This week brought new adventures and a little bit of relaxing too!
My studio area might look a little messy, but that means I’ve got a million projects up in the air at once! I did unload the first kiln with some successes and a few failures that ended up in the shard bin – all in all, not bad for a first firing. The best thing about a residency is having the time for all those failures without the pressure of an exhibition or deadline, it is truly time to experiment and push the limits of your creative ideas, even if that means that you work all day with nothing (physical) to show for it.
My fourth grade class worked on a classic Earth Art Studio project this week, the big eyed fish, and they loved it. It’s a lesson in abstraction vs realism and they really took off with abstract ideas on their sculptures. So much fun to work with these guys!
Since I teach up in the mountains on Friday mornings in an area that is known for its hot springs and hiking, I thought I’d plan to stay for the weekend and it worked out great. My fellow artist in residence Ruth Li came with me and we tried all the amazing traditional mountain foods including rice served in bamboo and deep fried river shrimp plus an assortment of veggies that I’d never seen before. The art teacher at the school where I’m working met up with us and showed us around town including the natural hot spring pools right next to the river with beautiful mountain views. We took a long hike to explore the area and saw a Macaque monkey along the way. Adventures for the rest of the week were spent gallery hopping in Taipei and eating really good food!
One month done, two to go. Wow, the time flies!
I have a couple of those big eyed fish out in the garden! Love those fish and fun to see a whole new group of kids building them:)
Jenni, thank you for sharing your adventures. Wonderful photos of interesting vegetables, makes me wonder if you could get some seeds and grow them at home? And the framed “beautiful nothing”… we could have a conversation about that…
Amanda, So glad you’re enjoying following along! Would love to bring home some crazy seeds- not sure what the CA ag dept might think about that though!