Last year, when I was redesigning the studio to accommodate my newest medium of clay I had bought a couple of good books on studio design and really cool potters studios. One of the things mentioned in a book was “a Slab Roller Table can double as additional surface area.” I thought to myself, “no way! I would never use my sacred slab roller area for anything other than clay,” that just seemed sacrilegious… well, not using that valuable surface area lasted about two months! Anchorage set a record low temp “for this day in history” last week. At a
cool 6 degrees (colder in most areas and it’s not even Thanksgiving!!) I had to move a lot of metal pieces that were (not) drying out in the shop/garage area into the warmer and dryer clean studio area. Ravens were on tap this week filing pre-Holiday orders and finishing up some special requests from the Bad Girls Show. I had Raven sculptures in various stages of production everywhere! Ironically, there was a story in the Fairbanks Newsminer that a customer and our daughter had e-mailed me about “Hundreds of birds seem to mourn deaths of fellow ravens…” I guess there were hundreds of Ravens gathered in east Fairbanks after two Ravens roosting on top of a transformer were electrocuted. It made for quite an eerie scene.
We had a couple of pleasant surprises when we arrived at the Girdwood house last night. First, it was snowing and a balmy 15 degrees! Second, Daddy-O’s new boards arrived and were waiting for him at the Mountain Learning Center’s office. Derek works part-time as a PSIA Level III Ski Instructor
and PSIA Examiner at the Resort. He was a very happy boy. The upper level instructors are being treated to a clinic day on the lower mountain today, before the mountain
opens to the public this Wednesday the 25th. Third, while Derek was picking up his skis we saw that the lights were on at Shelbi Lynne’s new shop, “Babes in the Woods Gallery!” Here shop features “Art, Apparel and Adventure” and is located on the Alyeska Boardwalk. Shelbi says her new gallery is “featuring a fresh collection of Alaskan artwork, a rejuvenated vision, surrounded by woods and some of the best ski slopes Alaska has to offer. Nestled in between the Sitzmark and the
Day Lodge, just a few doors down from Girdwood Visual Arts Center and the Bake Shop, come by to say hello, enjoy the space, and get a healthy dose of inspiration.” She asked me to bring in some of my metal work and I’m excited to make up a few cool art pieces and bring them down to her hip little shop next week. Just in time for artful Holiday gift giving!
5 comments:
Great to see the Tauzer! I've been told that Ravens are one of the smartest bird species. So I'm not surprised they mourned for their family members. They really are amazing creatures.
But the snow is flying already...YIKES.
Wow, those ravens are beautiful; hope you post another photo with them with a solid background so I can see them better. I love the animation of these two. Did you see the post of Sue D link on my blog, she has some tiles she did of ravens and part of the poem by Edgar Allne Poe. Are these two ravens in one piece or two separate birds. When we lived by Mt. Lassen we had ravens nest in a tree but the trees were so tall and dense we could never see them we could just hear them. Those are just beautiful Cindy, you are so talented and it seems ravens are very popular birds and so endearing to so many folks.
Be careful if you place items on your slab roller because the canvas can get an indentation or impression which may affect your clay pieces when they are rolled. I am going to have to check into studio design books once we get relocated or maybe I'll see if I can check some out at the library here.
Man I wish we could just plop ourselves into a new house and my studio was already set up, I have so many ideas and drawings in my journal. The guy is coming today to fix the springs on our trailer we are pulling behind our motorhome and then if all goes well we should be on our way soon.
you are right Marjorie Ravens (Corvids) are highly intelligent. YES, SNOW! ...and it is late in coming this year -we almost set another record for the latest date for the snow to come by only 3 days!
I've been thinking about you every day I was working on the Ravens Linda! The "Raven Talk" piece is one welded steel wall sculpture. I did see those tiles and LOVED them. Hope you are on your way soon -must be hard to soooo patient. But I know you are strong and all will be well :o) thanks for the tip on my slab roller -I have actually been using throw-away vinyl shower curtain pieces over each of the canvases to keep them pristine (a tip I got from another potter!).
Great ravens! What an interesting story about the ravens and mourning... Eerie, but cool too.
yes, ravens and crows are very special birds I agree, but a little spooky too
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