Thanks be to the women of ole Florida, Heading out on the road, Fire!

I recently won a scholarship from the University of Florida Woman's Club. I feel honored to win the award and I'm going to use the money to go to Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts this summer. This comes at the perfect time for me as I will be driving over 3000 miles in the next six weeks. I hope to go to the Woman's Club open house in the fall and thank them in person. I think I might give them a pot too.

Here is a blurb from the UF Dean of Students Website -
The University Women's Club is an organization comprised of the wives of faculty and staff, and female faculty and staff. Each spring, the University Women's Club awards $1,000 scholarships to deserving students, in honor of the wives of past presidents of the University of Florida, as well as wives of distinguished campus leaders. Each of these ladies has served the University during her husband's career at the University of Florida, and their service is being recognized by the University Women's Club through the Scholarship Awards.

I will be leaving this saturday to go visit my friends Maude and Austin Boleman at Black Mountain Studios. I will be working for them for two weeks before I head north. They unfortunately just had a studio fire. A power strip caught fire and melted their computer, printers and burned one of the interior walls. Many of the pots in the gallery suffered smoke/heat damage. Some of Austin's Vapor glazed pots got hot enough to fire the glaze off of them. It was such a weird accident. Maude thankfully smelled it from the house and called the fire department. No one was hurt but its hard to bear the psychological weight of fire. I hope they get back on their feet as soon as possible.

I'm always glad to visit them. I worked for them as a production potter from 2004-2006. I learned the ins and outs of a wholesale pottery. I traveled with them to the Buyers Market for American Craft in Philly. It was an exciting and educational experience. I'm not sure I could or would attempt to pull that off on my own so I'm glad I got to do that with them. I'm always surprised when I go back to work with them that my hands remember those pots. Its like riding a bike. I can throw the platters and bowls with ease even though its been years since I made those regularly. I think production pottery is like musical scales or practicing free throws. Its not the most exciting from a creative standpoint but it helps give you the chops to do what you want.

Last but not least I'm finishing up a batch of pots so I thought I would include a picture of a recent wall tile. I want to explore the wall tile format when I have more time (famous last words for an artist). Its interesting to make something that only functions aesthetically. This wall tile can't pour tea or serve cookies and it's kinda nice not to think about function occasionally. The motif is one that I'm using on other forms but Im looking to move the tiles into a separate aesthetic category in the future.