Animal Actors

They're here! On bowls! Animals and their human collaborators, and they are mostly fondly remembered characters of the small and the big screens from my childhood.

For example: Shirley Temple with Buck of "Call of the Wild" fame.

Old Yeller, the dog from the Disney film with his young costar.




















Here's a really old one. I only remember how I loved this movie with the dog driving a car, and the name: "The Shaggy Dog."

I watched this charming movie with my kids many times, especially after we had a pug of our own. These are the characters in "Milo and Otis."

Every Sunday night, before the "Wonderful World of Disney," I watched this adventure filled half hour of television, "Lassie." Here is Lassie with her pal Timmy. Timmy is in a sticky situation... again.

Reese Witherspoon is a fine actress, and a favorite of mine, so I included her in a bowl with her co-star, Bruiser from one of her films.

I deliver them to ACP next week. They are in three sizes: 6, 8 and 10 inch diameters. Please come see, all you locals, at the Sauce for the Goose sale in Princeton.

More PMA Craft Show

Marvin Blackmore has carved,
 meticulously decorated vessels

Despite my stopping late in the day and being close to spent, a close look at Marvin Blackmore's exhibit blew me away.

His booth was in a prime location, and he was wrapping up a sale when I stepped up, for what price I cannot even guess. I didn't venture to ask knowing full well they would be costly pieces.

His detailed carving and decoration were very impressive, all clearly using traditional Native American motifs.

Although his work is not something that appeals to my taste, I admired his ornamentation, so masterfully executed, with even highly detailed decoration inside the lids of his jars. Very beautiful.

I am including Paula Shalan again.  Two years ago I also pictured her in my blog, but these new tall forms caught my eye. She told me that they go through three firings to get the decorative effects (that may be in addition to the bisque firing), and the last is a smoke firing. Inside you can see the joints of the slabs they are constructed with - she does not smooth them together.

Paula Shalan's bowl-like small sculptures

These fantastically colorful polymer clay vessels are by Emily Squires Levine. I really loved them.


















However, they are incredibly expensive and they are not functional, but purely decorative. She told me that she was inspired early on by the German artist, Hunderwasser. 

They don't have the tactile surface of natural clay, but the detail, the colors, I think, are just wonderful.

Finally, the last artist, the one I bought from - the delightful Elizabeth Pechacek. 

This is Liz.

She told me about her process of surface decoration using wax, scratched lines and color. Don't ask me - it was a long involved process and I couldn't follow it without exerting serious focus.

This is the mug I bought from her. She only had four or five, so I quickly snapped it up, even though it was early in the day. Sure enough, when I returned a couple hours later, she had sold every one

I don't even use mugs much anymore since I gave up coffee. But a mug - you can always use a mug for something. And look how well it goes in my kitchen. It's as though they were made for each other. I just want to leave it out to look at, pretty, little thing.

Naturally, we had to go to the Reading Terminal Market, one of my favorite places; food, atmosphere, friendly folks and specialty shops like The Herbiary and The Tubby Olive. I bought some early Xmas gifts there. 

                                                                                                                                             

A lunch of grilled swordfish, long beans, artichokes and the most delicious risotto I've ever had was served up at Pearl's Oyster Bar. The special, Sarah and I each enjoyed a plate for just $15. No wonder she's smiling.


My cup runneth over.

PMA Craft Show 2015

This is the third year I've visited and blogged about the Philadelphia Art Museum Craft Show.

There were new ceramics exhibitors, and some returning from previous years. Here, spread over two posts are the ones that to me personally were the most interesting and/or loved (not always both). At the end I will write about my favorite.

Sandra Beyer's porcelain hand built miniatures

I loved Sandra Beyers little porcelains, so delicate and carefully pinched and subtly carved. She described the long process of gradually thinning the walls over the course of days. Her approach seems to me both patient and mindful.

 bowl from Thomas Harris

Thomas Harris' sliced and reconstructed forms stood out as colorful and unusual in a field of frequently white and austere vessels in this year's show. I think the photo shows that. In person I did not love them, but I appreciate their novelty and flamboyance.

amazingly large thin porcelain bowls by Larry Spitz

Another I appreciated, but that did not stir feelings of adoration were the impressively large, thin and consequently light-weight porcelains in Larry Spitz's display, "The Science of Clay."

He enthusiastically described his process of making his thicker black slip pieces on the wheel, where the thick slip spreads across the bowl with rapid spinning. Interesting, but not to me very beautiful. The black and white pieces are a bit more attractive to me.

basket like ceramics are by Candone Wharton

Candone Wharton

Ancient baskets it would appear, are the inspiration for Candone Wharton's often large pieces, made with carved coils of clay. Some look as though they are softly undulating like bendable fiber baskets, creating an illusion of being not what they really are - fired clay.

I love baskets, I love clay, of course I love Candone's work.

Erica Iman is one of the young explorers of the clay medium present at the show, testing clay's capacities in all directions.

How thick can it be, what can I add to texture the clay, how can I make an object that looks like it came out of the earth untouched by human hands? These might be some of the things she is thinking as she makes her crusty, earthy ceramics.

Erica Iman displayed cups and thick, heavy ware and sculpture

Ahrong Kim's surreal work 

I came across this young artist's overwhelmingly busy and inventive work in the 700 aisle, that is near the end of my tour of the PMA Show. Despite its impressive workmanship, I was not moved. Perhaps I was too tired. For me, interesting is the word. I put the photo below on my screen saver so I can study it more. Maybe I will like it more in time, or else not.

Ahrong Kim was present, but she was restrained and so, like her work, remained illusive and mysterious.

brown and white dolls heads on vessels - a little spooky

More to come in the next post...

Here & There

So much going on, I want to share before it's over.
I am in several shows, each with a different type of work. Going on now, in the month of November:

1. CoRE group show at Thomas Sweet's at Montgomery Shopping Center with 5 of my oil paintings.

2. This coming Saturday, it's Art All Day in Trenton (see the last post) with my Observation Tower sculptures.






















3. Off the Wall and Artisan's Marketplace at the West Windsor Arts Council.

I will have pastels and an oil painting in the Off the Wall exhibit. It's ready to view now. My functional ceramics. will be in the Artisan's Marketplace one day only, November 22.

4. Sauce for the Goose, the Arts Council of Princeton's holiday show is in December 11 - 19. Here more whimsical (the word my friend Margaret uses) ceramics.  I will show my Animal Actors bowls and some porcelain earring "trees" that are useful yet sculptural (no pix yet).

So I'm still making things intended for these venues. They will be practically hot from the kiln.

Full Speed for the Holidays

the last morning glory, blooming
on the compost heap

It's the time of year for getting work out there, to be seen, and to be sold, if the market is good and the work appeals. So I've been ensconced in the studio, with music for inspiration, and at all hours, production at full tilt.

porcelain salt cellar parts in production

I have used: 1. red majolica clay, and after that a thorough washing of all tools so I can use: 2. porcelain clay and: 3. warm buff stoneware clay. For each a different result.

red majolica salt cellars

The porcelain is for tiny salt cellars with spoons for the Spice Shop, and a new form I've created to hang dangly earrings to show at the Arts Council of Princeton's, "Sauce for the Goose" sale.
Also for the ACP, at organizer Marie Evans request, more bowls with dogs from tv and movies etched onto the bottom, i.e. Asta, Lassie, the Shaggy Dog, and often their fellow actors or owners: "The Thin Man" William Powell, "Timmy," etc. I have made 7 in three different sizes.

The towers have grown in number. I will have four in the "Art All Day" event in Trenton on November 14, plus other sculpture, and functional pieces. This is a big event, with trollies transporting art lovers to artist studios, and pop-up galleries throughout the city. Last year was very successful I heard, so I jumped in this year. I will be sharing a large space, the Modern Demand Dance Studio at 228 East State Street.
http://artworkstrenton.org/utm_source=Art+All+Day+is+fast+approaching&utm_campaign=Art+All+Day+2015&utm_medium=email















So time to fire up the kiln! Outcomes to be pictured in future posts.

Picasso Ceramics

A reminder to self and all potters and pot lovers to go see this show:

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Some-Fantastic-Place---NYC-.html?soid=1103032892094&aid=B9pOvwe4lkQ

Healing Art

Is ART healing? A conference on this theme took place at Carrier Clinic, a local psychiatric and drug rehab. I attended some workshops and the keynote address by Jeremy Nobel, but mainly I spent the day with 19 other artists, finishing our "Window Project," outside in a shady grove at the facility.

I applied and was accepted into the project by Eva Mantell of the Arts Council of Princeton. The theme was "Healing," and I chose water, both salt and fresh and its power to heal the body, heart, and spirit. A couple of weeks ago I picked up my 6 paned window and took it home.

Now that I knew the size and format I made detailed watercolors to size. These I traced on the glass using black outlines in oil paint. Next I painted other foreground details such as leaves, flowers, the white foam of the ocean waves and the waterfall. It all had to dry to the touch before I could go on, so it sat for a good 24-36 hours.

This is reverse painting on glass. I've never done it before. It took patience, always having to wait before adding the next layer, and was challenging because the details were hidden as you painted on the back of the picture.





The painting was successful, I think, and the conference attendees who came around, admired and complimented me on the piece. It was a memorable day. "Healing Water" has stayed behind for auction or to be added to Carrier's collection and I am left with the sketches, memories, and they say, 200 dollars, eventually. It was worth doing whatever the pay.

In a Gallery - at last!

The Arts Council of Princeton has an annual Member's Show going on right now. Anyone who is a member can display one small piece. My "Observation Tower" at under 14" just made it and is displayed on a high plinth in a prominent spot in the gallery, well lit and looking better than I ever expected.



















It is great to be in a real gallery versus a dark restaurant, barn, ice cream shop, or a table at an outdoor jazz festival, all places I have been showing work lately.

So thank you Arts Council. I wish it was always this fine and easy.

Towers

 More with the red majolica clay:

I made some oil carafes. One is very large - it should be called an oil tank. They are the columnar shapes in the middle ground. There are some little pinched bowls behind them. The rest is my attempt at an even taller Garden Tower than the previous post.


















This is the base. I photographed it with a candle inside. It has a ledge that you can see is slightly warped. It is big and heavy and it was hard not to exert  pressure on it as I worked to shape, smooth, carve and incise the surface. That pressure was its downfall because now, level two does not set properly on it.









Here is level 2, the next section, also with its flange meant to support a third level. Notice the warpage.

The third level has not been fired. It had so much breakage that I may have to recycle it

It's pointless to put so much time into something and just throw it in a closet, so I am hatching a plan.









On the left, the top three sections are alright. I have decided they are a piece by themselves. They fit together securely, but since they're without their comrades, they need more support to make a good impression. That will be done with some glaze color, but leaving plenty of the red clay unglazed.

This too has a candle illuminating the inside. Women stand gazing out the arched windows.

So my plan is to use the bisqued sections 1 & 2 and build another level
on each that will fit exactly, then maybe another level until we have a tower. It should work, and I don't have to worry about the base level warping anymore - it is stable.

Mohop; Step Right In

WHAT IS IT?

If you are a reader of American Craft magazine and you see an article about a shoe that you tie up with different ribbons, in different configurations that you create yourself, and if you are a fan of buying handsome, well made shoes, then you might find yourself, as I did, rushing to the Internet and ordering a pair of Mohops.

I opted for the least expensive shoe Mohop made (they're not cheap!), the walnut slide, a sandal, because I was taking a chance in buying them. There was a curious lack of customer reviews on the website. I didn't let it stop me though from making this impulsive purchase.

Note: I guess this is a review, and an examination of a shoe as art and a functional object as well. This is a first for this blog.

The postal service delivered a box with multiple goodies inside. There was a tissue wrapped set of cards, each with a pictured sandal and step by step diagrams on how to tie it. There was a muslin bag printed with the bag maker's designer logo. There was another silk screened (?) wordless design printed on heavy yellow paper. That was mysterious. And another unusual enclosure: two cellophane wrapped candies - a Fire Ball and a Lemon Head. And of course, the sandals: a right and a left sole, and an organza bag filled with striped ribbons.

What a lode!

The soles of the sandals had a slight vamp heel made of walnut, sandwiched between a 1/4 inch of black rubber or rubber-like synthetic, shiny on the bottom with an added textured heel, for traction I'd guess. The foot bed had a silvery-white design that reminded me of one you might see on a skate or a surfboard.

The most unusual feature of the sandal was that there was no permanent upper. Instead the sole was edged with thin rope loops to accommodate ribbons. The sandals came with black ribbons already laced into the loops, and a bag of 6 other ribbons of various stripes, the type I had ordered. Solids and metallics were other styles you could choose.

once shiny-smooth, now dented by gravel

To me the black was uninteresting. I already had sandals that were black, why was this a worthy addition to my sandal collection? To find out its worthiness I hastened to pull out the black ribbons and try another pair. So what was my selection?

I had three pairs of colored grosgrain ribbons that had threads of gold woven into them. I wear silver jewelry, I am not a wearer of gold. 

Then there were three others with no gold: thin pink ribbons with a green dotted line running through the middle, wide black and white striped ribbons, and an American flag design on the third pair.

What should I choose? The answer was obvious. I must choose the flag.

Am I patriotic? Certainly I feel privileged living here in this country, and in this town, and I defend my country when the rest of the world maligns it, but I am not such a patriot as to fly an American flag day in day out from my porch, or put a flag decal on my car, or wear a flag pin. But it was the Fourth of July, the American Independence Day the next day, so it had to be flag ribbons.

How to lace them? I could refer to the cards, so kindly included in the package. But alas! Each card depicted a tying method for a thong sandal while I had ordered a slide sandal. None of these would work. I shot off an email to the Mohop Company to request the proper cards be sent.

the lacing pattern

In the meanwhile, I had to go to the Mohop website and peruse the online instructions for the slide ties. There were a half dozen styles to try - not too difficult to follow at all. There were only 5 loops on each side and you simply wove the ribbons back and forth in their specified order and you created your sandal upper. Easy peasy!

the lacing pattern made ready to wear

However, putting them on was far more challenging. The ribbon had to be loosened enough between each loop so that the toes and then the foot could enter easily, without a toe catching on a ribbon.

Typically, as the foot meandered its way through the floppy bands of grosgrain ribbon, the pinkie toe was the one that got hung up along the way.

Hooray for the red, white and blue!

By the way, if you accidentally pull out the ends from their loops, give up and start over. You will never be able to reinsert it with your foot in the way.

When the feet reached their correct position, it was time to tighten the laces, I found myself repeatedly baffled as to which part of the ribbon to pull to tighten them, as it was not laced in a regular sequence as it is in your average shoe. Eventually, feeling dumb and awkward, I was able to tighten them and tie them where they ended, which was off-center.

Time to walk and see how these red, white and blue beauties traveled. But alas again! They were too loose and I had to sit myself down and proceed again to stupidly pull the wrong loops until more snugness was achieved. As I walked again a few steps, I stopped to tighten them more - and again, until at last they clung to my feet like striped skin. 

I wore them to my friends' house for dinner on July 4th, and they felt good. I kept them on - I wasn't going to go through another session of putting on my Mohops, so I wore them as we watched the neighbor's fireworks display. 

The next day I experimented with other ribbons and other ties. I tried lacing the gold ribbons in and tried them on. All wrong. My feet looked like Cleopatra's, or Delilah's sandals in an old Technicolor movie.Which could be nice, but not for me. And there were three pairs of ribbons with gold in them.

I wrote a second time to Mohop. Justin had answered my first email promising to send a packet of the correct instructions the next business day, so I wrote to Justin. I described my disappointment at the ribbon selection I had received.

Graciously, Justin replied that I could select the ribbon replacements that I liked and he would send them to me, if I would also send back the offending ribbons. I said I would, and neatly looped and bagged up the gold ribbons. The green and the white and the red ribbons with their golden strands looked like perfect Christmas ribbons awaiting packages to wrap. I mailed them off as I promised.

Mohop's site sold accessories - more ribbons and also rings to weave into the ribbons. I bought some rings at the local fabric store that I thought might work, but they were not quite right, size or color-wise .

Putting on Mohops was fun, and it was a challenge, but I knew, wildly impractical for most people and probably for me, too. For now it is a novelty, an origami-esque plaything.  Most attractive to me, and to others, judging from the compliments I've received, have been the wide black and white striped ribbons.

The challenge with these wider ribbons is trying to keep them flat and not twisted, and to get them to tie at the same spot on each sandal. Add to that the time it takes wiggling the foot in and tightening them securely and they are a significant time investment.










Once they are on good and snug, they are easy to wear, and do not chafe or squeeze the feet. They do make noise. The walnut sole on this sandal is not very flexible, making it a slightly "cloppy" sandal.

How long I will be willing to fuss with putting on my Mohops? Will I gain finesse and speed as I get accustomed to taking them off and putting them on? Or will I tire and grow impatient for the days of easy slip-ons such as the carefree, old style flip flop.

Time will tell.

Try it for yourself - could you get your foot in here?

Update 2016: I lost, somehow, the entire bag of ribbons. They must be in my bedroom somewhere, but for the past year I have not been able  to find them. They now have pink and black ribbons laced into them. I put them on exactly once this summer, and after taking a few steps, took them off again. They were slipping off...