Colorado Potters Guild Website is Finished
Colorado Potters Guild Screen Shot
WHEW, and let me just let out one more extended audible wheeewwwwwwwwwwww for my own benefit. I finally finished the Colorado Potters Guild website today – what a relief! I feel like I can finally get on with my life and I’m sure my family will be happier too since I will no longer be multi tasking every single minute of the day. Go ahead – head on over and take a looksie.
The good news about building a site from scratch is that I benefited from the knowledge I gained from all the mistakes I made on my own site. The bad news is that now I have to fix a lot of stuff on my own site – including my – the archive search is broken, among other things. It’s all good though because my own site isn’t nearly as pressing as the Potter’s Guild site. I’m going to make a list and tackle one or two items a day which will eventually get the job done.
More good news to share – my husband was spared the ax at work which is a relief and now we are making a few plans. I have decided to attend my first ever NCECA conference (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts for you non clay readers) taking place April 8 – 11th in Phoenix this year. I think the family is going to come along, but I’m not sure how much time we’re going to spend together. We have friends in Phoenix that we haven’t seen in awhile, including friends from high school and one of my husband’s college buds and former room mates.
We also renewed our passports recently and are planning to take a summer vacation. Hubby is trying to talk me into a European vacation, I’m still on the fence about where to go. I have to think of the dogs after all – one of them fasts whenever we leave for an extended period of time.
And finally, in regards to my last post about my daughter’s solar heat collector that she made for her school science fair – she won 2nd place overall for her school! Pretty cool if you ask me…. She was relieved because she didn’t want to go to District Science Fair (don’t ask me why, I never got a straight answer) and only the 1st place winner gets to go, but also pleased because she won a prize and was rewarded for all the hours she invested in the project. She was also happy because one of her best friends won 1st place which is cause for celebration. At any rate, we brought her project home and we’ve decided to do some more experiments on our own with her solar heat collectors. We saw some plans for ones with fans that are generated by mini solar photo voltaic panels – so we have some work to do. By the time it comes to make a larger version for me, we’ll be all set to go! I told you I was being a little selfish.
I’m signing off for the day to hit the studio for a tad and now that I’m finally finished with the CPG site, I’m going to install my Bamboo Fun Wacom tablet that I haven’t allowed myself to play with out of fear I would become too distracted. I made a couple of porcelain pendants the other day that I thought would be good canvases for some ceramic decals.
I hope to catch up with what everyone has been up to lately in the next week,
~Cynthia
Adios Anderson Ranch and Snowmass Villiage!
My class at Anderson Ranch wrapped up yesterday afternoon and my students worked almost up till the time of our reception at 3:15 to finish their sculptures. Some finished early and then many were on a mission to add as many details as possible to their work before the end of class. I had 13 children enrolled, though 1 had to return home to California 2 days early and didn’t finish his piece.
It was a luxury to have an assistant to help me out in class but certainly necessary for this project. We did some hand sewing which can be tricky for the younger kids.
Craft Vs. Art
In an effort to boost the profile of working with clay from craft to fine art, artists will often change the verbiage to assist in that end goal. For example, pottery becomes ceramic art and a pot becomes a vessel to help differentiate the two. Where do I stand on this issue? I think the lines between craft and art are blurring and there’s just too much happening in the art world to draw a distinction. Traditional mediums are being stretched and manipulated beyond historical norms. I would like to think that the cream will always rise to the top – and that’s true for any medium. There will always be great painters and then there are those who love to paint but just aren’t that good at it. Should that stop the challenged but equally passionate painter from making art? Hell no!
I feel a tangent coming on that I had better stop dead in its tracks! Think about the words though. I’m looking at galleries nationwide that I would like to submit work to be considered for representation. But, I’m paying attention to how the galleries are marketing themselves. Does “craft market” or “fine craft gallery” sound better? Clay work is still put in the craft category, although, I have noticed more of the high end galleries who deal in clay do away with the nomenclature such as The Garth Clark Gallery in NYC who specifically represent ceramic work and artists or AKAR, a architecture firm and gallery in Iowa. Each of these galleries features the work of some of the really big names in the Ceramic Art world.
I think I helped sort it out in my mind as to what consititutes the difference between pottery and ceramic art. To me, the word pottery denotes anything that is functional such as dishes, mugs etc. that we use everyday. The term ceramic artwork applies to anything that is non-funcitonal or that could perhaps stand on its own with no regard to function. Could a wheel thrown mug be art? I suppose so – but it had better be really special. And, finally good craftsmanship is paramount regardless of medium. Who wants their painting to warp or fall off the stretcher bars? Unless of course, it’s suppose to do that as some sort of statement on decay or something. Feel free to weigh in.
I’ve been thinking about how to accomplish the “pot a day” challenge that I posed for myself. I do think that I will make work in advance; the challenge will be in the surface treatment of each piece. I even thought I could bring pots with me camping – some will end up in the fire pit – just to see what will happen.
Meanwhile, my husband and I celebrated 18 years of marriage yesterday with margies on the patio. We were trying to remember who sang “Happy Anniversary Baby” back in the ’70s. I guessed Little River Band, he wouldn’t commit but didn’t think it was LRB. Lo and behold, he had loaded Best of LRB on the iPod and guess what? I was right. It was quite the coup for me, since my husband is “Mr. Music”. He likes to stump me all the time playing “name that band”. Every so often, I can pull one out of my hat. We played the song, and decided that it wasn’t such a good anniversary song. The lyrics are about a woman who leaves him and he’s still singing happy anniversary baby, got you on my mind.
Have a good week,
My Latest Music Obsession – Johnny Cash
It’s sort of funny how music can strike a chord (pun intended) at certain times of our lives and not others. I’ve heard Johnny Cash’s, music before – I mean who hasn’t? I would listen and definitely recognized the music as his, but never liked the music enough to go out to buy any of his albums. Recently, something about his music and song writing has clicked with me and I’ve been listening to The Legend of Johnny Cash in my studio while I work nearly every day this week. I don’t seem to tire of listening to the album. One of the songs on the album is his rendition of Hurt by Nine Inch Nails, not exactly the same musical genre. When I first heard Johnny singing the song, I thought to myself, where have I heard this song before. I just wasn’t putting NIN and Johnny Cash together. Anyway, I guess I’m grooving to his sense of humor and storytelling.
Meanwhile in the studio, I don’t have much to show and tell. A moment of panic set in yesterday as I was attaching handles to 16 mugs I had just thrown the other day. I realized that I only have 1 month left before the Summer Art Market weekend. This seems like a lot of time, but not when I factor in throwing, drying time, carving, firing, glazing, firing again. EEeeeeek, I might have to scale back my original planned inventory list.
Today, after I spend some time at the Art Student’s League, I’ll get cleaned up and head on over to tony Cherry Creek Shopping district. I’m meeting with a boutique owner about possibly consigning some of my ceramic pendants in her shop. She’s a friend of a friend who I recently met at a party. As far as the Louisiana gallery goes – after the initial email contact from the owner, I am going to be sending them some images along with a statement, bio so that I can get the official word of whether they truly want my work. I’ll let you know when I find out.
What are you listening to?
