LeeU
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Posts posted by LeeU
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What's on my workbench? Nothing. There is no worktable at the moment. Up until today--2 days before, 1 day of, and 3 days after the non-even craft fair, it was not available. It has finally made it into the studio now, though half of the bins of the pieces are still in the trunk. The little sidewalk fair was fun-ish, at least talking with the other vendors who weren't selling anything either (no traffic). Not so great for the back/hip, so in the future I'll only be participating in venues that provide tables, however few that may be. And, DUH, I can't do anything, really, without my work table actually being in the studio, so there's that lost time as well! Maybe tomorrow I can get up the steam to put my work space back together.
Updated, the last 2 pics-a day later- got my table back up, yay me for not procrastinating and laying about all day watching Nothing Gold Can Stay--an addictive Amazon series, just FYI.
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Every day I must make big and small decisions regarding ethics, safety, exploitation of adults and children, integrity, willful disregard or unavoidable look-the-truth-in-the-face. Every day I wind up feeling unsatisfied with some of what I "had" to choose, for my own well-being, survival, and reasonable comfort. I choose--for darn good personal reasons--to not be an activist against heavy-duty matters that violate people's safety, health, rights, reasonable living conditions. I choose, to the extent that I am aware of what I am choosing-to not participate when I can reasonably avoid participation (free shipping and reward points not withstanding-shame on me).
I recently "rescued" a betta (Siamese Fighting Fish-betta splendens) from a little cup of water in a pet store, to give it a wonderful home in a naturally planted aquarium. And yet, am I not just perpetuating the hostage breeding of these creatures, just for my own pleasure-same as we breed chickens/cows/pigs just to be killed because broccoli gets boring? I hope my mainstream commercial glaze suppliers do use ethical sourcing, but I am unlikely to research that further myself. If I learn they do otherwise, I'll stop using their cobalts. I do what I can, but, frankly, I feel that it ain't very much.
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19 hours ago, Callie Beller Diesel said:
@liambesaw. Liam. My friend. Those prices, man. We need to talk!
Indeed!! Even at the most modest venture, those prices are nuts! Not to get too philosphical, but such under-valuation may call into question the integrity of clay art everywhere! Raise 'em up, Liam, raise 'em up!
- Marcia Selsor, Rae Reich, Pres and 1 other
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What's on my workbench? My sister!! She drove up from Virginia. She has been taking some pottery classes in Roanoke. So she loaded her car with greenware (!!) and we bisqued them over the last few days. Now she is glazing her work for the glaze fire. The 05 fire was very lightly loaded with just her items but I have pieces to add for the cone 5 fire, so the kiln will be more balanced and full. She doesn't know I took these pics--I was sneaking around outside the studio (she doesn't like being photographed--opps, too bad!) It has been great fun doing this somewhat "together".
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6 hours ago, liambesaw said:
Recently I found a rat or squirrel had visited my studio, so I wonder if they have taken up residence.
A rat took up residence in my studio (a converted bedroom in my old-ish mobil home) while I was out of town for a couple of weeks. He ate--completely destroyed--the good welder's gloves with the extended cuffs for stoking the big anagama kiln. He ate my leather studeo shoes. He ate all things cardboard. He ate my foam core and one dry wall shelf board. He ate a plasaic texture roller. He ate through the old semi-crumbling cement foundation (!) to get in and out. He did not eat any food. I did not have a cat. I highly recommend that you add a second cat.
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Holy cannoli!!!!
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Well golly, Pres. You didn't leave much room for me (can't speak for anyone else) to add much! Your list pretty much covers it all...and much more than I have in my studio (no grinding base or GG-- if it won't Dremel off or respond to the various diamond-based assists and other manual processes, then it's just not happening). Then again, I'm not cranking out jars with lids, and my inherently "rough" style lends itself to very minimal finishing needing to be done. Packing I've got down to a science and am pretty good at it, but I don't do anything special that anybody else doesn't do, as far as standard practices go. If I use newspaper, I do make an effort to use sheets of interest from our local publications, like The Weirs Times, serving the Winnipesaukee lakes region of NH. Here's a sample of a pic I would use as a wrap. And I often include a small moose hanging ornament along with my biz card. My smalls bags are white, blue, or brown Kraft and I have a sticker with my logo to seal them shut.
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4 hours ago, CactusPots said:
ya'all following along?
Following along---had an enjoyable time yesterday refreshing my memory and looking at his work. You (Cactus Pots) might like my Pinterestboard Clay People--has a few pics of him, and some of his work is in my Clay Continued and Clay More boards. https://www.pinterest.com/LeeUstinich/clay-people/
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My all time favorite-John Baymore. June 16-19 John Baymore (is) “Headed off to South Korea ...in a week for an exhibition, then (the vessel with the neck will go) into a public collection.
The container is my single favorite piece of all things made of clay that I have seen to date. John says " It is not done yet. Next it gets overglaze enamels."
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I'm not sure that a contemporaneous period, or movement, is possible to be named and categorized while still unfolding and in motion. History, to me, is an amalgam of hindsight with a mix of alleged and actual facts shoring it up. It is always a bit twisted---sometimes very, very twisted. I don't see art history as being exempt from the ways in which history (formed from records, opinions & observations, critiques, all kinds of analysis, supposition, explanations, and relational interpretations) may be, and has been, "used" as a political, cultural, socioeconomic, even religious, dynamic that affects entire populations and subgroups, sometimes quite negatively (think post-Soviet actionist art). There are deep roots and reasons why the general U.S. population was initially disgusted with and fearful of the emergence of "abstract" art. People had to be taught how to be "the viewer", how to enter a new visual reality, how to participate in the dialogue, how to "appreciate" what made no sense to them. Once history has blessed an art movement/period with the names of the identified heroes and generated enough money to give it credence, even the most impenetrable or nonsensical works, the most blatantly naked emperors, get to assertively confound us with challenges to our discernment of what is art and what is artifice. Most of us can't tell 'em apart, but once we slap a label on the period or movement in question, it's pretty well settled. One hopes that there is a strong core of intelligence and benign creativity when articulating an art movement or period and that art historians may bless us with insights and context, and not leave us in the dark (think of Ai Weiwei and the urn--you have to understand it to understand it).
On 5/29/2019 at 11:30 PM, liambesaw said:Maybe a name could be the period of unrest or discomfort.
Yep.
- Pres, Pieter Mostert and terrim8
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7 hours ago, liambesaw said:
I've been busy filming and editing YouTube videos.
And they are lookin' good! Nice and simple, no jarring distractions, conveys the info just as it should! Hope building the webite is at least a little bit fun--I loved doing mine even though I have neglected it lately.
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On 5/22/2019 at 4:48 PM, shawnhar said:
misinterpreted his intent
Yep...when we invite you for dinner, after you are seated we may then say, "Here, eat, then get the hell out." That's how you know we like you! (Sorry for veering off-topic!)
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My favorite activities during my BFA ceramics years (long ago) were the hands-on making of clay bodies and glazes. I remember naught now (minor brain damage), but I was quite good at it and being in the studio with great instructors and serious co-students/clay artists turned me on to a life-nurturing process when I was on the verge of quitting "big time". I remember one graduate student who was working in a style similar to Jun Kaneko (this was in the early '80s) and seeing her up on the ladder over this enormous form--it took up the entire gas kiln, set sideways--was such an inspiration, it literally helped me to stay put. So in terms of wishing to have had more training in a particular ceramic skill, I have to say I wish I had more longevity with being able to practice and perform the basics, and then on to the more advanced, more creative, more chemistry-rooted aspects of making clay and glazes. I'd wanna become glazenerd!!
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Moving on from glazing bisque to finishing the edges/surfaces of greenware. When I do this I pretend I have no eyesight so I can feel my pieces; if they feel satisfying, they get to live; if I am not enchanted or intrigued when holding them, they gotta go. (Oh good grief--I have a cultural appropriation (incorrectly called a waving lucky cat -Google "maneki-neko") on my workbench!! And there it will stay.)
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I want to say something about language. It is essentially ingrained & inherited from how and where and with whom we grew up and hung out with. When someone like me (old school NY street life) says things like "look, pal", or a southern waitress calls me "sweetie or dearie", we are not name-calling. It is just habitual expressiveness that has not been willfully changed. I used to say "F- this and F-that, you M'rFk'r (which is now more commonly expressed as mofo--go figure!) repeatedly, every sentence, non-stop. And I could not stop--had no reason to, and then when I did have a reason to, it was rough. I had to be taught how to change my world view, my stance in the world, and my mouth. I had to--painfully, I might add--practice, practice, practice, literally for years until I could speak like a decent mainstream person in a variety of settings and communities.
Most of us have a working brain-it is not about having the smarts, even tho using certain language can make one look stupid, or aggressive, etc.. The waitress saying "Can I get you more coffee sweetie" and me saying "Look, sister, I'm not your sweetie" are really the same thing. Except it sets us worlds apart (like different cultures around the globe) , and maybe at odds with each other, as I think she's of low intelligence and she thinks I'm a biker's broad.
So with all due respect to everyone---I see nothing in this thread that is less than civil. I hope that as group members, we are not being required by moderators to become hyper-vigilent and super-sensitive about what we say or how we say it (or how Lee writes stuff-which is quite hard to reign in from my natural style-seriously). I hope there is some reasonable wiggle-room, so we can be "who we are".
If someone is offended, I trust they can speak up for themselves and with private messaging, we can usually work it out. If it is perceived as offensive and ongoing, we can report it to a moderator and they can handle it politely and privately. When it can't be worked out, either the offender or the offended will leave the group. Isn't it partly how things were said (and badly misinterpreted, in my opinion) that provoked the loss of some great foundational members/mentors/experts not all that long ago? Compassion & respect are as perceived, as delivered and as received; they not always clear absolutes that are identifiable by all as such, on both the delivering and receiving ends. Lee's rant of the day-or, to put it in a more paletable form, just some food for thought.
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Assuming the body/brain hold steady I plan on doing larger, more sculptural pieces, that still offer an element of functionality-I love containers and bases for things. My life has taken so many twists & turns-some fairly unpleasant- that the very notion of "seeing myself" in the future is centered on still being around and being grateful for it.
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Speaking of photography, what is on my workbench at the moment are 3 bins of pieces from a recent wood firing that need to be shot and inventoried, plus about half of a backlog of some bisque smalls that still need to be glazed.
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1 hour ago, Benzine said:
A chip jar, with a place, for THREE different types of dip! Brilliant!
Thought it was a strawberry planter....or are you making a funny?
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Updated, the last 2 pics-a day later- got my table back up, yay me for not procrastinating and laying about all day watching Nothing Gold Can Stay--an addictive Amazon series, just FYI.
QotW: What tool or piece of equipment non related to Ceramics would you recommend?
in Int'l Ceramic Artists Network (ICAN) Operations and Benefits
Posted · Edited by LeeU
For smaller production & home studios like mine, the UpCart is invaluable. It's a dolly-type handcart with wheels designed to roll upstairs & downstairs. My chiropractor says it's the best thing I've done for myself re getting heavy clay from the street into and around the studio w/o stressing my back/spine/neck/shoulders in the process. I love it! Plu it folds down flat!!