as of  lately ive been getting some great comissions the one in the picture is for my pal Bonnie,,, she said ''just make me an alligator sculpture''  so i made one for her sitting up on his hind legs,, and to surprize bonnie,, [who is a collector of alligator purses] i gave the alligator a purse with a lagies head on it,, turnabout is always fair play,, of course i took a picture of the gator not holding the purse which proves when it comes to photography im an idiot,,

another great comnision i did was a lamp for Beth,, she was  inspired by a pair of turner prints she had of cockatoos,, donna did the shade with dead on perfection and i made the base and finial,, the gol dang thing took monthes to pull together and i never did see the whole lamp together until beth sent me a picture of it,, its somewhere on my computer, and i will show it when i find it,, it turned out so cool,, im most proud,, and even cooler is that bet has a macaw lamp i made from a print i had that is just as cool,,

another comission was from Kathy for her husband Doug,, she wanted a ''kingfisher'' bird pot for his birthday,, i had no friggin' idea what a kingfisher bird looked like and the internet yielded a million pictures of a million different bird
SOOO i put the bird on the lid [figuring if i had the wrong bird, i could just make a new lid and not another whole new pot] AND on the pot itself i sculpted ''happy birthday doug'' in the spanish moss carved on the vase,,,  it turned out incredible [if you dont mind me tootong my own hor]  Kathy was tickled and Doug even stopped by to say thanks as well]

i forget who said it, but they said that the new house has had a creative effect on me,, i never thought about it , but i guess its true,, i do feel a new energy,,

and im moving the studio this week and will get moved in my new pottery home FINALLY by next week,,,, its only taken 5 monthes to find the time,, i cant wait to take my cup of coffee and the dogs and walk to work in my drawers,, instead of driving 20 minutes and packing a lunch and everything,,

this week i made a big ole somberoo out of clay and i have a cool idea for it,,, but it will have to wait,, the next 2 days is glazing days [ the worst days of the week]
im hungry i gotta go

just a quick note to let you tomorrow night is the ''Wine-affair'' at the Eustis Art Museum,,, its 20 bucks and lots of wine and food and entertainment,,,

but wait theres more!!

Mandy will be serving some of her best hors deorves and cake,, and she is auctioning off one of her southern coconut cakes,,

 but wait theres more!!

 one of my pots will be in the silent auction,, so you might get it cheap,,

mandy wants me to go for moral support and i should go and " network'' the local art crowd,, but wine gives me a headache and i always drink too much of it,,and then puke,, sorry,, so i dont know and i get shy in crowds,, ok thats all,, it was a really fun weekend and when i get a chance i will be writing about my gator purse, cockatoo lamp and kingfisher pot,,  im off to the moose lodge,, its ''wings'' night

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