11. November 2008 by admin.

Yes, I know it. Far too few entries, far too dry, a bit too formal…at least that is my perception. Plus, I can’t get past the thought that absolutely no one is reading any of it. But I was brought up short this weekend at the Memorial Art Gallery’s Fine Craft Show when at least five people commented on the blog, and wished I were more current with it. So, some of you out there are reading…I had no idea!

But, lest this become a Sally Field moment, I will move on…

When I thought of the idea of a blog, I figured it would be a way to chronicle the parts of my days and weeks, to give entree to the process of being a full-time potter.  I imagined that people would read it, ask questions, and there could be some sort of dialogue on what essentially is a static web site.  But, I found upon returning home from a day in the studio, that I had no desire to rehash the day’s activities on the computer, that I was more interested in getting on with other things, and generally bored with what I had been doing.  I’m pretty much socked into the studio during the day, and sometimes into the evening, and when I get home, most often get in an exercise and stretching session before settling in to do some cooking.  Not the stuff that the producers of Entertainment Tonight are looking for…  So, what to do?

Those of you that know me personally know that I am never short of opinions or ideas on virtually any subject.  My passions run high,  (just check in with any of my studio mates!) and I’m often found mid-rant at the studio, responding to someone on the radio or to something in the news.  So, perhaps some of those rants will get transcribed to these pages.  Perhaps I’ll offend or stimulate some of you enough that you’ll reply, and we’ll see where that goes.

Maybe I’ll just gently recycle some of the ideas that I’ve been ruminating on during the day.  Maybe I’ll share a recipe.  Maybe I’ll think to pick up the camera when something interesting happens and I’ll get a shot of it and post it here.  We’ll see…

Meanwhile, today is Veteran’s Day.  I mostly think that holidays in America have lost their meaning…to most folks they are just an excuse to take a day off, to fit in a trip, or an inconvenience with the banks and  post office closed.  I like to think about why the holiday became that.  In this case, we commemorate the signing of the peace that ended WWI, on the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.  We take that day to honor the service of all of the men and women who have worn our country’s uniform.  I never served our country in the armed forces, though I do believe in the idea of service to an idea or entity that is larger than each of us individually.  So I sat down with my friend Rich this morning, a Marine veteran of Vietnam who saw a good bit of combat.  I asked him for his ideas of the day, what it meant to him.  He responded that to him it means recognizing that freedom is never free.  That he, and all the others, fought, or fight so that, among other things, we could be having the conversation we were having in a private place, without fear of having the door broken down by force by a government not of our own making.  He says he wants it not to be about old vets like him, but rather about those who are in harms way right at that very moment, in the hills of Afghanistan perhaps, not knowing if this would be their last moment on earth.  And without any false bravado or sentimental posturing, he talked about his love of America, of the idea of America, and how if needed, he would go and serve her again.  It was a moving conversation, and I found myself reflecting on it throughout the day.

So, I guess that is my thought for the day.  Now it’s time to go stir the soup and then get on the exercise bike.

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29. September 2008 by admin.

I’m just a day back from doing the Peters Valley Craft Fair in New Jersey. It’s sponsored by the PV Craft Center, and is held in the Sussex County Fairgrounds, up in the hills of NW New Jersey, just a hop and skip from the Delaware Water Gap. It’s mighty scenic country, and pretty rural, not what you’d think of when you picture New Jersey. The folks who run it are quite nice, and the proceeds go to a good cause, namely keeping the doors open at Peters Valley, which is getting harder and harder every year as funding is cut back. Last year they had record crowds, but this year was a different story. While people did come out, the threat of rain and tropical storms, along with the uncertainty created by the financial crisis, seemed to take a toll. The area is distant from NYC, but the target audience for the show is NYC and environs, and I heard a lot of talk about people and places in trouble during the show. My sales were down significantly, and most of the other exhibitors I talked to fared about the same. I didn’t have high expectations going in, so I wasn’t surprised, but still, it is a blow when one’s work languishes on the shelves. People did come, and look, but I guess one group’s interaction with me kind of summed up the weekend. These were people who have been good customers of mine in the past, and I know the really wanted to buy, as they spent quite a while in the booth caressing pieces and talking, but in the end, one of them said, “we’re not going to buy anything today…none of us know whether we’ll have jobs by the end of next week.” I guess some serious belt tightening will be in order, but as a potter who’s been at it for some time, I do know that I can go a couple more notches without really hurting that much. Hard times are sadly not a stranger to most craft artists. It is going to be an interesting ride for the near future.
I’ve attached several photos of my booth setup during the show, for anyone interested.
Now I’m going to take some time to rest and clean up before fixing up a nice dinner at home. All of the show food gets old.

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24. September 2008 by admin.

Well, I just finished unloading the latest kiln firing and it was a nice one! Have gotten all packed up and ready to hit the Peters Valley Craft Fair in NJ this weekend. Given the financial problems on Wall Street, and the hurricane that is supposed to hit the area on the weekend, my expectations are not high, but I feel good about the work. What is also nice is that I made this work while being hobbled by a hurting hand and non-functional dominant thumb. So, at least I learned that I can handle up to about 10 lbs. of clay in this condition.
Here are some photos of the kiln and work coming out…

Hopefully the photos will be here…now it is time to start cooking, as we’re entertaining Julia Galloway for dinner. The poor woman doesn’t get enough home cooking, so from time to time we try to give her a good meal. The weather here is incredible, so it’s time for a BBQ with lots of salads and veggies and home made apple pie.

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12. September 2008 by admin.

There’s been a lot going on recently, and I’ve just not really had the time or energy to get back here.

This past weekend saw the Clothesline Art Festival come and go at the Memorial Art Gallery grounds in Rochester.  The weather was iffy on Saturday, but people still came and bought.  Sunday’s weather was glorious and the grounds were packed.  This was especially encouraging for a couple of reasons–first, and most obvious, it meant more sales for everyone showing there…secondly, it meant that the public had given a vote of support for all of the changes that have been made to the show in the past year, with the aim of revitalizing it and bringing it back to where it once was, in terms of attendance and stature.  As one of the members of the committee planning and running the event (the committee is a new idea, as is the presence of an actual working artist there), I had a vested interest in seeing things happen there.  I’d been pushing for changes, and being that the committee chair, Karen Stolt, is a wonderfully open person about it all, and that the committee members are really working for a better production, a lot of good things were in the works.  In order to justify them to the powers-that-be, it was necessary for us to show that the public approved, in terms of attendance and sales.  After all, the event is the museum’s principal fund-raising event for the year, and their bottom line is amount of $$ coming in and positive buzz for the museum.  I hope that all was accomplished on both fronts…we’ll see next Tuesday when we have our first meeting to debrief and run numbers.  Among the changes…a lessening in the admission fees for the public from $7 to $5, with a dollar further off for pre-sale tickets or museum members.  We added another entertainment stage and boosted the number of performances there, with the Mambo Kings presenting the grand finale from the main stage on Sunday afternoon, which really had the place rocking.  We pretty much totally reconfigured the shape of the show, moving many artists around from their accustomed places, in order to facilitate patron traffic and get rid of some of the cul-de-sacs and small confusing areas that had existed previously.  We boosted our advertising and publicity efforts, juried the exhibitors more stringently and expanded the area from which artists could apply.  As you can imagine, all of these changes served to make a lot of people uncomfortable, on all fronts.  Essentially, people seem to shy away from change, and we really had to work hard to sell it all.  So, we’ll see on Tuesday whether we’ll be allowed to continue to proceed in our direction, or whether things will go back to the old status quo.  Stay tuned…

I’ve also ordered a new, computer controlled electric kiln for my studio mates use.  If all works out today, I’ll go and pick it up, and try to get it installed soon.  That should increase the number of options available to them in terms of firing their work.  It means more expensive firings for them, but hopefully the results will justify it. My aim with my “associates” (as I call my studio mates…I’m the leaseholder on the space and they pay me rent) is to give them an environment and the tools to make the best pots they can make.

Lastly, I guess, would be the unhappy news that I’ve been diagnosed with arthritis in my left thumb.  I know, sounds trivial, right?  But try working on pots the way I do with that kind of pain…it’s just not a pleasant experience.  It’s been bothering me the past couple of weeks, and I’ve been worrying about it, so I went and got it examined and x-rayed yesterday.  I’ll see a specialist soon, I hope, and find out what the long term prognosis is, and what measures are likely to prove effective in treating it.  My own computer research doesn’t seem too hopeful, but we’ll see.  I make a lot of larger pieces, and as a left-hander, rely on my left thumb to provide a lot of muscle and support.  It will be interesting to see if I am able to adjust my techniques to eliminate that need when things flare up.  Meanwhile, it’s take the Advil and full speed ahead!

OK, have to get to the studio and get things going.

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27. August 2008 by admin.

…I am usually pretty wiped out.  No exception this time, having just turned off the kiln, even though I fired a load of bisque for a studio mate.  13 1/2 hours for the firing, not much compared to my normal cycle, but maybe it’s the getting up real early, and trying to do two things at once, monitor the firing as well as your own work, that takes a toll.  So, Shelly, here’s hoping that the kiln gods are looking out for you!

I’ve got two kilns of my own to get out in the next seven days, readying for the Clothesline Art Show at the Memorial Art Gallery here in Rochester.  It’s the area’s biggest show, and the largest single fundraiser for the art museum.  Usually it’s non-stop talking with lots of artists and customers whom I haven’t seen in a good while.  Always enjoyable, and a bit different now  as for the past year and a half I have been serving on the show committee as the artist representative.  Perhaps soon I will write more on the perspective given by being on the other side of the ropes, so to speak.  These things are not easy to bring off!

Speaking of different perspectives, it’s rather interesting to be in the position of running a studio of four potters, rather than just having my own place, as I have for the past 20 years.  I’ve shared space now for the past four years, with several individuals, but I’ve got a serious and seemingly long-lived group here right now, and it’s forced me to confront the fact that we all need and deserve our own space, as well as looking out for my own interests as the lease-holder.  There have been some interesting experiences over the past year, but I’m feeling like I’ve got a grip on things now.  This is also an interesting area to explore on the blog in the future, with names and actual events changed to protect the innocent!

Well, I’ve got sweat and dust all over, and it’s time to get clean and then to bed.  Anyone actually reading this thing?

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24. August 2008 by admin.

Well, I got back home yesterday after spending the better part of the last two weeks on the road.  I went out to the west coast to attend a nephew’s wedding, and then my family extended the trip with a stay on Monterey Bay to really have some face time and to continue the celebration of my parent’s 60th  wedding anniversary.  It was a great time, as we are all of an age where it is tough to find time to get everyone together, and distance can be a problem too.  So, we got to spend five days beach walking, card playing, trying our best to imitate the beach volleyball playing in the Olympics (ha!), and enjoying one nice meal together after another.  It was a fantastic time together, and much needed, as it had been a couple of years since I’d gotten away from the studio for any real vacation time.

I had an interesting 24 hour series of flights back to NY from out west (flying isn’t what it used to be!), scrambling to book new flights after cancellations, after missed connections, and dealing with two lengthy delays on the runways (one for 4 1/2 hours when the airport was shut down for tornado warnings just as we were getting ready to take off, and then had 36 hours in Rochester before leaving to teach a five day workshop at the Wesleyan Potters Guild in Connecticut.

That was a wonderful experience!  I had terrific students, talented and giving (and great cooks!), and we were able to make a lot of large pots in a short period of time, using a technique of centered bisque molds.  We had a terrific firing in the kiln to top off the week.  Workshops like this are a true treat: I find that I really enjoy the teaching, and the constant interactions with the class.  Seeing them progress and get exciting about their work leaves me with such a nice feeling.  And, invariably, they are all people I enjoy getting to know.  I always feel as though I come away with more than I gave.

Now, however, it is time to pay the piper.  I was burning the candle at both ends, and feel a bit as though I was hit by a truck.  I’ve got to get down to the studio, get organized, and glaze and fire a couple of glaze kilns in the next 10 days.  So, there is no time to waste.  Orders for galleries need to be filled, I’ve got two shows in September, and it will be petal to the metal all the way there.

I need to pay attention to my garden, do some serious cooking, and stretch stretch stretch every day to get all the kinks out.

So, if anyone is actually reading this, I’ll be at the studio today, working away.

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7. August 2008 by admin.

Well, this blog thing has not gotten off to a jet-propelled start.  Mostly I’ve been too busy in the studio, so that when I get back home and the choice after dinner is to stretch, bathe and rest, or else sit down at the computer and pound out some blog, I choose the former.  And now I’m looking at more than two weeks of being on the road and away from the computer.  So, hopefully things will get better in time…

I’ve been working real hard trying to wrap up my production so that I can have a couple of kilns to fire when I get back, just before the local Clothesline Art Show.  That and prepping for a week long workshop at Wesleyan Potters in Connecticut.  I’m going to be teaching a modified version of the sectional throwing methods that I use in the studio to make big pots and extreme shapes, but simplified so that the typical potter can make the forms and use them in their own studios.  It’s going to be a pretty exciting week, and I hope that I’m able to get everything across to the students.

So, time to pack for the wedding out in SF, and then some down time on Monterey Bay.  I’ll check back in later on.

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1. August 2008 by admin.

I’ve been back from Ann Arbor for about 10 days.  I’d forgotten about how draining it is, how much recuperative time is needed to get back to a productive state in the studio.  It was something I used to plan into my schedule, but I guess in the three years I’ve been away, that memory went away too.  So, after four days of the show, getting up at 6:30 am to prep for the day, and getting back to my hostess’s house at 10 to 10:30 at night, and two days of travel and set up, I’d figured I would just slip back into the studio and get on with my packed schedule.  Wrong!  The first couple of days went just fine…unpacking the van, getting pots back on shelves, booth paraphernalia back in place, processing credit card sales and other receipts, updating my mailing list and taking care of the many bits of correspondance needing to be addressed from show attendees…it was just like the show had been extended.  I was running on adrenaline.  But when the time came to get out the clay, start wedging and making pieces, my psyche rebelled.  I just couldn’t do it.  Every bit of me was calling for an extended time out, a break.  I felt like taking naps at all hours of the day, felt a malaise in me that another cup of coffee couldn’t cure.  It went on for a few days, and I began to get worried.  I knew by that time that I’d overestimated my physical and psychic reserves, but still wanted to will myself forward.  It was no use.  So, I gave into the urge to get away from things not by leaving for the beach, but by doing different things around the house and studio.  My computers went into the shop for a week (explaining the long absence from the website) for upgrades and repairs.  I organized my office at home like never before, cleaning out piles of drek and catching up with most of my tasks there.  I performed studio maintainance that had been patiently waiting for my attention for months.  All good things to do, and necessary, but not what we normally program into our heads.  I continued to fret that I wasn’t “making things,” a condition of anxiety that I seemed to have hardwired into my brain in the struggle for survival in this most difficult arena, being a self-sustaining potter.

But, (important lesson here…am I listening?) we are not machines.  The pieces of us that enable us to make the work we do, need rest, and tender loving care, and maintainance.  It’s not just the drive chain of the slab roller, the tank of the compressor, the fins of the spray booth exhaust fan that need attention.  Our bodies and our minds do too…  Funny that a person of my capabilities finds that such a hard lesson to learn.

So, the show, how did it go?  It was Ann Arbor…lots of people around, lots of sales, lots of time to catch up with old friends, both customers and exhibitors.  It was a grind, but at the end of the day I made what I needed to do to go forward.  It’s a special show…there are so many knowledgeable and enthusiastic customers, which is a treat in this time of downward spiralling shows.  You get to meet and talk with lots of other potters who come by, from aspiring college students to people I’ve admired for many years, like John Glick.  You get to know some of the good folk who stroll by your booth, get to hear a bit of their stories, tell them a bit of yours.  You talk with the people who have spent many hundreds of hours putting the show together, and making it happen, trying to convey your appreciation for their efforts as well as whatever your concerns might be about what could be improved.  You people watch, from the dog lovers carting their charges about the grounds in all manners of conveyances to the exhibitionists who parade about in the crowds, displaying their “wares.”  You become a part of a scene…

I’ve wondered at times about the future of these craft events, these bazaars, which can be bizarre.  It’s a strange way of life, doing shows, but they do have their own attractions, their lure.  At their most basic level, they are all about getting to meet the people who like what you do, what you make, and passing some of your product and your knowledge on to them.  But, they are also so much more.

Enough for today…time to go make more pots!

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22. July 2008 by admin.

 Greetings!

Just to make things clear, I approach this part of my website with trepidation. I don’t want to come across as someone in love with the sound of my own voice, who desperately needs to share every little thought in my head in order to validate my existance. I cringe when I come across some of the blogs others have put up that go in that direction.

I also don’t want to appear to be immodest or self-serving in this enterprise. Granted, there is a fair amount of advertising in the function of a website or blog, but it truly is my intent to use the blog to keep this site current, and to use it to share thoughts and events that may be of some use to you, the viewer. It is also my hope that if you, the viewer, finds something of interest in my posting, that you might feel the desire to respond, and so a dialogue may be begun that could have a beneficial effect for the reader. I would like to add that a critical or negative response is a valid one as well. I’m not looking for followers or sycophants!

When I find the time, and can wrap my muddled brain around the task, I will write a bit about my experience at the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, from which I have just returned. For the moment, however, I’m too involved in show wrap-up, the multitude of details that need to be handled when you’ve been gone nearly a week doing business.

So, I hope you will stop back, and we can begin the conversation…

Richard

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