Summer 2021, Week 1

bowls, mug, and part of a sculpture from earlier in the spring, out of the bisque firing

Summer started last week, at least for my home studio. Classes finished June 9, faculty were "done" June 11, and I was able to get into the studio quite a bit last week. I still had some union responsibilities, but I was also able to recycle clay, throw quite a few bowls, mugs, and planters, and build a sculpture start to finish.

my time-lapse sculpture, drying before firing

I documented the process of building the sculpture from start to finish, using time-lapse video. It's actually the third of four sculptures I built but haven't yet glazed this year. I was able to get started during the quarter and on weekend because I have a slightly reduced teaching load in spring. It helps to have a still nice and new home studio, and no commute to work. Working at home in my brightly lit, clean, and well--organized studio makes it more pleasant to work at home. The pugmill also helps speed things along. I threw some boxed porcelain at first, then cleaned out my pugmill and sent the boxed porcelain through with some reclaim. It felt a lot nice to thrown once it had been "warmed up" in the pugmill.

bowls, mugs, and planters drying before firing

I threw a bunch of bowls and some mugs and planters. The bowls, at least some of them, are for my friend who is getting married this summer. I'm hoping to have them glazed in time to send them to her, though I wasn't able to fit all of them in the last kiln load. I played around a bit with a stamp and some carved decoration to personalize the designs, but I haven't determined how they'll look with glaze. I'll keep some simple in case these don't work out well.

detail view of a carved bowl surface

I also threw some planters and some mugs with COVID decorations with the idea of having them ready for the Fresh Air Art Celebration this summer. I'm doing two shows this summer, the first is the Fresh Air Art Celebration run by the Larson Gallery and the Yakima Greenway. That show is on July 24 on the Greenway near Sarge Hubbard Park, from 10-3. I think that one is mostly a sale, but they also mentioned that there may be some kids' activities. It's their first year and their communication is a little uneven. Hopefully it will be advertised well. I'll also be opening my home studio to the public on Labor Day weekend for the Yakima County Artist's Studio Tour, September 5, 6 and 7, 2021. This event is also in its first year. There will be 6 or 7 artists studios on the tour, but several spots have more than one artist. This one is shaping up to be well advertised and I'll share the postcard and other info here later this summer. 

mugs, sculptures and bowls from the first two weeks of the summer

The studio tour is a tour just of studios, not homes or gardens, which is nice. Years ago my home was on the Larson Gallery's annual Tour of Artists' Homes and Studios and it was a lot of work to get the house ready for lots of people to walk through. With this studio tour, there's no pressure to get the house looking good, as I'm just opening the studio. I'm also not planning to have other artists at my house. I'm not sure if that seems harsh, but I'm hoping this event won't be an immense undertaking. I'm hoping to simply have my work out in the studio space and keep things somewhat simple.

the first layer of underglaze on a sculpture from spring

This week, the second week of the summer, I've been able to get a bit of underglazing done and I threw for one day. Getting images and text ready for the Labor Day event has used up some of my time, as has some union work, but I've also started updating my website, something I hadn't really gotten around to in several years. It had a bit of info updated in 2017, and my CV was from 2018, but nothing since then. I update the blog pretty regularly, so I usually direct folks here. 

the first (teal and yellow) and second (purple) layers of underglaze on a sculpture from spring

The few updates I did this week, kind of like the images I prepared for the Labor Day tour weren't that difficult, but for some reason I was just putting them off. I'm not sure if its the heat or just general summer feeling, but sometimes it's just tough to get started.