The End of the Line is coming to Cedar Creek Gallery!

No it's not what you think, Cedar Creek is alive, well and thriving. June 26th, in conjunction with Alan and Rosemary Bennett's show Beneath the Surface, we are screening the documentary The End of the Line narrated by Ted Danson. It's about the current state of our oceans and how we are harvesting fish at a rate that isn't sustainable. It's not all gloom and doom and don't eat fish - I wouldn't bring that to Cedar Creek. What it does impress though, is that we need to be selective, to question where and how fish are harvested before we eat them, and to eat fish that aren't about to be fished out of existence.

Alan will be sculpting fish and doing raku demos the day of the screening as well. I've set my sights to make it an even bigger affair by having a sustainable fish fry too. Is there anybody out there who knows how to pull that off? I could use some help!

It's exciting to put together a show that isn't just about art. This show is much more. And if we can raise awareness about the plight of our oceans, then we have made our own small step in helping change the course of our world in a positive way.

Throw and Blow

Collaboration with another artist is always exciting - mixing two medium even more so. The past two weekends Alan Bennett and I joined forces to further an exploration of glass and clay. For the past year we have periodically worked on this idea, but this weekend I started to get really excited about it. Here's how it works... Alan throws a pot with really thick walls and exaggerated throw rings. While it's still wet I blow glass into it, using the clay as a blow mold. Alan holds the sides of the clay giving it another dimension and also keeping it from blowing out the mold. An episiotomy is performed on the clay and the glass comes out with the markings and texture from the inside of the pot.

It's like someone writing half a story and handing it off to you to finish. You have to take what they have written and make it all sum up and make sense. I really got into how to make the foot and lip relate to the body, adding extra glass bits and capturing the liquidity of the glass. I never knew what was I was going to have to work with until it came out of the clay. The real fun then was thinking fast about how to finish the design. There's no time to sketch and plan - it's all very heat of the moment (please forgive the pun).

Not every piece came out. A couple landed on the floor (as usually happens when trying to figure out a new technique) and some weren't exactly what I wanted. But now I've gotten Alan's bug and can't wait for him to come back this way so we can do some more.

A couple are still in the annealer, too hot when I left the studio today to even sneak a peek. The one I liked the best from the whole weekend is in there. As soon as I open the annealer I will take some pictures and post them.