Sticks, Stones, and Paper Stew Blog

House 4E Project: Maxine

Make a Frame

Instructions: Preferably on 8.5×11″ card stock, create a frame for a surprise insert! Leave a 6 x 4 rectangle space anywhere within the frame (doesn’t need to be centered). Do not cut out the rectangle, just leave blank. Frame design should be non-directional (whoops just realized mine is) oh well! Design elements can be dimensional & embellished, as long as it does not add a lot of weight to it.

Let your creative juices run on this surprise at the finish project.

So here is what’s come in.

Maxine’s creation:

max proj_max

Roberta’s project:

max proj_roberta

Joanne’s Project:

Max proj_Joanne

and mine.. after painting a few layers of acrylics.

maxine proj 2009_gale0002

Fun!

The Mocha Era

Note: This post was written back in September of 2009 to commemorator the passing of our German Shorthaired Pointer. Yesterday (March 6, 2011) we picked up a 13 month old German Wirehaired Pointer named Beau, the start of a new era. I think I must be crazy to have brought in another pointer to our home…

On June 30 2009 we said our final goodbye to Mocha here at the house. I wanted to share some classic photos of her life that extended to 16yrs 8months. Wow, what a long existence. There will never be another one like her…

She was born October 31, 1992 in Milwaukie Oregon. We picked her up in late January 1993. Chloe was not impressed with the new house member.

She always loved to look out the dining room window. (1999)

Sleeping dog, B&W, 2000

My throne! (1999)

I know something’s in here… Yachats (1999)

Dave, Chloe & Mocha. Yachats (1999)

George is my pillow. (Sept 2001)

What are you doing kid? Zac & Mocha 2002.

Are you done with the sand yet? Zac & Mocha 2002

Sleeping in the cat bed.

OUR Fest!

The first annual Our Fest was a hit!

The group met a Hacienda Possada for a beautiful day under the sun (+90 deg). Shannon taught the first class on gourd art. She grows an enormous patch yearly and had quite an assortment of different sizes and shapes. We learned cleaning, carving, coloring & wood-burning techniques.

Lauren and Joanne working on their creations.

lauren_joanne_gords

Joanne working with leather dye to color the gourd.

lauren_joanne closeup

Maxine working on her elegant creation.

Maxine working

The amazing Trudi! At 93 she is still out creating art, experimenting with new things and one of the sweetest women I know!

Trudi T with gord

Carol the print maker brought along erasers from the dollar store to make “chop” stamps. She is working on one while Shannon holds her Schnauzer under the apple tree.

Carol_Shannon

This is the stamp I created. 7/8″x1.25″ Not terribly large!

tree stamp

This is Ernie of the dynamic duo Bert & Ernie. Old English Sheepdogs with great hair cuts!

Ernie

Hacienda Possada! A home filled with amazing art!

hacienda possada

In the late afternoon we took a tour of Ed’s print shop. Shannon & Ed are printers, paper lovers, antiquarian book fans. Ed has one enormous hand pulled press and 4 smaller. The shop is filled with drawers and drawers of different goodies. A type/font lover’s dream!

This is his largest press weighing in around 3,000 lbs and created in London during the 1800’s. I hope that info is correct!

big press

Ed discussing the history of letterpress printing and how he became involved.

Ed_Shannon in shop

Liz holding a plate of a feather image.

feather plate

There was a wedding invitations still locked into the press bed. Good for demo purposes.

Ed at pressbed

After our tour, we headed back to Hacienda and prepared a scrummy dinner. With food in our bellies we sat down to discuss the 2010 ArtFest and what the 4E group would do. Liz & Roberta handed out mystery goody bags for the group. A plethora of amazing artful things came forth. Then off to bed. I fell asleep while meteorites streaked the starry night sky.

Next morning Shannon led Carol, Joanne & I on her woods walk. The four dogs accompanied us too! We saw old signs from the local bear and coyotes.

morning walk

big tree

joanne_carol_shannon

The woods walk led us back to Shannon & Ed’s home.

Shannon_Ed_home

Keiko Denzer was there reworking the new outdoor oven. Would have loved to stay and watch the process.

keiko D working

So that was our first Our Fest at Hacienda Possada. Fun, laughter, art, and just enjoyment of getting together with such amazing women. Thanks for looking!

CFF Fine Arts Showcase

Corvallis Fall Festival

Friday September 25, from 6-8pm, is the unveiling of the Fine Arts Showcase in the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library main meeting room. This year is our 8th and features 36 local artists. The show is open from 10-6 Saturday September 26th and 10-5 Sunday September 27th. Hours correspond with Corvallis Fall Festival. Audience participation is encouraged through voting on the “Peoples Choice Award” . So please come vote and see the show!

This year’s artists are: Mark Allison, David Paul Bayles, Mike Bergen, Herbert Berman, Pat Berman, Joan Brown, Carol Chapel, Hester Coucke, Jeremy Covert, Dale Draeger, Janet Ekholm, Judy Findley, Linda Herd, Pam Houge, Sandra Schock Houtman, Sally Ishikawa, Phyllis Johnson, Kristina Kennedy Daniels, Le Trung Chinh, Jennifer Lommers, Joanne McLennan, Sara Morrissey, Ella Rhoades, Nancy Rogge, Beatrice Rubenfeld, Lynn Russell, Sandy Segna, Gabrielle Snider, Alexa St.Clair, Leetra Taylor, S Tellez, Karen Tornow, Tom Walsh, Wendy Ware, Joel Weinstein & Matt Whiteley.

This years hanging committee is Joyce Cannan, Judi Sander, Joni King, Mary Norman, Curtis Keifer, Lauren Ohlgren, Cynthia Spencer-Hadlock and myself.

Here is a sneek-peek at the finished postcard for the show. It’s not yet done at the printers!

And the back…

How does one join the artist list? It is by invitation only and you need to be a Benton county artist.

If you have any questions, please email: assistant@corvallisfallfestival.com or check the website www.corvallisfallfestival.com

4E projects….

For some reason I still have my goddess project hanging around the house. Hopefully it will be reunited with it’s box next week at OurFest. Shannon had such grand visions for OurFest, but life has been busy. It’s scaled back to a one day & overnight play-time on Tuesday.

Here is the goddess book I created for Joanne’s project. It is a french door style book. Nice to utilize techniques acquired in the Sitka workshop.

Joanne's proj 2009

Book Goddess interior

And here is my response to Roberta’s project. She was wanting us to alter postcards. I bounced through them all on Friday. Seven total and not the best image for the grouping.

Roberta's Proj

Clipping, cutting, glue, acrylics, sewing machine…. and a bunch of art postcards. Now on to the next!

Wow, I think I’m almost caught up!

Death of the Ceramic Kimono

6am:

Lightly sleeping… aware that the dog is on the bed… acupuncture cat on pillow… comfy until…

“the cat broke your kimono.”

“ARRRRGH!” “Darn Cat”

What do ceramic artists or art collectors do when one of your favorite pieces is destroyed? You might swear at the cause, your stupidity for leaving it vulnerable, or swear at the messenger for bringing you the bad news. Possibly all of the above? Oh well, what’s done is done!

This piece was one of my favorite from university days. She was formed and tweaked while studying ceramics at Western Oregon University under professor Don Hoskisson. She was fired at East Creek Anagama (Nils Lou’s kiln) out in the hills around Willamina, OR. Blessed with large amounts of cobalt drifting off another artists work (possibly from Cindy Hoskisson) and delicate ash around the neckline, she was asked for by many. She had been residing in a safe dark cabinet until we had houseguests (and I had to do a little art sprucing up). Yesterday Nigel the cat had emergency surgery and required a room of his own. During the night in his dopey state trying to reach the windowsill, he pulled her off.

Here are the photos of the culprit and art.

3cm ragged gash sewn up. Nice work Dr. Moore!

The broken work.

One cool thing is seeing how the cobalt was forced into the clay, making it blue to the core! Anagama firings are amazing!

Fortunately she will live on in slide form.

Glue suggestions anyone?

Charcoal drawing experiment: Pelican

Such fascinating birds when one sits down and tries to draw them.

Pelican

Charcoal and Rives paper (or is it Arches?)

Oregon Trip

We spent a week hanging out with family that traveled out from Chicago and Austin. Actually they had all been here except the kids. This was their first trip to the Pacific Northwest and to the ocean. They were adopted from the Ukraine 4yrs ago & the youngest brother just came over last September.

The journey started Sandy Oregon, staying at a rental home on lots of acreage with a pond.

1 lake in sandy

The sisters, Sarah & Rachel, heading out in canoe.

6 girls canoe

David & Adam (w/mohawk) taking their turn getting ready to go under bridge.

7 David n Adam

What not to do in a boat. No Standing Up!

8 getting tippy

David, Kola & Sarah going for a spin. Kola looking apprehensive.

10 david kola sarah

On to the gorgeous Gorge! Only 100 degrees plus that day.

11_gorge

Sarah at Crown Point overlooking Columbia River.

14_ Sarah

Adam & David trying to check things out.

15_adam_david

17_crown point vista

Multnomah Falls was a bit cooler. We stayed there for several hours before heading to Hood River for a Dairy Queen break.

18_multnomah falls

Dave at Timberline on Mt. Hood. Sun setting fast.

20_dave

Mt. Jefferson in background, Timberline Lodge and an uncropped vehicle. The Williams fire was already in progress near Roseburg, hence the haze.

22_lodge n jefferson

23_mt hood

There was still snow accessible for those willing to hike a bit. A great first for the kids, snow in summer on a dormant volcano. Rachel & Paul below.

25_rachel n paul

Mary, Lois & Sarah in snow zone.

Just after sunset looking south.

28_sunset_at_hood

Mt. Jefferson again.

26_jefferson sunset

On to the beach portion of the trip. We stayed in Waldport and spent one afternoon at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Always a great hit with kids of any age.

Rachel & Sarah in the bird area.

David too.

Say Ahhhh! Kids posing w/ ancient shark jaws. Kola’s beach/ocean experience.

Another first for the kids. Whale watching out of Depot Bay. Paul & David watching for spouts. This is also before David became ill.

Mary & Sarah hanging on watching. I was surprised they allowed a dog on board.

Rachel, Paul & David still watching out into the fog.

Looking towards land and fog.

Otter rock from the north.

Kola, Sarah, Dave & Jon. Kola discovered that boats are fun if you’re warm.

Heading back to port.

Reliquaries Invitation

Back on Friday I received an invitation for a “Shrines and Reliquaries” show. It will be a benefit for the Arts Center in Corvallis during their holiday sales. In years past they have put on “Winter Light” which opened up the main gallery to sales of locally produced items (some from Washington but mainly Oregon) from about 125 artists. Unfortunately, the sales last year were down and they have decided to try a different approach. I’m game! Bring on the Reliquary…. wait, what is a reliquary?

Reliquaries are a container that holds and protects a relic. Historically they have held physical remains from a religious person like bone, clothing or personal object. They range in size from pendants/rings to coffin sized containers. The earliest were essentially boxes, simple or based on architecture ie a church. Then they changed to crosses, then body part representation (hands or feet depending on what bone you have), and then to relics housed in rock crystal or glass capsules (easy to mount on poles and parade around town). In Buddhism & Hinduism, reliquaries are often housed in stupas, essentially large dome shaped architecture. People like to visit these ancient sites and relics. Whether Catholic, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, or what ever, religious items draw the public in. Its a pilgrimage after all!

I made a pilgrimage in 2000 to India & Nepal to visit the ancient Buddhist sites. The architecture of stupas created a mark on my ceramic works for a couple of years after that. Here are a couple of photos from that journey.

Kapilavastu, Uttar Pradesh India. We visited the stupa fairly early in the morning during the month of December.

stupa1 India

A little later on in the day.

stupa001

Detail of the stone carving on side.

wall detail

Lumbini, Nepal is where you can see the Parinirvana Stupa and Temple. It was originally built back in the 5th century. Lumbini is best known for Buddhas birth location.

stupa2Lumbini

Inside the temple is where the reclining Buddha resides.

sleepingBLumbini

Interested in a Buddhist pilgrimage? Please check out Shantum Seth and www.buddhapath.com.

Do I have ideas yet for my reliquary? Not yet, but something will happen. Stay posted!

Oregon Coast Flight

One of my buddies, Alex, took me on an incredible flight down the Oregon Coast to Cape Arago/ Simpson Reef by Charleston OR on Sunday June 23rd. We took off out of Newport and headed south. Three grey whales were sighted along with two dolphin/porpoises and numerous sea lions. Here are some of the slightly blurry shots.

Loaded up and ready to go.

Pilot Alex