No Chickens Were Harmed

Little Bubba

Preparing for the Woodfiring

I didn't realize it, but woodfiring is kinda a big deal for pottery people. Just look at these two guys as they load the kiln. They NEVER smile, but here they are practically giddy. The guy in the kiln is from Texas Tech. That's another thing I didn't know - when you have a woodfiring, potters from all around come to participate (and have some of their work fired as well).

Here is Steve Hilton, the dude in charge. He cut wood into the night preparing for two days of firing.

I think they started the kiln around midnight Friday night. I came in at 4:30 am...AM...to help out. Here is the sun shining through the wall in the early morning. You can see the smoke coming off the kiln, and notice all the wood...that's not all of it.

Bossy Britches

Cow Skulls - Drawing I

"Night, Noon, and Morning" painting

I had posted the sketch book version of this earlier. Here is the final product that I turned in. Remember, this is the one that had questionable spacial orientation.

Old Friends and New Beginnings

We had our first official meal in the new addition this weekend while some friends were staing with us.

My Little Pony

Nacho is short enough to slip under the hot wire fence. He's always where he's not supposed to be, but he so gosh darn cute!

But you gotta have friends!

A couple of weeks into the semester, I hadn't quite found my niche and was feeling a little blue. I remember thinking, "I just need someone to grin at me!" Then I got to know Carissa a little more. Not only does she grin, but she also laughs heartily, talks to everyone, and sticks her finger in people's noses. You take people like Carissa out of this world and it's a sad, boring place! Now I just need to meet a nice guy who grins and sticks his finger in unsuspecting noses...then I'll have it made!

Sketchbook - Night, Noon, and Morning

This is my final concept drawing - we have to incorporate morning, noon, and night into one painting of an organic object. I'll post the final product when I get there. Does it seem backwards? The sun rises in the east (right) and sets in the west (left). I'm also going to include background color.

Yucca, yucca

For my latest assignment we are supposed to find an organic object to paint from. I didn't want to go with something as ordinary as flowers, but I did. This is the New Mexico State flower - who could not paint that!?

Camp Coffee

Do you have a license for your minkey?

For my tooty class, project 2 (part 1) we learned about figure/ground relationships. We had to choose an object to create a silhouette. Wherever the silhouette overlapped another silhouette we left the space white. I chose the monkey from the barrel of monkeys.

For part 2, we learned about repetition and rhythm - basically wallpaper. BTW, my monkey wallpaper made it to the hall of fame, woohoo!

Also, I included the "do you have a license for your minkey" clip from The Pink Panther only because I thought about it continuously while painting my monkeys.

Tarheel Hal

Stunt Flying

Hall of Fame

The instructor of my tooty design class picked out six of the classes' pieces and displayed them in the hall. You can see my final airplane drawing in the lower right.  For this project, we had to each choose an object to draw from. From the top is a dental tool, a sunflower, a dream catcher, a tea can, a bracelet, and a toy airplane. After this I'll take a break from posting so much of my own artwork! I feel like I've been tooting my own horn too much... even if it is tooty design.

Eggs Part Deux

The whole class did better with their eggs on this second go 'round. We don't have to do them again.

Raku Firing

The MSU ceramic gurus, Steve and Tyber, pulling lava hot pottery from the kiln and placing them in trash cans full of sawdust.

After a couple of minutes, they pulled the pottery from the trashcans and placed them in a rubber trashcan full of water to cool them off.

Then we fished them out of the water to oooh and awww over them.

This is my first completed pottery piece of my MSU college career!

Design Process

In my 2D class, aka "tooty class", we did an object exploration drawing three different objects using only pen and ink. Pen and ink meaning a bottle of ink and pen nibs which I had never used before. These were to be line drawings - only lines, hatching, and cross-hatching.

After we explored our objects, we chose one to expound on. I chose a toy airplane. Then we did five concept drawings of our object (pictured here).  In class we had a silent critique, where we walked around to other's sketch books, looked over their concepts, and wrote down our favorite and least favorite stating why. Then from that feedback we chose one concept to redraw on a cold press board for the final project to turn in. 

Which do you think I chose?

  

Art History Slides

For my Early American Art History class exam, the teacher will show slides, and we must identify the work, artist, and write a little something about the work.  She's given us about two dozen slides to study. I took pictures of them, so I can look them up at home. Here is a sample picture. Who uses slides anymore? The slides themselves are historic.

Waving hello!

My new diggs and roommate.

This is our first meal, but it is typical of all our dinners - veggies, wine, a little fish, and a burnt oven mitt.

Homework

Before I can take all the really cool, interesting art classes here at Midwestern, I have to take some beginning, prerequisite classes - Drawing I and 2D Design this semester.  The teacher for Drawing I is very laid back and relaxed. Last class, she taught us different shading techniques. Our homework for the weekend was to draw 3 eggs using ribbon shading, squiggly line shading, and cross-hatching.

My 2D Design class is a little more intense. We just turned in our first big project on Tuesday.  The instructor had us each hang our work on the wall and then stand there beside it for a class critique. The students were all very tactful, but they all had a little something to say.  I was the last student to be critiqued. Standing up there with my art work felt like standing in a lineup naked.

Waving Goodbye

My parents were working on the house as I was packing for school.  Dad kept telling me I probably had time to help them out...which made me pack all the faster!

The Last Dinner Party

Last night I invited some of my favorite people and had one last hoorah-rah before I start classes on Monday. We had a wonderful evening sitting around the table, drinking wine and Modelos, and telling great stories. I love my people!

Traveling

I guess since we've had a little bit of rain, I've been thinking about fall which makes me think about last fall which makes me think about France. I'll be sitting at my desk working and all of a sudden be overwhelmed with a memory of France. Not so much an exact memory, but more a memory of a sensation -  like the feeling of sunshine while we sat at a cafe, the noise of crowds, the smells of my aunt's apartment, or just the warm feeling of being with my family and having a wonderful time. It's the sensation of traveling and adventure, and I miss it. I"m thankful for the trips I've had and I look forward to many more!

Here's a pic that Nina took of Grandma and I as we walked to Mont St. Michel.

Butterfly Catcher

The rule is that you can't catch people or dogs. Everything else is fair game.

My Mountains

The owner of my old home took this picture of me while I was visiting, and was thoughtful enough to email the photo to me. So, here I am in all my glory standing in front of one of my favorite views. Catherine, in my last post's comments quoted Georgia O'Keeffe, "God told me that if I painted it often enough, I could have it." Below is one of Georgia's many paintings of Pedernal, the mountain that she was speaking of. That Georgia, she's a funny lady! I think I might need to get cracking on painting my own mountains.

The House That Built Me

This is our old house in New Mexico. When I was 10 years old we bought the small cabin and, the summer that I was 11 my family added on the stucco half of the house. We moved from this house to Oklahoma when I was 14. I guess we weren't there too long, but it is one of my favorite homes.

Anytime I'm up that way, I always drive by our old house. After hearing Miranda Lambert's song "The House that Built Me", I thought it might be fun to actually stop in and say hello to the owners. Of course, that song is a little bit sad, but my visit was far from sad. The owner was very gracious to show me around and let me take photos, and listen to all my little stories about living there. I think he himself was fascinated by the experience. One funny thing - every time I mentioned my folks he'd ask if they were still alive. Yep, they're still alive and kickin' it.

This is the view from the back porch.

Take Me Home Country Roads

This is the old honey farm road in El Rito, north of Questa NM. We lived a mile up this road. I stopped by the old place last week.

Riding Down the Chair Lift

Etsy Outtake No.2

Etsy Outtakes No.1

So, I've been purchasing vintage dresses and reselling them on Etsy. My BFF Lindz models the dresses, and I take the photos. Usually during the photo shoot I'm laughing so hard, I can barely take the pictures. Somehow we manage to get a few decent shots for Etsy, but the outtakes are worth posting. I plan on posting a small series of the modeling bloopers for your enjoyment.

These pictures with my great dane, Zoe, are actually pretty cool. I did include one of them in my Etsy shop.

Birthday Lanterns

I got these lanterns from my brother for my birthday last year and just now got to hanging them up for my birthday this year. Stringin' those birthdays along just like those lanterns...