Callio

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

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%

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?

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

Close, But No Cigar

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

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

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

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

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!

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!

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?

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

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

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

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

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.

or

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.