Quotations... Art Inspiration

There's a little Salvadoran restaurant that I frequent, and have become quite friendly with one of the waitresses. She's a gal from Venezuela, a recent immigrant, who, when we first met, spoke little or no English. She was working hard at learning, and since we'd become regulars at the restaurant we would chat and she could to practice her English.

We had a little start one day, when we went for dinner and found the restaurant shuttered and empty. We wondered how we would find our friend again. Lucky for us it turned out that the restaurant had not really closed, but had, quite suddenly, moved to a new location a few miles down the street.

When we finally caught up with our waitress friend again, we told her that we had been sad when had thought the restaurant had closed and we'd not get to see her anymore, so with the idea that someday we would meet for coffee or desserts we exchanged numbers. Unfortunately, I work days and she works most every night, so despite our good intentions, we never managed to make that happen, but we we've continued our friendship at the restaurant.

One night as we finished dining, she came over to the table, three deserts in hand, sat down at the table across from us and told us that since we never are able to coordinate schedules to have our coffee and dessert date, we would just do it now. She went on to say that her father had a saying... "The special moment is now" and explained that he thought it was silly how people are always saving things, like that nice bottle of wine, or the pretty new dress, or the special dinnerware, or whatever, for an off in the future special occasion, when the reality is that life is short and we should enjoy it now. So that night, even though she was working, she declared that "the special moment is now" and we all had a nice dessert together.

As a person who has always been guilty of saving things for the special occasion, I thought that really was an excellent sentiment, one that I really needed to take to heart. I decided that I would put that quote on few coffee mugs as a reminder, and make one for my waitress friend as a thank you for sharing her father's words of wisdom with us.

I threw some mugs and sprigged on little placard on which I stamped "The special moment is now", and a few weeks later, after they had gone through all the drying, glazing and firing steps brought them to my friend at the restaurant. She was thrilled with the surprise, and quite touched that I had remembered her fathers quote. She even cried a little. I always enjoy it when I can make a piece and share it with the perfect person and make them smile! I also enjoy getting new art inspiration. I can see a series of quote mugs in my future!

Every series has a story...

Inspiration often comes from strange places, you never know what may inspire your artwork, or where it will take you. I've been thinking that I should start keeping better track of the things that inspire some of my creative directions. I think I'll start with my latest new series and technique... The Bullet Project. I love to adventure, explore nature, and find interesting and off beat places. Lucky for me I have a like minded friend and we frequently head off on the road less traveled to see what we can find, do a lot of birding, and photography, and sometimes get creative inspiration

Kelton's graveyard

An adventure this summer took us to the ghost town of Kelton, in the middle of nowhere northwest of the Great Salt Lake. While exploring the area we found ourselves driving down the little dirt road that is is the Transcontinental Railroad National Back Country Byway. As we drove we kept noticing dead rabbits, and wondered how so many rabbits could possibly be get hit by trucks in this very remote, traffic-less location.

A stop at the remnants of an old railroad trestle answered the question. The ground was littered with bullet casings, and we realized the bunnies were not victims of vehicular homicide, but met their end at the hands of yahoos with guns.

An old Transcontinental Railroad Trestle

Bullet trash

We were quite saddened by this, and we decided a challenge was in order. We gathered the bullet casings, and challenged each other to create something beautiful out of something we found ugly; the destruction of wildlife and littering of a beautiful spot.

I call our challenge the Bullet Project, and after much playing and experimentation with various chemical and electro-etching techniques, here are a bunch of my results!