Ginger Geyer Studio

Ross/Akard exhibit opening

2012-01-16T21:08:00.000-08:00

Here's a look at some of the new work now being seen in the Ross/Akard Gallery, thanks to Bryan Embry and the Dallas Fairmont. "Six Impossible Things For Breakfast" (with adapations of works from the Dallas Museum of Art and Nasher Sculpture Center) was inspired by room service trays...
"Milk and Cookies for Santa"....show below in the studio with "Chlora's Snowman" for a Christmas salon. The gingerbread is modeled after relief sculptures from Autun Cathedral, and on Herod's Half & Half is Zurbaran's "Rest on the Flight into Egypt".

We went to Arkansas for Christmas and got a first visit to the new Crystal Bridges Museum. It was better than I expected, in every way. The very first painting I saw was this one, "Corn on Cob" by Raphaelle Peale. It nicely finished off the piece called "Chlora's Popcorn" which also bears Castagno's "David and Goliath"
Amid the hail and brimstone that fell upon the Ouija board is Duccio's "Temptation of Christ". There is also a scene of gameplayers from a Greek pot on the planchette (the plastic heart-shaped piece that reveals all).

January 7th the show opened. Everything in there except two pieces are new since the big exhibit at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary 1 1/2 years ago.

It is a nice installation, simple, with Gary Cunningham's tables. There was a great crowd on opening night. The exhibit closes Feb. 5th.

Birds over Borders

2012-01-16T20:40:00.001-08:00

Racks of plates were shown in some of the shots from my Fairmont studio. They were my weird collection of souvenir plates from every state in the U.S. Been buying them at junk stores for years. Around Dec. 9th I began breaking them one by one and adhering them to this fancy aluminum honeycomb panel. Pieces from one state migrate to another and the whole thing is a big mishmash, more a salad bowl than a melting pot.

One of the best sections of this giant mosaic table is this one--the great state of Texas, replete with yellow rose and ashtray. The cigarette stubs I made with porcelain. This is the piece that I will give the hotel in exchange for my three month stay. It will probably go on the Terrace, which has a huge pool and wonderful vegetable and herb gardens that provide fresh produce for the Pyramid restaurant. Fairmont hotels appear in 11 states; the kind General Manager gave me a bunch of old china to bust up and use for each of those. But I found the prized 50 cent ashtray in Austin.

The 22 around the edge are the border states. Well, most of them...did you know that at least one half of the states have either a seashore or border another country? I couldn't decide if those on the Great Lakes also were border states, but I suppose they are...after all, you could sneak in from Canada by boat.

All 50 states, in duplicate, broken and put back together. Except one, Wisconsin. Why Wisconsin? How did I miss getting it? Maybe people don't buy souvenirs of Wisconsin that much. Someone suggested I just use a cheese plate. Ha! In the meantime, it got a nice cow, and I am awaiting two Wisconsin plates from ebay.

With a heroic effort, the seven-foot rounder was presentable for opening night at the Ross/Akard Gallery. Moving it from the studio wasn't easy. Colorado rolled off in the elevator, and we broke some edge tiles. I have to come back to Dallas to finish it off soon. It'll have 50 birds from my vintage bird collection on there, and the craggy composition rises up to the center where tall birds hold the only unbroken plate-- the Statue of Liberty. Who says kitsch can't be redeemed?

Whirlwind in the Dallas Arts District

2012-01-01T10:44:00.000-08:00

All I can say, with one more week left in Dallas, is that it has been a very productive, generative time....a flood of pictures as you see here, blending art history with everything else I observe and then wedging it into porcelain....I have loved my big studio. The new friends here--behind the scenes in a hotel, as well as in art museums--the food and wine (parties ARE fun)--good grief I am overfilled with images and gratitude.

Will I ever process these three months as Artist in Residence? Doubtful, but an exhibition opens on Jan. 7th to begin to make sense of this.

Ross/Akard Gallery in the Fairmont Hotel, 7:00--10:00

Chlora goes to the Fairmont

2011-11-07T12:27:00.000-08:00

On October 1, I began a sweet gig in Dallas as Artist-in-Residence at the Fairmont. The hotel is a grand old lady, the only hotel in the Arts District. It is a program that's been active for two years now, with one artist per quarter living in a suite on the top floor and a big studio on the bottom.

October began in a blur, as two unexpected things happened: my sister Wendy in Plano had to have cancer surgery, and my Fairmont digs weren't quite ready for me and all my junk. But Wendy's doing great, and I am happily nested and being productive.

Work in progress: the hotel offered to install a kiln, but that wasn't necessary or advisable. So I began a few pieces at home, glazed them up in Dallas, and brought them home to fire again.

Main piece so far is a silver champagne bucket, called "Miracle on Ice". On the bottle is a mosaic adaptation from the Chora Museum in Istanbul which I saw last summer. It is the "Wedding at Cana", you know, water into wine. Why not the finest champagne?

On the bucket are two adaptations from the Dallas Museum of Art...my former employer, which now I "look down upon" from the 25th floor!

It was SO stimulating to just walk over one block and see the the paintings in person. Frederick Edwin Church's "The Icebergs" is the DMA's signature piece I suppose...I was there when it was acquired and even got to install the fome-cor on the back of the stretcher (wonder if that has been changed out??!!) The other image on the bucket is Dubuffet's "The Reveler", which was also great fun to study up close, as the paint texture is much richer and varied than you'd ever

know from a reproduction. So, I am a frequent flier at the DMA and Nasher these days, collecting ideas and images for pieces in process, yet to come.

Painting Bridges

2011-08-12T12:41:00.000-07:00

Presenting-- "Chlora's Tinkertoys", whose main star is really the 20 little reproductions of paintings going around the bucket (one leftover was stuck in with the sticks and spools).
Legend has it that the Golden Gate Bridge is continuously being repainted and it takes a year to fully cover it with its famous "international orange." Truth is, it doesn't get a new coat of paint every year, but daily its rusty parts are being spiffed up. Whatever, it takes a long while to paint a bridge. I did these 20 gladly, in my Mother's sunroom in Springdale, Arkansas. I'd forgotten how refreshing it is to paint in natural light.

http://vimeo.com/27056611
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x104aVdS0Iw

Here below are the works of art I used, selected as much for their maker's nationality as their composition, with an eye to the collection from which they come. You'll have to look at the four second vimeo (links above) to see where they landed, and to try to follow the connection from one bridge to another.

Whistler/ Canaletto/ Joseph Stella/ Charles Sheeler

Redon/ Van Gogh / Feininger

Munch / Durand / Hiroshige
Jacob Lawrence

Monet/ Kandinsky / Caillebotte
Franz Kline/ David/ Church

Canaletto / Rosa/ Derain

Chlora's Tinkertoys

2011-08-12T09:54:00.000-07:00

What I remember most about playing with Tinkertoys is their woody smell. That, and the frustration of trying to jam a stick into a hole on a humid summer day when the wood swelled up. Plus the sound of the tumbling parts out of the big bucket. Tinkertoys were fun, but you had to lower your engineering standards, since anything was guaranteed to come out wobbly.

A few in-process shots here of "Chlora's Tinkertoys". Nothing fancy about this technique, just a large coiled cylinder smoothed down with a fake floor to hold the spools and sticks. I had an assembly line going for awhile there. What this piece required was a lot of playfulness and painting. Here's my model, a cannister of Tinkertoys from the early 1970's, I think, when they began to add a few plastic parts.

Early on, I knew this piece would be about building bridges, and it'd go in the August Chlora story (which like all 12 Chlora Books of the Month, is continually in process). Essentially, Chlora is playing with Tinkertoys at her Grandmother's after having a close encounter with a pack of dogs near a small bridged creek. She's recovering in the air conditioning, flipping through her Grandmother's set of bridge cards. She begins sticking them on the Tinkertoy bucket with chewing gum, and one thing leads to another.

Deciding which paintings would be the "bridge cards" and go on the tub took as long as painting them...I googled "paintings of bridges" and got lots of hits. Then I printed out small reproductions and stuck them on a trashcan to get a continuous flow of lines from one composition into another....in a top and bottom row. One of the first paintings to come to mind was Jacques Louis David's The Sabines,that gargantuan, complicated one that holds sway in the Louvre's grand gallery. Why? Because the woman in the middle has planted herself squarely between two warring tribes, and she loves both sides. It is not easy being a bridge.

Midway through I suddenly thought of the Crystal Bridges Art Museum opening this fall in my neck of the woods in Arkansas. So I borrowed their big beauty, Asher B. Durand's Kindred Spirits, which has NO bridge, but a huge gap in the woods. Below it, a Redon Crucifixion situated
itself, as if spanning the gap. Once all were painted and fired, they got stuck onto the bucket.

How to Make a Porcelain Vacuum Cleaner

2011-08-11T13:57:00.000-07:00

Not that I'd recommend anybody try this in Arts & Crafts class(who'd WANT to do this ??) but here are in-process shots of "Horror Vacuui"....which you can see finished in the blog just below. Here I am in my cluttered studio working on it, with the "muse" Kirby Classic Model III sitting in the background.

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It began with the motor, which was built with slabs and then carved when leatherhard... with designs from the Louvre's Baptistery of St. Louis, a remarkable piece of Islamic inlaid metalwork.

Greenware is so darned fragile...Bottom of the vacuum, wheels and all.

Then, I picked up the texture from a kilim rug to fold into the vacuum's carpet bag... stuffed with paper while drying.

The motor and bag were enough to fill the kiln, so they got bisqued first. Next, made the handle and extension cord (got to use an extruder for that, fun!) Also, made two blank scarves which are supposed to look like they are getting sucked up into the motor.

Onward to painting on the bisque, or in some cases already vitrified parts fired to Cone 6.

Here's a detail from Botticelli's Primavera (Uffizi Gallery) on the left, and right, design elements from a prayer rug in the Metropolitan Museum.

On the two scarves, I copied Ingres' Turkish Bath (Louvre), and Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon (MOMA).

Finally got a look at how the bag would fit onto the motor...precariously! Obviously didn't fire it this way, but with the bag separate and flat. (on the right is the bucket of Tinkertoys...next piece)

From here on, it was a matter of painting and firing, over and over until the final metallics were applied, gold and white gold together, with a black metallic in the background.

Then, as I describe in the previous blog, the hose and small attachment were added at the end, as separate components, signifying the cleaning out of hell. A few touches of acrylic to disguise cracks, etc. were needed. Title is apt: "HORROR VACUUI".

Here it is, first view in the studio.. left. The bag fell off five times before I stuck a board up inside it, with epoxy. It is now quite sturdy. The whole thing got assembled for a photo shoot by Rusty Jackson. Somehow that makes it real.

Horror Vacuui

2011-08-11T08:39:00.000-07:00

A year ago, we had a fabulous trip to Turkey. It quickly resulted in a photo essay called "Pattern Exhaustion" for the Dallas KERA Art & Seek site (archived in here somewhere). And now, I proudly unveil the porcelain version of this, "Horror Vacuui"...a 42 inch tall vacuum cleaner that looks like it has a full body tattoo .

It could disappear totally in one of those silk scarf stores in Bursa. Or in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. Or in a mosque, where the idea was actually conceived, when I had a glimpse of a big honkin' vacuum cleaner laying in wait.I snapped a blurry iphone picture of that one in the Uli Camii, and have found some elegant pictures online of vacuum cleaners in the Blue Mosque (above). I admire the devotion of Muslims--everywhere we went, people were at prayer. Most mosques now have wall-to-wall carpet instead of individual prayer rugs, and in some of them it is the largest expanse of carpet you'll ever see. All day long men and women pray (in segregated sections) on hands and knees, their breath and bare feet touching the rug....then the residual of prayer is vacuumed up.

First I had to find a vintage vacuum for a muse, and it showed up in a junk store in Leakey, TX...a classic Kirby with enough attachments to fill the back of my car. Remember those old ads of women in high heels and pearls, merrily attached to their big vacuums?

Thinking of the term "horror vacuui"--which simply means fear of emptiness, and is used to describe the busyness of Rococo art-- I knew the whole piece needed to be covered with pattern. With a nod to Islamic metalwork, the heavy metal motor took on imagery from a glorious 14th c. basin in the Louvre. It was nicknamed the "Baptistery of St. Louis" as it was used for baptisms of

of French royalty at Versailles and later Notre Dame Cathdral. Imagine being baptized in a huge bowl full of hunters and wild animals.

After the term "Arab Spring" was coined, my piece in process took on the idea of spring cleaning...thus, Botticelli's Primavera landed on the handle. That gorgeous carpet of flowers in the painting is another example of "horror vacuui". Here's Flora herself from Primavera....

Flora meets Chlora? The pattern on the vacuum's bag is adapted from a Islamic prayer rug in the Met's collection...my detail from it goes around the bag...carpetbag, obviously!

My friend Jamie, who was on this eventful trip to Turkey, suggested that the vacuum be scarfing up scarves....we'd gotten quite concerned for the Turkish women who were covered head to toe in the hot summer, albeit in lovely silk patterns. And Anne and Sarah Jane went to great lengths to get into a classic Turkish bath in Istanbul. So, for them, I added two scarves, one of Ingres' Turkish Bath, and one of Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon.

Not that the women depicted look like Anne and Sarah Jane, of course! Turns out, though, that Picasso was influenced by this Ingres, which is pretty cool since both of them influenced me. As the piece neared completion, another idea jumped aboard. The highlight of the trip had been our last day's visit to the Chora Museum (the Kariye Djami) in Istanbul, which I'd studied in grad school and have never seen. The mosaics and frescoes there are splendid examples of late Byzantine art. The chapel there culminates in an apse with a mandorla shaped fresco of the Harrowing of Hell or "Anastasis". That story is suggested in the Bible in the emptiness of Holy Saturday, the day between crucifixion and resurrection. and is of deep importance to the Eastern Orthodox faith. In it, Jesus descends into hell and cleans it out, so to speak, sucking out Adam, Eve, and other old faithfuls. The vacuum cleaner needed a hose extension. Those boxes of vacuum attachments had been lingering in my carport, and I rummaged through them to find a detachable hose with a long skinny nozzle. I made it with coils of clay and then managed to break the nozzle. That was probably a good thing, because it had a penile shape, and I didn't want it going after the women on those scarves. So I remade it into a small triangular thing--what are those called--designed to get into nooks and crannies, deep down into the upholstery. And the wonderful Anastasis fit on it
just fine.
Assembling this thing was a challenge, accompanied by epoxy and grout, after all the metallics and overglazes were fired on various parts. All it needs now is a roaring sound effect, and then it'll scare my dog, who likes to bite the front rubber bumper when I vacuum.

Also, I have a pristine old Kirby for sale...and it's a beauty!

Presence is Fire, finally finished

2011-04-20T19:29:00.000-07:00

Rusty Jackson photographed the firewood with all the pieces, and viewing the proofs made me decide to alter the piece. The mourners in bisque white were too stark, and the whole set up was too crowded. It was simple to tint the two cantors, which actually made them look closer to the original polychromed alabaster; then I did a bit of overglaze gold on the books and brooches (see my shot above, Rusty's earlier shot below).

(yes, we will reshoot the finished piece; amazing what a good photographer can do!)

Note that the distance between the andirons is wider in the top photo. I had to make some longer logs to "stretch" it out. The newer logs are on the bottom of the stack and the original ones are supported by them. Below it all is a pile of embers and ashes (all in tinted porcelain).

We just returned from NYC where I injested too much art...not complaining! At MOMA, I did get a close up look at the little Dali, copied on top of the cuckoo clock. Yes, those ARE ants crawling on the clock case, lower left.

Now, to find an empty fireplace that needs this!

Time Warp

2011-03-13T16:33:00.001-07:00

"Presence is Fire" , an ensemble that will be installed in an actual fireplace (no burning please, although it probably wouldn't hurt porcelain which fires at 2300 degrres F).... includes a set of andirons over a pile of embers, and newly set with a load of fresh logs. The fireplace figures into the December Chlora story, with home and hearth decorated for Christmas. Above the mantel hangs a cuckoo clock. Like most cuckoo clocks, it drives everybody nuts. So Chlora decides to do something about this.

The clock was based on a Black Forest model sent to us some time ago by our friends the Dyllicks who live in Freiburg. Plus I found lots of others online, most with hunting themes, some with evergreen trees. Your run-of-the-mill cuckoo clock is basically wood-toned and roughly carved. A phoenix rising from the fire seemed to be needed on this one, so I found an image of one carved on an English chest from 1890; nicely shaped and gilded

Since Chlora's Christmas story gets into fawns, I also copied a deer on my clock, and the fir trees. Chlora paints the cuckoo red (of course; she needs more redbirds). And then the clock needed more color and I happened upon a polychromed one in an antique mall.

To top it off, what could be cornier than Salvator Dali's Persistence of Memory with its melting clocks? I painted it over the bend in the roof...hence the title, "Time Warp." This may be the only Dali I really like. It is quite small, at MOMA, and is one of those paintings that fascinated me as a child. The obnoxious clock gets thrown into the fire, in Chlora's story, on Christmas night, along with her wooden train and her training bra. Here it all is in MY fire, the kiln!

In Training

2011-03-13T15:57:00.001-07:00

Another piece that figures into the December story is Chlora's training bra. She received this detested item of apparel in her Christmas stocking and promptly threw it and its package into the fireplace. The lacy little stretch number, size 28AA, was quickly made from rolling the porcelain into an old lace hankie, forming two flat cups, and adding on all those elastic straps.

Deciding on the images from art history was harder.

Three booby paintings auditioned for this role. This contrasting pair from the Louvre got to be the cover girls. Left, Franz Hals "Gypsy Girl", the provoceur of 1628-30, on the right, Rubens' s Susanna Fourment of 1622-25, the sweet gamine. Both of them could use some poetic uplift.

!On the back of the package is a mashup of verbiage from training bras of the 1960's...what odd research that is!-- with the Song of Solomon 8:8 : "We have a little sister and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?...

After her bra burning, Chlora figures she will agree to grow breasts only if they look like the blonde bearing her breasts by Manet, below, in the Musee d'Orsay. Wow.

Chlora's Train of Thought

2011-03-05T13:43:00.000-08:00

Part Two of this large ensemble piece, "Presence is Fire", is a toy "wooden" train. I've got a cute little vintage Fisher Price "Huffy Puffy" train that served as a model. But it had only 3 cars, and it took me awhile to figure out just what cars were needed...all this harkens back to Christmas in the early 60's when I was obsessed with fancy electric trains. But Santa brought a plain wind-up train, no frills attached. Anyhow, Chlora fared even worse, receiving a wooden train. In the December story when she is asked to put more wood on the fire, in goes her train....along with some other items, as you will soon see.

The train ends up having four adaptations painted on it. At first I thought it might be a death train, as in we-are-all-on-this-train-relentlessly-going-one-direction. I explored Anselm Kiefer's huge paintings of train tracks to Auschwitz. Then I came upon the lyrics of the old song "People Get Ready a Train's a-Coming", by Curtis Mayfield, I realized it was a hope train from the civil rights era. The four paintings chosen represent the notion of "presence and absence"--two of each. On the Little Engine that Could, we have Monet's Gare St. Lazare, the version in the Art Inst. of Chicago. Next, I looked for Jesus' cry on the cross, "Father why have you forsaken me?" and came up with a gripping "Golgotha" by Munch, where people are abandoning him.

.Third, on the dining car is the unmatched image of loneliness, Degas' "Absinthe Drinker". I was tempted to construct a small Venus de Milo to put in the absence car, she with the missing head and limbs.

The Little Red Caboose brings up the rear of the chariot of fire with a woodcut from the Nuremburg Chronicle of Elijah and Elisha. I first discovered this image when thinking about the mantel over the fireplace...and it linked to mantle, ie. the cloak, that Elijah hands off to his successor. Different spelling, I discovered! And 19th c. trains were dubbed chariots of fire, of course. Furthermore, my good friend Jeff Smith turns out to have written a book about Nuremburg, says there are six copies here in the HRC, and he brought over a facsimile for me to work from. So on the engine and caboose we have Presence, bracketing the absence in between. Since trains are all too metaphorical, it is all derailed, a real train wreck. "Chlora's Train of Thought".

Presence is Fire: The Mourners

2011-03-05T13:06:00.001-08:00

The next few blogs will highlight more about the sources behind a piece. Here is the beginnings of "Presence is Fire", an ensemble that is nearing completion

For some time, I've had this idea about making a fireplace; that is, the logs and andirons that go into a fireplace. Initially the andirons were going to be a pair of wooden African figures. A Nigerian pair from the Dallas Museum of Art was intriguing--they are the right size, kneeling and reverent. But wooden andirons make no sense.

Then I came across the catalogue for a exhibition at the Met: "The Mourners: Tomb Sculpture from the Court of Burgundy." These alabaster figures are so subtle and expressive, each about 15 " tall...perfect. The top photos show them installed in Dijon, then at the DMA and processing at the Met (kudos to my friend Russell Sublette, who designed the DMA installation and showed me around the show, plus behind-the-scenes in the Hamon Wing that I helped program so long ago).

In December I got to see the Mourners exhibition at the DMA. Stunning. From the 75 or so on display, I honed in on two of the cantors. One with an open book/open mouth, the other closed.

FRAME (the French American Museum Exchange) under the sure guidance of Rick Brettell, organized this show, and they put full photographic coverage of the figures online. See this link:

http://www.framemuseums.org/

I even tried to get permission to sculpt in the DMA gallery, knowing fully well from my museum career that this would be unlikely. It was. Sigh....isn't easy to copy 3D objects from photos. Anyhow, I managed, quite imperfectly to replicate the two, giving me further appreciation of the Gothic stonecarvers whose naturalistic detail is so refined and emotive. And they don't get to subtract their mistakes like I do...

The cantors as andirons are Part One one of this complex ensemble, already entitled "Presence is Fire". It will debut in the "December" story.

The Gospel Accordion

2011-03-04T20:20:00.001-08:00

Right before the Abilene show opened, I finished up the accordion and the box of pastels. Greenware pictures of it are way back in this blog somewhere. The accordion was a technical challenge, one of those pieces that just would not click...until suddenly the goofy title flitted in, and so did the Book of Kells...so on the backside, the intricate page of the Four Evangelists.

On top is a bust of Beethoven, on the end is Hans Hoffman's "Cathedral". And folded into the bellows of the accordion is George Bellows' "Both Members of the Same Club."

Drawing on the Past

2011-03-04T20:10:00.001-08:00

A colorful addition to the bounty of art supplies--this one a box of pastels, with fixative, sketchpad, charcoal, erasers, stumps, pencils. This porcelain rendition is especially pleasing to me because it evokes several works of art from the Dallas Museum of Art and elsewhere....and the main player is Mary Cassatt.

Reformed in Abilene

2011-03-04T19:51:00.000-08:00

SEPT 9- OCT 28, 2010

Good grief, I'm playing catch-up....months of activity I never got around to putting on this blog. Had a small but sweet show at the Center for Contemporary Art in Abilene, TX. It was also a good premiere for the NOVEMBER Chlora book online (which of course is still in process). We used some of the furnishings Corky Cunningham made for the installation, several of the same pieces from the MAC "Porcelain Reformation", plus a few brand new ones.

Carol Windham was my host for this exhibition, and staying out at her Seven Hearts Ranch in Clyde was an amazing experience...I had no idea the land would be so jewel-like at dusk. Rick and I got to observe some real live cowboys at work, cutting through cattle, vaccinating, whipping up the dust.

My opening coincided with a 30th anniversary of outdoor sculpture in Abilene, which brought in my long-ago professor at SMU, James Surls, to curate a show and host a symposium. Abilene really knows how to treat artists right!

Pattern Exhaustion in Turkey

2010-07-30T16:09:00.000-07:00

Rick and went to Turkey in July...fabulous things to see, much to absorb. I wrote about the mix of visuals for a post in Art & Seek...the cool website for KERA TV, Dallas. Here is a link to that essay, which has a slide show of details found in Istanbul, Cappadocia, Antayla, Bursa, Ephesus, etc. . http://www.artandseek.net/2010/00/02/north-texas-artists-in-turkey-ginger-geyer-on-pattern-overload

Also see this dreamy video that Rick made of the whirling dervishes:

http://www/artandseek,net/2010/08/04/north-texas-artists-in-turkey-sufi-video-from-rick-geyer/

I am eager to make a big porcelain vacuum cleaner for a mosque...and found a good model in a junk store in Leakey, TX. A beautiful Turkish carpet will be morphed onto the bag, from sucking up the residue of prayer.

Closing in Dallas

2010-05-30T11:11:00.001-07:00

Dallas has been very good to me. Processing this exhibition and all it delivered will take some time. The final days of it were like icing on a very good cake...meeting people in the gallery, having a photo shoot, amazing conversations with friends, and new contacts. My impressions of
Dallas have certainly heightened--from the Arts District now in full bloom, to the Trinity River project underway, from the heights of Oak Cliff to the depths of Turtle Creek...the synergy in Dallas is palpable.

Rick and Carol Brettell kindly fixed lunch for Mrs. McDermott, Mary Cook, Caren Prothro and me, with a MAC tour on May 14th. It was gracious hospitality at its best.
Soon afterwards I packed up art at Valley House and the MAC...it took five whole days. And then I got to make some delightful deliveries of art to new owners...here's a string of pieces I am proud to say have gone onto a better place! Some in Dallas, some elsewhere:

plus this one, a gift to the Brettells. All art is a gift in some respect, either to its maker, its owners, its viewers. There is a rate of exchange involved that has nothing to do with money. Nonetheless, I am thankful for these sales!

The Big Squeeze

2010-05-30T10:59:00.001-07:00

In early May I started a new piece, and had 5 days to get it to a state of finish before I had to go back up to Dallas. Here 'tis...a big piece of greenware...Chlora's Accordion, drying out.

It began with a bunch of pieces cut out. I tried drying a panel on a curved support (a big oval bucket), but that didn't do.

At this early stage, it looked like some ancient Greek steps... technically it was difficult, as porcelain doesn't lend itself to sharp angles...so this accordion may look pretty beat up. Chlora's main squeeze, no wonder!

Much fun doing the piano section, pretending to peck out a tune. Turning it over to work on the bottom took some engineering.
It felt SO good to get my hands in that clay after several weeks of no studio time!!!!!!!

This thing just grew and grew...is much longer than its toy model that I got in a vintage store. It'll probably have a painting by George Bellows on it (hahaha, have to get corny or else), and maybe Hans Hoffman, for his "push/pull" theory. What else remains to be seen. It is headed for the APRIL story, after the Easter service, when Chlora muses about becoming a one-man band.

THANKS! and Galleries Talk

2010-05-02T11:53:00.000-07:00

Back to Dallas for a gallery talk at the MAC, and one next Saturday at Valley House. When I'm not there yakking, I let the computer do it. Thanks to Angela Morales and Rusty Jackson for refurbishing the website! The wonderful review by Willard Spiegelman is on there, plus the essay by Betty Sue Flowers. The first Little Goody Book by Chlora's Book of the Month Club is online, in excerpts......not to be confused with THE little red catalogue by Rick Brettell. I am busting with pride over that one. He really makes me look good, beginning the Coco Chanel cover. Deepest thanks to you, NOW, THEN AND AGAIN!

At the gallery talk a man asked me how I market my work, and I quipped, "Not very well!" but quickly added my thanks to Valley House Gallery, who recently took me on. Cheryl and Kevin Vogel, plus Laura Green, have been enormous help. They are currently at the Chicago Art Fair and they took Chlora along.

The man pressed on, and I admitted to having part time work that keeps me afloat, at the retreat center Laity Lodge. Many thanks to Steven Purcell and many others there who support the arts and my work there with artists. Then, of course, I have to credit my main patron, Rick Geyer, for 20+ years of underwriting my art-making. My parents, Pat & Earlene Henry also fall in that financial support system, as does my poker-pro son, Adam! And all those who've purchased my work in the past.

I fired the batch of porcelain imprints from the Gilgamesh rolling pin and hope to give these to those who make up my very significant support system. We added one of the slabs to the installation. There is an "edition" of 30 of these in various sizes, called "Gilgamesh on a Roll."
My thank you list IS long, and here are some of those on it:

FROM THE MAC: Liliana Bloch, Emily Cheek, Leslie Connally, and David McCollough. Plus Susan & Claude Albritton who make it all possible!

AND FOR THE BEAUTIFUL INSTALLATION: Gary Cunningham and his crew, especially Michael Bessner... who were underwritten by The McDermott Foundation.

FOR THE CATALOGUE by Rick Brettell, thanks so much to his terrific assistant, Pierrette Lacour, and to the graphic artist Gabriel Dawe.

FOR PR WORK--my professional daughter Larkin Geyer! Also Ben Slade and Adam Rasmus, and Karen Pope. AND PARTY HELP--my sister-in-law Sandy Youman, and FLOWERS--my sisters Wendy Fenn, Linda Dickinson, and Holly Meehan

FRIENDS WHO HAVE CONTINUALLY GIVEN ME PROFESSIONAL GUIDANCE: Mary Cook, Betty Sue Flowers, Kathleen Davis Niendorff, Sherry Smith, Deborah Sokolove, Ron Stevenson, Pam Wagner, Melba & Ted Whatley, Jenny Whitten, and Gregory Wolfe. And so many more...
your names appear on the Acknowledgments Page of the first Chlora book.

Belmont and Valley House

2010-04-22T13:18:00.001-07:00

After the art opening at the MAC, we continued the celebration at the wonderful old Belmont Hotel patio in Oak Cliff. Dallas put on its sparkles and we had BBQ and toasts and a very merry time. Thanks to Marcus Corley and Grace Cook for these pictures!

Out by the Belmont pool, Rick Brettell gave a gracious toast to all who helped with our exhibits. Most of the credit goes to him for making this happen. AND to Rick Geyer, for his longtime patronage of me and my work.

Then, opening number 2, Sunday the 11th at Valley House. The gardens wore their April best, and we had a hotdog fest. And 10 more pieces of Chlora's sculptures inside. Many thanks to Cheryl and Kevin Vogel for hosting this art picnic!

Art, nature, friends and family...who could ask for more?

The Porcelain Reformation

2010-04-22T08:57:00.001-07:00

We did it. We got the long-awaited exhibit up at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary without a hitch, thanks to Rick Brettell. It is odd and exhiliarating at the same time--I never really thought this would happen, at least in my lifetime. What an absolute joy, on so many levels.

My whole family was there--and naturally, we four Henry girls did the loud sister act routine upon greeting one another in the gallery! The Lark ascended from San Diego! Adam from Austin, the Henry clan from Arkansas! And the faraway prize goes to Sherry & Marcus from San Mateo and Richard Osler from Victoria!

The crowd--300 or so-- was amazing and some of them even looked at art!
Ken and Mona Hale arrived on Saturday and his sumptous show of prints and collages was ready and waiting. Both of us were humbled and astonished by the quiet beauty of the installations of our galleries...seeing so much of one's work in one place is an experience every artist should have. And then fill up the room with friends and flattering strangers, and wow, Cloud Nine swept right in.

Installing Dallas

2010-04-19T10:25:00.000-07:00

When I worked for the Dallas Museum of Art, nothing was as thrilling to me as what went on behind-the-scenes. So here is a peek of the installation of my work at the McKinney Ave. Contemporary. And out front, I'm in high cotton...just look at this incredible list of sponsors.

It took FIVE or was it SIX carloads to get the art to Dallas...major kudos to Adam Geyer for this! We had a wonderful mother/son trip up to Arkansas to retrieve several pieces from Tyson Foods and from my parents. Adam's muscles are almost as good as his brain!

Then, at the MAC, here's how it began, with a pile of beautiful unstained ash and poplar...the installation tables created by Gary Cunningham Architects. These are the most elegant Lincoln Logs ever. Gary and his assistant, Michael Bessner put together these tables with no hardware; they should patent this design!

At the same time, I was unpacking my porcelains, from a motley assortment of 50 or so cardboard boxes. A lot of tissue paper and bubble wrap! I did most of the art handling myself, but enjoyed the help of Leslie Connally, David McCollough and the MAC interns. Here, the Director, Liliana Bloch, and I pose beside the scarecrow, which was the first piece to go up.

The unpacking and installing took five days, which was good because it gave me mulling time. It also helped to have my sister Wendy come one afternoon for moral support!Later Rick arrived. Here he points out the poor little porcelain shoe that is the guinea pig for visitors who need to touch the art. We hope the shoe can still dance after this! As work came out of the boxes, it was fun to see juxtapostions gather.Unwrapping the five pieces from Tyson Foods in Arkansas, like the quilt, was like a family reunion.

Better yet, Adam and Larkin arrived, here posing by their graduation gift pieces, also exhibited.

Some gallery views, almost done, with a bit of tweaking on Saturday before the opening...sort of like Turner on "Varnishing Day", I did some touch-ups, and it all came together.

One long shelf, two low tables, two high tables, 2 small wall tables...46 (I think) pieces.

I couldn't be happier with the minimal, cool, humble feel of this installation.

Gilgamesh, etc. off to Big D!

2010-03-31T20:21:00.000-07:00

As I was packing up all these pieces for the shows in Dallas, I suddenly decided to let the Gilgamesh rolling pin make some cookies before he got stuck in a box. With a real rolling pin I rolled out some slabs of porcelain and then used "Gilgamesh Repeating Himself" to do just that...repeat himself. It was quite a thrill to see little Mesopotamian warriors, griffins, Trees of Life, etc. unroll into the clay. I used about two-thirds of a bag of Grolleg porcelain making these slabs that look like cartoon versions of ancient Sumerian roller seals.

Meanwhile, other pieces needed small repairs before packing. Feeney the monkey from "Monkey Mind Marriage" got a facelift. Not really. Her wedding veil broke a long time ago and I had to fix it up.

Ha! These slabs look like the Rosetta Stone or something. Then I had to wash off the porcelain rolling pin. I suppose it could go in the dishwasher. And, get back to packing up 28 boxes of art. Many more have already been delivered to Valley House Gallery and the McKinney Ave. Contemporary. Somehow all these fit in our two cars, thanks to Adam the art sherpa who is driving with me to Dallas. The exhibit is finally happening, thanks to Rick Brettell. AND Rick Geyer, who has been my unpaid communications director for the last month. What would I do without you???

Pie Just Out of the Oven

2010-03-31T19:40:00.000-07:00

Somehow I got into making cherry pies for the
Fourth of July, and that led to all sorts of other pies...
peach, chocolate, cranberry, pear, pecan, blueberry,
lemon, and any combination thereof. For a ceramic pie, you can't beat juicy cherries. I made one of those aluminum pie pans just because it'd show off the white gold. Some lumps of clay then became the filling so that the crust could drape over it in that lumpy way that crust does. Rolling out the porcelain crust and pinching it was exactly like using pastry dough, fun!

Because my upcoming show at the MAC is titled "The Porcelain Reformation", I'd been doing some reading on THE Reformation. When I came across a Last Supper by Lucas Cranach the Elder, it said "pie" all over it...the picture is circular and has a lot of red and beige in it. Martin Luther and his cohorts play disciples and they are serving each other wine, indicating the priesthood of all believers. There had to be a slice cut out of the pie so you can see the mess of cherries. So naturally I cut out Judas. Unfortunately Jesus and John had to go with him, since they were part of the same piece--John's head is on his lap and Jesus is putting bread into Judas' mouth. It should be encouraging to all of us that Judas got fed even though Jesus knew he was going to betray him. Mercy!

The pie needed something more, so how about a pie cutter thingey? It had to be a Cutco "Slice & Serve", since our goddaughter Grace sells Cutco. And painted on it is the wonderful Grant Wood at the Amon Carter Museum, called "Pastor Weem's Fable". Why? Well because it is about the young George Washington cutting down a cherry tree...which was a big fat legend. Story goes that Georgie's dad was merciful to him for admitting his indiscretion.

At the last minute I got really corny with it and added a pot holder that has the words and music to "Pie Jesu". I did not make that up. "Pie Jesu" means "merciful Jesus" or "Oh, Sweet Jesus", and is a common part of requiems. The one on this pot holder is a beauty by Gabriel Faure.
Thus, the title "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy"...and yes, you can hum along to the jazz tune by Joe Zaurinul (sp?). The pie has now taken its place in the warm kitchen in the November Chlora story, and she's looking for the missing piece at Thanksgiving dinner. That story will go online soon...and I will be eating humble pie!

Ex Nihilo

2010-03-02T15:31:00.000-08:00

Hooray! Got all the art supplies finished. Those itty bitty paint tubes gave me a neckache...but they were simple compared to the darned clay box. Who'd think cardboard would be so hard? The flaps on the box (modeled after MANY 50 lb. boxes I have purchased from Austin's own Armadillo Clay & Supply--great place, check it out!) ...well, the flaps had problems with gravity. But all is adhered now and here it is, called "Ex Nihilo"...out of nothing.

Along with the clay box, we now have a small turntable, after a metal one made by Amaco. On top is incised the labyrinth from Chartres Cathedral. A lot of carving went into these pieces--carving leatherhard porcelain is one of my favorite techniques.

The relief carvings on the ends of the cardboard box are from Andrea Pisano's medallions somewhere on the exterior of the Florence Duomo. Naturally, they are of the Creation of Adam and Eve, since this is a box of terracotta clay ("Longhorn Red" to be exact)...

The problematic cardboard flap has a sgraffito adaptation of the Hebrew Brickmakers, from the ancient Egyptian tomb of Rekhmire....you know those slaves hated clay as much as the Creator loved it. Here is an in-process shot and the finished one. The curly white thing is a clay cutter string, on top of the plastic bag of terracotta.

And the real killer was this rolling pin...six images deeply incised into stained clay...from the myth of Gilgamesh. These are liberally taken from ancient Sumerian cuneiform roller seals. Sort of like one of those springerlie (sp?) cookie rollers, you know, but here we have "Gilgamesh Repeating Himself." What more can I say, all that violence just comes back around...

So now the clay tools can join with all the paint stuff...for a table full of "What Art Supplies". In the MAC show, we'll add the typewriter and box of paper to the mix. Plus it'll be installed on a good-looking table by architect Gary Cunningham, without my living room in the background!

What Art Supplies

2010-01-29T11:38:00.000-08:00

The question is: what DOES art supply? That is the one that plagues many artists, holed up in our studios creating things that nobody may ever see, while the world suffers from earthquakes, hunger and war. And yet we do it because that is what we are meant to do. The slim hope in artmaking is that the work will carry something good into a place that desperately needs it. Art materials are messy and seductive; the pull of porcelain is enough to keep me going. The notion that the Incarnation blessed matter makes me feel privileged to work in this material.

In my studio now are several objects in process, all of them art supplies, continuing that motif begun long ago--see "Art Toy Triptych" and "Chlora's Hope Chest", where the art supplies are those of a child. With the recent "Typo", "Chlora's Writing Room", "In the Making", and "Rochambeau", the art supplies have grown up. Three varieties are blended in my work--clay, writing, and painting--and they got intermingled in a coffee can in the recent piece "All in One". With these works in process, a big paint box and clay box, my trio is complete. Maybe. It'd be fun to install all of these items together.

Above, in the kiln, is greenware ready to go directly to Cone 6...several pieces that mimic ceramic tools. The box is modelled after a 50 lb. box of terracotta from Armadillo Clay, my Austin supplier. Clay in the kiln in more ways than one! The other items are a turntable, a flap for the box, and a rolling pin with its handles. Here's some process shots, first of the box, which I think will be titled "Ex Nihilo":

The ends of the box are adaptations of Andrea Pisano's "Creation of Adam and Eve", stone reliefs from the exterior of the Campanile of the Florence Duomo. I've used a terracotta Mason Stain slip on this which should come out the color of cardboard. With the box flaps in place, the piece barely fit in the kiln, and then one of the flaps fell off and broke. That gave me the "opportunity" to remake it...it is now a two colored slab, done in sgraffito, showing the Hebrew slaves building clay bricks for Egyptian monuments.

The turntable is a simple two-part instrument which has an engraved design from the labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral.

The most difficult piece has been the rolling pin. I used tinted clay for this one, as I wanted to do a deeper relief carving. Underglaze tends to fill in the sharp details, so this is an experiment. It took considerable web research, but I found lots of Sumerian cylinder seals, and narrowed them down to designs from the epic of Gilgamesh. So six scenes of that ancient warrior are incised into this rolling pin...it's called "Gilgamesh Repeating Himself." ha! Here it is, the handles to be attached later as I figure they would warp if stuck on the roller now. Let's hope the roller doesn't blow up...I know it'll crack and can deal with that.

Next up, the second half of "What Art Supplies"-- the oil painting stuff. The paint box is taken from my beloved old metal fishing tackle box that belonged to my Granddaddy Brown and then my Dad. Here's a picture of the real thing, which is full of paints I have used since college.

And last are clay paint tubes, just blocked out. It'll be fun glazing these guys! Also a can of linseed oil. A palette and wiping rag are yet to come. I think the paint box will sport an unfinished Michelangelo, the "Manchester Madonna". The oil can has something to do with anointing, the palette may be from Velasquez's own one in "Las Meninas". And the rag may be stained like a color field painting. Or Veronica's veil...we'll see as things progress.

Art and life and love are messy. That's just how it is.

Tooting my own horn?

2009-12-07T18:45:00.001-08:00

A week ago, I took "Chlora's Writing Room" to Dallas to introduce it to "Typo". I thought they would play well together, but they seem to have communication problems. Hopefully they will outgrow them because these two need each other. It is probably all the fault of that awful Frida Kahlo posing like St. Sebastian, impaled on the typewriter paper and still nursing her wounds. That wounded deer should deal with her pain and quit inflicting it upon others. It is enough to make poor Van Gogh cut off his other ear and turn it into a pencil sharpener, as above.

But on a much happier note, Adam is 25 today, and here he is, looking at the just-finished "Mourning Has Broken". If this piece had not been such a technical challenge, yes, I'd toot my own horn. But this golden horn buried in purple cloth has been one of those pieces that has tried my patience. Perhaps it should be named "Mourning Has Broken and I Glued it Back Together". Or "Mourning Has Broken, Pick Up the Pieces." Anyhow, I started this one way back in the spring. Conceptually it is complex, and technically, well let's just say I learned a lot.

It took the trip to Paris to get me excited about finishing it up.. Sitting there in the Orangerie, immersed in the waterlilies (the "Morning" one I'd painted on the lid and it self-destructed in the high firing)... I had an idea about how to redeem the broken lid (shown in an earlier post). Turn it into a mosaic, and toss the pieces into the case, like coins in the musician's case in the Paris Metro. I must say it is mightly fun to bash up porcelain with a hammer!

Also I saw "Impression Sunrise" in Musee Marmottan for the first time. It had seemed quite trite to use that obvious painting on a piece that deals with Easter sunrise services. But, the real thing was much more beautiful and nuanced than I imagined, and it just had to go on there. It tucks into the front of the case and peeks out of the case like the sun peeking over a mountain.

On the mute is painted Signorelli's fresco from Orvieto Cathedral, "Resurrection of the Flesh". I saw this fresco cycle a few years ago, and must say it is one of the wierdest images in art history...all those skeletons and bodies crawling out of the graves...Somebody really should mute that story!

Also from Italy, we have Ghiberti's scene of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho, from the Golden Gates of Paradise (on the Florence Baptistery). I carved a portion of this, emphasizing the horns, on the bell of the trumpet. Compare the wet carving with the finished one, finally overglazed in gold.

The sheet music is Jeremiah Clark's "Trumpet Voluntary." It was a toss-up between that and Scott Joplin's "Pineapple Rag" which I could not find. Big thanks to Jenny Whitten and Tim Trickey for the loan of his middle-school horn and case from the 60's. It was a great model. Tim tells me it is actually a cornet, and yes, there is a difference, but when you make one out of clay, and it warps, I guess it doesn't matter. I have a new appreciation for brass players after following all the complicated loops and buttons on that thing. And, it took a lot of gold! The separate mouthpiece, overglazed in platinum, reminds me of the tuba I played in seventh grade. The tuba was bigger than I was, but I could get some noise out of that thing! Maybe if I'd played a trumpet I'd still be tooting my own horn.

PARIS for a Hymnal

2009-11-03T20:31:00.000-08:00

The barter: the piece above for two weeks in Paris! Sherry wanted this for Marcus, who loves both the Beatles and the old Baptist hymnal. It is called "Broadman Meets the Beatles" and here's some details:

First, Matisse's joyful Nasturtiums and Dance
superimposed over "Joy to the World"

Sherry's favorite Nativity at Night by Geertgen tins von Saan
superimposed on "Let it Be"...which afterall,
should be a Christmas carol!

Right: Andrei Rublev's icon of the Trinity,

along with "Here, There & Everywhere"

Below: The backside of the hymnal (in process)

And, Gericault's gruesome Raft of the Medusa accompanies

"Love Lifted Me"... read those lyrics and you'll see why.

YES! I got to see the real thing at the Louvre! My image bank is so stuffed it will take months to process this fabulous trip!

2009-10-20T14:21:00.000-07:00

"In The Making"--

Seems everything is always in the making...and here's new photos of my piece by that name.

Since the last blog, I have been to Paris!! Woo Hoo! Is my little brain packed or what? Too many ideas and too little time. The piece above has many little parts and I adhered them all down onto a board of porcelain graph paper. Otherwise it'd come back from this exhibition tour in many more pieces that it should have (it and "Rochambeau" below are off for the by/for exhibition tour beginning at Regent College in Vancouver.) It was fun playing with different arrangements of these parts and here is the final result--all sorts of implements for measuring, dividing, and connecting. When painting "God the Geometer" up at U of BC, I discovered that the Jesus figure is gently holding and steadying the chaos as he measures it up, and that the earth also has a halo.

Anyhow, all the work in the previous post came out of the kiln OK! More or less...the Big Chief tablet broke in two in the final Cone 019 firing. Bummer, as that is an unusual occurance. So, well, I got out the glue. Here it is, "Rochambeau" (Rock/Paper/Scissors). Not bad, with Courbet, Matisse and Rubens meeting Big Chief, no wonder there's some tension. There usually is when making big decisions...maybe "The Decider" needs this one.

Thanks to my friend Rusty Jackson for the photos. And to John Cobb for building the coolest crates--which double as display cases--for the by/for exhibit. They are works of art in themselves, see:

And also, at last we have some good photos of "Launch of the Lark". Its owner, Larkin has given permission for it to be in a show at Laity Lodge, which I will install this weekend. It'll be a walk-in show for the October Arts retreat, which is really fun. Here's the boots, with Olympic runners on their toes.

More later, as Rusty sends more photos, and as I get my messy batch of photos from Paris sorted out.

2009-09-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

The kiln is packed and inching upwards to cone 6. It took awhile, but finally the mess of pieces started in Vancouver has straightened itself out...I think...into five different "tableaux". Above is the hymnal I'm doing for Sherry & Marcus. It is the vintage Baptist Broadman hymnal, but in this version it meets the Beatles. Alongside a couple of favorite hymns are "Let it Be" and "Here, There, and Everywhere"....with art adaptations that also tinker with the sacred and the secular: Matisse, Geertgen ton sins Jans, Gericault, and Rublev. Painting those itty bitty lines of music was a pain in the body part that sits too long in the pew!

The other four pieces all involve art supplies. "Chlora's Writing Box" (the typing paper box and lid, with Van Gogh's Bedroom at Arles, Gauguin's Arlesiennes, and sketch of "Christ in the Garden of Olives" is also in the kiln. ) This one will warp and probably split, as box forms usually do...arrgghhh, so here 'tis before the fire does its thing:

Next to the box is the coffee can with Klimt's Kiss on it. It'll be stuffed with implements for painting, sculpture and writing, so it is called "All in One"...my perpetual quest to integrate the three art forms. This may turn into a lamp with a finial that looks like Michelangelo's Pieta....see below. I don't get to copy sculptures often, and that was really fun, reminding me of my first trip to Rome in 1968 when I bought the big replica. Back then you could get up close to the art and I almost touched the hem of the Virgin's robe.

The pencil case, modeled after one I still have from the third grade, became separated from the idea of rock-paper-scissors, which then has become a piece of its own. The pencil case, with God the Geometer (in previous post) has a rash of measurers, separators and connectors. The Rochambeau is a Big Chief tablet (torn corner will have Rubens' sketch for the Judgment of Solomon), plus a rock with Courbet's Stonebreakers, and the most delightful huge pair of scissors painted after the Dallas Museum of Art's Matisse cut-out. Then all around those items are scads of paintbrushes, pencils, ceramic tools, etc. We will see tomorrow what sticks to the shelf, warps, blows up, cracks, and/or loses its color!

Vancouver artist-in-residency

2009-08-30T19:42:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Erik Newby for these photos!

Above: Ginger, Shannon, Roger, Nancy, Kathy, Matt

Just back from 2 weeks in gorgeous COOL Vancouver...I was one of 6 artists working together in a big airy studio at the Univ. of British Columbia, invited by "by/for", an organization that encourages the church to be a patron of the arts. We were all quite productive, became close friends, and thoroughly enjoyed the BC area. The photos are by Erik and Shannon Newby of Vancouver (Shannon is one of the six-pack), and her daily blog gives a good record of our experience. Here 'tis--

http://newbyart.com/blog Our theme was "In the Making", and an exhibition will result.

The bisque pieces I carried on board all made it OK, except for one that broke on the way up. It was tricky packing porcelain, paints and tools. At least the airline didn't frisk me this time! I did underglazing on several small pieces, which will end up in a big tableau for the MAC show, hopefully. Here's some in-process shots:

Basically, it is a bunch of art supplies. So far there is a box of typing paper with Van Gogh's bedroom on it ,a coffee can with Klimt's Kiss, a pencil case with God the Geometer...and assorted small items such as tape, pencils, wood tools, brushes, stapler, sponge.

Now back at home in my tiny studio, the painting continues. Also need to make a Big Chief Tablet; am eager to paint "Matisse's Scissors" What you see here is the underpainting, which looks pale and matte at this point. Lotsa gold and silver yet to come...along with shrinking, warping and cracks...

Other objects I envision for this include a big paint box and palette, a cardboard box of clay, turntable and rolling pin. This'll be about 7 individual pieces once done, but when assembled together, I think I'll call the whole mess "What Art Supplies." Chlora will have fun with this...scattering these art and writing supplies all through the twelve stories that make up "Chlora Gets Real." Getting her painting, sculpture and writing all together could be the culmination of the story. hmmmm....we'll see!

2009-07-10T15:10:00.000-07:00

When it gets moved from the studio to the living room, it's done.

So here is "Launch of the Lark", after a third and final firing to tone down

the sheen and to gain metallics. The real Lark leaves in a month!

We will get better photos of her and her piece. A couple of details, of the Van Gogh adaptation "Wheatfield with Lark", the white gold zipper, and the fireworks with Van Gogh's "Starry Night"

I've taken 40-plus in process shots of this piece, just to show how it was made and all the little decisions that go into it. This turned out to be one of the best pieces in awhile (in terms of the technique working properly), thanks to the kiln being fixed.

2009-07-05T14:04:00.000-07:00

July 5th...nothing blew up except real fireworks last night!

So here is how it looked in the kiln this morning.

No bad cracks! Everything shrunk 20 % as usual, and the boots seem tiny.

That's good, they belong to a third-grade Larkin....only problem is the Velvet underglazes turned shiny. You never know. But an overglaze will take care of that, and so maybe the zipper will also get a metallic, and a bit on the sparklers.

I am pleased that the Van Gogh "Wheatfield with Lark" color held up. A bit shiny perhaps...hmmm, did he varnish that painting?

One more round and it should all be finished.

Best firing I've had in quite awhile. It helps to get the kiln recalibrated every now and then...no more overfirings!

4th of July Firing of Fireworks

2009-07-04T09:36:00.000-07:00

It is fitting that the "Launch of the Lark" receives its vitrification firing today, since this piece is full of fireworks....see above...these are bisque and underglazed, ready to meet the heat. Maybe they'll blow up! The kiln will go to Cone 6, which is app. 2300 degrees. Which is about the temp outside today in Austin, TX...

This is the piece for Larkin's graduation--see first post to view it as greenware, naked, poor thing. It turns out to be about Independence Day. Next post I'll show the sequence of handbuilding and underglazing the backpack and boots, a full technical disclosure. But I'll have to get the Larkin over here to show me how! Here's all of it in the kiln; too tall to sit on a shelf, so is on the very bottom of the kiln.

Tomorrow we'll see a big difference-- I predict the backpack will slump and will have a crack in the back, as there was a small one in the bisque. This will have to be repaired and disguised later....it's porcelain, just have to deal with its limits. Hopefully the sparklers and rockets won't bend too much, but they'll stick to the alumina hydrate which I figure will look like gunpowder. Colors will both deepen and fade. Might need a low fire to attach some pieces and brighten colors; we'll see. Don't plan to add a metallic to this one, but could do the zipper and tabs in gold or white gold if the bronze bleeds out. Boots SHOULD be fine....they were the easiest part. Here they are in all their glory, with ancient Greek Olympian runners on the toes; some are distance runners with torches (to light the fireworks); the others are sprinters.

And one last shot of the backpack, fully loaded with fireworks. Note the rocket with Van Gogh's "Starry Night" on it. His "Wheatfield with Lark" is on the backpack pocket. One rocket is called "Panama Red Devil", the other is "Granada Grenade", for Larkin's previous travels. There is a parachute, a string of firecrackers and a pack of LEADER sparklers with George W. as in Washington. And of course, a Longhorn. And a tag that says "Sparky Larky Making Tracks".

Chlora has big plans for this. It better not blast off!

2009-06-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

Susan and Liz came over to play. We all groaned at my disaster piece

when the kiln overfired.

Wading in the water

2009-06-21T17:01:00.000-07:00

we went to the Youmans farm in Star; got to wade in the creek,

where Larkin found a big arrowhead!

backpack made it through the fire

2009-06-18T13:21:00.001-07:00

here is the backpack, just bisque fired

along with the boots.

This is for Larkin, who just graduated from UT Austin!! YEAH!

This has to do with "the Lark Ascending"...the boots are modeled after ones she wore in 3rd grade when she won a race at Camp Mabry (even beat all the boys). She would not wear sneakers, nothing but those chucka boots that entire year.

Not sure why the backpack, except this girl loves to travel. Will go ask Chlora about this.