Grouting

We grouted the mosaic this afternoon- I'm working here with Tia and Sam: Ummmmm. Black gritty goodness in all the cracks:
Here's the mosaic wiped down, but not fully cleaned. I'll post a picture once it's fully finished. It's amazing how bright all the colors look with the dark lines breaking up the space.

Mosaic update

This is my last week of residency at Garinger High School- while it's a little relieving to have one less commitment on my plate, I'll really miss the students and two teachers I've gotten to know over the past 6 weeks. We're moving right along with the prototype for the public art project I'll be working on in the fall. Here's the mosaic pieces glazed, but not yet fired: Yesterday I spent time attaching the fired tiles to a frame that Brian built for me. We had to bulk up the base a bit because it's pretty heavy. I learned a lot through this process that will help me once we start work on the actual trash receptacles. The biggest lesson was that it's a bit difficult to keep even spacing between the tiles when they're relatively big and have both rounded and straight areas on the same piece.
Today in class we'll be grouting the piece with black grout, and then I'll finish up the edge somehow (probably with some trim or I may just spray paint it black to match the rest of the frame).

Crazy difference

I was looking over an old post from last spring from the Circle of 8 blog and ran across this picture of me at a show. It was really weird to see how different I looked not too long ago, compared to now- almost like a completely different person. This pregnancy has been overall an amazing experience for me- the due date is coming up quickly (on Father's Day)! I'm getting clumsier (and a good bit more and more forgetful) by the minute and often forget that I have a belly that can get in the way: yesterday I had to have Brian tie my shoes!!!

Weekend fun and tips for new moms.....

This weekend was filled with all sorts of fun activities: a baby book shower, folk art show, movie fun, and a mud volleyball tournament (no worries, I was only a spectator- but that was really hard!).

The baby shower was great- all sorts of friends brought lots of fun books to jump start our little library. We got poetry, fables, lullabies, stories, etc- all with amazing illustrations. There were also a couple of books with helpful lessons and tips for me as a mom. My friend Jeanene generously provided me with the following information. I hope anyone who is around babies under any capacity will find these tips to be helpful:

Mosaic prototype at Garinger High

Some of the students, teachers and I finished working on the prototype for the tile mosaic public art project. Here it in the drying process. We ended up combining several of the students' designs to come up with this one. There is a stylized sun in the middle of a circle, with radiant lines emerging from that. The border design is a stretched image of the "Charlotte crown" which appears all over the city- on street signs, etc- because Charlotte is the Queen City. I like how it first appears as just a border design, but then can be recognized as the crown.
Here are some of the pieces in the kiln. It looks so different when they're mixed and scattered. Don't worry, we labeled the backs of each piece by 4 quadrants- it would be a difficult puzzle to put back together otherwise!

Sale this weekend

Saturday was the Barn Sale in Charlotte- I was lucky enough to be right next to Jen, so we had a fun time hanging out. It was a nice day, but I acted like an irresponsible teenager and spent the first half of the day sitting in the sun with a tank top on and totally fried my back! Of course it was already too late when customer after customer kept saying that my neck and back were really red. Doh!

I need to say thanks to my "show posse" of Brian and our friends Catherine and Clayton, who were in visiting from Houston, who helped me set up and tear down. I'm very lucky to be surrounded by people who are so helpful- it's sometimes been difficult to accept so much of the help that's needed to lift and haul things (among other stuff) while pregnant. I've been humbled by the generosity of many of my friends!

Baby mamas @ Radiohead

Tomorrow's gonna be the best

Oh yes it's true. Tomorrow's a day many of us here in Charlotte have been waiting for some time: RADIOHEAD!!! is coming to town- as well as our friends Catherine and Clayton from Houston, and Anna and co. from Athens, GA. A grand time will be had by all- this baby needs to get blasted with some awesome music!

Talk

Tonight I'll be doing an artist talk and demonstration at the Cabarrus County Arts Council at 7:00. Should be fun- I have a short powerpoint presentation of my work and inspirations, and then demo making several pieces. If you live up that way, come on out!

Tile show

My friend Jeanene, who's an awesome interior designer, recently had a job designing a show space for Orchid Ceramics. This was for a tile show taking place in Orlando, FL where tons and tons of tile manufacturers are represented. As part of the extremely large show space (it was 40' x 40') was a "gallery" of work. Jeanene was kind enough to choose one of my large sculptural installations to include in the gallery. While I wasn't able to see it in person, it's really fun to see the piece in a different context- it worked pretty well. Here are a couple of images: