last year i decided to take up the task of reading and rereading books on art criticism and theory.  finishing this was lyotard’s discourse, figure; which i found interesting up to a point.  that point was the end (in my opinion) when it seemed like he just wanted to stick it to freud and the whole oedipal connection was a little far fetched.  but i digress that was last year.

this year i decided to take it easy on myself, or perhaps i was just in need of some fiction and lighter fare. i just finished up Iznik pottery and tiles in the calouste gulbenkian collection.  concise, informative essays, descriptions/definitions as well as beautiful color plates.  the other art book i read was one on persian ceramics from the 9th-14th century.  not really knowing much about the subject (but wanting to know more) this one left me a little in the dark but again the color plates were lovely and in fact the catalogue in the back was complete with detailed information about each piece.

the rest of the summer was spent on pulp fiction crime and starting to tackle the birthday books, the only one i got to being left of the dial. conversations with punk icons (the author being a former acquaintance or ex relative of a friend sort of relation)  it was pretty good.  its interesting to note how detailed the early scene becomes from the various  oral histories given and you can see the bits of overlap here and there.

and of course now the kids are back and with it the freedom read what i want where i want or at least for the next couple of weeks while i brush up on pietalka’s clay a studio handbook and our architecture texts.

 

returned home from vacation a few days ago and got back to the studio tuesday to do a little editing and return to the new work. mailed my work to vision in clay 2013 and today i shall be sanding the whole lot and hopefully putting in a bisque.  i had taken my sketchbook but it ended up being dead weight for the trip which means my mind needed time away.  first stop was marfa.  did the donald judd tour and it was great to finally get to see the facility at chinati.  the town was a little disappointing but i suppose when you live somewhere pretty fabulous anything that tries to compare comes out on the losing hand.  there were a few small hipster shops and a pretty decent bookstore.

next up was riudosa. we hit their little tourist shop drag looked at pots, more pots, went for a hike and then up to colorado.  looked at a gallery with a pretty nice selection of finer crafts.  (jewerly, sculpture and pots) this was a good shop- if i had to describe it i guess i would say american craft sort of good.  also had the opportunity to meet an artist, a dutch women (retired professor) she worked mostly in clay. she had a few pieces of her work in their cabin home and i was able to view a few photos of her work as well.  very post modern  as well as silent and subtle.  her sculptures were slab built and beat so that figures started to form and there was negative space between.  with a light stain (rutile or iron) in the recesses of the clay body.  it was kinda cool to be able to explain what i did since i also deal with the negative space.

we went to taos briefly a couple of times.  some nice wood fired pots and lots of potteries on my look up list. – hit a rug store and had to keep from doing further damage to the cc.

then it was camping and taos again for dinner and the long, long, long drive h