Frack this!!

I got an email yesterday from my friend Molly and then this post on my blog from blogger Scott, (thanks Scott!) this morning that I thought I would share with everyone. I encourage you to google Fracking and read about it, it's going on everywhere and no one is telling us about this. Also watch Gasland and another really good film Wasteland, these are brilliant documentaries. If the TV media and the newspapers don't have the balls to report this stuff for fear of lost ad revenue, at least there are documentary film makers out there. They are going to replace the journalism we have known in the past and they will be the ones telling us how fucked up we are.

I got up boiling about the Bank of America news that they want to charge $5 to everyone for using their debit cards, meanwhile the CEO was paid $10 MILLION DOLLARS in his first year with the company. If our bank, Wells Fargo, follows Bank of America, we will pay $15 a month to use our debit cards. That might not sound like a lot to someone being paid $10 million, but it's a lot to me. That's one less bag of clay I could afford, one less dinner out, one less case of beer(just kidding). Yesterday Gerry and I ranted all day about our ground water being potentially contaminated with the ominous possibility of oil companies moving in to our state, and now this. WHEN IS THIS SHIT GOING TO END PEOPLE!?!?!?!? Getting ripped off by every corporation in this country is bad enough, but if our ground water becomes contaminated we are FUCKED! It's time we all wake up and educate ourselves about what Dick Cheney and others like him are doing with their massive greed and egos and tell them we are not going to take this anymore. I need to know what we can do to stop this madness, my daughter is going to have to live on this planet a lot longer than I am, she needs clean drinking water!!!!! I feel so helpless, and I don't like this feeling AT ALL. This is so much bigger than my mind can even comprehend, but we are a powerful nation, surely if all of these small countries can rise up against their governments and fight for what is right, we could too.......

Hi Tracey
I like those textures, they make a really nice addition to your barns.
I was thinking of you the other night as i sat watching 'Gasland' by film maker Josh Fox, it made my blood boil. I would never have sat and watched it without your clip and fury at 'fracking'... it's madness!! and no one is aware of all this polluted groundwater and waste gases et etc etc. I was amazed at how widespread it was and the total lack of any real monitoring. Dick Cheyney again and that f'ing Halliburton. Jesus the damage that guy has been a part of. Had you seen the film, i can't remember? Thanks for opening my eyes to it though. See these blogs are amazing platforms to share all kinds of knowledge.

and this from my friend Molly who is making the film I posted about NC oil drilling:

YOU are amazing. Todd just showed me that we have 2006 hits on our latest clip, and they're all from your blog!!!! You are rocking our world, woman.

I called this morning, it's quick and easy, you can DO IT TOO!!!!! They are logging these calls!!!!!!! Ask Gov. Perdue to oppose drilling off our beaches Gov. Perdue recently told reporters she was "leaning towards offshore drilling,” but it’s not too late to get her to lean the other way. Call the Governor's office at (800) 662-7952 and tell whomever answers the phone that you live in North Carolina. Thank the Governor for vetoing Senate Bill 709, and ask her to keep up her support for clean energy and oppose drilling off our coast. Background: Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed the pro-drilling measure Senate Bill 709 in June. However, her offshore energy panel will wrap up soon, and she's told reporters she's "leaning towards offshore drilling." Oil companies want to drill off sensitive ecological areas off Cape Hatteras and off Wrightsville Beach. The coastal tourism and fishing industry generates $3 billion in revenue and 67,000 jobs in North Carolina each year-- four times the economic benefit oil and gas deposits could bring. There's more wind potential off North Carolina's coast than off any other state on the Atlantic.

Make a call to Governor (D-North Carolina) Beverly 'Bev' Perdue's Office Phone: (919) 733-5811 District Phone: Log a call to Governor (D-North Carolina) Beverly 'Bev' Perdue's Office

New textures

I'm trying something new with the barns and adding some textures. I really like the way this turned out.
I've got a lot done this week, made several barns, I have the kiln full and ready to fire. That was going to happen tomorrow, but my friend Susan has an opening tomorrow night that I want to go to and so the kiln will wait, nothing pressing. Most of what is in the kiln will be for the CDCG show.
I'm also making some new forms with little additions. I like this one a lot.

If you are around Chapel Hill Sunday, come on out to Festifall. I'll be there with lots of necklaces, a few barns and some of the pieces inspired by Maine this summer. The weather is promising to be very fall like and perfect. About time!

Friday is pricing and packing day, ick....

Do you ever feel this way? I do

“When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.” aa milne

also obsessed with stencils

My last experiment with stencils didn't go that well. I applied them wrong and they all burned off in the firing. So I went over to my pal Laura Farrow's for some tutoring because she has got this stencil thing going on. So, I'm trying it again on some small pieces I had lying around. Sorry for the sloppy photos, lazy napkin on the table by the window shot, but you get the idea. If all goes well, I'll put some proper images up next week.

I made this pendant for myself. When I was over at Laura's she gave me this milagro, a little praying man. I used to wear this bead on a strand of beads I got at Bonnaroo, but I like it much better like this. Sort of an Asian/Latin fusion thing going on.

It's 9am, coffee time is over, time to get to work. Terra sig on some barns today and rolling out slabs in hopes that they will be dry enough by Christmas to work with haha! We had MORE rain last night. Build that arc someone, I'm coming over!

I had weird dreams last night about large waves coming at me one after another in the ocean. Must be a metaphor for these shows I have coming up that I am NOT AT ALL ready for! TIme to get to work.....

beads obsessed

Hi everyone, thanks for all of the insightful facebook comments! I enjoyed reading everyone's opinions on the subject. Thought I should put up a few pics of some work, just to prove I do more than sit and blog all day :)

I have been obsessing with jewelry this past week. I've stacked enough beads to make about 50 necklaces, maybe more. This one above was made with some discarded earrings from Wesley's days of dragon love.
Most of them remind me of little japanese lanterns or cairns. I had to come inside and work for awhile, it's been so wet, I can't get anything to dry. While I wait for the slabs to firm up and wheel thrown things to dry for trimming, I am passing the time making necklaces.

These will be fairly inexpensive and they are a nice item to have for Festifall and for the studio tour. I'm not making all of the small things I made last year for the cheap asses, but these are fun and I can sell them cheaply enough to not piss me off. They probably won't make it into any galleries, but I like them. I have some really cool barns getting ready for the fire, pics of those next week!

Stubborn as a mule

My mom frequently said to me, "you are stubborn as a mule". And I was, still am. I have been thinking about Kyle Carpenter's recent post about time management and working as opposed to blogging and Facebook time. I have noticed that quite a few blogs that I used to read have all but disappeared. I love reading blogs. Almost every time I read a blog, I learn something, or I get inspired or I just get a nice smile that I might not have had otherwise that day. Since there are fewer pottery blogs to read, I have found myself looking to other places and have found some really great blogs out there beyond potteryville. Not everyone is giving them up. That brings me to Facebook. Most of you know my feelings on this subject. Not a fan. After reading Kyle's post, I thought I would give it another go, so I went to several people's pages and tried to read them. BORING........... visually boring, the content is short blurbs, no serious thought put into the postings and everyone likes everything. It's pretty much a commentary on our society right now. And it's a sad one as far as I'm concerned. It's also sad that people are choosing to facebook as opposed to blogging. Blogs can be so creative, so thought provoking, so visual and interesting. I have not found one facebook page yet that I could stay on for more than a minute before I was bored with it. And yet, you cannot turn on the radio or TV or go on the computer without it being slammed in your face (there might be a pun there!)

I'm like this, always have been: if everyone is jumping on a wagon because everyone else is doing it, I am the one walking behind the wagon and then finding another road to walk on. It might be the wrong road, and if I got on that wagon, I might have some fun, but it's almost like I do it for spite, just because everyone is doing it, I am hellbound that I won't do it. That's sort of where I am with this facebook thing. If I did see that maybe it would be a good thing to do, it's highly likely that I wouldn't do it, just because everyone else was. Makes my life more complicated some days, but I hear a different drummer, so I deal with it. I do know that I won't be doing Facebook. I see people get so sucked into it, almost obsessed. I sat at an ACC ballgame one day on the floor with the photographers and I watched one photographer pull out his iphone every time there was a break in the action so he could check his facebook or tweet a comment. Recently the AP polled the photographers about who tweets and facebooks. Guess what, their best photographers, the ones that are doing the work, do neither one.

My blog is like a personal journal for me and I would probably do it even if no one read it. I used to keep scrapbooks, then wrote in journals, so this is my 21st century way to do that. It takes very little time, I get up in the morning, have coffee, eat, read blogs (I used to do this with the newspaper until their content got so weak I couldn't stand it any more, and they wonder why they are going out of business). I check back in after dinner, again that time used to be watching some really great show on TV, nothing there anymore either. What has happened to all of us? Where is the thoughtful and meaningful content that we used to have? Why is everything so shallow now? To find really interesting content, I read blogs and I rent documentaries and independent films. This country is dumbing down and I am not so happy about that. I hope someone figures that out and gets us back on track!!!!

One last thing, have you seen Wasetland? Great movie! Really makes you think about what you are throwing away. There is another subject. This planet is one fucked up mess! But I'll save that one for another day, I have roofs to put on to little buildings, important work for sure :)

peace ya'll

Old Salem instead

We went to UNCSA in Winston Salem this weekend for what we thought was a well planed family day at the school. Wesley seemed clueless about the day's events, which was not too surprising, but when we got there, it was pretty much deserted. We did not see one family, it was cloudy and rainy, and there didn't seem to be anything going on. Their website said there would be activities, but Wes wanted to get off campus and so we missed whatever was going on and opted for Thai food in town and a visit to our favorite place there, Old Salem. This is pretty common for us, we tend to take the road less traveled and find our own interesting things to do. As I have mentioned in previous posts, we have been to Old Salem many times, but I love this place. So much character, such a wonderful place to slow down and just walk around and remember a more refined period of time. A time without Facebook! Imagine that! How did they survive?!? It's great that Wesley has this place almost across the street from her school. There are lots of places where she can go and sit and write, and just be quiet for a bit, away from school.
We went into the bakery and watched as they pulled bread out of the wood ovens. The smells! Fresh bread baking, is there a better aroma!

and these cakes, yum!
a little ice cream for dessert
It was interesting to see the architecture, because the play that I am propping right now takes place in London during the 1600's and the architecture was very similar.

We had a great day, a nice ending to my birthday weekend. One of the best things was seeing Wesley's first film shorts that she has made in her first 30 days of film school. They were really well done, visual, great music, funny, interesting. I think she has a bright future as a film maker. Right now she is thinking that her concentration studies will be screen writing and cinematography. Can't wait to see where this goes. She is off to a good start so far!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful rainy weekend. Is it wet enough for all of you?! I know I have had enough, clay is not drying in this wet stuff. I am planning a full week in the studio, nothing is on my calendar but a production meeting Monday morning, so I hope to get a LOT done for the shows coming up! Happy week to all.

Lovely day

Thanks to my family for making my birthday a very lovely day! Wesley called me before I even got out of bed this morning and sang happy birthday to me, my mom called yesterday, Gerry's brother called me today, card from my mother and father in law and Gerry took me shopping, gallery browsing, and we had a great lunch at Akai Hana in Carrboro. As usual he is shooting an assignment on my birthday, tonight it's hockey. But we had a really nice day together. I came home and worked in my studio this afternoon. It was pouring rain, and everything was going just right, one of those days. I have been obsessed with some jewelry pieces lately, the other day I worked for 12 straight hours putting pieces together. I have also had lots of meetings, lots of prop shopping and prop building, and I need to make about 30 more houses (oh God, really?) It's all coming along, they are getting better and better. I found some treasures with my pal Laura last week that I have added to some of the houses, sooo excited! When I catch my breath, I'll get some photos up, they have to make it through the kiln first though......

So, here goes my 51st year of life, how exciting, I feel 12 :) and I see my beautiful daughter tomorrow, the BEST present ever!!!!! I 'll be away from blogging for a few days, have a great weekend everyone, I know I will!

Basquiat

I don't know how I missed the movie Basquiat, except for the fact that it came out in 1996 and I had a three year old, my life in the 90's is sort of a blur. I seem to remember Wesley mentioning it to me a couple of years ago, but anyway, better late than never, this is my new favorite movie. If you are like me and living under a rock, crawl out and rent this movie, it's fantastic!!!! The soundtrack is also fantastic, one of the best scenes in the movie was with this song playing, enjoy. Off to roll some slabs and then to a production meeting. Happy Tuesday

I love living in the south!

Only in the south can you drive down a gravel road on a rainy Saturday afternoon on your way to a friend's house and see a fresh grave in the front yard of her neighbor. God bless the woman that was buried here. These are the things I see that make my life so full and these are the images Wesley lives for. I had to shoot this picture so I could email it to her. It's like a scrapbook image for a film student, isn't it?

In a perfect world

Here is my much younger daughter backstage talking to Hal Holbrook after seeing him perform in Mark Twain in Charlotte a few years ago. Who would have thought that in just seven short years she would be in film school?! She brought her own pen for him to sign an autograph so she could say later that Hal Holbrook had used it. He nearly refused because he only used his own pens to avoid germs, but she insisted, I nearly fell through the floor, but he was very kind and used her pen. There it is in his hand. He was so great. A bunch of students were there for the show, and I swear, I think I remember it being UNCSA theater students. Anyway, he stood around forever answering their questions and giving them wonderful career advise. I designed the set for this show, and got all the really weird things that he requested. This was one of those shows where he sent a list of demands, like the temperature of his room, special juice, special dressing room lights, a lot of phoney baloney stuff, but it was a fun show to do and he was a very kind person. One of the great things about working for the theater was all the shows I got to take Wesley to. I picked her up from school and brought her with me to the theater, set her up in the green room so she could do homework and then she would come out into the theater and watch us tech the show. Many times the director would pull her for a random part and the actors always loved her. I miss these days so much. Miss having her with me, miss the theater, miss all those nights sitting in rehearsals. I also love my new studio, love the pottery I am making and I'm very excited to be in the shows I am in this fall.

So, in a perfect world, I do both. How to do that? So far, it's working out. I pulled props today at Playmakers for One Flea Spare, and I am working with an incredible cast and crew. Such nice and happy people. That's what floats my boat right now. Working and being around happy and talented people. Why is it necessary to be grumpy and mean when it's so much more relaxing to have a laugh every day?! In a perfect world, we all get to be that way. Some days, I feel guilty for being so blessed, but damn it, I made my life this way with the choices I made. I know some folks don't have a choice and there are some very sad stories out there, but maybe those of us that have been so blessed can do a little each day to make someone else's world shine for a brief moment. Just pass on a kind word to someone or make someone laugh. If you are sitting there thinking I'm naive, I'm not really, I just always have a glass half full, the eternal optimist. Drives my husband crazy I know :)

NC Legislators: It's not dead yet

I sent out emails yesterday to our state legislators and what do you know, they reply to emails! Here are a few replies I got. Sadly the bill for drilling is not as dead as I thought it was. I still find it interesting when I blog about some nonsense going on in my life I get many comments, when I post about something truly important I get 1. What up with that ya'll ?!?!? Is everybody sticking their head in the sand, that by the way is going to have oil all over it one of these days!

here are some of the representatives I think I like....... I'm not going to pick on the one I don't think I like....

I don’t’ know if it is fair to say the House has dropped S 709. The House didn’t take up the veto override at its September session, but I’m expecting that it will be taken up when we come back in November.Rep. Chuck McGrady

Thanks for writing. It’s always nice to get an upbeat email. The bill is still alive. They will try again in May.

Representative Verla Insko

House District 56, Orange County

It could come up in another session, but let’s hope not.

Maggie Jeffus

It has for the moment but we're back in session on November 7 and it could be brought up then. Let's hope not.

Best wishes,

Ray

Drill Baby Drill bill

PLEASE watch this video, it's important!!!!!!!

A Warning To North Carolina (regarding the realities of fracking & offshore drilling). from Tinkham Town on Vimeo.

What a day. I started my morning watching this video my friend Molly Matlock sent me, my blood boiled, and I sent an email to the representatives in the NC House. I got one reply, and my blood boiled a little more. Let me share the one response I got:

tired of paying almost $4:00 for a gallon of gas when huge supplies lay waiting to be tapped right here in America. This would also create tens of thousands of jobs.

I'll withhold the name of the representative, I'm not going to get into a pissing match with these folks, because:

later today I got this email from Molly:

The NC House has suddenly restored my faith in humanity and our democratic process (some of it anyhow). They've killed the "Drill, Baby, Drill" bill.

Thank you you so much for the letters you wrote, the emails you sent, & the phone calls you made. Someone listened.

If you haven't seen our latest clip from our "Dispersed" footage , visit http://vimeo.com/28973949. As Jane Preyer for the Environmental Defense Fund notes, "this issue is likely to come up again;" however, we have bought time to learn more and educate others.

The email goes on, but folks in North Carolina, if you like your coast and you vacation there, you better wake up and write those emails to your representatives, we DO NOT want drilling on our coast or any other coast for that matter. There has got to be better alternatives to our dependence on oil. We are a smart nation, let's figure it out!!!!!!

Little Alters

I am soooooo loving these pieces!!!!!! What a pleasant way to start my day. Gerry had a pot of espresso on the stove, he left early to go photograph Obama today in Raleigh, so I fixed myself a latte and headed down to see what exploded in the kiln, because there is always something that has exploded in the kiln. Sure enough I lost two small barns, but I think I can get them back together and re fire them. Their little bottoms fell off and one side blew out. Pretty much the usual. But these two pieces are wonderful.

Here is the moose hair from Denali that Alaska blogger Cindy Shake sent me. The red is reflecting from the roof, it's not really that color.
These are the first real pitchers I have ever made, I sort of like them, but of course there is the functional glaze hell that I must go through if indeed they are to be functional. However.... you could just put some pretty dried hydrangeas in them..... right now they are waiting on me to decide. They have just had one firing with no glaze or terra sig inside. I like the little squares on the front, I'm thinking these "windows" will be added to my barn pieces, instead of cutting out real windows. Sort of lighthouse looking aren't they?
Another bucket on a block of driftwood I found in Maine. These buckets are rocking my world right now.
and some little Maine cottages on a palette. They were going to be mounted on a piece of driftwood, but they look crooked, we'll see, I haven't decided yet.

So, happy day. Hope I didn't insult anyone with my rant about small stuff. Obviously, from these tiny cottages, I like small stuff. It's just the sitting in the studio, mindlessly making crap, that I have got to put an end to. I'm telling you, I have bowls full of things I have fired for no good reason. Time to put effort into these alters and barns, they deserve my attention!

Time is relative

I have noticed that my perception of time seems to be changing or something. I'm working on a grant application and as usual dug out my resume to dust it off and update it. I have on my resume lists of shows and exhibitions that I have participated in. Can it be that I have only been doing this show thing since 2009? That's what my resume says.... it sure feels longer than that to me. Of course I look at the shows that I was doing 2 years ago, and the shows I have coming up for fall, and they are like night and day. Two years ago, I was getting ready for the Historic Stagville holiday show. This show was a complete rain event in December, and I was placed in the tiny tiny visitors center with none other than our national treasure around these parts, Sid Luck! I threw my very first lump of clay with Sid's guidance. Sid came dressed for the part in overalls and brought his wheel, and needless to say, he sold many more pieces of pottery than I did. I had a great time, he sold a bunch of pots. Lesson learned, I don't do those shows any more. I feel like I have really come a long way in a short time. That was two years ago, and this year I am preparing for the Chatham Artists Guild studio tour and the Carolina Designer Craftsmen show (my first bonafide indoor art event, yay).

It's odd, when you are moving forward, doing your thing, time seems to move more slowly than when you look back and realize how much has happened in such a short period of time. Like, did I really just build a studio in March of this year? Did my daughter really just go away to school only 4 weeks ago(I feel like she has been gone a year).

I also got out my hard drive with photos from the past few years, and boy has my work changed! I am proud to say that it is definitely moving forward and getting stronger and I see a journey when I look at these pictures. A journey of finding my way with clay. Trials and errors with glazes, clay bodies, wood firing, raku, earthenware, cone 10, cone 6, I've tried it all.

I think that I have found my happy place at ^04 with terra sigilata and non functional pottery.

My goal is to quit dicking around with all of the little shit I get myself caught up with. You know those times when you are in your studio and you are really not with it, so you squish some clay around and maybe press it in a mold you have and something comes out and you think, oh that's cute, then you fire it, glaze it and it ends up on your table in the sale basket for $1? Well, that is coming to a screeching halt. I have had too many of those items in a basket, and it's time to move on with better and more refined pieces. The little crap is a time suck!

I have noticed that when I am focused and I sit and work on one piece and do everything as well as my skills will allow me, the piece is great, I can get a good price for it, and the time it takes is the same time that the little shit sucked from me. Here is my monitor for what is good. I look at my shelf full of stuff and decide what pieces I want to take down to photograph for an application that might be coming up. I guaran-damn-tee you that I am NOT pulling down those little mindless items I made, so why am I making them!?!?! I know why, because I make them for the cheap ass people that won't spend $10 on anything except a turkey leg and a lemonade. I had my fill of those corndoggers (I love Cindy Shake's term here!) this past Spring and I made very little for all the time it took me to think about those people and they still didn't buy. I do like making ornaments and sometimes, I like making pendants, and I get a fair price for them considering my time, but that's about it. Time to change direction, I feel it coming........

I've started with my blog design, a little freshening up for fall. Peace ya'll

PS: Since I wrote this my google news page tells me that the U.S. household income has dropped to the lowest point since 1996, so what's the point in making ANYTHING, who is going to have any money to buy it?!?!?!?! The poor corndoggers can't even feed their families!!!! Can we please get a good business mind to run this f'ing country, please!???!?!

New color

Gerry and I have spent the day painting my studio a new color. I picked out the gray that I first put on it when there were no leaves on the trees and everything was brown. When the leaves came out, the gray took on a purple cast that I really didn't like, so we just painted the studio to match our house. Now everything looks cohesive and actually the building looks larger with this color. Now I just need a little landscaping and some insulation for winter. That's next...
I also hung my sign from Cindy Shake on the building and it's all nice and rusty and looks perfect hanging above the door. Firing my kiln tomorrow, maybe I'll get some photos up by the weekend....

Where were you......

on 9/11

If I should die and leave you here a while,
be not like others sore undone,
who keep long vigil by the silent dust.
For my sake turn again to life and smile,
nerving thy heart and trembling hand
to do something to comfort other hearts than thine.
Complete these dear unfinished tasks of mine
and I perchance may therein comfort you.

Mary Lee Hall

peace to all of you who are missing their loved ones today

Wrong eyed Jesus and thoughts of religion in the South

If you live in the South you probably know all about the Bible Belt, the Southern Baptists, and the fact that there is a church every where you turn. I think there must be more churches in the South than in any other place. Gerry's dad is a Baptist preacher so I know all about the Homecomings too, those amazing Sundays when they call back a preacher that has moved on to preach, they have "special music" and they put out a spread of food like you just can't believe. Going to church in the south is a crazy thing. My head is usually about to explode by the end of the service since I disagree with much of what gets preached about, always have always will. Don't get me wrong, I have my own personal beliefs about what God is to me, he just isn't what the Baptists say he is! You may remember a post I did on the movie Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus. If you haven't seen this movie I highly recommend it!!! It is such a great movie. My friend Melissa Swingle plays the saw in it and has a small part. Strangely enough, I'm not the only one with southern religion on my mind. When Wes was home this weekend we talked about how much religion has influenced her life, going to church with her grandpa and hearing my mom talk about God incessantly. I look for this to work it's way into her writing someday, what do you want to bet?! You can't be a southern girl and the granddaughter of a Baptist preacher and not have it's culture seep into your pores somehow.
Anyway, my rambling here has a point. I have had images of churches in my head and I have added steeples and crosses to some of the barns I have made in the past, but all of a sudden I have been thinking about those vestibules that churches have. I like that word and I like the vestibule itself. It's where you get the little church bulletin from the sweet ladies in the church as you go in, and it's where you wait in line to shake the preacher's hand when you leave. The preacher always makes each person feel special and welcome and I like this custom. Gerry and I have been taking some rides out in the country lately (jeez that sounds like we have turned into two old farts doesn't it?) and I have been looking at these churches. The other day I saw one with a very distinct vestibule, very small, so I added one to this barn I made and I really like where this is going. It gives the barn a little sacred space, an alter if you will, a niche for treasures, whatever you want. I found the Madonna pendant at a local thrift store, I am not sure I will add it yet, because I really like it, but I do think it would be very cool with this piece.
My poor Michael Sherrill rib was sacrificed today. I needed a skinny rib to get in and smooth around the outer structure so I cut this one up. Dang, these things are hard to cut! I had cut up a hotel key but it just wasn't the same. Michael Sherrill is a genius!

Hello there.......

“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring; renenwed shall be blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king.” Tolkien

I've been wandering around out in Chatham County and found my dream house. Ten acres and a 2000 sq ft house for $199,000. I would move in this place tomorrow if I didn't have a house already. It's a little too far a drive for Gerry right now, but someday I will have a place like this......
What a view, I think this house is on the highest point in Chatham County.

I've been making barns and buckets and a few other things. Spending time with my friends, watching movies with Gerry, cooking some pretty good meals, and this weekend got to spend a few days with my insanely beautiful daughter. Yesterday I considered building an Arc we got so much rain, but it was a good day to be lazy. Gerry had the first day off since the week before Hurricane Irene so we watched movies, ate, and watched more movies. I think we might have even had a nap in there somewhere too. I'm finding my way without my girl, miss her terribly, but I'm finding plenty to keep me busy. I'm excited about being back at the theatre and I like what's in my kiln right now, so all is well with the world here at the Broome house. It was such a beautiful day here, the temperature was perfect. My pal Barbara came over and showed us some photos of rural Georgia she took for a book she wrote on Flannery O'Connor years ago, and they were great. What a talented woman she is, such an inspiration. I hope I am still as strong as she is when I'm in my seventies. She sets the bar pretty high! I'll try to get some pottery photos up soon, just kinda busy right now.....

Here I go again

A friend of mine has asked me to be the props designer for the play One Flea Spare. I read the script this weekend and I loved it and it is soooo hard to say no to working in the theater. Some days I miss my old job in Charlotte so much and need a little theater fix from time to time. So I said yes, Gerry thinks I'm crazy, there is very little pay, but I was a designer for a very long time, and some days I regret giving all of that up. I love my studio and my pottery and I like where it's going, but design work is always calling to me. Now that Wesley is in college I do have more time, so maybe I can do both. It probably is nuts to do this since I have four shows coming up in the next three months, but the prop list is short, I will be at the theater mostly at night, and I don't have to be here for Wes anymore. So why not?! Plus, I will be working with some really great people and it should be fun. So, things may get interesting, we'll see.....

I live with strange people...

Gerry shot this video of Wesley one morning in Maine. I guess she had just woke up, she was in la la land, so was Gerry, haha! She is coming home tomorrow so I'll be back after Labor Day. Happy holiday weekend everyone!

My friend Corky

I went to Greensboro this week to visit my friend Corky. I have known Corky since college. He was in the photo program with Gerry and they were roommates. The three of us hung out all the time and he is still a close friend. We have had some crazy crazy times together. He has a really cool studio in Greensboro and has a business called Digital Design. He also has a great shed behind his house with a huge flat screen TV and I got to witness the game Grand Theft Auto for the first time. We never had this game because I didn't think it was appropriate material for Wesley and I still think it is a pretty foul thing for our society to offer to young people. No wonder there is so much road rage and aggressive driving, our kids are learning it right at home on their gaming systems. That said, it was a pretty fascinating thing to watch and I am curious why we as humans have this thing for violence and killing. I can't for the life of me understand why any parent would let their kid play this game. I guess it's ok for adults who can understand the difference and make informed decisions, but kids can't do that. I have to say, it was fun to watch though.....
Corky is also a master with Photoshop. He is creating these graphics and manipulating the colors and his printer puts out the most saturated images I have ever seen. They are really great, my photos here don't really show them that well, but they are so vivid. He just needs an outlet for them because he has a ton of them printed. Galleries around town say they don't take prints, so he is trying to find a home for these. Any suggestions out there?
I decided yesterday to do a Raku firing. The weather was great and I was getting backed up with bisque ware. It was a pretty good firing, lost a few and the turquoise glaze that I loved so much last year is now a thing of the past. I am tired of it's fussy ass, it's 50/50 whether it will turn out nice or not and I can't take a chance with so many shows. So I have decided to stick with white raku right now. Safe and pretty and reliable! I'll get some photos up sometime soon. Wesley is coming home tomorrow, YAY!!!!!