art is subjective

I am SO over the fear of rejection. If you are not failing sometimes, you are not trying big enough things! I tried to get one of my favorite pieces, "Quantum Physics," into Pennsylvania's "Art of the State" exhibit but she was not accepted. That worked out perfectly because that left Quantum free for me to enter her into the "Red Hot Summer" at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA. They DID accept and I just shipped her out this week. See how things work? You just gotta relax. Be patient! Who knows what can happen in Tacoma??!! This could lead to my next "best news ever!" That's what I'm talking about.

Bungle.....in da Jungle 16 x 23

The other day I posted a FB status. I said I was waiting on my kiln to open cause I thought I'd be pretty happy. So this is the guy that was waiting for me in the morning. Why a monkey? Well, a friend of mine was working on a monkey. He mentioned mandrills and I said, "You know.....I think I have a photo of one in my to-do list but it is a year or two off." When I went home, I looked up the photo which set the wheels in motion. I had just made a sheet of green stripes about a month ago so everything was good to go. Bungle jumped ahead of about 20 other ideas. Savin' the raisins for Sunday.

back to skoool

I had said I was going back to Boiling Springs to play with glass in one of their art classes. We made pendants and from what I heard, they got pretty cool. Also, I DID end up getting the artist-in-residence program and it already kicked off. I will be at Warrior Run School District for 4 weeks in May but to get the ball rolling, I talked to students in an assembly last week. That's right, I talked to like six or eight hundred kids at a time.......TWICE.

So basically, I am working with a core group of kids on a HUGE mosaic with a theme of anti-bullying. In order to have more kids feel connected to the mosaic, everyone in the high school and middle school will have the opportunity to help out after school and in free periods during school. In addition, all kids will be able to vote on options within the mosaic. Besides that, the coolest thing is that all students will be able to contribute things that can be included in the fabrication of the mosaic. The plan is to do a video too. The people at this school are fantastic. They set up a site that has everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask. http://www.wrsd.org/district.cfm?subpage=1279031 I CAN'T WAIT!

Grandma's Besty

Cleaning out someone's house really sucks...... especially if it is someone you love. You'll find stuff that is really junk but it is something they valued. When we cleaned out my mother-in-law's home, there was a sock monkey. Perfect example. This sock monkey was so ugly I wish I had thought to take a picture of it. But Corrine kept it in her neat tidy living room where everyone could see. It sat on her couch since my son gave it to her over 10 years ago.

Now I couldn't make myself fabricate a monstrousity like HER monkey. But this whole piece was around that "monkey." Corrine used to have a list of people she would call EVERY day. I was on her list. One of our standard conversations was about what I was working on. Generally I would say, "If this works out it will be my best piece ever." Each time I said that she would laugh her ass off. Or when I show her a new piece she would always make fun, "Is this your best piece ever?" Sometimes she would bring a chair in my shop and just hang. Now she is in a home and most visits does not know us. I sure do miss her. Anyway, Grandma's Besty is 16 x 23.