Jackal Nude

8 3/4" x 4 3/4"
Stoneware - fired in an electric kiln in oxidation to cone 6 - collaboration between Linna, my clay teacher, and me.  I made the torso, she plopped the head of a dog - originally for a different collaborative project - on top of the torso - and the nude Jackal was born : )

Romeo

The Fur Buddy

Romeo 2010

          I have a new - well, relatively new dog named Romeo.  Well, really, he is Abby's dog - a long long long awaited furry friend she got for her 8th grade graduation a year and a half ago.  Actually, he's not really furry, rather hairy, but let me explain...

  

First day with us 2010

          So the story goes that when my niece was diagnosed with asthma, at about a year and a half old, Banjo our beloved cat was about 4.  We discovered infant Lori one day, moments after hanging out with the cat, with mucus pouring out of every visible orifice - mouth, nose, eyes - it was truly frightening, and she had to be hospitalized for awhile to have this allergy and ultimately asthma diagnosed and her meds set.  Back at home, I was stuck with a dilemma. Banjo was a much adored member of our family. I had had her since she adopted us when she was a little kitten, and I just couldn't bring myself to give her up.   She was my baby before I had a baby!  But keeping Banjo meant I couldn't have my extended family over for family dinners and celebrations.  Much to my mother's chagrin, I chose the cat, and we had family meals at my parent's house.  After about 4 or 5 years, we (my daughter and I) were devastated when Banjo died (cancer), but I had been preparing for the moment, so I was also relieved.  I resolved that I would do what I needed to make the house safe for Lori so I  could have her and everyone in my family over my house once again.

          I read everything I could about getting rid of cat dander to make the house safe for my niece.  What I discovered was that it was not so much the dander, but the chemicals in the cat saliva that people tend to react to.  Some of the literature I read also indicated that after about a year, the chemicals in the saliva are broken down well enough that they will be less likely to cause an allergic reaction.  So, a year after Banjo died, my husband and I rented a steam vacuum, and cleaned the carpet, all the rugs and upholstered furniture. We also washed all our blankets and vacuumed the air ducts. It was summer, so I opened all the windows in the house, aired it out, and invited my asthmatic brother (Lori's dad) to be a guinea pig and come over to watch a baseball game.  His threshold for managing the cat when she was alive had been about 30 minutes, after which he had to take Albuterol in order to breathe. I figured if he could tolerate my newly detoxified home his daughter might have a chance to do the same.  The good news was that even after sitting through a 3 hour Indians game (where granted, breathing can be difficult, but for reasons other than animal allergens) he did not need his meds and wasn't wheezing a bit.  I was thrilled, and after a few short visits just to check it out, my niece was able to come over and breathe at my house without difficulty.

Romeo 2011

          But, of course, it's life, so, while I gained a niece, I also gained a grumpy daughter.  She, now the lonely, only child of two old people, was not allowed to have a pet.  Well,  strictly speaking that's not true.  We had a series of goldfish as well as 2 anoles, which is a kind of a lizard, who followed Abby home from school one year.   We had to purchase live crickets for the anoles to eat, which initially was cute, and then got old really quickly.   We had frogs that came home the same way from school.  Those just disintegrated almost immediately and stunk up the whole house.  For 2 years, we also had a sweet hamster (ugh can't believe I'm using that word to describe a rodent) called Flower (named after Flower the meercat, the matriarch of Meercat Manor fame) who lived in a tank with a series of tunnels and balls and running wheels.  It was a sad day when she died.  Of course there was also Sparky, the squirrel that chewed it's way through the flashing under our roof (not once, not twice but three times) and bounded about in the eves for awhile before we patched up his access hole (not once, not twice, but three times).

Flower the hamster 2009

           But none of these satisfied Abby who longed for a little furry thing to hold and love, and that would love her back.   The hamster was cute, but limited.  So, finally, after years of just saying "no," I considered that my niece was older, had a better tolerance for animals and could visit other homes with furry animals, so I relented and said we would consider getting a furry pet again.

         At first, Abby decided that a hairless cat would be just peachy.  However, hairless cats cost about $1,000 and so...yeah, no.  Cats are also way too allergenic for too many of my family members and friends, and remember, it's more the saliva and less the dander that causes the allergic reactions.  So, while I love cats too, we switched to the wide world of canines.   I investigated "hypoallergenic" dogs and discovered there really is no such thing, only animals that are less likely to evoke an allergic reaction. After more investigating, we learned that some dogs have fur and others have hair, and the dogs with hair are apparently less likely to evoke an allergic reaction than those with fur.  So, we started a hunt for a hypoallergenic "hairy" dog. It had to be small because we don't have a back yard for the dog to run around in, and I wanted a more compact animal that would be a bit easier to care for.  We also wanted to avoid animals that are "high maintenance" and animals that look like an accessory rather than a dog.

Romeo 2010

        We also had to decide if we would get a puppy or a rescue dog. The obvious advantage of purchasing a puppy was that we could be sure of the breed that we were getting, and since we wanted/needed specific breeds to try to insure that the dog would be hypoallergenic, that was important.  But I didn't want to spend the money, didn't want to deal with puppy training, and I really wanted a rescue dog! So, the search proceeded slowly for a hairy rescue dog.

      We visited many dog websites, where we educated ourselves about dog breeds, the costs of each, the general characteristics of the different breeds, and the dogs available from rescue groups and shelters.  We filled out forms and provided personal references to vouch for us as "dog worthy" people.

            In the end, we lucked out and found Romeo at a rescue shelter. Despite having no papers, it was pretty obvious he was a miniature poodle.  Poodles have hair, not fur, and so are on the hypoallergenic list.  He was about 4 or 5 years old at the time and bizarrely, enough (given what an excellent dog he is) he had landed at a high kill shelter.  Luckily, the shelter saw what a great guy he was and sent him to the local animal rescue;  we were there at the right time and place and were able to get him.

           Romeo - who came with that name - is truly a little lover of a dog.  Well, not so much a lover of other dogs, but a lover of people.  He is a  bundle of lively energy who is excited to do whatever.  He loves to play, he loves to learn tricks, he loves to walk and he loves to kiss Abby when she comes home from school.  She is nuts about him and he is nuts about her.  He's been an amazing addition to our home.

Abby and Romeo 2011

         Lori and Romeo 2010

      The author and poetess May Sarton wrote a book called The Fur Person about her cat Tom Jones who deigned to evolve from independent street cat, to a committed cat member of a peopled household.  I love Sarton's descriptions of her cat, elevated to Fur Person, and who received visitors to his household with aplomb.  Romeo isn't so highly aired as May Sarton's cat, but like Fielding's Tom Jones, he is liberal with his affection. He greets all visitors with puffy tail wags and unbridled excitement all while hopping on his back legs.

          So, (at long last), while Romeo is actually a "hairy" hypoallergenic critter,  I prefer to think of him as a happy, smart, and loving "fur buddy" who brings limitless amounts of joy to everyone in our family.

Romeo 2011

On vacation at Olgebay, WV 2011

In Rochester for Christmas 2011

The Swamp Garden

From Cleveland.com weather report:

"It has rained in Cleveland on 51 of the first 68 days of spring."

In China apparently 2011 is the year of the rabbit, but in Cleveland, it has been the year of the raindrop.  It was a cold, snowy March and April, which meant that working in the garden early was all but impossible.   In the last week or so of May, we somehow managed to clean up the mangy, dank garden beds, weed, mulch and mow the lawn between thunder, cloudbursts, drizzle, hail, cold, intense wind storms and rain, rain and more rain!   Spring in Cleveland is typically predictable in how unpredictable the weather can be, but usually we have some breaks of glorious, mild, sunny days that allow for gardening.  And working in the late spring garden is usually a pleasure before the bugs and the intense heat of the dog days of summer drive me indoors into an air conditioned refuge.  But this spring, it's been impossible to do much at all - I wasn't able to divide the perennials or put new plants in because our already heavy clay soil was (and is) so super saturated. 

 

In the last week or so, between raindrops, I have managed to plant some of the pots on my deck and get a few herbs into the areas between the pavers on our patio.   I added some wooly thyme, creeping thyme and Corsican mint to the scotch moss, which I planted last year (and which I was thrilled to see survived the frigid temperatures and abundant snow of the winter of 2010-2011:

Anyway, in the last 10 - 15 years, my garden has evolved from a full sun garden - gloriously easy to grow almost anything - to a shade garden (oy).   Consequently, it's much more challenging to grow much of what I love and certainly more difficult to get color.  I have to be more clever and thoughtful about shades of green, texture and variations in height, and I'm not there yet.   So, here is what one bed looks like - the azaleas, bearded irises, hostas, bachelor buttons, columbine, and of course the mud seemed to have thrived this year:

And, here are some pictures that Abby took:

It's now May 31st, 90 degrees - hot and humid outside.   I'm sitting inside, in air-conditioning, typing on my computer, looking out at the bumper crop of mosquitos buzzing around in the garden.  In the words of the Bearded Iris (well, what I think it looks like it's saying anyway), "blech!"

Leftover clayware for mother's day feast

Mother's Day 2011 has come and gone - it was a day of many emotions - it was a sad day as it was the first mother's day since my mom died - although it's been many years since her true self, the mom I grew up with, was there.  I had my mom's picture up as my facebook profile and I almost had to take it down because it was so painful to keep looking at her all week.  But like so many things, this was a weekend of contrasting emotions - painful as the feelings of loss were, it was also a happy and joyful day because of my amazingly wonderful (if challenging) daughter.  Plus, it was a crazy busy weekend, which distracted me.  Abby was in an ice show (Friday & Saturday night), and I had ice show/synchro mother volunteer jobs preparing (stripping) roses and selling them all weekend PLUS a woman's artisan's sale that I participated in all day Saturday.  By Mother's Day on Sunday, I was toast. 

So, my sweet and supportive husband who helped me set up and dismantle my pot shop on Saturday, also then got all my favorite foods and helped cook on Sunday.  I then insisted we serve the food on my new clay ware that didn't sell at the artisan sale.  I don't know why I insisted on using the new stuff instead of saving it to sell another time - I think I was discouraged and it made me feel good to enjoy the "fruits" of my labor by filling my pots with delicious food, sharing my hobby in this edible way with the two people most special to me in the whole world.  Actually, I'm kinda glad these pieces didn't sell! 

The Mother's day feast capped off a day of sleeping in (Andy and Abby that is - I got up early as usual to walk Romeo), cleaning up in the garden (finally), planting some flowers in our pots (finally) and generally enjoying being together (after they woke up).  It was a gloriously beautiful day - bright and sunny, not too hot with a nice cool breeze - perfect.  They also gave me a gloriously beautiful orchid - my most favorite flower in the world, which reminds me of my mom who also loved orchids.  Of course Abby decided to throw in a last minute school project, which she started SUNDAY NIGHT and which she was panicked about, but that got done too, so it was all good.  If only the Indians had won (lost to California), but you gotta have something to complain about, right?

So here is our dinner table (left).  We used my new irregular rectangular textured platters glazed with green tea (left) and one you see on the right that was glazed with red gold, but got burned in an overheated kiln, so it looks nothing like red gold is supposed to look - I don't generally like yellow on pots, but I don't mind this one.

We had grilled salmon - I love love love grilled salmon - there is no reason to eat anything else on a special occasion - or any occasion for that matter.  It was served on a textured, collage platter that was glazed with Capri Blue - a perfect contrast color for the salmon!  This platter was also a victim of an unfortunate kiln accident -  a small piece of white kiln wash flaked off the kiln shelf and fell onto the platter while it was being fired and it is now baked into the glaze, which, of course made it unsellable!  (you can't see it in this picture because the fish is on top of it).

Along with the salmon, we had cherry tomato and fresh basil salad  - I bought a little basil plant for the garden today - so after I planted it, I pinched some fresh basil leaves, chopped them up and added them to the tomatoes with a little salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil then served the salad in one of my favorite pieces - a textured bilobite bowl with an eggplant glaze.  

OK, so, "bilobite" you ask?  Not so complicated.  I found a stamp at Linna's that I like a lot and have used on many of the textured pieces I have done. Here you can see a "bilobite" on one of my textured vases:

I like the undulating lines in the stamp contrasted with the straight lines on the rest of the pot - I also like the stamp because it reminds me of a trilobite, a little prehistoric crustacean that once ruled the oceans everywhere:  

However, trilobites have 3 sections - hence the "tri" part of the word - and Linna's stamp only has two sections - hence "bi-lobite."

Anyway, in the picture below, behind the tomatoes/basil salad is a sauce Abby and I like to make when we have fish.  Once, when traveling to one of her synchro competitions, we saw this sauce - a lemon/parsley/horseradish sauce - made on a cooking show on TV.  It was served with talapia and it looked and sounded so good that as soon as we got home, Abby insisted we find the recipes and cook them.  We searched, found and cooked - and as we hoped, the fish and sauce were both delicious.
Talapia with lemon/horseradish sauce then became a regular meal for us until a couple of years ago when we found out, much to our dismay, that farm raised talapia is not healthy.  Apparently farm raised talapia is as unhealthy as a cheeseburger with bacon - so, unfortunately, we don't eat cheeseburgers with bacon, and we don't eat talapia anymore.  But for mother's day, Abby decided she wanted to try the sauce on the salmon.  It's made with fat free mayo, horseradish and lemon zest - easy.  We served the sauce in a bowl glazed with peacock, my erstwhile favorite (beautiful, rich bluish green, translucent) glaze that almost always misbehaves in the kiln, drips down and destroys a shelf and the pot it is on.

I also love love love grilled veggies of any sort, but it was getting late, so we just roasted them in the oven -  roasted veggies are really good too.  We cut up vidalia onions and yellow, orange and red bell peppers and cooked them in my brand spanking new textured casserole dish that is glazed with gunmetal green - my all time favorite glaze.  This exquisite casserole also has a piece of kiln wash baked into it (!).  We added some roasted potatoes to the veggies - and again, just a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper for flavor.   Dessert - chocolate hershey kisses, blueberries and raspberries!  A divine mother's day with leftover clay!

Mother's Day 2011!  

CHERRIES IN CLAY FOR MOTHERS DAY

So, my beautiful fourteen year-old daughter Abby and I have a little art exchange (for lack of a better term) going, which I think is really cool.  In a way our "exchange" is also a mother's day tribute to my mom, who I miss terribly, as well as a tribute to my daughter, who makes me a mom every day and who I love like crazy.

The story starts with my decision to give my parents a gift for their new home about five years ago.  They were in the enviable position of not needing anymore “things,” so I decided to paint a picture for them as a housewarming gift.  My dad loves cherries - when my brothers and I were kids, my mom would always get him a giant crate of cherries for Father’s Day - so I decided cherries would be the subject of a painting I would do for them.  I had been doing most of my work in oil pastels, so that was the medium I chose to work in.

I’m an amateur painter/artist, and quite unskilled, so every painting I do is like a studio experience where I have to learn about shapes, lines, shadow, dimension, color and composition.  Since I don’t really know what I’m doing, I practice and sketch a lot.  I need to mention here that I’m very lucky to have a captive audience: my husband and my daughter are my handy built-in critics.   They saw me paint cherries ad nauseam, and when asked, patiently evaluated my work, and gave me feedback on what they liked and didn’t like (colors: not “cherry” enough; lines: “too stiff”, etc.).  Eventually, all their comments helped me produce an OK painting of a bunch of cherries, which my dad (my greatest fan) has enjoyed - here it is hanging in his kitchen:

My cherry obsession continued when my almost sister-in-law Michelle saw the painting and asked if I would make another one that she and my brother could hang in their newly renovated home.  I was worried about the idea of a “commission” but I really wanted to give her something she liked to help welcome her into our family, so, again, I drew, sketched and practiced painting cherries: single cherries, multiple cherries, abstract cherries, realistic cherries, and a few good cherries mixed in with loads of bad cherries.  Our house was swimming in cherry sketches, pictures, cherry still life models and paintings.  Again, my sweet audience of 2 kindly provided feedback that helped me see my work from another perspective.  Eventually, I was finally satisfied enough with a piece to give to Michelle and Joel.  

Here is the painting - I called it Cherries in Love, which I think sold my brother sight unseen (he’s nuts about Michelle).  It’s not bad - I like it from a distance because I can’t see all my mistakes, and I like the juiciness of the color of the cherries from this distance, which is one of the things Michelle told me she was looking for.  You can see the cherries hanging on the stairway wall in their house in the picture (sorry it's so small):

(Note:  the painting partially seen in the foreground left was done by our cousin Howie Ross, an amazingly talented painter - it’s quite an honor to have my little cherry painting in the same space as Howie’s most excellent work).

Sometime during my extended cherry “period,” Abby came home from school and told me that she was doing block prints in her art class.  She told me that she had sketched a design for her print, was carving it into a relief matrix, was really excited about it, and couldn’t wait to show me.  Turns out, she drew a picture of cherries.  Go figure.  I was thrilled when on the last day of school she came home with this print: 

I enjoy this print every day and I also really love the idea that while I was obsessed with drawing and painting cherries, Abby adopted a point of view and take on cherries that was uniquely her own and frankly, very cool, free, loose and fun. I really admire the energy and movement in this print, which I have trouble finding in my own work.

Moving on, in the last few years, I’ve been more focused on ceramics and have given that medium more attention than I have given to painting.  This was because my wonderful mom was suffering from Primary Progressive Aphasia.  Let me explain.  PPA is a horrid, evil form of dementia that devastates its victims by destroying the language center of the brain, robbing them of linguistic communication while they can still think and understand.  My mom could still enjoy and participate in nonverbal activities even though she could no longer express her thoughts and ideas in words.  I should also mention that my mom was a brilliant woman, and among her many interests, she loved art and loved crafts.  In particular, she loved ceramics and throughout their marriage, she and my dad accumulated an impressive collection of pottery.   When my mom got sick, my dad and I searched for activities that might be fun for her that would require no language.  We were lucky enough to find a great studio nearby where she and I could take clay classes together.  The clay studio was like a little island of refuge for my mom, where she could function without language and become absorbed in a meaningful activity.  And with the assistance of our wonderful teacher, Linna, she was able to produce some beautiful, interesting objects. Sadly, my mom's PPA progressed to full blown dementia, and she was no longer able to work in the pottery studio at all.  However, by that time, I was totally hooked and in love with ceramics, so I never stopped going.  

On a whim, I took Abby’s cherry relief matrix to clay class and used it as a mold. I rolled the relief matrix over a slab of porcelain to impress the pattern into it.  I then formed the slab into a little tray. I glazed the tray black and white to be consistent with Abby’s block prints and also added some color to honor the cherries.  I think they are cute, and I am especially intrigued with the idea that they are an artistic collaboration with my daughter! Here is the first one:

And another

And here are some vessels:

I'm enjoying the process of creating different objects with this relief matrix and just love the idea that it’s Abby’s design that I am playing with.  


So, there you are - cherries in clay for Mother's Day; a love of clay - from my mom, to me; cherries from me to Abby back to me and into clay.  I hope my mom is smiling somewhere and has her brilliant brain back so she can understand again - love and miss you mom - love love love you Abby - happy mother's day mom and thank you Abby for making me a mom!