Can't Hurry Love

Twice a year for a couple of months there is nothing but the studio in my life. Covered in clay all the time, I keep coming up with just one more thing I want to do ( and dry and fire !) before the Open Studio date. Then comes the deadline of no more pieces...because they just wont dry in time.

I have reached that point but ideas are still flowing and the call of the clay is too strong to resist. Once again I am faced with the inevitable truth that you cant rush clay anymore than you can hurry love. Which doesn't mean we dont try ...

But in fact, its the clay that makes the decisions for me mostly, deciding when and what it wants to become; many of the pieces just got bigger and different.

I am looking forward to hearing your input.

This is an invitation.

When is done? Mixed media - 3 and 2 D.

This sculpture is called 'profile of a reluctant warrior'.
After sculpting, firing, underglazing, refiring, attaching copper and bolts and screws, I still needed to photograph and filter the photo to get the feel I wanted of distant,historic, but actual- through mixed media - clay / metal / photo
When is the piece done? And is the photo actually a separate piece ?

Back and Forth

Another medium is creeping into my life. Going back and forth between clay and canvas is strangely stickier than I would have thought. I haven't yet found the method of parallel work in both 2 and 3 dimensions.
Its a different gut feeling - well of course its a different language. As part of the learning and discovery process - I am finding out where clay and canvas fit into different moods and modes of self expression.Its a bit like translating or writing in two languages with very different cultures.

Is this in MY studio?

Barter is a wonderful way to open up possibilities and enrich one's life. Exchanging sculpture classes for painting classes with Nira Ben-Hur is giving me an opportunity to see what I can do with two dimensions with someone who knows me, knows how to teach and is an artist who's work I have always wished to hang where I can see it all the time.
Its so great to have a studio where I can freely go between clay and paint. Such different kinds of mess! Such different kinds of approach and possibilities. Eventually I hope to find a way to combine the two more than I have done.
But for now, experimenting with brushes, rags and fingers is very rewarding. And oh well yes, lots more clean up.

The joy of being undersood

The Open Studio weekend is over leaving this satisfying feeling ringing in my loft/lounge/gallery : people do get me !!!!
Its one thing communicating verbally and being understood - its quite another when someone actually wants to own my art. The intuitive, controversial pieces - the ones that visually voice my soul, people got them and purchased them.
Validation!
These are an example.
Thank you all who visited, enjoyed and shopped!

One thing leads to another

Teaching has the wonderful reciprocity factor, where your students give back as much as they get.

My students inspire and challenge me through their own wish to learn. My goal is to keep them daring to create their visual fantasies, by giving them my support to find ways to realize them.

The very small wedding dress collection started when I was demonstrating how to make clay look like folded fabric. I made a sample and the other wedding dresses followed .

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?

Taking the Random Papers out of doodling

Tons of newpapers, phone sticky notes, random papers and plenty of black ink, have been thrown away covered in my doodles for years. "Kids dont leave any important papers near where I am sitting - you wont recognize them once I am done."
Suddenly it occurs to me to use paper intended for the doodling, and the right kind of permanent ink, and hey, I love the results! This one is clearly, "SMILES"
More on the Doodle 2d page of my website.

Open Studio Thursday morning to Saturday Night

This guy keeps his own secrets, would you trust him with yours? You are invited to check him out.
Most of my secrets, passions, loves, hopes and even disappointments-are all out there to share with you this weekend.
Looking forward to seeing you !

At last. My studio.

I would
love to say it's over. But I have to advise anyone who is thinking of putting up a pergola, an awning, an enclosure - DO NOT use the company I used. Their service was bad, the information they gave was incorrect, the client is wrong never mind what and they do not discuss what they plan nor are they clear about what you are paying for.
Sochechei Hasharon. A large company, who have overcharged for bad work.

That being said, I am delighted to be able to set up classes and start working in the studio.
Classes will be Sunday and Wednesday evenings and Tuesday mornings.
Anyone interested- do call me.

Another before photo

This is my studio. Before. Planks of wood on a wet terrace.
Waiting not so patiently, now for the rain to stop?

Sundown, Pardes Hana

Finally. Just over a month since the big move, I am at HOME again.

Sometimes the worry and concern about something we are going to have to do is far greater than the actuality.
This is not, definitely not, the case of my latest move.

Packing of home and studio in August was an impossible strain . The anxiety surrounding the dates of entry and exit and all the scenarios that had me sleepless at night however, failed to materialize. It didn't help to foresee all the possible problems because naturally the difficulties all popped up where they were NOT expected.

There were some unpleasant surprises in the apartment too. When you buy intuitively as I did, that is bound to happen. If I had brought an expert to check it, I probably would not have bought it - what a shame that would have been. I am taking risks and reaping the benefits.
So instead of the planned investments ( fixing the elevator) I have had to spend my budget on things I didnt know would need to be done. Its a gradual process, giving the apartment my personal feel, making it my own home. I love the process, and I am adjusting to some of the surprises and inconveniences and eventually, I hope I will just not notice them anymore.

The building itself is really neglected and ugly. I knew that, no surprise here.
Kickboxing twice a week for 45 minutes on the floor beneath you, can shake you up, and tinkle the glasses in the cabinet - at least I know when to expect it.... It is an unexpected fact that the drainpipe from the terrace would be an annoyance to the gym on the ground and basement floor, even though it did occur to me to worry about the owner being a feared and well known neighbourhood feature.

Waking up to the smell of freshly baked croissants at 5 am ( from the Goren bakery which is the building closest to my bedroom) is a shock I was totally unprepared for along with the trundling of a cart probably laden with baked goods, that sounds like I have woken up in a 19th century village.
I did worry about pigeon nests, and now I have them... soon to be dealt with.

The potential of the terrace was a strong factor in my choice of the apartment and it is truly fulfilling its promise. Candle lit dinners, morning coffee, evening wine all on the terrace, talking to my newly planted box garden of hopefully all the herbs I could hope for ( basil, rosemary, louisa, laurel, lavender, oregano, thyme etc) and watching the birds settle in the trees down the road at sundown, these are the prize for me at the end of the impossible move, which I could never have done without the help I got from Sharon the Packer and Organizer (get her phone number from me ), my amazing sons and daughters in law. My garden is thanks to my sister Erica.

Now I am waiting for the studio to be set up on half of the terrace. The electrical installations for the kiln are in process.
I can't wait to set up my studio and get back to working in clay. I have no idea what direction two or three months of total abstinence will take me. After this major change I am excited to start!

I am nearing the end of my extreme adventure. I have been on a vacation from the realities of livelihood for almost two months and its been good. The next chapter is about to begin .

Thank you Matt Nolen (Aida and Givat Haviva)

The two day workshop with Matt Nolen opened a new terrain of ceramic thinking for me. It ain't over till it's over is the bottom line; the possibility of adding and subtracting saving the best parts of a piece and taking it to the final potential, is possible now with all the tricks in his bag which he shares so generously.
Matt Nolen is a wonderful,warm and exciting artist, who manges to enthuse others with the joy of the possibilities of ceramic art, taking a fresh look at rules and regulations - breaking them to create more exciting and surprising results.
I am now in the process of redefining my finished pieces, some which I had thought done are going back into work, others in the process, have changed direction completely. With newly learned techniques and processes, the richness of layered pieces is tempting . It is a process of learning and will take a while before I find my way here, following my own style, while opening up and adding new dimensions. The process of learning, as always, the way to the goal, is the most exciting.
Thank you Matt, and Aida for bringing him, for the new horizons and renewed creative excitement that the workshop has brought.

And well, its also time to reveal that starting this month I will also be working full time - and I really hope that evenings and weekends will be exploited to the maximum for my art.

I feel blessed to have these options open up and the ability to follow more than one path at once. I shall miss being a full time artist, but my relationship with the bank will surely improve.

Working with focus and direction

There are times when the morning starts with a definite idea and theme and I barely make it through the rituals of shower/teeth/coffee, and in fact often go straight into the studio on the way to the bathroom and hours later, remember I have forgotten the order of starting the day, so caught up am I in the work and current project.
Then there are times like the past two weeks, when technique is the project itself, and nothing really materializes as a full blown direction. I have been back and forth and in and out of the studio a million times a day, doing little things here and there and wondering when the drive will kick in. Sometimes, it turns out, it comes with direction and focus given by an outside source.
I had been considering the work for a new group exhibition, called "Totseret Haaretz" or "Israeli Made" and going back and forth without a decision. Two words of direction from the curator and ZING, it all falls into place and I have the drive and energy back in place.
Despite the cost of taking part in exhibitions, and the obvious advantages and enjoyment of showing my work, there is an added value. Having a theme and a deadline - in fact a limit on creativity, does, sometimes, set off the ignition and a chain reation of great ideas.

Back to Blogger, back to sculpting

Back to sculpture after some weeks of trying out new combinations of paper and clay, ( not having given up on finding ways to make molds and castings but taking a break from that).
All of a sudden I realized that my restlessness and general feeling of discontent stem directly from NOT having sat down quietly to sculpt per se in a week or two. I obviously need the chemical exuded by my brain at the touch of my fingers to clean, soft, pliable, fresh clay and a couple of hours of following my heart to where it wants to go.
I have to say that the time spent was not wasted at all. Using paper clay in combination with my clay sculptures, offers possibilities unworkable before. I am soaring on the wings of ideas and working happily again. I will soon see how connecting between the regular clay and the paper mix works in firing but for the duration of the process of creating it, I will go blindly into the joy it brings.