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run with perseverance

September 30, 2011 in art, events, life, Uncategorized | No comments

…let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Hebrews 12:1

Those words express my general approach to each day.  Though, there are times when I think I’ve shown up for the wrong race.

I use to be an athlete…now I just ache.  I was a gymnast and briefly (very brief) ran the 4×4  (4oo meter relay).  Track and field is a big deal where I grew up in the high elevation deserts of west Texas (with exception to Texas football, which is an entity unto itself).

However, my membership card for the track team was short lived.  Made the team, but the track season conflicted with gymnastic competitions.  Truth is, I wasn’t very versatile on the oval.  I could run my forth of the 4x, but that was about it.  Done.  I remember my hesitation when coach Reed suggested hurdles.  Gymnasts may have great coordination and flexibility, but we are generally short.  Wrong race.

Lately I’ve been running hurdles; get up a good head of steam just to be interrupted so I can launch myself over an obstacle.  It’s nerve wrecking.  Running full out toward the hurdle: playing chicken.  Not pretty.

With generous momentum I approach the first hurdle; catching it with the heal of my lead foot.

Despite my best efforts, the soaring Arizona heat got to my clay before I did.  A week’s worth of work destine for the reclaim bucket.

The second hurdle is but three steps away.  Stumble over.

The glaze firing won’t reach temperature.  After hoping for more, I shut the kiln down.  Burned out element.

Looking for a quick recovery.  Clear the hurdle, but trailing behind.

Replace the element.  Reload.  Re-fire.  My clear glaze doesn’t really like to be re-fired.  Praying I don’t lose the entire kiln load.

The color was a bit off, but the glaze behaved.

A few more hurdles ahead.  My…knee…tags…every…single…one.  That’s gonna leave a mark.  My timing must be off.  Count.  Three steps.

As the artists’ deadline approaches for the cup and mug sale, my calendar is suddenly congested with personal appointments of some urgency.

The finish is in sight.  Just run now.  Run!

With a slushy delivery deadline and a week until the sale, my days have been punctuated by the most beautiful handmade cups and mugs.  Not a bad finish.

Cap, Cup and Mug Sale, Show and Trade

Looking forward to seeing you!!

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This is how the work gets done…

August 12, 2011 in art | 3 comments

My recently purchased 50mm (f/1/8) camera lens arrived last week.  A 28-135mm lens is my standard when taking images of work.  It gives me flexibility with the ability to shoot sharp details throughout the entire range.

The new lens is far less flexible; with a fixed focal length, it has a relatively short depth of field.  But, my thinking was that it would provide excellent images of larger work where actual viewing distance won’t allow the 28-135mm lens to capture the entire piece (yeah, I tell myself that all the time, “I should work smaller.”).

So then, I set up a little exercise to record my glaze process as a way to see what the lens would do (in spite of my incompetency).  I learned several things during my self-imposed drill.  Two of the most notable:

1. Don’t rely on the auto focus (AF).  I employed the AF and timer for most of the shots because my hands were otherwise occupied with glazing.

2. As if I hadn’t already realized, this exercise amplified the fact that my glaze process is tedious.

Apply a fairly thin layer of slip* over the drawn area.

 

 

 

 

 

With a sponge and water, wipe back the slip; leaving the color in the recesses of the drawing.

 

 

 

 

Cleaned up drawn image on bisque.

 

A quick dip over the drawn area in a glossy clear glaze.  Thin application.
(AF frustration!)

 

 

 

 

When the glaze can be handled without marring the newly applied glaze, dry foot (remove glaze) the bottom.  I also clean the clear glaze from the interior foot ring so I can apply a color glaze in there later in the process.

 

 

 

Carefully clean off the clear glaze with a sponge from all areas that will be glazed with a color later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wax to cover only the areas glazed with the clear glaze.

 

 

 

 

Go to lunch!
Need to wait at least two hours for the wax to set up.  Though, in the Arizona heat, it’s still a bit soft after two hours.  However, allowing for much more time would dry the moisture in the bisqueware; creating a whole new set of problems.

 

Dip the piece in the second, color glaze.  Quickly sponge any residual glaze off the waxed areas.

 

 

 

 

 

Dry foot (again).  This time, leave the glaze in the foot ring.

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly, clean up the edge of the color glaze where it meets the waxed area.

 

 

 

 

Ready to be loaded into the kiln!

*For all the purists out there: I use the terms ‘slip’ and ‘engobe’ interchangeably (The stuff in my throwing bucket…that would be slurry).

Mistaké Slip ^5-6  (pronounced: mis-tock-ee)
Yes, that actually says ‘mistake’.  The urban legend is that a grad student was trying to develop a stoney glaze and mistakenly created this slip.  The revised pronunciation was an attempt to provide some legitimacy and confuse the undergraduates.

EPK or Grolleg 50

Custer  25

Flint     25

add: Macaloid  3

~for mid-range (^1-4), substitute Nepheline Syenite for Custer.

This slip is compatible on bisque (for most clay bodies…test, test, test) when applied thinly.

This Is How the Work Gets Done, Charlie Peacock.

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the ways and means

July 25, 2011 in art, events, life | 1 comment

As I write, I’m sitting in my very warm studio firing a bisque.  The AC is set at 90°.  An occillating fan is moving the air about a little (it helps).  My kiln is old (read: not computerized), so I’ve got a few more hours in the studio while I turn up switches.  Once I get them alll on ‘high’, I’ll head home – only to return at the approximate time and temperature the witness cone should drop.

My faith in the kiln sitter has been shaken since I had a pyrometric bar fuse to the sensing rod on the sitter.  Overfired the load and warped shelves.  Created several redundant shelf sculpures that took endless hours to chisel apart (no fun).  So then, I make every attempt to be back when the witness cone goes down.

This firing is the first I’ve done since May.  Feeling a bit unproductive during these sizzling summer months.  Nevertheless, I have lived vicariously through a few ceramic artists’ blogs – people that seem to have more creative energy than I ever will.  They are not just productive, but prolific.  (Wow, feeling tinges of guilt…call me a slacker)  I guess I should be doing much more.

But, the day only has so many hours.  And, frankly, there is a correlation between the dry summer heat and clay work.  That delicate balance to successfully deal with handles without them cracking (tea bowls vs. coffee mugs)…or the precise hour available to trim when the clay is still cooperative (light, well designed work vs. paperweight).  If you do any decorative surface work early in the process, your window is shorter still.

Excuses? eh….

What I’ve taken away from those prolific producers of ceramic wares is that I’m not them.  Ceramics.  Clay.  Art…is what I do.  I love what I do.  Create.  On many levels it’s how I communicate – through process, image, surface and occupied space.

However, it is not who I am.  If I were to make a list of roles I fill, ceramic artist would be but one.  Those roles will change over time.  But, who I am will remain constant.  I am a child of God, a follower of Christ.  That doesn’t change.  Yet, it drives the ways and means of the things I do.

Fabens

What I do is secondary and clay would follow things like wife, mom, friend, chief cook and bottle washer, preferred human obsession to our quirky dog (seperation issues), et. al….

I suppose until clay makes it’s way closer to the top of the list, I will never be as productive as some artists.  I think it important to keep perspective.  What I do is not necessarily who I am but an avenue to be myself.

(Man, it’s getting hot in here!)

 

Mark Your Calendars!  Plan to Attend!

Cap, Cup and Mug Sale, Show and Trade

October 7-8, 2011
Friday, 6-9pm
Saturday, 9am-4pm

dessadog studio
1410 W. Guadalupe Rd, bldg. 1 ste. 103
Gilbert, AZ 85233

~a sale of handmade cups and mugs by more than 30 local artists.
~bring in a new knit cap or socks for Set Free Ministries and receive a 10% discount on one cup or mug.

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life markers

June 2, 2011 in art, life | 2 comments

Lately I’ve been thinking about life markers.  Not milestones so much, but life markers.  Milestones seem to imply happy ‘firsts’, like a child’s first steps, a first kiss, or a first job.  It’s a reference mark of completion; signifying distance traveled in a general forward direction.  Accomplishing a task that leads to the next logical step.  Children walk, then run, then they ask for the keys to the car.  Milestones.

~sketch detail

However, life markers don’t always seem the result of a happy first; not always moving forward.  Sometimes they make me sit still (if just for a little while), maybe even turn away.  Perhaps semantics.  But, that’s sort of how things roll around in my head.

Visually, I see milestones marked with a gold star, an endearing awkward photo, a framed dollar bill.  Whereas a life marker might be denoted by a wrestling of wills, vulnerable prayer and petition, revelation.  One might lead to the other – a first job develops character and independence.  They sometimes cross each other – the accomplishment of graduation and the beginning of a new reality.  Despite the fuzzy edges, they feel so very different.

As this semester was coming to an end, I was fielding a lot of student questions.

  • What next?
  • What do I do with this passion?
  • Where do we go from here?

Common queries as students begin to look ahead.  The questions, answers, and discussions brought me back to a languishing photo I had taken for a drawing.  The image is one of struggle and determination; an altar.  A marker as a reminder that God has revealed Himself  – at this time, in this place, for His purpose.

Once classes were finished, I started a bit of research and began a little ear bending (thanks, Monica). The dialogue continues as I consider those times in my life that have brought about a transformed vision; revelation.  The tumbling of the idea of life markers is distracting, sometimes painful.  The struggle is part of the process.  Apropos.

In the works!

The Cap, Cup, and Mug Sale, Show and Trade
October 7 and 8, 2011

~ a sale of cups and mugs from 30 artists (and counting) from around the valley.
~ the collecting of knit hats and socks for Set Free Ministries.
~ more specifics will be available as we get closer to the event.

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a thimble full

April 24, 2011 in art, teaching | 4 comments

A couple three years ago, I was sitting with several other artists in a back office of the Ceramics Research Center shuffling through artist entries to a call for artists for the upcoming studio tour.  We had been sorting out the returning artists and the new artists.

Jeremy Briddell

Jeremy Briddell, Four and Two, 2004.

That year, I was sitting out the tour.  My studio was slated for demolition by the town.  We’d lost our fight…or resigned ourselves to move on.

The year off would require that I reapply and be juried back into the tour the following year.  As we organized the artists’ images (an impressive lot of work), I commented to myself…out loud, “I may not make it back in the tour.”

On the heals of my statement, Jeremy Briddell replied, “A room full of artists and not enough self-esteem to fill a thimble.”  Brief silence was followed by a chorus of affirmation.

Through the semester I encourage students to enter shows.  My attempts to top off the thimble are often resisted.  Students generally present their hesitation by stating that they don’t know what to do.  I offer to help them – proof read bios and statements, and take images if necessary.  I’ve been known to bribe students with extra credit for entering shows – no need to be accepted.  I just want them to go through the process.  They resist.  I heard somewhere that a room full of artists couldn’t fill a thimble with self esteem.

This exhibition season I’d like to note a few shows that include the work of friends and fellow artists, former students, and current students:

AZ Clay Annual Exhibit, March 18 – April 16, 2010

Shemer House of Fun, April 21 – May 25, 2010
Shemer Art Center and Museum

Gila River Review: Online Literary Journal at Chandler-Gilbert Community College
Spring 2011, Issue 3

Arte Latino en la Ciudad, May 6 – 27, 2010
Phoenix Center for the Arts

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