All that talk of stealing pop song titles and the only thing remotely musically inspired came from the 1997 Yo La Tengo release. Oh well.
So named because it ended up being the most synchronized (and best) of the three. And god, I think I listened to their whole discography over the course of three weeks. I am tengoed out.
I know the answer to my question about more chandeliers. Four was always the plan. At least right now. I like the idea of leaving things dangling so I can come back later, no definite no. I foresee many bodies of work open at once. When I get going, anyway.
I can’t stop thinking about those rock stacks. I’ve seen them every time we’ve gone up there, they’re not new. But there’s something primal and leveling I really liked about them this time. All they are is exactly that, a stack of rocks. More effort than thought. But lots of people feel compelled to make them. It’s the “lots of people” that gets me.
Been thinking a lot lately about water, of which we are over 2/3rds comprised. Sitting in my kayak in the middle of the bay, all I wanted was a real boat to paddle up to and dock on. But we never got around to building it, this summer (which I think we always knew would happen). And next summer, with any luck, I won’t be here.
One of the reasons I’m so glad I came to this program to get my degree: lots of things I make now (or will make) are out of plywood, or very linear (clay is bad at being linear). That’s my biggest selling point when people ask me if I’m happy here. What’s interdisciplinary? I do and use whatever I want.
Three generations of my mom’s family were involved in my great-grandfather’s contracting/construction business. I like to think that had my grandfather lived longer than 6 months after I was born, I’d be involved too. Because then it passed to my uncle, who didn’t know what the fuck, and the company dissolved when I was maybe.. 7. But it gives me the right to love scaffolding and all things construction. It’s in my blood.
the best part about any vacation up north:
i made bread today. every time i do it i can’t believe what i’ve been missing. it’s hard to cook for only one person most other times, but fresh bread is the exception.
yesterday i got my kitchen down to a coffee mug, two plates, two bowls (one big one small), a knife, fork, and spoon. plus pots and pans and mixing bowls. if only the rest of the clutter would go away so smoothly.
had to stop at art building last night to take library books back and grab hummus and beers from the fridge.. i went back to my studio forgetting how i had left it, and stood at the doorway (you can’t get any farther in) and laughed for awhile. i think i remember a similar occurrence last summer too.
no good pictures yet. to be honest, i don’t want them for another few days or so.
Individual pictures, titles, explanations when I get the good ones from Jim. I took this full shot with my crappy little pink camera.
I think of the extension cords on the chandeliers as their own little pieces. In fact, that’s a good way to see these in their entirety. Many parts to a whole.
This is my facebook picture right now. The gas company is digging holes outside our building for no reason and yesterday when I was feeling frustrated I went and sat in one of them until I felt a millipede.
(I guess they weren’t for the gas company after all, but for the public art project that my friends designed and built.)
As expected, all plans change when presented with the reality of something. Rather than it being solely in your head anymore. You can sketch and fantasize all you want. But then it happens, and it’s never what you think. In this case, it’s better.
I arrived in the gallery with a sense of all the work I’ve already done, not having a gauge on how much I’ve changed these last few months. So a lot of things went right out the window once I really got rolling. It took me about a day to realize how these were going to grow; it didn’t involve anything I had tried to make ahead of time, so I’m glad I didn’t sit around making assemblages as I had originally planned.
I’m very excited. This is the beginning. No pop song titles, none of that.
Not writing here has been great, and I feel so much better (for non-blog related reasons). Instead of tearing myself apart every time I hit publish in my editor, I just dump all my (increasingly, now that I have that freedom) stupid thoughts for the day into a word document. So I’m going to keep that going, this is just to say that I can’t wait to post the final images. They are going to be incredible; I have an incredible and generous photographer who is going to regret saying yes to helping me again when I start telling him my list of demands. Also, the last one was notoriously hard to light and he fake-complained the whole time. So now there are three! Thanks again, Jim!
I’m pretty proud of this. It didn’t take me very long, but it’s been rolling around in my head for months and showing up in all the drawings I’ve been making of the chandelier it belongs to. I got that bucket from a guy who had just cleaned out his studio (they all know to come see me first).
I learned that I can fire gas kilns like a champ. I had never done it by myself before, usually I just pick up our studio technician’s slack. Also, I’ve never had a reason to learn, as all of my neon colors are fired at much cooler temperatures and don’t require the carbon trapping (so I just fire them in an electric kiln, which is much more low maintenance). Ryan helped me reduce it the first time (cut off all the oxygen in the kiln to produce carbon, which gets into the glazes and changes them usually for the better – reduction is good) and did it really, really well.. we had completely black spy bricks right after (LOTS of carbon).
But the second time I reduced it, right near the end to even everything out, I did it by myself. By the time I was done setting speed records in a 10 hour firing, and figuring out all the rest of it with air and pressure, the thing was completely (almost perfectly) evenly heated on top and bottom despite a very loose top of the stack. When I unloaded it, yes, the reduction was gorgeous and all of our test tiles came out exactly like they were supposed to. Too bad I used every ugly glaze we have and none of the good ones. But ugly fits what I’m doing, so.
It was pretty amazing. Reduction how-to aside, I somehow already knew exactly what I was doing. And I really loved doing it, it was so exciting. Makes me want to make a bunch of pots. Or a bunch more poopy sculptures, anyway. I do know that I’ll be doing it again before my stint in the gallery.
Which brings me to the fact that.. I kind of took a mini-vacation these last two weeks because the studio’s not empty yet and I subsequently haven’t been able to do much (Kim can’t believe how spoiled I am – “why do you need the whole freakin’ space to do anything??”). I don’t care about people who know me and how I work and know not to bother me when I’m doing so.. but when I start pulling out all this interesting garbage and people who are very nice and always around but not usually “part of things” start asking me things about what I’m doing and how to do what they’re doing and getting into my peripheral vision, it’s like GOD GO AWAY. No matter how nice. And because I’m me, I tend to not try and hide that I’m not pleased.. but I really did this time, because like I said, nice guy.
So yeah, vacation. Which I think might end today, I had some good thoughts about how to put things together last night. We had some crazy times. Last night a bunch of us got on our bikes and did some scary shriner formations in the middle of the street before riding straight to the bar to see Ryan off to Washington. As Sophia put it, “it was 12 in the best way possible”.
I just bought my name.com for no reason. I don’t know what I’m going to do with it. I bought lingergookas when I was ridiculous (though some would say I still am), and I think I might want to be more professional at some point, but that idea might be overrated. Anyway, I have it. So if someday this blog doesn’t work, barring I didn’t get pissed off and delete it as I’ve done in the past, just switch the G and the L.
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros??? One of those bands you keep hearing about and then forget as soon as you get to your computer.. but holy crap. I’m in love. I didn’t know Ima Robot was involved.
Wanna see what a 6 foot hexagonal deck looks like? It needs more boards filling it out, but I had cut enough angles for one day.
