Art Spirit

Preparing for the commute

 The truth is, I am a princess.  Appreciate  that I have collected  much of the hair products  that promise volume, control and maintaining color. I have  perfected  eye liner in a way that I only dreamed of in the '80's when cat-eyed darker the better and the bigger hair the better was the product of focused preening. 

Thinking my self as grown  way out of this --- I am still a girlie girl at my core.  So, why all of the navel gazing? (Not  a pierced navel ---  I might add-- that was the '90's and by this time  I had become very peripheral in my fashion approaches, the goal was to see how many times I really could change my hair and its color...)

All of the eventfulness of getting ready for work in the morning--- why would I put a helmut on  and   ride my bike 13.5 miles to get to work ? Well, I dream also of commuting on my bike to work.

Being on my bike is joyful, thought provoking and thought dissolving. I feel so clear headed when I get where I am going and when I arrive home. I have promised myself to make this work.  This will require learning a new ways on getting to work, being prepared as far as grooming, and understanding how to be organized in a new way. Its all a part of the adventure !

I have a Specialized Vita Elite.

I love this bike!  It's compact, light, shifts well on hills and is an overall workhorse. I've been riding this wonderful  bike all around where I live , short trips to my summer job, and on errands. Now, the endeavor is to  commute to work.

Here are the stats on my commute:  13.5 miles-- trail/ surface streets. There is the option of riding the bus which requires a 3.5 mile ride to the bus stop then arriving as close as I can get without transferring busses  and then there is another  2.2 mile from the bus stop to my office.

Ready to start this wonderful adventure as I return to work from my summer vacation.  I will bring my clothes to work on the days that I drive, bring a small 'get ready' kit I will leave in my office --- or I might bring it  in the panniers.

 Also, I am hoping  by writing this blog and sharing  my bike commuting accounts and tips  I learn --- that more women will feel inspired to jump on their bikes instead of  their cars to get to where they need to go.

So here it goes! 

An imperfect beginning

Certainly we've all started something  and stopped and started over and then stopped.

It is hardly noble , but completely human. Especially in  the exploration and discovery that is creativity.  However the nobility is in the exploration, the persistence.

Here I am, making sculpture. Making forms that are 'supposed to be' functional and really are not.   I really love the form. I love discovering form and looking more deeply into form. I also feel very attached and attracted to things that are perfect in their imperfection. Maybe because  that is somehow more human. More 'real'. Perfection and tiddy-ness in making is exhausting to behold. Even in beautifully stunning carvings there is the resonance of the hand, the mark of the idea in action. 

For my part, the imperfect is beautiful, the made-ness of something is beautiful.  It would seem, though, a digression to make too much of this Rhino Pitcher in all its non-function and form. It is after all the first, and the first of many. So. This is a completed Rhino Pitcher.  There are more coming.

Rhino or Wall Pitcher

 

Trying something new here!  On so many levels --- working in clay and thinking againg about sculpture.

Click on this link to listen to a short and I mean very short of this beginning work.Download Pitcher