creativity

Conditions for creativity are:
to be puzzled;
to concentrate;
to accept conflict and tension;
to be born everyday;
to feel a sense of self.--Erich Fromm

Slip on Sunday

Lesson learned, slipped these guys slowly, waited on the endless stages of leather hard and all is good. I have had a strange thing happen with the bowls and cups this week. I like all of them! This never happens, I trash nearly everything I make. This stuff is all for our December sale so I'm glad I'm liking it. I have a good load of stuff waiting in line for the gas kiln at Claymakers, stuff in my studio waiting on the wood firing at Susan's in two weeks, and this earthenware to go to Claymakers for a test run with new 04 glazes. This all sounded good until I typed it out, now I sound a bit disfunctional. How many paths can one person stroll down at one time anyway? that would be me in the window reflection, ha!
So, for any of you that may check out this blog that are beginning potters, here is some great hope for when you are stressing over making a cylinder. For the longest time I would not make cups on the wheel, I only hand built them like the ones below. I could not pull a cylinder without it getting so off center it made me crazy or it instantly became a bowl. The cups below were made last year. I finally sucked it up and decided it was time I made a decent cup on the wheel, so this year I have made bunches of them and then recycled the clay. This is the first group of cups that I have made and wanted to keep all of. I didn't trash one cup I made this weekend. So let's hope the 04 glazes look good. ps: the drummer in the photo above is Gerry playing at a gig in Charlotte last year. I'm a sucker for a drummer!

I have been working all weekend on bowls and cups, slowed down on the slipping and all is well, PEACE.............

some that didn't melt

I am really happy with this batch of bowls, except the ones that melted. They are thick and chunky and I like them that way. Gone are the days of trying to make perfect paper thin bowls, they break. These are going to get transparent blue green gloss, transparent amber yellow and clear glazes and hopefully they will make me smile. I'm going to wait until tomorrow to slip the others, no more rushing, I don't have that much time to waste.

I am trying out this little squished bowl as a test for chopsticks. I'm not sure I like it, but I like the idea.

CRAP,CRAP,CRAP!

I had a good day making bowls this week, trimmed them yesterday, loved them all. I was in a rush to get some slip on them this morning before I left for the theater and, oh yeah, here is a reminder once again why you can't rush pottery. I watched these f'-ing bowls fall apart right before my very eyes. So out of the twenty, I trimmed holes through two of them and melted four, do the math, I am down a few now. Good news is I have the whole weekend with nothing to do, so I will be making more...........................

Days End

I got twenty bowls made this morning, and as you can see no two are alike. This is my new plan. I really like making random bowls. The clay is Lyman Red earthenware, I'll get some slips and brush work on them after I get them trimmed tomorrow.

On a lighter note

Did anyone else count that fool John McCain say "my friends" 21 times? And why couldn't he be still? I swear I will move to another country if he gets elected.(of course I said this four years ago, and here I am). I'm getting nothing done this week. It seems like every time I do a residency it takes me a week to turn my head around and start on something else. I did get by Surplus Sids yesterday and pick up a rocket launcher for Mother Courage along with some military jackets and a stretcher. Yep, a play about a war, Mother Courage was a war profiter during the Thirty Years War and the show has lots of war props. Thought I would post a photo on a lighter note, Wes and I amused ourselves in Macy's while Gerry picked up some new Calvins. Now how is this for good parental guidance? Well, I'm off to my studio to try and throw some earthenware bowls today.

What a phoney baloney life I have! Reading over my last blog sounds so trivial with things like they are right now. Talk about escaping reality. My stars just didn't line up when they formed the line for saving the world, I just lined up to make it a nicer place to live in, ha! Well, here's a cheery photo from the Metropolitan Museum to match my mood!

hmmm.....

I think I am in some sort of funk, haven't had much to say on the blog for the past few days. I seem to be coming out of my cave and noticing the state of the world, and what a sorry state it is. Working with kids at an art center and doing theater sort of keeps you out of touch with reality sometimes. I am catching my breath after my two week residency at the ArtsCenter, and God knows what is wrong with me, but I am doing another show, this time for UNC, Mother Courage. Actually, the director and technical director are really great people and I have missed working with them. They are the kind of folks that seem sincerely interested in what you are saying and are so appreciative of your efforts. It is a great cast, full of energy and I feel very positive vibes at rehearsal. Nice place to be. I worked at Claymakers today, grinding kiln shelves where someone used Mamo over some other glaze and made THE biggest mess. Took me thirty minutes to grind two shelves. Also getting ready for a December sale with Susan Wells and Laura Farrow, so I'm trying to think of what I want to have ready for that. So, yep, the multiple personality plan continues, theater, pottery and the Montessori residency coming up in November. Looks like I'll do anything to avoid corporate America, right? Oh yeah, I'm going over to Susan Filley's this week to look at her kiln for possible purchase. I get my grant check tomorrow night, yay!

Influences

I have been trying to process all of the things my brain absorbed at Arrowmont during the Clay Conference and thinking about the demos and the generous information all of the presenters shared. I think many of us walk that fine line of seeing something another artist has done and seeing how some element of that work could fit in our work, without just blatantly duplicating it. I thought it would be a fun exercise to take elements from some of the demos I liked and see what would happen. The first plate was made a la Kari Radasch's demo on hand building a plate, trimmed a la Michael Kline and slips were added a la Victoria Christen (on my new shimpo banding wheel!). This was really fun to make and I made several other pieces in the same vein including a hand built casserole and some square dishes. This is quite a departure from the shinos I love, but it was fun to try something new. We have been studying abstract expressionism in my class this week and I told my kids about doing this exercise yesterday. I told them about the artist Joaquin Torres Garcia and how he combined pre-columbian images with Mondrian's style in his work and how Jacob Lawrence borrowed the bright color style of Matisse, but their work was their own in the end. As Pete Pinnell said at the conference "It isn't copying, it's learning". Another great quote from Pete- "Change comes in times of turmoil." How appropriate for the times right now although he was talking about the change in art along the Silk Road many years ago. Have a good weekend everyone, I'm heading to Charlotte for Gerry's brother's third wedding. Ha! There's a story..................

Mud Cakes in Haiti

How is it that in the 21st century people are reduced to eating mud!? I cannot get my head around this. The thing that struck me so hard is that as I watched this on the news , they showed the women making these cakes and they were like little works of art. They took such time and care spreading out the mud and forming the cakes. They were really quite beautiful. Can you imagine this as your life? There will be no complaining from me today, I can tell you that much!n Cité Soleil, one of Port-au-Prince's worst slums, making the clay-based food is a major income earner. Mud cakes are the only inflation-proof food available to Haiti's poor. Photograph: David Levene