Pop goes da weasel
September 8, 2010
Ever had one of those moments of sheer, utter astonishment, where your mouth drops open all the way down to your ankles and stays there?
That was me on Monday, thanks to the artwork pictured above. The rightmost panel quietly separated itself from its hanger and came off in my hands…while I was rehanging it. Since it’s been hanging perfectly well on that same wall for more than three years, I was, uhm, kinda taken aback.
Sisyphussy
August 12, 2010
I’m beginning to suspect that, to a glassist, only one sound is more terrifying than the -ting-ting-ting- of thermal shock: The rumble of an approaching moving van.
I’m seriously contemplating a move, either of my studio or my whole house (yeah, I know, I’ve been going on about this for at least a year). And so today I grabbed a shovel, headed down to the studio and took a real inventory. For the first time, the implications of moving a casting studio whacked me upside the head.
I’m still in shock.
Cupcake 2.0
July 30, 2010
Now, listen, I LIKE cupcakes, don’t get me wrong. What’s not to like? They’re cake. They’re frosting. They’re portable. Portion-controlled creamy-sweet goodness you can stick in a lunchbox. With sprinkles.
But…high-fashioned eats? The hautiest of haute cuisine?
C’maaaaaaaan. They’re CUPCAKES, for heaven’s sake. Yet I kid you not, there are at least three specialty cupcake shops in Portland, and more coming. Some of the best bakeries in town are pushing cupcakes as the wedding dessert of choice.* [Read more]
Berry red, berry blue
July 20, 2010
“If you’ll take the whole flat you can have it for $10,” the berrylady said, pointing to gorgeous heaps of blackberries.
I’d come late to the Portland Farmers’ Market AGAIN–I keep having early Saturday appointments that mean I don’t arrive until 2 or 3 in the afternoon, when everyone’s closing. The berrylady was one of the few still open, and she was trying to lighten the homeward load with a great deal: Huge, ripe blackberries for about 83 cents per pint (in grocery stores right now, they’re about $2.75/pint)
Moods and studios and berries
July 15, 2010
There are moods in which you write, and moods in which you’re glad you wrote yesterday. I’m in the latter, not because I can think of nothing to write about, but rather because there’s so much it’s hard to know where to begin.
First, the art. Haven’t so much as touched the studio (aside from helpless shoves to see if it’s still there under all the mess) in nearly two months. Apparently I left out a key element of studio design, i.e., where you put the stuff for AFTER you shut off the kiln: Packing and transport materials. Brochures. Booth furniture and setup kits. Signage. Display stands and hangers. Etc.
The rubber met the road…
July 12, 2010
…and got skid marks all over its butt.
Sorry for the vulgarism, but I’m watching the whole iPhone thing and thinking “whoa–now THAT’S a crash.”
The Wall St. Journal just reported that Consumer Reports (love it when the media reports on the media) will not recommend Apple’s brand-spanking new Droid-killer, the iPhone 4, to its readers.
Apparently the venerable reviews mag tested three iPhone 4s, found troubling issues with the design and didn’t buy Apple’s dismissive explanations. Along with other revelations, it’s beginning to look like the iPhone doesn’t play well when there’s real compeition. I’m wondering if we’re not kinda getting to a “mighty have fallen” scenario w/iPhone4.
Rent-a-rama
July 9, 2010
Hmmm. Cynthia Morgan, rental agent.
Yeah, right. But that’s (a small part) of what I’ve been doing this week, and I’ve got to admit, it’s kinda fun.
My cousins’ house fell abruptly off the market–the guy who was buying it backed out at the home inspection–and they decided the heck with it, rent it out. Then their property manager turned into a country-western singer or something and I got an emergency e-mail from Afghanistan: Could I help get the house rented? Fast?
Since my real estate experience is limited to buying or renting the place I want to live in, I wasn’t sure…but I gave it a shot. I designed a rental flyer with lots of photos and gushing copy, Robyn did the craigslist ad and initial email screening (from a warzone, mind you), and I started giving house tours.
Artful dodgers
July 7, 2010
“Would you like to buy some paintings?” the little girl asked, and her companions looked at me with big, serious eyes. The three girls held a few wrinkled papers, clutched tightly in rather grubby paws.
I blinked, a bit surprised. The girls and I had gotten to know each other last summer; Stephen, father of two of them, brings them over whenever I have the garage doors up in my studio. The girls watch as I make my molds, or sculpt a clay face, or coldwork a sculpture, and ask probing questions…for about five minutes.
The heck with it. Let’s play! (Part 2: Zen gardens)
June 12, 2010
(BTW, you folks know that you can click on one of the images in these posts to bring up a slideshow with more info about what’s pictured, right?)
Most of us get into the art business because we love it…but it’s possible to love it to death. You can get so serious and self-critical about your art that you maybe forget why you’re doing it: Because it’s so much fun. I realized last weekend that I was headed that way, fast. [Read more]
Pressing the French
June 2, 2010
“A French press is a device for making very rich coffee,” he explained patiently, and described the little carafe-plunger apparatus and its workings. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I tried to look interested. After all, I’d asked for it.
Lemme back up a bit. This is about coffee, and as you may have guessed from previous writings, I am not a native coffee drinker, not by a longshot.