A New Project

The latest thing I've been working on will be a wedding gift for my cousin's new bride. I'll be going to Colorado this summer to help celebrate the happy event and since the lady likes stained glass, my cousin asked if I could do something about it. What better excuse do I need to buy a soldering iron?
So here you see my design that I modeled from examples of Victorian era glass (apparently her style) and in the middle is a representation of the beautiful place in which the proposal was made. How romantic!
I'm sorry to say that I will not have pictures of the finished project soon, because I'm going to New York in a week!
I'm hoping to blog everyday with pictures and stories from that adventure so check this out often when that starts.
Also, write in the comments about where I should go in that great city. There is so much to do and see there that I'm going to need direction. Give me an itinerary! or even a scavenger hunt! I promise to anyone who writes a suggestion that I will do what they say, take pictures and write about it in this blog.
Live vicariously!

The Day's Work Dries In The Sun

Just like our bones will one day. And like clay we will one day return to the earth as brittle and used up vessels. Appropriate sentiments for making memento mori you think?

More Distractions

Work is coming along nicely. This past weekend I purchased the last of the steel I will need for the mobile and spent an afternoon blowing glass with a new assistant.
So that was good and productive. But that is not all I've been doing lately! I went to see the new musical, Sunday in the Park with George. It is inspired by the work and life of painter George Seurat and discusses somewhat the role of an artist in society. You can guess why I liked it. Beforehand there was a gallery reception (with very nice wine and cheese) at an artist's co-op named Art not Terminal. There were a few things Gregory and I found impressive but most of all I thought to myself that I should be working to get into a gallery. I think I could hold my own in a place like that.
So my mind directed me back to my latest obsession of making vanitas still lifes. The books I've got from the library on the subject have convinced me that I must have skulls if it is to be a true vanitas. So I spent some time in the basement making a skull out of clay. I am pleased with the results so far but also convinced that I need an actual skull to continue the study. Anatomy drawings are just not enough. If anyone knows where I could find such a thing, or a convincing replica, let me know.
For a completely different project I paid a visit to a friend for tips on stained glass. I am to be making a window for a wedding gift this summer and am excited about the possibilities of this other form of glass. I am familiar with the process of leaded glass but have never spent too much time on it.
So much to look forward to, and then this shows up and tempts me on to even more distractions!
Perhaps I should stop calling my interests distractions, rather, they are opportunities for art making.
After all, art is what I do.

On to the Next!

In my last post I mentioned a glassblowing workshop I signed up for in Corning, NY this summer. The exciting thing is: it is wood-fired! I'm still shivering with anticipation. And not only that, but it incorporates ceramics! The workshop will be a three day event of stoking the kiln night and day in order to glaze pots and blow glass! My two favorite materials to work with at the same time, you can see why I didn't hesitate to put my name on the roster. I was planning a trip east anyways!
Although it did not occur to me until just the other night what this opportunity actually means to me.
For some time I have had this idea of building replicas of the Dutch still life genre, in actual life. I've been looking into frame building for this purpose and have been researching the types of goblets and things that were usually represented in such paintings. Then a lightning bolt hit my eyes and suddenly I knew what to do! Don't you love it when that happens?
I realized that I will have access to the process in which the old-time items were made. Therefore, I must practice how to make replicas of the objects I need and then carry out the mission in NY!
I'll make jugs from clay to take with me and then while I'm there, I'll work on making Roemers! That classical goblet form has always intrigued me.

Some Call It Writer's Block

What to do when you keep putting off work towards the one thing you really actually want to do? Why is it that sometimes we neglect the things that mean most to us? In my case, the Snoqualmie mobile, which is my life and my love at this time in my personal history, has been on the shelf for three and a half weeks.
I have been obsessing about it in my mind as always, ever thinking and planning, but when I put my hands to it they somehow find another purpose. Such as sewing this skirt! or knitting this sleeve! Cruel and tempting distractions! -you draw me away from my true love!
Of course I know that some of this feet dragging is due to the fact that the installation deadline has been postponed for two more months, so there is time for me to slack off. The building under construction is now not expected to be completed until September.
Still I feel this sickening feeling that I should be making progress instead of clothing. So how do I motivate myself back to the grinding stone? (or in this case, the Anvil and the Bench)
Well, I went out on a clear day and searched for inspiration. I discovered Discovery Park for the first time, had a lovely walk through the forest to the beach where I picnicked while watching the sail boats ride by. Later, my companion and I tried a new, fancy restaurant called Olivar. They are a spanish-inspired gourmet place right next to the Cornish College of the Arts, which later showed the first act of Puccini's Soeur Angelica. (I must brag that everything was super cheep too! I won a contest on a Seattle foodie blog which gave me a coupon for $25 off the restaurant and since the opera was a student production it was very reasonable! And all of it was fantastic!)
The next day I tried to blow glass, but (to briefly describe the very opposite of what I intended) that sucked! I did horribly and had to quit early in tears of frustration!
I tried again for inspiration in the cherry blumes on the UW campus. It was an amazing afternoon that someone like Monet, Pissarro or Seurat would paint. It was good to see, but not enough.
If I was going to get working again, and doing good work, I knew I had to build a fire under my seat. There is nothing like a firm deadline to make me move my ass!
So- I signed up for a glassblowing workshop in Corning, NY, and bought the tickets to go in June! (more on that later.) I also bought tickets to see my cousin's wedding in June so if I don't get my act in line by then I'll be sorry!
It worked! I'm back on the ball!
And I lived happily ever-until-it-happens-again.
The end.

Right now there is a small room in the SAM devoted to a collection of paintings by one George de Forest Brush. (Makes me wonder if he chose his own name.) He was a late-19th-century American painter who focused on depicting native Americans in their natural setting. Of course at that time Brush was well aware of the destructive end the natives were being lead to by the American government, and he was already wistful for the times before industrialization and the advent of mass production.
In this painting (my favorite in the collection I saw) Brush pays tribute to the simplicity of the honest, hand-produced laybor of a hard-working individual. (and it's been said that Symbolism did not cross "the pond" when it was flourishing in France and England. Pah! I say to that, and here is the proof!) Every detail in the painting refers back to the time when we were connected with the making of things and could savor the pride of skill. (Learn more here.)
This painting touched me, for it is a visual representation of my own philosophy on art. I feel that artists today are (sometimes) too removed from their craft. The "artist" in today's definition is the visionary. They are the ones who pay the craftsmen to make their vision. Like the weaver in the painting, I take pride in the things I create and cannot imagine how to realize a vision of my own without having my hand in it.
I try to live my philosophy in regard to all things, but most of all with my artwork. Since I had never worked with metal before, I had thought about hiring a professional blacksmith to create the armature for my mobile. Yet my artist's sense of responsibility towards my public demanded I learn a new skill. It may turn out a little more "primitive" than a polished and perfect product, but when this project is finished you will be able to look at it and know that every part of it was molded in love by my own hands.

Model Mock-UP