new stuff

here is some new work.

these are from this summer's workshop with Kash and Hannah, my two student assistants. I designed and took care of "business," they produced the work. I would do some of the difficult operations, but they threw every morning off of my designs. This is the first kiln load from that workshop, I estimate we'll have at least 3 loads, plus misc. pots that were produced around that time. these are supposed to be 'bread and butter' money makers, nothing too risqu-a.



this next one is the remnants of the next kiln load from that same period, waiting to be glazed. several pouring pots and a few more iterations of the 'misc. domestics' series.



this lovely pair is the beginning of a conceptual series I'm working on. this one is called cups/tv and is composed of a jar filled with cup shards that are glazed and fused together, with two tv screen underglaze designs cut out of its body:



this last photo is my most current series, just begun. they're large, heavy, close-to-completely falling over but somehow standing tall and proud and playful.



that's all for now, lots of ideas and loose ends. thanks for looking blograds, and remember, everything is for sale! will ship world-wide!

this week in joe land

I've settled somewhat into that comfortable routine I had mentioned earlier. however, today has seen the thermo hit 102 and august has definitely been the hottest month so far. I heard may and june were supposed to win but nope. we're getting kind of nailed. this weekend I sat around half naked and read and sweated. today I got home from work and took off all my clothes and turned on every fan we have. it's still pretty hot.

school is good. it's looking more possible for me to be able to plan a week in advance what I'll be doing in any given class. for the last three weeks everything has pretty much been a day in advance.

there are many small projects that I seem to love during the week and absolutely unable to contemplate on the weekend. little by little we toil and whittle.

there have been many 'I love being a teacher' moments so far. oddly, most of these moments are instances where I should be "disciplining" the "child" but I usually just don't have the stomach for that kind of thing.

for example, an outcast type guy who is smaller and darker than most of the other students was following along with the class as we read through a textbook about design. I was watching this student because I like him and he's funny to watch. we were all reading and following along together, and I look at this kid and completely out of no where his boook flies out of his hands and he is ejected from his chair, landing with a resonant thump he and the chair on the hardwood floor. I have no clue to the cause of this event. I should have said, don't fall out of your chair but I just laughed and laughed because he really just flew for no reason.

this particular student has a savage intensity about him. and I mean savage, like he's tapped in to some spring of primitive man, hearing the call of genetic urges to bite and pound and grunt. I really like this kid and he will make me good art.

another time I overheard someone quoting too loudly wayne's world, "if you were ice cream, you'd be pralines and dick!" and I had to crack up because really that's a great line.

discipline is a weird thing in the classroom, especially considering some of the things we've been known to do on the weekends and what not... I really have no mind of any type of "moral" code in the class room. I can make no appeal to right/wrong in almost every case. I guess this is the libertarian in me. the best I can conjure is an abstracted concept of professionalism, which I try to express by telling kids that school is their job and we run a 'professional' environment at this job. is 'professionalism' the new morality?

talked to AJ hurt last day, he in iraq(u) dusty and hot me in nm clean and hot. good work, that one. safe wishes out there.

had a sweaty and grinding session of distortion structured loosely around "cowgirl in the sand" last night, mostly pick scrapes and jibs in Am pentatonic but also some F maj all over the fret board wrists soar and right hand sensing the magnetic field it was gyrating within. I love the electric therapy.

my lunch at the school today consisted of 5 chewy moz sticks and peaches. this is our culinary program.

reading delillo again, underworld, not as theraputic as white noise was for me. but obviously a work of staggering genius and all that.

listening to neil young, the national, and the shitty radio.

new things

new haircut




new girlfriend



new clone




obviously, there's a lot going on.

school has been in session for two weeks. the first two weeks have been good. I'm teaching 3 classes now, which is 1 more than I ever taught last year. This is full time teaching, but I'm only being paid 3/4 time. it's ok because the money is still more than twice what I made last year.

classes:
1. Artist Within--a foundational art class focusing on "seeing design" and "thinking like an artist." this class is fun for me because it's really general but I have some fun ideas for what I'd like to do with the kids. it's a good group too.

2. Printmaking--why am I teaching printmaking? I don't know. but it's working out just fine. small class (8) and very nice, smart students. we're learning together and they seem pretty interested. there's a lot of cool things in printmaking and I'm excited to learn them.

3. ceramics 1, 2, and 3--that's right, 3 classes during 1 period. it was originally ceramics 2 and 3 (one student is quite advanced so we were going to taylor a different course for her), but the admins botched the registration and I got 3 kids that didn't have ceramics 1. so we're doing 3 classes for 8 kids and I think it's going well so far.

there's a lot of organizational things still to take care of but I haven't got the motivation to go into school on the weekend yet. so during the week it's pretty much all I can do to plan for next day's classes before they start. it would be nice to plan say... a week out but I haven't developed that foresight yet.

last night we went camping with joe and lindsey up to the organs (aguirre springs). the campground was packed with crying babies and, I shit ye not, one sight had a TV plugged into their truck. so we talked to the ranger and got permission to camp in the un-reserved, very vacant and huge group sight. there was also a meteor shower last night and we saw quite a few falling stars. some of them had really wild screaming flame tails that stuck around for a second or two after the meteor. we had a nice fire and some beers and all slept out of tent on the ground. woke up at dawn crack to see the entire eastern horizon, the massive tularosa basin, was lit up lava red with the approaching sun. that's when I woke up.

golf on now, tiger winning good. going to amy's mom's later tonite for to eat and swim with new americorps.