new adventures

Well, tomorrow I'm off on a big adventure.
I will be going to Moscow and St. Petersburg with my parents. I have no idea what to expect. Despite fantasizing over guide books for the past month, I remain at a loss. I have never before traveled somewhere I will not even be able to read the text around me. There is no hope of deciphering the Cyrillic script or the words spoken around me. Images of the variety of architectural wonders already have me excited for the potential influence on my work. I can't wait to see the onion domes and palaces influence my forms and decoration upon my return.


As I transition to working here at Arrowmont, I have begun to seek out ways to reintroduce decoration on my thrown and altered forms. I continue to develop my own peculiar version of a flower brick. As I glaze them I am considering how they will look both with and without flowers. Right now the colours have remained quite subtle. I wonder if the flowers will provide enough of a colour punch, or if the brick on it's own needs more flavor.

The last week of classes here at Arrowmont brought Cornel Rubino from Baltimore. His assistant was a student from MICA - Tommy Doyle and two talented models - Alice and Lawrence. It was great to hang with some folks from b-more and his 'Monumental Drawing' class produced amazing results. The summer session ended on a high note and the campus is now subdued and silent. Gatlinburg itself has calmed down with the beginning of school.

I just finished a week of drawing class with Julia Morrisroe.
It was a challenging class with morning excursions for source gathering and afternoons in the classroom drawing on large sheet (3' x 4' or so). I really enjoyed working with ink and charcoal - learning for the first time that charcoal can be mixed with water. We went twice to the abandoned remnants of the amusement park next to Arrowmont where i fell in love with the old go-kart track. it has these wonderful haloes of the tires that used to guard the border. Also the ghost of a charilift - lovely and yellow just hangin' out.
The class moved so fast, i didn't really ever finish a drawing. Just in the way pots are never finished - there's always more to be done to a drawing - well maybe not done - it could be 'not done' if that makes any sense.
Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the last drwawing. For that one i got to work with Julia's luscious oil pastels - they were so 'fat' - i can't think of another way to describe them. they went on the paper so well, i would mix them with coloured pencil and chalk pastel. Now the trick will be where to find room to keep working. i really liked the large scale of the paper, and as per Julia's suggestion - maybe clay will be my drawing material - i wonder if i can get earthenware to be like an ink?