First Friday

Because the 4th of July was on a Friday this year, we moved our exhibition opening to Saturday for the first time ever. It felt a little odd at first but we had a nice crowd and had pretty good sales, which is always nice. Russ Kidd and John Bice are two local photographers who I met when I first came to town in the early '80's. Both have a unique eye...Russ has been shooting musicians at work for a very long time and John shoots outdoors, both intimate scenes and landscapes. 100's of visitor's come out every first Friday and it is an important social event in our community. Some folks come out every month, some from time to time, and others might just be passing through. It is always a great mix and at least some of the conversation is about art and creativity! But it's much more than that. In some ways it's a 21st century replacement for the conversations that used to happen over the backyard fence. Because of the different night we closed an hour earlier than normal and there was open rebellion from a few of our patrons as we asked them to leave!
Next month we'll add some fine woodworking to the mix.

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Pots and Lemonade

I just got back from a great road trip to Cincinnati, Ohio where I joined Louise Jenks and a few of her friends for her 5th annual pottery sale. Louise was a student of mine at the very first workshop I led at the Penland School of Crafts and I was flattered to be invited almost 10 years later to join her friends. We each set up a table in front of her lovely home and on a perfect summer day there was a line of enthusiastic buyers for most of the day! Louise has a lot of good friends who helped support the event and it couldn't have been better organized. It was probably a little too far to be driving in these days of $4.00 gasoline, but I met some great people and enjoyed learning about the pottery community in that part of the world.

week at the beach!

I just returned from a week on the beach at Avon, NC in the Outer Banks. I've grown to love my visits there as it's the only place that I am content to switch off and do nothing at all. I swam in the ocean every day, ate great food, played pool and read over 1,000 pages of various books.

Mark Twain—A Life

by RON POWERS. You can hardly have grow up in this country without knowing Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. I still have the copies that I read from my childhood and it was fascinating to read about the life and times that produced such a uniquely american writer. I'm sure his story could have been told in less than 700 pages! but I'm glad to have plowed through it.

Big Fish—A Novel of Epic Proportions

by DANIEL WALLACE. This is the book that Tim Burton adapted to film. I've never seen it, but he is an interesting filmmaker. I think it might have been a rare case of a movie that was better than the book!.

Dissolution

by C.J. SAMSON. I don't usually like fiction set in ye olden days, but this was a good story and made very clear the opposing tensions that tore the church apart in 16th Century England. Monks and hairshirts and some quality sinning are familiar territory for a 'lapsed catholic' such as myself.

I took a few of my little handbuilt sculptures to the beach and shot some pictures. I've got a new camera (and a new blog!) and I thought it might make for a good setting for these guys. I've been making things like this for almost 30 years and I'm still not sure what they are all about. Right now I'm saving them up until I get 100.

Libertytown Gala

Last week we celebrated our 5th anniversary at LibertyTown with a Friday night ‘Gala’ and a whole day of hands-on activities for families on Saturday. I didn’t really know what to expect, but we were overwhelmed by the hundreds of visitors and the tremendous enthusiasm they brought. We had great food and great music including the debut of the Fredericksburg Harpers and some lively tunes from Ed Dickerson on fiddle and Elliot Curry on guitar - at one point almost 50 people in the gallery were belting out a Beatle’s song while they played!! Maybe it was the Sangria, but I think it was just a really good time.

blogging

This has been a nice lazy week so far after 6 somewhat frantic weeks in a row. I’ve been slowly sorting through the new pots from firing #4, checking my notes against the codes I sometimes stamp on my pots. This was an excellent firing, with good reduction and good heat. Lots of rich surfaces, but too many dark clays, slips and glazes. There are some promising results for future work, and as always, I’m anxious to get back to work.

Before I do, I am moving into my new (summer) studio and just today I started putting up the first bits of shelving. It sure looks nice with a few pots on them. I’m going to build a couple of work tables later this week and take some photos of the newest work.

With a week and a half before heading to the beach, I’m not inclined to start any big project, just a bunch of small stuff.

The weather continues to be glorious...the nicest spring I can remember here in the Old Dominion.