Futility Now

It was especially difficult to tolerate my puffy, discolored face (not to mention bloody drool & stitches) when my boyfriend was glowing with vigor and vitality from a combination of kung-fu and greyhounds.

Some of you know that I went to a week long ceramics camp out at Menucha about a week after my teeth came out.  I think everyone assumed I had a speech impediment until about Wednesday, but I was so cool and friendly because of the Vicodin that I made tons of friends.

Yoshi, as you might imagine, was not pleased about my absence.  But when I got home he was very curious about what I had been making.

It’s possible he was disappointed that nothing tasted like tuna fish.

For your benefit as well as Yoshi’s, here’s a little snapshot of what I worked on.  It was a raku workshop led by the incomparable Judy Teufel.  I decided that, to have lots of things to fire, I’d make little cups.  Something functional: how novel!

Not that Raku is intended for everyday use, of course.  I also raku-fired porcelain beads. Smoky little candies.

Here you can better see the effect of smoke on raw porcelain (the outside of the cups) contrasted with the raku glaze on the inside. If you’d like to see more, check my Serious Artist Blog in about an hour or so, as I’ll be posting at greater length about this experience and some other artist-related business.

Only a couple of days (sorry Yoshi) after I came home from camp, we all went away to the coast, as Joaquin already told you.  He may not have mentioned that it was also our anniversary, and we like to celebrate things at the Sylvia Beach Hotel.  Also, I was almost able to eat like a normal person by then, so we really did have a lot to celebrate.  You probably don’t know this, but Joaquin is the best vacationer.  He just glows with vacation.  I wish it could be his occupation.

Because it was marvelously foggy everything on the trip was colored just so, from our Tennessee Williams room (where the fog seemed to melt right through the windows) to the counter at the pub nearby.  I spent quite a bit of time making things up about this map.

It was good for all of us to get away.

So I took a week off and we went to the coast. It was fantastic. We stayed in the Tennessee Williams room at the Sylvia Beach hotel

We investigated intriguing rocks.

Then we went and stayed in a beach house with Portland’s greatest living author, Matthew Flaming and his wife and child. While there we ate at an awesome diner in Waldport.

and did some cooking at home.

We visited more beaches, this time with the sprout (who we see here looking sort of like Ringo on the cover of Abbey Road).

We also went on a serious fishing adventure and returned with a ridiculous quantity of bass. Unfortunately, only Matthew had the presence of mind to bring a camera suitable for wielding out the middle of the ocean. Perhaps if we plead enough he will pass on some pictures and we’ll get them up here eventually.

We left just in time to avoid it being sunny.

On the way home we made a brief stop in Philomath by this awesome building.

We were expecting serious abuse from Yoshi when we got home, but he came around fairly quickly. I wonder if he had basically despaired of our returning and was too relieved that we were back at all to punish us for staying away.

Stuff we’ve been grilling.

Of course, we end with a picture of the cat.

So let’s see, what has been going on?

Well, for starters I invented this awesome sandwich

so that’s something.

We also went to the woods again, only this time we made a further expedition to this lake, which was total quality fun. I’m a little leery of camping in general, because I am very serious about personal hygiene, but as a day trip it was really wonderful.

Portland institution Shag has decided to move next to the tattoo parlor across the street, so I guess that’s another exciting sign that the neighborhood is on the way up. We sort of knew that already, since being able to stroll out and get a drink or something has become a bit of a challenge, since everything is packed to the gills most evenings. Unfortunately, you still have to go a couple miles to get a decent loaf of bread. Somebody could really make a mint by correcting this, says I.

So far I’ve been spending my summer in the studio (which keeps getting referred to as “the dungeon,” since it is in the basement — I don’t like the connotations of that reference, though, so I’m thinking about giving “the underworld” a shot) rather than on impressive home improvement projects. I did break down and get some decent curtains for the living room this week, though they currently hang unhemmed, bottom 18″ pooling dramatically on the floor. Yoshi thinks this is a brilliant idea.

The yard, however, would brook no such negligence.  A very wet spring (yes, even for Portland) meant we’d avoided being outside much at all, but once the heat & sun did arrive, our plants seemed to think it might be their only chance to grow — ever.  So they did.  Luckily, “the mum” (as jmags calls her) came up for a visit and provided the guidance and confidence we needed to really tear some things out. As you can see.

All this brute labor convinced us we deserved some sitting-around-in-bars time. When I managed to look away from this suave fella I found some captivating color palettes.

tomato red, pale warmish grey, milky chartreuse, black

goldenrod, slate grey, caramel brown, more tomato red

caramel smoky brown, shadowed orange, black and brick

And I’ve been holding on to colors from an image that I couldn’t catch on film because I happened to be driving when I saw it: stormy slate grey (sky), emerald green (painted side of brick building), ivory and black (striped power cable overhead crossing them both).  I wonder if I’m being drawn to color groups just because of the really marvelous light we’ve had in Portland lately, or if it’s because my own work is so achromatic that I’m working with a vitamin deficiency?