Graduation, Summer Trips, and Studio Time

My husband got me a new desk chair for my birthday and it finally got here. It is so so so nice that it make me want to sit at my desk and type. So, I guess that's a good reason to blog after not having much interest in doing so for quite a while. My old chair has migrated to the studio where it joins a silly amount of seating options for different heights of focused work.

three "stacks" finished (left to right) last fall, this summer, last summer 

seating options in my studio (not visible here: a cushion on the ground)

This summer has already been pretty busy, and not just in the studio. My daughter graduated high school in June, so family and friends came to visit. 

proud parents of a new high school graduate

Since my brother's kids hadn't been to Yakima before, they decided to add a trip to Portland and Crater Lake in Oregon, and the Redwoods and California coast so my daughter and I tagged along with my folks for a week long trip. 

with my favorite red-headed nephew at Glacier Lake

my favorite brown haired nephew as a River Otter

The scenic highlight of which was probably the tidepooling in Northern California. We went looking for nudibranchs, which we didn't see, but we did see starfish, crabs, snails, sponges, anemones, and things I can't name. 

sea star heart

tide pooling near Crescent City

my favorite bit of the tidepool

Then we came back to Yakima for a week of getting stuff glazed and finished for the Yakima Art Festival in late June. I was most interested in creating some bells with jingly bits based on what I saw at NCECA in March.

at Yakima Art Festival

new bells this summer

Then my daughter and I took another trip to New York, where we spent 6 hours each at the Met and the American Museum of Natural History (and Hayden Planetarium), watched three Broadway shows, and also visited the Guggenheim, MOMA, the Museum of Art and Design, and the Museum of Broadway. We were in NYC for Alison's graduation present: Hamilton on Broaway, but our other shows were just as impressive! Six was great, Hamilton was amazing, and Hadestown knocked our socks off. It was a great (packed, exhausting, hot, fun, educational) week.

before Six on Broadway

After Hamilton on Broadway

We also got 30,000 steps one day (walking from our hotel through Central park to and from the Met. We had some really good food and got to experience Times Square during the World Cup (and Taylor Swift's wedding) and Hell's Kitchen in 101 degree heat. 

Our favorite thing about the Guggenheim

a very large cat near Rockefeller center

pretty sure this guy was in Harry Potter

we took the most picures at the American Natural History Museum

including these Mayan Bricks with drawings on them

and this bronze model of...one of my scuptures, I guess?

The Hall of Biodiversity was our favorite room at the AMNH

Loved (but didn't take many pictures of) the "Haas Brothers: Uncanny Valley" at the Museum of Art and Design

Last week we were back to Yakima, happy to be in only 86 degree weather, and ready to make some work. I dove into some studio building projects, while my daughter balanced her time between college preparations and helping me in the studio (mostly seiving glazes and cleaning, which are both much appreciated.

First underglaze layer done before Yakima Art Festival

second underglaze layer done before the NYC trip

Glazing done after NYC, but waiting on more work to fire the kiln

I usually come into the summer super excited to work on something in the studio. This year I have already been working on tall stacks. These are coil-built pieces that have been consistint of two or three sections stacked on top of each other. I want them to be taller than me, but I have kiln size limitations which mean that I can't fit anything taller than about 25" or wider than about 20" in my home kiln. What that means is that I have to figure out how to make them strong enough to stack and hold their wet weight while building, fire safely without cracks, and stack securly after firing. 

underglazing stacks, waiting on the last firing for the top section, then paper

I had some challenges last summer with stacks cracking, so during the academic year, I tested out some new approaches to strengthen the bottom edge and some new clay bodies. I cracked two of my tests, but the other two seem to be ok so far.

this clay cracked pretty badly in the firing

Currently, I am building two stacks. I have the base basically done on one, and have started the middle section.  To this, I've added the structural challenge of some side openings designed to hold some large bulbs. I've been working from a sketch, making adjustments as I turn a drawing into three-dimensions. I am hoping the additional challenge of adding these elements to the form won't result in cracks during firing.

one of the two stacks I'm working on now

sketched plans for the bulbs on this form

The second stack I am working on now has the added challenge of a twist. I feel very comfortable building twisting, turing, cantilevered coil forms in one go, but they are trickier to make work when the forms are segmented. In the past, I've used epoxy and wooden internal supports to keep the pieces together, but I want to get to the point where the pieces can hold themselves up without other media. I am starting small, with the plan to work my way up to more complex forms.

a bit of AMNH inspiration (after the fact) for some spiral sculptures

I have been working on these two forms for about 9 days and anticipate they may not be done building until at least late next week. I am excited about them and enjoying both what I am learning and the progress I am making. It's nice to spend some studio time just trying stuff without a tight deadline.

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)