Miscellaneous | Sarah Regan Snavely :: Artist Sculptor Greyhound Enthusiast

The new piece is progressing nicely. I posted a few photos on the Sarah Regan Studio page on facebook – those photos were current as of this afternoon. But I wanted to back up a bit.

This was the new guy for the last six months or so. Followers of this blog might remember him from this post… from January.

He sat, wrapped in plastic, for a long time. Sure, I’d unwrap him from time to time. Wet ‘em down here and there. Scrub off the mildew…

The time to work on him was never quite right.

Until yesterday. I unwrapped this guy around 5:30 am – and got to work. It’s been memory boxes and tiles since January more or less. Nice to work in a different way. Which isn’t to say that I am tired of the other things I do, but that change is good and mixing things up, flexing the creativity muscle, is a good thing.

I worked all day. Exhausted at the day’s end. Boy it felt good – but I’m going to need more spongy shoes – the concrete floor of the studio gets plenty hard.

Today, another day in the studio. By the end of the day, this piece was further along that I’d anticipated. I have no idea where the day went. Worked steady all day, stopping for coffee and email.

More work for tomorrow – the video will explain more…

One question I get often is, “Do you have a lots of your artwork around in your house?” Well… no. Not so much. It is hard to keep artwork around here — if a buyer expresses interest in a piece, I usually sell it. Even if I love, love, love it want to have it forever and ever.

Sometimes I make a piece to fit a specific place in my house – and often I sell that piece too. The masks are a good example of this. I made a bunch for the wall in my kitchen. Sold ‘em all. The lamps are another example.

Confession time. I bought a lamp from a super-huge, big box store. Made in China. The whole works. But I loved the shade. The base was nothing to write home about. Looked like a knock-off of a cool design, changed just enough to get by copyright. The idea was to make a base from clay with subtle carved greyhounds – something that would be greyhound-y without screaming “A Greyhound lover lives here!”

Made the bases. Assembled them. Sold them. And nearly 30 of their cousins. Always have meant to make my own lamps but never got around to it.

Did I mention I started the first lamps in 2006?

So I finally got around to making more lamps. These are for me…. at least one….unless I decide to bring them to the Greyhound Gathering in Kanab….

Beginning a new sculpture today. Wanted to do a wall piece. This will be a head on view of a running greyhound.

Trying for scale and gesture at this point.

Feels good to have a new piece started.

I was asked to provide 10-12 photos from my past for a presentation at the local university. I’m going to speaking on a panel in March. Ulp.

Going through old photos. Strange. Like this one:

I must be about fourteen in this photo. Maybe 15. The best part was parading the coiffed poodles through the mall to get to the photo studio. White standard Poodles are awesome. Miki was the girl in the show clip (with her front legs partially shaved). I loved her so much. Both of these poodles (the other dog is Max, Miki’s brother) were the reason I learned to clip dogs. I spent most of my high school years and a bunch of college summers earning pocket money by clipping dogs. But Max and Miki were the most fun to clip. So elegant.

Long time blog readers might remember Mr. Hammer. I’m not sure what became of Mr. Hammer, but he’s been replaced. This is his cousin. She doesn’t have a name yet.

She’s just as effective as Mr. Hammer.

Goodbye, Pinkish sleeping greyhound with multiple cracks.

Sniff. A box full of mistakes. Glaze tests, cracked boxes, broken tails.

Meanwhile in the kiln… another type of smashing.

This poor guy didn’t make it through the bisque firing. Trapped steam. Otherwise everything looks pretty good.

“I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks.” ~William Shakespeare

Tired (and feeling a bit guilty) for toting my sweet Canon Digital Rebel xsi camera around in a recycled plastic bag, I ordered a Lowepro SlingShot 100 All-Weather Digital Camera Backpack . I’m pretty skeptical about stuff. I didn’t want a bag that was huge, that hurt my neck, that was ugly or looked like a diaper bag.

I used the bag most of the spring and summer and I was still smiling. This bag rocks.

And then… the zipper broke. Grump! I tried to use the bag with the broken zipper. No dice. Just as I was about to throw the bag away, cursing and sputtering with disappointment, my Significant Other said, “Doesn’t it have a warranty?”

“Huh. Never thought of that,” I said.

And so I contacted Lowepro via their website. They replied right away. “Send the bag back,” they said. And I did.

I figured I’d get, “We’re sorry but that isn’t covered by the warranty.”

Nope. Instead, “Your package will arrive on XX September.”

Soon I had a brand new Lowepro SlingShot 100 bag in my hands. Is that cool or what! I love this bag!

So here it is…

This is all the stuff I put in it. Plus the little Canon PowerShot I used to take the photo. And my cell phone. And sometimes a larger notebook.

Here’s the inside of the camera portion of the bag. I put my zoom lens and the camera in this portion. I don’t want to carry around every lens I own so this bag fits things nicely without being huge and lumbering.

The top portion of the bag holds all sorts of random stuff — my ipod, business cards, small moleskine notebook, spare battery — plus, usually, my cell phone & assorted pens.

I save the front pocket for dog cookies. I’m sure the designers had some other idea for this pocket with it’s pockets, but it works great for cookies at the dog park.

I’m so happy with my bag. To recap:

The strap nicely padded and wearing in the bag is comfortable.
It doesn’t kill my neck or back like so many bags do.
It is just the right size for carrying photo equipment and walking a dog or two or three.
The design is utilitarian – I love that I can take out my camera without dumping the contents of the bag!
And it now comes in RED!

Very cool.

Hey! Let’s hike Harney Peak!

Harney Peak is the highest point in South Dakota. Roughly three and a half hours drive from my house. This is been something that I’ve always wanted to do, but never gotten around to it. Now I can check it off my list.

The trail was muddy and/or snow covered in many places making things a bit more challenging (and slippery!).

It is a dog friendly trail! On leash, of course. There are some metal open stairs near the summit that might be challenging to a Greyhound who wasn’t comfortable. Otherwise a nice, challenging in parts, hike.

More photos on Flickr.

Mea culpa, Internet Explorer 6 users. I know there are quite a few of you out there who cannot read this blog (because only half of the page loads). I’m trying to fix this as fast as my feeble, tech-head will process.

So here’s the dilemma. Should I scratch this site design and start over with something I know will work for everyone? Encourage everyone to upgrade to IE 7 (or even IE 8! Better yet move on over to Firefox…)? I loathe the idea of broken links from a new site design.

Working on the site today. Except technical difficulties….

I set a goal: the next kiln load ready to go by the end of January. And, by golly, I’m working at it. It’s going to be close. The large …

All posts in Miscellaneous

Progression.

Lamps, redux.

Running.

Spoo and Sage play in the snow.

Blast from the past

Smashed.

Thanks.

You need this camera bag.

Hiking Harney Peak

And now for a brief interruption.

Tweaking the website.

My Photostream

Social.

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Next kiln load.

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