Capital Arts Commission Accepts Work
I have been in Santa Fe the last 3 days. On Friday Cecil Howard presented 4 pieces of my work in ceramics to the Capital Arts Commission. The 28 member committee chose one of my extruded clay pieces shown here.
The piece will hang in the New Mexico State Capital Building itself or the adjacent Annex building. It becomes a part of the permanent collection of the State of New Mexico. New Mexico is the only state I believe that has a permanent Art Collection. I feel very honored to have this and want to thank Cecil Howard for all his work in presenting me before the Commission. I will post more details as I hear from the curator of the collection.
Technorati Tags: art, visual art
New Work, The River Moonlight
The River Moonlight, from the Mountains and Rivers Series
22″h x 17″h x 3″d, Ceramic stains and glaze on terra-cotta
Tatsuzo Shimaoka Dies
The NY Times has an article here. I have always enjoyed his pots, he was know for using rope pressed into the clay as decoration. It was also a technique used by prehistoric Jomon Potters.
Santa’s Baby
This is why I became a Buddhist:
Ceramic Wiki
I keep all my ceramic formulas in wiki and have decided to publish it here. I’m not sure how this will all work or if anyone will look at it but it will give me online access when I’m not in the studio.
Mutability
More about What’s the point?
WHAT IS THE POINT?
A few months ago someone came into the studio and got pretty interested in my work. He infact got a little excited. We talked a while and he went through my prints one by one. Then he got a distant look on his face and said. Yeah, your art is nice, but what’s the point?” I was left speechless, and the doubt demon took over and I was suddenly questioning everything I had done. “What was the point?” For days I came to studio and was unable to do anything. “What was the point?” When I get stuck I usually go back and make some pots or make something in clay. I couldn’t even bring the energy to do that. Then I found 3 boxes of those conical water cups — the kind they use at office water fountains. Why not make a point?? So I started in March. It made a few over 850 points in all. They have been fired twice, with a ceramic stain applied in several layers on the second firing. That turned into a grid 17 x 50. I thought at first about naming each one, then the thought of some kind of interactive computer/internet program. Like a giant touch screen — with each point setting off an internet search for some obscure bit of knowledge. After seeing them on the wall though and spending a great deal of time on the ladder to get the lighting like I wanted I decided it looked good just by itself.
The Demise of Power and Democracy
Almost a year ago I installed a sculpture for the Weekend at the Galleries called Power and Democracy. It was made out of unfired clay blocks. The intent was it would dissolve over a few months in the weather and disappear. Well the blocks lasted much longer. A few days ago vandals did bring Power and Democracy down as you can see below.
The piece just after it was installed.
The piece about 6 months old.
The fall of Power and Democracy
What’s the point?
This is an installation of 850 ceramic “points”. Made from terra-cotta using a paper cup as a mold.
Each piece is stained, about 1/3 of pieces were covered in wax.
The entire wall of cones is 68″ high, 200″ long.
Mariana Roumell-Gasteyer
Last week I participated in a wood/salt fired kiln building workshop. We took an old broken electric kiln and converted it to a propane/woodfire kiln. We build the kiln in one day, galzed and loaded it the next, fired on the third day and unloaded on day four. Here are some pictures.
Mariana is a great potter see her work at Blue Dome Gallery. Pictures are from Suzi Calhoun at Art and Conversation.
Lotus
22″ x 9″ x 3″, Ceramic, mixed-media and encaustic
The Stone Woman Series
11″ x 11″ x 1.5″, Ceramic
Gawain’s Eye
Ceramic 23″ diameter, 3″ deep
Three Triangles
A commission for a local here in Silver City, 3 ceramic platters, 22″ diameter, ceramic stains, and glazes.
Clay Studio
I dislike working in clay during the winter. My studio is cold. It rarely gets above 50 degrees in the weather we are having right now. I’m trying to do a commission of several platters. They keep cracking and just falling apart.
Democracy and Power - wins best of show!!!
My Sculpture “Democracy and Power” won best of show at the MRAC Weekend at the Galleries.
We had some pretty hard rainstorms and it is starting to weather nicely.
More photos from the “Surfaces” show
30″h x 22″w x 1″d
Ceramic stains, Terra Sigillata, on Terra Cotta
Democracy and Power
Hanging the show — the West Wall
Here is the west wall of the studio. All ceramic (terra-cotta) with low-fire stains and glazes.
Surfaces
My Weekend at the Galleries show will be called “Surfaces”. Surfaces are really what the whole thing is about. The painting surfaces and the ceramics.
Now Reading
Planned books:
None
Current books:
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The Poem of a Life: A Biography of Louis Zukofsky by Mark Scroggins
Recent books:
- Verses from the Center: A Buddhist Vision of the Sublime by Stephen Batchelor
- The Savage Detectives: A Novel by Roberto Bolano
- Georges Braque: A Life by Alex Danchev
- de Kooning: An American Master by Mark Stevens
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