Archive for the “Community” Category

Jim and Nan McKinnell

Ceramic exhibitions don’t receive as much press as other art mediums here in Colorado and I suspect throughout the nation (if not the world).  Imagine my delight in seeing a full page feature story on ceramic icons Jim and Nan McKinnell in the entertainment section of the Friday edition of the Denver Post.   Even though they’re not originally from Colorado, Colorado claims them as their own after they settled in Ft. Collins, CO in 1970 after teaching and studying ceramics in many different locales.

A retrospective of the couple’s work is on view at the Beyers-Evans House Gallery courtesy of the Colorado Historical Society.  Included in the exhibition are 84 pieces of pottery from full scale work to miniatures just a few inches tall, as well as some of their pottery tools, correspondence, framed and loose photographs.  I’m intrigued by the artist couple - they both shared a love of ceramics and collaborated on nearly everything they made making it difficult to assign credit to a specific piece.

I’m looking forward to seeing the show and have been meaning to go to the Kirkland Museum, which also has a large collection of ceramics and pottery and is a few blocks away from the Beyers-Evans House Gallery.  The only downside of going to the Kirkland Museum is that no one under 13 is allowed entrance.  That puts the kibosh on going with my 10 year old daughter.

After looking for more information about the McKinnells, I stumbled upon the Smithsonian Archives of American Artists.  The Smithsonian has digitized many of their collections and the information is available online.  Isn’t that cool?  The site also has a written transcript of an interview of Nan McKinnell archived, but the audio is not available online.

Meanwhile, I decided not to read Thoreau again, because I’m going to listen to it instead while I work.  After cruisin’ the ‘net this  morning I found LibriVox, a group of volunteers whose goal it is to record all public domain books in the USA (basically anything published before 1925) and make the audio recordings available for free to anyone who wants to listen.  I found the full Walden audiobook on the site and am going to load it onto my iPod Nano.  A list of cataloged books in on their site, but can also be found under Podcasts in iTunes.

As to a Thoreauesque family experiment, I suggested the idea to my husband and daughter over dinner last night.  My husband is interested, but my daughter was sputtering like I just asked her to cut off her right foot or something.

Finally, my mom and a few others emailed me yesterday  to tell me that my blog wasn’t showing up correctly.  I checked it out in my browser (Firefox) and it looked fine, but then decided to open my site in IE after suspecting that there might be a compatibility issue since a similar thing has happened in the past.  Lo and behold, it looked like gremlins had eaten everything!  I checked the html code editor in Wordpress (I normally use the WYSIWYG editor) and some weird code was present.  It must have happened yesterday when I did a cut and paste of my post after I edited it in Word.  Luckily it was a quick fix and nothing serious.

Have a good week,

~Cynthia

One of my favorite signs

Anderson Ranch shares a parking lot with the Snowmass Chapel and Community Center which is tucked into a wooded area near the Brush Creek Trail.  I’m sure it’s no hardship for the Ranch since I’m assuming services are held on Sunday with evening community meetings scheduled sporadically through the month when demand for parking at the Ranch is low.  There is only one parking space that is verboten to all but one person - and that is the minister’s space.  Ya gotta love his/her personalized reserved space!

The chapel is a short stroll over a quaint bridge and Brush Creek

Snowmass Chapel and Community Center

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I finished painting the last porcelain box yesterday and left all 20 uncovered last night so that I can bisque fire them today. They are all more than leather hard by this stage and with our semi arid climate - they’ll be dry by the time I check on them later this morning. I’ll be glaze firing the lot of them on Thursday just in time for the Summer Art Market on Saturday and Sunday. I’ve been oddly calm the last couple of weeks - which is a sharp departure from the panic mode I normally find myself in right before a show. This happens mainly because I try to make too much too late and then end up having a lot of oops pieces because I didn’t allow sufficient time to dry etc.

As a departure from panic mode which is really rather unpleasant for my mental state as well as my family’s well being, I decided that I would make x amount of items by x date and that is all. It may mean that I won’t sell as much, but that’s okay. It’s better than putting schlock out into the world.

I used to compare my productivity levels to other peoples, and then had a sharp realization that I’m in a different place right now. I’m basically a stay at home mom who happens to have a ceramic studio at home. I’ve always fancied myself a “full time” artist, but the truth is I really work at it part time when I can steal a few moments. I haven’t kept a work log, but I know that when my daughter is in school (it’s summer break right now), I work about 5 hours a day - which translates into roughly 25 hours a week. Now that she’s home, I probably work just as much but at really odd times.

I know there will come a time (and it’s racing up to me fast) when my 10 year old will be a teen and will be less interested in my companionship. So, I’ve reminded myself to relax - enjoy the time I have with her because soon she’ll be out of the house. She’ll be 18 before I know it and I’ll be able to spend uninterrupted hours in the studio when that happens. I don’t want to miss anything right now! It’s a good exercise in being “present” and not wishing my life away too fast.

Meanwhile, I sent this porcelain hand-painted butterfly box to Anderson Ranch Arts Center for the annual auction taking place on August 9 this year. It wasn’t my first choice, but it does represent current work that I hope to continue exploring. I realized that I missed a few deadlines and needed to get something in the mail.

Have a great day everyone,

~Cynthia