Next

She presses onward!

I know the glazing is beginning because the under-glazing is in full swing.

Symbols and markings

      Much of the functional work I've been doing started out as a derivative of the sculptural textures and shapes I indulged in. Natural stepping off point, I suppose. Incorporate the textures and ideas I have sculpturally into my functional work. The main thrust of my fine art focuses around seeds, pods, fundamentals of nature and the like. Often it references back to sexuality, femininity and maturity. However, the functional equivalents of those ideas are more tricky to pull off. As a diversion, a quickie, "Make-A-Mug" project, I took a break from the "form/concept" translation to my pottery by relaxing and doing some simple cave art carvings of horses on my mugs and cups. I've been drawing horses since I was a kid and I liked the primitive look they had on the pottery.

Directional

      Bingo! They found interested eyes and curious fingers and hands, people who wanted them! So I've thought more, since then about the primitive aspect of the drawings. I've explored what I'm thinking about and the important elements of my work, sculptural and functional. The repeated themes are origins, evolution, changes and time. As I think about these things, my drawings are becoming more diverse and abstract elements are appearing. I'm researching primitive cave art, pottery markings, pre-historic cultures and recent cultures and symbols.

Pin tool scratchings...

Time line events

      I'm drawn to small threaded markings and the timeline. The thing I find fascinating about change as we experience it, is that we experience it often when we reflect, compare and contrast moments, not as it is actually happening. We tend not to live in the moment and in fact, as we become aware of each moment, it passes into the past. To a degree, we need that ability to look back in order to "see" change.

Chunky!

     The cave art and primitive markings definitely appeal to me and I've been making a bunch of stamps recently with each bisque firing.

Underglaze City.

      Fortunately, I'm confident my addiction to bisque work is waning since I've begun under-glazing my stampings and markings. Kinda like putting underwear on first, I put the underglaze on first :)

Diskus

Pod-eqsue

Enlighten: Catherine Wright

Supporting all arts...
     Being in the arts is a passion-motivated calling that can be fraught with many moments of self-doubt. Too often, in my humble opinion, the arts, collectively, are dismissed as somehow being frivolous, unsustainable, secondary. And yet, throughout human history, while we were evolving, surviving and thriving, we have always sought to express ourselves. It's what we do as a species. Some of us do it more thoroughly than others but even if you cannot sing a note, draw a stick figure, play a guitar, you can appreciate those who do, particularly those who do it well.
     We all are creative beings from the get-go. Somewhere along the line, for many of us, fear and insecurity creeps in and we declare, "I'm not creative" and abandon our passion. Some, like myself, never quite put it away but never gave it the respect it deserved in our lives until we were much older and abandoned our old fears and insecurities. We who participate in the arts, whether writing, acting, singing, dancing, creating visual art in two or three dimensions, you name it, must push ourselves not only in our area of creativity but also push our name out there. We must market ourselves. We must do it constantly. It can seem uncomfortable and icky but we press on. So, when I come across someone who is young and amazingly talented and just beginning and hasn't succumbed to the obstacles of doubt and dismissal that society throws in our way, I am more than happy to say, "Come look at this! Come listen to this!"
     And so I am happy to send you to these pages of Miss Catherine Wright, a talented operatic-trained singer from Lexington, Kentucky. She is just eighteen-years-old and promises to have a wonderful career in front of her. She is currently studying at University of Kentucky, majoring in Vocal Performance. She has a YouTube channel and a Facebook fan page. Take a moment to listen below and "like" her fan page if you think, like I do, that she's got one hell of a voice.

Piles of bisque

     I'm in a mode of making and bisqueing for future firings. After I make enough to crowd me out of my workspace, I will being glazing and firing. I have decided this and it is so. It is so because I realized that  I have accumulated piles of bisqued items in boxes everywhere. I have become obsessed with wet clay. I need to break my addiction. I have a new digital scale. I must begin testing new glazes. I must begin glazing, firing and the like. I must not get stuck just throwing and bisqueing. That's for clay pussies. I need FIRE.
     I need a clay psychologist.

This picture does not include the four plastic containers of previously bisqued items. Hrm. 

Jewelry? Perhaps...

I see Christmas ornaments...

Delivered bisqued bowls to Kentucky Mudworks today to be glazed for an upcoming Empty Bowls at Bourbon n' Toulouse in Lexington, Ky., on Sept. 22. If you're in the area, save that date!

And don't forget the lovely MudColony people...

Temporary Chaos

Sunflower. Fibonacci sequencing. Awesome patterning. Math, science, art are related.

     When it rains it pours. Something happened in the middle of this year that caused my rhythm to explode and suddenly, I'm the headless chicken. Boom and bust. We've gone from warm in March to cool in May to horrendous heat and drought in June to Suddenly, rain! in July and August with the latter part of August being dry again and rather comfortable. Unusual for August. My Mammoth sunflowers exploded with huge heads! One has reached 11 feet tall.

KY7 Biennial, Lexington Art League, Loudon House.

Uncomfortable Surprise

     I went with fellow artist, Lyndsey Fryman, to check out the KY7 Biennial at Loudon House a few weeks ago. My piece, Uncomfortable Surprise, is included in this interesting, eclectic collection. The exhibit runs until September 9th in Lexington, KY.

Bowls and soap dishes

     Lots of throwing to bulk up on inventory for future firings. In between the items for myself, I've been throwing some Raven Black Clay for Empty Bowls in Lexington, KY at Bourbon n' Toulouse on Sept. 22. The bag of Raven Black I received must have been a bit dry since it was hard and a bitch to center. Very groggy but made for some nice sturdy bowls. I think I'd stick to hand-building with this clay, though. Dried quickly, too. I'm assuming it's heavy on the iron and manganese. It leaves my water chocolatey brown so I always have to have a snack of chocolate after throwing. With tea.

On Etsy: Wood-fired Carved Stoneware with Turquoise Eye, $70

Fine Tea. Highly Recommended.

    Here's a suggestion for tea. One of my teapots and some Harney & Sons tea. I love a blend called Chocolate Mint. I'm generally not big on flavored teas but these guys hit the right ratio of flavor to tea. Awesome brew.

This new doorway only took all day to cut through heart pine and oak panels!

A pineapple for 29 cents??? (Pineapples have fibonacci sequencing, too, you know.)

      At home, we have undertaken some renovations in a front room that has sat relatively unusable for the last decade, for us, at least. Too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter. It's been reframed, doors taken out, doors put in, new windows, you name it. Our friend, Nate Miller, did the work and he is fantastic. Not enough that he's great at remodeling, he happens to be a terrific botanical photographer. Here is his site to purchase his images: http://www.cafepress.com/natemillernaturephotography

Murray, Super Cat.

     In the midst of all the renovations, my sweet, eighteen-year-old cat, Murray, took a turn for the worse and died. He was my transitional cat. I got him when I was living in Manhattan, still married to my first husband. He came with me through the divorce, the move to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to Greenpoint, Brooklyn and then the Westward push to Estill County, Kentucky. Through it all, he was a trooper and talked to me the whole time. He would wander the hills of my property, howling to hear himself echo. When I would take a walk, he would howl after me, so I would answer and he would come running at the sound of my voice. My friend, relatives and I referred to him as The Cat With Eyebrows since he seemed to have that same capacity for eyebrow expression that dogs do, but in a cat way. He was often concerned for me, sniffing and raising his head, peering down his nose, particularly when I was taking a bath or shower, as if to say, "You realize you're in all that water? You sure you want to do that?" He touched my heart more than I realized. He will be missed.

mudcolony.blogspot.com

     And finally, I joined the parade of clay people-types at Mud Colony. They have this nifty blog and Facebook page. If you're into clay or pottery, as a maker or collector, this blog contains some great spotlights on artists as well as links to other ceramic artists and potters from around the globe. Check them out!

It's a jungle out there

Lovely husband hanging my new sign for the road.

     One of the harder things to do when you work for yourself alone (for me, anyway), is maintaing discipline of a work schedule and routine. It's not that I don't love what I do but because I work at my place of living and alone and for myself, it's very easy to get "off track" and get distracted. Not only do others believe that I can just stop working to accommodate their desires, I can easily con myself of the same thing and end up getting way behind on goals and projects with personal errands and other things that can wait until I finish working. I think working in the field of graphic design in New York City for years helps me keep things moving forward. Design is very "deadline" oriented. If I set a deadline for a project, that's step one. Step two is practicing the self-discipline to follow through – that's the much, much harder part.

     Right now the discipline is about maintaining a Wednesday through Saturday, 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM schedule in the studio and be ready to deal with any visitors. I don't expect any visitors for a while but first I have to get into a new habit. In my mind, once I hung this sign, I was committed to this schedule. Assuming this goes well, I'll continue this next year for the Spring/Summer season of April through September. Of course, being the semi-solitary person I am, when it's not my work schedule, I reserve the right to be my rude and cranky self. There will be exception weekends when I have events and firings to attend but I will announce that here and on my Facebook page.

Some abstract carvings

     New wood-fired work is on Etsy and at Damselfly Gallery in Midway, KY. Most of the horse items are at Midway. Above are some larger vase forms with cave art and abstract carvings for either electric firing or future wood-firings.

Cave art carvings on larger vases in bisque.

Mammoth!

     Western Kentucky is still in a drought. Where I am, however, has gotten buckets of rain since Mid-July. Suddenly, my stumpy Mammoth sunflower plants have lived up to their name and shot up over the last several weeks. My volunteer gourds below them have also exploded. I'm 5'5" so you be the judge of how big this one is. The heads of these guys are heavy with seeds. Birds will be well fed this winter.

Bursting with seeds!

     I have, however, abandoned my garden to the weeds. Occasionally I go in and find some beans and check to see that the onions are still growing. Even some banana peppers get picked. My frustration with how well things grow here, particularly weedy, viney things means I hope to build a more permanent garden of the raised bed variety to maintain some order out there.

Irvine, Kentucky

     Lastly, kudos to the Olympic participants and the Mars Curiosity rover team. Wow! on both counts.

Beach Rocks and Cave Art

     Inspiration comes from many places. A quick update of goings on and then some images of what gets me going...

     Just came back from a family get-together in Michigan City, Indiana. We had a great time but I am very happy to be back and in the studio. While I love traveling and visiting family, doing it in the summer inevitably screws up my garden and my schedule. The next two weeks will be spent trying to get back into my rhythm. 

Message me through Facebook or Etsy for address and directions.

     Starting in August through until the end of September, I will be available for studio visits, Wednesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Basically, that means if you come down my driveway during that time, you should find me running around like a chicken without a head either throwing, carving, glazing, drawing, sketching, cleaning or any other number of things I do as a working artist. The rest of the time is down time, home time, rest time,  private time. I’m testing this out this year and then if all goes well, I’ll take it from April through September. Any exceptions (for emergencies, family priorities, shows and exhibitions) will be noted here, on my Facebook page here, on my Twitter account here, and on my Etsy site here. 

     Some of what I hope to be working on more intensely is developing some glazes and a glaze palette for my functional work. Recent walks on the beach of Lake Michigan allowed me to collect beach rocks. As a New York/Jones Beach girl, my beaches are made white and sandy, few rocks from those ocean beaches so the walks on the shores of Lake Michigan sent me straight back to being a small kid, eyes down, scanning intently for super-cool things. I found myself drawn less to the rocks with the natural holes drilled into them but more to the smooth, pod-shapes and soft spectrum of colors in a neutral palette. Some people get hats and t-shirts for souvenirs. I bring home rocks. I love my rocks. I love the range of colors and the combinations. I expect this will be the beginning of some exploration of color that speaks to me. These colors and shapes say age, millennium, time, maturity, change to me. I love them!

     Easy to see why I love wood-firing but I also want to bring these colors to some oxidation glazes at cone 6. Some of the stones are smooth color tones, some are speckled and variegated. Along with the petroglyph-inspired carvings I’m exploring, I think these colors will work well. At least I hope so. Testing glazes has been an area I’ve been lazy about. Maybe this is the push I need to educate myself on chemistry and the patience of testing. If Gwendolyn Yoppolo can do it, so can I!

Kiln Open Kiln Open

Door open!

      We opened the kiln today. First thoughts were the pots were a bit dry. We did not add salt this time. We're re-assessing the firing schedule. In the mean time, much wet sanding with be done here and there. But there is some nice stuff about :) I know Bill Lennox will be at the Berea Craft Festival at Historic Indian Fort Theatre this coming weekend. Check out Etsy for Buddy's work and my work in the next few weeks.

Tables of pots!

Inspector Buddy.

Bill Mugs

Horse Soap Dish

Table of fun. And a beer.

Mugs

Buddy's awesome Shino whiskey cup.

Horse mug

Bowl with petroglyphs

Equine flashing.