On a Rampage

You know, it's funny what happens when you start blogging. During strange times you start thinking "I could blog something about this," and low and behold, your mind goes to work thinking about how you're going to launch into a subject. I mean, you can't just come out and say that a student asked to take a picture of you for an assignment where he dresses your likeness up in a onezee and makes it destroy a city. Or maybe you can come right out and say something like that.

Justin Chronister, an undergrad, was given a portraiture assignment from Justin Miller, painting faculty here at UStF. The stipulations as I understand them were to pick a faculty or staff member and paint their likeness in some kind of surreal circumstances. When Mr. Chronister approached me and told me I was his pick, I was a bit honored. I mean, the guy has serious skills. So we set up a little photo shoot and captured a few grimacey images of my face. I must say that the end results are stunning. However, I think he may have misrepresented the chickeniness of my legs.

Unreliability

My friend and colleague told me a surprising story of woe today. A few months back she had purchased a piggie bank from me. It was one I had made in graduate school. It was a porcelain slip-cast piggie, fired to Cone 6 and refired to Cone 06 with a laser printed iron decal on it. The decal was in the shape of a dollar bill sign with the words "unreliable" repeated over and over. She took the pig and gifted it to her brother who took it to work at his law firm. Apparently it was stolen. Now the pig had not sat too long in the office and had not acquired much wealth at all. So what made it appealing to the thief?

My friend told that while it was still in her possession, she and her family had written a few notes and put them in the pig. From my understanding it was a way of investing loving thoughts and ideas. (Well, at least I'll pretend that's what it was because that sounds like a pretty good thing to invest in these days.) It seems that the thief must have mistaken that sound of paper in the bank for legal tender. How unfortunate that the would-be robber would find a bunch of notes in it after smashing the poor little piggie to bits. I find this all very conceptually satisfactory considering the label on the side of the pig and its hidden self-fulfilling prophecy!

Room With a View

There is something about the Firsts of the months here in Fort Wayne. Back on the first of December, during our woodfiring here at UStF, we got our first snow of the season. Exactly on the first. On January 1st there was a "heat" wave, sending Fort Wayne into temperatures of 50 degrees or more. And on February 1st, we were in the midst of a blizzard. I realize from other vantage points our one foot of snow in 48 hours isn't much. But here in Fort Wayne all of the schools were closed, grocery stores ran out of milk and police were handing out tickets for "non-essential" driving. In an effort to keep from getting cabin fever, I found myself at the studio. It was a wonderful and quiet time to get projects some molds finished and catch up on recent cinematic events via Netflix. Whilst there I thought it would be prudent to share with the world what my view is from my small single studio window. Being in the basement (as most academic ceramic studios are) I can see the railroad tracks a nearly eye level.

The School of Creative Arts (SOCA) here at the University of St Francis is a rehabilitated railroad depot. This is actually my third studio that has been in such a building. However, the tracks outside are the most used. More than once an hour a train comes through, taking cargo from place to another. Fort Wayne has been classified a "Rust Belt" town; a town that once served the great industrial needs of the country but has most recently survived on the tenacity of its people. They are a proud people with incredible loyalty. What with all of my moving around lately, town loyalty has barely been in my vocabulary. But the pride of Fort Wayne is contagious. Though I imagine before long I will be leaving this town as well, for now it has a hold on me. It's nice to find a place to love for a while. Fort Wayne has a rich commercial history reaching back to it's foundation. It started as a trading post at the convergence of the St Mary's, St Joe, and Maumee Rivers. It's been called the Summit City because it rises in elevation from the surrounding area. It's been called the City of Churches because of the density of places of worship in a town with a relatively small population. I like to call it Home, because for the first time in a while, it feels like one.