I can see clearly now…
Whew… the West Wash Park Home Tour ended at 4:00 pm yesterday and after a couple of much needed beers, I promptly fell blissfully asleep by 8pm. Saturday is normally movie night in our household, and I didn’t even pretend to try to keep my eyes open. Could it be because I have basically been cleaning, landscaping, painting, sewing, staining, etc. etc. projects around the house up until 9 am the morning of the event?
I’m very glad we participated in the tour for a number of reasons – some selfish and some community oriented. We can now sit back and really enjoy our house because it feels finished, or at least until I decide that I no longer like orange paint or some other benign decorating nuance. Weekends will no longer find us deciding which home project to tackle; rather now I can decide to spend hours in my studio guilt-free or maybe take a family hike or museum visit. The home tour also benefited our community; it rasied money for the West Wash Park Neighborhood Association, Lincoln Elementary School and the Wash Park Community Center.
On a side note, I can’t keep my mouth shut and may have found myself on the planning committee for next year’s home tour. Count on me to be full of ideas – 1st meeting is in October! Fund raising seems to be something I’m good at, however, and it’s for a good cause….
When I began planning for the home tour in earnest, I thought maybe I should edit our belongings to make them more “friendly”. I opted against doing the self edit, because truth be told, our family photos and objects d’art are what make our home ours. Who wants a sterile living environment, and isn’t being a bit of a voyeur part of the fun when going on home tours? So, if you look closely, you’ll see Larry sitting on the mantel. People are either inherently repulsed or attracted to him – there seems to be no middle ground.
We opted to leave the house to the volunteers and left around 10 am with our dog for calmer pastures. After dropping our dog off at my SIL’s house, we went on the tour ourselves and decided – WOW 8 beautiful homes, but we loved our home best! Speaking of sterile, there was an incredible home on the tour with super high end finishes that looked like it belonged in a decorating magazine, but alas there was no personality – nary a hint of color, photographs or interesting art. The couple is still working on their home, so in their defense, it might not be finished yet. Although, I suppose some people do like a calm home devoid of color and noise if their lives are otherwise busy or stressful.
I do wish we could have been a fly on the wall in our home; because good, bad or neutral, I would have liked to hear people’s comments when they toured our home. Although, at 4pm, we relieved the volunteers and we let a few stragglers view our home even though the tour was officially over. One of the people asked if either my husband or I was an artist – or were we just avid collectors. This thrilled me to no end to hear that! I explained that some of the art in our home was indeed mine, but I do buy art and trade with other artists. She asked if I was represented in Denver at any galleries and if I had a business card available. Doh, why didn’t I leave some cards available for people to take??? Missed opportunity.
See my laptop sitting on the counter? This is my office area – where all blog posts, images and other computer related business takes place. I only venture into the real office when I need to print or scan something. Actually, with wireless, you can find me anywhere in and around the house, even the backyard. I don’t think I’ll ever buy a desk top computer again.
I love our orange kitchen! Actually I like every room in our home. It’s a small home and I’ve decided I like it that way – we use every single room in the house including the dining room and living room, rooms that often go unused in many American homes. I’m a big fan of architect Sarah Susanka and her Not So Big House projects. She advocates building and designing homes that use good quality construction and materials but on a smaller scale for how people actually live. Do we really need a living room and a family room? Eat in kitchen and dining room that only gets used for holidays? Yes, you’ll notice in the above photographs that we have an eat in kitchen and dining room…. I tried to convince my husband to convert the dining room to a library area – with 2 overstuffed chairs and floor to ceiling book shelves, but he isn’t keen on the idea.
Meanwhile, I can see clearly now the home tour preparations have passed and I feel like I can get back to my regularly scheduled life. I’m planning on a few hours in my clay studio this afternoon (what else do I have to do?), followed by studio time on Monday and Tuesday. I agreed to substitute teach on Wednesday – Friday of this week, but told the school no for Mon. and Tues. I need to get some clay work in! Saying no is hard for me to do, but I had to let the administrators know that I only want to sub occasionally – that I actually have another life and business to attend to.
I was tagged with a meme last week which I hope to get to this week. I also hope to share fresh clay work with you in my next post – it will be about time, don’t you think?
~Cynthia
Low-Tech Outdoor Photo Shoot for Ceramic Work and other 3D Art
The other day, I shared my macro photo-shoot with you courtesy of my father in law. After helping us with some landscaping and hearing my instructions to leave a certain area of the yard accessible, he inquired, “Why pray tell do you have this table, clips and nails over here?” See photo above.
I leave this area set up 24 & 7 should the need arise to photograph some of my ceramic work. It’s ther perfect low tech way to make semi-professional looking studio photographs where no studio or funds exist. I then showed him my macro photo-studio and he replied, “This would make a great blog post!” I had to hand it to him, I agreed that it would be perfect especially during this period of inactivity in the studio while we put the final touches on our house for the home tour.
The background paper that I purchased a couple of years ago is holding up pretty well, despite a few scratches. I simply take it out of its cardboard container, unroll and clip onto the wood fence that separates our yard from my neighbor’s. I frightened her a few times when I was out photographing work at first, but now she’s used to it and will sometimes peak over the fence to see my new work.
The best photographs and truest colors result when I photograph my work midday with overcast skies. Don’t ask me why, but it’s advice that’s been handed down to me and it works. See how the background is a graduated gray color? The ceramic pieces are also true to life colorwise. I have shot in full sunlight before because I was anxious to post new work and the photo below is the outcome:
Photographing outside in full sunlight results in a blueish cast to the background. The ceramic piece is fairly accurate, but the background turns to a graduated blue because it’s reflecting the blue sky. I suppose one could argue that it doesn’t really matter if the art itself is true to life, but I like to have a consistent look to my photographs, website and blog.
Meanwhile, I returned my clay effigy doll workshop proposal to Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, CO (just outside of Aspen) last week and just heard back from the education coordinator. I have been scheduled to teach for the week of July 28th through August 1st of 2008. I’m very excited about the opportunity to teach there and should thank Jafabrit for posting the Doll challenge on her blog a few months ago. Thank you, Jafabrit!
And who says blogs are pointless?
~Cynthia
& Joseph Cornell Exhibit">Shadow Box Update, Nichrome Wire & Joseph Cornell Exhibit
I have begun work on my shadow box for the Rainbow of Art Auction taking place in a few weeks. So, a few days ago, I crafted this clay house from rolled out slabs of stoneware clay after taking the shadow box apart and assessing measurements and the physical space that I’ll have available. The shadow box I was given is 12.5″ x 9.5″ x 2.25″. Although the interior space that I have to work with is about 12″ x 9″ x 1″ from the backing to the glass front. With that in mind and knowing that I was going to have a dimensional ceramic piece inside, I calculated the dimensions of the house that will fit inside the shadow box – 10″ x 7″ x .75″. Considering shrinkage during drying and firing, this should be the right size to allow a little breathing room between the ceramic piece and the glass.
I’ve also decided to replace the black felt backing with a soft painting background. It will be fairly simple, but it means I’ll have to pull my paints and sewing machine out. Actually, that won’t be too difficult, since my sewing machine is currently sitting in my living room (I’m proud to say, that I’ve reupholstered 2 chairs and am making a slip cover for an old Salvation Army wing back chair in preparation for the home tour).
I’ve been playing around with smaller wall boxes the past month to use as canvases for decals and other image transfer techninques and have been a little stumped at how to craft the hanging component. For my initial pieces, I used Gorilla Glue to attach wood blocks to which I added hanging wire – a solution that I’m not entirely happy with. There’s something I love about working with clay – the technical aspect. One has to think ahead and look at the piece as a whole, and sometimes, these issues become apparent only after the piece is out of the kiln. After the initial hanging experience with my wall tiles and boxes last month, I’ve decided to try another approach. This is an experiment at attaching the hanging component directly on the piece before being fired using nichrome wire which has a melting temperature of 1400 °C. I’m not sure if this will solve my technical and aesthetic conundrum, but it’s worth a shot. We’ll soon find out!
Earlier this week, I wrote about tackling mold making. I think I am going to start off with a simple press mold using a clay house as my model. I’ll need to make a master which will have deeper walls than this one. In fact, I should make a couple, so that I can have more than one going at a time.
Meanwhile, my mom sent me the coolest link – apparently, there’s a traveling Joseph Cornell retrospective taking place. It is at the Peabody Essex Museum in MA right now, but will soon be traveling to San Fransisco. Joseph Cornell was a pioneer assemblage artist in the US during the 20th C influenced by the Surrealists. If you do nothing else today, check out the link to be transported to an interactive Joseph Cornell Gallery! I wish it would come to Denver….
That’s all for today,
