New Piece

This is a new piece. I am trying to use a local photographer. I think it needs more shadows on the bottom to keep it from floating in vague space. The yellow clay is from our property in Chippewa County.

Fellowships and Grants

I was disappointed to learn that the Bush Grant no longer covers Western Wisconsin. This is a wonderful grant for Minnesota and now some Dakota artists. I know several people who benefited from the generous grant that provides a living wage to do your art.

The Wisconsin Arts Board Fellowships for visual artists will be awarded in 2008. The deadline is September 15, 2007. The staff is very willing to help with the application. Dale Johnson answers technical questions about the eGRANT and

Zapp

Undercover. Clay, fibers, wax. 39"x9"x9"

Yesterday I decided to apply to one upscale craft show, the ACC St. Paul Show for April 18-20, 2008. The deadline was midnight. After teaching in the morning, I set out to conquer the Zapplication online application process. I was met with a huge hurdle. They require all images to be 1920 x 1920 pixels with the extra space black (at the top and bottom if horizontal or the sides if vertical). None of my image management programs could produce this black background. The local library did not have Photoshop on their computers. Finally, I found that I could download a 30 day trial of Photoshop. After much fussing with the download, I was off and running. I met the deadline by two hours Central Time. One hour to spare if they were counting Eastern DST. Many of the artists who exhibit at the Grand Hand had booths at this year’s St. Paul show. They all displayed colorful Grand Hand signs. I can have a good show together by April if accepted.

Flickr

I created some sets in Flickr and added the link on my web page. This takes me out of the Flickr voyeur category and into an active Flickrite. I regularly look at the Flickr site of a young Italian man because he writes in both English and Italian. Slowly picking up ways to talk about images in Italian. Mainly I know when he goes on vacation and when he returns. "Sono tornato!" And most useful- "Che bella!!"

New Vessel Piece

I took some images on a nice pleasant spring day. Inspired by Katy Bryce and Adam Weismann's Building With Cob book, I finished the outside of this piece with a plaster recipe containing sand. It truly looks like a gypsum plaster. The inside shows flecks of straw. The second view shows how narrow I made this piece. It reminds me a bit of an Irish drum, but opening on one side instead of the back of the drum. I am still deciding on a name. While creating this piece, I felt all of my processes gelling.

New Work for Grand Hand Gallery

I will be delivering work to the Grand Hand Gallery in the Summit Hill area of Saint Paul. They are moving to a new space on the corner of Grand and Dale. They will re-open on Tuesday, May 8 with shows in both the old (a few doors east on Grand) and the new locations. They have a wonderful selection of craft objects in fiber, wood, clay, metal, and other materials. I am excited about beginning my relationship with Ann Pifer and the gallery.

I took some photos outside yesterday, enjoying our wonderful spring weather. The indirect light on my porch did not give many shadows. So these are not the best photos possible. But I think they give a good idea of the vessels I have been making with the Grand Hand in mind. The first one is a folded construction. In making this piece, I worked much like working with a clay slab. The second piece is from my "Forked Branch" series. I am making more pieces using forks of willow branches as the skeleton.