Saturday, September 27, 2008

Turning...

...thats sort of how its starting to feel this lazy Saturday afternoon...heavy clouds are rolling in and the breeze is steady and a little cool. In the foothills surrounding our little town, the trees are turning as well. The green leaves giving way to red, yellow, and orange. Football is on in the other room and I am thinking about making chili. As the summer fades and Autumn begins to kick in, my garden's late bloomers and die hards are having their day in the sun...literally.

The climbing roses are still putting on a little show hanging around Nancy's bird feeder. My giant dahlias are going strong and most likely will keep it up until the first good freeze.

Even the big dinner plate size white dahlias are about to pop for yet another round.





























Even as I clean out the faded sunflowers and overgrown under plantings making way for the oncoming cold weather, I am surprised to find areas of interest among some of the tucked away corners of the garden. Like the nasturtium still hanging on to its jewel of morning dew this late in the afternoon and the weeds growing up through the rabbit's tiny Adirondack.














The garden is deceptive this late in the season. It requires a careful eye near the end of September to find the growth still taking place among the decline. These bird house gourds hiding in the lace of the Eskimo Marigolds, growing along my split rail fence, are still in infancy and possibly may not make it to the size I was hoping. But the race is on, and I am pulling for these funny little forms. I even have a handful of Roma tomatoes still ripening on the vine and I am flush with basil just waiting to be pesto.



















Once where there was a big bed of coneflowers, now the birds are helped to a buffet of sculptural seed heads...perched and picking out the thistle of the spent Echinacea and Black Eyed Susans. The only thing left on my deck are the pink plastic flamingos spinning their whirly-gig wings in the wind...and a lone little Foxglove that has started to grow in the basket.

















I pulled the mammoth sunflowers out by their roots and hung them out to dry as an offering and an acknowledgment to the Fall season. They are impressive in their size and fascinating hung horizontally on the back of my old shed. Their sturdy stalks support their unnatural repose and their heads become an all -you- can- eat buffet for birds and critters. I missed communing with my garden this summer so it seems right to spend some quality time with my outdoor space now. I have been photo- documenting the passing of some of these flowers and plan on turning some into digital prints and others will appear as decals on new ceramic pieces. Which reminds me...I need to get to work...upcoming potters' studio tour in a few weeks...but more on that another time and I am still feeling lazy... so, I think I am going to just finish soaking up the day. Hope your doing the same.

Friday, September 19, 2008

by the way...

I just got this piece back from Touchstone Center for Crafts...I was invited to exhibit a piece in their most recent show and this is the one I sent them. This wall platter was fired in the newly built train kiln and then I finished it with my decal and some nice shiny gold lustre ...its gotta have a little bling...and then just sent it out. I never got to live with it or let the finished piece sink in visually with me. I am pleased to have it back now, if just for a little while. I was happy about the finished composition...it had the quality that I was looking for...and that does not always happen. The glaze and ash from the wood fire become a deep abstract sky for my digital photograph turned fired decal of the bird in the bare branches, to perch in the foreground. The gold lustre adds to the idea of a wild sky swirling and twinkling with stars. This platter continues to push me into more ideas for some 2-d work...I have always said that I am a painter trapped in a ceramist's body!

And I also received this link to this great slide show of the Tallahassee International...that's the show where I am currently showing a larger wall installation and another small scale piece... there is a wide variety of types of work in this show and I am thrilled to be in the exhibit. Although a clay guy at heart, I am a big advocate of showing in a bigger/broader arena. Ceramics is cozy and sometimes a little too insular for my taste...this is one of several reasons I like to try and jury into shows that are not medium specific. So click on the link folks and enjoy the show!
http://www.mofa.fsu.edu/download/Slideshow_of_2008_Installation.pdf

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Couples...

I thought this was appropriate today as me and the family get ready to go to a friend's wedding this afternoon...ahhhh, couples...so here is a posting with pairs of images...including the post card for the opening of the show I am in celebrating 250 years of my adopted home town...Pittsburgh. If you are in the area, come out for this one! It is promising to be one of the biggest opening events in some while...













I have three lovely couples up next...some of the final pieces I finished off from Chautauqua...















This is a extra large cup and saucer...It is my Mr.Wrestling no.2 Cup and Saucer to be specific...the cup itself is just over 4 inches deep and 5 1/2 inches wide...thats allota java!



















R2D2 was in need of some bling...I recently sold this piece off of my etsy shop...homeslice ...the homeslice shop is my shop for my mid-range work...lotsa color...lotsa funk.






















This is a piece that I finished up with some gold lustre here and there over the commercial decals that adorn the surface. It is an Espresso Rhyton...I was working on these forms a while back and have recently become interested in them again...a rhyton is an ancient Greek drinking vessel that has an elaborate and usually carved foot with masculine imagery...but it rests on the opening...the foot is not functional so when you fill it, you have to drink it all before you put it back down. Here I re-gendered it, re-purposed it, and gave it a mash up look that bounces back and forth between clean modernity and grandma's knick-knacks!

My last couple for this post is from my own little girl...Kate is 6 and she asked me specifically if her pieces could be on my website. Computer savvy at six! It is a different world we live in today and it changes so quickly...much like my daughter...I never fully understood how true people were being when they said "kids grow up so fast" until now...

The first piece is...Two Snakes in a Bed...and the second is a self portrait stamped with her name and ready for hanging!...These are both from my most recent wood fire...You can see a couple new pieces from the same firing in my other etsy shop... homefry , in fact there will be more coming as soon as I finish up the decals! So, happy couples day and congrats to my friends Thad and Nikki on their wedding day!