& Blogaversary Give-away">New Bisque Work Fresh From the Kiln & Blogaversary Give-away
Yesterday was a dreary day in the Denver metro region. We received about 2″ of rain in less than a 24 hour period. While I’m not complaining about the moisture because Colorado sure can use it to replensish the aquifers, I was happy to wake up to clearing skies this morning. I celebrated by unloading my kiln full of new bisqued porcelain pots and by taking my dog outside on a nice long walk this morning.
I did spend the rainy day yesterday in the perfect place. I chaperoned a field trip to the Denver Art Museum. I’m embarrassed to say that this was my first visit since the new Daniel Libeskind addition was opened. I need to go back by myself because I missed so much in my efforts to stop the 8 & 9 year olds in my charge from setting the alarms off. In fact, one very wise security guard became our personal detail whilst in the RADAR Exhibition – Selections from the Collection of Vicki & Kent Logan. It was a pretty intense grouping of art from installations, paintings, photography to sculpture.
I wish I could have written down info on some of my favorites, but was too busy herding my charges. I’ll be lucky if I don’t hear back from any parents because some of the art that was represented, from a Damien Hirst cow head preserved in formadahyde to a triptych of a pregnant Mona Lisa with surgical cut-outs to some very anatomically (and some not so) correct sculptures, paintings and photographs. While I personally don’t find any of it offensive and would not shield my own daughter from the exhibit, I’m pretty sure some other parents would. Fingers crossed. You should have heard the giggles and comments coming from the kids. My personal favorite? Headless, 2000, by Michael Joo.
As quickly as I shuttled the kids out of the temporary exhibition gallery, a kindly museum volunteer found us in the African Gallery and channeled the kid’s energy into making a quick art project before our scheduled museum tour began. The kids were totally into it, as was I. They used texture templates and stencils to recreate some drawings based on African art on display in the museum. I was looking through the book (see below) and think I’m going to look for it myself. The ideas behind all the layering and symbolism would translate well to clay and sgraffito work. Turns out the author, Moyo Okediji, is a professor of art at the University of Colorado at Denver.
I’m off to the Art Student’s League right now, half of the ceramic work in the top photo above will be glazed there, half here at home.
Oh, I forgot the whole reason I’m posting today. My “blogaversary” is coming up on Saturday, April 28th. While the custom normally calls for the birthday baby to receive a gift, I’m going to reverse this. If you leave a comment, you will automatically be entered into a drawing for one of my new ceramic pendants – color and shape of your choice! If you don’t want to be considered, don’t leave a comment. I’ll draw names out of a pot this Saturday, the 28th.
Drawing will be at 10:00 AM MDT – I’ll try to upload a video of the action!
Whew, that’s it for now,
