Walking to the Studio

Now that it is May there are distractions on the way to the studio. There is a garden surrounding it that I planted and care for.

A bench I made out of a cast iron grate is along the path to the studio. It is in a sunny spot by the honeysuckle trellis. It calls me sometimes to quietly meditate or gaze.

Along the way I see sudden spurts of growth, struggling young plants pleading for attention, flowers about to bloom, and flowers fully formed.

They make me pause and attend to them. They are after all my artwork, in a way.

 I have drawn the composition and nature has painted it. That is how I feel a garden is created.

The sketching is ongoing - the rearrangement of plants, the new additions, lifting established plants to divide and propagate them, and planting the divisions elsewhere in the garden.

Thern the nurturing - the feeding, the watering, the weeding. It takes time and everyday, almost everyday, I do some caring for the garden.






























Even many of the stones that make the walls for the raised beds or stepping stones for the paths are my work. They are all in flux too, and can change from season to season.

A garden is an ongoing process. It is a place that centers me, replenishes me, though sometimes in spring or fall when there is so much to do, it exhausts me.

From the studio, when I finally get there, I have the view of my garden. I work with its peaceful and intimate beauty before my eyes. I know every plant, every stone, every tree in the garden. We are in harmony.

My Selling Out

Being a sell out means going the commercial route, making things for the marketplace - if you're a certain kind of artist, maybe like some of those I saw at the Whitney Museum Biennial recently. But I, with my clay, am happy to make pieces people will buy for themselves or someone else to use or to display. I want people to like my work and think it's beautiful. Beauty is not a requirement to be in the Whitney biennial.

In this post are some of my attempts at creating beauty and pleasing others.

Here is a  little bowl I made for a couple getting married. I call it a "sharing bowl"

"Edgy bowls" are another idea that I'm working on. I've made quite a few now and am selling them in a local shop, "The Farmhouse Store." 

The store put them in a prominent place, at least now that they are a new item there. Good luck to ye bowls. Go out and find good homes.

A Little More Art in Iceland

Strolling the streets of Reykjavik you will come upon galleries, stores, places of historical or cultural interest, and plenty of tourist shops featuring everything "Viking" that you could desire. It's your choice, but to buy anything you must forget your penny pinching. Iceland is expensive!

















I let myself purchase only one item, and thereafter could only look longingly at the ceramics and woolens without buying because my krona to dollar app told me, "Nay."








My one splurge was a linen table runner, an item I knew I would use and enjoy as a remembrance of my visit to Iceland. It was designed in Iceland, but I wondered, was it made in Iceland? I asked, and indeed, it was not, but made in Finland. Good enough.






There is some interesting architecture to be seen in Reykjavik, but not very much that is older than the 19th century. Reykjavik's progress into the society of travel worthy world capitals is a very recent one.

inside Harpa 

One example of modern architecture is Harpa, a jewel-like theater and cultural center by the harbor. At night, colored lights flash across its outer walls like the lights of the aurora borealis. 

The church named after poet and writer of hymns, Hallsgrimur Petersson,  Hallsgrimskirkja is a landmark one can see from afar, perched on a high point in the city center. Its design by Gudjon Samuelsson was controversial at first. It was 41 years in the making, finished in 1986, and now its concrete structure is in the process of restoration.

The clear glass windows fill the whitewashed interior with light, lending it a modern feeling despite the gothic vaulted ceiling.

You may take an elevator to the top, but a long line in the vestibule discouraged me. At night, I saw a beautiful effect created by light shining through many slit openings in the top of the steeple.





The line of people also blocked some of the large canvases on display that I admired.

I saw ceramics for sale in all the museum and tourist shops as well as galleries. Here are but a few by ceramicist Olof Saemundsdottir at the Stigur gallery.

These bowls were quite large, perhaps 12 inches in diameter, the cups much smaller, all with a variety of glazes, but almost all with a white tint to them. There is something  about white that appeals to the Nordic esthetic. I wonder why?

There is much more art to see in Iceland, but I and my group of explorers were keen to see the country, bask in hot springs and ride the Icelandic horses. But if you don't have our luck with the weather (sunny for 6 days straight) you can spend more time with the art of Iceland.