Scaling Down and It Feels Good

Yes, there is hope for water in the garage space behind the pottery. With Ventures help and a neighbor as well, the water will get hooked up. I deal with no air or heat but water! Yes!

So now, I sort and and go through boxes full of he history of the pottery and I am constantly putting things on sale. Everything must go. I want to start with mostly new pots and a lot less stuff. Glazes, tools and clay will not go on sale but everything else will go on sale, anything and everything extra.

As soon as I get a little extra time I will start putting photos of items for sale on this blog. I have already marked a bunch of nice pots on the $10 shelf and they are selling fast.
It feels good to get rid of stuff and keep my favorite stuff.

In case you have not heard, I am moving to the garage behind the pottery for at least a year. I hope I can hook up my kilns there as well or I will hook them up in my garage at home. So if you have any pots at the pottery better come and get them quickly. It all gotta go!

Its not easy but I must do it and I want to do it. I want a life again with art being the icing on the cake of life!

Small Town Oklahoma

Every year 300 high school kids in Oklahoma get chosen to participate in the Summer Arts Institute at Quartz Mountain Resort in Oklahoma. It is a fantastic two week summer program and both of my children have had the honor of participating. It is highly competitive and a very intense program. Rachel did a photo documentary Mangum, OK. Great job as usual. I hope I can post some of her pictures. Ian had the honor of painting with and getting to know Fritz Scholder a few years ago.

We went to pick up Rachel and spent a couple nights at the Hi Way Inn in Hobart, OK. That is pronounced Ho' bert or you will be pegged as being from OKC or Tulsa. We also stayed there last year after having no fancy rooms left in more recognizable hotels within the 20 mile area near Quartz Mountain. I read some reviews, two owners ago, and we decided to "go for it." I still wonder what happened to the original owner whose life story was involved in the review. It was the first clue that it would be an interesting place to stay. It was clean and safe. A nice man named Gandi owned it and I believe he plans to own the Pizza Hut soon as well if I understood correctly. We also ate at a Chinese restaurant. It was kind of like visiting the United Nations, kinda.

Sometimes the world seems so normal in those small Oklahoma towns and fields with the little gas stations complete with cafes. It reminds me a lot of Tennessee and the areas I grew up in. I used to want to live there in the quiet country but alas I confess I now enjoy the arty area of midtown Tulsa. I don't think I could fit in the very Baptist and highly republican small town Oklahoma. Those social circles are tight and I would just be a little to weird for the country.

It is all so spread out and so golden this time of year. The wheat glows and the rocks of Quartz Mountain are beautiful terra cotta and ochre colors.

So if you need a place to stay in "Ho bert" it will have to be the Hi Way Inn the first and only motel as you drive into town.

More Art from the Daum

Clay Sculpture at the Daum Museum

Clay is a great material. Art and sculpture and the choice of functional as well.

You can see this art in Sedalia, Missouri at the State Fair Community College.

A visit to the Daum Museum

On our way back from Columbia Missouri we stopped at the Daum Museum and I must say it is a treasure of contemporary art in the middle of nowhere. The ceramics was very interesting. Enjoy the photos.

The Importance of What is Not

I found this wonderful book in an antique store in Honakaa Hawaii. It is a translation of the TAO TE Ching, a traslation and commentary of Lao Tzu by Ralph Alan Dale. I hope you can find a copy too.

As I think of making a creative workspace this Verse helps.

The Importance of What is Not

We join 30 spokes
to the hub of a wheel,
yet it's the center hole
that drives the chariot.

We shape clay
to birth a a vessel,
yet it's the hollow within
that makes it useful.

We chisel doors and windows
to construct a room,
yet it's the inner space
that makes it livable.

Thus do we create what is
to use what is not.

***
Also, from Seven Sins for a Life Worth Living

Every journey has a secret destination
of which the traveler is unaware.
Martin Buber

I have great students!

I love my pottery students. What a cool group of people. It is fun to get to know everyone and amazing to watch them discover their creativity.

Usually my classes are very structured but not now. Anyone can jump in at any time and sign up for at least 2 classes, one to make things and one to glaze what you have made. Some sign up for 4 or 6 at a time. It is working, having a room with beginners and advanced and we all learn from each other as well.

So, if you want to join in it is $25 a class and $38 for materials. Just call in advance so I can make sure I have enough spaces. Monday is full but Tuesday still has a little room. Class starts at 6:30 and should end at 9. There is a demo at the first of the class and if you already have experience you can go ahead and work and join us if it inspires you to do what we are doing. Otherwise just jump in and start creating.

I signed a contract with Venture to move to my funny little garage space behind my regular shop. Sales are happening daily at the shop.

I have extra wooden work tables at $50 each. What a deal! Call me with a deposit if you want one. I'll post pictures soon. Soap is half price. Geodes are $2.oo and were $4.95. Earrings are 40% off. Low fire Spectrum glazes are 50% off. I also have a lot of fixtures and tables for sale. Stop by and see!

More soon about the sales. Gotta be in the back by August 31st!

Oh my Gosh!

OK. We now know where the water meter isn't. The hole is there. The meter is not. One of my helpful neighbors, Glenn Taggart, hooked up a water spicket and ran the water backwards and sure enough, mine is the hole with no meter. Someone undid it. Please tell me this is not another expense. I hope Venture Properties will help me.
I have not signed the new lease yet. The plan is to move into my back storage area and make it as cool and interesting as I can. But, I do need water. I can make it with no heat or air but water is another problem. I want to create a really cool alternative pottery spot that is fun and manageable.

I just spent 5 hours pushing and pulling and lifting trying to "fix" the back. I worked by myself until 9 tonight and my back is killing me. I am heading for the hot tub with a promise to myself not to overdue it again and maybe do 3 and a half hours at a time.

The plan is to move the pottery into my clay selling garage space. They say we can be there month to month for a year. Oh please, don't lie to me and make this true and help me with the water. I can handle the heat and the cold and the smells and the stuff but I must have water.
I looked at yurts on line this morning. Is that crazy? Can I put one in my back yard over the next year and use it like a studio and move it later?

May peace be with everyone. May we appreciate the lives we have. May we not live with stress and anger and show compassion for others. Our economy is tough but I am seeing it as a creative challenge.

Now I am heading for the hot tub to relax those aching sore muscles. I wish I had less stuff. I will fix up the back with everything I want and the rest must be released. I hope I can sell some of the cool stuff and give away the rest to helpful organizations like habitat for humanity and resonance, helping women from OK prisons find their new lives.

Who ever would have believed that more is not better? I worked so hard to buy so many pottery supplies and reinvested so much, not to mention all the stuff friends gave me to make life at the pottery easier. Compress, squeeze and release. FREEDOM coming right up!

Santa Fe Photographic Workshops

Whenever we are in Santa Fe we watch for the free lectures that go with the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops. The are always incredibly inspiring.

This time we heard Alan Thornton and Karen Keuhn. Both were fantastic. Gotta check out their websites
www.KarenKeuhn.com
and
amtproductions.blogspot.com & Amtproductions.com

Quotes from Alan

What is the purpose of what you do?
Ad people say" "I need you to be creative to make me money."
All I can do is bring all that I have to you.
Bring passion, love and creativity to "it" everyday.

Karen said
Think art and be surprised and be open.
embrace people
make a difference

Both photographic artists were very inspiring and full of creative energy. There photos were fascinating. I hope there web sites are as interesting as they were.

Yes, that is just a couple of reasons I would love to live in Santa Fe. I just feel to old to work the two jobs it would take to buy a house there. I am trying to think of a way to move there someday. How about a yurt?

Garcia Street Books

I love books. I don't need more books but I buy them anyway and hope I have time to read them. If I am able to see when I hit the rest home I have several years of reading to keep me entertained.

So,one of my favorite bookstores in Santa Fe is the Garcia Street Books, right next to a pretty good coffee shop that has great magazines for sale. On the other side is a photo gallery. It is all located just off Canyon Road, 376 Garcia Street.

I usually buy everything off Amazon but this bookstore is such great quality I felt like buying a new book or two there to support and encourage such a great bookstore.

The Books I could not resist this time were Seven Sins for a Life Worth Living by Roger Housden. It is full of great quotes and thoughtful chapters with an almost Unitarian view about interpreting life, a very supportive book for me now. It was reduced from $18.95 to $6.99.

3 Fun Quotes
1.
We must be willing to let go
of the life we have planned
so as to have the life
that is waiting for us.
-Joseph Campbell

2.
There is a crack, a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.
-Leonard Cohen

3.
When you die,
God and the angels
will hold you accountable
for all the pleasures
you were allowed in life
that you denied yourself.
-Anonymous


The other irresistible book is Nora Ephron's
I Feel Bad About My Neck

It is hilarious. It has a chapter describing all women's aging necks with the full descriptions and another chapter about the search for the perfect purse and how our purses relate to our basic personalities. This is a great gift to give all our friends.
A quote or two from her chapter "What I Wish I'd Known."
Buy. don't rent.
Never marry a man you would not want to be divorced from.
The plane is not going to crash.
The empty nest is underrated.
You can order more than one desert.
If the shoe does not fit in the shoe store, it is never going to fit.
Over insure everything.
There 's no point in making pie crust from scratch.
If only one third of your clothes are mistakes, you're ahead of the game.
There are no secrets.

I read both of these books in the car out loud to John almost all the home.

Santa Fe My Way

Hwy 3 connects I40 to I25 and passes through Villa Nueava, a long quiet road

Tesuque Market, a great little store and restaurant

Tesuque Market for New Mexican food, delicious drinks and wonderful bakery goods

The Office of the Silver Saddle

The kids in the office in the "family environment."

More Silver Saddle helpers and the dog Simba

A quiet little restaurant across from the hot springs Ojo Calliente

The Pecos River off Hwy 3

Hold your nose and become a vegetarian, Wildorado is a stinky cattle pen outside Amarillo

Make mine a veggie burger, pee you

Full moon over the hot springs

Cotton wood trees are everywhere, just like warm snow

Georgia O'Keefe country on the way to Ojo Calliente

Ojo Calliente

More Ojo Calliente

Watch for this sign to the turn off

Fun iron work at ojo calliente

The Hot Springs flowing arsenic and iron pool

A fun little taco stand in Espanola, we have gone there for years

We wait patiently for our tacos as the two older ladies in the stand carefully cook them one by one.

The chicken taco with guacomole at the Parasol in Espanola

Chester the rabbit at the hot springs

Rest and relax at the hot springs

My communion and stress relief springs

The blue of the blue hole

Down the road from Tesuque

Typical out the car window scene around Santa Fe

Strawberry Shortcake at Cowgirls

If you want to do Santa Fe kinda cheap and real here are some of our travel tips. It is not the luxury way but we have a really good time for not as much cash.

It takes about 11 hours for us to travel from Tulsa to Santa Fe. I know all my friends get there faster but we see a lot and stop along the way. We always pack way to much and this made me a bit nervous this time with all my talk about scaling down. I also confess we are foodies and we love to go to brew pubs, bookstores and farmers markets. John is quick to find our way and always checks the local papers and finds interesting lectures and more for us to attend. And, he thinks like a GPS and can usually find our way directly to the source.

It is hard to leave Oklahoma without stopping at a MacDonalds. So what can you do to make it better? We hardly stop anymore preferring whole foods out of our cooler but let me confess what we have been know to do. In the summer we take sliced cold home grown tomatoes, sprouts and Dijon mustard and "fixed up" a coupe of mayonnaise pickle only small cheeseburgers and eat them outside in the sunny parking lot with a small glass of red wine. Maybe it was the wine that helped. Add some blue corn chips, fresh canaope and homemade cookies and you have a decent lunch.

We usually get started too late because we clean out house ridiculously before we leave to come home to a very clean house at the end of the trip.

We ride and ride and I have included may of the typical stops and sights along the way. We don't hurry and we stop at the Blue Hole in Santa Rosa, a great little town to take photos in at some of the cemeteries etc. It is like a pure communion if you jump in at 61 degrees. Usually we do. You must at least watch the locals for a bit and put your feet in.

We stay at the Silver Saddle Hotel. We just paid $62 for one of the nicest rooms with a microwave and fridge. It is right next to Jackalope so you can shop as you please and visit the prairie dogs and petting zoo if you prefer. There is an outside picnic table where you can sit and drink a glass of wine and in the evening.
If we don't stay there, we stay at a KOA cabin just outside Santa Fe where we have a nice room, a porch with a swing and a picnic table and grill. Trips to town are limited but you get a totally different sense of being there in the desert.

We usually go to the Second Street Brew Pub, Cowgirls, Trader Joe's and whole foods. Recently our favorite bakery closed due to wheat prices and more. The thrift stores are great in Santa Fe. There are about 3 really good ones.

There are great book stores and of course Canyon Road for the best galleries and tea house with wireless Internet.

The trip must include a day trip to Ojo Calliente, the hot springs about an hour away.

Check in "The" magazine for events at St, Johns college or Santa Fe College. Artist are lots of times presenting interesting talks.

I am so tired tonight , I can write no more but I will elaborate on this soon and edit this entry. In the mean time enjoy the photos.
More soon.

Clay the Stepchild

There was a successful art show on the plaza of Santa Fe Saturday and Sunday. The arts looked great and people seemed to be buying. I felt good seeing that show unlike the one in Missouri last week. Still, artists said more people purchased more last year. Gas is $3.99-$4.89 per gallon. One of our favorite bakeries on 2nd street has gone out of biz because of bio fuel and wheat prices. Rats!
I was in a contemporary gallery and thought Ian's ever so wild and contemporary clay sculture would fit in perfectly there. I talked to the "lady" of one of the most significant contemporary galleries and told her he had recently graduated from KCAI and asked how he should approach a gallery like hers to reviewed.
She gave me lots of helpful suggestions and told me they don't take "Unknowns" and he should get a web site and make links and connections and enter calls for entries etc. Then I mentioned he was a clay sculptor.
ZIP---"Oh, you did not say he was in clay. We don' t handle any clay work. The galleries don't show that." This brought back memories of the lack of clay sculpture in the significant galleries in SanFrancisco, same response.
"Why not? Why is there no clay sculpture in these galleries? Is the material too cheap?"
"Oh no. It is just a craft."

Good grief, I thought that battle ended in the 70's. If I won the lottery I would open up a fantastic clay only gallery downtown Santa Fe and prove her wrong.

Oh well.

Georgia O'Keefe Cafe

Great Food! Best eggs Benedict with crab I have ever had! A bit pricey so be sure to go at lunch and sit outside.