Remembering

On this Memorial Day weekend enjoy your picnic, your barbeque, your family gathering and maybe a long break from work.

But before you do, please go here to see why it is so important for me that you take a few moments to remember those who gave their lives defending our country and the freedoms we have.

Captain Barry Lynn Brown, Killed In Action, Vietnam, 1968

Major James Clifford McKittrick, Missing In Action, Vietnam, 1967

Earth Day

Somewhere along the Natchez Trace

It's our Earth.

Let's do our best to nurture it.

And enjoy it.

Somewhere along the way I missed Earth Day (April 22). Better late than never.

More Yard Art

Recognize anything here? If you spotted the drive-in movie speakers you have just identified yourself as being over the age of 40. If you remember necking at the drive-in movie you have just identified yourself as being over the age of 50. Give yourself 5 bonus points if you know what necking is. Give yourself 10 extra bonus points if you ever drove off with the speaker still attached to your car.

Yard Art courtesy of The Bloo Plate Special, Austin, TX

Yes, Hell Yes, It IS Art

This video has been floating all over the internet but I wanted to be sure you saw it. For me, the music is secondary, the birds are the real beauty. Orange, grey, black and white -- can I possibly achieve these colors in my ceramics?



Late edit: If the video above asks you to sign in as Friend, forget it. That's not me, that's the provider of the video doing that. Try going to this YouTube link.

Graffiti Guys

Thanks to A New York Magpie's Eye, I have two more Graffiti Guys to add to my collection. The one on the top was spotted in New York City in Chelsea, the one below it was spotted at 34th and 10th Avenue.

The pictures above and below are reruns. The two guys are really the same one, photographed about a year apart, in front of the American Folk Art Museum in New York City.

This guy was spotted in Sommerville, MA, by a loyal blog reader.

People, keep your eyes open for Graffiti Guy!!!

Armed Forces Day

DaNang, Vietnam, 1969

Army Nurses, DaNang, Vietnam, 1969

Today is Armed Forces Day, a day to recognize and honor the men and women of the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard.

Not happy about the way your government is doing things? Protest (peacefully). The people serving in your Armed Forces are making sure you can.

Yodocks

Yodocks, named after their inventor, are used as barriers by being put into place and then filled with water to make them stable. Earlier this year a temporary (3-month)art installation went up at one of the entrances to our neighborhood, Barton Hills. The video below is of the volunteers working on the installation on a windy Saturday and, for the record, none of our property taxes went to pay for it.



Later that day was the Opening Reception and we walked over for it, delighted to see that at night it looked like a giant Lego castle.

This hill area was choked with weeds and never noticed, it was just there. Now this art installation has changed how you see the area and it will always seem different, even when the installation is gone. Like it or not, it is art. Art? Got your attention, didn't it? Art.

There has been a lot of discussion about this on our neighborhood newsgroup and none of it is neutral. People either like it or hate it. For the record, we like it. It isn't necessarily attractive or that well done but it IS an attempt to alter your perception of your environment. And it makes us smile, not only because it is amusing but because we can picture the sputtering and frothing at the mouth of those who hate it -- the ones who devoted the time, effort and money to put up this psedo-official sign:

Mother's Day

Steampunk Heart, unknown artist

If you are a Mom, Happy Mother's Day to you. If you have a Mom who is nice to you, consider yourself lucky and wish her a Happy Mother's Day. If your nice Mom is no longer here, think of the good times and consider yourself lucky.

Oh, Dem Bones

Bleached animal bones have a special beauty all their own. Jerry Alexander, one of my Ceramics Professors, lives out in the country and he brought me these bones. I thought about cutting them up and using them in some funky jewelry pieces but they look great just as they are.

Instead, I'll have to think of some special sort of Nicho for them. Jerry's art work really enhances the bones he used, especially with the Raku technique he uses.

Yard Art

Are you a Yardist? Check out the pictures from the sites that were on the Austin Art Yard Tour and see if you qualify. Robert Mace and his wife, Wendy, creators of The Bloo Plate Special, are bottle collectors and have made a "Bottle Prairie". When they got married they asked guests to bring blue bottles to add to their collection. They are especially pleased with their Cowboy Scarecrow.

White Cups

I buy my clay in 25-pound units. All the cups and Nichos up to this post have been made from Longhorn Red clay. A few weeks ago I had a confidence meltdown when a batch of 7 cups turned out NOT like what I had planned. I was ready to give up working with clay but Susan read me the riot act and told me to put my Big Boy boxers on and get with the program. One suggestion she gave me was to simplify what I'm doing and go back to doing what comes naturally.

I was almost out of Longhorn Red clay so I picked up some Longhorn White and quickly made these two small (under 3" high) cups. (Both went to good homes during the Student Art sale.) They aren't glazed, they just have a dark oxide stain rubbed into the clay. I'm very happy about the results and am planning to make more cups like these and some Nichos also.

Finn's Boat

Taking classes from generous gentle souls makes me happy. Being in Stephanie Lee's classes has made me very happy. How can you not want to be in a class with her when she produces videos of her work like this? --

You can find more of her work in her Etsy shop and you can read about her in the current issue of Belle Armoire magazine.

Nichos Again and My Fellow Artists

Above is one of my fellow art students, Lorenzo Diaz Jr, with his for-sale work displayed on his table at our community college Art Sale day. Below are some of the nichos I sold at the show.

This Nicho's texture pattern was made with a placemat from the MOMA. It turned out to look like a beehive but it also looks like snakeskin to me.

This is one of my favorite Nichos. The little brads around the opening are pieces of rebar wire that are fired with the clay. I wasn't sure how to arrange the brads but Susan suggested that I make it look like stitching and I'm pleased with that. In the future I want to try more Nichos that incorporate wire.

This Nicho is very dark but I like the texture pattern I got from the canvas cloth I rolled the clay on.

Moses (below) is an extremely creative and talented artist and I bought one of his cups. He taught me that it's okay to take a piece you don't like and throw it in the trash. I still have a hard time doing that but I'm learning that a bad piece just becomes toxic if you keep it around, somehow thinking it will magically look better.

The Austin Yarn Bomber! Yes!

Yesterday as I drove to school I was stunned to see Yarn Bombing on my usual route. It turned out to be a total reveal of the real Yarn Bomber:

Below is a close-up of some of her work.

This is a bus in Mexico City that she yarn bombed in 2008. Click here for the slideshow to see all the different cities in the world where she has done yarn bombing.

ACC Student Art Sale

The ACC (Austin Community College) Student Art Sale is Tuesday, April 20, from 9 -5 at the Rio Grande Campus (12th and Rio Grande). If you live in Austin, please come by because I have a table and will be selling lots of stuff. Stuff that includes Nichos, small cups, some sculptures, etc. Over the next few days I'll show pictures of the pieces. The reason I haven't posted them earlier is that I've just finally taken a lot of them.

The question I have been asked more than once is this:
If your Blog Wrangler has set you up with an Etsy shop why are you selling at this Student Art Show instead of through your Etsy shop?

The answers are these:
1) By "purchasing" a table at the ACC Student Art Sale I will be helping out the school's scholarship fund.
2) Some of the pieces I'm selling are too big or too fragile to sell to anyone who has to have them shipped to them.
3) Because I have low traffic to my blog I don't think I'd have much traffic to an Etsy shop and thus the pieces wouldn't sell and that would screw up my self-confidence.
4) Because I'm lazy and techno-phobic and techno-ignorant and would make my Blog Wrangler handle all the details and she does enough for me by just keeping up this blog.

None of this excuses the fact that I do have loyal Readers who voiced interest in some of my work and I've not followed through. If that's you, Blog Reader, mea culpa.

One, Two, Three and Counting

This is Four-Head. I picked the number at random and had planned to go with the 9 other digits but never seemed to get past this guy. He's only about 4 inches high. I hope he finds a good home at the Student Art Sale next Tuesday.

Nichos and Body Parts

I'm auditioning some of my doll body parts in the nichos. The parts will need to have their skin redone they way I learned from Thomas Ashman, as shown here on my Tin Man, Ixion. But I may not bother, as these nichos might be going up for sale at the Student Art Sale. If you are in Austin, it's April 20 on the Rio Grande Campus at 12th St. I am a little worried that people won't "get" that the pieces are to hang on the wall and should hold special items, not necessarily arms ripped off a doll.

The glazing on these nichos goes into my "Try It Again" category, which means I'll probably never be able to achieve it the same way again.

Spring Has Sprung

If you live in the Northeast (New York City and Washington DC) the pictures above probably look familiar -- they represent what blooms for you in the spring. In Texas we have the usual wildflower explosion of bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrush along the highways, thanks to Lady Bird Johnson.

Here in Austin at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center we tour their gardens to spot the kinds of plants that will be more permanent if we plant them in our yard. Our yard is mostly rocky soil, there is a lot of shade, and we don't water. That means everything has to be a survivor of "tough love".

We waved goodbye to Spring this week as we ran our air-conditioner for the first time this year. In Texas we have 4 seasons - Winter lasts for 3 months, Spring lasts for 2 weeks, Fall lasts for 2 weeks, and Summer goes on FOREVER.

A Nub Cup

A Nub Cup starts out looking like this, the reddish color is from the clay (Longhorn Red), the nubs have wax on their points to keep any glaze off and are circled with Black Magic glaze.


This is why glazing is always a mystery. Here you can see that I've poured Moss Green glaze over the entire piece. The points of the waxed nubs are resisting the glaze and the Black Magic circles are covered up with the Moss Green glaze. The mystery to me is how does a glaze that looks rust colored wind up looking greenish blue? There is point where you have done everything you can and you surrender the piece to the Kiln Gods and Goddesses, who make the final decision as to what the piece will look like.

In this final piece the nubs have remained unglazed and the Black Magic in the circles around the nubs edges out to show a little bit of dark blue and mixes with the Moss Green to give it variation. The inside is mainly Black Magic with some overcoating of Moss Green.

I've Been Corrected: Nicho

Our friend Wei-Li saw my niches and immediately called them "nichos", which is Spanish. Sounds good to me. This nicho is a good example of a bad technique. The shape is great and the glaze on the front is perfect but the glaze inside the nicho is bad -- wrong color and poorly applied. Our Student Art sale is April 20 so I hope someone there will be looking for a bargain.

nicho [nee'-cho]
noun
1. Niche, a recess in a wall to place a statue in. (m)
2. Any hole or corner to put something in. (m)
3. Any employment or destination in which a person ought to be placed according to his merits. (m)