Touching Art

Making a Diva Bowl Parts 1 and 2

Would you like to see more about how I make art? Here are links How I do it, Part 1, and How I do it, Part 2. Feel free to comment, and if you like, share something about your creative process.

Anagama firing at Jody's

Yesterday was kiln opening day for Jody Johnstone's Anagama kiln in Swanville.  Several potters had work in the kiln, which is fired once in the fall and once in the spring. Here are some pictures I took in the late afternoon light, which give a feeling of the abundance of this kiln.

The kiln lives under a huge post and beam shed.

Jody and Betsy are unloading the back tier now.

These are some of Jody's pots. A lot of ware can fit in an anagama kiln. 

 

The pots are covered with ash, which must be cleaned. Under that ash is amazing surface effect.

These are my pots from this firing. I made some very small containers for herbs and spirit. I call these seed pots, because I haven't made very much work this summer. I have had a creative block. So these pots seed my creativity. They are Zone Seeds. Thank you Jody for letting me plant my seeds in your kiln.

PS Jody's Fall show and sale are November 28-29 at her studio.

Creative Distraction: A new grandson!

Huckleberry Saint Patrick O'Donnell
born the 5th of October, 2009
11:15 in the morning

21 1/2 inches; 10 pounds, 3 ounces

Pictured here with his big sister, Flannery

Summer Art Round-up

This summer has felt like a summer of little art. I've been busy with other adventures: Permaculture two week intensive course, and getting work done on the house. I've done some art business and tax work that was most necessary.

Through it all, every Wedsnesday I draw with my model group in Warren, as I have for years. The work has been dramatic this year, and different than other years. I am happy with it. I can almost see paintings and I can feel my sculptural relationship to the figure in the drawings.

Since a lot of my summer energy has gone into deep inner work, experiencing life on a spiritual level, that work is showing up in my art as well. I have some simple porcelain pieces readying for the anagama kiln in October. I bought some opals, and I am learning to design and make silver clay pieces that show them off. The opal has a powerful spiritual significance for me. It is from Australia, and I feel a direct line of connection from my land to Australia. The beauty of the opal is derived from water. That connects to all the waters of life: the oceans and rivers, rain, our bodies. The water creates a rainbow of color within the gemstone. The rainbow connects me directly to Beautiful Painted Arrow, my teacher, and his vision of the Peace Chamber. Peace chambers are connected to the Mer People, who live in the oceans... the connections circle and spiral.

Meanwhile, other projects, like an exhibit of erotic art in midcoast Maine, a collaboration for a show with another goddess friend, and the special show of 100 Cocks, are suddently finding support and energy.

Art lives and moves in us, even while we are busy living life.

Here is last week's Naked Drawing Wednesday offering:

Woman with Blue Towel

Today's sumptuous drawing of our Wednesday Morning Drawing Group model, which I affectionaly call Naked Drawing Wednesday. Model extraordinaire Lise doesn't usually offer such a sexy pose, so I made the most of it.

Pastel and Graphite on paper, 12 by 16 inches, $250

More from Wednesday's Naked Drawing group

Last week's produce!

 

Naked Drawing Wednesday

My summer drawing group has resumed for the season. In a few minutes I will join my friends to draw the irrepressible Lise, model extraordinaire. She's inspiring me to color this season. Here's a couple from last week.

Love Medicine Again

In 2007, my friend Bill Anderson hosted a show of my work at his Yellow House Studio. As I prepared work for that show, Bill brought his camera to my studio and shot a video of me making work and talking about Love Medicine. I'd like to thank Bill again for his work, and share the video with you again. Video is a powerful way to connect.

20 Hour Challenge

Since completing the Galaxy Lover Series and posting the video over a month ago, I have planted the garden, rebuilt two sweat lodges, and completed a simple gift series of small bowls, a warm-up to some more experiments with porcelain and fine silver, which I intend to enter into a juried show, deadline next week.

Last week I loaded the kiln, plugged it in and turned it on. Nothing happened. This evening I finally realized the undecipherable error code is tC, meaning I may need to install a new thermocouple. I can do that. I may even have one in a drawer. Still, the past month has been fits and starts, that neutral zone between passionate engagement with work and the next "zone".

Then I read today's Fine Art Views from Clint Watson. Regular contributor, painter Lori Woodward Simons, remarked on her 20 hour a week challenge. She challenged herself to spend 20 hours per week on focus work in her studio, and twittered about it. Soon a movement had begun, and I am hitching my wagon to that train. What ever it takes to get me into the zone. The only thing that works is work.

I'll keep you posted.

Galaxy Lover - Hope Peace Chamber

I just finished this series about the Birth of Hope Peace Chamber. I've worked on it for three years, and intensely for the past 6 weeks. The video tells the story.

Whale Mural in Loreto

The whale mural for the Visitor's Center at GEA is well underway. I am pleased with how it is coming along, and so is Fernando. However I am running out of time. I am perhaps 70% finished, and I only have one more day in Loreto. I am looking into the possibility of changing my tickets, extending my stay by a week in order to finish, and perhaps, get onto the water to see the whales again.

 

These 10 days of painting the mural have been intense in a beautiful way. I had to spend several days getting to know the animals through books, and through the photo and video archive that GEA has collected for the past dozen or so years. I filled a sketchbook with drawings, and began to sketch out the images of whales that I wanted to show on the mural. Finally I began to apply paint.

Then, came Sunday and my day on the Sea of Cortes with the blue whales. With that extraordinary day of dozens of whale sightings, I had my own photos as resource for the mural. Back to the drawing board!

Whales are surprisingly difficult to paint. They are curved, reflective, patterned, and wet. They seem to be large, simple submarine shaped beings, until I start drawing them and discover the complex curves, muscular definition, and tricky foreshortening. Their noses are particularly challenging.

I am into it now. The individuals I am drawing are coming to life in the painted water. The water itself is a revelation. Whales leave their marks upon the surface, and the only way to know that is to see it.

I am exhausted and exhilarated. I have been given 10 days to focus on artmaking, and I may give myself 7 more. It is a gift my ordinary life rarely allows. I want to stop and rest, I want to go home, I can't leave until it is done. My desire to see this piece finished, my curiosity to see this piece finished, is more powerful than fear, than homesickness, than money worries.

I will stay, and the mural will be beautiful. This art experience is changing me in ways I cannot yet know.

By the way, the pictures are details of the mural that are feeling almost complete.