Whew, what a year it's been. The last time I posted was just after the Labor Day Artists' Studio Tour in Yakima. After that tour, the academic year at YVC started up, but more importantly from my perspective, bargaining for AFT-Yakima kicked into high gear.
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| against advise from Monika who has done it before, I started experimenting with ceramic chains |
I'm the president of the faculty union and lead negotiator for our contract, though I don't write about it on here much. Our CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) expired at the end of June 2023 after a one-year roll-over of the 2020-22 CBA and we'd been bargaining pretty much non-stop since then.
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| I wanted to give the chains a protected space in the bulb, though this may be too much space |
Bargaining had kind of stalled out sometime in the spring/summer (and I was getting pretty down about it), but then the long-time president of the college retired and the VP resigned, there were some significant changes in administration and the bargaining team, and we had a couple of good conversations and bargaining got going again.
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| I think I should have waited until most of it was bisqued to put the chain in, so that I could have colored the whole thing, but I was impatient |
Around about the start of the fall quarter, we started meeting weekly. In fall, I was teaching 6 classes, meeting for bargaining each week, doing bargaining prep each week, and attempting to maintain clear communication with our members, as well as my other job duties (for both jobs).
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| because the chain is flexible, it looks funny laying down, but I'm hoping it will look better hung. I didn't want to mess with it too much before it was fired |
Six classes is not as bad as it sounds, since three of them were stacked; I was teaching three intermediate and advanced classes at the same time and during the same classes as two beginning classes. But, it was still 21 class contact hours a week, plus office hours, class prep, grading, kilns, etc. Simply put, it was a tough quarter.
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| making the chain wet, then letting it sit for a while seemed fairly safe |
But, we got the contract done. We finished bargaining before Thanksgiving, faculty were able to ratify the contract in December, and once the Board of Trustees voted for it in January, we were able to sign it. The contract goes through 2027, so we're all pretty happy to have a break from bargaining for a while.
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| I started with much smaller links, but these are probably too fragile |
Winter quarter was much better. We weren't barganing, for one. But the new CBA also includes release time for the union president. That means, instead of teaching (more or less) three classes, I only had two (three with stacks), plus one class worth of release time for union duties (of which there remain quite a few, despite not being in active bargaining for the CBA).
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| I made a random assortment of bulbs and small pieces during winter break |
It happens to be the legislative session for Washington state, so I've been to Olympia twice this winter to talk to legislators about our concerns. I've also attended a town hall, and yesterday I gave remote testimony before the Ways and Means committee on a bill related to faculty CoLAs. I'm planning to give testimony today on the budget. So I've managed to keep pretty busy.
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| this is also a terrible, idea, as all of these bits are too fragile |
I also, managed to get into my home studio a bit towards the end of this quarter, and over Christmas break. I haven't quite had the capacity for big work, so I've been playing around with some ideas in smaller form, especially bulbs. I mostly threw functional work over Christmas break, because I agreed to make a mug for a friend.
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| I was interested in pushing elements out from inside, but again, thse are too fragile |
I also spent more time than usual in the YVC studio this quarter. I haven't been able to spend as much time throwing in recent years because of the union and the design (or art history before that) classes I've been teaching. In the fall, especially, I leaned on my studio assistant and work studies (once we had them) to take on a lot of the burden of loading and firing kilns. I also shifted a bit more of the loading/unloading of kilns to class time because that was the only time I had.
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| I was playing around with the extra chain links pressed into the mold |
This winter, I was able to throw more example pieces, finish more pieces I threw as examples, and also catch up on a bunch of studio tasks I'd been putting off. I've had a long list of demos, examples, videos, and signs I wanted to make for the studio, and a list of edits needed in the online portions of my classes. Finally in winter I was able to start working through some of these.
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| I also need to solve a problem related to these big guys from last summer |
We are on spring break now, and I am not spending the whole week prepping classes or bargaining, for a change. I'm only teaching two classees, and those are stacked (because of the longer class meeting periods for studio classes, the balance of my teaching load is asymmetrical, even before adding the union release time I am getting in Winter and Spring, but didn't get in Fall before the CBA was ratified.
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| the big ones mostly cracked in firing, probably because of the size--possibly different clay would prevent this |
I am trying to spend the break in the studio, though there's a long list of other tasks I've been putting off, too. I also plan to spend a day installing some work at YVC. Over winter quarter, the art faculty in Yakima got permission to install some of our work in the shared office areas, so I'm both looking forward to the work being up and not exactly looking forward to the install (because I don't like being on a ladder and the install is just a bit tedious).
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| so I can't really subject them to multiple additional firings for color, so I plan to paint them |
Mostly, I'm feeling pretty good. It felt great to make progress in bargaining and even greater to get the whole CBA done. Fall was exhausting, so it felt good to catch my breath in winter. Now I'm looking forward to continuing to catch up on class stuff (the boring stuff, like improving organization for my many class video demos, and the important stuff like redoing or adding to those video demos).
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| but layering paint colors is different from layering underglaze colors, so I need to experiment |
I'm also looking forward to doing some larger work in the studio. Larson Gallery has a new director and we discussed having a faculty show every 3 years. That's just about perfect, because it gives me some time to make new work (and experiment), with a spacious and flexible exhibition opportunity coming up eventually (but not too soon).
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| I bought some alternative materials so may I will eventually actually try them and maybe even write about my results |
