Brockton, Mass

Had my years supply of fast food yesterday in Airports. First a quick Wendy's hamburger in the Portland Airport, then after an uneventful flight to Chicago, and a really terribly windy landing, a cheeseburger from McDonalds at the Midway Airport. I had a beer in the airport that was made in Chicago. I think it was called "315". It was wheat-y. The flight to Providence was kind of lame. I was seated next to a family with a baby. I had purchased a copy of Fahrenheit 451 in Portland and I finished it on the takeoff from Providence. Right about the time I finished the book, the dad started snoring next to me. Lame. Luckily I had headphones and a bloody mary. Arrived in Providence, got the car and drove to Brockton. Traffic was bad, but I made it safely to Mike's place. He was up still, which is impressive cause he is a teacher. By the time we both fell asleep at close to 6am, I think he had been up for about 24 hours. A few beers, some good tunes and lots of talking eventually led to a Ramones documentary and some restful sleep.
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Eggs, potatoes, black beans and some veggie sausage with toast for breakfast plus two pints of coffee had us on a motorcycle flying through the autumnal bliss of east coast and 65 degrees. Stopped into the Fuller Craft Museum to try for a sneak at the new Warren MacKenzie exhibit. No luck on a walk through, but we watched as they put up the fonts and set out some of the most beautiful pots I've seen. Most surprising to me was the scale. I didn't realize that some of those pieces are so large. I like big pots, and to me MacKenzie's work seems perfect at any scale, but I was really surprised and delighted to see large beautiful shapes. I wanted very badly to pick them up and turn them around. They really becon the veiwer to interact.
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Scary music and trick or treaters. Horror flicks in an hour. A Yankees win and good company tonight. Fragment sentences and kids in the street. Brockton, Mass.

Not 100%, but whatever

Spent most of the last week feeling crappy. Body aches, sore throat etc. . . Tiffani most definitely had the swine flu. I slept for 15 hours last night and 13 the night before. When I woke up this afternoon, I took my temp and it was a bit under 98.6, so I guess I'm healthy. Problem is, I still feel bad. Oh well, it's time to get on with my life! Just walked Gus around the neighborhood and broke a serious sweat, so I guess I'll be taking it easy.

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The show at the MK Gallery is coming down this weekend. I'm glad to have had the opportunity to show some of my work. I think over all the show was a success. I don't think anybody sold anything, but we received a lot of positive feedback.

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I mixed up some clay bodies last week in ceramics. I'm going to go to school today for the first time this week and slake them down. I mixed a grolleg porcelain body, a woodfire body and a 50/50 fireclay/ball clay mix. I may have already mentioned this. . . Did I mention my brain isn't working properly? It's not. Now that Gus is walked and I'm exhausted, it's time to head to class. Less than two weeks before I head to Boston for the MacKenzie exhibit. Man, am I excited!

Tuesday is half full

Woke up late. Gus is about out of food, so he and I made a trip to the pet store for some grub. Next, Tabor for some frolicking on the hillside. He seems a little sad. I think he is fed up with the school, work, art schedule that has me leaving the house around 8:30 am and arriving home around 9:45 pm. I'm pretty sure Tiff is fed up too. Luckily she has Gus, and Gus has her. He still gets to go to the dog park nearly every day to play and poop. I'm going to try out the new max line today. It says online that the trip from my place to campus should take 40 minutes which is 5 minutes less than it takes me on my bike; I'm skeptical.

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I've been very busy, the sculpture club budget was due last week. I wrote it up, submitted it and it was accepted! That's pretty exciting news. We've already had our first event of the year, and now it's time for our first meeting, a bowling party. I'm trying to organize a team sculpture competition for the Spring. I'm not sure if I've bitten off more than I can chew here, but it seems daunting.

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I'm going to start mixing my own clay. It's expensive to buy premixed clay. I can easily throw more than I can afford. Plus, I'm not super excited about our options at school. Georgies has a few bodies that I've tried and liked, but I think I'm paying mostly for water, and I've got plenty of that falling outside. . . First up will be a very simple mix of Fireclay and Ball clay. It's a combination that Peter Voulkos used at the Bray. He threw big and his forms are spectacular. I hope that the clay body will inspire me, or at least enable me to step it up a bit.

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Fall is here, it's cold in Portland. Its raining and very windy. I'm already looking forward to Spring.