Here is the second and final social construct.  This time it involved vessels that contained jell-o and double ended spoons to reach the treat and share.  However, there were twice as many spoons to jell-o jars so people had to buddy up in groups in order to participate in the experience.

Opening Night

These are a few stills I thought caught the mood of the night pretty well. If you click on the Vashon Beachcomber link to the right you can read what the local paper there said about me, it's about a paragraph down in the article.

This show was about how we socially interact and this video captures how I was able to influence that interaction through art.  The vessels you see on the shelves were filled with water (only in the red ones) and a tea concentrate (stuck on the inside of the white ones.)  The attendees were assigned to one of these colors and encouraged to make and drink the tea together.  You can see how these vessels made their way from one side of the gallery to the other through everyone's participation.

Show Opens Friday!

This Friday
June 1st
5-9pm
Valise Gallery
Vashon, WA

Come be part of the experience.  This event will be the first of two different interactive installations in the gallery and your participation is what creates the work of art!  So come have fun with me!  There will be tea to share, things to do and people to meet.  And don't forget to mark your calendars for the second event, Sat. June 16th starting at 2pm.

The practice run was a great success, thank you all who made it out!

The

Help Support Me, Get a Piece of Art

I need your help in order to go to a class at Pilchuck, and in return for that I'm going to bring you with me! (at least, intellectually if not physically)
See the full details at the site http://www.indiegogo.com/perceivingoriginality
Not only will you help create my experience there, but afterword I'll make you a work of glass art based on what I learned.
I hope you will come with me on this journey!

 Lots and lots and lots! My little tea balls are working beautifully!

 This is the first glaze firing, and they all came out ok, now onto major production!  I'm having so much fun with slip, who knew?

A Studio To Work In

I have finally moved into a shared space that has light, heat, running water and a radio! Oh modern conveniences! How I appreciate you!

I got right to work on making the molds I would need for the first of the events for my project "Social Constructs" that will take place in June.
Once the molds were made, the slip was poured and here are the first vessels (still un-fired) that have come out of it.

My Project in between Projects

Based on the design of the "multiplication of fishes and loaves" mosaic in Tabgha, Israel, I'm calling this piece "Fish n' Chips."

I Will Go

Can a major life decision be based entirely on a superstitious reading of signs in a completely unrelated metaphor? Luckily for me, Yes!

Sitting at home, bemoaning the fact that no work can be done in my studio while a storm rages on outside, I was in a funk about what to do! With nothing for my hands to do, I tend to ruminate on things I have little control over. Right now decision time approaches for several things at once but I don't have all the information I need to make these kinds of choices yet and it's driving me crazy!

Then the sun broke through and I thought a run would do me good.

I have not done any running since last summer when my goal was to train at least once a week until I could finally make it all the way around the lake without stopping (about 5K). I never made it all the way without walking at least a part. So this was my first time out in quite a while and I forgot to stretch or drink a glass of water before going. I was just so excited the sun had appeared it was like my legs belonged to a wild horse.

As I got going I kept thinking about all that has been weighing on my mind; do I go with this or do I do that? Do I spend the money? Do I forego the experience? Do I focus on this or redirect my energies to that?

Oh, and the winds! Leaping across perfect mirrors of the blinding sky I went with the wind at my back and a song in my heart: always the same one, "I will go where the winds take me."

But I knew that as I turned round the lake the winds would be against me when I was most tired and ready to quit. That's when I decided to make this run a metaphor. If I could stick it out when I knew I would be dying to quit, then I could do anything- and everything.

Well! the things one can learn about one's self when comparing the success of a career to the ability to continue running through side aches, loss of breath, leg cramps, pounding head and desperate thirst.

If it was just a run, like oft' times before, I would have stopped at the half way mark to drink from the fountain and probably would have walked the rest of the way. Since it was not just a run but my ability to tackle what I most dread in life, of course I kept going. The interesting thing is what your mind will do to convince you to take the easy way out. I suppose there was some evolutional advantage for monkey brains to be persuaded to do the easiest thing. Go along with what the body tells you, don't do anything that takes more effort than it needs. There is sense in that. But we evolved because some monkeys chose to go out on a limb, sometimes literally, and do something extra-ordinary. If we can't choose to be more than that, if we can't take our own direction in life rather than let our impulses decide, then we'll never be more than monkeys will we?

I saw all of my usual excuses parade before me, trying to convince me to stop because my body was in pain. I know I will face these excuses again some day for other reasons. They will show up when things become hard to handle, or when I'm depressed, or bored, or distracted. I wanted to face them today before making my big decisions so that I know who to expect as I face challenges in the future. And I absolutely had to know how I will deal with them.

So did I make it all the way around the lake without stopping? For an answer I will tell you that I've made my decisions, and I Will Go.

Moving On

Spring can come now- any time. I won't mind, really.

Today brought snow flurries, blasts of winds and a high of 43 degrees (that must be a generous reading.) When you need to work as I do, with clay and plaster in a small cement bunker with no electricity, no heat, and no plumbing well... I tend to take it personally when the weather does this.

My studio- I love it! Today I decided to run the 30ft extension cord to the next nearest outlet to allow myself a space heater and music. And just so you know how crazy this set-up is, the electricity will not flow unless I turn on a light in the laundry room on the other side of the building, which means if anyone goes in there and turns it off, I get to run around and try it again.

But not to worry I got some good progress going on the next project: Social Constructs. This will be an interactive installation at the Valise gallery on Vashon in June (when it's warm, I can't wait!) I'm getting the molds made for slip casting the vessels that will be an integral part of the activity.

My first time using slip! Exciting! and I've decided that mold soap is my newest best-friend ever.

Peter and the Wolf

You may know the story of Peter and the Wolf- the Russian symphony for children where all the characters are represented by instruments. When the designer for our garden, James Sprague heard the theme for this year's garden show was music, he immediately settled on this story as the theme of his display, and when he asked me to put artwork into it I immediately thought of glass instruments to show for the characters!

Not only did I do that, but I wanted to create illustrations of this story with Pate de Verre.

What you see in the gateway between "grandpa's" garden and the "wilderness" are glass panels of this technique that show each of the characters in the story playing their respective instrument. There are two more panels in the doorway to the house that function as windows as well.

The chimes are made of a glass flute with birds flying around it to represent the Bird in the tree
The tea lights resemble the timpani drums which represent the Hunters.
The glass cattails in the pond are shaped as pieces of an oboe which represents the duck.
The greenhouses are in Grandpa's garden. They do not represent an instrument but are functional, and yes, everything is for sale. If you are interested in purchasing or commissioning artwork, please send me an e-mail at eden@edenloyalrivers.com

The Flower and Garden Show Opens!

Three and a half days is what they give to the garden builders to transform a huge warehouse room of the convention center into a slice of heavenly spring in February. There is a web album that documents the Fancy Plants' display garden build- check it out here.

Finally in Glass

Paper to Clay, to Plaster to Wax, and Plaster Again

Snowpacolypse has hit! I've been stuck indoors these past few days because Seattle can't handle a few inches of snow, but the good news is it has allowed me great progress on the Flower and Garden Show project.

So far what I have accomplished is the finished drawings for eight 1ft squared panels to go in the garden, I've sculpted four of them in clay and taken plaster casts of those four, and I've then taken waxes from three of those plaster molds, from which I have made three plaster/silica molds that are ready for the kiln! Glass arrived just before the storm, and a good friend is loaning her kiln, so all I have to do now is figure out what firing schedule to use and how to pack the pate de verre.

Wish me luck.

I have my Cake and I'm Eating it Too!

Life has it's moments. At this busy time of year I find more things have been calling me away from what I thought I needed to get done, and then I accomplish more that I had intended in the first place.

For instance, I needed to spend some time in Alaska to grieve the loss of a family member and spend time with those still around. Death is one of those things that you just can't avoid and it never comes at a good time. It interrupted plans to visit a university in SF that I am seriously considering. It also put me behind schedule as far as the projects I'm working on which would serious compromise my time management if I was selected for the residency in January I have applied to that I really, really want!

But...

The airlines suddenly came out with amazing winter deals which would make it so financially easy for me to fly to California for a few days for the university appointments. As I was struggling with the moral dilemma of: can I afford even more time away from my responsibilities?- I got a call from the residency folks who said I was not selected (therefore not committed to living and working on Vashon for a full month or two) but that they still want to invite me to do my project I had proposed for them- sometime in the next four to six months!

So I get my cake and I can eat it too!

Now I'm in SF exploring, learning a lot about the CCA program, spending time with my best friend (what a good sanity check!) and I'll still be able to come home and finish my obligations to the Flower and Garden show coming up!

Look for progress on that soon.

Re-evaluating Resolutions

In the year 2010, my New Year's Resolution was to put out at least ten applications. It didn't matter what they were for, grants, scholarships, fellowships, calls for art etc. as long as it pertained to my art career. I think I got to six.

This year, 2011, I started out with the Resolution of developing my portfolio to be presentable to grad schools, and then apply. So far, so good. I think I'll make my goal this time! But the funny thing is, in this year alone I've now totaled eleven applications for those other things!

Going by this measure, I may have better success at applying to grad schools next year, when my New Year's Resolution will be something different, something like...

getting a residency in France!

Just updated my online portfolio for one of those eleven applications this year. You can see all that and a proposed project I have in mind for the next installation here.

Pangur Ban

Well, the sweet thing has taken the name of Pangur Ban, even though "Ban" means "white" in old irish, it still suits her. She also sometimes goes by Butter Bean.

A distraction, a nusince, and endless inspiration, much like the original Pangur who was written about by a 9th century Irish monk.

I and Pangur Ban, my cat,
'Tis a like task we are at;
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.

Better far than praise of men
'Tis to sit with book and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill will;
He, too, plies his simple skill.

'Tis a merry thing to see
At our task how glad are we,
When at home we sit and find
Entertainment to our mind.

Oftentimes a mouse will stray
Into the hero Pangur's way;
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.

'Gainst the wall he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
'Gainst the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.

When a mouse darts from its den.
O how glad is Pangur then!
O what gladness do I prove
When I solve the doubts I love!

So in peace our tasks we ply,
Pangur Ban, my cat and I;
In our arts we find our bliss,
I have mine, and he has his.

Practice every day has made
Pangur perfect in his trade ;
I get wisdom day and night,
Turning Darkness into light.'

Feeling Monkish

With a day off, and the morning light coming through the window, a large cup of hot tea and monastic celtic music playing on the Thistle and Shamrock, it was hard not to imagine being a medieval scribe as I took to creating the pages of my own personal calender and notebook.

Here are the steps I took to making a personalized planner which I hope will help me to better manage my time in the coming years:

Making the pages,

Binding them,

And then collaging pretty papers to make the front and back covers.

Oh yeah, and now we have a cat.