Anderson Ranch Entrance

Oooohhh, after my long discombobulated post last week, I realized that I had to shake the “oh my, what am I doing with my life” feeling and get cracking on my lesson plan and project for the kid’s art camp I’m teaching at Anderson Ranch Arts Center this coming Monday.  Needless to say, I had to stop feeling sorry for myself quickly.

My 2nd kid’s clay camp ended on Friday (printing on clay) which was successful overall and the kids gave me good feedback too.  We didn’t get to use our homemade stamps on the last day since one of the kilns with our stamps inside, shut off prematurely and had to be refired.  When I checked the kiln on Friday morning, it was way too hot to unload so we improvised and tried to do some bubble painting with underglazes on clay.  It was so-so.  Some kids did a great job and then it ended when all 3 bottles of bubbles were knocked over.  Eh, what can you do?

Wolf dog head, low fire clay and nichrome wire

My class up at Anderson Ranch is related to the marionette project I did a couple of weeks ago, except there are no strings and the body will be movable.  I’m always up for a challenge on how to make something work.  If we have time, we’re actually going to make 2 projects.  The first will have clay heads, hands and feet with a soft sculpture body and the second one will be constructed 100% out of clay and will allow the joints of the body to move sort of like the work of Michalene Walsh which resembles an old fashioned doll.  I don’t have a finished project to share because my clay bits are in the kiln right now – so hopefully if I have internet service in Snowmass, I can post some updates next week.

My models

I kept calling my dogs into the studio last week so I could see their features to help sculpt my clay pieces.  They are such obliging models provided I give them lots of scratches behind their ears.    Danzig (dog on the left) was the inspiration for the tongue.  His always seems to be hanging out the side of his mouth all willy nilly.

I wouldn’t really advise this, but I speed dried my pieces in my test kiln so that I could fire them in record time.  Not pictured are the feet and the all clay piece.  I guess that’s what you get when photographing work at 6 am before being fully caffienated.  I really like the feet too and put wing tip shoes on them for kicks and giggles.

I imagine that if Danzig were human, that’s what he would don since he’s a bit of an eccentric (not the boring single colored shoes, but the groovy 2 color ones).  I’m not sure if I can swing it in time, but I would love for my character to wear a zoot suit to compliment his snazzy shoes.  BTW, I think Zuzu (dog on right) would wear Birkenstocks if she were human.  She’s sort of old and crotchety and all about comfort.  That is of course, not to disparage Birkenstock wearers at all – in fact, I wear them myself in the summer.  Maybe I’m old and crotchety too….

Anyway, I’ve been getting ready to leave for the week.  I’m not sure if I’ll have internet service where I’m staying or not.  So I may be posting live – or will be absent for the next week.  My husband and daughter are coming with me – we’re hoping to get some hikes in and to explore the area when I’m not teaching.  I’m really looking forward to the cooler mountain weather too since we’ve been in the mid 90′s since mid June.

Have a great week everyone!

~Cynthia

P.S.  Thank you to everyone who commented and emailed concerning my last post!  I really appreciated it and struck a chord with many.  It’s good to know that I’m not alone with my occasional doubts.