Here is my donated artwork for their auction.

Friday, September 10, 2010 at 6 p.m.
at the Nicolaysen Art Museum

Tickets: $150 Members or $175 Non Members

Master of Ceremonies: Brian Scott

Black Tie Optional

If your in the area The Nic is a great museum.  Please come to support them!!

I was asked to serve on a panel to discuss pricing and value at the “What’s In Your Business Toolkit?  A Symposium on the Nuts and Bolts of Managing an Artistic Career.” It will be held The Nicolaysen Art Museum in Casper, Wyoming, August 5 – 6.  I’m honored to be asked.  But as always I’m a little nervous. 

The Nic’s write up about the Symposium is…. It will utilize business and creative skills to enhance your visibility as an artist.  It is a business development symposium for visual artists at the Nicolaysen Art Museum August 5 -6, 2010.

Many artists wonder if it’s possible to make a living doing what they love most.  This two-day smorgasbord of information will illuminate the processes of becoming more visible and financially successful as an artist.  Tips, tricks, professional insights, as well as business skills and development will ve addressed in this symposium. 

This Symposium will present sessions and panelists that will explore the following subjects:  Legal & Finance, Crafting a Business Plan, Marketing, Technology, Pricing & Value, Accounting.

Visit the newly launched 2010 Annual Art Auction website at andersonranch.org/2010auction for a preview of the amazing array of artwork that will be available in the live and silent auctions on August 14, 2010. 

My piece is #137 in the Silent Auction Catalogue.  You can place an absentee bid on any of the artworks, so if you see anything you like, register and help out a great art center. 

There are nearly 250 pieces of art contributed by international, national artists.  Bid on works by renowned artists including James Surls, Betty and George Woodman, David Ellsworth, Anish Kapoor, Charles Long, Enrique Martínez Celaya, Peter Voulkos, George Condo.

Here is my bowl if you don’t make it over to the Ranch’s Auction site.

My husband, Todd and I have been trying to get a permit to raft the Gates of Lodore for years, without much luck.  This year we were invited to raft with Bo Christensen, he runs the Intermountain Outdoor Institute, and Canyon River Adventures.  We went with our good friends and fellow rafters the Zane, Maura and their kids, Ryan, Robbie, Brandon, and Cory.  The reason it is so difficult to get a permit is the National Park Service only allows 50 people down the river a day.  We took four boats and two kayaks down.  We started out rafting the Green River, Lodore Canyon, in Colorado and four days later we were in Utah.  We covered 44 miles of the Dinosaur National Monument.  The Gates of Lodore was named by John Wesley Powell who was the first person to navigate the river in 1869.  We had an amazing time, the canyon is absolutely beautiful, the weather was wonderful, but the mosquitoes were ruthless.

At the end of this blog post and some here and there, you will see my photos of my Adventure Mug.  I took my Ayumi Horie mug along to try to photographic it along the way, for her Pots in Action Contest.  This mug is now very well traveled, and we traveled in style with it. 

Day One

Setting off for four days on the Green River.

Of course we had to have beautiful pottery with us!

Thanks Ayumi!!

Every night Maura treated to delicious cakes made in Dutch Oven in the fire pit.  Here is Bo and the kids making a sun dial, so Maura knows when it’s done.  If you notice the shadow is hitting the first stone, and the sun will move across the stones to mark 30 minutes.   And…Voila it’s done!

The boats docked at Pot Creek, the first campsite. 

Views of the utterly gorgeous canyon.  My pictures just don’t capture how pretty it was.

Day Two

The boat mechanics…

As we were waking up we found we had unexpected visitors.  A mouse was scurrying around and eventually hid under the raft.  The mouse had an audience from that point on, until we got on the river.  We saw so much wildlife on this trip, besides the mouse, we were lucky enough to see a bear, just after catching something to eat.  Watching the bear run up the cliff-side was really cool.  Also, we saw big horn sheep and entertained by a deer swimming across the river near our camp.  All the kids were thrilled to see all the wildlife, as well as the adults.  Unfortunately, no pictures because they did not come out too well.

Scouting the rapids, Hell’s Half Mile, all the rapids were named by John Wesley Powell.  Some of the other rapids on the Green are Disaster Falls, Triplet Falls, Harp Falls and Greasy Pliers.  Many times Todd tells me, “Oh it’s not that bad, you’ll be fine.”  But with drops like “Lucifer Rock” and “S.O.B.” it doesn’t give me much confidence.  I’m a wimp, and I’m still looking for rapids named something like, Powder Puff Falls, Lemon Drop, or maybe Strawberry Swirl.  Then maybe I’ll get the nerve to go down some more difficult rapids. 

Since I am a big scared-i-cat, I was more than willing to walk the kids around the rapids, while everyone else boated the rapids.  The kids had fun eating Gold Fish, exploring the flora and fauna of the river.

Here is Todd’s solo run down Hell’s Half Mile.  Notice the first picture (top left) where Todd drops into the first hole.  That is a 16’ boat almost completely engulfed…that is a big hole.  Nice run Todd! 

Who needs a water slide when you have a raft? 

Vander catching some hang-time with Dad. 

Looking back into the canyon, it was just amazing!

Who needs a trampoline when you have a raft?  Bo is very athletic and entertained us all week with flips off of just about anything.  You name it, he flipped off of it. 

Day Three

Who needs a bed, when you have a raft?  Zane and the girls sleep on Ryan’s raft on the second night at Rippling Brook. 

Crawdads!!!!  I recommend catching crawdads for hours of kid entrainment.  Thanks to the genius of Bo and Cory.

Steamboat Rock!  The Yampa river enters here on the left. 

Day Four

We have all the kids in our boat today.  And yes, Pringles are a must, for an after breakfast treat. 

Wind!!!!! 

Here’s the most of the group. 

On the way to the take out, just after the rocks.  It was a great trip!!

Adventure Mug!!!

I took one of my Ayumi Horie’s mugs to try to get photos to enter her Pots in Action contest.  Here are some of the photos of the mug while on it’s adventure.  It was fun to do.  By the end of the trip almost everyone had been photographed with the mug. 

What photographs do you think I should submit to the Pots in Action Contest?

I’m very excited to teach a workshop at the Lander Art Center.  I was in a show there three years ago, in 2007.  It will be very fun to go back and see some friends and meet new people.  My friend Deborah Britt another Wyoming potter, wrote the grant and organized everything to get me to Lander.  She and I got to pal around in Philadelphia at NCECA this year.  I hope we have many more trips ahead. 

Ms. Norman will be conducting a two-day, hands-on workshop featuring hand-building and glazing techniques.

 

For a long time, no one was even sure the water at the Rise was the same water that disappeared into the Sink, but then scientists did dye tests and proved the two were one and the same. Tests also revealed more water emerges at the Rise than goes in at the Sink. No one knows where the water goes for the two hours it takes to get from the Sink to the Rise though … but that’s just fine: curiosities and oddities are even more curious and odd when they can’t be fully explained.

The Wyoming State Art Symposium, in its 42 year, is the largest of its kind in the United States and takes place at the Casper Events Center.  It’s a three day event for High School students; we take the ninth graders who are in third year art classes up for the day.

The Symposium features 4,000 pieces of student art by 1,500 high school art students from 48 high schools. Every high school in the state sends students and artwork.  No other state dreams of doing what we do.  It’s more like an athletic event, the students can’t put up their artwork until a designated time, and then it’s all out chaos.  Space is first-come, first served. The students are told to find a bright space as close to eye level as possible — but every other art teacher tells their students to do the same.  Just imagine a bunch of teenager, starting the Boston marathon, but in this scenario they are scrambling around the event center clutching artwork.   Then two and half days later it all comes down, in almost the same manner, as a teacher you hope you’re bring everything home with you. 

Students will get to participate in organized art competitions, workshops and demonstrations throughout the weekend.   Also, seniors interview with colleges and compete for scholarships, go to workshops about how to present their portfolios.  There is also a huge banquet for all the students, and a dance.  The kids get many opportunities to meet other students from around the state, and have a great time. 

For the five years I ran the Congressional Art Award for Wyoming, so I was at Symposium for the entire time.  I worked with the Representatives office and the Symposium committee.  I asked three art professionals to be jurors, to pick 25 pieces of two-dimensional artwork, out of the 4000 submitted, and then the Wyoming Representative, with the jurors picked one artwork to go to Washington D.C. to represent the best of Wyoming’s art students. 

Although I missed doing it this year, I was glad not to be away from my son, Vander. 

Yesterday was the premier of Art, Design and Dine, in Cheyenne.  My friend Architect Glen Garrett, (a huge art supporter), became a sponsor of the new event.   Glen has made his architect studio-office into a gallery for local artists.  But he didn’t realize Art, Design and Dine was a gallery walk until the two days before the event.  He emailed Wednesday me asking if I could bring 11 to 12 pieces to the gallery on Thursday, for the gallery walk on Friday.  I ran down dropped off a bunch of artwork.  Glen works really fast here called Sign Pro had them throw up vinyl lettering and set up the show.  I wondered how things were going to look because he didn’t have enough pedestals.  He made great hangers for the bowls hung them on the wall.  For such a quick show it really looked nice.  Here are some pictures.  Thanks Glen for all your hard work!! 

Let’s Table This:

A Survey of Tabletop Vessels from AMOCA’s Permanet Collection

January 23 – April 24, 2010

I just found out one of my bowls is going to be included into this show!  It’s the first time that I’ve had one pieces in a ceramics museum and part of a permanent collection and I feel so happy about it**giddy happy**jump up and down** happy. Ok, you get the picture.

Here’s the story:

AMOCA presents for the first time a full scale exhibition highlighting a selection of the permanent collection.  This collection survey’s the c domestic space of the dining table and features nearly 150 functional ceramics works drawn from AMOCA’s 1,000 piece collection.  Each piece selected in this landscape of tableware is called upon to fulfill its purpose of serviceability, hospitality, visual interest, and tactile pleasure. 

Elegant tea bowls and large platters influenced by traditional forms and glazes elevate the commonplace object of dinnerware to the level of creative expression.  Teapots, tea cups, and creamers that showcase whimsicality either in their shape or surface embellishment provide moments of punctuation and bring levity to the table setting.  Plates, bowls, covered containers, and vases sporting riotous colors or decorative patterns sever as focal points and topics of conversation at the dinner table.  Always playing to an audience, these domestic tabletop objects represent the civility, familiarity, and daily ritual of the dining experience.  They also reflect on the long and rich history of functional pottery and celebrate the ceramic form for its sensuality of material and containment of meaning.