Yakima Art Festival this weekend, and what I've been working on

This weekend I am participating in the Larson Gallery's Yakima Art Festival downtown at the Farmer Market space (Rotary Marketplace) on Yakima Ave.  The festival runs 11-4 on Saturday, June 28 and there's a long list of artists, including myself, John Barany, Cydney Bacon, Denny Driver, Susan Harris, and more. I count 24 participating artists listed on the Larson Gallery website. 

bowls, like those I'll have at the Art Festival

There will also be art activities for kids and food trucks. I've done this show before, but it's been several years. I am hopeful that the new location will make the event more popular and cooler (it was really hot last time I participated). I am also pleased that Larson Gallery has made an effort this year to increase the quality of the artists exhibiting.

I'll bring some sculpture, too

When I agreed to participate, I told myself I would not overdo it on set up and what I would bring. I also told myself I would not try to make a bunch of new work specifically for this show. I have a tendency to forget or write off all the work I have stored in boxes (out of sight; out of mind) and try to make entirely new work. Earlier this spring, I boxed up a lot of my functional pieces to make space for works in progress, which was helpful, but I can feel myself starting to worry that I don't have enough pieces for this show (even though I have so much stuff stored!).

And a few vases and mugs

Since the quarter ended June 13, I have spent most of that time making new work in my home studio. Since I have a show coming up, I have told myself that I should get at least one kiln load finished before then. Why? I don't need to do this, but it just feels like I should need to. I spend something like 12 hours yesterday applying underglazed to new bulbs I've made in 2025 (before the quarter ended). My husband drove my daughter and some classmates to a band leadership camp in Oregon, so I was home alone for most of that time.

experiemental bulbs and bulb parts from spring

I got really excited about making bulbs this year. In March, I installed a group of 100 bulbs in the faculty office hallway in my building, Palmer Martin, at Yakima Valley College. I had already gotten excited about making new bulbs before then, in large part, I think, because our union contract bargaining was finally over. 

my installation at YVC

The installation required 100 bulbs, which I collected from three different "bodies of work" (abstract bulbs, chemo bulbs, and protest bulbs. I also had one single bulb from way back in college or grad school when I was still raku firing the bulbs. (I wanted a raku piece so that I could grab it off the wall and show students, which I already did for the spring class).

my home installation with place-holders non-bulbs and a gap

Collecting 100 bulbs for the Palmer Martin install left me with some gaps in my home installation, so I figured I'd made some more. All spring I felt like I had tons of ideas I wanted to try. I had more ideas than time, which is a nice way to be out of balance. I finished making 100 new bulbs (starting in February, I think) earlier this month

the first layer of underglaze and some newly fired bulbs

In May, I attended an AFT convention in Tacoma. The convention was good, but there were parts of the process that were boring. They weren't pointlessly boring, which was an interesting distinction I hadn't particularly thought of before. Instead, the process requried by Robert's Rules of Order meant that there was repetition that was required. I found that the absolute best way for me to focus was to get out my sketchbook and start sketching bulbs. I was able to pay attention to what was being said, but my mind didn't wander and I wasn't tempted to play on my phone.

my sketch of bulb ideas

The convention was at the Murano Hotel in Tacoma, where glass artists are featured on each floor, meaning that in between convention events, there was lots of art to look at. I came away from the convention with just a ton of pieces I wanted to make. 

I started coloring in the bulb ideas I had started making

As I reached the end of the academic year, I was thinking about what I wanted to do over the summer. We've got a few school visits planned for my daughter, so there's some heavy duty traveling scheduled, but I also wanted to spend time in my studio on things I wanted to make.  The irony is that what I thought, in May, that I'd want to make in summer has turned out to not be quite accurate.

underglazed bulbs waiting for their second layer of underglaze (and glaze)

As usual, my plans for what I want to make in summer include about 3x as much stuff as I can actually find the time to make. Over the summer, before our the open studio at my house on Labor Day weekend, I want/wanted to:

• finish (glaze and underglaze) the 100 bulbs I made during spring
• make face mugs
• make protest and/or face bulbs
• test 3 new (to me) clay bodies on large sculpture to see if they are less likely to crack
• create new pieces for a different wall installation at YVC
• install said wall installation at YVC
• make some mid-size sculptures from my sketchbook
• finish painting the large sculptures from last year

this chain was trick to underglaze without it getting on the bulb

This is obviously way too much. The face bulbs take a lot longer than the abstract bulbs, mugs take longer than bulbs, large scupture takes longer than small or medium sculpture, and my approach to glazing is so stupidly time consuming that it took me 12 hours yesterday to finish the first (of 2 + a glaze layer) layers of underglaze on about 25 bulbs. In the past week, I probably spent ~40 hours on just the first layer of underglaze for 100 bulbs.

tiny vases and bowls for necklaces

Then, once I started thinking about the show coming up this weekend, I decided it would be good to make some cute little critters for kids to see at the show. I also decided I had plenty of time to make and glaze a bunch of tiny vases to turn into necklaces for this weekend.

bulbs waiting on their second layer

And while I've been perfectly happy to do the underglazing on these pieces, I've got two face mugs that have been in progress for most of that week (that I can't seem to get myself to finish). I also bought all this new clay at the end of May so I could use it for the face/politics bulbs and the large sculpture tests, but I haven't gotten to those yet either.

Cali after investigating my new clays

I know that part of the problem is that things just take time. There's literally just two weeks between the end of the quarter and the Art Fest this weekend. And its not even reasonable to spend all day every day in the studio. One day I had to go in to YVC to finish ordering for fall classes, another day Alison and I had our motorcycle endorsement test, and we have had other things like laundry and groceries, and all that non-studio stuff.

a new texture I just tried

So, in large part, I'm writing this post, which is ostensibly just a post to invite y'all to come to the Art Fest this weekend, to calm myself down. I get like this and I need to write it out to calm myself down. But the other thing that's been bugging me is that when I listen to my brain or heart or whatever part of me decides, I really just want to make more abstract bulbs right now, forget the faces and the mugs and the things I think I "should" be making or that folks will buy. I just wanna keep experimenting with textures and ideas from my sketches. I don't wanna do the heavy/thoughtful stuff right now.

these bulbs are ready for cone 6 glazing (which I usually don't do for my bulbs)