Quote of the Week

"I hear the calm stroke
through the gray rising sea
the even rhythm
a heartbeat
breathing
the milky gray surface
breaks again and again"

~Kate Mcbride From I Journey with You Here: Poems and Polaroids

Workshop!

I'll be teaching a special Friday Night Art and Wine workshop here at Pocosin on June 14th. We'll be making simple enameled pendants. Workshop participants can choose from one of three designs: oak leaf, sea turtle, or sea horse.

For details call: (252) 796-2787

Hope to see you there!

Process Shot of the Week

I'm finding that working in the studio is getting a bit easier, now that I've gotten started. I'm beginning to feel a bit better about this work, though I'm still terribly uncomfortable with the idea of taking it to Amsterdam for Sieraad. But the only solution I can see is to just keep making. . . .

Between the metalwork and several note card sets I've made since coming to Pocosin, I seem to be on track with my 100 pieces so far. What I am NOT on track with, is my 10 big pieces. Which I'm thinking might just be too much for my short time here. Maybe 10 large pieces by the end of the summer????

 Hope you have a happy a safe Memorial Day weekend. Thanks for reading.

. . . and Wonders

I walk the Scuppernog River Interpretive Boardwalk everyday. I've seen all sorts of things, including jumping fish, an otter, and even a water moccasin. Here are a few shots of some "easier to catch on camera" things.

Quote of the Week

"The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude."

~Aldous Huxley

Etsy Adds

A few more charms added to the jewelry shop.

Process Shot of the Week

Here are my first finished pieces from Pocosin. I was challenged to make a 100 pieces in the time that I'm here. I don't know if I can make that, but I'm going to try.

Signs

 I got to Columbia on Monday to start my residency at Pocosin Arts. So far so good,  I've spent the past couple days settling in, exploring the town and working in both the office and my studio. Columbia has a surprising amount of signage for such a small town. Or at least a surprising amount of interesting signage. Here are a few shots from my walk about town yesterday.

Sketchy Sketch

Some sketches I did the other night. I drew the shells from memory, so that's why the color is way off.

Water Walk

 One of the things I like best about living in New Bern is my proximity to the water. For the past 9 months or so, I've been thinking about water, they way it looks, the way it moves and the objects or detritus it carries. Many of the things I pick up in the interest of art making have traveled or been touched by water in someway. Ultimately, I'd like to be able to render water in my enamels, which I did begin to experiment with last fall.

 I feel like I've long extolled my love of the ocean on this blog, but lately I've been thinking more and more about rivers. I grew up near a river. At Peters Valley we made near daily trips to swim in the river. Greenville has the Tar River. New Bern, the Trent and the Neuse. Columbia (where I'm headed soon) has the Scuppernog. All of this has developed recently into sketching the river every day. I have a few favorite spots I hit, and I'm experimenting with a variety of media. I also try and make a few notes on the river and how it's doing that day. This has resulted in a series of spectacularly bad sketches. They really are just awful. Drawing was never my strong suit, and water is just SO HARD to capture. Mainly due to it's reflective nature and the fact that it just won't stop moving!

 But that doesn't seem like a good enough reason to stop trying. So I'm going to keep at it. Maybe after a while, my drawings won't be quite so awful.

Quote of the Week

"Listen to the voice from the incoming waves; it is loud. But when the tide goes out, the voice becomes silent." ~ Moineddin Chishti