i spent one of these snow days finally putting my planner together.
handmade planner.
what i learned from iman.
what do i love more than project runway? project runway canada.
i would love to have iman come into my studio and give me a critique. she doesn’t care if you’ve never sewn a suit before, she doesn’t care what your client wanted. you’ve got to step up and deliver or get going.
here’s what i learned from project runway canada:
1. you succeed or don’t. don’t be a baby.
2. be a gracious winner. be a gracious loser.
3. stay focused.
4. be flexible, but don’t lose your aesthetic voice.
5. manage your time well.
talking about working
well, the big challenge of my new studio life is all this talking. for me, talking, speculation, thinking out loud, comes naturally. but i usually just try to keep my mouth shut when it comes to my work. on the one hand, i’m not so confident talking about my work. on the other, i do think there is a bit of fantasy in my work and i don’t want to give people words to hinge their interpretation on.
it’s about nature, and the nature of things. ehhhhhh, blehh.
maybe this is something i should continue writing about. we’ll see. anyway, here are some shots red sent me of the shot glasses i made for the anagama firing before leaving florida. hopefully soon i’ll get to post shots of all the lovely shot glasses i receive!
thanks red, for the sweet shots!
snow day in the city.
got a call at 6 am. no public transit so no work today. snow day! first one ever. i casually moved up to the delaware valley just in time to experience philadelphia’s 2nd most snowfall ever. yay!
it was scheduled to start snowing by 4 pm yesterday. by the time i got off work, still no snow. when i got downtown for the first friday gallery walk i caught a few flakes coming out of the sky. by the time i was heading home there were a couple of inches on the ground and it was still coming down. yikes. it snowed all night and this morning.
great day.
it’s really weird not living 8 blocks from the studio. i start my job (reproductive health clinic) tomorrow and my schedule is going to be something like thurs-sat. so once i finished up some wall pieces and the sculpture i posted a pic of yesterday, i realized there wasn’t much point in starting anything else. once i get accustomed to these train schedules (and it’s not so death-by-hypothermia cold) i might be able to swing nightly visits to the studio but for the time being i think my best bet might be to work on pieces start-to-finish sunday through wednesday.
today i went with new friend m.d. to visit a very well known local sculptor. i’ll be working with her a few days in the next months prepping/installing work before and after NCECA. her studio was beautiful. seeing her work in person (in the gallery) and in different stages of completion (in the studio) was breathtaking. her husband is also a well established sculptor and it was really inspiring to meet them both. they were super friendly and chatty and asked lots of questions, which of course i kind of geeked out while answering. (i.e. way too long description of the japanese alphabets…….) when i really would have like to hear more about them and their journey to where they are now. hmmmm, well moving forward, i hope to get a little more insight.
getting shit done.
it’s true, getting adjusted to a new space kind of sucks. you don’t know where anything is, perhaps like me you didn’t get to bring all your favorite blue plastic and chunks of old foam mattresses. anyway, the point is i feel all awkward in a studio at the beginning. oh, and the clay situation is different (as it turns out better) BUT then i finally just dig in and make something. something that i’m excited about and then i remember why i’m there.
i mean, nothing beats that feeling of satisfaction. i don’t know if it’s just having brought to fruition this image from inside of you or the point when you start to get totally warmed up and loose and the clay and your hands kind of start to do their own thing but it’s good stuff.
anyway, here’s a pic from my phone. i’ll post some later today when it’s finished.
ice cold.
adjusting to northern temperatures. and being a sort-of student.
got warmed up making some small wall pieces.
during our studio meeting g.m. decided it would be fun to cut them up and stick them together. it was kind of bizarre to see someone esle making stuff out of my work.
cell division.
northern studio, check out the boots on the bottom and the pile of winter clothes up top.
new home
i may have a snuggee for a curtain at the moment but i’m pretty much totally unpacked and moved into my sweet west philly apartment. bg, my new roommate met me at the train station and we squeezed all of my possessions into her spacious hatchback.
this is what i was working with. sweet windows and nice floors.
everything is unpacked but some stuff still needs a place. and i definitely need some sweet curtains for these tall windows. in the meantime a few glimpses of my space…
shadow boxes with work and tchotchkes from all over.
bowl and saucer by sarah tancred, octopus rattle by kelly sullivan
mini wall piece by jamie bardsley
wall button by kelly sullivan
another wall button and one of my first art purchases, plate by lisa orr
boneyard.
when i move i purge. but it’s hard for me to let go of work sometimes, even if it’s suffered some damage and can’t be shown again or sold. sometimes pieces are transitional work which will lead to something else, and sometimes, it’s JUST too soon. these works go to the boneyard of art which is my parents beautiful overgrown gardens. they both love to garden and grow fruits and vegetables and succulents. here are some snaps of work i left behind before heading up here to PHILADELPHIA!
anagama shift.
my last night at the clay company was spent doing the 8-midnight shift with j. at midnight matt said we might have as little as 45 minutes left so i decided to stay until the end. approximately 5 hours later we shut the anagama down. it made for a pretty delirious day at work, but it was worth it! here are a couple of pics i snapped between side stokes.
"i'm hot to burn this sonovabitch" (paulina, what up!)
rearranging.
super hot and bright.
basically freezing except when stoking.
i found it really amazing to watch matt and don work. they seemed to know what was happening inside the kiln at every moment. or they would open up a peep hole and glean a ton of information. when i fire the little soda, i’m never FULLY confident that i know what is happening. in the anagama with multiple stoke points and all kinds of dynamics going on inside i was totally blown away by their extreme knowledge, confidence and control. amazing!
