big news!  next weekend is the highwaymen festival in Mt dora,,, lots of highwaymen will be there and all their paintings,,, so much fun and lots of great art to look at

these men and women are living florida history,, what they did and still do is amazing its worth the visit and its a fun day trip,,,

AND renningers will have for sale 70+ highwaymen paintings on exhibit and for sale,, they have just been dequistioned from the orange county historical collection,, i cant wait to see those!

AND renningers is AIR CONDITONED [downtown mt dora is not]  and Mand;ys food is better and cheaper than the mountdora'' tendollarhambergers on a doily'',,

im busy making florida landscape highwaymen kinda pots for next weekend,, none of them look like the paintings,, but i didnt want to copy them,, they are firing right now,,

LAMPS! LAMPS! LAMPS!

well i finished up the last of the 9 lamps  [see the picture] it was most complicated as the shade had to be made of clay as well,, which requires thinking on my part,, and its too hot to be trying to think [100+ degrees every day this week in the studio]

anyways the lady picks up the lamp she happy and im happy and im all done with the lampapalooza festival ,,,, and then here comes the guy that ordered the 6 lamps,, HE NEEDS 3 MORE LAMPS!! actually he only needed 2, but he didnt like the st augustine lighthouse lamps as it looked too ''seafood resturant'' [i will take it back, hows that for scustomer service?]

so,,,,,

with shoulders back and a big smile i said "Yes sir i will be glad to make 3 more lamps''

after all i am making 2 mortgage payments,, and im not about to turn down any comissions [right now im making a monkey sculpture, that is a comission and it turning out to be one of the best pieces ive ever made, point being that i will make anything for a buck]

2010 will go down is the summer of ''lamps''

ok i gotta go,,, by the way the realtor says she has a family that wants to ''lease option'' my eustis house,, i told her HELL YES,,, seeing as more and more realtor signs keep popping up in my neighborhood,,, but i havent heard back from her,,, soooooo,, my fingers are crossed

heres a pictureof my bathtub,,, and the really great news is that,,,
 
WE HAVE AIR CONDITIONING!!

thats right a nice bath in an airconditioned bathroom,, no more window units

we got it fixed today,,, you see they wanted $450 to fix the duct work and after much much debate we decided to do it ourselves [i should mention i did not help at all],, so bob and son-in-law fixed in in a hour today and weve been luxuriating in the glow of cool unhumid air all day long

can you believe they wanted all that money and it only cost $50 and took an hour,,??!!!

also we got the riding mower fixed and actually got the entire lawn mowed,, so for at least a week the whole yard looks good,, the lawn mower is a blast until you hit a tree branch

those 2 things have been our biggest hurdles since we moved in and its finally been ''handled'' money and all the little things seemed to always get in the way,,

as for pottery,,, damn its hot , and im working on a lamp that i dont really want to make and that makes it all the harder,, im also working on a monkey sculpture,, and thats taking forever,, im trying to branch out into sculpturism and so far its looking good,, so im taking my time,, plus i dont have sculpture tools and dont really know what im doing,, but i will figure it out,,

also i met another gopher tortouise in the yard today,, [theres 4 holes in the yard and ive only seen 3] and the giant cactus is covered with flowers , flowers that only bloom at night,,, so i was out at midnight taking pictures last night,, its quite the sight,,, ok thats all  xomartin

well the 3 oil spill ppots turned out good,, but i sorta felt wierd about it,,, and 2 people did make a point of saying they didnt like the idea,,,

they thought i was making fun of the spill and trying to exploit it,,,
ouch,,,
so much for me being ''controversial''

however i did sell 2 of the 3 pots,,, so maybe im right,,, so heres a picture of one , and i have another one i havent finished yet,,,

it is history of florida,, right or wrong if i make potteries about it

read down to the next blog to see pictures of the lampa palooza lamps

well the lampapalooza is over and done,,, all 8 lamps got finished and all the people that ordered them were delighted,,,

6 of the lamps are for the Big Star resturant opening in a month in winter park in the old harpers tavern building,,on fairbanks near rollins college ,, anyways Craig the new owner says it will be big fun very funky florida and cheap food and drinks and my lamps will be featured on the banquets in the dining room,, i cant wait to go,, i may set up a pottery sales area,, sell wine goblets and bottle holders and lamps,, i figure folks will get drunk and buy stuff,,, its worth a shot,, dontcha think?


its quite the miracle that i actually got them all made on the first trys,, especially since i have about a 15% rate of failure in making pots,,,

i sat back sunday afternoon congradualating myself and planning a well deserved few days off and then i realized that this weekend is the monthly fair,,, CRAP,,, back to work,, i spent most ofthe month on the lamps and dont have much to show off thats new and exciting,, so i dove back into the studio and have been working my butt off

back to the days off idea,, im planning on taking off to the wakulla springs lodge for a few days,, if youve never been there YOU HAVE TO GO!  its one of floridas' real treasures,,the state runs it now and the springs are icy cold and the lodge is stil in its original state and they have a great dining room w/ one of the best ''fried seafood platters '' in the state and they have boat rides down the river and its south of gainsville so theres more stuff to do,, i think the florida caverns might be nearby,, but i dont know

i took abunch of pictures today and im planning on putting a gallery on this website of the house,, i took 60 pictures,, so some rainy day i will get busy on it,,
well its wednesday so im off to the moose lodge for hot wings w/ my folks [my weekly big fun]
oh yeah i forgot,, i now have wireless internet,, i did it myself,, so now i can lug my computer anywhere i want in the yard and it will work,, mostly its so Bob can be a ''day trader'' from the compfort of the shade trees out back

heres a picture of my pond and gardening stuff,,, i figure i have about 15 years of potterying before my back gives out,, so between now and then im making my gardens as wonderful and exotic as possible [like busch gardens or cypress or sunken or jungle,, ]  so when im old i can give garden tours and charge people money and tell them stories and maybe do palm readings or stuff,, fix em lunch and show them the house and basically earn a living,,

so anyways in honor of finishing all the lamps wonderfully i treated myself to a plant at ''long-dong''s nursery located on the top of the hill at renningers,,, hes got a million cool plants and it was hard to pick just one,, but finally i settled on a voodoo lily plant,, it looks like a palm tree w/ a lepordskin trunk, and it has a big black stinky flower in the spring,, and it puts out a lot of extra bulbs and grows fast,, so that was my pick,,,

i spent all day monday working on the front flower beds,, seeing as it was sort of independance day,, and i did have to work on sunday the 4th ,, even bob [mr landscape architect] thinks the gardens look great

ok so today i have a studio full of blank pots staring at me and the one idea that im obessing on is;

                    ''2010 gulf oil spill pots''

which is horrible in every way,, and i couldnt justify or explain why i should make them,, then i remember how picasso did his painting ''la guernica'' about hitler  and also thinking that in the future folks might forget
and i am peretty senitmental when it comes to the vanishing ''old florida'',

,i carved 3 today,, it made my feel sad and angry in trying to tell a story that is so ugly when im allways  trying to make beautiful art,, i figured it out, i think,, i doubt that anybody will buy them, but still i had to do them if for no other reason  than to get the idea out of my head,,, ok thats all for today

theses lamps are making me crazy,,,, pieces and parts everywhere and lttle piles of hardware for each lamp and it just goes on and one,,,,and sitting alone in the studio all day, day after day,,, can make you crazy

tomorrow should be the final day,, all the lamps will assembled and packed up to go to market,,, of course the customer who ordered them hasnt returned my phone messages,,, i just cant think about it,,,

but during my breaks ive been gardening,,, ive started a little native plant nursery,, i dig up stuff in the woods and plant it in pots,,, so far i have yellow poinciana trees,, beauty berrys,, bee balm,, and more plants that are just cool but i dont know what they are,,, ive also dug up some rocks and built a new flower bed out front
anything to get out of the studio ! [and away from the lamps]

i was looking out the studio the other day and low and behold there was a turkey vulture in the yard,,, AND he was there all morning eating a dead posssum,,,,i love nature

bob has decided the only way to combat the heat is to become ''nocturnal'',, like a bat,,, its just too hot out during the day so he is sleeping all day and up all night,,,  i think he is going to drive my folks to michigan so they can visit relatives,, THATS how bad he wants to escape the heat,,,

i dont mind the heat much,, i just have to think back when i was huddled nest to a heater wrapped in a stinky dog blanket making pots last winter,,,

thats all for today,, i was going to go to the IGA store and get a new tank of propane,,so i can cook on the grill,, [any crap you throw on the grill tastes good]  but now its raining,, nevermind

well the fair weekend was a dud,, i sold only a coupla pots,,,
but i did get some comissions,,, 6 big lamps for a new resturant opening in winter park,, wow! and im finally getting around to making my friend paiges' lamp,, i promised her a painted shade,, and she wants armadillos on it ,and not dead ones like you see on the road,, and another lady ordered a lamp /w the carved clay shade,,

so that makes 8 lamps!!

so monday morning bright and early i started on my lamp-a-paloozalamp making marathon,, the first thing i did was pull up the garage door to the studio and GODDAMNED if i didnt totally throw my back out,, the kind where you roll around on the floor cussing,,

of course someone broke into the guest apt at the eustis house over the weekend and had a big party and made a huge mess,,, so seeing as i couldnt make pots i went and cleaned up that mess and padlocked and lit up everything in sight,,, the police want to investigate,, but ive been thru that before w/ them and its,,,, well,,,,

so tuesday i was still hurting and couldnt work and finally wednesday i started to tackle the lamp project,,,and ill be danged if im out of clay,,,, Bob volunteered to go get clay,,, [by the way Bob finally got a new pickup truck, a '93 dodge V6, so he was up to any excuse to drive it]  but then the truck got a flat tire so he used my car,,,

BUT im on top of this project and will have them all done by next week,, [armadillo lamp first] today i was in the studio by 6;30  doing my best to do my duty to god and pottery!!!

by the way i showed my chief osceola jug to pottery dealer friends who said the crack is so tiny and glazed over that its nothing to fret about,, and all weekend long folks [who knew about seminoles] were crazy about,,

did i forget anything? oh wait fathers day,,, i went and took my dad to the VFW for bloody marys and breakfast,, the bloody marys made me sick [ i think they use voldka left over from the korean war] and when i got to the market Mandy wanted to surprize me w/ MOJITO drinks,,, we decided to wait till next weekend [by the way i wont be working this weekend at the market, due to lamp-a-palooza]  and then later we had dinner at the moose lodge,, w/ lauren and family,, roasted beef,, quite good and sundays for dessert,, i tried to cancel fathers day but nobody paid attention to me,, we are such a close family we really dont need holidays like these\
ok i gotta go clean up the studio and call it a day

i took my chief osceola jug out of the kiln this morning and danced around w/ glee at how well it turned out,,
painting w/ underglazes is a crapshoot,,, as you noticed on the unfired picture everything is quite pale and tryingto paint an indian portrait and not have him turn out too light or dark had me concerned,,

then as i was admiring it in the studio i noticed a thin firing crack,, several inches long across the middle,,,
i was brokenhearted,

, i was flying towards beauty and perfection and got too close to the sun and the pottery gods smacked me down,,,

after a few minutes i realized its still just as beautiful, and im proud of myself for painting [not one but two] portraits and had them turn out looking like the person i was trying to paint,,

my lamp w/ the pottery shade turned out great too,, any other day i would be raving about it too,, the lamp base has cutouts [reticulated] and a little light in the base that shines,, and the shade is reticulated too,, and it has a switch that can turn on the top or bottom or both,,

the other lamp i was working on cracked up,,, i think the new kiln is firing too fast,, i better slow it down,,,

patience

i dont know if you can tell or not but im using a new computer,,,, bob got tired of my cussing out the computer everyday and he went to the officedepot and bought a new one,,, it was a floor model,,,
i mention this as when you buy a floor model computer they are supposed to tell you the password or give you a ''password-stick'',,, i did not know this and the old computer never had an;y such a thing,,,
all day i screwed around trying to figure out how to get it to work,,, finally i figured calloffice depot and yell at them,,, bob likes to yell at people on the phone [like the insurance company that keeps sending us bills for $11 or they will cancel us] so he called and  and got the password and now all week long every afternoon i work on getting everything working,,, technology for people like myself is a bitch,, we just dont know what each other is trying to do and what we are trying to accomplish,, today i finished up by installing the camera and printer,,, of course the camera's battery died and you cant install a dead camera on a computer till its recharged [thats
your computer tip for the day]

anyways as i sit here at my brand new PC,, surrounded by boxes and directions and cd's,, im quite proud of myself,,, little did you know what i go through to do this blog

other news,,, turtle was peaking in the studio door at lunchtime smiling waiting for lunch,, and i think we have what seems to be a plague of locusts in the yard,, everywhere you go outside theyre jumping and flying,, theyve even flown up my shorts [scarey moment],,, i cant wait for them to start eating all the grass as its already back up to my knees,, and i solved the water pump problem,, not the pump but the toilet in the maids quarters [im still looking for a maid by the way] so thats fixed,,, now we are down just the broken  AC upstairs,,[mandy claims to know how to run ductwork,,so im thinking fathers day is near, maybe i should drop the hint]

well this weekend is the fair and i have about10 new pots to show off,, and all my chores are done and the PC is running like a top [and the camera, and the phone and the printer] so im starting cocktail hour early in celebration,,,,CHEERS,,, and i hope to see you this weekend 

good god,, it was a 102 degrees in the studio this afternoon,,, which explains why i was sweating so much, and had to take off my pants ,, AND the well shuts off when it gets really hot out so no water,, i knew the house was a,,, i hate to say money pit so i will say its ''particular''

anyways the big news is i am so proud of the jug i painted today in colbalt blue,, on one side is a portrait of chief osceola and the other side is chief micanopy,, its been on my mind for ages and the blank jug has been sitting there waiting for me to get up the nerve or inspiration to paint it,,, my painting skills arent that great and ive never done a portrait, so this was a challenge,, i gave myself the entire day timewise to get it painted so i wont have to keep thinking about it and i have spent the last few days doing painted pots,, so i painted it,,, being very very patient and taking my time,, and gol-dang-dong-diddy i got it done and it looks great,,, micah my son-in-law says its the best pot ive ever made,, we will see if it makes it thru the firing

other news,, the big old gopher tourtoise has become my friend,, through the bribes of lettuce leaves,, now when he sees me he comes running [turtle running that is, but you can tell hes in a hurry]  today he even ate it from my hand,,, and even follwed me around for a bit [i walk too fast]  now i have to figure out what they are really supposed to eat, as im sure its not iceberg lettuce,,

and everthing has gone lamp-crazy,, i finally got together w/ my pal paige to design her a lamp and then a man ordered 6 big lamps for his new resturant!! each banquet will have a lamp lighting it and then another lady came in and wanted one to match her new paintingof azelia gardens,,,, soo i will be making a trip to the ace hardware to load up on lamp parts,, the resturant by the way is in winter park replacing the old harpers tavern,, it will be old south florida cuisine,, you can bet i will actually drive over [thru hell traffic] to eat and see my lamps,,

ok time for a cocktail and then turn on the kiln and fire my osceola/micanopy jug

well the last blog about going ''modern" brought all kinds of emails ALL about NOT changing,, mostly that ive always done what i thought was the best pottery and not going w/ the flow,, no need to change that now,,

my mentor Suzy Vey came by last friday to visit and we talked art, pottery and business,,, we had a great time just chewing the fat, and she felt that snooty folks arent worth bothering w/ and that ive created a different style and niche of work, that nobody can copy

i also talked to a good friend whos a dealer of modern art and she said its not worth trying to kiss up to that market as modern art pottery is out of  fashion anyways [its all about the glass] and even if the lady did like my work she probably wouldnt be interested in selling  and couldnt sell any grand modern concoctions that i would come up w/

so thats all said and done,, though i may try a sculpture or 2 this summer

speaking of summer bob and i broke down and called the air conditioner repair guy,, a good friend Mark Draper,, i was hoping it was a fuse,,, of course not its an expensive computer circut board,, by this weekend we will have AC throughout the house!! [thank god for VISA]

oh yeah and finally i got the picture of my lastest [and maybe even greatest] pottery,, its the gator jug i showed ya'll a while back when it was being made,, look close and you can see he's holding a little jug and wearing a tropcial tie like i do,, his head is the stopper and his tail is the handle,,

the picture took so long to post as , after i got the new camera working the goldang computer died again,, and it took all weekend monkey-dinking around w/ it to get it to work,,, so as i write my phone, computer and camera are all working,, and i hope the lawnmower does also! cos after i finish this im out to start mowing ive schedualed one hour of mowing time and then back to pottery,,

ok im off to mow and if you need AC work done call mark draper,, carry on