New Site, New Blog, New Address

And, just like that the new site is live! I hope you'll check it out and keep following the blog which now exists within the new site. Click on over and let me know what you think!

You can always follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

Finally...

No, I haven’t disappeared from the internet completely. I have been reading and following the pottery world. I’ve just been hiding from Blogger by spending my computer time on the Kreeger Pottery Facebook page and Twitter. Over the past few weeks I’ve also been working on my new website with, gasp, a web designer. I also recently completed a photo shoot with an incredible photographer here in Austin, Raychel Deppe from Applebox Imaging. She took the photo on the right and a lot of the images on my new site were part of that shoot.

We also recently finished another successful year of the Art of the Pot Studio Tour and we are already onto planning the next one. This marked the culmination a lot of hard work while creating my new body of work. The move to Austin back in 2009 brought with it many challenges but mostly, it was working in a new studio, a new city, a new firing method and with new materials.

This year’s Art of the Pot felt like the official unveiling of my new work. I’ve been showing and selling work the past 2 years at some craft shows and other events throughout Texas. Images of the new work have also been floating around the internet on my Twitter feed and Facebook page. Unlike your traditional craft show or gallery exhibit, Art of the Pot brings a highly educated and eager crowd out to see only clay. In addition, the work is surrounded by 15 other top quality artists who have brought their newest wares to town. My friend and AotP partner Lisa Orr likes to say our guests are the rock stars of the ceramics world. Looking at our guests this year, it’s easy to see why she says that. With all that work in town, it is daunting to see how ones own work holds up among the crowd of beautiful objects.

I was very proud of my work and I truly felt as though it was the most solid body of work I’ve had since our move to Austin back in 2009. It’s close to where I want it to be...not quite there yet but very, very close. I’m in the editing stage in my creative process. I will start subtracting the elements that don’t work and will be left with only the objects that make sense, both on their own as well as with the work around it. This next step is a difficult one and I almost feel like it’s a break with how I’ve worked as a potter for the last 15 years.

I’ve always put my body of work together by creating a series of one form, leading to the next; a run of pitchers, then a run of vases, then some mugs and so on. At some point I realize I’m low on larger forms so I try to scale something up. Then I remember the small cups I wanted to make or that I’ve forgotten the small plates that I wanted to have at the show. I’m realizing that I’ve always approached a show or deadline as a potter trying to fill a kiln. It’s a noble approach and may work for some but with the direction my work has been heading, I’m not sure if it’s the right way for my work to keep evolving.

It’s time for me to change how I look at an object. I need to look more closely at it’s purpose, it’s design and how it relates to the other objects I want to make. I think this simplifying of my work even more will allow even more subtle complexities to be exposed. It’s another big change but I’m looking forward to seeing how it develops within my studio.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be filling orders, finishing the build-out on my new website, shipping work off to galleries and try to get a head start on some ideas that have been percolating for quite some time. In the meantime, I’ll let you know when the new website is ready...it’s going to be pretty amazing...and I’ll be back to blogging within the new site. And hey, for a final blog post on Blogger, this wasn’t too bad, right?

In the meantime, click over to the Kreeger Pottery Facebook page or my Twitter Feed to stay up to date....and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter to get news and promos for the new website.

E.A.S.T. Awesomeness Part 1

My studio complex is full of a variety of artists. I had no clue this wheel of awesomeness was being built.

Sorry for the iPhone quality video but it's all I had at the moment.

I'll report more on E.A.S.T. tomorrow but I'm beat and it's late. Short version is today was great and the Cobra Party was a huge success!

Party Time!

It's almost time for the East Austin Studio Tour!

My studio complex is having a big party...so big that we have a flyer with a snake on it!

Drinks, Music & Art are available so we'll see you there. Cobra Show info is here.

My studio is open only during the first weekend of E.A.S.T. so don't miss out!

And so you don't have an excuse...here's a google map to get you here:

View Larger Map

Mariachi Tuesday

This weekend was one of my favorite weekends of the year, Fun Fun Fun Fest. As expected, it was awesome. Austin is known for the ACL Festival and that is all well and good. FFF is on much smaller with a much broader mix of music that ranges from Hip Hop to Indie Rock to Hardcore Punk. I'm not nearly as punk as I used to be, and that was debatable at the time. I did have a skateboard, a wallet chain and pink hair but that only counts for so much.

What FFF offers is a great mix of bands that I never thought of seeing, never thought I'd see and was too scared to go see when I was a wee little one pretending to be punk. I kept trying to stay at the Orange Stage and check out the newest and coolest Indie buzz bands but the shreiks and noise from the Hardcore Black stage kept sucking me in. I did miss a few bands that I was dying to see and even missed the Air Sex World Championships...think Air Guitar but with..nevermind, you've got it. (I was going to provide a link but I'll let all interested parties search for it on their own....this is afterall, supposed to be a blog about pottery)

I didn't see Mariachi El Bronx, the side project of The Bronx but I wish I had. I did catch some of The Bronx set, albeit way in the back away from the pit.

So, here's some Mariachi and some Hardcore to end your Tuesday with. The Bronx hardcore set isn't my style but to point out the contrast, I thought I'd include it.

E.A.S.T. 2010

The E.A.S.T. Catalog is finally out! I'm on page 60 (older celadon ware image) and my studio is location #59. You can pick up the catalog around town and check it out online here.

Don't forget that the Cobra Studios is going to be full of awesomeness this weekend. I'll only be showing the first weekend but the rest of my studio complex will be open both weekends. More info on the Cobra Show & Party here.

Buraka Som Sistema

It's a double-header musical start to Tuesday.

I caught some of the Buraka Som Sistema act at the FunFunFun Fest last November and it was fantastic. I had never heard of them which made it even better to discover something new and awesome at a live show.

I'm looking forward to the FFF Fest this year because it's a great sized festival (not too big) and it always has an amazing line-up of punk, hip-hop, indie-rock and more. It's also a great mix of bands you know, bands you knew and bands you're glad you found out about. Devo, Deerhunter, The Hold Steady, Slick Rick and Bad Religion are just a few bands I'll be catching at this year's festival.

As soon as my ridiculously busy October is done I'll be taking a weekend full of Fun Fun Fun.

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.

Art of the Pot

The Art of the Pot studio tour is this weekend! I'm now officially going to be hosting this year and can't wait for the tour to begin. We're all busy getting ready for it and our friend and patron Judy Gordon went on the local CBS affiliate's afternoon show with our wares to let everyone know about the tour. Pretty cool to make the news. You can see the clip here.

I'll be at Domy Books on East Cesar Chavez along with fellow AOTP Host Chris Campbell. We'll have guest artists Charity Davis-Woodard and Amy Halko along with us. For more AOTP info check out the website.

Tomorrow I'm picking up my friend Mark Shapiro. Mark is here for the tour as a guest artist at Claudia Reese's studio. He'll also be one of the speakers at the Pottery Confidential Lecture at City Hall Thursday night. More info here.

I'll try to get some pics up throughout the weekend. It will be more likely done on Facebook or Twitter but I'll see if I can at least get a few up here too.

Sneak Preview

I'm just about ready for the big show this weekend. Art City Austin is Saturday 4/24 & Sunday 4/25. I just need to clean up a few things and pack up some pots. I'll be setting up tomorrow night and ready for a beautiful weekend in Downtown Austin.

Here are a few sneak preview pics of the new decal wares. My email newsletter went out today. If you didn't get it, sign up on the right hand side of the blog or on my website. That way you won't miss out on any future announcements.

I'm in Booth 304 this weekend near the corner of Guadalupe and Cesar Chavez.

See you there!

Glazing with Yeasayer

Sunday night I went to see Yeasayer at La Zona Rosa. I've been listening to them a lot since I saw them at a music festival in town last year. The show was fantastic and it's been a constant channel on Pandora Radio for me. Check out the song below and then listen to it some more.

photo from the Austinist.

Art City Ad

I haven't been excited for a Craft Show in a long time I'm looking forward to this one. Maybe it's all the great food I'll get to eat while downtown.

Art City Austin from Lucky Rabbit Films on Vimeo.

Fluted

I've been playing around with some simple forms for this firing. As I said earlier, I'll be firing them in my friend Ryan's soda kiln which will give the bare porcelain a nice sheen and a nice medium for the decal application.

I fired a bisque yesterday and have another bisque-load drying. I'll make another bunch Monday & Tuesday of next week, then the making is done and it's glazing and firing time. Art City Austin is going to sneak up quick and since I need some time for applying & firing the decals I actually need to be ready ahead of time....yeah right.

New AOTP Website!

I finally got the AOTP Website up and running. Please check it out here and let me know what you think. I have a few more pages to build but we were ready to get something new up there.

I used Wordpress to build it and even though I'm still figuring out some of it's quirks, I like it and am thinking of switching this blog and my site over to WP.

Other than the website build, I've been busy getting ready for Art City Austin. I'll be firing Ryan's kiln in about a week and a half. I'm pretty excited about my new work. It's all porcelain, lots of fluting, some squaring and in the end it will have lots of decals.

I wish I was at NCECA...never thought I'd say that again but for some reason it seems full of energy this year. Maybe it's because of Michael Connelly's pre-conference got things rolling.

I Won!

Who said that Twitter is a waste of time?

Well, while I was wasting time on said website I noticed that DO512.com had some free tickets to Gilberto Gil's show over at UT. I was the 2nd person to reply so I won I pair of tickets. In addition to this lucky moment of the day, we were also able to find a babysitter for the evening so Evangelina got to see a pretty great show.

We parked on Campus and I had no clue where the Hogg Auditorium was. Luckily, there was a group of not college age looking folks leaving the parking garage at the same time. I decided to follow the guy in his mid-60's wearing a blazer, a mock turtleneck and a pair of vans. It was definitely my lucky day. Will-Call had our tickets and we enjoyed our great seats and our show.

Art City Austin

We're back from an amazing trip to El Salvador. We went all over the country and had a blast doing so. We went from city to beach, from city to lake, from city to beach and back. The kids had a blast and this will probably be the first trip to El Salvador that they truly remember. Javi and Ale had been before but it had been almost 3 years so their memories were hazy. With all the fun they had this trip, it should be crystal clear for a long time.

Now that we're back it's time to focus on getting ready for Art City Austin. I don't know much about the show other than it's right here in town, put on by a wonderful local organization that works really hard to promote Art in Austin and that it's going to be in a wonderful location. The show stretches along the Lake on Cesar Chavez from Colorado Street to Lamar. I've only done one other outdoor show before so I'm hoping for good weather. I'll let you all know my exact location when I find out.

I'm also hoping that my good friends Abigail and Steven win the TOGS Competition so I can use their exhibition space rather than set up under a sorry EZ-UP Tent.

Art of the Pot

I keep forgetting to tell everyone the good news. For those that don't know, there's a great group of potters here in Austin who work together and host a big tour Mother's Day Weekend called Art of the Pot. I've been invited into the group and will be a host potter beginning in 2011.

There is a great tour planned for this year. AOTP Founders Chris Campbell, Ryan McKerley, Lisa Orr & Claudia Reese will be hosting Ted Adler, Jennifer Allen, Ben Bates, Joe Bova, Charity Davis-Woodard, Sanam Emami, Nancy Gardner, Amy Halko, Brenda Lichman, Mark Shapiro, Jane Shellenbarger and Ryan Takaba.

I'm excited to be working with such a great group and I'm looking forward to being here for this year's tour in a few months. In the meantime, I'm working on re-working their website...and learning about WordPress in the process.

Art of the Pot has a new Facebook page and I hope you'll check it out and "become a fan"

What's Going On?

I just got my formal introduction to Texas weather. No, not the searing heat that we were welcomed with in August when we first moved. On Sunday it was 76º and absolutely beautiful. Tuesday, it snowed...or as my brother likes to say, it snew. It kind of makes sense as the past tense to me now. And today, it was 55º and gorgeous again by the afternoon.

We've had a great couple of weeks here. This past weekend we celebrated my son's 7th birthday. It was actually more like the entire week and he had a blast the entire time. I guess we're Texan now because this was one of his presents:

Although, if we were really Texans, I guess it would be a real one.

A Month Late...

Update, 12:50pm:

Sorry for the image quality on the NYC postcards. I guess I used the halftoned jpegs that I used for the actual decals rather than the original image. More on that later when I get a how to together about the decal.

Original Post:

I'm ready to attack 2010. I may be a month late but procrastinating has always been my downfall.

I had planned a 2009 review but it's a bit late so we'll go with the Cliff's Notes version for everybody...We moved to Texas.

The rest is a blur. It's been a good move and we're definitely beginning to feel a little more settled in. It was awfully strange returning back to Austin after the Holiday Road Trip. Well, a month has gone by and I'm ready to start working again in my new city.

I haven't actually made pots yet but the (extended) time off has given me some ideas of where I want to go next. The year in Austin began with CityScape line drawings and then I moved onto laser toner decals. I don't think I ever posted any pics of the decalcomania wares on the blog so I will put some up shortly. I did post them on the Kreeger Pottery Facebook page though.

I used photos I took of the current Austin skyline as well as used some postcards from my grandfather's extensive collection. The postcard ones turned out to be my favorites. Here's a couple of sample postcards I used:

And here's a couple of the Austin photos I used:

I'm really enjoying using the cards with the handwriting on the front. Most of the ones I used were postmarked in the 1920's and 1930's. There was something very cool about using these artifacts on my pots. I also really enjoyed the method of photoshopping the cards, cutting the decals and applying them to the pots. Yes...one more step to the process. And, we moved here at a really interesting point for Austin's downtown as the City is trying to figure out it's next move in development. The skyline has changed dramatically since we first came here a few years back and decided to move. I guess I'll develop my work as the city develops itself.

My plan for the next month is to make series of cups and tumblers, fire them in Ryan's soda kiln and then apply the different decals. I'm planning on 2 main series, Old York Postcards as well as finding some Old Austin ones around here too. I have 2 CDs with about 1500 scanned postcards so I have some work to do finding the ones to put on. It's awfully cool research though.

I'll take another look after this next firing about what to do next but I'm thinking I have to split my studio mind into 2 distinct groups...decal wares and line drawings. I'm hoping it makes sense to my customers and galleries. I also hope it makes sense to me as I'm working.

I'm glad to be in the studio writing this post. I was ready to put a big old on hiatus post up and wasn't sure when I'd be back. Brandon kind of forced the issue the other day. So..hopefully more soon.

We're Open

Luckily the child labor laws are a little different down here in Texas. As usual, we're busy pricing work at the last second. I'm lucky to have a few helpers today and here's one of them pricing some of the new decal mugs. He was also kind enough to make a sign pointing the way to the "free" candy that we put out for our guests.

We're here 10-5 and hope to see some of you all today.