Going in circles with clay

I learned several things during a two-day wheel pottery workshop at Jacksonville Center for the Arts this past weekend.  First, I have a greatly renewed respect for potters who make all sorts of round things on that spinning wheel made rather famous in the sexy scene from the movie "Ghost." Second, making wheel pottery is far more difficult than it is sexy. Third, not sure I have the strength in my left hand to ever become a full-time potter.  Despite that, I had a great time in Sarah McCarthy's class and am pretty pleased with all the pieces I created--even the very first little bowl with a definite angle to it.  Sarah has thrown thousands of bowls and has such a positive attitude that she makes you believe even your funkiest bowls were good efforts in your first time at the wheel.

After spending most of the day trying to center lumps of wet clay on the wheel and being successful only part of the time, I switched to some slab work to give my throbbing hands a break.  Slab has been successful for me the vast majority of the time and this day Sarah taught me how to use wooden molds to quickly create very lovely pieces.  I can hardly wait to see all my pieces glazed and ready for prime time. I'll be proud of them all, even that slightly lopsided first bowl.

Aside from the creative process, the very best part of this workshop was meeting new people, working with friends and getting to know Sarah better.  Make that two Sarahs and their incredible gifts of contagious laughter.

Determination of a squirrel

I think we could all learn something from squirrels.  Even though these little creatures at my house are surrounded by abundant forest, they love to "eat out" and try new and exciting things.  Their appetite for this kind of diet knows no bounds.  "No squirrels allowed" signs mean nothing to them. "Shoes, shirts and ties required" doesn't slow them down a bit.  At even the best buffet of mixed seeds, cracked corn and that favored supply of sunflower seeds, they'll cut in line and "cherry pick" at every opportunity.  They have the determination of an Army tank on full speed.  When the easy-picking sunflower seeds were gone from the feeding platform, this furry critter went straight to the source by lifting the lid, hanging on with his back feet and repeatedly dropping into the feed tube to feast on the sunflower seeds before the birds even had a chance at them.

Determination is a good thing in life and, more often than not, it pays off.  Just don't forget that sometimes too much of a good thing is a bad thing!

Art with friends

I spent a good portion of yesterday doing art, chatting about art, and eating surrounded by art in the lovely and interesting home of an incredible artist in Blacksburg, Darcy Meeker.  She works in stone carving and copper and abstract paper on canvas and ink and clay and jewelry and notecards. She inspires me to keep on experimenting in many different mediums until I am smitten with the two or three that I can concentrate on.

Around the table, Darcy and Charlotte, normally a watercolor painter of enormous flowers and such, worked on copper. I sketched and then began to ink an amazing clump white birch tree.  Bookmaking Becca Imbur came buy to show her best creation, beautiful little daughter named River.

It was a lovely time. Creative sharing and supporting of the best kind.

http://www.darcymeeker.com/ -- be sure to watch the video
http://www.bimburbooks.com/

How much wax is too much?

I pour over art books looking for inspiration, ideas and new techniques. A pile of books holds a permanent position beside my bed and, even though I've seen every page a dozen times, I still keep looking at them until I find a new book to absorb. Sometimes a piece of art sticks in my head and keeps me awake for hours as I plan my own version .

This 18" x 24" painting is one of those. Took me a long time to decide on a name to replace the boring set of letters and numbers assigned by my camera. Last night she became Shadow Woman. The process goes way beyond just normal watercolor, my preferred medium, and involves rice paper, ink, watercolor and lots of wax. It involves giving up control (hard for me) and seeing what happens. It involves a bunch of guessing as I experiment my way through the process.

How much wax is too much?  Two coats. Two hours, scrape, crunch, scrape, crunch, iron, iron, iron.  At last I decide she is beautiful and mysterious and translucent. Held to a sunlit window, she looks like stained glass and smells like honey.

'Round the clock art

Two pieces I created during art class.



This past weekend was a bit of an art marathon. First I made a trip to Floyd for the fun of having lunch with friends, picking up a piece of jewelry being adjusted, and stopping by my favorite art center.  An unexpected benefit came about with the lovely Carly Burke, owner and designer of Mountain Light Jewelry. She and a furniture maker have joined forces to open a wonderful new gallery shop in The Station on the main street and in minutes our conversation came around to the possibility of my artwork being carried in her inventory.  How exciting for us both!

On Saturday and Sunday I took part in a watercolor workshop put on by the Blacksburg Regional Art Association and taught by local artist Carole Davis. At the end of the workshop, I stayed on for an art lecture on decorative arts in Virginia and Tennessee, then went to dinner and by 6 p.m. was in the live model drawing group at Mish Mish, Blacksburg's very nice art supply store. For two hours I sketched the figure of the extremely professional model and by the end of class wondered if my own figure would be able to move well enough to go home.  Exhausted from three such busy days, I expected to be sound asleep minutes after arriving home.

As has become my habit, I picked up an art book from beside my bed and read about watercolor batik over and over, imaging one of my sketches rendered in this manner. Hours later, covers pulled up, lights out, eyes closed, I was still painting in my head.

My art weekend finally ended around 3:30 in the morning.





So long away from the blog

The holidays are over, the decorations are down and packed, the duldrums of January are upon us. What have I done while not blogging for a couple of weeks? The whole Christmas thing which was quiet but nice. A rip-roarin' New Year's Eve on the couch waiting for the ball to fall in Times Square and then falling myself just for a moment or two into slumber just long enough to miss the once-a-year, seconds-long dropping of the ball. Huddled indoors with not one, but two of the three Stieg Larsson trilogy books--The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  I'm holding off on the third book because the first two were so captivating, I hardly moved from start to finish except to turn the pages with great anticipation, to go the potty or, finally forced by starvation, to the kitchen to fix a peanut butter sandwich one hand on the book, elbow on the bread, knife in my teeth.

Through all the days we watched the snow, fed the birds, made new recipes (apple strudel from scratch!) and ventured out reluctantly when cabin fever encroached upon us. A few trips to the swimming pool to work off Christmas calories. A trip to the grocery store to stock up on more of same. Through it all my mind keeps bouncing back to art...what will I paint next? What art book to look at? When's the next drawing session at Mish Mish? Can I do one more re-draw on part of Adrian's face without destroying her forever? Anything to put off the boring other things that nag at me on my desk, in the kitchen, the laundry room, the vacuum cleaner.

A new piece of watercolor paper went down yesterday. It sits with wet background colors wrapping around the frisket and masking applied over my sister's face, my unsuspecting victim for a bit of a funky portrait. I approach the next step with trepidation, but at least it is a step forward into the new year.

P.S. Sunday, Jan. 16, 6-8 p.m., Mish Mish in Blacksburg, live model drawing session, $10 steve.miller@mishmish.com for more info.

Tracks

When the snow was new and coated in ice, the creatures of the forest seemed frozen somewhere other than at our place. No tracks appeared for a couple of days; the birds and squirrels being too light weight to make a dent, simply skated across the snow.

With the addition of several inches of powder last night, it is as though an invitation to party was issued. Around the bird feeders, stomach-dragging birds left drunken tracks hither and yon, back and forth, around and about. In the broader open areas and habitual crossing trails, deer have gathered and traversed and circled but we haven't seen even one of the creatures as they passed by. Mixed in is a trail of rabbit-looking tracks though we've never seen hide nor tail of a bunny here. Maybe there is a padded footprint of a bobcat out there. We saw those tracks once. We are not curious enough to go out in search of them. It is too cold and leaving our human foot trails in the snow seems too intrusive in this tableaux.