back in the saddle

hello hello....sorry to have been absent for so long...i was sick for a while and then busy getting back to work and catching up...i have also been taking a business class, and now i'm very behind in the homework...partly due to illness, and partly due to the fact that we are working on financials, and this is the most dreadful part for me, so i have been putting it off, putting it off...must dive in, though...what is it they say? just do it. yeah, that's it....

on the bright side, my slabroller came!! yay! it has taken me a while to get the hang of the mechanism, as i am used to using a different brand, but now that i've got the hang of it it has made my life much easier, and opened up so much room in the studio. the scary part is, now i have to make things!! a lot of them!! it is scary, but in a good way, i promise.

so, don't know if any of you read american craft magazine, but you should. this month's articles are great, though they kind of beat the dead horse of art vs. craft and all of that, but they generally have very insightful articles, not to mention great pictures. ;) they always get me thinking in ways that i haven't since grad school, and i think that's a good thing. anyway, there is one particular article on ceramics and industry this month, and i highly suggest you read it. you'll find it here. there is actually another article by marek cecula on similar things, but i liked this other one better...check it out.

not to rant about it, but i think a lot about the craft v art v industry debate, and i really don't see the big deal. mostly what i come to, especially after reading these articles, is that industry is not a bad thing...after all, if you think about it, industry was born from craft, and crafters should be proud of that, and own it, rather than bitching about industry and what it does to ceramics (or any other media, for that matter). but really, everything is valid. i don't think one is better than the other, the cottage potter or the industrial designer. this world is big enough for all of it, and one would not exist without the other. we all have our place. i could go on here, but really am working on getting my thoughts down and then i'll post something a bit more articulate, but read the magazine and come to your own conclusions.

above is an image of a wall piece i made recently. black and white porcelain. here's one in white.