What's new?

Well, life can sure throw a curve ball when it's wants to. My mom is finally done with her chemo and is now in remission. My dad however, went into the ER two weeks ago with chest pain. He had an EKG and found out he was having a heart attack.. The gave him a catheter in his heart and they did a triple bypass. If you haven't figured it out either, I am going through a divorce as well. Although it has been pretty civil, it has also consumed my life for the last few months. Needless to say the first thing to be put aside has been the studio. I did manage to finish all the trim and the interior of the main part. All I need to door is paint the doors, trim them out and get some light and outlet covers. The position i am in now is to continue on with this dream or to scratch it all together and move into a smaller, more affordable house. It's not a decision I am making right now. I can wait a bit on it. So there it is. That's what's new.

Clay Sculptor

Philippe Faraut is the artist here. I love this guy's ability to do so much with the human face. His knowledge of bone structure, muscle structure, gender, and race is unbelievable. If your looking to learn how to work with the human form, especially the upper portion, I highly recommend his books or video.

What Happened?

It probably seems like I fell off the face of the planet. Well not really. I don't want to publish too many personal affairs so I'll just say that my life is changing significantly. I haven't stopped working on the studio and on my own work. I just haven't had the time to get here and update stuff. I did make a few small adjustments to the site. I am hoping to have some new work with a new flavor posted soon too. It is time for a change in my work.

So here is the latest with the studio. I have a little trim to do around the windows and the remodeling in the main room will be done. Then I can make some cool shelves and storage racks. This will be the fun stuff and should go rather quickly. I most definitely will be having classes this summer and maybe late spring. It won't be as elaborate as I had originally hoped, but I am OK with starting off a little small. I plan to have a schedule up in early spring on my site and will forward this information to anyone on my mailing list. If your at all interested, let me know and I will make sure your on the list. Classes will be mostly, if not all clay. I plan to have wheel throwing and hand building classes of various types. Space will also be available to use as an open studio situation as well. I am open for suggestions and would really like to hear what kind of classes you would like to take. So if you have any suggestions, let me know.

change of plans

Always something to changing my plans. The studio isn't going as planned and neither is everything I wanted to do this summer. Sometimes I wonder why I even make plans. I won't be going to Pittsburgh this week. That has changed. I won't be having classes this summer. I didn't plan on cutting up a tree for 2 1/2 weeks. I didn't plan on my mom getting this sick. I thought I was done training for races, but now I might be reconsidering that. Funny how things turn out. I've come to realize that as I get older life doesn't toss things at you but rather, life throws fast balls and curve balls directly at you. I've learned to take it all in stride and allow things to take me on a course and I can only serve as sort of a guide. In the end, life is still good and the world still goes around.

What now?

I have had a little time to think about the no bathroom situation and I really have no answer on what to do. I can't see charging people to come to take classes & workshops in a really nice studio setting with a price to match and then say "yeah, the crapper is the red port-a-john in the back yard". I would be too embarrassed and if it were me, I would feel jipped. I probably wouldn't come back. I did check out grants and loans and there is nothing easily available for me. I don't think I want to commit to a loan of $10,000 plus. As much as I have confidence in my idea, I am a realist too and can't risk taking out a loan and having the whole thing crash and owe a bank that much plus interest. The other long shot would be to look for some investors, but there is the commitment and obligation thing again. About the only thing that I can do, is really crank out some work, try to show and sell it and maybe rent out some space for anyone who might not mind coming into the house to use the bathroom. If anyone actually reads this, I am open for suggestions.

Update on my mom: I did get to see my folks yesterday and my mom was having a hard time getting around. She had the official hospital band on her wrist already too. Just gave me a reality check. Surgery is still schedule and my dad is pretty nervous. He wondered if this was necessary.

I have been able to switch my mental state a little now that the pressure is off having to open up shop. I have been kicking back a little and taking things in stride a little more. It feels good to do that.

Here is a video by Ani DiFranco I've always liked. I know she is all about the "power to the woman", but I still like here anyway. I remember starting my grad program at Edinboro and hearing her for the first time and being impressed with all that she can do and has done. Hearing her reminds me of that time.

Major Set Back!

The plumber came today to look at the leak in the basement wall and to give an estimate on a bathroom in the studio. The leak turned out to be a pin hole in a pipe spraying the wall. Cheap and easy. The studio is a different story however. The pipe in the cement floor that goes to the septic for the toilet doesn't actually go the existing septic. It just goes into the ground. I would need to install a seperate septic system which could run between $7,000 and $10,000 to have installed then I could install the bathroom for another dollar amount. Crap.
So it doesn't look like classes will happen this summer. I can't have class without a place to do your business and I don't want to send people in the house. I know there are other possibilities, but I don't want to run a hack studio. There are plenty of those around already. So I'll take my time and get the long list of things to do ready for next year.
I have always believed that things happen for a reason. Even if I don't know what the reason is just yet. This was meant to be. I know that there are reasons to be stalled/set back. I have faith that better things are on the horizon.
Please keep checking back from time to time to see how things progress. I hope to have the good looking, detailed, fun stuff done over the summer and plans for classes and workshops up over winter.

Here's another update on a personal note. My mother is going to Pittsburgh on June 5th to have an operation. There are removing all kinds of stuff including a mass that is attached to her pelvis. They will do a biopsy after to determine if it is cancerous or not. I plan to go up Monday and stay the night and be with my dad. Who knows what will come of this. I may be back and fourth a lot to Pittsburgh next week.

What's up

I have spent the last six days cutting and splitting up wood from the tree that came down. I should be done in 3 or four more days. It's a lot of wood! I have managed to move some things around in the barn and I hope to have a plumber over by the end of the week or early next to give me a price on installing a toilet and sinks. Once the tree is done, I hope to start cranking out the rest of the studio. There is a long list of what I want but a short one of what is needed to be functioning. If all goes well, then I should still be able to do a "quiet opening" in August.

I did just get a phone call from my brother letting me know my mom is going in for surgery on Tuesday for a hysterectomy and to remove a "unknown mass" too. Hmmm. Always something.

web sites

I have been asked a few times about my web site and if I made it myself or not. I wish I could say yes, but I can't. It is a template purchased through http://www.bludomain.com. Unlike most templates these templates allow you to customize and edit any time and instantly via your own "control panel". If you have never had a web site before let me just say that being in control of your own updates is a huge plus. When you have to rely on someone else to do this it becomes a huge pain in the butt. Sending images and text to someone else and waiting for them to post them and finding mistakes and fixing those and so on is too slow and a pain. Bludomain allows you to select from a number of templates with various looks and options. They often have a sale on a particular site or two so look at their blog as well for this info. After you purchase your template, you take your time to use what you want, change the colors, upload your info etc... When your ready to go live with your site, just email them and your done. You will be given your "control panel" web address and you can make changes any time you want and the best part is, your updates are instant.

They tend to cater to photographers but as you now see, they can be used for a lot of other things too. My site has a lot of other options that came with it that I do not currently use. When I am ready though, I can make my changes, use those parts and Bam! It's done.

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....

Finished

The drywall is finally hung! I have an Amish person coming this week to piece out the plaster part of it. I want it to look good and this is something I am willing to pay for to have it done right. In the mean time, I am working on getting some insulation in the ceiling and starting to cut up some old barn wood for a wainscoting type look. It finally feels like the reality of it all is just around to corner. Still a lot to do though.

Back Home

I just got back home from Disney in Orlando Florida. Our family spent a week there playing around. It seems like the cliche place to go, but I have to admit that it truly is an amazing place. I could help but admire the sheer amount of work going on there at so many levels. The design, concepts, artistry and quality of everything is impressive. It would be so fun to work on one project there from start to finish. I was constantly looking at the materials being used and the sources in which they came from. Materials are brought in from all over the world such as the ceramic tiles from china for the roof tops, or plant life from other country and so on. I wish I had their sources and money to produce such cool stuff.
Now I am back home in the cold snow and look to continue my small world project on Saturday.