heres pictures of my pots that i've kept thru the years,, theyre pots that nobody would appreciate as much as I do,,

its been a busy week,, sunday was my moms 75th birthday as well as Miss Jems' 90th! birthday,, so i threw a party for them,, first we had cocktails and hors deorves and then off to the japanese steakhouse [yummy yummy girls!] and than back to my house for brandy alexanders and cake,, quite an evening

monday i started feeling a bit crummy [all the brandy alexanders!?] and by tuesday i started feeling more crummier and that night i got no sleep,, nonstop sneezing and all kinds of symptoms, wednesday i felt even worse,,,

SO,,,, [this is the bad part]  i had to call and cancel my appearance for the ''friends of the orlando art museum'' at their gala that night..i have been so looking forward to it,, a great opportunity and i even had my new white linen suit to wear, and florida postcards w/ my name on them for all the guests,, i felt so bad that i went and bought ice cream, peanuts and cheesy puffs, and cried myself to sleep [not really]

i have been one busy boy getting ready for the november extravaganza, and the christmas show at the backus museum,, this week i worked on 3 gator sculptural pieces,, one for the wall and a 5 gators on a log that is a box w/ gator lids and another big gator w/ stacks of smaller gator boxes on top,, and a grand set of indian dolls,, 3 more tall vases and a new flamingo lamp,, next week is a mosaic table, and a mosaic for the wall,, and i even did some mini pots i just remembered,, i have drawings and ideas stuck all over everything

and for the house news,, everybody is getting their paperwork in order and we found insurance for the house that didnt cost a fortune, and the realtor came over to list my home for sale,, she loved the house and and the property said it is most wonderful and folks will love it,,,HOWEVER its only worth next to nuthin'  as all the homes around me are selling for barely nothing,, i dont care,, i just hope a nice family buys it and enjoys it as much as my family has for the last 20 years,, call me if you need a great 2 story craftsman house, w/ a guest house, studio on a big jungley lot in a good neighborhood, near schools and walmart
thats all folks,, peanut the dog has been sick too,, but hes feeling better,, i talked to his old vet-nurse this week who couldn't believe that he is still alive,,

the realtor just now called and said,, the bank has accepted our offer!!!!
THE BANK HAS ACCEPTED OUR OFFER AND THE HOUSE IS NOW GOING TO BE MY HOME [AND BOB AND PEANUT AND YOGI]

''the bank has accepted our offer!!'' has there ever been a moremost  wonderful sentence ever spoken???

i cant believe its real after 4 months [or 1 million minutes!] of waiting and wondering and dreaming and sleepless nights and worrying,,

im going to go to sleep tonight and just deam about all the wonderfulness of my new home,,,

time to start making lists,, first a 2 hp well pump [ i gotta have water] and then a refridgerator [white not stainless] and then a riding lawnmower [it is 2 acres to mow],, ok now im broke,, and then new wiring for the studio and get a dumpster to clean up the tons of debris in the house,, and then more work and more money and more  work and more money,, i cant wait! its the adventure of my lifetime!

wow its real,,,,,,,,,,what have i gotten myself into??,, my mom is going to kill me when she finds out!
xomartin

Starting tomorrow, Friday, and fridays from now on,,[unless shes teaching somewhere] my mentor/friend Suzy Vey will be in charge of my gallery at the renningers,, whe will be making pots and selling hers as well as mine,,

Back in Dec. 7th 2001 Suzy gave a speech at the opening of her show, about potters teaching the next generation of potters and ''passing the torch'' so as to speak,, at the time i had pretty much given up on pottery,, the frustration and crappy results had taken its toll and i had sorta lost interest, but her speech inspired me, REALLY inspired me!! I wanted to be the potter that she passed her torch to, so after that i really got busy and worked my ass off [and i still am]
 


if she hadnt made that speech no telling what would have happened to me,,

suzy has a history of working w/ Charles Counts up at rising fawn pottery in tenn.
Charles is a legend in the southern art pottery world, they even have a special tribute to him at the appalacian folk art center in ashville,, so i guess he passed the torch to her,,,

charles counts worked w/ marguerite and franz wildenhain at the pond farm art colony,, they too are legends in the pottery world,,, i dont know who taught them, but i know they were involved w/ the Bauhaus movement across the pond

so i guess my lineage goes back to ''the bauhaus'',, i watched a documentery on ''Grobius'' [that may be misspelled] the architect of the whole  movement,,,, AND i dont fit in there anywhere and i hate the whole thing,, its all so unpretty and unhuman,, no thanks

so thats your history lesson for today,, no test,,, anyways suzy makes beautiful pots and is a great person to visit w/, so if you get a chance stop by and visit w/ her, you will love her work,, the picture shows 3 that i have,,[i have dozens] she said she will be bringing some of her leaf carved ''albany slip'' glazed pieces and some jazzy hand painted pieces,,
ps. albany slip cant be used anymore [enviromental] its a great tradional glaze

well we had Mandy's new twin dining rooms all ready for the big fair weekend ,, and it was a huge success,,, too huge,, waaaayy too huge,, the resturant was swamped w/ customers and all the tables crammed w/ people,, i spent most of saturday working in the resturant,, i was the friendly order taker,, during lunch Mr Renninger stopped by and saw the overflowing dining rooms and offered mandy another dining room space!
hurrah,,, now we have another room to fill w/ tables and chairs and make it look good, [ i already bought 4 tables at the thrift shop this morning]

the picture is of Jeff and Patty Cook new Highwaymen gallery,, as you can see its filled with ''the good stuff'',, not those beat up scratched ugly new framed paintings, by ner-do-well not quite a highwayman,, its a pleasure and an inspiration to go a visit their gallery,, and theyre both interesting to visit w/

well Im supposed to to a casual lecture vistitation for friends of the orlando art museum in a coupla weeks,, so i went to the Target store to buy decent clothes to wear, thinking that anything i buy at the target will be in style,, i didnt see anything worth standing in line to check out,,

my fashion icon has always been the author Tom Wolfe
he always looks quite dapper in his white linen suit, and artists always look like ''they dont care-boho''  so i got on the ebay this morning and bought me a nice new white linen suit [$75 including shipping] i cant wait till it gets here,, i figure i can wear it for the backus opening and at the extravaganzas,, and the clay shouldnt show up too much should i get it dirty,,, i hope i dont look stupid,, plus if i die i will have something nice to wear into eternity,, i wonder if i should get white shoes and a belt?
i have white spray paint

the backus museum sold my seminole indian stacking dolls that i brought for them and then took orders for more,, so today im back in the twilight zone, filling the studio with dolls,, who stare blankly at me while i throw more on the wheel,, i also made an indian cookie jar holding an alligator,,[i screwed up a big doll and turned it into a cookie jar]

peanut the old dog has kennel cough,, and i refuse to take him to the vet as every time i do it costs a fortune,, so i got online and and its not deadly and i  ordered him some medications, right now he is sitting next to me in a blanket next to a heater,, i need to go get him a vaporizor, last time i took him to the vet it costed me a months worth of pots, all because he got in the trash and ate all the spoiled leftovers from easter,, and he is 112 in dog years,,

ok thats all for today

well the heat wave broke,, and we went stright to winter weather,,,
anyways update on the house going-ons,, bob and i have decided to keep up our efforts in buying the house,,
i think the heat combined w/ a doubleshot of bad news sent us over the edge,, the house is just too special to let it go, i could never forgive myself if it got torn down to make way for a subdivsion,, its worth all the sleeepless night and hassles
of off to work,, the cool weather brought out tons of people to the market yesterday and i sold lots of pots and i have to get busy and make more,,
i wonder if its going to start knowing today?

well we had my birthday shindig on the lawn of the new house and realized there was no running water anymore,, so the next day we called the well fixer folks who informed us the well pump was shot and it costs thousands for a new one, and then a phone call to the realtor [about the pump problem]  was another shocker,, seems that the bank [who had told us what offer they would accept] decided they want another $5000!!!

AND that my friends was the straw that broke the camels back!  Bob and I have just decided to give up on the whole thing, we were willing to take the risk in this bullshit real estate market and we have been patience for over 3 months now, AND even going out and keeping an eye on the place to prevent vandels from tearing it apart,, but for the bank [the one from america!] to renege on their price!!! no more
i feel bad, but whatever, i tried,, and its time to move on

on a brighter note,, i finally delivered my pots to the Backus Museum yesterday,, [its like a 7 hour round trip] Debbie was excited about the pots i brought and i entered one of the pots in their anuual art contest thingamajig,, they still havent got the display finished, but it will look cool when its all put together,,And they have another gallery full of backus's paintings, which were all wonderful, even portraits and some unusual paintings,, more glamouruser,, the museum was closed and dark and i was busy looking at pictures and bumping into everything,, when i left debbie reminded me my next delivery for the christmas show is Nov 23,,, so between now and then i need another bunch of completely different grand potteries to show! [good thing im not moving any time soon]

And we stopped by Allens Diner and ate fried fish and shrimp baskets,, ive been eating healthy for so long that it tasted even more delicous!

Jeff and Patty Cook have their new highwaymen gallery open at Renningers [i will post picutres next week] Great Paintings! i kept going back to visit just to look at their paintings,, plus they are nice folks to visit w/

And we got Mandys duo-dining rooms  at her resturant at the renningers  freshly painted and paintings hung  on the walls and tables and chairs and it looks great [im a very proud father] it all looks as good as her food tastes,,

no picture today 

i let the dogs out this morning in the dark and all of a sudden there was much barking and carrying on in the laundry room and when i went to see what all the fuss was about,, there was an owl perched on the window sill in the laundry room!!!
 the owl was as cute as could be!
while snapping his picture i could see he had some fierce claws on him, so i grabbed the dogs and vamoosed outta there, slamming the door. Lest i have to repeat the posssum incident and have to call animal control again,,

im quite proud that i have an owl in my backyard, i saw him last year,,
this what you get when you stop mowing your backyard lawn and let it return to its natural state of being,, a nice jungle w/ very little effort,, and critters! i havent mowed the backyard in 15 years,, ever since the crappy new neighbors put up an ugly chain link fence, not mowing was my protest

im glad i finally had something to write about,, this pottery making stuff has turned into ''work'' lately,, everything takes forever to make and half the stuff doesnt turn out right,, it all cracks and then the glaze runs and it gets discouraging,, and you gotta just keep plugging away at it,, i screwed up 2 bowls in a row,,

i was just loading the kiln and noticed i have 5 pots w/ flamingos on them,,AND one has OWLS on it!!! what a coincidence! i did it last week and its still not finished

im so sorry to see cypress gardens go out of business,, on my first vacation to florida it was our favorite place,, my brother and i were water skiing nuts and the show was most exciting,, not to mention all the exotic gardens, we vowed to return and join the waterskiing show, and went back to michigan and practiced our trick skiing,, i didnt join the show but i know one of the skiers, Ron,, who played the hillbilly

laurens play [Antigone] at rollins was really great,, they staged it in front of the theater under the moonlight w/ blazing torches,, all most grand and laurens scenery splendid,, i never did figure out what the play was about, still very entertaining

i gotta go help mandy at the renningers tomorrow,, shes been so busy shes having to expand, doubling the dining room size,, so good old dad is helping paint and remodel it to look good for the fancy mount dora ladies, so they will stay and eat lunch and shop some more,, i may go ahead and remodel my booth a bit,, the spanish moss needs replacing
goddamn its hot here,, when is fall coming???