready for their parade.

Book Arts

The Austin Book Arts people don't just do books, they do lots of other stuff. For example, zines, Calligraphy, conservation, paper arts, bookmaking, book binding, etc. Jerome is currently in charge and this is just one example of his artistic talents, you can see more in the "Books" photostream here. (If you are in the Austin area, think about going to one of their meetings.

Susan

Rolling Along

Susan meant to get this for me at Christmas but things got too hectic around the mall area so she didn't do it. But the day I said I had to make a trip to Home Depot (I was having tool withdrawal pains) she handed me a BedBathBeyond discount coupon and reminded me it was just next door so I could easily treat myself.

It's a very heavy teflon-coated rolling pin I use to roll out clay slabs at home. At school I have the use of a big slab roller but before I just had a junky wooden rolling pin and it never seemed useful. This big one is PERFECT.

My ceramics class starts back up today. Or as Susan calls it, "Adult Daycare".

Getting Ready to Make History

"Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart."

Martin Luther King Jr.

Politics in Sicily

I was looking over my Sicily pictures so I could show you more about our trip there when I noticed something unusual (to an American, anyway) in the background of this one.

The picture was taking in an open market in the center of a town called Catania, not far from a restaurant whose specialty was horse meat. Although the posters look like they were torn off I don't know if they were just wearing off or were torn off by a rival party worker. There are LOTS of political parties and candidates in Italian politics. They make our ballots look really slim.

At the time we were there the Italians were getting ready to vote in their big national election so there were posters everywhere. I might not be totally accurate about this but here are two trivia facts I learned:

1) They vote on Saturday. No problem about getting off work or disrupting school.

2) All TV election/campaign advertising has to end 5 days before the election.

Charming the Local Police

In Sicily we listened to a lecture about the history of the Mafia. It was given by a professor from some school and was very scholarly and very neutral. Of course, Susan couldn't leave it alone and had to privately ask our tour guide, Rosa, if Sicilians were still watchful about the Mafia. Rosa rolled her eyes ("Another question?") and told Susan 1) that if it wasn't for the Mafia, nothing would work in Sicily and 2) don't do anything to cross the Mafia, which is just like the Polizia.

A few days later we were in a small town, heading back to the bus and Susan saw this guy and told Rosa she'd be right back, she wanted me to take her picture with him. Rosa freaked out. "No, you canNOT do that! Do not go near him! Don't even look at him. He is Polizia, he is Police. They do not talk to tourists. It is worse than Mafia. No! No!"

I missed getting the picture of them shaking hands.

Old Sicilian Coots

These two old coots were just sitting on a bench, glaring at the American tourists running around taking pictures of the church in their town square. Susan was making sketches in a little sketchbook she had and went up with a big smile and asked the scowling guys to sign the little sketch she made of them. The guy in the red hat gave her a big smile back and a long, long story in Italian. He was probably trying to hit on her. They both VERY laboriously signed their names on the sketch.

The town? Beats me. A long, dusty two-hour bus ride up into the mountains. Not very many tourists in the area at all. The next page in Susan's sketchbook said "Piazza San Paolo" so maybe that was it.

Yes, I Can So!

Maybe you think that all I can do is make art? Wrong! I can cook. Two years ago we went to Sicily and part of the group tour involved cooking classes. Not only did I learn to make gnocchi, I made two new friends.

Right now all my clay work is in that in-between stage where I'm not sure where I'm going with it but I'm not ready to give up on it. In the meantime I'll be showing you my wish-I-was-there-again pictures.

Susan: Don't let him fool you. We buy our gnocchi now.

PodMan

This is the final piece in this series for now. I really like the glaze colors but, as usual, I never write anything down so I have no idea how to get the same colors again. My work definitely is "What you see is what you get . . . .probably just once."

Ike and Morley, Before and After

Some pieces change a lot from the initial phase, some not so much. Here you can see that I'm still working on developing new glazes. Some of Robyn's work was the inspiration for the neck treatment. She recently posted about the difficulties of getting back into Work Mode, which I completely identify with. So much so that I need to lie down and take a nap.

Sometimes...

Sometimes the art I'm showing you needs to be Susan's.

Susan: Watercolor paper, Adirondack Color Wash, rock salt.

Barney and Jfry, Before and After

Just for the record, I have been producing. This set of pieces (more to follow) is a slightly new direction for me as far as glazing goes.

Happy New Year!

Here's hoping we all have a Happy New Year. Zee Bunny went to my sister-in-law, Linda, who took the snowy Taos picture posted from a few days back.

To all the faithful readers of my blog, thank you for your validation. Throwing thoughts, words and art out into the vast anonymous cyberspace can be a lonely feeling but you have all made me feel so much richer for your comments and your contact.

My Blog Wrangler, Susan, is everything a computer-klutz like me can hope for. She types for me, fixes my photos, sends me off to Adult Day Care (better known as my ceramics class at our community college), and keeps order in my world and on my blog. She has pushed me and shoved me into the art world and into the blogging community and I'm a much happier person for it all. However, she has given me my one New Year's Resolution: To be better about reading other people's blogs.

Is a Resolution resolved if you do it 3 days in a row?

Susan speaks:

Don used to claim that his dyslexia made it hard for him to use the computer. But his prolonged playing of Bejeweled and TipTop let me shoot that claim down. I do try to balance out internet information time with creative time for him but, as we all know, any type of balance in life is hard to maintain. We'll continue to work on it.

For those poor demented souls who think we are such a Perfect Couple, here's a brief peek into our life that might provide a little reality wake-up:

S: Check out the blogs, ______ has a great entry today (just fill in your name here).

D: What does it say?

S: Check it out yourself. Besides, you haven't looked at anyone's blog in over a week and they look at yours all the time, you rude clod.

D: How do you know they look at mine?

S: By their comments. You have been checking your own comments, haven't you?

D: Oh. Sort of. Well, what do they say?

S: Say about what?

D: Anything. What do they say in their blogs? And in comments?

S: Read them yourself, you lazy bum! I can't be reading everything to you. I already have to tell you when you have email.

D: Email? Do I have email? What does it say?

S: Definitely what is says it that you're not going to get lucky at all, ever, in 2009. And now you're working on 2010.