Balls continued - The Abacus

This abacus is a pretty, non-functional one. I never learned to use them. Only once did I see it being used: a restaurant owner ( in Greece perhaps?) adding up the day's takings, using an abacus and not a calculator. Their order and dependability are engaging.
Like the abacus, so many things from our past have become irrelevant and non functional. We look back with nostalgia and smile and shrug. Most of them have been replaced by faster/more efficient/better items. .
What concerns me is that soon democracy, the idea of equal rights ( some have never had it anyhow) and freedom of speech - will be as irrelevant and as useless as my ceramic abacus.
Broken.
Unlike the abacus, we will not be looking back with a smile of nostalgia. We are already weeping at the loss.
What is replacing these is not only broken and non functional at the outset, but unbearable to those of us who found equality, freedom of speech and well, some form of democracy - irreplaceable basic necessities.What is replacing these is arbitrary,totalitarian and racist and it is happening as we silently watch or chatter among ourselves at how horrible it is .
I wonder how many out there would like to stop this downhill (legislation and government ) undermining of hope for peace and equality and how we can find a way to do so before its really too late?

I got my cottle boards-thanks to Judy and Baruch

I have been ready to make plaster molds for a while now but without the simple but effective cottle boards it just wasn't going to happen.
Even with the boards and the c clamps,working with plaster is really messy and can't be done when working with clay. This means cleaning up completely before going back to sculpture. Its horrible on the hands and can't be disposed of down a drain and in short, what on earth am I doing it for? What a mess!
But remember paper clay and that mess? I am totally enthralled by techniques I haven't tried and making molds has not been in my repertoire . How can I resist trying something messy? How can I resist finding ways to improve???

Its FUN. The magic of modeling a piece in clay then making a plaster mold out of it just to repeat the piece again in clay -(nuts) its fun! Its surprisingly unsurprising to see a copy of the piece I threw away after making the mold; for some reason it is immensely, strangely satisfying.
Did I mention it is messy?

Although I have good hand cream, maybe next time I will remember to use GLOVES and try and remember to keep my hands out of my eyes !

Being Inspired is a State of Mind

There is a very addictive computer game I used to play, simply called Balls. Part of the fascination were the graphics and the sound. Recently I discovered that playing the game was what was causing pain in my Mouse Hand,( the one I used to call the Right Hand) and as a sculptor and clay art teacher I panicked when I realized my hand was cramping, making it hard to work.
As I parted from the game I was struck by the idea that there were other ways to enjoy graphic ball shapes . A hundred clay balls later ( after the excercise of rolling the balls, painting each one differently, putting them onto nichrome wire to fire the glazed beads) .....I am almost ready to go back to the computer game!
Not, however, before realizing that inspiration can turn up in any context.All you want to be is obsessively connecting everything back to your creativity....
Doodling has now become part of the surface painting of my work ( for the moment). Writing on sculptures is a way of integrating my two loves - art and language but it arose from an inspired moment when I realized that I can use language as a visual part of an image as well as layering meaning.
Inspiration for marketing the results is what I need to find now! Well. Inspiration is a state of mind, isn't it?

Learning how to blog and a bride's girls' day out

Starting a blog isn't difficult. Writing about things you are interested in isn't all that hard.
But who reads what we write? How do we find people who are interested in what we have to say? And how do we invite them to visit our websites?
I am hoping to find out - see below.

I discovered there is an equivalent to speed dating - in clay art classes. Three girls came for a bride's day out, a two and a half hour speeded-up lesson which was very fast, fun, educating for all of us, and a wonderful idea. They got to spend time with each other, doing something they had never done before and they will come and collect their works of art in two weeks time.
Mazal Tov Maya - and her friends Lena and Rina.

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

Fascination with line drawing

Perhaps it is the order, the fine clarity, the surprises within a confined area, or the clean contrast of the black on white. Maybe its the meditative, repetitive and unplanned flow of the activity itself. I am not sure what it is that fascinates me more. But I would love to doodle some of my environment (one wall? a sofa?) and have this as a backdrop for people and art.
Here is a rendition on Photoshop - a nude sculpture on a line drawn background.

Living with Transience

Unlike Change , Transience is not a choice - its a fact of life ( and of course death).
We are here for as long as we are here, and 'seize the day' is not a cliche to be bandied as a justification for wild and irresponsible living. It is the only way to enjoy life to the fullest.
As we get older, parting from friends becomes a more frequent reality, and part of the pain of loss - aside from the loss itself, involves all the things we missed out on, never said or thought we had time to do.
Another part of the pain is the drum roll of our own end - the sound which is heard a little more loudly when we say a final goodbye to someone dear.

Transience is there all the time. It sits on my shoulder and whispers about time wasted and things still to be achieved.
Its there when I create a fragile piece of art. It surrounds me when I visit my 90 year old mother. Its there when I look in the mirror.

Its there when a friend dies.

But living with Transience you still have to recognize and remember that there is a past, present and a future and that today is yesterday's tomorrow.