All posts tagged Winchester
Scenes from the studio. Routine.
On April 4, 2012
In Art making, Life in North Dakota, Living with Greyhounds
With 2 Comments
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Homebound.
The weather has turned cold. January is not a favorable month for smooth haired creatures living in North Dakota interested in outdoor activities. However, we are half way through the month and the winter has been relatively easy. Hooray!
Annie discovered the blanket filled chair and curled up in her newly discovered spot. The chair is small and has wooden arms. Not greyhound friendly. Guess the blankets tipped the scale.
Not to be outdone, the second Annie relinquished her new perch, Winchester had to try this new spot.
Greyhounds are funny.
They are my models.
My Greyhounds sleep around me as I make the figures for my memory boxes. They make handy models – being right there. Here is a memory box waiting to be bisque fired and Winchester sleeping on the couch. Isn’t he sweet?
New friend.
Winchester has a new friend. Charley is his name. He’s a Great Dane.
This makes Winchester very happy.
Charley loves to run and play. He plays differently than the greyhounds. Winchester doesn’t know what to think of this, but he still tries to get Charley to play. Charley has his own ideas of course.
So Winchester dances. And leaps.
And stamps his feet.
“Should I bring it?”
Bring it!
Gray and green.
Cold. Wet. Rainy. Gray.
On the bright-side the basement is dry. That can’t be said for most of my neighbors. Or those along the Missouri river here in ND. Flooding. Sandbagging. Stress.
I don’t know how long it has been raining – just that it seems like we’ve had more rain this year than ever. If memory serves, we’ve had three nice days in all of May. I long for 70+ degree weather. I had to turn the furnace on last night.
And no Greyhound Gathering in Kanab, Utah. And no Art Show at Dewey Beach, Delaware this year either. I sit with no set events this year. No finalized engagements. The calendar is wide open with not a deadline in sight. I’m not sure I like this.
But my memory box goal for this month has been met. The boxes are drying and should be ready soon (rain/humidity is slowing the process down… slow drying is a good thing… but it takes forever…) There are also smaller smoke fired greyhound and saluki sculptures ready to be fired. In about a week things might shape up around here. The kilns will be firing, at last. I’m excited for the results. I’m really liking this batch of boxes and small sculptures.
The hounds and I have been squeezing trips to the dog park in between rain storms. I’m not crazy about them running on wet grass, but there has been little choice, of late. They need exercise and while the leash walking does fulfill some of that, it isn’t enough. The dog park ground is squishy and saturated like a sponge that needs to be wrung out. The hounds don’t seem to mind it or the baths when they get home.
Back to work. May has been a productive month. Memory boxes started. Small sculptures started. Shipped a larger piece (cross your fingers UPS will be kind in shipment). Have two other larger works possibly sold. Am *this* close to completing a $36,000 grant at the library job. It’s all good.
Bring the heat.
I fear that the heater in the studio needs to be replaced. Darn it anyway. If I’m going to store boxes of clay the studio is going to need to be heated since clay cannot freeze. And then there is firing the kiln when it is so bitter cold – the computer controllers don’t care for the bitter temps anymore than I do. Plus I do like to work in that place over the winter.
I was hoping to nurse this heater along until the season was over – only a few more months really. That would put it past other bills like taxes and semi-annual car insurance bill. Ahem. Guess things don’t go as planned. Oh well.
Sorry for the flash photo above. A quick capture to get a rough idea of this wall piece. Sculptures are everywhere in the house – my dining room table is covered, the table in the kitchen is covered. There is work in boxes stacked on top of dog crates. Tomorrow I’m going to begin to photograph and pack the finished pieces – just to make room for the work that needs to be completed.
On the plus side, the hounds habit of begging for food while humans are sitting/eating on the couch is nearly broken.
Giveaway details on Friday.
Melt.
Two luscious days of nearly 50 degree weather and the snow is melting. Other things that are melting?
My heart when I see looks like this…
Winchester. Winnie. Winner. Windog. Nubbin. Nubs. Brindledog.
On the art front, still plugging along getting work finished. Here’s the bunny/mask piece sitting on my table. I’ll photograph more work so we can have a preview here on the blog before the big show. And we should have a giveaway again too, don’t you think?
Dog park wish.
The weather was beautiful today. The sun is shining and the snow is melting. I thought we’d try the dog park. Didn’t really go as planned. Going to be awhile. Lots of snow out there. In the photo above Sage hasn’t sunk to the bottom. It is belly deep for him in most places. Wish we could use the dog park…
We came home instead. I tried to encourage the hounds to run in the backyard. Mostly they looked at me, but Annie and Sage did play a little tug to blow off steam.
I have mixed feelings about February. On one hand, I would like it to be over so that we will be closer to Spring. On the other, the deadline for the DSU exhibition is at the end of February. The 25th to be exact.
I know I can get everything finished. But its going to take some work.
I’m shooting for 24 pieces finished and ready to exhibit. Some of those are not fired yet. Ulp.
I’m worked on four pieces today – putting the finishes on them. Several are going to need wooden bases, so that’s sanding, staining, more sanding, and then finishing. I want to start them now so that they have time to dry thoroughly. That’s #1 on the To Do list for tomorrow.
I’ll fire the unfired work on Monday. The kiln is loaded but I’m not *quite* sure everything is dry – especially the trooper’s hat piece. That piece along with the new Prey Drive piece, the rabid rabbit, and the Faith In My Lucky Rabbit’s Foot are all in the same kiln load.
The wall pieces need their hanging devices. Not quite sure how I want to do this yet. This is also on the list for tomorrow. No weekends off until all the work is complete. All the work will have to be photographed before it’s packed to go to the gallery.
Also, I’m fairly sure that all of the work will not fit in my vehicle for one trip to Dickinson. Going to have to make two trips – that’s 180 miles round trip for one trip. I’ll all work out. Need to get to work.
Slow going.
or Watching Clay Dry. Nothing exciting to report (which is a good thing, I guess). Waiting for work to dry so that I can fire. Hoping to bisque fire tomorrow. Don’t want to be too hasty. Blowing work to pieces is no fun.
Until I know more, thought I’d share a photo of Winchester and Sage – who look somewhat like one LONG dog. Keep warm.
Update post.
The furnace just kicked on blasting warm, dry air. It’s Cold outside. Currently -16 F and dropping. It’s hibernation time.
Hard to believe I took this photo a couple of weeks ago – most of the snow had melted off the deck behind the house and Frank dog sculpture needed his -her?- photo taken. Nearly impossible to get a resident Greyhound to sit like Frank for the photo. We got close…
Also during those weeks I began a nasty rabbit sculpture. Grumpy and it comes out in the art. Hard to find photos of snarling rabbits even with Google images. Not pictured is the nice, but overly eager Greyhound she’s snarling at.
The past weeks have been dog park-less and the hounds have had to be satisfied with occasional leash walks and romps in the backyard. I’ve tried to capture them in the snow in the yard with the camera, but the results have been less than satisfying. Dogs probably feel that way about the quality of the exercise. So much snow, but nothing like last year… yet.
Also worked on a new piece tentatively titled, Faith in my Lucky Rabbit’s Foot. This is a piece that I’ve wanted to make for a long while. I’ll find those original sketches in an old sketchbook and post them. This is another piece I hope will be ready for the exhibition at Dickinson State University in March. Going to be close.
Sage waits for the weather to break. He is a tough dog and tolerates the weather more than any other Greyhound I’ve owned.
But we all want the weather to warm up.
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