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Right across the street from us is a huge area of mostly undeveloped land - 75 acres in all.  It is loaded with trees like this.  If you go to Google Earth and search for Bull Creek Road, Austin TX, you will see it just on the right of Bull Creek Road.  Right now there are only a few state department buildings on it. Otherwise, beautiful meadows full of wildflowers, lots of people walking dogs there or just enjoying a quiet walk by the creek --a very peaceful oasis in the middle of a city. Nice, isn't it?

Oops! Wrong. A developer has bought it from the state, has met with all the neighboring associations (including us) and cheerfully told us all that they are going to develop a "legacy" area there. In their minds a "legacy" means office buildings, townhouses, apartments, retail, parking garages, homes priced up to $1 million, etc. They will "try" to preserve 13 acres of it as open space and some people are buying into that story. The reality of it is that they have to leave those 13 acres on the east side alone because Shoal Creek is there as the eastern boundary of their land and it has some sections set aside as floodplain areas, so they couldn't be built on anyway.

In the meantime, until the power of The Mighty Dollar begins to take control of the area, I will continue to put my Give-Aways in the trees.

Can you see him? How about this closeup ...

So far this little red birdie is staying with me.

Happy Mother's Day!

OK, All you Moms, it's not a rose, it's a cabbage. Looks pretty anyway and is definitely not ordinary, and I'm sure you aren't ordinary either. And I least I sent you a flower!

These were at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC last November. I've seen plenty of blooming cabbages before but they've usually been flat on the ground, not on tall stems like this. Strange.

This little birdie could have fit right in with the cabbages.

Remember this:

MOMS!

Not all Superheroes wear capes.

Spiderman 2 and Egon

Another little test piece, about 4 inches high. Again, I probably won't be able to recreate the glaze again but hey, if was easy everyone would be doing it.

Do you see us there? It was in April, we were on our way to New York City. Wait! We aren't in that picture! We spent the $170 to get TSA PreCheck and ta-dah! ... I don't have to take off my belt or my shoes or, best of all, stand in a long line.  Best money we've spent in years.

This was a quick and short trip this time as hotels are really expensive in April. We used to go in late January-early February when rates are really cheap but just didn't get it together this year.  Turned out to be a good decision as nearly every weekend in January and February had flight problems as the Northeast was slammed with bad weather.

We were scrambling to get everything seen in three days, especially the Egon Schiele show at the Neue Galerie.  He had a mostly strange and sad life and died when he was only 28.  Some of the works in the show were things he had done as a 17-year old and his drawing skill was incredible even at that early age.  He made some really weird stuff and some beautiful stuff too.  This is a painting of his wife, Edith, and he's painted her as what I call a "gentle soul". She looks like someone you just want to give a hug to.   She was pregnant with their first child when she died just 3 days before he died, both from the Spanish Flu.

When we go to New York City we always stay at the same hotel - I know exactly where to get giant breakfast biscuits (Donna Bell's), liquor (mandatory), snacks (Food Emporium) and food (Pret A Manger).  At Pret A Manger we always see Tanya, who is an aspiring actress. We've been teaching her how to talk Texan:  "Y'all come back real soon now."

Past History: Crystal Bridges

First, I need to make sure you know it's always all about Me.  When I leave your enjoyable companionship I want to know that you'll be thinking of me. Because I will be thinking of me, too! But enough about Me, how about taking a look at Spiderman? He's only about 4 inches high and was supposed to be just a test shape for a runny glaze.  I don't know if I'll ever be able to duplicate the glaze effect but I'm getting sort of attached to him.

In the past: Crystal Bridges.
It's a long day's drive away but the drive isn't too bad once we clear Dallas and get off IH35. The museum is small and do-able in a day and the town is small and nice and clean and the people are friendly and the exhibits are good. Past History? We were there in January. My Blog Wrangler doesn't want to discuss the delay. Moving on....

Zoe Charlton.
What's not to like about an artist who paints a man with ponies and a forest coming out of his butt?

James Lavadour.
His work was great but I'm not sure I can trust a guy who gets up at 3:00 (THREE) a.m. every day to paint.

The show was State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now and it featured 100 artists, none of them had previously been nationally recognized.  The curators made great choices as we liked at least 80% of what we saw.  Lots of interesting stuff on the link above (scroll down).

Pods and Plastic

Some pods or, as Susan calls them, "Fantasy Fruit". They languished on my table for a while and that's dangerous because when things don't move along she starts slapping acrylic paint on them.  Adding the gold was a good final touch.

Plastic? Take a look at what Veronika Richterova does with discarded plastic bottles. Love those flying foxes (although I'd definitely call them bats)!

Stripes

 



 Little bird with stripes. 

 



 Skinny neck pots with stripes.  They were inspired by an artist named Judit Varga.  I really like her work and seeing the work she has done gave me the courage to make pieces that didn't have any glaze on them at all. 

Yetta's Pot

I tried to make a pot with holes in and I succeeded. But now that it's done and glazed I lost interest in the technique, although I like the glaze.  My friend Yetta loved it and made a small saucer to go under it so a candle could be put in it.  So I gave the pot to Yetta.  She's happy and I'm happy to see my work make people happy.

We saw a great show at the Blanton Museum -- James Drake's Anatomy of Drawing and Space (Brain Trash). The whole installation would include over 1200 drawings but I know the Blanton didn't have that many, even though it filled four rooms. Go here for an interesting video of him.

Yes, that's me in the last picture. Don't you recognize my chrome-dome?

Not Pine Cones

They really aren't supposed to look like pine cones. Or even like elaborate hand grenades. They are supposed to be.... never mind.  Anyway, I was experimenting with glazes that puddle and run and change effects on edges.  More to come eventually.

I've been asked, "What do you do with your spare time now that you're retired?"

 

Excuse me while I laugh myself into a fit. WHAT spare time? If it's not ceramics, it's eating. Or working out. Or, as often as possible, a nap.  And then....

 

 

(Susan thinks the only way this is accurate is if my eyes are closed.) 





Easter

When we make hard-boiled eggs I mark them so as to be sure we know they aren't the raw ones. Okay, we really can tell the difference between the ones in the carton (raw) and the hard-boiled ones in this bowl.  So why do we bother?  Well, it was not a pretty picture on the day one of us, being very helpful, put an unmarked raw egg on the counter and the other person (not naming anyone....Susan) thought it was hard-boiled and thumped it hard on the counter.

Susan just puts a boring pencil line on them. I, on the other hand, feel that an egg deserves to be adorned appropriately.  So there.

 

Just in case you live in some foreign country, like Canada or Alaska or Idaho, these are the traditional Easter Peeps. No, I don't know why they are traditional.

If you think you might want to microwave your Peep, don't bother. This (below) is all you'll get.  I'd like to show you some other images but every time I googled "microwave peeps disaster" all I got were links to websites full of advertisements.  Sorry, but I'll try not to throw ads at you.

Bump It Out

This pot stands about 12 inches high. I like the glaze effect I got but not the fact that it looks like a snake that swallowed a large frog.

Susan says it brings to mind this quote from A. A. Milne (the Winnie-the-Pooh author):

 

A bear, however hard he tries,

Grows tubby without exercise.

 

 

The latest in street art (aka Graffiti) as seen on my weekend bike rides.

 

 

Martha

This is Martha, named after a character on the only tv show we watch (other than the pathetic nightly news), The Americans (on FX). We LOVE that show. But if you haven't been watching it regularly, it might be difficult to follow what's going on and why.  We sometimes go to websites that summarize the episodes just to make sure we got the storyline right.  This is Season 3 and Season 1 and 2 are on DVD.  Just before this season started we borrowed the DVDs from the library so as to refresh our memory and review some of the convoluted plots. But the library had set up each season on 4 DVDs (8 total) and we could only check out 2 at a time. In the end we were watching the last few episodes of Season 2 while we were also watching the first few episodes live for Season 3. Yeah, I'm confused too.

Seth of the famous Altered Page wants me to FB my traveling train children. Seth, don't kill the messenger but Susan, my current Blog Wrangler who is hopelessly behind in blogging for me, wants to tell you .... well, it wasn't very nice and is probably physically impossible. So definitely she's not getting me on FB.

We did make it to New York City last fall and to the Matisse exhibit. Here's a tip: When the museum opens, head straight to the special exhibit and fast pace it right to the back/end of the exhibit.  No one will be there! Then you can slowly work your way backwards to the front and probably not run into a big clump of viewers because by the time you get back to them trotting obediently through the exhibit they will be spread out. Which is how we got to the room shown above with absolutely no one else in the room for at least 5 minutes.

We also saw a Gober exhibit.  Nope, do NOT get it. No. Not at all.

Gober made Susan very crabby but we resurrected the day by seeing her favorite, Cy Twombly, at the Morgan Library. Probably a lot of people don't get him. Such is life.

Traveling Sweater Children

Little Sweater Children have been placed in lots of different places. But now I'm letting my Little Children travel.  You've read about them in the past here and here. I've decided to give them numbers just like on the train cars. They also have magnets on them so they can maybe survive a few bumpy miles.

Little Sweater Child #4 is now on the road, in about a week #7 will move out.  The next time you are waiting for a train to clear the crossing look for a Sweater Child.

 

 

 

 

International Women's Day

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

and

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt.

Today is International Women's Day. Behind every truly successful man there is a woman and there is definitely a woman behind this blog - my Blog Wrangler, Susan. It's not her fault there haven't been blog entries lately. It was my decision to give her a break so she had time to make quilts and read books and clean up her work area. Okay, she accomplished two out of three.

Feed Me. Now!

Susan gave me a Fitbit for Christmas. Guess why.

Yes, We Are Still Here

In November we made it back to New York City and to Washington, DC. for our museum viewing.  I frantically worked on pieces for our student art sale - about half of them sold. I kept some for the next sale and the rest are slowly being distributed as Give-Aways. Susan frantically sewed 5 baby quilts and one large quilt she'd promised by Christmas time (well, some of them wound up being New Year's gifts).  Right after New Year's we made it to Crystal Bridges Museum without getting caught in any of the winter storms. Later this week we head back to Houston for more museum looking and after that, a day in San Antonio. And THEN, school begins again for me. These pictures are proof that I have actually been accomplishing something.

Susan speaks: Yes, your Blog Wrangler has been less than diligent. Many thanks to the faithful viewers for your comments. Google and Yahoo have been conspiring to make things very difficult, especially commenting on your blogs.  Sorry about that but why the hell can't they leave things alone!?!  It used to be simple.

He was going to make a New Year's resolution to do more viewing of people's blogs but now he's been distracted by the Fitbit I gave him for Christmas. He thought it would help him lose weight but all he does now is exercise more and then eat more. And life goes on.

Have a Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays to All

Enjoy your time with family (ok, maybe), friends (definitely), and your art, books, movies, TV, naps, and, most of all, lots and lots of bad-for-you food.