Contours

Kiersten and I began our pottery lessons at Green Dog Pottery. After driving by the little shop with the iconic deranged green dog icon, I bought Kiersten some lessons for her birthday last year. Our first lesson involved getting our feet wet with a small, pinch form cup, before diving right into throwing on the wheel. Unlike the movie Ghost (which was my only reference up to this point), throwing was much harder than it looked. In particular, centering the clay on the wheel initially was remarkably hard – somehow my efforts just unbalanced it all the more. With a little coaxing from the instructor, though, I was able to make a somewhat cylindrical cup, which will dry this week. It actually was remarkably fun to mold the clay with my hands – a very different artistic experience than the usual 2D work I’m used to. Next Saturday is our second lesson – more to come.

Recently I’ve been reading Art & Fear, Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of ArtMaking (Bayles & Orland, The Image Continuum Press, 1993). I think this should be required reading for the artist, whether you’re a doodler or been doing it for years. I recall my first group exhibit a few years ago when I joined the local CPSA chapter; as I peered around the dropoff location at the MacDonald Gallery, I questioned whether my work was good enough to exhibit. The picture in hand was Pensive. I’m glad I decided to drop it off – the artist’s reception – my first – was fun, sipping wine while munching on snacks, having people ask about the woman in the picture, the colors, the idea for the pose. Pensive showed up again in the fall show, and, feeling somewhat a slacker for not having anything new, it egged me on to do Tangerine Dreams.

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Kiersten and I did our 3rd and 4th tapings for WVIA Ballroom Dancing. We even got an interview in the “Hello Dancers” spot (nothing too exciting – just our names and where we were from). The episodes should air in about 2 months. Here’s a snapshot of us all dressed up for our afternoon of dancing at the WVIA studio:

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Monday, May 15^th, noon. Shawangunks Mountain Range, New York

Shockley’s Ceiling, belay ledge at the end of the first pitch:

Naoko rubbed her hands together, wringing the water from them and trying to stave off some of the numbness. Overhead the dark gray sky spilt water down upon us, catching onto a slight rocky overhang to form a natural rain gutter whose overflow was bathing us in cold splatter. I could see that Naoko was regretting leaving her jacket at the base of the cliff. Craig busily juggled a series of cams and nuts, searching through the slick, wet fissures in the ledge to find good anchor points for our rappel. It was a three pitch climb and we had just finished the first before the rain spilled upon us. There were no rappel rings on this pitch; to bail here, Craig would have to build us a rappel point, and, unfortunately, abandon some of his gear in the process. A hazy, gray mist obfuscated the valley span below; it was a remarkable view of bushy tree lines from our perch 60 ft up. I wondered about the other two climbers who had passed us earlier on a parallel route. Their ropes had been pulled up out of sight about 30 minutes ago, and we didn’t hear anymore belay calls from them. Had they outclimbed the storm and found a spot to hike down from, or were they also sitting quietly drenched on a higher ledge, mirroring us, looking out over the rainy valley? Craig coiled the rappel line, peered over the ledge, and tossed the green rope wide over the cliff.

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Heading to Philadelphia this weekend with my girlfriend to see the Andrew Wyeth exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Really looking forward to it!

If weather permits, I’m planning on heading up with a few friends to the Gunks in New York for some outdoor rock climbing. This will be my third trip there. Hopefully I’ll get some new black and white photos out of the trip.