I am for an art that is meticulous, beautiful, painful, obsessive-compulsive, masochistic, rewarding, and satisfying. I am for an art that is purposeful even if it is only selfish. I am for an art that is in motion - circular and rotating, spiritual and personal. I am for an art that cannot be understood, even by myself. I am for an art that explores my thoughts on my surroundings and myself - meditative. I am for self-medicating and cathartic art. I am for exploratory, playful, curious art. I am for escapist and thoughtful art. I am for resourceful art. I am for an art that doesn't use clear scotch tape because it gets brown and brittle as it ages. I am for art that doesn't know if its a student, a graduate, or a master... it just is. I am for an art that shouldn't quit its day job but is more than an occasional hobby. I am for an art that is in touch with its history, its ancestry, and its culture. I am for an art that doesn't know its just a dream. I am for imaginative art. I am for an art that is hard to catch. I am for an art that can never be quite as blue as the sky on a clear day, but it tries anyway. I am for an art that talks to itself. I am for an art that branches out like roots in the dirt and reaches out and sways like an old red oak in the yard. I am for an art that is only a few steps away from the laughter of the elementary school playground waiting for a turn on the swingset. I am for an art that knows more than you do. I am for an art that is fresh as an autumn tuesday at noon time. I am for an art that can't stop thinking, even if it wants to. I am for an art that scrambles for the deadline, even if the deadline doesn't matter or doesn't exist. I am for an art that is easily distracted. I am for an art that doesn't want to know its credit score. I am for an art that doesn't care for grammar. I am for an art that doesn't really have a stopping place. I am for an art as tasty and familiar as a bologna and cheese sandwich. I am for an art that's as foreign as the depths of the ocean. I am for an art that favours British spelling. I am for an art that doesn't need a degree to see that it has grown.

"I am for an art" format taken from Claus Oldenburg's manifesto

Last night while I was happily working on some miniatures that will be given away as gifts this weekend I noticed that something strange had happened... my thumb was tingly. I shook out my hand, stretched it a bit, finished my work, and went to bed sure that it would be back to normal the next morning.

Here I am almost 12 hours later and its still a bit tingly. Its not as bad as it was last night, only one little spot is tingly not the whole thing like last night. I can best describe it as that numb pins'n'needles feeling when your hand falls asleep. Slightly worried that this had lasted through the night, I checked up on it on webmd... It seems almost certain that my symptoms are from carpal tunnel Granted I'm not too unfamiliar with the pangs of pinched nerves, I've had more than my fair share of sciatica from print making and pottery. But this is the first one thats been caused directly by painting. Webmd's treatment suggestion is to take some anti-inflammatory pain meds (advil) and to immediately stop the action that is causing the symptoms... This is where my problem comes in. Stop painting? I cant stop painting. The semester hasn't even begun yet! Thats crazy talk.

So take care of your wrists, you wouldn't want them to make you stop painting. I'm gonna hope that my advil increases the blood flow and very carefully with good posture finish up my miniatures for this weekend.

And I'm not quite in agony... but I like that he's hitting himself in the head...

So I had this canvas (store bought) that had a hole punched in it from poor handling... I have this habit of leaving things in the back of my hatchback forever x.x. Anywho... I thought that because I'm rather poor at the moment that I would sew up the hole and re-gesso the canvas to make it good as new... But can I leave something at that? oh no... no I can't...

It was my brilliant idea to work that sewing into a pattern in the form of embroidery! So my latest expression of masochism is the wall paper floral that I'm embroidering onto an already stretched store bought canvas... wish me luck. I'm sure it will look beautiful when its done but I just might want to kill myself at some point while working on it. At least I have until christmas to finish it...

and I can meditate on the fact that I am NOT a potter, I am a PAINTER!!! even if my pots get more attention than my paintings x.x

Just got done doing my first salt and wood firing tonight at the ceramics studio. That was sooo much fun ^_^ we had a grill set up and lots of hamburgers, hot dogs, good people, and music. 6 hours of firing a kiln, you have to amuse yourself somehow, might as well make a social gathering out of it right? I think they had fun watching us throw stuff into the glowing kiln too. When you put salt in the kiln the smoke turns white with chlorine and then darkens to purple. The flame turns purple too... so cool looking. Tomorrow night we open up the kiln to see what all survived and what it looks like. I have no idea what to expect, but I'm excited ^_^

So there will be images trickling in now... I've broken my un-productive streak, largely due to having taken a vacation. Getting some light in my eyes definitely did me some good. It was also really cool to get to know my cousin better and just relax with her and her boyfriend, good people. The spring semester has gotten well under way and my camera should be a bit more of a regular fixture for me to record stuff. Hopefully I should come up with some good stuff