What is It?

Unfortunately this summer I had the great fortune of an Internal Audit internship in Philadelphia. My days consisted of staring at computer screens in an enlarged cube with two other interns and a co-op and checking excel files against support documents for numbers to match up. Needless to say, it wasn't particularly artistically stimulating, but it did get me thinking about space. My space, where it was, and what space I would rather be in.

Waking up at 5:30 every morning enabled me to experience more sunrises in one summer than I had ever seen throughout my whole life. They were beautiful and they took up a lot of open space. Although I often slept on my train commute into work, I usually tried to stay awake for the prime sunrise spot: over the Delaware River. The colors were beautiful and made a nice taunting metaphor of my life this summer by creating a beautiful, spacious background behind office buildings the likes of which I would soon have to sit in for 8 hours straight.

 The rest of my summer was spent lamenting that I hadn't been back to the ceramics room, and how many teapot monsters and teacup furniture pieces I wanted to make when I got back. Teapot monsters have turned into an ongoing hobby, but I want to explore the potential for creating a space that is inhabited mostly or only by ceramic furniture. I've already made a coffee table, but I want side tables, lamps, storage containers, etc made from jumbled teacups, mugs, pitchers, saucers, and bowls. I've already started throwing practice pieces to start assembling into something later.

My first piece of ceramic furniture

My family of teapot monsters

My friend from way back in second grade, Andy Babin, is very involved with the theater/audio/photography/general art world of Central PA. He sent me a link to a youtube video he helped create about the "Keys for the City" Project in my hometown of Lancaster, PA. Twenty pianos were set up all over Lancaster City and the general passerby were encouraged to play. The clip below is a short compilation of a few of the musicians: http://youtu.be/7UpdtLVbf-c 

Another one of my favorite Lancastrian artists is Ms. Susan Gottlieb. She has been a very positive force in my artistic life for many years now and I always wish I could see her more often. I believe myself to be an awful painter and thus admire even more the people who can do wonderful things with paint and canvas. Her website is as follows: http://www.susanjgottlieb.com/index.html

In conclusion, my summer was spent wishing I could fall down my own "Alice in Wonderland" rabbit hole and end up in my own little ceramic world. Hopefully I can start creating bits of my little world in the studio soon...