Musical Tuesday?

I began last Tuesday by posting a song. Maybe Tuesday becomes a music day here at the blog.

Ryan Takaba, who was one of our guest artists at Art of the Pot last May, posted this on his Facebook page. Since he grew up in Hawaii, I'll take his word for it that Ohta-San is the real deal.

I liked it anyways and I'm thinking the kids will like it to when I show it to them later.

Pots are being made in the studio...perhaps I'll blog about that soon.

Color

Kristen Kieffer's tweet about color and the link to her old post about color came at the exact time that I was sitting looking at my test glazes that I had mixed almost 18 months ago.

I'm not looking for anything fancy but I do think I should add some color back to my work after going without it for the past year.

I do like the simplicity of having one glaze...and it's even simpler when the one glaze I have mixed up is a clear glaze. All of my decorations have been done while the work is either leather-hard or green which means I don't need to deal with the static bisqueware using any creative energy at all.

I also think that maybe the reason I've stayed away from color this past year is the fear of new. It's been a lot of changes in the studio but the main thing has been the switch to porcelain and electric firing. I like how Emily has embraced the new materials and kiln going with lots of color right away.

I guess it's time to add something to the mix. First of all, I'll need to make some fresh work...and maybe staring at these test-tiles has been just one more form of procrastination as I put off finding out if I can still throw.

Musical Marathon

I love this song by Tennis.

A couple sailed up and down the East Coast and then recorded an album.

I first heard this song on my satellite radio a while back. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have that gadget. I'm not cool and hip enough to find new music any other way now.

Home Sweet Home

I got home from the Cape on Friday and the kids started school today.

Summer blew by and we had a ridiculously fantastic time at the Cape. Coming back up to the Cape after having been a business owner for 12 years was like being on the other side of a wall. It turns out that the Cape is an amazing place to vacation. I had always heard that from our guests but I was always in the gallery during all of those beautiful beach days in the past.

Last year was a fun summer but the stress of the move to Austin got in the way of the pure enjoyment we had this year. I don't think we left our 10 minute radius more than 3 times the entire 8 weeks we were there.

But, now we're home and Ale had her first day of Kindergarten while Javi started 2nd grade!

It was craziness today but great to walk into the school knowing where to go and seeing familiar faces...a far cry from a year ago. Javi couldn't wait to get back to school and see his friends and Ale was trying hard to deal with how nervous she was. Once she sat at her table we went to the door and I waved goodbye. She just looked at me and shook her head no...but, she held back the tears and her first day of school began. I can say that her mother didn't hold back the tears so well.

And, today I made it over to the studio to assess the situation and get ready to make work again. I'm used to being burnt out by now from the busy summer season but I've taken most of the summer off and now I'm going to have to turn it into crunch mode for a very busy fall.

First up is the Bayou City Arts Festival in Downtown Houston on the 9th and 10th of October...then it's off to Gruene, TX for the Texas Clay Festival on October 23rd and 24th. This is one of those moments when I'll be thankful for the switch to electric firing so I'll be able to cycle work out quickly for these shows. I'll post about all of my fall events shortly but now it's time to head home and see how everybody's first day went.

Knoxville or Bust

Woohoo!

The trip home has started. It was an easy day today...golf with my father in the morning and a 4 hour drive to my sister's house in Nyack, NY.

Tomorrow gets a little tougher as I try to get to Knoxville which is about 730 miles from here. On the way to the Cape I did 910 miles (Nashville to NY) in one day and I'm not very interested in trying to break that record anytime soon.

More from the road if I find anything interesting....

2 Person Show at Blue Heron Gallery

First of all...Yes, I know it's been a while.

Clearly I should try to get back to writing again. I have big plans for the fall in the studio and I'd really like to make blogging an integral part of it. More on all of that later...no need to bore you all(someone still checks this place, right?).

The important news is that my Two-Person Show opens at the Blue Heron Gallery in Deer Isle, Maine today! Ryan McKerley, my fellow Art of the Pot host, and I are having a show titled, Contemporary Porcelain Surfaces at the gallery which is located just down the road from Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. I was hoping to swing by and check it out but I'm starting my drive back to Austin tomorrow and I just couldn't rationalize adding another 13 hours of driving to the trip.

Here's to hoping this is just the opening salvo in a return to the blogosphere.

Up top are some of my SkyLine Mugs that are up at the show and pictured below is one of Ryan's bowls.