In August of this year, I learned about a collective, community mural to be displayed on the University of Wisconsin campus here in Madison. Any community member could participate in this socially distanced art event, called "Threads of Hope." One could use any media they wanted, as long as it fit on an 8x8 inch … Continue reading community mural 10.22.2020
My youngest child Berit requested that I make a head planter for her birthday this year. Here's the planter when it's still at raw clay stage - before any firing has occurred. Here are a few shots after firing. She's glazed with white shino.White shino allows for some of the brown clay to show through … Continue reading head planter 10.15.2020
Yesterday was the 6-year blogiversary of this blog. I published my very first post on September 30, 2014, using a free wordpress.com theme. Then, for the last two years, I tried and tested an upgraded, "premium" WordPress theme. With that premium theme, which cost money to use, I'd hoped to sell my paintings and ceramics … Continue reading 6-year blogiversary 10.1.2020
Wait Without Hope By T.S. Eliot I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hopeFor hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faithBut the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.Wait without thought, … Continue reading poem – Eliot 9.24.2020
Earlier this year I bought a book titled Notan: The Dark-Light Principle of Design. Notan, a Japanese term, involves the concept of dark and light; black and white; positive and negative. It's a small book of 80 pages, but it's jam packed with great information. As a life-long student, I was pretty excited to discover … Continue reading notan, part one 9.10.2020
Art is a particular madness where you are using a means of communication, which means are recognizable to other people, to say something that they hadn’t heard, or hadn’t perceived, or had repressed. Curiously, it’s only recently that I’ve noticed that I’m still making sculptures in the way that I made the poems. It’s all … Continue reading art quote – Chamberlain 8.27.2020
Death Again by Jim Harrison Let's not get romantic or dismal about death.Indeed it's our most unique act along with birth.We must think of it as cooking breakfast,it's that ordinary. Break two eggs into a bowlor break a bowl into two eggs. Slip into a coffinafter the fluids have been drained, or better yet,slide into … Continue reading poem – Harrison 8.13.2020
Here are photos of the glorious lilies that bloomed in my garden this year.
In mid March of this year, I began my self retreat at home in hopes of avoiding the Corona virus. I haven't worked much at the community clay studio where I typically used to spend 2 or 3 afternoons each week. Midwest Clay Project (MCP) closed altogether for awhile, and now it's reopened with social … Continue reading home ceramics studio 7.2.2020
