new look

Just thought I would mix things up and go for new look. I could use something new in my life right now. I am working my ass off to get this place in shape. I do like to work myself real hard sometimes. Like a test or something to see how far I can push it.

Today was such a nice day outside. The temp was perfect with a nice cool breeze. There are somedays where the weather is like this and it just puts me in a great mood. It brings up all kinds of memories. I like the sound of the leaves blowing in the wind. So soothing.

I found this video of a man throwing a giant pot on the wheel in seconds. Freaking amazing. I'll never be this good, but maybe someday I could have him come to the studio to show us all how he does it.

So hard right now

So here is a little personal reality. I usually try to keep it business here, but I've been thinking about letting you in on a little more personal stuff about me and my thoughts. Not too much though. Not yet anyway. I do like to keep some secrets.
I feel pretty swamped right now. So many things on my plate. I never ever seem to have enough time to focus on myself and my art/studio. There always seems to be more responsibilities to take care of first. I tend to put the house, chores, girls, job, lawn, etc... first as I think that's the way it should be. Responsibilities first, extracurricular second. It can be quite one sided around here with that train of thought though which puts a bit more burden on me. There are times I want to not be responsible and let everything go to hell, but it's not in me. So I have to let things go at their pace as I push from behind to make things move. I just wish things would move along faster. I am too impatient and I want what I want.
My daughter caught a dragon fly with her bare hand yesterday. I thought she killed it. She opened her hand and it just sat there in her hand, not moving. We stared at it for at least a minute and then it flew away. It was very cool. I want to catch a dragonfly too.

Timber!

Last week we had some windy storms pass through. At lunch time one afternoon, the girls were eating lunch with my mother-in-law when they heard CRASH! They looked out the window to see half of a huge maple tree that spilt off and came crashing down. But it only came partly down as the broken part was still delicately hanging on by a few shredded pieces of wood about 15 feet in the air. The rest of the tree was partly rotted and leaning towards our house. We called a few tree service companies to get estimates. The total cost to just bring the tree down and leave it for me to clean up was $1200.00. YIKES! We surely didn't have this expense in mind. I made a little movie showing some of the highlights of this small event. If you want to see a quick slide show, click on the link below (i could figure out how to have the actual video post within my blog, sorry)
http://animoto.com/play/xzVBzUDPwgarWYOkngsAig

Update

Thought I would post a "panoramic" view of the studio. (If you click on the image, you can see a better quality image)Paint is finally done. Next move is putting the wood around the bottom half. It's just leaning there in the photo.

This weekend I have some work in a show with 28West SecondGallery & Studio in St. Greensburg, PA. (http://www.28westsecond.com/) There are two other artists named Kyle Fischer and Stephen Haynes. I have only seen their work on line, but it looks pretty cool. (http://www.kyleethanfischer.com/ http://www.fatherofodin.net/) I'm excited to go down on Saturday for the opening and check out the scene.

cart before the horse

Today I jack hammered concrete for about 5 hours and my hands are so blistered and sore that I can barely type. You see, in the back yard there used to be this nasty old chicken coup that I burnt down last year. Underneath it all were slabs of concrete. A total of about40 feet long and 10 feet wide in an L shape. Now I had to get rid of the part that extends out into the yard (the bottom of the L) that has protruding, rusty, sharp, pipes sticking out of it. I going to get rid of that and fill it in with top soil but keep the other section of concrete. The other section will serve as a base to build a big storage shed on. The storage shed will house the typical stuff like lawnmower, wheel barrel, yard tools, leaf vac, etc... This stuff will be stored in there when I move it out of the future bathroom spot it is currently stored in. I can't move that until I move the stack of wood that's in front of it. That wood is for the bottom half of the walls in the studio. I can't put the wood in the studio until the dry wall is done and painted and that will be next Thursday. It's all a part of the plan to keep the horse in front of the cart.
By the way. I have a few pieces in a show right now. It is a art teacher and former student art show at Mercyhurst College. I also have some work in a show coming up next week at Gannon College. It's our bi-annual millcreek art teacher show. I also will be having a show in May at a gallery down near Pittsburgh. And I just had a piece publish in the latest Clay Times Magazine. Did I mention I have two kids, a wife, a job, and I am trying to make new work in there somewhere?

Moving forward

On Tuesday, I finally got my Amish friend to come and begin plastering the drywall. At first I was very nervous about the quality of her work. But after today, it looks very good. She will be coming back Next week and should be done on Thursday. I went and picked out some paint samples and hope to be painting very soon.
The next major project is to get the water lines run and a bathroom put in and I should be in business.

What the hell

OK. Once again, it's been a while. Here are the excuses. Personal stuff, money, time, uncertainty, etc... I am still goinging forward though. Just not at the pace I had hoped. My plan at the moment is to get the place in shape as best I can and do a one month long "soft opening" this summer. It won't be nearly as nice as I want it to be, but it will have to do. I plan to borrow a few pieces of equipment to get me through. After the month, I will see how it went and make adjustments over the winter. I will also have heat, insulation, running water and a bathroom at that point. Then I will make a solid run at an all out, full schedule for 2011.
Stay tuned....