Never too old...

... to build a snowman.

2016 was a crappy year... fraught with very unexpected health issues, which wore on my psyche and spirit. Nothing like catching a glimpse of your mortality to make your feel old. But What better way to keep from feeling old than to act like a kid and play on the snow, so when the first big storm hit I released my inner 12 year old! Heart problems be damned!

Tactilis

Juried show number two for the year... Tactilis. This show was at the community college, in conjunction with Art Access, an organization that provides creative opportunities for the disabled and disadvantaged. Tactilis had an interesting theme, showcasing art that was meant to be touched, so that it could be appreciated by those who are visually impaired.

I was excited when I received the email with the call for entries, as I had recently gone on a bender creating ceramic pieces that were intended to be picked up an touched, so Tactilis was right up my alley. I decided I wanted to create a new work, a multimedia sculpture covered with texture and moveable pieces made with my glass beads.

Judging from the reactions of the visitors to the show, I think my foray into touchable art was a success. Even though I couldn't 'read it' thought it was really cool to have my label for the piece printed in braille!

The Alfred Lambourne Prize

I entered an art piece to a show, The Alfred Lambourne Prize. This is a show dear to my heart as is all about celebrating our relationship to the Great Salt Lake, a place I love. THis show is extra interesting in that it showcases many genres; visual art, literary art, movement and sound. The piece I made was a fun experiment, I used clay from the Great Salt Lake Lake bed as a glaze on my ceramic pieces. Many pieces representing the diversity of experiences at the lake. I was pleased with how they turned out.

My asty fartsy description of my piece and it's inspiraton...

Salty

Dead sea

Oddly industrial

An artist's canvas

Fluctuating water levels

Clouds reflecting on water

Sunset skies paint horizons

Wind whipped sea foam

Remnants of the past

Pink microbial waters

Patterned salt crust

Vibrant wildflowers

Swarming insects

Essential habitat

Birds overhead

Rocky shores

Moonshine

Snowfall

Solitude

Wind

Rain

Sun

Every day, every season, every visit is new experience.

Always intriguing

Breathtaking

Inspiring

My submission for the Alfred Lambourne Prize embodies the diversity and uniqueness of each Great Salt Lake experience

. Each ceramic piece is glazed with slurry of Salt Lake clay, allowed to run and puddle randomly when fired in a cone 10 kiln where the clay glaze freely reacts with it's own inherent impurities, the reducing atmosphere in the kiln, and colored slips applied below the glaze.

Just like every visit to the Great Salt Lake offers a nature lover an unpredictable, unique and interesting experience, each ceramic piece glazed with lake clay emerges from the kiln as a surprise to the artist; unique, organic, different than the other.

Mounted on weathered "Salty Fir" lumber that was commercially reclaimed from the waters of the Great Salt Lake.

Soaking...

After our trip to the jetty we headed north through Curlew National Grassland and stopped at Indian Springs near American Fork Idaho. It's a spot that's been on my hot springs hit list for quite a while. A tiny bit disappointing because it is really more of a warm spring than a hot spring, but who can resist a lovely pool surrounded by rainbow doors!

Some cool yard art uo near the springs

Salt Study at the Spiral Jetty

Another trip to the Spiral Jetty. This time with a mission, this time to try to rescue some salt encrusted juvenile pelicans. The things you do when your friends are bird rehabilitators! The birds proves too distant and flighty to be rescued, hopefully they survived on their own.

After giving up on the birds we were able to wander and enjoy the mother nature's salty creations. Not a spectacular day for photography, but a wonderful day for salt crystals.

And why is the water pink you ask? As the lake lake level decreases due (it's very low right now!) the salt concentration increases, especially on the north end that is cordoned off from the rest of the lake by the Union Pacific Railroad dike. The halophilic bacteria in the lake make the pretty pink color. Click here for some cool drone footage of the lake

Found Art!

I've not posted anything about art in quite sometime, but I had an experience a while back that I thought I should share. This is not about my art, but about found art and delightful surprises.

Living in Salt Lake we are lucky to have the Sundance Film right in our backyard and for the last few years I been able to see a few movies and spend an afternoon or two wandering the streets of Park City checking out the festivities. There's always some fun things to see and interesting people watching.

At the same time Park City is also host to a second film festival... an 'alternative' film festival, Slamdance. While wandering through town we stopped at the Treasure Mountain Inn to see what Slamdance had to offer. There we found a table covered with post cards for all the different offerings. Amid all the glossy, professional postcards we found of a couple ordinary paper cards, but they were hardly ordinary, they were actually hand printed with original designs, signed and numbered, and had a sticker on the back directing you to the website of Gabrielle Kash, a young animator living in Brooklyn, NY. I thought the hand made prints were a pretty cool marketing idea!

There were not many prints left, so not wanting to be greedy I just chose one - "Lizard" 37/50

"Lizard" is a character in the movie she was advertising; an animated short called Lorem Ipsum which asks the following 2 questions:

"What is difficult about making art?"

"Why keep making art?"

Now those are some questions I can relate to. The movie is done in stop motion, which I adore, and one of the characters was making jewelry. It turns out that 'lizard' breathes a little fire. Could it really be a dragon? I like to make ceramic dragons. Totally up my alley. The Lorem Ipsum page also has nice series of photos showing how she makes her stop motion puppets and I love it when artists share their process!

I was pretty jazzed to randomly find a cool piece of art, so I went and bought a little frame and it is now hanging in my living room. Thanks Gabrielle for the gift! I wish you well in your career!

If you want to watch Loren Ipsum, it's here.