Steampunk Mother's Day
2010.04.11
I’m honored to have one of my ceramic bowls featured at Lilly’s Workshop: The Steampunk Mother’s Day Gift Guide.
1000 Bottles of Solitude
2010.04.09
I decided to make “a couple” small bottles for ceramic glaze testing. “A couple” became “a few” then became “many”. I originally called them 100 Bottles of Solitude but changed their title after completing over 200 with endless permutations still in my head. Ultimately, they have taken on a life of their own.
Selections from 1000 Bottles of Solitude
I consider the bottles three dimensional sketches and the entire series a sculptural journal. I particularly enjoy using random events (dropping, throwing or shooting) and domestic items from my daily life (spark plugs, forks, bones), as this allows me to distill that moment in time. Taken out of context and made permanent in high fired ceramic, they become compelling in ways I hadn’t planned, expressing the melancholy, whimsy, despair, absurdity or preciousness hidden within the mundane, the common and the every day.
And yes, I’ve read 100 Years of Solitude. I didn’t like the book, I do like the title.
“Solitude is unAmerican.” Erica Jong
Detail images of a few of the bottles:
Pierced Drawings
2010.04.04
Pierced Drawing No.1
19 x 26″. Pastel and ink on paper. The first in a series of ten drawings of piercings.
Pierced Pear
14 x 20″. Watercolor, aquarelle and colored pencils, pastel. The last of a series of ten drawings with piercings. I don’t know what inspired me to do the first few pierced drawings nor have I thought of anything clever to say about them post production. Toward the end of the series I started poking the stainless steel ball piercing into anything sitting around simply for the absurdity and ended up with the Pierced Pear.
“I just don’t want to die without a few scars, I say. It’s nothing any more to have a beautiful stock body. You see those cars that are completely stock cherry, right out of a dealer’s showroom in 1955, I always think, what a waste.” Tyler Durden (Chuck Palahniuk), Fight Club
Playing the Deaf Card
2010.04.02
Playing the Deaf Card
3h x 8w x 7d”. Wood box found in dumpster; leather, hearing aids, dried lynx ears, tarot cards.
Playing the Deaf Card, detail
Inside box: hearing aid batteries, tarot card, computer print, leather, dried lynx ears.
Inspired by my legal deafness. I used to mention my hearing impairment comfortably and offhandedly, to let people know I wasn’t ignoring them, on drugs or a complete dummy. In recent years it has become so politically loaded that I now uncomfortably and only after much thought mention it, weighing whether it’s worth it or not to Play the Deaf Card.
“The consolation of deaf people is to read, and sometimes to scribble.” Voltaire
Two Helmets
2010.04.01
First Bell Helmet
My first Bell motorcycle helmet, worn 1986 to 1992. Embellished with caribou antler, lynx fur, red silk velvet and metallic felt tip marker.
Second Bell Helmet
My second Bell motorcycle helmet, worn 1992 to 2005. Embellished with bear bones, turkey feathers, electronic parts, electrical wire and paint. Also did service as a Self-Portrait project when I was in grad school.
“Everyone crashes. Some get back on. Some don’t. Some can’t.” –Author Unknown