another few days in the life...

We got some rain last night, maybe half an inch, as a cold front blew in. It was accompanied by lots of lightning though not much thunder but even so the little dog was in panic mode trying to dig through the blankets and pillows and mattress until I threw her off the bed a couple of times at which point she just laid next to me trembling and panting and there is no consoling her when she's like that. It had been overcast and windy and humid the last two days and I got out the ladder and cleaned out the gutter on the driveway side of the house Thursday and the one in the little backyard yesterday. Rocky is supposed to come by Monday and get that last downspout in and the gutter screens on. He was going to do it months ago but I put him off since I had dental work that needed doing and I've finally got around to calling him about it.

I went to the first watercolor class last Wednesday and all we did was this...

It's a chart of color combinations blending the main color with a different color. The circles were supposed to have just the right amount of water on them that the second color would migrate and display different variations of mixing. I was bent over my paper with my usual amount of meticulousness and had the top two rows done when I looked over at the other people at my table and other tables and everyone else was on the last two short rows and the teacher was calling up those who were finished to demonstrate the large rectangle of dense to light wash. Oops. Guess I need to hurry up a bit so I sped through the rest and did get done before the class was over but I think in my typical fashion I was probably the last one to finish.

Today the plan is to get the Seapot and Coral Cup packed up for the show at the gallery in Dallas that opens February 1^st and runs through March 1^st 

as well as the magnolia leaves set for an invitational exhibition at a gallery in California. 

The magnolia leaves are already boxed up since the gallery in Dallas had them and sent them to me which I haven't opened yet to make sure everything inside is intact. I'm sure it is but I should check just to make sure.

Other than that it's a nice winter day even if it's been spring like the last couple of weeks and the pansies have been liking it. 

I saw a blue jay in the yard this morning (picture taken through the window on high magnification). 

Haven't seen many of them since the Harvey flood.

5 minutes of fame

Well, I may have just turned down the chance of a lifetime. We were contacted last week by a research director for the show How It's Made on the Discovery Channel about taping for a five minute segment on the show, that they would be in Houston the first week of October, and were interested in our glass work, initially the etched glass but I told him I'd rather it be the pate de verre. Did it have a lot of steps, he wanted to know. They like a lot of steps and we talked about the process and about how it would be filmed and that obviously we would have to have stuff prepared since it was a multi day process and they would only be filming one day, kind of like those cooking shows. He would send me another email with more details and requirements.

I started thinking about what I would, could do. It would have to be a small sculptural piece or bas-relief and to be thorough I would have to do the original model, preferably in different steps, say 3...beginning, halfway, finished... and then make a reproduction mold for all the waxes I'll need for the rest of the steps...one for making the mold, one in the mold for de-waxing, one with the wax melted out, one with the frit partially laid in, one with all the frit in to put in the kiln, one already fired in the mold to break apart, one already out of the mold and washed to demonstrate the cold work, and one completely finished. That makes 3 models (2 partial, 1 complete), 1 rubber mold, 8 waxes, and 8 plaster molds. That is a huge time investment for a five minute segment that will reap us nothing except 8 of the same thing if we completed them all, time when I could be working on new stuff. Not to mention having to clean and re-organize the shop.

The next email was cause for some hilarity around here...

1. exact product(s) to be featured on the show: pate de verre

     exact product, OK

2. full coordinates (incl. cell and email) of the on-site contact person (preferably a production manager) who would chaperone our camera crew when they arrive on site

     on-site production manager...yeah, ha ha

3. coordinates of a second on-site resource person, in case first one unavailable

     back up? would that be you or me

4. complete factory address, including zip code. If there is a second manufacturing facility, please provide that address as well and indicate the distance between the two

     by now we're laughing out loud...factory

5. start and finish times of production shift(s)

     production shifts, sniff, hahaha

The guy clearly has no idea who he was talking to.

So I thanked him kindly for his interest and politely declined to participate.

pursuits and illumination

I have a list of exhibitions on my marker board with the dates for submission. I decided that I would start again, submitting to juried exhibitions and publications (there is a book to be published of cast work). I don't know where I expect that to lead me. Recognition, at least among my peers, or rather reconnection. Gallery representation perhaps though I still am not very prolific with my work. The last several years have been pretty full with commission work for which I am grateful, so I don't know exactly what I want to get out of it.

With the deadline today for submission to a publication, New Glass Review, published every year by the Corning Museum, I selected three of the Botanicas and rephotographed them and I readied and submitted my entry yesterday. This is the first time in very many years that I have submitted to it but, what the hell.

I was supposed to start the full size art work for our last-one-on-the-books commission yesterday so that's what I'm doing today.

Also yesterday we finally put the new light fixture up. You might remember that I commissioned Carol Nickol to make me a light fixture like one she had in her home that I had seen when we visited one day of the residency last year. I received it a week or so ago and we finally got it up. It was going to go in the dining room but now I have the chandelier from the old city house. If I ever get it cleaned up, we will put it in the dining room. So now the new one hangs in the room where I spend most my time. No complaints about that.

Pretty cool, don't ya think? Now I think I need another, different, one to go on the other ceiling fixture in that room.