Ceramic Art Adventures
Since my last blog post in May, I have made many ceramic art pieces. I have been playing with slip texturing and other surface decorations. Altering pieces has kept me entertained especially using faceted pieces. Overlapping glazes continues to fascinate me – so much still to learn in this area. I have also started working on two piece sectionals in a variety of sizes. I feel my art and mastery of the medium are growing and evolving.
It has been a hot summer in Sedona and the surrounding area. Fortunately, Reitz ranch just installed a new air conditioner in the main work area. The glaze room will hopefully get some cooling in the near future.
The Reitz ranch continues to be a wonderful facility for creating my ceramic art. The members are serious about ceramics and bring many interesting ideas and questions. The studio is characterized by and loose and open feeling that is highly encouraging for experimentation and exploration. It is still in a startup mode and finding its direction – an exciting time to be involved with the ranch. A soda fire kiln is in the works – this seems to be a slow process. I am looking forward to soda firing! All of this makes the 40-minute drive from Sedona, Arizona worthwhile.
“The Burn“, shown above, seems relevant to the scorching heat here in Sedona and elsewhere as well as the many wildfires raging here in the west. This piece is 9 inches tall and was fired to cone 10 in a reduction atmosphere using a porcelaneous clay body. The slight graying in areas of the clay that has been left unglazed is a marker of the heavy reduction.
During this period I did a two-day workshop with Frank Krevens at the Reitz Ranch. His faceted and altered tea bowls are a challenge – I do love them! The fluidity and expressiveness of his forms is a quality I am wanting to emphasize in my ceramic art.
Gallery of Recent Pieces
This is a small sampling from many pieces completed since my last blog posting. These are all fired to cone 10 in reduction.
Life Adventures
My wife, Sue, and I along with two friends just returned from a three-day trip to northern Arizona and the Kanab, Utah area. The featured image for this post shows Sue and our two friends at The Wave. The focus of the trip was a hike into the Wave in Coyote Butte (Utah). We did many hikes in the Sedona area in 90° plus weather and even one at 102° preparing for hiking the Wave. Despite our extensive, training hikes in the intense heat, we found the experience physically grueling. I put up a page with photos from the Wave (click to view) – I think they are good photos and worth a look.
This past spring my son, Brian, visited us in Sedona from Colorado. We had fun together and even went on a ghost hunting adventure. We hiked up Cathedral Rock. Here he is on our hike.