summer 2011

Spring is very sleepy in Oregon, compared to the drama of the Midwest with its black and green stormy skies and every tree’s new leaves rushing to catch as much light as they can as soon as possible.  Here, daffodils go for two months, and that distant tree might have died for all I can tell.  The sweet peas grew at a snail’s pace, and I am so unbelievably sick of this pansy rain.  Either drench me and send me running for cover or shut up already!  But no, it’s June, still drizzling.

June 10 is our first firing this year.  I am prepared, which is amazing, since I can still count on two hands the number of full days that I’ve had in the studio.  The attic construction project took over both floors for three months but the results are SWEET!  I now have built-in cabinets, significant storage space, a clean and organized office area, floor space, a fire escape, and best yet, a real bed big enough for two!  Hooray!  No more nails and splinters and bare insulation inches from our heads, or the threat of falling through the trap door nine feet into the studio.  Makes me feel kind of like a grown-up.  Except the view out the octagonal window is the trunks of fir trees, so actually, I feel like a kid in a tree-house.  Funny thing, I have long day-dreamed that I would build a tree-house to live in as I built my final studio.  Who knows if I’ve done it in reverse or not. 

My friend from London was wonderful company.  The cadence of our lives meshed very well.  In a space as small as this one, that is crucial.  Conversation ebbed and flowed easily on topics dear to both our hearts, trivialities passed by.   Both of us are ...not reticent, but inherently slow to uncover.  This was my initial impression of him, confirmed, and I’m glad that he stayed for as long as he did.  And that was quite a bit longer than planned: he was headed to Japan after Portland, but we all know what happened to Japan.  On a budget, he can only find work exchange situations in Tokyo.  As his plans changed every week, I offered for him to stay here.  (The only annoying part was that that meant I had to sleep in a tiny burrow upstairs blocked off from all the sawdust.)

Oh, and somewhere in all that, I scored a new job!  My dear friend recommended me for a Saturday morning class at a Portland Community College campus starting in fall.  Barring more budget cuts, it should be a steady small gig.  Also, with my office moved up to the attic, I have now created space downstairs for another wheel or two.  So I can either start teaching privately here, or!! Very exciting to me, begin to offer a small summer residency possibility….

Here’s to a good summer on the way…

Careen

Spring 2011

Flexible multi-tasking was the name of the game this winter. I was offered a temp job as a technical assistant at the community college where I teach on occasion, and I used the opportunity to complete a tune-up on their cone 6 glaze palette. What do you do with a fifty or so gallons of trash glaze? We blended it 40% to the clay slop slated for recycling into clay that the students never seem to want, and made stepping stones for a muddy path outside... Or at least that was the plan. I avoided promotion to the Head of the Department of Fiasco, no kiln furniture was damaged in the creation of some safely underfired stones, and two gardens are now more easily navigable. As with anything ceramic, one must test ad nauseum and I had no time to dabble in such details.

Without in any way meaning to knock the hard-working and well-intentioned people at the school, the department of fiasco doesn’t need another head. Public funding for education in the arts is pathetic in Oregon. Apparently we’re second to one in attendance of performing arts events, but 33 in the nation for per capita funding (of couse we’re working hard to change that). I was reminded once again to simply have gratitude for my mother’s generous monthly patronage that helps me to live as sweetly as I do without the desperate feeling of absolutely needing to sell pots to earn a living. Taking a job like this puts a little cash in the bank and is a form of contributing to the overall quality of the classroom. Most importantly, it helps keep my foot in the door for future part-time teaching opportunities, from which my financial self-sufficiency will likely arise in the end. Ps- there’s a tenure position open at another c college in the area- great spot, interesting kilns, and lively students- look at Mt Hood College for info. No, I don’t want a full-time teaching job, myself. Kind of like I don’t want kids, but that’s another story….

So with that job, teaching, a social life, and PR work for Portland Open Studios, I really haven’t been in the studio. I gave up in frustration about a month ago, as I realized that I just can’t catch a random half-day of studio and make anything good. I did have a really wonderful supper potluck with my suddenly substantial and enthusiastic firing crew in which we all committed to dates for three firings this year. June will be the first. August, the second, in preparation for Art in the Pearl, and another in November, in which we will throw caution to the wind and experiment with hydrogen reduction.

The next big project is arriving sooner than I expected. When I was in London, I found myself becoming fast friends with Chris, an early art star on the scene who became disillusioned and dropped out to eventually work with young people designing and executing public art murals. For various reasons, he quit, and will travel for a year, starting with a month crashed out at my place. He’ll be here really soon, and offered his assistance in exchange for room. I had to laugh: if he could only see the list… He’ll help me with the very awkward task of construction in my attic. The photo is where the futon used to be, up on orange crates and boxes, with a super-quick delivery to the ground-level to keep me and anyone else in my bed on their best cat-reflexes. We’ll build a half-wall, cupboards, bookshelves, and a bed frame that hinges upwards to allow access to storage below… I’m spending my evenings with graph paper and an eraser.

So that’s the news! Expect an “after” picture in the next edition. And if Chris is cool with it, a link to some piece of film he’s likely to make when he’s here. I hope that this continues a kind of informal artist exchange that happens every year. I was imagining it with potters doing their own work, not mine, but hey! If we can live with each other in this small space, anybody is welcome …

Hope your life is sweet too—

Careen

winter 2010

  Friends, colleagues, guests to my studio, art-lovers far and near, hello and happy holidays!  This newsletter initiates a quarterly message that will relay stories of my studio and life in Portland, tell travel tales, and help you find my pots.  Feel free to share this with anyone who you think would enjoy it, and if you are a potter, please put me on your mailing list.

            What a year it’s been!  Having spent the past few of them getting situated as a person and potter, I shook it up this year by assisting a small arts organization in the PR department.  I can hear you chuckle- Careen? Helping someone else with public relations? Well, you know how I tend to jump head-first into the unknown- I figured that if I forced myself to advocate for a hundred artists, I might learn how to do it for myself.  Plus, they really needed the help.  I’m referring to Portland Open Studios, an annual studio tour in the metro area that brings the public to the studios for a bit of education about the real work of our processes.

            At year’s end, we retreat and evaluate, holding a strategic planning session (I keep calling it a vision quest).  The board composition changes but remains passionate and wildly overworked while the organization as a whole is quickly shifting from one founded on personalities to one with institutional memory, coherent and transparent systems, a marketing plan (!), and nonprofit status.  It is an exciting time for me to be involved.

            The sheer amount of time that I spent doing this work cut deeply into my studio and personal time.   But last year (and this as well) we enjoyed three successful firings of the Tin Man, and I had pots to get out into the world.  I was accepted at a high-end art fair, busted my butt, and was proud of what I had to show for it.  Some money was made but it is clear that the fair will not be my big annual paycheck.  A friend and I also created my new website CathouseClay.com, complete with a store, so we’ll see how that goes.  There you will also find a wealth of information about my Tin Man kiln, firing very efficiently with wood and waste vegetable oil. 

            What Portland lacks in financial resources, we make up with ingenuity.  It is well known that we are a hub of innovation in sustainability.  We also love to eat well!  I have met quite a few wonderful people in the service industry who are excited about my carbon-neutral firing methods and I have set my sights on working with a chef who could present my work in the perfect setting: at her table, offering up lovingly prepared local foods. 

new kitchen! view from the loft

            There is so much more that I could write: about my trip to Europe with the founders of Research Club and Grand Detour to meet other people re-imagining arts and educational institutions, about long visits from dear friends or the great people who have been firing the Tin Man with me, or about the fact that I just built a proper kitchen and can host dinner parties again, but, some other day, as I’m sure yours are as full as mine…

            I hope this message finds you well and happy!  May your holidays be full of decadence and laughter.

            If this has been shared with you, and you would like to subscribe to future letters, do so here.

Lots of Love-

Careen