Heat + Humidity = Efficiency

Man, it's hot. It's been 101 and humid - now we're having daily storms so it's 99 and humid. I figure I can work in the a.m. until about 9:30 or 10:00, and after about 8:00 p.m. I am learning to be SOOO efficient! Lots of out-of-studio planning - what steps are necessary, what is the best way to maximize firing time. The time-and-motion folks haven't gotten to me yet, though; I'm sure I still move 3x as much as is truly necessary. I just pretend it's exercise...

Trapped and Escaping

Last night I watched October Sky. Have been working with Dr. Ruby Payne, a big poverty guru (and very nice) and have been thinking a lot about poverty, and the way that it traps some kids. But the thing about October Sky was that the kids were NOT poor, but they were just as trapped - a West Virginia coal town where you work for the mine. It's the only future that makes any sense -and it isn't much of a future. So when these 4 kids decide to try to win the national science fair, nobody respects them. Lots and lots of ways to be trapped. Family obligations, family expectations. Lack of vision. Poverty. Violence.

That's one of the things that I value most about my art - there are no rules, or at least there are no rules that I choose to obey. My mentor Steve Klein once gave me a picture (taken from an IBM ad?) that has a mouse in a maze. The mouse just chewed through the maze to get to the cheese. The caption: No rules for this mouse!

That's how I try to create: no rules for this mouse. And I try not to get trapped in my own or others' expectations.

Magazine Madness

I love magazines. I'm the one who rips out pages (sorry, the ones with the ending of that story...) from the ones in the doctor's office. Design is everywhere!! My current favorite is Ready Made, but also on the nightstand:

The New Yorker (not for the pictures, but occasionally...!)
Glass
American Style
Oprah (you'd be surprises)
Modern Home
The Crafts Report
Southern Living
Ornament
Tallahassee Magazine
Baltimore
Quilting Arts
The Washingtonian
Coastal Living

Even the ads have great images. When I am open to inspiration, I find it everywhere. It's a good thing I have a lot of file space!

Does Art Pay?

This weekend, John and I worked the booth at the Tallahassee Pride Festival. Nice: running into old friends (15 years ago...) that now have kids!! and remembering that Tallahassee has a liberal side. Not-so-nice: Clearing $107 for a day's work, in the blazing sun and then pouring rain.

So...does art pay? It wasn't an "art" festival - so maybe folks weren't prepared to buy. (I have to say, it's the first time I've ever shared space with church groups!) Lots of positive comments, lots of interest, not so many sales.

Then it takes me the rest of the weekend to recover. Hours of standing on pavement, hours of preparation, pinch-hitting for the products that didn't arrive (where IS that velcro shipment??), etc.

Next: E-bay store?

a little distraction...

A few weeks ago, actually ever since I quit my day job, I've been feeding a stray. Hubby named "him" "George" ("why George?" "he just looks like a George...") and so it went. George doesn't get too close, and he doesn't like it if I get too close, either.

And then there was the incident.

I looked out the window one morning, sans glasses, to see George struggling with some dark shape. Was he fighting? Having sex? Great, stray cat sex on my deck. So I got my glasses. It was a kitten! A little black kitten, in George's mouth. When I stepped onto the deck, George dropped the baby and pushed him towards me. This, from a cat that won't give me the time of day! So I scooped up baby cat and made a nest for him inside. He was hurt - big wounds all over his neck plus missing patches of fur, an ulcer on his lip, and he was running a fever. So, unnamed kitten and I went to the vet the next day & got antibiotics, which he took like a trooper.

It doesn't take long for a kitten like this - a gift of grace - to find a place in my heart. Here he is by my keyboard, playing with a flea comb and "helping" me type. He weighs 3 pounds and 4 ounces - my other cats are 20# and 15#. His name is Pino (short for Pinot Noir) - solid black, gold eyes. Against dark furniture, he disappears when he closes his eyes.

Making Jewelry to Make a Living...

The first studio I ever apprenticed at made jewelry, and not much else. I learned what those time&motion experts were on about - how to produce a lot, very quickly. But I longed to make art instead...

Now I am back to jewelry, but with a different attitude. Rather than making the same design endlessly I have decided to make "small batch" jewelry - like limited editions. That way, I can play with the concepts I'm currently exploring in larger pieces (these days, the magic of vitrograph stringer and texture), without feeling like I'm making the choice of "either/or."

It feels great. I feel great. Working at home is probably the best decision I have ever made.

And now I get to go with hubby on trips. Last week, we were in Orlando and stayed at the most amazing hotel - the Bohemian - downtown. It is a Kessler property, and it was like staying in a museum in the best possible way. There is a gallery, and the halls are filled with art. It made me want to hop on & off the elevator on every floor just to look. They have a piano bar with original Gustav Klimt drawings (not to mention a Wusthof grand piano). It is truly sensational, and not outrageous. Plus, it's the kind of place where *everyone* who works there is a gem. I was wandering the restaurant in mid-afternoon looking at the art, when the manager led me to a special event room just to show me the art collection there. Oh, and the table! Made of alabaster, I think, and lit from the bottom so that parts of it glowed. The gal who worked in the gallery was as good as any docent. Now, if I could only come up with the $9,000 for the Jean Claude Roy painting of a field of poppies that mesmerized me, life would be perfect.

Small town girl?

We left the greater Washington, D.C. area two years ago (Sept. 06) and moved to the tiny town of Quincy, Florida. The biggest town nearby is Tallahassee, and it barely counts as a city. I think of myself as the same (don't we all?) but when I visited D.C. this week for a conference, I felt like a veritable Beverly Hillbilly. I had dinner with a friend of mine at a panAsian restaurant - I thought I was going to burst into tears over the availability of beef rendang (Indonesian) and chicken satay (Thai). Reading the Washington Post made me delirious. Riding the metro...well, I could go on & on. One thing I MUST mention is KramerBooks, in Dupont Circle. I have been shopping there for 20 years, and it never changes. It is a tiny, hole-in-the-wall kind of place where my faux-leather briefcase/bag inevitably bumps into someone's tattoos, and where my liberal heart feels ever so slightly conservative - in comparison, anyway.

They have a table there, just inside the door (for maximum traffic interruption?) and stacked on the table are, inevitably, books I have loved - and books that I will love. I almost always buy from that table. I will admit that I felt relieved after my 2-year absence to still have read about half the volumes on the table. Quincy might be tiny, but we do still get Amazon books by mail :)
On the plane I mentioned KramerBooks to a 50ish man, who told me with some pride that he had read his VERY FIRST fiction outside of high school while posted to Iraq. He told me that he keeps himself too busy to read.

To me, too busy to read is too busy to dream. To inhabit another world. I cannot imagine not reading.

The oddest thing about the trip was that I didn't bring a camera. I am relentless about my camera, but of course I didn't feel like I was "visiting" anything "new." Leave it to Washington to bring out all the cherry blossoms, and the tulips, and the beautiful coming of spring in Rock Creek Park to make my shutter finger itch. So I can't share any photos. But - I have changed, and not just my clothing. Maybe it's because I quit my "day job" and so am less stressed. But I was calmer, letting the craziness that is DC (traffic, noise, lines, horns honking, Pope-related road closings...) wash over me. I love the energy there (and the blossoms). I love the fact that in Dupont, people with teeny-tiny yards - no bigger than a regular-sized mattress - plant oodles of tulips. I love the fact that I can shop for shoes after 9:00 at night.

But I love being home. My head is full of glass ideas (as is my notebook). Back to the studio~!