From Teacher To Student

    I believe I made a very good decision.  Actually, I think I have made a series of good decisions.  I am getting accustomed to the altitude here.  The air is such a joy to breathe.  What seems to be taking a bit longer for me is adjusting to the attitude here.  I left a lot of my baggage behind - in Philadelphia and along the trail, but there is plenty left that needs sorting out.  The layers have taken a lifetime to put on, so I suppose it'll take more than a year or two to get through to the core.  I know I am on the right path, anyway.  The travelling has been extremely healthy in that respect, I a becoming very aware of the crap I walk around with.

    Back in January I stopped at Mountain Arts Pottery on a week day evening to check it out.  It is  just down the road from Silica Styles (the glass shop) in Four Corners. They are a hand made pottery company, the work is made there, they have a gallery and a coffee shop on the premises.  I started chatting with the woman behind the counter, and a couple of minutes into the conversation, was invited to dinner at their home!  The woman is Jennie Lockie, who, with her husband David Lockie own the pottery business.  I had a very lovely evening.  Great conversations, in a very relaxed atmosphere.  Made me feel very comfortable and welcome. They have a vibrant business - and make some beautiful work.  Click on this Link to visit their website.
    I have been working very long hours in the glass studio honing my skills - have to get the quality of the work up to snuff - and quickly!  I have been enjoying the learning process, it has been a while since I have learned a drastically new way to work with glass. (Photo album click here!) There are many skills that transfer over, but there are many things that can be done with this type of glass & process that I didn't really understand.  The way this stuff can withstand temperature shock is still blowing my mind.  While my forms are still quite basic, I have been working with some more complicated color applications to make up for it.  Lots of twisty cane and murrini work.  Morris showed me a process called coiling - where you take a rod of glass with colored stripes on it, and as it is heated, you twist it and wrap it onto itself to create a tube. This gets melted in and creates a very attractive effect that reminds me of the look of weaving or knitting.  The best part is that I have been able to use scraps of cane that would otherwise be waste to create effects that are definitely unique - I like that.
    It feels great to be learning every day.  I am revisiting a mindset that I had long ago (in the late '90s), before life got so heavy.  There is a playfulness in the work I am creating now.  I am not bound to a style or specifc sequence of form.  I get to explore.  There is only my own whip cracking - Morris' teaching style is much like my own - he gives plenty of room to play and explore, then steps in when he notices something or is asked a question.  What is really interesting, is that while being the student, I am also teaching.  The habits & way I have been working with glass for the past 18 years are still there - most of which are not traditional flameworking techniques.  Often I will do something - and get to explain it & show the guys a different way of doing something.  The glass is still kicking my ass occasionally, which means I am pushing the limits of my skill level. And that is a Very Good Thing.  Here is a link to some pics that represent a progression of 4 weeks of work.

Cheers!

New Beginnings

    18 years in one area of the world.  Whew. I have been sitting somewhat still for a little more than a full month. Time flies. I am reminded of this when my phone rings - ring tone is the first line from the song "Time" by Pink Floyd. "Ticking  away, the moments that make up a dull day, you fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way".  My high school German teacher would play this song on the last day of class for the outgoing seniors.  I wrote the lyrics on the cover of the sketchbook I carried around the first semester I was at college.  After hearing it at least a thousand times, I still think the guitar solo is one of the most perfect guitar solos ever recorded.
    "And then one day you find, ten years have got behind you, no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun"  This one has always haunted me.  Especially lately.  Full speed towards forty, no real job, no real estate, no children, no pets, no savings, everything I own in a really small truck, some skills, and hopeless optimism.  Living by the grace of good friends, family and strangers, while trying to sort it all out.

    While there is a shortage of hot shops in the Bozeman area, this is not the case with flameworkers.  I have become friends with several recently, and have taken up the craft.
    I was walking around town a few weeks ago - actually, it was that first Tuesday in town - with my fresh fearlessness, noticed a coffee shop called Lil' Sherpa. Note to self - I should check this place out at some point.  I went on to chat with the owner at Altitude Gallery - I noticed on my previous visit that they had some glass work on display.  Had a good conversation, a couple more leads to follow up on - I will admit I was a little tired, I had spent all morning talking about my ideas & plans, and I was beginning to feel it.  Coffee.  Something told me to go back to Lil' Sherpa, so I did.  Talked with a very interesting gal there, showed her one of the short videos I have on the blog of me blowing glass.  She mentioned that there are some glass blowers at an area called Four Corners and that I should go down there (about 10 miles south of town).  Okay, I'll put that on the list.
    The following morning, I hopped in the truck with the idea of driving around to get a feel for the town, and randomly found myself on the road that leads to Four Corners.  I have been by here - on my way to and from San Francisco - this is the road that follows the Gallatin River through the canyon.  I'll take a left.  About a quarter mile down the road I noticed a sign for Silica Styles, a flameworking studio, specializing in tobacco accessories.  Okay, I'll pop in and say hi.
    There is a gallery in front, and a flameworking studio in the side building.  There are some amazing objects in that gallery. I have always had an appreciation for flameworked glass, but for one reason or another things have never worked out for me to pursue it.
    The place is owned by Morris Shull who is quite an interesting character.  He has a lot of energy, I can see the gears constantly turning - kindred spirit - he has the glass bug and has a studio attached to his house! He is a couple of months older than I and started blowing glass about the same time as I - although in a completely different setting.  His experience is primarily in the pipe scene, which is one that I have appreciated and respected, but never quite fully embraced as my own artistic outlet. We hit it off - chatted for a bit and I showed him some of the molds and samples I have in the back of the truck.  He immediately asked me if I would be into collaborating. Whoa. Sure! Sweet.
    Timing is everything. This has been a recurring theme in my life. I bring this up because of my arrival at Silica Styles.  Flameworking involves using torches to reheat the glass, things are traditionally done on workbenches, with premade glass cane and tubing as raw materials.  These are heated up and manipulated in a variety of ways to create whatever-it-is that you may be making.  The scale of the work is generally more intimate than what I accustomed to. Significantly different set up in the studio. They use a type of glass referred to as "hard" glass (pyrex, or borosilicate).  Compared to what I have traditionally worked ("soft" glass), hard glass requires more heat to manipulate, and is much more viscous.  Hard glass can also handle drastic differences in temperature. Not so much with soft glass.
    It just so happens that two weeks prior to my arrival, Morris purchased two little furnaces.  They are designed to hold about 10 pounds of hard glass, at 2350 degrees.  This keeps the glass somewhat molten, allowing us to dip tubing and cane to achieve some effects that cannot be achieved any other way.  Turns out Morris has never worked with glass that has come directly out of a furnace before.  Interesting that I walked in the door when I did.

Archie Bray

    The semester had not quite started, so Cheryl took advantage of the time by organizing an outing to Helena to visit the Archie Bray Foundation with our neighbor Amy.  I have heard of this place before, and it had been mentioned to me several times from different directions, all in the matter of a couple of days. Helena is about an hour & a half from Bozeman, but there were a couple of stops along the way to break up the drive.
    First stop would be at a place called Wheat Montana in Three Forks.  I was able to pick up a five pound sack of oat groats for less than $5!  Simple pleasures!  Breakfast for weeks!
    Next stop would be in Townsend - there is a hot glass studio called Goose Bay Handblown Glass, owned by Jim & Terry Gunderson.  They have a gallery set up in the front & the glassblowing in the back, with chairs set up so you can watch them work.  I had a lovely visit - they even invited me to blow a piece of glass!  Needless to say I was pretty excited!  Its one of those things I don't like to go too long without doing, it was such a pleasure to work in their shop.  The glory hole doors are some of the best I've seen. They open vertically via a handcrank - very easy to adjust and control.  This feature is also great because it allows for a variable size opening depending on what you are making, and it looks like a fiery eye!
    On to Helena!  Archie Bray is a little outside of town, a series of buildings - some occupied, some not, with  a beautiful mountainous backdrop.  It is "'a place to make available for all who are seriously and sincerely interested in any of the branches of ceramic arts, a fine place to work.'  Its primary mission is to provide an environment that stimulates creative work in ceramics."  The artists in residence are there for two years! What a dream.

    We spent the afternoon wandering through the buildings and around the grounds - there is sculpture everywhere.  We also popped into the studios where the residents were busy at work.  We were able to chat with a few, Alanna DeRocchi, Nicholas Bivens & Sean O'Connell.  Small world Alanna and I have mutual friends - I tend to run into that often within the glass & ceramic world.  Our visit there was really inspiring to me, it is a very peaceful place, with the evidence of over half a century of creative energy floating around.  Here is an album of the visit.

Stopped off at Blackfoot River Brewing Company for a quick one on the way home.

 

Hit The Ground Running

Ahhh Bozeman.  My re-arrival came on the first day of 2012.

The road in was great, yet another series of epic views. Just 40 miles south, the road was closed - just outside of Big Sky. The police officer said there was an accident, it would be about 3 hours until the road was opened.
"Is there another way to Bozeman?"
"Yes, back the way you came and in from the West - about a 3 hour drive."

Welcome to Montana!  There is one road to there, and if it's closed, change your plans!  I relaxed and waited - it was only a couple of hours before the road was cleared.  Very happy to be back.  Warm reception, settled in - it was nice they both had off Monday, so we had a chance to hang out, which also gave me a chance to rest up & collect myself in preparation of what was ahead of me.  I came back for a reason.  Home Base.

    Tuesday it began.  For those of you who don't know me very well, I can have a bit of trouble putting myself out there.  My whole thing on this trip has been about putting myself in positions to overcome the things that cause me anxiety & have restricted me from getting on with it, both personally and professionally. Push the boundaries of my comfort zone.  I have no choice but to move forward now. Full tilt.  There are still things from my past that need to be dealt with, but that can only happen by moving forward.  Kind of a funny coincidence, but this little tryptic is displayed very prominately in my room.

    First stop would be the Emerson Center for the Arts & Culture.  Logical place for an new artist to check into - the local Arts Center.  It is a very cool place, I stopped here on my previous visit.  I chatted with folks in the office, and in all the galleries.  My approach has been this:  I came back to Bozeman because of a feeling I got when I drove into town that first night (the full moon eclipse night in December).  This place is ripe for a public access glassblowing studio.  I feel it and everyone I have talked to has given me very positive feedback.  That is why I came back.  It's like there is a critical mass developing & I want to help push it over the edge to help make something happen.  I really enjoy exposing people to glassblowing, through demonstrations,  teaching & collaborating, and I decided to be very open about my thoughts.  Ideas cannot come to fruition if they stay swimming around in my head.  This has lead me on an interesting path since I have landed,  sort of a word of mouth adventure of "you should talk to so-and-so".  I have met a lot of folks so far in my short time here.

Back To Bozeman

I had made a call on Christmas Eve to my friends Andy and Cheryl whom I had just visited briefly in Bozeman, MT.  There's something about that place that was drawing me back.   My request to return came a little sooner than they expected, but all is good.
    Decisions made, Furnace coming up. Time to pack up & move on.  It was New Years Eve, sunny, T-shirt weather in California.  I repacked the truck, double checked everything, and proceeded to lock Evan's keys in the Tech Room.

    An hour later, after breaking in to retrieve the keys, I was on the road!  Sun at my back, on into Nevada. The trip that day was pleasantly uneventful. I took I-80E across to I-93N. Beautiful clear sky that night. Found a great spot to park for the night.

    The first day of 2012 was a crisp, sunny day.  I watched the sunrise in Northern Nevada and as I crossed into  Southern Idaho.  The roads were pretty quiet - This was the first time I have been travelling on New Years Day.  Very appropriate for this one.  I stopped off a couple of times, just for short breaks, still had a ways to go.  

    I drove past Hell's Half Acre again. This time I stopped. The part of the Park that you can visit is basically at rest stops on either side of the the highway.  There are paved trails from there that meander across the broken landscape.  Apparently the surrounding fields are like this below the surface, then covered with thousands of years of dirt that has landed there via the winds.  I would really like to return to that place.  As I drove away, thoughts started to bounce around and collide.

    The juxtaposition of those smooth trails, some with railings and gates, all winding around this broken ground suddenly caused a whole group of thoughts and images that have been floating around in my head to gel into something that makes sense (to me anyway).  That little visit spawned ideas for a series of sculptures exploring the intersection of humans and our landscape, the way it presents itself to me. I have been moving around for the last couple of months and noticed much diversity in the way human beings have manipulated the landscape, and also how the landscape can reclaim.  It is something that has been present in my mind for as long as I can remember - its just that now I finally have thoughts on how this imagery can start to evolve into actual objects to tell a story.  I may have understated the significance of this epiphany, I'll try to rephrase - In that moment, complete sculptural objects appeared, along with the hundreds of visual reference memories they are constructed from, as well as the processes I might use to create them, all poured in at once.  It is difficult to put in words what this experience is like.  

The Rebuild and Exodus

    The week after Christmas marked the beginning of the furnace rebuild. It was finally cool enough, time to take it apart & put it back together again. They use an electric furnace which has a series of 9 U-shaped Molybdenum Disilicide elements suspended from the top of the furnace. The dismantling meant that we would have to unhook all the electrical connections at the top of the furnace, carefully remove the delicate elements through slots at the top of the furnace, remove the 700 pound crown (top of the furnace), lift the empty crucible out, then repeat all the above steps in reverse.

This is the old crucible and crown removed from the furnace.

Some weird crystalline growth on the surface of some of the elements.  It was like glitter. 

This is a view of the opened up furnace from above.  A week ago, this was 2000 degrees.

    All in all the rebuild took a few days.  Once it was all put back together, the program was set, and the furnace would slowly come back up to temperature over the course of 5 days or so.  Evan set the program and we hung out to make sure all was good.  Robin and James were there, we all played hacky sack - I haven't done that since the early '90s (great workout) - while the furnace came up to a couple hundred degrees.  To insure that the furnace gods would be appeased, we decorated the furnace with chalk drawings. This is the kind of thing you can really only do while it is cold.

    In the midst of the rebuild, a good friend of mine, Kate was moving away from Phoenix, AZ to Redwood City, which is just south of San Francisco.  Kate is an amazing person. I have known her for a good 18 or 19 years.  She is one of the most positive people I know - she has undergone a dramatic lifestyle change in the past few years, and has been writing about it on her blog. I highly recommend reading.  We got together for dinner. The last time we saw each other was in Philadelphia, a month or so before I left town.  It is always such a good thing to see friends away from the elements of our old lives.  The connection and history is still there, but we are no longer living in that history, we are present in the now of our lives.  

Big Decisions

    I had finally made it to the Left Coast. It was the week before Christmas,  the workshop was over & successful, it was time to sort out the next move.  I was at the point where I had to settle in for a bit & plan out the next move or series of moves.  I had a welcoming place to stay in Oakland, yet something was not sitting quite right.  Oakland is a very dynamic city.  It is just across the bay from San Francisco, and it is a hot bed of creativity.  There are studios of every kind all over the place. It is right down the road from Berkeley, Pixar is down the street and it has one of the busiest ports in the US.  There was one place in particular that I toured - it was pretty cool - called the Crucible.  It is a studio devoted to all things fire related.  The place was pretty bustling, they were preparing for a fire opera that would be performed just into the New Year.  I filled out a volunteer form - it seemed like I would be sticking around, so what better place to start networking.  There are enough different places around, I should be able to find some work.  If it wasn't the week before Christmas.

    So I spent my time writing and checking out the area, and considering what to do next.  Do I stay in Oakland, find some work & make a go of it?  Or do I take my last remaining little bit of money and get out of the city.  I had finally decided to flip a coin and stick to it.  There is nothing like an old friend holding up a mirror.  Over the course of a conversation with one, I realized that I really did not want to relocate to another big city.  There were too many indications that I would fall back into old patterns that I have worked so hard to leave behind.  I had this nagging fear that I would find myself stuck again, my worst fear.  There would be no coin toss! I had to get out while I can!  It was not the people, everyone was very welcoming, I feel that I made many new friendships, which I hope to maintain.  It was just not on the right terms.

    Now that that was over with, time to relax a little bit.  I had planned on sticking around the next week to rebuild the furnace and to have dinner with an old friend (from high school days) who was moving into the area.  Christmas Eve, I packed the backpack & took the train into San Francisco.  What a day!  I walked pretty much non stop from about noon till 6 or so in the evening. Started in the financial district, through Chinatown, down to Fisherman's Wharf, up the coast all the way to the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge!  What a view! Of course my phone died just before I got to the bridge, so there are no pics of the sun setting as I walked off the bridge, a huge smile on my face!  That is an incredible structure. There is something about the scale of everything in San Francisco. I walked on for miles, along trails in the "cliffs" along the shoreline, up into the Presidio area at dusk.  Took me a long time to find my way out of there!  I eventually made my way back to the train & back to Oakland.
    Christmas Day!  Away from family, spent mostly by myself, on the phone to those I Love.  It was a lovely day, exhausted from the looooong walk the day before,  I didn't do a whole lot.  I did do some cheap Chinese food in Berkeley - homage to Christmas Story.  Berkeley is a strange place to me.  Extremes side by side.  I only took in a small taste, and I look forward to spending a little more time there next time I am in the area.