Break Week 2

Greetings all, and welcome to the end of the second full week of time off over the holidays. Honestly, it’s a bit hard to figure out what to talk about this time. The past week has not been all that productive in any shareable sense.

For example, I spent one and a half days reviewing a chunk of a book a friend is writing. I gave him lots of comments and thoughts, but none of that makes any sense to share here.

And I never talk about the really boring stuff: laundry, shopping, cooking, cleaning, and so on. No one cares about that, even if it fills up some time in a week.

What can I talk about then?

Well, I did get the rest of my grades. Last week I mentioned I’d gotten an A in cultural theory, which — while not surprising in hindsight — was not an obvious thing during the term. To that I can now add two more As. Apparently, even though I am a total newbie in ceramics, I did OK there. And if I am honest, I figured I’d do just fine in public art. So, that’s done, and I am prepping for next term, sort of.

What does that mean? First, I am pondering ceramics projects to discuss with the instructor. She’s offered to help me work on ways to make ceramics class directly relevant to my personal art practice by tailoring my projects in ways I want. I am considering my options in that regard. I don’t have any answers yet, but I am thinking about it.

I also need to research sprig moulds. We’ll be working with those when ceramics starts up again, and if possible we’re to bring some small objects to make such moulds from on the first day. What are sprig moulds? Well, they are plaster (usually, I think) moulds into which clay is pressed to create decorative items or appliques that can be applied to a ceramic work. I think our instructor said we may do sculptural work with sprigs as well, though, so that could be interesting. I need to research this more and figure it out so I am ready to go, given I think next term is going to eat me alive in terms of work time required in the studios.

Public art and foundry did not assign any homework for the break, so for those courses I am actually idle. That said, I noted that our vinyl print was down from the windows at the SkyTrain station the other day. I asked the instructor and was told they were going to deep clean the windows and put up a new print. I’m guessing the reason it peeled off so quickly (as I think I mentioned here) is that the windows were filthy. So now we wait for the cleaning and then good weather for the reinstallation.

In addition to that stuff, I am making some notes towards a short story. Not sure when — or even if — that will get written, but it’s been tickling my brain for some time now, and I want to take a whack at it if I can. If there is any interest in that, you know what to do, right?

And In Conclusion…

This really is art related. I finally finished the painting I’ve had in process since the summer. Last time I showed you a lousy image of it. This time I’ve done some minor touch up work on it and I took a reasonable photo. Here you go:

It’s definitely done, but I still wonder about it. From a contrast perspective the blue and yellow sections are probably a bit too similar. But the overall effect is what I wanted. I like the brush work (though it really wasn’t painted with a brush, but rather with a cut up auto body patch application tool). The focal point towards the upper left works for me as well.

It still needs a title, and I am currently without ideas. Feel free to email or respond here with your thoughts on that front.