New Work in Asheville

Well, I am still out of the studio (will be for another couple of weeks) but new work should have arrived at the Grovewood Gallery in Asheville. Lots of appropriately beautiful yet extremely functional work ready to be put to good use!
On the pottery perusing level, I have been following Sequoia Miller's blog (look at the May 12 post for pictures) about these cool boxes he is putting together for a show. I love the concept of grouping many objects together, so that the presentation is a story all it's own, but individually you can OWN just one piece or make your own grouping with two or three.
Also found a great book by Peter Cosentino called The Potter's Project Book, which has things like salt pigs, chess sets and other delightful projects, even a puzzle jug. Some inspiring ideas for when I get my hands back in clay. Isn't it crazy how fast the year is heading towards the halfway mark?

Reading roll

Getting a library card to me has always been like getting the okay to raid the candy store. I mean, you can check out any book on any thing......What more could a person ask for who loves to read? I'm still one of the hard or soft cover hold outs. We got Katie a Kindle for Christmas, but she has storage issues, so I can see her need for digital books. I love flipping the pages, getting to the end and seeing what type face was used, the feel of the paper. Gosh, working at a printing company will do that to you, I suppose. I mean, I had to learn how to put a 16 page and 32 page signature (individual pages printed on one large sheet of paper) together in order to print them correctly when they were folded and bound to put into a magazine or book.

I know there's lots of people who like to listen to books on tape but I'm not one of them. I really love the reading, and for me it's much faster. After all, you read using vision and light, so theoricately you could read at the speed of light, whereas you can only listen at the speed of sound! Recently I have been working through Robert B. Parker's novels, concentrating on the Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall series. They are quite addictive because they are such a fast read. I love the terse, concise dialog between the characters. While doing this post I had to look up something about Mr. Parker and found out he had passed away in January. When an author or artist dies, then all the future stories or works they could have created are no more. I know that is true of the death of anyone--all those potential futures just wiped away. I will miss not knowing what Jesse Stone will do in Paradise, just like I miss Lt. Joe Leaphorn from Tony Hillerman's series.

Cheeky Birds

One of the "wild life" that makes eating lunch full of adventure. There are also grey herons and seagulls and smaller white birds that are even more threatening than this big guy. They hover and swoop and land on your table, beadly eyeing your sandwich. I think they are the Florida version of NC bears that have been fed and become a real problem. Besides not knowing when they will streak out of the sky and nail your food, they also can wreak revenge by letting loose a shower of bird doo. Oh so appetizing.....But I have gotten some nice reference shots for carving work on pots.

Connected Part Two- The Elegance of the Hedgehog

I finished a lovely book, "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" several weeks ago, just as I was reading a book by Bernard Leach entitled "The Potter's Challenge". The first book was written recently and is a work of fiction and the Leach book was published in 1951.
My favorite moments of the "Hedgehog" were the lines of the characters that spoke about moments of stillness of spirit and beauty and contemplation. In fact, a conversation between two of the characters was about why a Dutch Master's painting was so engaging to the viewer. It got me to thinking about why I love the artwork and music that I do. What threads run through the different mediums that work their magic on the viewer?
Then Mr. Leach managed to shed some light on it for me. In talking about how as a modern creator/artist/artisan (whatever title you are comfortable with) he says,
"We have to learn to put the thinking apparatus, our intellectual box of tricks into proper relationship with the intuitive parts of our mind. When they are properly related to each other we can still live in a world of thusness, or let us say, wholeness."
So those interactions with beauty, art or music, which sometimes stop me like the singing tone of crystal or porcelain in the still air and resonate through me are those moments of wholeness in the artwork.
He goes on to say
"I write of beauty, and truth and thusness. I think the final word I would use as a criterion of value in the world of art, if I were reduced to a single word, would be the presence of life.... It is a force that goes beyond all arts or artists. It is the ultimate standard and it is attainable."

I find great solace in the fact that it is attainable and know that all those shards and seconds and misfits and not quite rights are just mileposts on the road to bringing that life into the here and now of my pottery.

Mr. Cherokee

Jim sent me this nice photo of Cherokee. He's enjoying the spring time and great weather, waiting for me to get back to the studio and greet all you pottery lovers coming in to visit.

Connectedness Part 1

Connectedness is a topic I have been mulling on for quite a long time. So I thought I would give it a shot as a serial post. But to keep myself on track instead of just rambling, I decided an outline would be in order. Here it is:

Part One: Thoughts on connectedness and James Garner, past and future; not really connected to pottery except through my love of him and my love of pottery.
Part Two: The Elegance of the Hedgehog and The Potter's Challenge
Part Three: The Book of Hours and Scrapbooking
Part Four: Texture and the details of leaves
more as needed...... or maybe you should suggest something?

The mythologist Joseph Cambell talked about making lists as a way to sort things out (at least that's what I remember). You can read more about him in the book, "Joseph Campbell, A Fire in the Mind". I think from this exercise of list making you find connections between things. I tend to keep some running lists in my head, using the brain/mind as a file sorter and filter. Sometimes the lists are more felt, than realized. Sometimes the convergence of lists hits you like a brick over the head.

Anyway, I have this running list of work I have made in my background, so while browsing through a new pottery book "20th Century Ceramics", I turned a page and was stunned by a photo of a 1906 earthenware vase by Thorvald Bindesbell.. This pot is an homage to Hokusai's print. The "stunned part" was that I made a pot, very similarly shaped, using the same breaking wave patterns and the same color patterns quite a while ago. My pot sits on the mantle of my in-laws' fireplace. Wish I could show you, but no digital images. Maybe no slides, even, because I have never documented every piece that I made.

It has the same black background but texture created by carving. So I have been beating my brains, trying to figure out if I had seen this pot and subconsciously it wafted it's way into my work or if I was so influenced by the Hokusai print (I have had a copy of it hanging in my studio since 2000) that I strove to put that image on a pot of my own and now it looks like a copy of a long dead potter's work. The kicker is that I don't ever remember looking through the book I saw it in (first publish date 2003), I know I've never seen it in person and don't remember the image from elsewhere. I'm almost positive my pot predates 2003, because the clay body was one that I used while I took classes at Gaston College. It was a beautiful toasty body, part Gold Art and Red Art, that Keith Lambert used to have us make. I know I bought materials to make up a bunch of it before I stopped taking classes because I would no longer have access to the clay mixer. So I was using it and firing it in my kiln at home, taking the reduction glazes we used and the clay body and working in oxidation and at a couple of cones lower.

Now I know that I have looked at South American, Polynesian and Oriental pots and seen similarities in the design patterns that probably cropped up independently of one another. That's a whole big subject--the independent thought or invention of cultures, technology and art that have occurred through the ages. I'm not thinking about that large a connection. I'd just like to know if mine was independent or subconscious.

Oh, the James Garner thing: I have always loved him. Watched and loved Rockford files. Saw that it was scheduled to be remade as a TV series with Dermot Mulroney as the Jim Rockford character. Everything old is new again?

Mosaics on the outside

These are images of a beautiful mosaic being installed at the Children's museum, next to the Pen-Free Tampa Museum of Art. Hope the kiddies get more respect from museum management than their parents do! Anyway, I got to stop and chat for a few minutes with a woman who was helping the artist do the installation. She said they did the pieces at a warehouse, using Wonderboard as the backer for the mosaic. When I saw the panels, they were already mounted and I could see screwheads that were being covered up by glass pieces, as well as some damaged glass that they were having to remove and replace. Very magical. The link goes to an article, which gives the monetary costs ($75,000) and how payments would be made ($5000 down and $17,500 over a four year period.
I don't know a thing about public commissions of installation work, but this woman had a bunch of people working with her part-time and I'm wondering how this is economically feasible unless you have a boatload of these things going over a 12 month period, enough to float your materials, living/travel expenses, hired help and the inclusion of Murphy's Law costs. Anyone have any ideas about how this works?

A Pen-Free Museum in Tampa, by Golly

New Tampa Museum of Art
Sketches of Greek Pottery

Dutifully observing the "No Photography" Sign on their permanent collection by drawing, standing up, balancing a sketchbook and purse with nary a seat in sight.

More nice pots and thoughts about pots before the security caught me WITH PEN IN HAND!

"Ma'am, is that a pen you are holding?" quoth he.

"Why yes" said I.

"You can't use a PEN in the museum. You'll have to go downstairs and get a PENCIL" said he.

"You're kidding" said I, restraining myself mightily.

Gee, what would they have done if I had pulled out my trusty BLACK PERMANENT MARKER!Really, I can understand the fear that some kid might decide to write "Johnny was here" on the derriere of a female nude sculpture, but a tame grey haired lady with a sketch book and ballpoint is not much of a security threat.
What is the job of a museum these days? I thought it was to nuture appreciation of art and history and to educate. How can it be that we are reduced to the simplicity of gawking idiots, unable to record any nuance of light and shadow, the way the piece curves up from the belly, the lip and foot proportions, or how the handle joins at just the right spot because we have a pen in our hand.

Rumors of snow

I've heard rumors and first hand accounts of snow in NC. In fact, I have a video that I'll try to load on here later, with the famous Cherokee Gill, retired race dog extraordinere, cavorting in the white stuff. It was sent as a little birthday gift, since Cherokee is at home with friends while I am gone. My heart goes all soupy and sweet when I see a dog around here, evidence that I am missing my great big studio buddy. Anyway, check back later in the week since I have to figure it out and it may just remain a big mystery if the technology is too much.

Fog and Hot tea

It's been a lovely foggy day in Florida. We had a great big storm last night, and cool air moved in to create this Englandy looking atmosphere. I've always had a thing for fog. I've always liked hot tea. Hmm? Was I really supposed to have been born in the South or am I really just a misplaced Brit with a slightly funny accent?

Impressionism inspiration

Since I'm not working with clay in the near future, my thoughts turn to painting and drawing. Just before I left home I took my car to the auto car wash for a well-deserved bath. I love the fact that they have great vaccum cleaners. So powerful it sucked up my ball point pen. I wonder if the job perks include dividing the small change or even bills, jewelry, etc that make their way to the bottom of the vaccum cleaner? Anyway, while riding through, I thought how cool that soapy world looks, so took some shots for future reference.

New Days, New Years, New Decades

Everything is new again! I have been cruising the blogs occasionally to see what's been happening out there. I have been on vacation, enjoying some well deserved time with family and starting on a study of courses that will occupy me and keep me away from the studio until the end of May.

Today I walked around the neighborhood (Florida, not NC) and it was a breezy, chilly, sunny morning. Quite nice. Don't know if the FL natives like this cold spell but it suits me just fine.
I have to figure out how to load my camera pictures on this computer, so no new images for a bit.

There was a great article in Ceramics Arts Daily last week about mass production of pottery design. I read it with interest. It really covered the good points and bad points of such a self-financed venture. I can see how satifsying that would be for an artist/craftsman that had the goal to bring well-made work to the marketplace at large quantities. I did have to explore some of my own prejudices about the concept, but realized that I enjoy a lot of products that fall in that middle space--well designed, aesthetically pleasing and in an affordable range.

They are NOT the same as the individually made cup. But I would reach for them and the experience would be more pleasing than that cylinder that comes in a rainbow of colors. I think the thing that I would miss most about the experience is the story behind the work itself. I do think of the person or place or time that I got a cup or mug from and to me, that is an important part of the drinking/eating experience. Now, I'm not saying that I have a concious remembrance every time I drink, but it's there, in the background like ambient music or a soft pillow. Maybe it's just "padding" for the everyday battle of life!

Anyway, I appreciated the article. Take a look for yourself. Tell me what you might think. Have a great day!

A Year of Bluegill Pottery Calendar Giveaway

Here's what February could look like on your wall in 2010. All you have to do to win this full color calendar of 12 months of Bluegill Pottery work is to register at my open house this coming weekend. I'll be open 10am to 4pm on Saturday and 1 to 4pm on Sunday, so come out, look around and register! Oh, and you can even buy things for yourself, friends and loved ones!!!

Crow Clock in the Bird Series.

Bluegill Website Update

I finally was able to get my website updated last month. Many new photos in the gallery section and changes to gallery hours, class info, etc. Have a look at the new stuff, then it will stay the same for a while, since my blog is really where all the new work is featured and the website changes at a snail's pace.

I'm trying to decide on changing my email program from Constant Contact to Vertical Response. I set up a VR account for the Carolina Pottery Festival and it worked very well and was economical to send out show info. I think that I don't use my CC enough to warrant the expense. I will miss all the nice templates in CC, though. There is always a learning curve with a new program, and frankly my patience in learning curves is a bit worn thin.

After/Before or What it takes to make it saleable

These are the pieces I dropped off this past Monday at the Cleveland County Arts Council for their Handmade for the Holidays show. I think it's a nice selection of work with new bird themed pieces, impressed fish trays and some sweet little plum blossom trays that I have coupled with a red bowl. The beehive shape is for knitters or crocheters to house their wayward thread skeins in.

Before it could become a saleable item, it had to go through a bit of post kiln magic. You're seeing many things in many different stages in this shot. It's funny that I took this photo on Monday and when reading Ron's blog today, I see he has his own bit of chaos going on. Is it something in the air, or just the time of year when creativity and clean collide? Creativity seems to win at my house, hands down.

In the cause of full disclosure, I have not been paid or recompensed by Panera Bread for drinking their tea and showing it on my blog. I also had a bagel with cream cheese and darn if I didn't have to pay for that, as well.

Will you be there?

Working on some great pieces for this holiday open house.

Come and bring your friends.

I'll have lovely pottery in all shapes, sizes and prices.

Even a few wonderful, but slightly flawed pieces with reduced prices (only a very few from the last firing)

Also some really beautiful new "donut" semi-precious stone necklaces on satin cording and co-ordinating earrings.

And "snowflake", gingerbread men and heart ornaments for the tree.

(The snowflakes and hearts are in a white/delft blue glaze with an impressed design-

very lovely, if I do say so myself!)

New Work at the studio

A berry in the mouth is worth two in the bush. Old Crow proverb.

Cedar Waxwing come to feast on my Bradford Pear. An early memory of Spring.

Big Bird Jar

Just a few quick images of more bird work.

I have been swamped with making/firing/finishing in order to get all obligations done in studio before the holidays. You can see some of this new work at my Holiday Open House at the studio, Dec. 12 (10am to 4pm)and Dec. 13 (1 to 4pm).

I found my picture in the post office

And, no, it was not on a most wanted poster or a dead beat parent notice. They have copies of Gaston Woman near the p.o. boxes, and I usually glance at it to see if I know who has been featured. "Surpise, Surprise" as Gomer would say. It was me. Had no idea that they would take info from the article in the Gaston Gazette and make a feature story for the magazine. Very nice indeed. Moments like these and when folks are making nice comments on your work do indeed balance the bad kiln firings and other negative stuff that goes along with putting your heart's work in the public eye.

Thanks Gazette!

Bird Banks

Quick shots of the bird banks that came out of the kiln on the morning of the Festival. I actually toted (carried or took with one, for those not familiar with Southern slang) these to the show and home again when I couldn't figure out how to finish them. I put a hole in the bottoms, so the coins could be removed. I've found some cork plugs that work and am pondering other options. My pottery buddies, when asked for technical advice, said they used to remove their pennies by slipping a dinner knife in the slot and teasing the money out. Sure would make life easier to not have a hole, but would slow down the drying times.

What a great day!

Well, it's Sunday and I feel refreshed after a FULL NIGHT'S SLEEP! I feel like I have been on one of these mountain tops and the trail leads down the mountain at a soft, easy grade.

That should tell you that the Carolina Pottery Festival has now come and gone, only to return in 364 more days. The festival was great yesterday. Initial reports were that many folks were happy with the turnout and the sales and the public seemed happy, too. I saw lots of people carrying multiple bags around, so it looked like a lot of pottery found it's way into new homes, or soon will!

Thanks for all the great people who visited my booth and it was nice to see you again, or meet you for the first time. I hope your friends, family and yourselves enjoy all the nice pieces you took home with you yesterday.

It's off to a Carolina Claymatters guild meeting for me today, after I unload the van so I can reload 500 lbs. of clay to start on orders for the holidays or galleries. What a lovely, lovely day.

What a great state for potters and pottery lovers!