dang its friday already!

i spent one whole day hand glazing a macaw parrot vase,, and the next day glazing a carved seminole indian vase,, theyre in the kiln firing now,, i was waiting on them to fire as i was working on a hand glazed orchid/dragonfly vase,, but my mind was elseware and i totally fucked up the whole vase,, so bad i just took the garden hose to it, to wash off the glaze,,

my mind is on my moms tizziness over planning my dads 75th birthday next week [moose lodge, big wingding] and im trying to help daughter mandy seal the deal on takeing over the resturant out at the renningers market

plus im trying to make pots to refill my gallery,, a nearly empty pottery booth is not good,, and factor in the still hobbley leg,,  the poor dogs even had to eat leftover lunchmeat and gingersnaps today as i havent even made it to the grocery store,,

somehow i thought artists sat around drinking wine all day, watching the waves and staying up twisting the night away,, im doing something wrong, im like a one preson chinese sweat shop

complaining is one of my best skills

ok time for a cocktail and music time w/ the dogs,, i wish i still had my chubby checker record

it was great weekend,, EVEN though i was back on crutches after the first day, by the time i got home friday night, it was all i could do to get from the car to the crutches [damn you crutches!!!]

heres a picture of the gators sculpture,, everybody loved it and it sold in the first minute,, later that day i got one of the best compliments ive ever recieved,, a lady looked at it closely for awhile and then told me how great it was that i was able to tell a story w/ a piece of sculpture,, and how i turned the predator/prey aspect of nature into ''hide and seek'' and that the bird family was oblivious to the gators,, and she asked how i figured it all out,,, i had to confess i was just making gators on a log look cool,, maybe im smarter than i think?!
im pretty exhausted today and i will write more tomorrow,, i spent the day trying to get some energy back and figuring out what i should be doing,, i did get 2 pots painted and put in the kiln

heres a crappy picture of the bigass pot,, its much more beautiful in real life,, im happy,, i really should go back and take a better picture

the cast came off this morning, and I can walk! and drive! and take a shower! and cook my own dinner w/out microwaving!
i still have to wear a splint for a month and my anklefoot is sore as hell and im hobbling around like a,,,, hobbler,,
but i can walk and im happy as hell

the first hour or so i kept doing the on the crutches ''hop thing'' every thime i went to walk,,

this weekend is the big 3 day show and i'm so glad to not have to do it on crutches, last month liked to did me in,

and my alligators on a log sculpture turned out GREAT! nothing wierd happened and all the colors look great and the racoons are too cute
ok i gotta  get back to work cutting out gift cards and then i have to pack up the car
see ya tomorrow at 8 AM  for the big show!

well it will be about another 2 weeks before my big kiln is fixed,, so ive been double-timing it w/ the smaller kiln, and Ive had to leave a few pots until next week,,

you can see from the picture of  what the mystery pieces and pots turned into and how the bigass pot is looking before it gets glazed,, it took the whole day to glaze the 2 pots in the picture,, ok one more, a comission lamp piece,, but it was much paietence,, i hope the hell they turn out good,, ive worked my ass off making them!

and i did take a trip to the market to clean up and rearrange my gallery,, and i hung the art quilt,, which is very cool and i brought out my favorite old palm tree rug, [no walking on it please, im kidding] 

more cool news,, my daughter Mandy maybe [pretty sure] will be taking over the resturant at the antique market,, she grew up working in our family barbque resturant and being a southern girl she KNOWS how to cook,, shes a regular ''martha stewart''
right now shes a chef at an award winning fancy resturant,, wait i just remembered theres a blog about me eating there,, it will be so much fun to have her there, and not to mention the food,, though my pal vanessa has always been a great cook , so I'll miss her cooking

you can see where my priorities in life are,, pottery first , food second,, [tv is third]

the cast comes off in the morning,, i had to go to the orthopedic center and get an inflatable splint to replace it with, and the guy had to show me how to put it on,, using my other foot,, of course i was wearing a sweaty old sock and it ws stinky but he was nice enough not to gag,, and he had me practice inflating it,, i can tell this splint thing won't be around long,,
ok time to go to the moose lodge, its chicken wings night,  the best night of the week! 

my big kiln is still dead,, so it will be a coupla more weeks,, and then maybe just maybe i'll be back to normal,,
so im using the small kiln,, which means i can only get my 2 fancy pots fired before next weekend,, i think i have more pots in the studio unfinished than i do at the market

they ''what doesnt kill you makes you stronger'',, well i should be at superman capacity by now,, and able to leap tall buildings at a single bound, but on thursday i will be able to drive a car and walk up steps

i was looking for palm tree trunks to use for display,, wouldnt pots look cool on palm tree pedestals?! anyways long story short,, Dan McWhortor who is a florida native and well respected tree cutter-downer came by to visit and offer to get me some palm trunks,,,BUT the best part is that he makes bowls from some of the tree trunks that he cuts down,, and the 2 bowls he showed me are amazing,, the wood is cut from the crotch of hundred year old camphor trees and dried for a year and then he starts trimming away at them until he finds an interesting wood grain,, and then he turns them on a lath,, and then lots of coats of tung oil,, you have to see the bowls!! very simple ''shaker'' like,, and the quality of his work is amazing,, very thin walled and elegant and smooth as a baby's butt,, and the wood grain is a work of art [nature's art] in itself,, these arent like the ones you see at art shows,, the craftsmanship is heart felt
anyways i told him he could display them in my gallery ,[he's only sold them to friends]  hes just been doing it for years just for the love of it,, once he went to the campbell scool of crafts in north carolina to learn how to do it better,,, i guess if you cut down trees for a living you have to love the wood after spending so much time with it,, he's also made bowls from all the florida trees he has cut down,,
well its time for cocktails w/ the dogs,, see ya later [sorry no picture]

well it took me 3 tries but i finally threw a bigass pot for the extravaganza [next friday saturday and sunday]
i have a great idea of what it will look like [half the time my great ideas don't turn out so great, like my jardenier and pedestal, its been around so long its collecting social security]

so as you can see by the picture ive started sculpting on it,, and the rest will remain a mystery

a lady is supposed to be bringing me a coupla art quilts to sell,, ive seen her work before and it was gosh darn wonderful,, very florida
i blogged twice today so keep reading down to the next one

Heres the beginnings of todays project,, can you guess what it is?
the only clue i can give you is that it will be useless,, that means it's ''art''
only 6 days and 15 hours til my cast comes off, i can't wait to drive my car, take a shower and kick the dogs [kidding about the last one]

 i think i posted this all backwards,, so look at the picture and then keep going backwars till you get to the story part

another view of the new gallery at renningers

sorry I've been gone for so long,, but I've been busy!

last week I moved into my new gallery and out of my old one,, that was three days of craziness,, and me hopping around like bugs bunny.  I had grand big dreams of what the new space would look like and in the end it looks like my apartment living room,, which is good,, I've got more room to move around in and comfy chairs to sit in for breaks, chit-chatting, lunchtime and naps,, im very happy, i can't wait for everybody to see it,,

Of course once you move anything, everything else moves and then you can't find anything, so i spent the first day trying to figure out where all my stuff was,, and i was the ''new kid'' in the neighborhood so i was all shy and awkward,, and throwing pots was weird, cos everything was different, being a creature of habit i was really thrown for a loop, by lunch time on sunday i was back in the groove

my pal geniveive is a ''fung schway'' expert and she stopped by to review my fung-schwayness,, she said i was on target,, cept for my ''business'' area, which is where i throw pots, which is kinda messy,,so she suggested i add a few bamboo branchs to get my fung-schway back in line, or just not be so messy throwing pots,,

my new neighbor [whos name i cant recall right now]  is a wood carver of florida birds and decoys,, this guy's work is most amazing,, you have to stop and see it,, the birds are so lifelike and his craftmanship puts me to shame,,

well my leg is still in the cast for another ten days,, im SO over this shit,, every part of me is bruised and callosed and sore, a week ago sunday i just couldnt get out of bed i hurt so bad,, im trying to not let it slow me down , but its taken its toll,, even my brain is worn out,, ive been working on an idea for a big pot w/ a indian wrestling an alligator and twice now ive tried to throw the pot, and neither one has worked,, the problem is that i have to stand up to to work on it and i lose my balance and then lose the pot,, im trying again tomorrow,, im also working on a mantel clock, tomorrow im on the hunt for a clock to put in it,,

and if i dont have enough to do I also promised vanessa to paint a sign for her new sex shop [its called ''buttons and bows'', not] and my child lauren wants art work and logos for her new theater props business'es web site

theres  new pictures on the web sites front page,, me w/ my new haircut [thanks mom] and a picture of my new home,,

AND eric stopped by today and finally has both of my kilns up and running,, so life is good and thank you jesus!!