weekend edition: part 2 photo series

my latest art piece -- these days ( not sure about the title, but haven't thought of something better ) -- made it into the irvine fine arts center's photo series show ( a southern california regional juried exhibition ). up from june 10 - july 14. the opening was on sun.

waking up at 7am to go to a woodturning class, even though once i'm there, i love it, leaves much to be desired. don't ask me why i signed up for an 8am, sunday morning, all day class. maybe it was the dream of making my own knitting needles, chopsticks and cool organic bowls or working with wood with a not so scary tool that could cut your fingers off or that it wouldn't require a tool that would take up a lot of space or maybe i wanted to try something more sculptural. i don't know how long i'll stick with it, but i've been itching to do something with less analytics and more feeling/intuition.

the day's assignment was to make matching candlestick holders from specs. i was getting so into smoothing down the wood, i screwed up from the start and went too far and didn't leave enough left for the square base. the second time around, i reached almost to the end when the spindle gouge slipped and chipped off a huge chunk of a ball. so annoying. i know i really should be more zen about it. i really do enjoy it. it reminds me a lot of ceramics, what with the rotation and all. with fast results, it can be satisfying and fun, but when you've spent some time trying to match some class assignment, it kinda sucks to have the whole thing screwed up at the end from one slightly off movement of your wrist. must find an art project for the leftovers, tests, & f-ups of art projects.

i left early to go home and shower and get ready to go to the show. aviva, who came with us, loved the show and bought two pieces. i was somewhat surprised and excited by the turnout, and received positive remarks about my piece. irvine fine arts center has good sized galleries. my work seems to be getting bigger. it's great to have a space that gives it some breathing room. the project was cramped in the last space - bc space gallery.

the brief awards ceremony ended with me placing 3rd. despite my plans for it to be a quick project, a good deal of labor went into it, so it was nice to know that other people will have some connection to it. the price tag is high compared to the other more traditional photo pieces, but i'm really ridiculously hoping that someone will buy it, since i have no idea how i will fit it into our storage space.