I am not a ceramic artist...

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Today is the day I make peace with my failure* as a ceramic artist. I'm converting my studio from a clay workshop into something else which I haven't quite defined yet, let's just say a multi-media production shop (which will include everything from cardboard to digital media). So I took the last sculptures I made (they've been sitting in the studio staring at me for almost 3 years) and made a little sculpture garden. These are all unfired; they will give way to the elements sooner than later, which I'll probably record.

Things change.

Breathe in, breathe out, move on.

(* by conventional art and craft standards...)

Our Lady of the Wall

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I apparently have become enamored of the crosspost as a distribution tool...

My friend Beth would never toot her own horn, so I'll do it for her...


Beth is part of the JustSeeds Collective. (not yet member but was invited earlier this year to show work on their website). They just did a sweet interview with her. You can read it here.

If you don't know Beth, it's a good introduction to what she's doing and what and how she thinks.

I'm really lucky to know and work with her. Also proud as can be that she's getting recognition for her work. You can read more about Beth and her work on her lovely website.

I don't think I have many aspirations...

But then i see something like this...



(via Wooster)

...and then I think "I'm not getting any younger and I need to quit wasting my time..."

Building alternative worlds and sharing them seems like a perfectly reasonable and meaningful vocation...

A Case of Bad Bear-havior...

The bear visited again Friday night. He made quite a mess, a straight trail from the woodpile all the way back to where the ridge climbs sharply....clean up, aisle 4...

So that began a largely outside weekend in the weirdly awesome fall weather. Chores, repairs, etc. I took some video to work up as a sample for another project. Which I planned to work on but the sudden death of my old iMac (RIP) which is what i use for video editing put a cramp in that. Tense negotiations with the Apple Mothership regarding the replacement of a known faulty logic board (yes, out of warranty, but it's only 5 years old and perfectly fine, will you not stand behind your product? I love you Apple, but you're sadly adopting some PC-like business practices...) are in progress. Meanwhile, i began to get the MBP set up to do video editing assuming bean counters will win out over humanitarians and ethical business practices, such is the corporate environment of the world we live in.

I've lately become interested in communication in general. I find myself drawn to crisp, clean, brief examples (clarity is refreshing), quite lovely for the space around it. Whether it be digital, video, or print the ability to convey a story, idea, or image concisely (but with some subtlety and nuance) is a fine art. Current examples: Karl, Beth, Robert.

I love a good story, fact or fiction. I aspire to be a good story-teller, but not sure I possess that particular skill, maybe too much noise inside of me. But one can try, maybe brevity is a matter of refinement. I recently read an article about how everyone uses all the tools of communication to try to be heard above the din of everyone using all the tools of communication. So I'm toying with the idea of detaching, understating, and walking lighter...I find being sufficiently animated takes too much energy. I'm leaning towards giving quiet and calm a test run. I suspect the result will be similar, but the quality of the exercise improved.

fall

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