I just found lost archives of pics! I'm guessing these are from 1998. This is proof to my students that I too have used graphite as much as I try to wean them off the stuff. The other drawings are obviously not graphite. All of these drawings are on massive paper at least three and a half to four feet tall. These are some of the first drawings I did after going off to graduate school. I wasn't around my peers that thought I should be lady like. No one was threatening to send me to charm school. This is nature. Why not draw it? Why should girls hold back? Sh-- happens. Why can't we talk about it? Who decides what is improper? Art is a way to discuss much of this but as an adult, unfortunately I understand what mom was saying. There is a time and place to choose your audience. Oh yeah, I just had a birthday. I'm fo-tee-fi. I just realized the other day that I'm about to celebrate my 20th year anniversary from graduating from WSU. Thanks WSU professors for not filtering or hindering me. Y'all never seemed judgmental when I was proposing odd ball stuff like evolving these animal observations into a narrative about dogs in outer space.
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Although I've been busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kickin' contest, "I want today. I want tomorrow. I want to lock it all up in my pocket. It's my bar of chocolate"....I mean clay pipe. I am back from carving the biggest piece of my life and obsessing about wishing I had more time. I want I want I want! (For those of you who are too young, Veruca Salt in the original Willy Wonka has a song I am referencing about wanting everything NOW!) After a two month run of nonstop art receptions and events with the Asheville Art Museum then Mission, I don't want the positive energy to dissipate. Final grades are in. My students and I have booked NCECA. I am working in my studio and updating webpages. I just want to go get my hands dirty and procure some new homes for what I make. Is anyone else as restless as me? What is next? What can I start on now? What is the next adventure? What can I learn? Who can I help? Will my students be inspired? Oh look, a squirrel. Back to work. I wish I could occasionally shut my brain off since I should really take Christmas break to rest and prep office work. I would normally be drafting annual reports and syllabi so that when those deadlines came up, I could submit a week early. OH, BIG NEWS. I am officially stepping down as Department Chair!!! It's my tenth year of being chair. For three years I've been requesting to step down/pass the torch. I'm prioritizing art and teaching. It's pretty liberating. Add movie announcer voice here: "Imagine a world where" (add in a laundry list of chair responsibilities). Hallelujah! PS: I will have to make more art because stepping down means a pay cut. I'd have time to pick up an adjunct job but I'd rather sell pots (pottery). So what is next? 1. Work in the studio over break and apply for shows. 2. Prepare new ideas. 3. Sort out admin stuff for the end of the semester. 4. Make a ton of mugs for our "Buy a mug for your love" event in February, Mission Clay's studio walk, and NCECA trades. 5. Go to NCECA. 6. Finalize the Spring semester and head off to co-lead Italy!!!
I constantly have the Waiting for Guffman song in my head about the stool boom, "Working, building, never stoping, never sleeping. Working, making, some for sell and some for keeping. Working, building, never stopping, never sleeping. Working, making, some for sale and some for keeping. " |
Author: Carolyn FordArtist, world traveler, yarn spinner, and lover of random things. Archives
January 2021
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