SOOON.

ANDOVER, MA

SATURDAY MAY 12, 2012
http://www.craftsinthepark.com/

Baby Earring Soup, Plate of Finish Work and then Lizard Races

6/27/11 

10 AM - 6 PM  Worked at Cambridge Artist Cooperative in Harvard Square.

Productive and sunny.

Now at studio to finish what I can before setting up for a Blowing Slot  at Diablo tommorow 12 AM - 3 PM to produce special order (Thanks Vanessa and Cueva!) and a few plates. 

Before I go  I will have   Baby Earring Soup:  Needs cleaning before going in the kiln to aneal....

Going to look forlornly at my Plate of Finish Work I cannot possibly begin tonight; from the kiln after their aneal....these all need assembly:

So instead I hold a Lizard Race ... before putting them in their bubble wrap bags and back stock.

Lefty is the winner.  10 PM.  Going home before fatigue makes me silly.

Night All

This project is FULL of VICTORY.

Deep into new lands this Winter Quarter/Beginning of Spring.

Picked up a bookkeeping position at the Loading Dock Gallery January 1.  Becoming familiar with strange think called.... Excel.   Since it does not have flames shooting from it, I have not logged much time with it up until  now in my life.  Found myself in Learning Curve City ....... accompanied by a modest amount of screaming at my computer.  Things are improving none the less.


Another block in Learning Curve City is  ...   Product Photography.  I am proficient in having work finished and available, but if no one sees it, it likely will not sell.  I am balancing time producing to make current orders with making time to get the right shots, for the right PR, of the right pieces ... to keep baiting my hook for new orders.  Oh yeah and eating breakfast.  It has been cold in New England this year.  Cold.  Not my thing.

Purple and Cobalt Jack in the Pulpit, Feb. 2011.  I have Jeffery Engel of Engelfoto to thank for this.  He is in studio A204 at Western Avenue Studios.

More to come.

THIS IS MY LIFE (Heaven Help Me)

Building a glass studio

Whistler House Museum Distinguished Artist Award 2010

Sunday October 17 was the presentation dinner for the Whistler House Museum Distinguished Artist Award, given this year to the renowned Mico Kaufman.  It was my honor (seriously, how did this happen?) to be commissioned to create the trophy.

The Whistler House Museum is the oldest incorporated Arts organization in the country and is right here in Lowell, MA.  As a commission piece, this was an extremely rewarding effort.  This was a fantastic opportunity for me to really get into a particularly New England aesthetic.  The board of directors wanted me to develop my own vision of the piece with the only requirements being to match the grey, black and white color scheme found in “Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1: Portrait of the Artist’s Mother”.  Taking this idea, I had in mind a force of nature, say a hurricane or a galaxy, a force that seems to be present in Mico's work and life. 

The evening for me included meeting and getting to know people who have not seen my work up until then, schmoozing and then eating, without question, the best meal I have had all month. 

burning the midnight oil

My work of moving from the fourth floor to the second floor A Mill started August this year.  Since then I have spent many days and long nights working on, well, everything, all at once.  The train left the station for me and making my business work a long time and ago and I'm finding that a steady momentum is the only way for me to keep this as my full time job (imagine me strapped to the front of that train, that to me is my motivation, reasonable fear keeps me focused).  Since July 1 I've built out the work space and some display, produced for, set up and worked Art in the Courtyard at the Lowell Folk Festival, had four First Saturday Open Studios (HI to all of you who stopped by and saw my work for the first time, I've been meeting a lot of new people) AND produced for and help spruce up our hallway for Lowell's City Wide Open Studios. 

If you were to come to my space this is what you see coming around the door from the elevator. 

This here on the left is what you see if you were to come down the hallway from the C/D Mill entrance. 











Starting here in October I have some new accounts that are going to be getting some of my focus.  My work is now in Downtown Lowell at The Brush Art Gallery and Studios.  Super happy about this.  It is good to be getting more visible in the Lowell Art Scene.

  I also will be an associate artist atCambridge Artists Cooperative Gallery in Harvard Square.  Another super happy with an asterix.  I am not looking forward to parking ANYwhere in Harvard Square.  Just Saying.  More than anything, I have been trying to get my toe in the door here since I first started in 2007 so this victory is a testament to my steady momentum theory.

Work has begun in earnest for my fourth season at Sign of the Dove Artisans Holiday Cooperative.  It is the Dove's second year at the Mall at Chestnut Hill and I will be offering far more of my larger blown items as well as some new jewelry and figurine designs.

Gotta go.  Breaks over.

Oh the carnage!

I am deep into production of those designs I should always have a quantity of.  Based on my last years figures, lizards are near the top of the list.  I had been trucking along for some time on simpler designs like the turtle, knowing I wanted to get going and have some success to look on without a lot of breakage.  Lizards are a trial.  My lizard design requires mental fortitude and deep concentration.  I simply refuse to take a short cut and am very picky about it sitting level and having the graceful curve and perky look I love.

This is the devastation in my scrap bucket from my latest attempts. 


Every lizard that makes it is a victory.