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.