400 pounds of clay

One new brand year

2012-01-01T20:05:00.000-06:00

2012 Cover Returned Peace Corps International Calendar

A bowl of fresh new days to savor bit by bit...

In search for color...

2011-12-24T15:37:00.003-06:00

Morenito

Color...so hard to get it just right.

Last April I wanted to try some of my head cups in the woodfire.

I love how the fire and wood ashes transform the color and texture of the raw clay, kind of a nice sunkissed glow.

Morenito was the right candidate. A timid red oxide wash on the skin and hair, then wood fire glazes for the rest.

Could I get more than beautiful browns?

Marinerito en Azul

Marinerito before Woodfire

This time I went more painterly with the red iron oxide and got a chance to try some Coyote High Fire underglazes to see what happened...

The woodfire glazes were left just for the lining the cups.

Luca before Woodfire

Luca

Fun!, worth exploring some more...next time maybe a thicker coat of underglaze, specially on the blue.

Animal Dreams

2011-11-12T16:01:00.001-06:00

Collaborations with Meredith are always fun and always with a unexpected results...This time we started horsing around and we found definitely some horse story to tell that involved a hut, a boat and a chicken.

The fun of two people working with just a general idea and no limitations is great, but...some challenges arise that add to the excitement, like when scales of the parts do not relate.

Horse #1? it was too big! Well... a horse series got just started...horse #2? well, a little better...horse #3 is just right, said Goldilocks.

Always our dynamics are interesting. Meredith works very fast and I...don't!

Attachments, support, bisque...check! Finishes? always lead to more surprises.

We had already committed the piece for the MAOAS show that was coming soon...rush, rush, rush

and voila!

New York, New York

2011-11-09T22:51:00.002-06:00

Joey Arias in Arias with a Twist

Always fun, exciting for the senses...

Theater and also one of our favorite places, the Museum of Art and Design in Columbus Circle. Not only it is a beautiful building, but you can find some artists at work and stimulating shows.

Museum of Art and Design

This time we found sculptor Carolyn Ard working at the open studios. She was working on a sculpture made with what she described as "paper clay", but made with a somewhat paper mache formula made of paper pulp, cellulose paste, and sawdust mixed to the consistency of soft clay.

The city through the glass window

By using different wood species for the sawdust, she could tint the paste and achieve different integral hues on her work.

Carolyn Ard working on a sculpture

Kari Russell Pool
Marc Petrovic
Chalice Series

Alan was fascinated with the process, since he's been experimenting with peat moss, joint compound and other additives for his sculptures.

Lydia Gerbig-Fast
Birds of a Feather

We caught the last day of Flora and Fauna with fantastic pieces
on all kinds of media.

Robert Arneson
Box House

Gwen Murphy
tree of Knowledge

Crafting Modernism, Midcentury American Art and Design...wow

Stan Dann
Fantasia

Marilyn R. Pappas
Opera Coat

Arieto (Harry) Bertoia
High Back Lounge Chair with Ottoman

Jim Blashfield
Bill Graham Presents...

Wendell Castle
Music Rack

A few days later...New Canaan Connecticut and a visit to Phillip Johnson's Glass House and it's site through decades of work and the ever evolving and changing view of an incredible architect.

Phillip Johnson's Glass House

Da Monsta

Came back to Madison just in time to for some raku and pit firing

and to enjoy the opening of the new wing of the Chazen Museum of Art designed by Machado & Silvetti

View from the Chazen

Going Home

2011-10-02T22:54:00.000-05:00

John Ribble's Pastel Demo

Tamara kept pushing me to enter the WRAP (Wisconsin Regional Art Program) events. Many artist at our High Street Gallery coop are actively involved with the WRAA (Wisconsin Regional Artistss Association)
On February, I went as Tamara's guest to the Prairie du Sac workshop to see what was it all about.

John Ribble's Nude

John Ribble, who teaches Graphic Design and Illustration at MATC, was the juror and started the morning with a demonstration of his plein air work with pastels. He travels with his easel and many boxes of fantastic pastel colors that helps him quickly capture the moment of a scene that changes lighting and feel constantly.

The colors I use for clay have not been as plentiful or predictable as a box of pastels. Always surprising and having a life of their own...
The afternoon had John's critique of the entries. I was skeptical about the process; but was surprised by how he approached each piece giving great feedback regarding composition and use of media, very thoughtful feedback that could be applied to the artist's work. Both Bev Larson and Gail McCoy from our High Street went home with State Exhibit awards.

Tower Series

Going Home

I was hooked on the experience and entered two pieces to the Madison workshop that represent my main languages: Going Home, which is like my native spanish and the Tower Series, architectural side which came later like my acquired english.

This time, Yueh-Mei Cheng, professor of Studio Arts and Illustration at Finlandia University was the presenter and juror.
Inspirational...with very a formal training in traditional brush painting from Taiwan related how by attending a native american pow-wow her work changed, became more meditative and spiritual, and absolutely different than her structured training. Definitely not afraid to explore new things, seeing how far they will go...a very adventurous walk to the wild side...

Yueh-Mei Cheng's An abundant harvest

Yueh-Mei Cheng's
Clarity of Emptiness

She also showed some of her students work, told their stories and how she pushed them to explore further...really compelling...taking classes with Yueh-Mei would probably be an amazing experience.

Tamara and winning piece
Embracing Nature

Tamara and Gail McCoy won State Exhibits awards at this workshop.
"Going Home" won one too, exciting!
Months later...I got an invitation to show the winning piece at the Annual Conference. I worked a bit on the hanging system of the piece and send it back.

Much later I received another letter announcing that "Going Home" got the Catherine Hundt Award. Very Thrilling.
September 23rd was an evening of celebration with awards to the Statewide Teen Art Mentor Program, and the Tiny Treasures fundraiser.

New Museum of Wisconsin Art

Next day was the State Art Conference. The morning began with a talk by Tom Lidtke, director of the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend. He talked about the collection and the plans for the new building designed by HGA. Definitely a good plan for one of our SOFUN trips we do with Meredith and Lynn who lives there...

Jessie Eisner-Keyle was the juror. I loved her storytelling of her work. There were so many awards given (65!) that I guess there was no time for critiques. I was moved to Jessie's comment on her blog Used Cameras

Madame Gardener
by Claire Mangasarian

Definitely this was a nice pat on the back for me and also for Meredith, my teacher, mentor and collaboration partner.

And..I went home with my favorite Tiny Treasure: Madame Gardener by Claire Mangasarian.

Madison Open Art studios

2010-10-01T18:04:00.000-05:00

Hi there...it's been a while.

How many pounds of clay left? Well..quite a bit.

Some was used to make these three women. waiting for visitors on Gallery Night for the MAOAS exhibit at the Overture Center until October 17th, party in a few minutes! and tomorrow...the Open Art Studios.

We chose this year to be at MATC downtown, where we work during winter and fall. There are going to be other 12 artists in the building showing how they do jewelry, drawing, painting and photography.

We had a lot of fun doing these women. Our collaborations are always full of surprises and sometimes trying assemblies to figure out!

This one came out just right...

2010-01-01T23:37:00.004-06:00

"The more we sweat in peace the less we bleed in war" Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1800-1990), the thought for the month of January on the 2010 Returned Peace Corps International Calendar.
One of the pleasures of the first day of the year is hanging the new calendar; this one and no other. Because... I have had so much fun with my friends putting it together, a trip around the planet whenever I want to...a lot of color when it's so gray , and a living proof of the marvelous projects around the world that can be done even with such a bunch of diverse people working together.
Pretty inspiring...a great way to start the year!

Sometimes looking back is a good way to move forward, realizing how much distance we have traveled, and the good and not so great things that we learned along the way...more paths to travel.

October had Open Art Studios with lots of friends,

rembering to breathe...enjoying the fall colors, and the enchanted forest in the Arboretum

Even the zombies got the urge to go out and enjoy the last visits to Hanna at the Farmers Market.

November in NY with family...Evan and the sheep, his birthday and a visit to his class...

Walking Manhattan...people, museums, architecture

December...a big number birthday. Magic Alan with a wonderful surprise party that included flying my sister Susana from Argentina.

A new art buddy

Alan, with a lot of love for Van Gogh and with absolutely no previous experience, started exploring fiber arts...blows me away!

Clay

A year of many test tiles...many clay bodies...still challenging and with still a lot of the 400 lbs of red clay.

Lots of SO FUN! with Meredith...

and after so many failed terra sig tests...went back to the person that introduced me to terra sig at Penland, the one and only Jenny Mendes. She patiently answered my long, long list of technical questions.

What a great way to start the new year! Let's see what happens....

2009-10-15T09:10:00.009-05:00

Fall colors everywhere, like a fire that starts slowly until it burns completely in full passion. Good time for reflection, and around here...lots to do!

October 2nd, Gallery night at the Overture Center was fun and really busy. Lots of events around town plus the opening 2009-2010 season of the Madison Symphony Orchestra with guest pianist Peter Serkin in the building made it for a buzzing night full of people visiting the galleries. Most of our group of 121 artists, had art displayed through out three floors of the Overture Center. Meredith had a nice write up in one of the local papers.

We decided to show 2 of our collaboration pieces, expeditions to the unexpected, a fun and energizing experience.

Here with "Three points of view"

and with "Untitled"

We had a nice auction, one of my towers found a new home. Made new friends, talked a lot then, and much more later while celebrating with tapas and sangria in good company of friends. Salud!

Saturday 3rd...took some of our 400 pounds of red clay for a hands-on demonstration at the new and super beautiful Sequoya Library.

Getting ready to play

ooooh this is quite fun!

Ritu and her girls busy at work

Sergei making a bowl, and his mom trying out some pinch pots.

Jamie and Sergei very busy at work, just before trying a recipe of red clay soup

Sherrie joined us later and tried some pinch pots too

Relieving some stress

.look what I did! and look at mine!

Well... cleanup was not that easy, a bit of red in: tables, chairs, tools...but we had a blast!

2009-10-02T08:41:00.008-05:00

It's been a busy summer. Let's see...

Rest of June:

A gorgeous and cool women's weekend in Washington Island.

We took some red clay for a spin...and back.

Lots of relaxing and inspiring time in the woods, the beauty of wilderness in Rock Island

Visited Meredith's pieces at the

Red Cup Coffee House a fun place to go on the island and yes...great coffee.

Still no takers on our beautiful 400 pounds of clay...most of it will be ageing for a while at Meredith & Joe's garage for years to come?

Joe rolled a few bags down the hill to the studio. I took a couple home. We sliced, soaked, reclaimed and recycled until the clay rebirthed into a beautiful and workable consistency sans cracks.

Tap, tap, tap...started red triptych

We dreamt some plans:

a few batches of terra sig,

pit fire in the garden,

more collaboration projects,

more SOFA

and more of our own SO FUN weekends.

Meredith's birthday in the studio...candles and all. I'm forbidden to post memories.

White earthenware people that also come in threes...

Many planes and trains through Europe in July: The wedding of my nephew Nicolas, took Alan and me to Geneva where a big chunk of my family lives. A worldwind of hugs and kisses, my sisters, nieces, nephews and great nephews: Lalo who is now 3 and meeting Fausto for the first time who was 10 months by then. My sister's friends...It was like back in Argentina, back to my life in castellano but in a different corner of the world.
For the bride's family perhaps it was too like back in Ghana...or not. Four full days of fun, many travelers, many languages spoken, different universes...
All the bride's family and friends spoke english, Alan was absolutely delighted and relieved.

Paris...
and
good quality time with my niece
Malena . She had found a friend's atelier for us in Menilmontant

an ethnic neighborhood home of artists and intellectuals ...tres cool! It was the anniversary of the Eiffel tower and the city was full of celebration .

Little jewels like the many little unexpected green places used by parisians till the square inch.

A little shop in the Marais that reminded me of Chagall

and yes

the corner spot of Amelie Poulain's market,

a glimpse of the Tour Eiffel through Jean Nouvel amazing Musee du Quai Branly and the Patrick Blanc's luscious vertical garden and so much more.

Then...Spain: Salamanca. Plasencia, Madrid, Toledo and (sniff) back to Madison.

August: finishing up work, party to celebrate hard working friends

September: how much fun can we have?

"Watchful" made it in time to Faces in the Wild

weekend in Chicago,

Hustling with Meredith to finish pieces for the Open Art Studios Show at the Overture Center

some didn't make it...

but others did!

another women's weekend in Florence (Wisconsin this time) but missed the RPCV calendar packing party

a wow Handmade Tile Conference in Edina, bought some tiles at the Tile Festival...and came back with my own Majolica Tile to fire at home

The last weekend of the month ended with a beautiful hike around Richland Center and candied apples for dessert. yum!

2009-06-03T23:04:00.012-05:00

Hey...there are 200 lbs of red clay being thrown away. Do you want them? I can drop them off at Meredith's studio- my friend Jo said

Yeah, we'll use it!- I answered, thinking in cone 5

Beautiful red clay...glorious chocolate color...all 400 pounds of it, a little stiff though, and of a very low fire kind, the one we haven't ever tried...cone 04-06

It's always good fun to explore new things...

We just wanted to share our good fortune, but...there were no takers in sight.