heres a picture of my new buddy ,, hes a gopher tortouise that lives in a hole in my back yard,,, ive never seen him till yesterday,, i returned from ft pierce and saw him sunning himself in the back yard,, hes a big ole turtle,, the dogs didnt pay him any mind and the turtle was nice enough for me to go get my camera to take his picture,,
pretty cool huh?  lets hope theres no rattle snake surprizes in the yard

well i was right about not having 2 good weeks in a row [sort of]  i set up my wheel in the warm sunshine and monkey-doodled around all day throwing pots, while the crowds stayed away

the event was for "Art Mundo'' a new art school/studio/co-op in fort pierce, so a dozen or so artists were set up in tents doing demos and promoting their school,, my tent was over at the end and nobody knew why i was there and i didnt know why they were there,,, then i met my new pal Anita [anitaprenticeart.com]  turns out shes one of my favorite artists,but i never knew who she was,, she does colored glass mosiacs,, beautiful broken glass mosiacs,, her park benchs are wild and i saw the inside of a swimming pool she did,, her work is very detailed and loose, the more you look the more you like it,, anyways we hung out,,, and after goofing around all day i only sold 2 little pots,, hardly enough to cover gas, best western motel, and grub,,

but what can you do???

well bob and I celebrated my near failure [and sunburnt face] by splurging at a fancytown waterfront resturant,,, we got a table right by the river and drank huge fancy beers and ate salad bars [i love salad bars, and this one was great] and topped it off w/ big juicy steaks,, nothing gets rid of the sting of being a loser like large quanity of great food and beer,,

so!!!!!! when i got back home sunday, Kathleen the ''backus boss'' called me to say that they sold all my pots during their big sunday brunch,, and i had better get my butt in gear and bring a bunch more by the end of the month,,,[highwayman  show and appearances] just when i thought i was gonna get a day off im ''back in the weeds'' again,, i should be making pots right now instead of goofing around on the inter-web,,, i know im a real whinner,,,''whay whay whay,,i sold all my pots now i have to make more''

i think i just want to ''exhale'' and not feel overwhelmed and planning out every moment of every day, ive been doing some sort of show/event every 3 weeks since november,, luckily i have 2 mortgages to keep me motivated,, which reminds me the realtor showed my house again yesterday,,,as Sally Bowles  sang in ''Cabarat'' 
''Maybe this time,,,''
ok i gotta go

well im writing this before i pack up and head back to the Backus Muesum to throw pots on Saturday.. I did quite well last weekend so I don't expect anything this weekend,,, the pottery gods have deemed that you can't have 2 good weekends in a row,, if i have a dull weekend i will enter the Backus painting raffle,, as that would make up for freezing outside again,, [those crazy gods might take piy on me!]

the picture is of my lateset piece to emerge from the fire,, its a 2 foot tall Seminole indian maiden,, i guess you could call her a cookie jar, as the top half is removable,, heres the cool part,, if you turn her around she has  another face and shes holding and alligator w/ an alligator in her hair and gators painted on her skirts,, its all quite grand and definitly falls into the ''never saw that before'' catogory,, im most very proud of it and can't wait to show it off!! proud papa

of and i forgot ,, last weekend set a new record of the dumbest question ever asked of me,, throwing pots in public yeilds a lot of conversations, some interesting as hell and some sorta ''special ed'' 
up till last weekend the dumbest question was by a lady who stood there and watched me make a pot and then asked
 ''Are you making ice cream?'' 
i know
last weekednd a man was watching me and asked
''are you a rodeo clown?''
i know,, and that one kinda stung
i guess with all the cowboys around he thought he was at the rodeo and i looked like a clown,,,
ok i gotta get going,, i hope its warmer down south

sorry i havent blogged in awhile,, but i was bustin' butt for the 3 day extravaganza and then 4 days later i had to deliver pots to the Backus museum for my ''pioneer days'' appearance,,,

anyways im sorta caught up for the moment [4 more days till my next trip to the Backus] so Im updating you on my super funtastic weekend!

as soon as i got to the Museum on Friday, and debuted my 24 assorted Seminole indian maiden vases,, the gal at the front desk started calling folks to let them know i was in town w/ new pots,,, i was told to report to my tent on saturday morning and set up and ''throw down''
i got to my tent bright and early ,, it was about 40 degrees w/ an icy wind blowing off the the water and grey rain-spitting clouds,,i wore all the clothes i brought at once including my PJs,,, it was miserable friggin cold as hell,, by the time i had gotten set up i was besieged by customers wanting pottery,,, every sale had to be NEATLY written down on the sales sheet and sent in to the cashier,, i was just a writin' and wrappin' like a crazyfool,,,[and smilling from ear to ear!]

THEN! i start hearing loud CRACK after CRACK like fire works w/ lots of whoopin and hollerin so i ran to the street to see the parade of cowboys coming down the street,,,over a hundred men, women, grandpas, kids,, all riding into town on their horses,, and twirling lassos and cracking their whips

you see Pioneer Days in Fort Pierce is all about the annual cracker cowboy ride from Bradenton to fort pierce,,, they ride for 6 days and nights camping out under the stars just like cowboys did for decades herdin the cows to market,,

it was exciting as hell!!! i wanted to jump on a horse and join in the whip-crackin fun,,  [ok i am scaird of horses, but i still wanted to]

anyways for the rest of the day the cowboys were riding up and watching me make pottery,,, all ages and shapes and sizes,, and theyve all been making the ride since they were kids,,, so i got to meet and talk to lots of them,,, i shook lots of hands and thanked them for keeping the tradition alive,,, [i sure as hell wouldnt spend  all of last week camping out in the freezing cold],,, so it was lots of fun,, AND i was in the tent next to the st lucie historical folks so they were lots of fun to hang out w/ [and they had a bigass propane heater!]   by 2 oclock the rain was pouring and the tempature dropping even more and the wind was really blowing,, i was determined to embodie the pioneer spirit and keep throwing them pots!!!!!

but then i changed my mind as i could no longer carry on a conversation as i was shivering and teeth chattering,,

so it was a super fun weekend,,, there was lots of stuff happening,, whip cracking lessons,, horse rides for the kids,, story tellers,, no indians,, and a cowboy poet reciting his poetry,,, and i brought back seminole indian pot holders for clint, mandy and my mom,,

it took me till sunday to get warm again,, saturday night we ordered in pizza AND lasgana,, [i was hungry] i did eat a pork samwich at the  park and tasted ''swamp cabbage'' [its an aquired taste, so they say,,,,,,]  Poor Bob brought along his golf clubs to play golf and spent most of saturday driving around waiting for the weather to clear up,,, but alas,,

what else?  the Extravaganza was kinda boring,, it was my 21st,, and the thrill is gone,, but trent,, [my 8 yr old pottery apprentice] kept me entertained ,, he drew monkeys all weekend and ran and got me food,,

as you can see by the picture im still working on my big seminole indian maiden,, shes firing in the kiln right now,,, it will be a pottery miracle if she makes it through the firing and glazing and firing again,, but i hope to have her finished by next friday

alright its cocktail time,, so i gotta go [im gonna get me a whip and lasso on ebay and learn  how to use em,,, oh yeah and i didnt debut my blindfolded pottery throwing trick,, i figured throwing pots outside in frigid wet weather was daredevil enough

heres a picture of my favorite new treasure,, its a painting by the highwayman rodney demps,,
i was visiting jeff cook and he has 2 paintings by rodney,,, i love that they are so loose and wild, rodney definitely has taken the highwaymen to a different cooler place,, anyways Jeffs gallery is doing so good that he is expanding [doubling ] the size of his gallery,, his paintings are wonderful and Jeff and Patty are good folks,,, Jeff is bringing a coupla Backus paintings out this weekend for the extravaganza,, what a treat!

well my eustis house is finally listed for sale ,, it should be on the MLS listing today and on realtor.com next week,, it took forever to get it ready, the weather has been so bad that the flowers in the front yard are still in their pots and i take them in and out every day,,  im sure it wil take forever to sell so im not anxious,but it sure would be nice,,, the house looks so pretty inside, better than when im living there

well im busting butt making pots in the artic florida winter,, im taking 9 new pots out of the kiln this morning and then refilling it to the brim w/ seminole indian maiden vases for the backus Museum the  next 2  weekends,,  ive been having good sales right along so i dont know what i even have at the market to sell beyond whats coming out of the kiln this morning,,

alrighty then im off to unload the kiln and put the flowers back out in the front yard [and wait for buyers] and finish up the dolls,, dont forget tomorrow starts the biggest and last extravaganza for the season,, be there or be square!

i was throwing this pot at the market and a pal Kathy was watching me, and asked what i was making ,, i replied a ''butt'' and she said ''well thats blog-worthy'' so here it is,, im trying to come up w/ some really cool for the febuary extravaganza [a week from friday] so this is it,,, admitedly it has a looongg way to go,,,
 stay tuned to see the finished masterpiece,,
and read the blog below it as it is new and informational

i finally found my camera,, it was at the bottom of the washing machine,, so i got another new one,, but the picutures were still good on the memory card,,
this is a picture of the pots i sent to the Backus /museum a few weeks back,, anyways Kalthleen and Debra called and says they need more pots NOW! and theyre having 2 events that i should attend for my show and tell [show and sell],, so i will be bringing my wheel down for throwing for 2 saturdays,,, the first is on the  saturday of the 27th, its ''pioneer days'' so the place will be filled w/ cowboys cracking whips and indians dancing  and dealing black jack [sorry about that remark, but if i hadnt lost i wouldnt so much i wouldnt have said it]

so i will be outside in my very own tent throwing pots,,

so im thinking that i will be a pretty boring attraction compared to whip crackers,, SO im going to come up w/ some ''pottery throwing tricks''!!!
     heres the 3 tricks ive thought of ,,
first throwing pots blindfolded,, i think i can do that as i wear trifocal glasses and cant see anything anyways ,,,
   the next trick is throwing a pot w/ one hand tied behind my back!!  maybe i can do that, i have 2 weeks to practice,,
and the third will be a magic trick where i put a chunk of clay in my mouth and spit out a finished pot,,, it will involve ''sleight of hand'',, is anybody out there a magician? does anybody know a magician? i figure i will have to throw pots in long sleeves for the magic trick part,,,,

i just want to entertain folks,, im a ''giver'',, what can i say?

the other appearence will be Sat, march 6th for the backus memorial weekend,,, again a tent,, [their tent not mine i dont have one], and i hope it isnt hard to put up as i have never met a tent that wasnt a pain in the ass to put up] on sunday they are cooking breakfast for 500 people [ i dont know why] 
i almost volunteered to help cook as im am an experienced short order breakfast cook of 17 years,, for once i kept my mouth shut, as i still have nightmares for that job,,

heres my secret ive been hiding,,,, my eustis house is [was] a toxic waste sight,, thats right,, i have,, or rather had an underground oil tank for my furnace,, a huge NO NO when you go to sell a house, and the EPA would have a hissy fit if they knew it was there ,,, long story short i spent a fortune having it dug up and removed,,, im so relieved now i can get my house on the market and sold,, even cooler is that Mandy is moving in while the house is on the market,, shes only been there one day but shes already given it that ''girl-y-ness'' its smells really good and has towels and candles everywhere,, and she makes me take my shoes off when i go in MY OWN HOUSE,

of course now the shower stopped working and the water heater is leaking,,, i love old houses,, something always DOESN'T work,,,  i must say im even more in love w/ my new home,, i just wandered all around every day in awe of it,,, bob has started his garden,, we have tomatoes, collards, brussel sprouts, onions, dalias and zinnias,, of course all of it is in pots and not planted yet, and bob bought me a blackberry [bush not the phone] for our 10th anniversary, i also have a little fig tree,, oh yeah and we have 3 camilias in bloon,, i love camilias its as close as you can get to a peony in florida, we are starting a big camilia garden as a famous grower lives down the road from us [martha stewart loves em too!]
i think we are all caught up,, im making pots like a crazy person

if you read the last blog you wil know im in over my head trying to get everything done everywhere,,, the mount dora house was a real cluster-f#*&,, the renter didnt want to pack and move and didnt want anybody to help him,, so it ended up w/ their crap piled up all over the yard, the new owners wernt happy,, but the deal went thru,,,

no more realestate investments!  actually everything ive ever invested in has tanked,, dot com  or tech stocks,, not to mention as a youth i started out investing in AMC motors and noth central airlines,,,[ my fathers idea to teach me about the stock market and investing,, obviously i didnt learn the lesson] and later on i  dabbled in beanie babies and old radios
in the future i will just take my money to vegas

i lost my friggin camera,, and on it are pictures of the 18 pots i sent to the backus museum,, i did a whole series of painted florida birds and some seminole indian maiden vases,,  bob drove them down while i tried to motivate the renter into packing,,i figured being a former mcdonalds manger, who spent most of my time motivating knucklheads into working and not playing grab ass,,, i could handle the renter,, i was wrong,,soo wrong,,,wrong,  [i think the renter is autistic]

anyways the eustis house looks great,,, i " staged'' just like on the tv shows all the rooms look good,, [my pottery of course] now i just have to get my tropical jungle  and yard looking good,, and its on the market,,, im hoping to not lose my ass in the deal but im confident the house will sell its a beautiful home in a great neighborhood

i took today off from the market to make pots,, i still have a bunch of commision pots to make and the next extraganza is 3 weeks away,,im working on a new tuorquiose celedon glaze, which i will try out this week and i still havent gotten any clay,,i just keep heaping piles of  used mud in front of a room heater to dry it out and pound i back into shape,, i did get feeling cruddy one day last week and slept the whole day and night away,, its all too much,, i keep thinking by the end of the summer i will be leading the simple quiet life of a potter and gentleman farmer,, me, chickens, dogs and tomatos,, the american dream will be mine!

well im made it thru the 3 day january extraganza,,, i think the crazy weather had everybody worn out and it just wasnt very exciting,,,

my friend Joyce, brought me a joy postle painting of a heron standing in waterlilies that was most beautiful to hang in my booth just for ''show and tell'' not to sell,, the painting looked great hanging behind my bird motif potteries,,, and heres the wierd part,,ive never seen joy postle paintings anywhere at the market for sale and when dealer folks saw the heron, 2 of them came back and offered to sell me their joy postle paintings, trading for pots,,WOW,, i was and am so excited to own them,, one is a big landscape of north carolina and the other is a flying egret and waterlilies,,

the florida art museum is working on a joy postle exhibit, so they may be going to be in the show,,

i thought after the extravaganza i would have a few days to exhale before getting back to potterying,, but then i realized i had to get my eustis home ready to be sold,, which meant moving and cleaning and moving and cleaning

and then the backus museum called and needs me to bring more pots for their opening on the 29th,, so ive been making pots, cleaning and moving all at once all week long,,

and now bob has sold his rental house thats full of MORE furniture and stuff and all of that has to be moved this next week too,,,
of course the freeze turned my eustis tropical gardens into a ''adams family'' garden so i have to do something w/ that too,,,

i have my ''moose lodge carribiean cruise'' flyer on the wall, as my hope of  fun in the future,, sigh,,
ok im off to the market,, to make more pots and sell pots,, so i can make more pots so i can sell more and make my 2 mortgage payments,, could life be any simpler?!
i swear i will put up pictures of pots this week,, im doing some cool seminole indian vases and some of painted birds,,, the snowey egrets are killer looking on pots

i cannot get over this cold weather wer'e having,, it just won't stop!
clint came by the studio this morning and as we wer'e huddled around the heater he proclaimed this the worst cold spell that he has been thru in his 82 years,,

if it wasnt for me being so busy making the potteries  i would have have spent the last week curled up in front of my new fireplace sleeping,,
every morning ive been up at the crack of dawn and working in an icy studio finishing up christmas commision pots and trying to make new exciting pieces for the January Extravaganza [that is next friday, staurday and sunday]
i do have 2 heaters in the studio, one is  small sitting on the work table to warm my hands and face and the other sits on the floor and by using an old dog blanket and covering the heater and myself it creates a tent of [dogstinkin] of warmth around me

such is the glamourus life of a potter

the high point of my frustration came on sunday morning when i went to unload the wet pots i had left in my car overnight, that i had thrown on saturday at the market,, i opened up the back of the honda-car and there they sat all frozen solid and all cracked to smithereens!!!! never in my 12years of pottering have i ever made that mistake,,
today i just gave up,, i loaded up the kiln and came back home,, ive barely spent anytime here since we moved in,, im always at the studio,

heres the FUN part,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

last wednesdy Bob and i went down to the backus museum to take down more pots and pick up the unloved pieces and get paid,, the author Sally Putnam Chapman  had bought several of my pieces and was nicest enough to invite us to her home to meet me,, the visit was one of the best experiences of my life,, shes a fascinating person, and has the same love of florida and art that i have,,
the highlight of the visit is when we were walking past her china cupboard i recognised  that her dishes were designed by my favorite poet/artist Don Blanding,, Sally was surprized that i knew of his work and then she surprized me back by announcing that Don Blanding was her grandfather and he wrote my favorite book ''Floridays'' in her home,, i thought i was gonna faint,, and when i started looking out the windows i could see his inspiration of the book everwhere i looked!!
i have goosebumps still thinking about it,,
Sally is just the BEST! and she autographed my copy of her book for me,,i will treasure it always [to say the least]
by the way her book is "whistled like a bird'' about the grand exciting life of her grandmother Dorthy,,amongst all her adventures was being pals w/ ameila Earhart, and flying aorund w/ her,,, life in florida  was much more exciting in those days,, even clint says so,, and more beautiful and warmer too

wait a second i just saw clint outside the window holding a shotgun!!! i will be right back,,

ok im back,, clint came over to adjust and try out the new scope on his rifle and needed our woods to shoot the gun, bob and peanut and yogi are at a safe distance behind him,,,,, i guess you cant shoot off guns in eustis,,i know its ok in orlando [according to the nightly news]

what was i writing? 

anyways i could go on and on about meeting Sally and our visit, but i dont want to invade her privacay,,

BUT you must buy her book ''Whistled like a Bird'' and if you dont already own a copy of "floridays'' get a copy of that as well no florida library is complete w/out them!

the backus museum is having a great show of women florida artists,,, i have to confess that they look no different that men paintings,, heres a fun thing to do if you visit,, one of the exhibiting paintings is a very close copy of one of Backus's paintings and they both are hanging on walls almost directly across the museum from each other,, look around, and you will see its obvious,,  i love the backus
thats all for today,, im trying to post a picture of all the pots and confusion of my studio/refridgerater, but the computer isnt cooperating

heres  a picture of an umbrella stand,, [only the second one ever to turn out] that was a last minute christmas commision ,, i made it in only 6 days from start to finish and it turned out to be one of the nicest pieces ive eve made,, i really busted my ass to get it finished and its beauty stopped traffic all weekend while it was displayed proudly next to me and the throwing wheel,, then i had to give [sell] it away,, i was really torn when i was strapping it into the customers' carseat as it was going away never to be seen again to an unknown person,, and who knows if she would even like it or appreciate all the work that went into it,,, i was sick to my stomach for the next 2 days over it,,, how wacky,,, from now on my best work will only be sold to people i know and trust,, again how wacky,,

heres more info about my new home,, which im happily living in and having the time of my life, enjoying the country life,, see the picture on the front page of the website

weve always wondered what inspired the architect sam stoltz to create such an unusual masterpiece of architecture in the boondocks of florida,,

anyways the book ''storybook style'' gave us the answers,, the storybook style,[crazy old european style craftsmen style]  it seems that in LA during the heyday of grand epic silent films, craftsmen and builders were brought over from europe to create sets for silent films of exotic faraway places, [think robin hood and castles and french chateaus]
in 1921 Harry Oliver an art director from hollywood designed an built  the ''Spandena House'' as an office and movie set for the Willets movie studio,,, the house is very similar to ours [ours is much more imaginitive] and it was featured in the magazine ''home designger and garden beautiful'' several times,, my thinking is that Sam Stoltz saw the magazine and the Spandena House'' and was inspired to out do it and created our home,, actually ours is the second version of Sams creation, as the first try burnt down,,

its fasincating to think that hollywood movies were the inspiration for my home!!!

by the way we are still marveling at the beauty of the house and property and trying to figure out how to make everything work,, clint has been doing lots of odd jobs, as he is the only one who knows how to fix 80 year old windows and toilets,,

im busting butt making potteries for the January extravaganza, as im up to my ears in commisions [these days im not about to let a dime get past me]  the studio is filled w/ unfinished pots, and hopefully they will all turn out to be treasures
which reminds me i better get to work,, im still at the old studio so i have to comute like a real job