fuck you.. everyday ordinary

I may or may not have mentioned it yet... but I find lists comforting. Not that I ever follow them... or well not that I ever don't follow them... It's a bit hit or miss. I also appear to be rocking the ellipses (...) tonight.

And with that preamble in mind... I give me a list. I need to start getting motivated around this stuff and make my studio an actual studio, not just another half filled room.

TO do.. for the last week of October:

• Spend a solid hour in the studio (take photos)
• Start making Ava's Apron
• Start pulling together black and white prints
• Send film out.
• Make grocery bags
• Make two rice pillows... for the snow is a'coming!
• Take photos of my clay pieces

And that's it. That's a lot really. I just.. I feel like I have a golden opportunity slipping away from me because I'm not doing it.

I'm drawn to making stuff and creating stuff... but I let the every day ordinary block that. I sometimes tell myself if I was really that drawn to it, the every day ordinary wouldn't mater. But it does...

and we revisit the past again....

Etchings are a pretty amazing art. Again it's one of those two dimensional arts that has a real three dimensional component to it... etching your image into the copper. It's very much like making a tile in clay, only less forgiving... plus! I got to use the dremel tool.

POWER TOOLS FOREVER!

Regardless... Here's some of the work I created. I'll probably never get back into the art form, so I'm grappling with possibly selling my copper plates for scrap metal (hey I'm poor!), but they're really cool unto themselves...

"Roland's Last Revelation"

For those of you familiar with Stephen King's Dark Tower series, this image should be familiar. It was a stretch for me artistically because I don't typicaly draw faces or humans, hence the decision to only put in his head. I became emotionally attached to Roland through reading the Dark Tower series and felt such... well I don't want to ruin the series for those of you who have not read it. It's an amazing series of literature and Stephen King deserves great recognition for creating it. Although, I don't think any one human can create such depth in literature. There's definitely something other worldly happening there. Regardless... this is the last etching I created. I like etchings because they make the paper three dimensional. The stones are raised... and there's lots of symbolism happening and references to events only someone who has read the series will understand. So read the series and understand "Roland's Last Revelation".

"Roland's Last Revelation: Blue Sienna"

This is just me playing with the ink a bit. I kind of like how this version turned out.

"Falling Fortune"

This etching was done by reclaiming a previously utilized copper sheet-- hence all of the scratches. I think I was trying to create an old window with the scratches and frame. The Ginkgo Leaf is so elegant. I love the shape. I also love the tree. It's prehistoric and survived ice ages! It grows in Vermont and sometimes you find a random one that someone has planted. There's a female tree and a male tree, and the female tree produces fruit that smells like rotting garbage.

All of these fun facts lead me to think that the ginkgo is pretty damn awesome.


There were other etchings... but these are the only two that I really feel any attachment to. Have I mentioned yet that I'm not a two dimensional artist?

Sometimes it's important to chronicle the past...

so you can get to the future.

So here it is.

I'm not a painter. I say this over and over and over and over again. I'm simply not a painter. That doesn't mean I'm not drawn to canvas and paint, brushes and water... mixing colors. Okay. You got me there. I really do like to mix colors. It's so science project-y. And we all know I love science projects, or at least NOW we all know I love science projects.

That being said. In college I was required to take 2-D art. Guess what 2-D art sometimes requires? Painting! And pastels and other stuff. I rather liked that class to my surprise. Pastels really are awesome. Oil pastels.

So, here is one of the few things I was pleased with from that class. It's one part of a two part series, that the second part is now long gone. I rather like restrictive color palettes.

There's inspiration everywhere..

The waterfall outside the pottery studio's window is perfect... There's nothing like the state of mind when I'm throwing. Time slips by.