Ava is 5!!

A Potter (not like the wizard)

I took wheel I this semester. I loved it. Below are a few pics of some of my work from the class. Yeah, thats right- only SOME. I've already given away several pieces and I didn't include for these photos some of my earliest (crooked and wobbly) pots. I'm definitely going to go on in pottery. I love the idea of making functional art. I love that people who have no interest in "art" are, without even knowing, pottery connoisseurs and critics. You are even if you've never thought about it. You have a favorite cup. A handle that feels just right in your hands. A bowl that holds the right amount of cereal for you that can be eaten in just enough time not to get soggy. I love that this art is used and considered every day.




This is my self portrait in the bottom of a bowl.

For my final in this class I made a set of desert plates and cups to go with it. I drew birds eating different confections on each of 4 plates. The cupcake is my favorite.
My class thought I made the most interesting handles. But really its just because I get bored making the exact same thing over and over. It inspires a lot creativity trying to make every coffee mug unique. It shouldn't surprise you that made ALOT of coffee mugs :)

We converted our formal dinning room into a pottery studio when my Dad got me awheel. Thanks Dad!

Hey blog readers- Remember back last summer we did a post about adopting some kids? Well, we just had our home study today and passed it. So now it looks like the home study people have to give some paper work to DHS and then our family is open to some children. We don't know how long that will take or what will happen next or even if there are children that needs us right now. But I just wanted to give you all the update: making progress.

Milk and Ice Cream

When I was a kid we ate a lot of ice cream for desert. My dad really likes ice cream and he has this great sweat shirt that says "I get cranky with out my Blue Bell" that had a picture of a tub of ice cream on it. I don't know where or when he got this shirt but I don't remember a time before it. My Dad always poured milk on his ice cream sort of like you would over cereal so my sisters and I did too. We always put milk on our ice cream. We didn't know there might be another way to eat ice cream. One time when I was maybe 8 or 10 or so (old enough to sleep over at a friends house) Alice and I were spending the night with a girl and the parents served us ice cream for desert. I remember sitting there waiting patiently for them to get the milk out for our ice cream but they just started eating it WITH OUT milk. I wasn't sure what to do next. Alice just went along with it since she must have seen that this was "normal" here and at that age was more attentive to how to be "normal" but I couldn't let it go. I asked them for some milk for my ice cream. They were confused but agreed that it was ok I guess and then a conversation followed about how interesting and strange it was that we ate milk on our ice cream at home. That was the first time I suspected that our family might do things that no one else I knew did. I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I certainly never asked for milk on my ice cream again when I was at a friends house.

I am an artist (I really feel like I'm ready to own that now) and sometimes the art making process is strange and we have somethings at our house that lots of other kids probably don't have at their houses. For example, theres a statue of my head in my bathroom (right now it has a bottle of nasal spray on its head because I have a cold). We have 3 wax waffles placed around the house, a bronze cup cake on the mantel next to a hotel made of legos and in my "work room" a sewing machine shares bench space with 3 hammers, corner clamps, wood glue, tons of paint and a paper pulp nose. oh, and a large jar of jelly beans... Last week when Anabelle came home from school I was smashing paper pulp into a waffle iron. she barely noticed. I suspect that someday Anabelle and Ava will have a friend over and their friend might notice somethings here are strange. My best friend here in NWA is also an artist. Naturally our kids have to spend a lot of time together (fortunately they seem to really like each other). My friend also has artist stuff around the house (she has her own head statue too). This week she served them popcorn for a snack in bowls she made herself- they're fantastic by the way. So the house that the girls spend the most time at besides ours is my friends with the same kinds of unusual stuff. Anabelle and Ava might be teenagers for before they find out about how we're "different."

I hope after they find out they realize its a good thing.
I think we'll have ice cream for desert tonight. With milk of course.

What we did today

Well, the above pic was actually yesterday. We estimate that we got about an inch of ice and close to 8 inches of snow.



Yes, it is wearing a tutu.

Before the crying because they're too cold.



We made snow cream after the outside fun. This was my first time ever to have some and it was really good. Like home made ice cream.



snow cream being served.

When your kitchen is also your studio

I've been thinking about making paper for a few weeks now and yesterday I did my first experiments with paper pulp. It was fun and messy as a good art project should be. There is alot of potential with this material and I am very excited about the possibilities.



I got this great pattern and texture on the paper by smashing a really old wooden meat mallet into the wet paper- I've since painted on it a little and its just great.

I work better 3 dimensionally so my first idea with paper making was to make it not flat. I like to start most projects with new material with a coffee cup so there it is- a paper coffee cup. Not terribly practical but kind of funny.

I've got a ton of ideas that need molds made before I can start but I do have a waffle iron. This turned out really good its just the begining. stay tuned- I've got some big wheels turning in my head :)

Sunday School Review

for celebrating

For my final project in sculpture last semester we did cast bronze. The pouring processes is intense but very fun. To make this cupcake I first carved a block of plaster into this shape. Then made a 2 part sand mold and poured molten bronze in it. The final product weighs about 10 lbs. which I think is only right for a cupcake.

Bronze is a nearly indestructible material. Cupcakes on the other hand need only a willing a child to find their end. I can't remember the last kids birthday party that didn't have a cupcake. Birthdays signify the end of a year and the beginning of another. It's the celebration of something passing. By making this bronze cupcake I preserve an event about change and impermanence in a permanent material.

I also made these other cupcakes for my final presentation. They were pretty yummy.