HELP NEEDED - Invasion of the Egrets

Little did I know when I sculpted these bird-women last year that they would come to be  a reflection of things to come; invasion of these disgusting Egrets/Herons was just a season away...
Pardes Hanna, specifically the area known as the Wadi, has been taken over by a huge flock of these messy, nesting, noisy, smelly birds, which have moved into the pine trees just a stone throw from my life. Unfortunately, throwing stones at them endangers the passers by between my terrace and the trees and its a risk I am on the verge of taking!
The local authorities are at a loss as to how to solve this health hazard and environmental affliction, though from my research I know that cutting off the tree tops is a viable solution. Meantime passers by, parked cars me and everyone around the building I am in, are dealing with a mass of messy smelly droppings and I am about to go shopping for an air gun or a chain saw.
 Someone told me that they are a birdwatchers delight, right in the center of town. As photogenic as they might be, they are bringing my blood to boiling point and I am begging

for help to get rid of them. I know, there are helium balloons, ultrasonic sirens, nets, been to that website, read it and heard that these are ineffective.There is evidently no national organization that will deal with it - ANY IDEAS ANYONE????

The old adages

You know me, I am not a great lover of cliches and old adages. Quote one and there is bound to be another that says the opposite. But the older I get.... and I am NOT saying I feel old, the more often one will crop up that fits the moment.

"To teach is to learn twice." - Joseph Joubert for example, comes up for me in art classes often. A great method of coil construction I taught and learned at the same time had me making pottery ( two bowls) and loving it after years of clay sculpture and NO utensils. (no photos yet). And the refresher classes I gave on how to sculpt a face had me learning all over again too! Its pretty amazing how explaining something can become a new way of seeing. I learn so much, gain all these little and huge insights in every class and from everyone who comes to work in my studio with me.
Oh, then there is that counter adage that says Those who cant, teach. No idea who came up with that one, but wonder if it was anyone who has ever taught?

Thanks all of you who teach me so much when you come to learn!

This is one of my teach by example  heads.

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 ?

Belonging

Everybody belongs. To someone, something, somewhere. We think of ourselves as free individuals but we have our comfort zone. Home. And most of us have a favourite chair. A "my seat".
I have a great tv armchair with an elevating foot support that has hardly ever been in front of a tv. Its my meditation station, my reading post, my knitting, chatting, coffee, staring into nothing chair. I also have a particular way of sitting in it. Its true the chair dictates it. I started thinking about how people buy and choose a chair. How they sit on them. When they sit that way. How they belong to a chair. Here are a few of the results. You are welcome to send me some pictures of how you sit in your chair.
Take a look at this link - Shani in the Knoll chairs. (dontsmilenow.com )
Who wouldnt want to belong to a Knoll chair?

The news

Why do I have piles of newspapers again? What enticed me to subscribe to Ha'aretz and have newspaper/coffee in the morning? There it is at my gate on the second floor - does the delivery man wish I forgot my stair light so he could leave it in the box downstairs? Almost first thing in the a.m. I bring in the paper, save the long slim plastic bags to protect the planet and find something to make with them, and sit down with the paper and coffee. I skim my way through the pages and think what a good citizen I could be if I were involved enough to make a difference ( yea, how aside from cursing quietly as I read?) . Coffee and browse over, the paper gets dumped in the pile behind the sofa (somewhere underneath there is a pretty wrought iron newspaper holder crushed by the weight) to be recycled as papier mache maybe, or when I can carry the heavy load downstairs. Then thanks to this interlude I weave through the day with the residue of unease but hardly a memory of details.

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.

Living la vida pasa(da)

The excitement and intensity of preparing for the pre holiday fetes, fairs and shows has subsided. The "loca" is gone for the moment. The ebb and flow, up and down can lull me into a false sense of relaxation during the quieter periods.
Time passes though there is a constant pull of the tide to get things done - I function so much more creatively and energetically with a deadline. Its hard to stay driven all the time.
This small town lets me live the time passing. Taking the days as they unfold.
It seems that I have ditched my tent and my gypsy ways and am settling down in my house of bricks.

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!

Ever love a dress?

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Did you ever have the perfect dress as a little girl? Wedding dress? Ball gown? Party dress?
I often see dresses I would love to own, so sculpting them in clay is a lot of fun.
Still love designing too, but its more fun in clay than making a pattern and sewing it up!!! Sometimes I hang them on the wall as in the wedding dresses and other clothes on my website, now I have started letting them stand alone.

I was thinking, there might be others who would like to have a sculpture of their wedding dress for example?

Come one, Come ALL :Open Studio Friday 11th and 12th

This coming weekend you are all invited to come and see the artists of Pardes Hanna opening their studios - and do start with me. You can get the brochure from me or look at the website of Omanim Bamoshava in advance.I am #35 under sculpture.
( Ha Oranim 2 Pardes Hanna)
I have been working on lots of projects over the past few months and the results are a very diverse collection. I have had so much fun!!! Some are at the exhibition *
but a LOT is here for you to see at the Open Studio.

*The mask exhibition opened with a bang at Gan Shmuel gallery and will continue through September-if you missed the opening, thats ok, still got a few weeks to see it

Putting on a face

I am totally enchanted with masks in clay. Preparing masks for the exhibition uncovered more thought about layers of consciousness, identity questions, social habits and lots more. Art as therapy? No, but questions do surface.
Covering up, putting on a front, disclosing some but not all - how aware are we of the masks we use ?
A tray of masks - during my work process:
to keep at the door, along with your car keys or in your drawer ? So choose what you want to wear today.
The Masks exhibition is opening on the 4th of September at the Gan Shmuel Gallery, curated by Dorit Talmon.

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 .

Never too late - a work of growth in progress.

Being responsible to others, taking work seriously, committing and meeting deadlines - these are easier for me than taking responsibility for myself.
Were I my friend, my boss, or my student for example, I would be taking far better care than I do of just me. I am not unique in this, I know.
My finances, my food, my exercise and my paperwork - ugh what an irresponsible person takes care of these. As though waiting for someone else to manage them better for me, to take over.

The outcome of years of living in defense mode,living up to expectations and trying to appease the 'everyone' God instead of staking a claim on who I can be, are not going to be resolved completely.

But its never too late to become the person you want to be.

In some areas I am already on my way. In others - I am hereby committing to MYSELF as my friend, my boss, my student and my reliable one and only self - to do unto myelf as I would unto others.

Been away and come back

Yes, I have been away.

Not just in another country, but in another life.
A break from my studio, my home, my clay, my students, my family and my friends in Israel. Three weeks in LA with my American Branch. You can see them on Shani's website too.
It was a relaxing, loving and fun break.
Now I am back and well.... kind of awake.

I have set up a small gallery just outside my studio; you are welcome to pop in and take a look, have a cup of coffee (COLD) Monday and Wednesday mornings, On other days just call first.
Classes are ongoing and lots of new things are happening in them, some of which you can already see on my website in the Class gallery
If you would like to join a class or try out some of your own ideas, just give me a call.
I am starting work on new pieces and new ideas for the September " Artists of the Moshava" around Rosh Hashana and I am planning to be working in the studio a lot this summer.
Welcome!

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.